Thetechnoface 2.0

Get ready for a new technoface! I am back with a new MacBook Pro and the future is going to be awesome. Remember to Stay Tuned.

HTC One (M8) Dot Matrix Case

The new HTC One M8 was released internationally on March 15 and will be coming to America's T-Mobile, AT&T, and etc. on April 11th.
The new HTC One is better than it's predecessor in every way- even it's cases.

A new first-party case made by HTC has come out, appropriately named the "Dot Matrix Case".

Image taken from tctechcrunch- check them out!

If you are familiar with Apple's smart cover for the iPad, then you may like the Dot Matrix Case.

The case has a bunch of holes, allowing light from the display to seep through and create an awe-inspiring case.

One it, it displays the time, weather, and temperature- though you can change it to show battery life.

When someone calls you, you can swipe up on the case itself, and you can talk without ever flipping open the case. Notifications are also displayed.

One con about the case though, it that when you flip it open, it tends to shut itself, and that can be annoying for people. Also, when you flip the front of the cover to the back, for one handed use, it doesn't lay itself flat at the bottom of the phone, as the HTC One has a curve to it's aluminum uni-body.

It will rest at an angle.

You can double tap on the case to wake the phone up, and also, it doesn't have any magnets in it, but when you open it, it triggers the display to wake up, and when you close it, the display turns off.

By swiping down, you can also use HTC's voice command, though not quite as impressive as Apple's Siri or Google Now, it's still a force to be reckoned with.

Overall Rating: 8.5

Pros

-Able to pick up phone calls without having to see the display.

-Has touch capacities.

-Displays notifications, weather, time, temperature, and battery percentage.

-Can activate voice commands.

Cons

-Closes by itself.

-Doesn't sit flat on the bottom of the HTC One.

Overall

All in all, even with these few cons, I really recommend this product, and some of you will be more than pleased by it. Pick one up at Amazon, or your local electronics store.

Google Chromecast Review

A thirty-five dollar dongle may not seem like much, but in practice is an amazing little thing to have in your bag. It’s great for simple things like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and other popular streaming services.

The first stellar feature is the amazing price. At a price like $35, you can have one for each T.V. in your house. A reason for this low price is that there is a middle device, either an android device, iOS device, mac, or PC. The content from the device is streamed to the Chromecast. Because the service is not directly streaming from the Chromecast unlike an Apple TV or Roku. So I don't think it’s an issue for most of us having smart devices.

Another feature is Chrome tab and Chrome desktop mirroring. It is smooth with some minor flaws. The Chrome tab mirroring feature is poor quality and has a lot of lag. The desktop mirroring on the other hand is great. The quality is nice, the lag is low, and is great for many uses like presentations, sharing design blue prints, etc. Only small gripe is that your cursor is not displayed on the tv screen or monitor. This is an issue when you want to use a chromecast to enable your laptop to have an external monitor.

The connection to chromecast is simple. When the chromecast is on and connected to WiFi a small chromecast icon will appear. When tapped, the content will stream directly to the T.V.

The Chromecast was designed and manufactured by Google and is extremely simple. It looks like a well built USB stick with a HDMI male port instead. On the other side is a micro USB female port for power. Above is a power button with no practical purpose.

Is is worth it? I think it’s a great buy. It is cheap, easy to use, and is a great source for A class entertainment. I would highly recommend the google Chromecast to everyone.

4 reviews soon !

Hey guys! Get ready for 4 reviews in the near future, the Buddha Board, Nexus 7, FireAlpaca, and Chromecast review.

So stay tuned for more!

DevArt

You guys should definitely check out googles DevArt program.Its really cool!!

Google sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 Billion.

          On January 29, 2014, Google sold Motorola to large Chinese manufacturer Lenovo. This may seen weird when I say that Google originally bought Motorola for $12.5 billion. Why would Google do this you may think. Isn't it a loss for Google? Well Google used them we could say. I will get into more depth about that later. So lets talk about the three perspectives on this story, Lenovo, Motorola, and Google's perspectives.

          Lenovo really has nothing to lose. They have a huge presence in international markets that they are extremely weak in America. Motorola will give Lenovo the impact they need to reach American presence.

          On Motorola's side, they have lost 10000 of their 24000 patents to Google and lost bunch of employees. They also had to give up 10000 of their manufacturing patents to Lenovo, which is understandable. One thing Google still has control over is Project Ara which is Motorola's modular smartphone program.

          Last but definitely not least is Google. This is where most of the mistakes happened. In my opinion, they should have kept Motorola. They could have literally taken over Apple. Really. Let me explain. In Motorola's patent portfolio, it has patents over Wi-Fi and GSM. They could have slowly started making Wi-Fi more private and restricted and waited until iPhone sales slowed down. Then Apple would come and beg Google to let them use Wi-Fi. Google should then try to force an Android licensing deal with Apple. If Apple says yes, then Google pretty much owns the smartphone market. If Apple starts raging and sues Google, no court in the U.S can allow this. But this couldn't have happened immediately.

          So these are my theories for for the buyout. Stay tuned on the technoface for more new and reviews!

          

Intuos Small Pen and Touch Review

So, the new Intuos line has come out recently, and in two different sizes: Small, and Medium, with the option of Pen and Touch, or just Pen.

The Intuos line of graphics tablets are more engineered towards drawing than the Bamboo tablets, which are more engineered towards business, marketing, and note taking.

Here is the different between the Pen and Touch tablets, and the regular Pen tablets.

Pen and Touch: You will be able to Zoom in, Zoom out, Move around the image, move the cursor, and select. Also, the Pen comes with an eraser, which is useful in my opinion.

Pen: Everything but what is listed above. You won't be able to use the TrackPad on the tablet itself, and the Pen doesn't come with an eraser.

Here is a picture of the one I will be reviewing:

As you can see from the side view, the Intuos Small Pen and Touch is slightly built like the bottom of a MacBook Air. At the top, it is slightly thicker, but it tapers off towards the bottom.

• Has four programmable buttons at the top. You can program it to open your favorite drawing program, you web broser, a certain file, etc.
• You are able to swipe, tap, select, drag, rotate, and zoom with the Intuos Small Pen and Touch's TrackPad.
• The Pen also comes with two programmable buttons, you can program it to use as an eraser, or to zoom in. This is also true for the regular Intuos Small Pen. (Without Touch)
• Package comes with drivers, Sketchbook Express, and ArtRage.
• Has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, (which we will get to later.)
• Has an Active Drawing Area of 6x3.7 inches.

Positives

It has a really sleek feel and it's easy to get used to especially because it feels like paper. The nibs won't have to be replaced often because I'm drawing 24/7 and it's been half a month and the nib looks almost brand-new.

Negatives

It's TrackPad is too sensitive. (Not a big problem, you can change the sensitivity.) And there appears to be some lag when I use it on a MacBook. (I don't know if this happens on a Windows.) I wasn't able to install SketchBook Pro or ArtRage.

Price

The Intuos Small Pen and Touch costs around $100. It's not too expensive, and it's a nice starter tablet. Getting Just the Pen, and not the Pen and Touch drops a bit of the money off. It costs around $80. Also, the Intuos Medium costs $200. Slightly more pricey. 

Overall

It's a great tablet for people who don't want to spend too much money buying an expensive one or a Cintiq. Good for starters. If you live in America, you can pick one up at your local Best Buy, or online at Blick Art Materials.

Look forward to a review by me on a free drawing program called FireAlpaca soon on thetechnoface.