Jay Lagare – Page 70

CD-R King Capacitive Pens

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, September 9, 2012

Jeanne chewed up, literally, the tip of the capacitive pen James gave me. And just when she’s really getting into tracing letters and drawing. So today, we dropped by the nearest CD-R King branch and saw a whole variety of capacitive pens. I got these because they come in anodized aluminum with bright colors and are shaped like pencils. Jeanne loves them!

General

New Kindle Fires

By Jay Lagare on Friday, September 7, 2012

Amazon has announced a whole raft of Kindle e-readers and tablets. But the interesting ones to me were the tablets. There are 3 of them, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD with 4G, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD, and the 7″ Kindle Fire HD. The bigger Kindle Fire HDs compete directly with the iPad while the smaller competes directly with the Google Nexus 7 and the much rumored iPad Mini. The battle of the big three is heating up even more. What’s interesting is that while Amazon started with books, Google with ads, and Apple with songs, pretty much all of them are now selling the same stuff: books, ads, songs, movies, etc. But Amazon has a huge leg up: shopping. Google and Apple would do well to get into that, maybe by buying eBay?

General

It’s Almost Here

By Jay Lagare on Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Apple has finally sent out invites to their much anticipated September 12 press conference. What is almost here? Why, the iPhone 5, of course!

It’s not the new iPhone because, well, there’s that shadow there. It will be a taller phone with an aluminum back but still following the general design pattern of the iPhone 4/4S. Pretty much what all those leaked purported iPhone 5 photos all over the net show.

Although the display will be taller, the horizontal resolution will remain the same as the iPhone 4/4S because they want to leverage the current existing Retina apps. Apps not automatically supporting the new display size will be letter-boxed.

It will have a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 64GB storage in line with current smartphones specifications. But these will not be highlighted or maybe even mentioned.

Finally, it will support glasses-free 3D and will have a second rear-facing camera at the lower section for taking 3D photos and videos.

Now let’s see if I got anything right.

General

OtterBox Commuter for iPhone 4/4S (Class A)

By Jay Lagare on Monday, August 27, 2012

The Otterbox Commuter is a mid-level risk case slotting between a bumper and a heavy-duty case like the Otterbox Defender. Unfortunately, they’re rather expensive at P2,100 or thereabouts at local shops. And then I saw Edong’s Class A OtterBox Commuter case for his Samsung Galaxy S-III. “Class A” is a euphemism for knock-off so it was way cheaper. I was impressed with the quality (for the price) so I got one for my own phone.

Just like its “inspiration”, the case is composed of two pieces: a silicone inner layer and a polycarbonate outer layer. The silicon layer covers the back and wraps around the edges giving the screen a slightly raised protective rubber bezel. This protects the screen from direct contact when the phone is face down. The buttons have touch-through covers but are still reasonably easy to press. The proprietary Apple USB port is covered by a flap and should be easily accessible to most accessories. There are cutouts for the camera, flash, and silent switch. The silent switch is still easily accessible with a finger.

The polycarbonate layer clips onto and around the silicone layer giving it another layer of protection. The whole case fits the iPhone snugly and makes it look like it could bounce off the floor. I’m just concerned about the the durability of the polycarbonate considering this is just a “Class A”. But at P300 (and could be lower) a pop, it should be less painful to replace.

General

Range Day

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, August 25, 2012

Haven’t gone to the range for some time so I invited Leslie and the others. But almost everyone eventually backed out and it ended up being just Leslie and I confirmed. We went there this morning and to our surprise, JC, who didn’t actually confirm showed up! With the group complete, we headed over to the range and squeezed off some rounds. I was happy that even though I haven’t had practice, I was able to keep a reasonably (for me) tight group. Only problem is I kept getting jams because of a limp wrist! Need to work on that.