Tech News & Commentary
Joshua in Shreveport, Louisiana listening on 710 KEEL asked us: “I’m in the market for a new phone. I like the iPhone but I want to switch over to Android but I don’t like their giant phones. Is there a phone for me?”
Joshua, Of course there is a phone for you! The list of Android phones out there are endless, There are many Android phones that aren’t as big as the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S5, or the LG Optimus G Pro and thats just to name a few. Phones that you should definitely consider are the Moto X, and the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.
Motorola’s flagship phone the “Moto X” was released last year and is still considered one of Android’s best phones. With a curve design and 4.7 AMOLED touchscreen display, the Moto X fits comfortably in your hand, and the curve design lets you use the phone with one hand, which is perfect for someone like you going towards a smaller Android phone. The camera seems to be the biggest downfall of the phone. Even though it has a 10 megapixel camera, the quality tends to be soft and dull. One of the cool things about the Moto X that puts it higher than other phones is Moto Maker, which allows you to completely customize your Moto X to make it your own.
The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact 4.3 inch display is a great phone for someone looking for size and performance. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which enables the phone to navigate faster and extend battery life. Despite the size, its practically identical to the Sony Xperia Z1. With its 20.7 megapixel camera, the Z1 Compact really outshines many other Android cameras. Unlike the Moto X which is completely customizable, the Sony Xperia Z1 compact comes in only black, pink, white and green.
Budget is one aspect to consider also. The Moto X ranges around $350, without contract while the Xperia Z1 compact ranges around $500 without contract as well, which is a big price difference if you’re on a budget.. If the Moto X is still out of your budget, definitely consider the Moto G and Moto E which can range around between $130 and $200, but is promising in size.
We should also mention that if you’re wanting the “pure” Android experience without any of the customizations made by the phone manufacturers or wireless carriers, you can consider Google’s Nexus 5 phone. It has an excellent screen, a very fast Snapdragon processor, and it runs extremely fast (partially because of that processor and partially because it doesn’t have any additional things added to Android to slow it down).
And its 5 inch diagonal screen isn’t tiny, but it’s not the overwhelming surfboard of a screen that a Galaxy Note 3 has. The one downside (or upside, depending on how you look at it) of a Google Nexus phone is that it’s always sold independently of any contract, so there’s no chance of getting it subsidized. If you like the Nexus, you buy the Nexus. Period.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
“Into Gaming Update” Weekly Feature with Mark Lautenschlager
John in Pennsylvania listens Online asked us: “I want to know why, when I play YouTube on my phone – I have a 4GB card on there. The YouTube videos come on and play half the video and then it shuts the video down and puts it on pause. I just need to know if there’s something wrong or something that YouTube’s doing.”
John, Since you mentioned that this is on your smartphone and not your computer, we have to suggest first that the problem might be bandwidth related. Streaming video is a very high-data rate application, meaning that you need a really fast and consistent Internet connection to do it well. Especially in a mobile environment, this can be the source of your problem.
YouTube offers an option on its playback settings to control whether something’s played in “HD” or “360p.” Try setting it for 360p and see whether that clears up the problem. If it does, we can say nearly for certain that it’s bandwidth. Also, what about other video streams on your phone. Is it ONLY YouTube that seems to have problems? Do you have things like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, or Hulu Plus on your phone? Do any of those have issues?
Is this only with the YouTube app, or does it also occur when you access the YouTube mobile website using your phone’s browser? If it happens in the app but NOT in the browser, then you might have an older version of the YouTube app, or it might be having some kind of problem with something else installed on your phone.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
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Eddie in West Pittson, Pennsylvania listens via the TuneIn Radio app asked: “I have a new Vizio 60 inch smart tv,and I bought the Vizio 5.1 wireless sound bar system. Now everything I have read is that you cannot get true surround sound through digital coax or digital optical, the only way to get true 5.1 sound is through an HDMI cable. I’ve been reading and going nuts on the webs. Is this true?”
Eddie, Digital coax, digital optical and HDMI should all be able to give you 5.1 surround sound.
5.1 “surround sound” refers to 5 discrete analog audio signals. Front and rear, each with a left and right channel, and a center channel which is sometimes used for a subwoofer as well. 7.1 adds two more side channels. But all of these are discrete analog audio signals. Now, because they are all used differently, technologies such as crossover connections are used to send all the frequencies below a certain level to the subwoofer, for instance.
But it’s a wire for everything and everything has its wire. Now, enter digital signals, whether that’s coax or SPDIF, which uses fiber. The digital signal has all the information required to produce 5.1 or 7.1 sound, but it’s not giving you any “channels” or discrete signals of any kind. That’s all handled by the equipment that receives and decodes the digital signal. It’s up to the processors there to convert it. The term you will hear is “unprocessed” audio. The digital output is unprocessed and must be converted.
Some people claim that the optical connections don’t sound as good as coax because of “jitter” on the line, but we’ve never been able to hear a difference.
Now about that HDMI. Sources such as Blu-ray will have the really advanced audio codecs (such as DTS-MA and Dolby Digital Plus). Those can be passed over HDMI, but not over optical or coaxial digital connections. So if you’re talking about the audio output from a Blu-ray player, as an example, then HDMI will get you better quality.
Remember, though, HDMI carries both audio and video. If you’re talking about an audio only connection, then the other solutions might be simpler, and less expensive. We hope we haven’t made things even more confusing!
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
Ben in Delta Junction, Alaska listening on 970 AM KFBX asked: “I want to get a new digital camera with a high powered zoom and wondering which you think is the best.”
Ben, You have many, many options, and they mainly depend on your budget.
If you’re interested in top quality, you can get a nice SLR, a multi-thousand dollar lens and you’ll be very happy with the quality of the pictures you’ll get, and unburdened by an excess of money, but assuming you want something a little more on the affordable size, you can also look at point and shoot large zoom cameras. The Nikon Coolpix S9500 sports a nice 22x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom, and the Nikon name pretty much ensures that you’re getting quality optics for the $250 you’ll be paying for it.
The Canon Powershot SX510 should match the quality of the lens, but with a 30x optical zoom, and a 4x digital zoom for about $50 less. If that’s not enough for you, for $400 you can buy a Sony DSC-HX300 with a 50x optical and 100x digital zoom, that should be plenty for most people’s needs.
For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.
If you have any questions about any of this week’s show info, please email us here.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Sling Media: Slingbox M1 – Set top media box with smartphone integration
SMS Audio: Street by 50 – Over-The-Ear Headphones and earbuds
Parellels:Parallels Desktop 10 Software allows you to run Windows on your Mac
Kanex: GoPower Battery Pack – Mobile battery pack with built-in stand for smartphones
Tylt: Several Charging cases and cables – for smartphones and tablets