So this is me stepping out of my comfort zone. I usually don't post blogs about me like this. Perhaps I gone off the deep end? idk.. Maybe a lot has happened over the course of the summer months and I have a lot to talk about. Anyway, I hope I don't embarrass anyone (but not like many read this to begin with).
So my summer is broken down into three aspects: Weight Loss, Hiking, and Friends. Yeah, I could add family time and work into the mix, but the above three represented what my summer boiled down to and I'm mostly happy about how it all went down. Anyway, the show must go on..
WEIGHT LOSS
So when I left the Navy in 2010, I was 180lbs. I was in this whole "don't care; getting out" phase so I started to let myself go by the time SFARP rolled around and we were derping around in Guam (about Feb/Mar 2010). I also suffered through a pretty brutal breakup in the beginning of that year, so I had to cope somehow. Alcohol wasn't the clear choice since I couldn't do it all the time, so eating awesome food would have to suffice.
Returning to Hawai'i meant a number of things: I was heading to school, and I am back in an environment which revolves around delicious (but heart-stopping) food, as well as a grandma who loves to cook. This was an excellent choice back then! I also thought that I had it in my mind to lose some weight I gain from Guam & Japan by doing things like Tabata and Insanity. The results would have been excellent, since I was down 10 pounds in under 30 days, but I was also trying to claim service-connected disability from the VA. I was forced to stop doing Insanity and Tabata due to the nature of my claim (lower back), and the type of exercises I was doing (fast interval).
A little bummed, I just stopped. It didn't take long to regain the loss weight and then some. Add more [girl] drama to the mix and getting spoiled by the way we eat here, and this once "good theory" went out the window.
Fast forward to the end of March, 2013. I was 230 pounds and still not caring about myself. I was starting to have more cardio-related issues, and I was beginning to fear what my doctor would think when my annual checkup came up. I felt sluggish when I did gun drills. I felt just plain lazy. I needed a change, so I started with (mostly) cutting starch out. I started to make use of the treadmill that just sat and collected dust. I also started running with my work gear and rifle. I started to blast through the water weight and was down 10 pounds by the time I graduated in May.
Following my graduation, I became really sick. I was out for over a week and had no appetite. For lack of a better term, opportunity struck! I was down an additional 5 pounds from the week prior. I had it in the back of my mind to take advantage of this, and that's when two blessings hit my doorstep ("doorstep" as in phone, really). So I get a text from a friend asking if I wanted to be a workout partner and go hiking with throughout the summer. Here was another ambitious person who wanted to shed some weight. From there, we started hiking one of the easiest (and busiest) hikes on the island: Diamond Head. It was a start, and it gave me the opportunity to see the island in a different light (as well as lead to other tougher hikes, which I'll cover in a bit).
The second blessing was my Dad. I called him to let him know that I loss some weight and that i'm started to workout again. He replied by opening a new door for me. He started talking to me about what he has been doing and that I should start doing the same. Intermittent Fasting is, at its most basic level, a diet which you don't eat for around 16 hours and eat for the remaining 8. The details of such is a near 0% intake of sugars, reduction of carb intake to 100 - 150g's per day (veggie-related carbs excluded), and a calorie intake based on your weight x 12 (so for me, it was 215 x 12 = 2,580). This also included spontaneous 24 hour fast days (and yes, it works better to have it random).
For me, the task sounded daunting, yet interesting. My dad said "call me in 5 days.. I guarantee you that you'll be down 5 pounds." Alright, Mr. Salesman.. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Five days later, I was down to 210... -_- I couldn't believe it. I didn't even really change what I ate, so much as how much I ate. This, combo'd with all the hiking started this trend which has now brought me down to under 200lbs! That's results for not doing too much at all. The regiment wasn't strict at all. I had cheat days. There were days that I broke fast early or ended the eat period late, but because of the activity that I been doing, I still managed to lose all that weight.
I'm pretty proud of myself. I don't even think I loss that much weight during bootcamp (though, I was much, much lighter back in 04). Moreover, I'm not done. School time only means gym time.
HIKING
So, a rather large part of my summer went to hiking. It was to the point that I was hiking somewhere just about every week... which was the intent. As I said, I started the hikes easy enough. After all, my friend and I were pretty novice hikers who wanted to lose weight and not suck at this hiking thing.
So the hikes started out at Diamond Head. Diamond is typically an easy and quick hike which shows off the Waikiki/Honolulu skyline from over 700feet. If you're quick enough on a non-busy day, you can scale the trail in under 20 minutes (that's 20 minutes from the parking lot, walking). Obviously, if you keep doing a trail, its gonna get easier, and this was no exception. It's a nice view, but it does get repetitive and it can be crowded. At this point, I go there in hopes that one day I can jog (or even run) up the trail. I'll get there
Top of Diamond Head
Of course, there were other trails that I wanted to do to keep things awesome and to challenge myself..
Another easy trail (might as well call it a walk) is Kamehame, which is behind the dreaded Kokohead. I absolutely love walking Kamehame. It's pretty scenic once you get to the trails two lookouts.
Looking over the first lookout..
The second lookout
Yeah, we're pretty silly like that. xD
We couldn't stick to all the easy trails and I had to challenge myself. The following is from Kokohead, and Hanauma Bay
Top of Kokohead
Derp dee durr!
Hanauma Bay
Past the trail and almost to the hidden bridge.
At the ocean.
Along with additional hikes, to include Mariners Ridge and Lanikai Pillboxes, I ended up doing a trail that I would never have thought of doing. The idea of such scared the shit out of me and I didn't think I'd have the endurance to scale such a mountain. Thanks to a lot of self-motivation, as well as words of encouragement from an excellent friend, I tackled Moanalua Middle Ridge to Haiku Stairs (Stairway to Heaven). A 7 mile, one-way hike that takes you through Moanalua, and into the Pali cliffside. That's a elevation difference of 313 to 2700+ feet; most of it happening within the last 3 to 4 miles of the trail.
I was tired, sluggish, falling behind and well... this hike really humbled me; it gave me another baseline for me to overcome. I'm very thankful for having wonderful friends (who just so happened to be sisters ^_^) that helped me ascend to the top of the trail. When we made it down the stairway, it was an absolutely wonderful feeling! I was really proud of myself.
Nearly at the top of the trail..
And a glimpse down the Pali...
Top of the trail, K-Bay, and a sisters embrace. awww :)
Our Decent..
Last set of stairs..
Hiking can be a dangerous undertaking. A lot of factors can play into your success of tackling a trail. On the flipside to that, its very rewarding. More so, it's more rewarding when you have friends to finish the hike with. This summer, I have hiked something at least once a week; way more than expected. I enjoyed every one. If I didn't get a view, I knew I was burning some calories, so I really couldn't complain. It was a win-win for me.
I'm still not done, btw.. with an upcoming family hike at Kuliouou Ridge this week and a possible second hike next week, the hiking won't stop for me! Expect other hikes throughout the semester, as well.
Well, that concludes the 1st part of my summer blog. I think the last aspect of my summer deserves the 2nd part.
So I never really had the best of luck with an HTC device before. If you refer to my previous blogs, you can see that I have owned an HTC Inspire, and while it was a decent phone, it had its issues. The Sense UI was intrusive. The AT&T bloatware is ("is" as in currently) garbage. The antenna was overall weak. Rooting the device and installing Cyanogenmod helped the Inspires case a bit, but the antenna was always an issue, even after installing drivers to boost signal strength (and kill the battery more). Eventually, I departed the device early and got an iPhone 4S, which became my daily driver for over the next couple years..
HTC Inspire Stock
...and the Inspire rooted and installed with Cyanogenmod.
For awhile, I enjoyed my iPhone. It did what I wanted it to do, the task manager really helped the efficiency and battery life (as opposed to Android 2.2/2.3), and I already had an ecosystem that fit the iPhone well. There were some things that I missed from the Android realm, so I tried to accommodate myself by jailbreaking my device. While that fulfilled my software end of my Android envy, companies such as Samsung, HTC, and Google were starting to release excellent devices. These devices, along with the very excellent Android 4.1+ Jelly Bean made a very awesome combo, and my envy was starting to consume me. Backtrack to late March/early April when HTC revealed their new flagship (today's subject) and Samsung revealing and releasing the S4. These two devices propelled to much success (obviously), so it left me some choices. Knowing that Apple isn't releasing a wide-body, big screen phone this year (for reasons I can't begin to fathom), as well as the upcoming but lackluster iOS 7, my next device was clearly going to be an Android device.
I thought about what I really used my device for on a daily basis, and started weighing all the options. Would I need more than the provided storage available? Would I need an extra battery? How is it going to hold up in the long run? I almost gave in and got the S4 Active, which is a water and dust resistant variant of the vanilla S4, but I realized that I don't find myself derping into a body of water; not often enough to justify buying it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the One was THE ONE! So what did it for me? I like to blare music or share videos. What do you need to do either of these activities? Speakers... and the HTC One has two front facing speakers (as opposed to the S4's single rear facing speaker). Not only were they front facing, stereo speakers, they were Beats-powered speakers. Yeah, I may have not fell for it back when I had the Inspire (which was labeled with the Beats branding, but wasn't that great), but the Beats label on the One is not just another form of free-advertisement. There is a distinct difference between sound levels with it on and off. It's hardware-tied, so it handles the equalizer differences at the software and hardware levels. Filming it doesn't give the One justice. You just have to hear it for yourself.
Other factors: screen performance in direct sunlight; the HTC One performs superbly compared to testimony of AMOLED performance under direct sunlight conditions. Sense UI; which is much better than the previous version, but moreover, has less pointless gimmick features that are most likely battery hogs (like the S4 and its Touchwiz stuff). Overall construction and feel; The One is a very rigid, aluminum-cased design that fits naturally in my hand. The S4 (which I had the pleasure of playing with for a good 4 hours), doesn't feel as rigid, and it felt like I was going to drop it due to its straight-through design. The feel is ultimately minor since I would have got a case for it, but it is a factor, nevertheless.
So without further delay, I bring to you my review of the HTC One.
HARDWARE
Here are the Specs, at a glance:
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad-Core @ 1.7Ghz
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Capacity: 32/64GB
Expansion: US/Euro model (I think) None. Japan/Asia model: MicroSD (up to 64GB)
Display: 4.7in SuperLCD 3 w/RGB Matrix @ 1080p, Full HD. 468ppi
Battery 2300 mAh LiPo
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0 w/aptX, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, DLNA, AGPS+GLONASS, NFC,
LTE band, HSPA+ band, you know what? Lets say there is a shit-ton more.
Camera: HTC UltraPixel Camera (but, essentially, 4 Megapixels), Front facing 2.1 Megapixel. Both capable of 1080p recording
Top of the device, showing the IR blaster/power buttion, the headphone jack and the 2.1mp front cam
Bottom of the device with the MicroUSB input, and the touch button layout (HTC logo is NOT a button)
Right Side: with the textured Volume rocker.
Back side: with one of the antenna bands exposed, and the 4 Ultra-Pixel rear faced camera w/flash.
For the device itself, its very nice to hold. the concave shape fits my hand very well, and my thumb can reach one end of the screen to another (horizontally, of course). At times, it felt like it was too thin, and I felt like I was gonna drop the phone because of it. Luckily, I got a low-profile case for it and now it feels perfect to hold. Unfortunately, that's where the perfection ends. While I don't see it, there have been reports of a gap between the top and bottom portions of the screen and the frame of the phone. Major peeves is the layout. the power button got something to use to. I feel like it's not prominent enough so I use to always miss it, or don't press down hard enough (that problem has since been fixed with my case). A personal peeve that I have is the volume rocker. While its a nice, pronounced feel, it sits on the wrong side, for me. I am sort of ambidextrous. I write and eat with my left hand. I throw and shoot (guns) with my right. Using a cell phone, I typically been using my left hand. I use my thumb to raise or lower the volume. The rocker is on the right. Fortunately, my case came with a clip, so I clip it to my right side so I can get used to accessing my phone with my right hand. I'll let you know how that goes, but besides that little spill, this phone is excellent to hold!
Well, now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about performance.. when this phone released back in March/April, this phone and the S4 were the only devices equipped with these monster quad-core CPUs, and while this gives the device room to breath with heavy hitting apps, at the same time, I don't see too many (if not, any) apps coded to utilize more than two cores. At the most, there must be some games that utilize more than one core, and a rare title that would utilize all four (like how Dead Trigger utilized the Quad-core Tegra 3-equipped Nexus 7). Besides a rare app here and there, the cores are not being used, and thus a waste.
Now, why would I say that? Maybe I don't understand exactly how this device is using 4 cores, but I do know that for the week that I have used this phone, 99% of the time, it's been on Power-Saver mode. Power-Saver mode does everything it can to turn your device into a power-sipper. It reduces the screen brightness, turns off the vibration feedback, puts unused data connections to sleep, and it conserves CPU-usage. In other words, it shuts the other cores down. It may even be running on a single core, but lets play it safe and say that it goes into dual-core mode. The device is still wicked fast without using all 4 cores, and it'll be fine for those who would use this phone as the Daily-Driver, and mostly uses the phone for texting, surfing and social-media-ing (like the majority of would-be users). Lets just say that it's plenty fast, with a lot of space to get faster, if you want it to.
Speaking of Power-Saving, when I have the Power-Saver mode enabled (again, 99% of the time), this phone lasts well beyond a typical day. Keep in mind that throughout this week alone, I have a commute time 2 hours (1 hour to and 1 hour from). I was surfing the web, facebooking, checking the feed board for news, watching YouTube and listening to Rhapsody (which streams content). Then, while I'm at work, aside from the occasional re-checking of the web, I also blasted my super awesome speakers with Beats enabled (which I'll talk about in a bit). By the time I got home, it was anywhere between 5:30 to 9:30, and my battery life was only halfway drained. Maybe I'm not that much of a heavy user, compared to some, but it sure seems like a lot. In fact, I have to use it more with Power-Saver off just so I can drain the battery before I start my nightly charge. Again, something else that runs well (for now), but has room to breathe. Maybe i'll comment on battery life a year from now..
So aside from the fact that this device is HTC's flagship, one of the most noticeable features is the dual-Stereo front-facing speakers, which are unmatched by well, all other cell devices. They call the speakers BoomSound and they're equipped with Beats Audio driver onboard. Now, the Beats is not there for looks or free-advertising. It makes a big difference to the listening experience of this device. At the same time, the "Beats" label and reputation of such has been the subject of this phones selling point. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about what exactly Beats is in this capacity. In a nutshell, all Beats is on the One (or any other cell phone device or Hp laptop) is a equalizer setting. It sets its profile to deliver a boost for the lows and highs. In the case of the One, we have two settings: On and Off. Turn off Beats and you get the standard sound as if you have everything set on a equalizer to flat 0. In a nutshell, whether you prefer the option to be on or not, the speakers are louder than any other handset I have seen in the market. I swear, at times, I think the speakers are louder than my Macbook Pro Retina 15." I used to leave my volume all the way up on my iPhone and other previous devices (Inspire and Captivate)... I have to turn the volume down on the One to about halfway because it wakes me up with extreme prejudice! This has become the standard; the boombox that Radio Raheem would be carrying if Do The Right Thing was set in 2013. The device for all obnoxious hikers to use to ruin it for all the other hikers (inside joke).
SOFTWARE
Now before I begin, maybe some are wondering "wait, what about the cameras?"Well, the camera's deserve a dedicated section, due to the fact that while its ultimately hardware, these cameras rely heavily on the provided software and the performance of the camera adversely changes by varying software-related options.
So as of now, the One with stock software is equipped with Android 4.1.2 Jelly bean. As of a couple weeks ago, we're officially on 4.3. It's also worth noting that all the other devices in the same class are shipping with Android 4.2.2, which does have significant changes other than the "2." Like other devices, manufactures also build their own software and integrate them into their build of Android. In HTC's case, we have Sense 5. For the record, I never really liked the Sense UI. It was pretty bloated and poorly optimized. Of course, this was when I had the Inspire and Sense was only at 3.0. Top the fact that Android 2.3 couldn't properly do multitasking, and apps weren't under the data-mining regs that Google put out when they unified everything in the Play Store, Sense was a disaster, IMO.
Fast forward to today, and we have a version of Android that has eliminated just about every multi-tasking/background running issue that plagued 2.3 and below. So where does this leave Sense? It uses a minimalistic design which doesn't seem to pull resources heavily like the last encounter I had back in 2010/2011. Aside from the better optimization, Sense 5 introduces a news aggregator called BlinkFeed which is essentially a board that posts whatever news or social media-related content you desire. It well... works, and it has been well received by users. You can build up to 3 home pages in addition to BlinkFeed and comes with a suite of widgets. The lockscreen is also pretty nice and simplistic with the option to either unlock the phone in general, or unlock into an app on your dock.
Unaltered Sense 5 Home Screen
BlinkFeed with new Time layout, Weather, Calendar tasks, tweets, and tech news
Home Screen Selector and Widget menu
App menu with Google and AT&T suites
Lockscreen
While I do like this new version of Sense, it's still not my ideal launcher to use. I seen better (and I'll talk about that in a bit), but I do know that based on playing with this and Samsung's Touchwiz UI, I have to pick Sense 5. Its minimal, optimal, and not stuffed with "wow gimmick" features that are impractical (for instance, that eye-scrolling/tilt feature.. smh) and ultimately bogged down the phone (although, I heard recent updates to the S4 has seen a significant performance boost.. that's good).
My preferred launcher is Nova Launcher. Its free but you can also drop $4 for the "Prime" version and get a lot more power-user features. I am currently running the free version, and its already feature-packed. It builds on the simplistic but optimal UI of Stock Android and it's just a lovely, fluid experience. Even if you own an Android device that's not a One, I highly recommend that you have this installed and set as your default launcher (even if you're running Stock Android). Another great thing is that it runs back-to-back with Sense and they integrate really well with each other. This is how I know that Sense is better optimized because both launchers are running, and yet I get the battery life that I described earlier. I have to imagine what the battery life would be if I wasn't using Nova or if I just had Stock Android installed.
Nova Launcher Home Screen
Settings
Other notes and criticisms: The Google software suite is pre-installed (G+, Maps, Hangouts, YouTube, etc), as well as AT&T's software suite. The multi-tasking page is easily accessible by double tapping the home button, and for all you Google Now users, long pressing the home button will bring up the app. The biggest criticisms I have is the waste of space the One has on its screen. The entire screen is a touch-capacitive screen, but for some reason, they decided to only make use of two buttons. The HTC logo is completely capable of being the home button and the multi-tasking can be where the home button is currently located. In this case, I think the minimalist design is a bit too much. Another issue is well... the usual beef I have with buying a phone from a carrier: the bloatware. The AT&T software suite always has at least one app running in the background constantly. In particular, AT&T Locker services... which I NEVER use because Google Drive is much better to begin with. Regardless of whether you would use it or not, it runs in the background. There is no way to disable this and you can't uninstall the software. Unless you find a way to do so without rooting the device, let me know!
PERFORMANCE
I don't have much to say, other than what I already said earlier. Usually other reviewers look at the Performance section of a phone review and they think of benchmarks and performance during gameplay. I barely play games. The last game I have played was Candy Crush Saga and I now refuse to install it on my One (or else I'm gonna kiss my day goodbye. lol). While there are much more graphic-intensive titles out on the Play Store, I don't see myself installing or playing them. The only real performance test that I done was with Minecraft PE, and it runs damn smooth with all the fancy settings on.
As far as day-to-day performance is concerned (to include antenna-related performance), the One is excellent. I have no slowdown surfing the net and other typical activities that the average user would do on a daily basis. Antenna strength is actually better than when the phone was released, due to the recent update that enabled all antenna bands to be utilized (don't ask why this wasn't the case, in the first place). I mostly have LTE connection with a Speedtest result ranging anywhere between 11MB/s to as high as 25MB/s down and 5 to 15MB/s up. I never seen the phone drop below HSPA+. An issue with the antennas is that since the phone is built on an aluminum frame with two plastic bands stretching across, antenna strength may also depend on your grip. The advantage of the S4's plastic design choice is that antenna strength is immense. It doesn't take away from performance, but it's something to be aware of. One major antenna issue is the GPS. If you're in a wide open area, the GPS is fine. As soon as you're in a building or a shopping mall, the GPS goes on the fritz. It'll never be exact but in the One's case, as soon as you're in a area where GPS signals are weak, the correction radius can be as far as 50 meters. A good note is that it seems that the GPS is running independently and when there is a good signal, it works well and is battery efficient (I ran GPS for 7 hours hiking for 7 miles, from an elevation starting from 300 feet to 2700+ ft... worked like a champ).
Speedtest Result
And this is the GPS Performance on that hike I mentioned: MapMyWalk
CAMERA
Again, the One's rear camera is a 4 "ultrapixel" camera. Essentially, its just a 4mp camera, but the tech (I believe) is that the sensor, compared to devices w/ 8, 12, 13mp sensors, is much bigger and filled with more colors. The results are... nice. The camera still takes some great shots, and they take excellent low light shots. The camera also utilizes the onboard enhancing software to make the pictures come out better, as well as Instagram-like filters and features that I honestly never use (like Zoe). Still, compare a day shot with a day shot from a 13mp S4 camera, and you can notice a big difference. The S4 camera is much more sharper throughout while the Ultrapixel camera washes out as you zoom in. Overall, though, the camera is sufficient for the average user.
Video is also something that is sufficient, but underperforms when put up against the S4.
The front facing camera is a 2.1mp sensor that performs well in daylight shots, and Skyping, but underperforms in low light. The sensor is particularly wide, so you can fit all your friends for all those selfies you want to take.
Software wise, the cameras seem to be most effective with the provided stock software. I used to use Camera Zoom FX, which is an excellent camera app, but I find the performance of this app using these cameras underwhelming. Don't even bother taking pics with the Facebook apps camera feature, and the performance of the camera with Instagram is moderately good to okay. I just use the regular phone app to take the best possible pics and upload them independently. There are numerous preset modes for both the camera and video.
I have also seen the camera being used on Stock Android's camera app, and while the performance is sufficient, it's still a degraded experience. Hopefully, there will be an update to better utilize the cameras. (click the following pics for full resolutions)
Outside the house.
Moanalua Middle Ridge
Macro Shot
Racking focus shots
Front Camera img quality (emo me ;____;)
FINAL WORDS
So I been using this phone for about 9 days, now. Usually when I get any new device, the wow effect wears off in only a couple days; that's a couple days of constant use and tinkering. With the One, that wow effect has not worn off. There is so much more to be had. I'm still debating whether to root and flash Stock Android, but it seems that I'll be sticking with what I currently have because everything runs so efficiently to begin with. We'll see how this device performs over the next two months, but as it stands, the One is THE flagship device to get. We know Apple ain't coming with something groundbreaking this year (hardware and software-wise), and unless Samsung's upcoming Note III knocks it out of the park, the HTC One stands out among me and many others (and more official/professional reviewers.) as the device to get, this year. If only people weren't so smitten by Samsung's advertising blitzkrieg (which is laughably similar to how Apple hooked customers into getting an iPhone, though hardcore Samboys will never admit that).. Anyone who either is eligible for an upgrade or is gonna use the new upgrade plans, I RECOMMEND this phone. Keep in mind, a mini version will be released very soon and a giant Note-like version will be released towards the end of the year, so if you want a form factor smaller or larger than what you're already seeing, hold yer horses for a bit! The HTC One is available on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. A Verizon version is also being released but as of now, the release has been delayed!
RANT: AND HISTORY LESSON
Wow, it's been almost a year since I last posted on here... not like this blog gets traffic to begin with (only 3000+ views in a span of about 3 years.), but it's a long lost stress relief tactic that I should engage in more often. What better way to do so with a relatively new but relentless war? Smartphones have been evolving from an exclusive luxury item to the cellular standard of today. I don't know about you, but I welcome technology.
The most notable "war" is the Apple camp with all of their diehard fans and the Google camp with all of their subdivisions. "Subdivisions, you say?" Absolutely! Not every Android-powered device are created equally. Let's face it, there are a ton of Android-based devices, and a lot of them suck. You know this is true; faulty hardware, horrible OS builds, and terrible optimization plague a lot of the devices that were out during the beginning years of the Smartphone wars. A lot of this had to do with a service carriers control of content within their device (i.e bloatware), as well as the manufactures take on the Android OS (i.e Touchwiz and Sense), and even hardware, itself. There were a lot of weeds in the garden, and they were often stomped out by Apple and their crazies for awhile.
Sifting through the carnage, a couple companies were relentless in ousting Apple's reign in the market, and this pursuit ultimately put a bitter rivalry on center stage: Apple vs. Samsung. This relationship, as you know, has gotten so bad that we have ongoing lawsuits against each other (Apple first... of course). Today, Samsung owns a 30.8% share in the market, compared to Apple's 18.2% (down from 22.5% in Q1 2012). It's amazing if you just look at just the numbers and no context, but it's the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5 versus (and I listed EVERY device currently being sold by Samsung in the US... to make a point) the S2, S3, S4, Note, Note II, Galaxy Stellar, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Stratosphere, Galaxy ATIV Odyssey, Galaxy S Blaze, Galaxy Relay, Galaxy Exhilarate, Galaxy Focus, Galaxy Express, Galaxy Focus 4G, and the Galaxy Rugby Pro. These are all Samsung smartphones; this is not including the regular cell phones that they sell like the flip phone Rugby or Gravity.. I really hope that you get this picture. 3 devices versus 16. 3:16... Austin 3:16... that reminds me.. beer. (Publish edit: At the time of publishing, I neglected to add Sprint's Galaxy Victory and Transform Ultra M930.. which really doesn't help Samsung's case, anyway. 3 vs 18, and the difference is only 13%? Yeah..)
Yep... beer.
So while this war is ongoing, the proverbial climax of the conflict has hit in the form of the initial ruling in the US which a judge ordered Samsung to pay for damages of infringement to Apple. Of course, this is being contested and Samsung has been successful in reducing the billion dollar price tag. This obviously is a company to company battle... and yet, the diehard fans, and the bandwagon fans from both sides somehow feel justified to religiously defend one company and destroy the rival through a series of "Internet White Knighting," logic, and lack-of-logic. From Cult of Mac to Cult of Android. From Mac Rumors to Android Central. From 4chan to Facebook. The Fanboy War reached the vast killing fields that is the internet, surpassing the noise made by the likes of PC vs Mac, Call of Duty vs Battlefield, PS3 vs 360 vs Wii and even Fairy vs Fairy (AKA, Team Edward vs. Team Jacob). The biggest volleys of words seemed to have occurred in the later half of 2012, and while it has somewhat subsided for now, a Civil War of sorts is about to hit the Samboys (<----I'm a crafty muthafucka) future.
THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS.
What's the state of smartphone fanboyism in 2013? Well, we haven't seen it get to it's peak yet. Apple has yet to release their lineup for anything. Google hasn't announce any new Nexus hardware, as well as the elusive Moto "X-Phone" (or XFON). Nokia is also releasing newer Lumia devices and Sammy & HTC are always pumping new products throughout the year. This doesn't mean that nothing exciting came out. Two of the biggest Android flagship devices released in US markets weeks apart from each other and they're both selling like crazy. These are the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. Both devices showing new features that are (somewhat) groundbreaking in the industry. Both phones have received universal acclaim by professional critics, as well as amateur YouTube reviewing critics. While there has been manufacture fanboy defense (and offense) within the Android community, nothing has been more prominent than the battles being waged right now. Yes, it's HTC fanboys versus Samboys.
Yes, it has come to this. Click pic for huge awesomeness!
These two devices are now in the sights of fanboys from both sides.. and it's getting pretty nasty. The biggest arguments coming from the HTC camp (that I been reading on forums, and comment threads) is that the S4 is only an incremental update of the S3 (wrong.. it's more based off the Note II), has a ton of gimmicky features (Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, S-everything, etc) that bogs the OS down, and feels cheap (rational phone techs should know better and see past that lame excuse). Samboys look at the HTC One and see their arch nemesis, the iPhone. It must be the unibody-like design. The main arguments on the Sammy camp is performance comparisons (which is obvious due to the lower clocked CPU and DDR2 memory), smaller screen (by a whopping 0.3 inches), weird button layouts/menu (I give them that.. that shit is weird), and most of all, the non-removable battery and expandable memory option. Again, this is seriously the main arguments I read/seen/heard about both devices.. and both sides have been in bitter contention for the past couple weeks.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THESE DEVICES..
Have I mentioned how ridiculous fan-ppl are? Well, they are. The way I see it, both of these devices are really, REALLYgood. They have impressive specs. Both companies have come a long way . Lets get this right, The S4 is by no means an incremental update to some past device like the S3 or even the Note II. The model is based off the Note II, rather than the S3.. but that's where it ends. The currently available US model has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad-core processor. There is even an Octa-Core Exynos processor. That is unheard of in a smartphone, and the benchmarks for these two S4 variants are off the charts. Next is the gimmicky features.. Yeah, that's true, IMO. I had a lot of playtime with a friends S4 (4 hours, give or take.), and the only feature that I would be using is Air View, which acts like the Note II when you hover the stylus over the screen, except its your finger or hover hand (pun not intended)... and that's only if I have food in my hands or I don't feel like putting fingerprints on my screen.. something that's relatively silly. Now, about Smart Scroll.. I just can't get that to work.. seriously.. I think it hates brown colored eyes.
If a properly and consistently (keyword consistently) functioning Smart Scroll were the only thing that would save my life from the likes of Jigsaw, I would be dead...
I can go on with the gimmicks, but luckily, you can turn all of that off and save some battery life and the OS didn't really get so bogged down as claimed, so the argument is on thin ice to begin with. As far as it feeling cheap.. "yeah, well... that's just, like, your opinion, man." Seriously though, as long as you're not playing baseball with it being the ball, or some other unlikely activity that requires you to use your device in a manner that it was not meant to be used for (like dropping it, or eating it, or using it as a soccer ball), it's going to feel fine. The build quality still feels premium.
As far as the HTC One is concerned the unibody design is, again, a matter of user preference. It certainly feels nice on the hand (when compared to the S4). The design and the decision to not include expandable memory or a replacement battery may also be a big reason why Samboys dislikes the One (lolNEO). I can understand people's full dependence of their phone so much that they need more than one battery to go through the day and most of the night. OK, if you're using your phone THAT MUCH. For us normal people (and even a good majority of power users), the battery is sufficient to last the day. People are also dynamic. They have unique needs. If they really feel that they need a removable battery, they'll just get S4 anyway, or they'll pull a me and have a 6,000mAh tiny battery brick in my bag. The point is that not everyone is the same, and certainly, not everyone will be carrying an extra battery to begin with. Get over that, Samboys.
This leads to the second part of this argument: expandable memory. First of all, the S4 needs it... badly. The 16GB model has a significant chunk of storage already taken, out of the box. You already need something like a 32GB or 64 GB MicroSD card. That's fair enough. The HTC One starts at $199 (w/contract and/or upgrade); the same price as the S4 16GB.. The HTC One has 32GBs of storage. Cough up another bill and you get the 64GB version. I currently have a 32GB Apple iPhone 4S, Jailbroken with 2 videos, 365 photos, and 91 apps (not including Cydia apps/tweaks).. I have 28GBs available and I have 21 GBs left. "Where's your music, Ryan?" Well, I have this thing you probably heard of.. its called cloud services. In fact, not only do I have iTunes Match, I also have Amazon Mp3, AND Rhapsody. I have 3 Cloud based-services... plus Pages, Keynote and Google Drive all work in the cloud. With the exception of videos, apps, and the pics I choose to keep in the 4S, everything that would otherwise be in my device is in the cloud. Again, i'm not saying that everyone is doing this. People's use of their device are unique, but even if I wasn't using any cloud services (which wasn't that long ago), I would still have a considerable amount of space... and I'm a heavy power user who believes in making my phone as my own and no one elses. I did that when I was using the [Samsung] Captivate. I did that when I had the [HTC] Inspire. I'm doing it with the 4S (until July when I can upgrade to some Android goodness).
Whoa, whoa! We're not done with the HTC One... unfortunately, the Samboys are a much larger demographic than HTC folk. They're also pretty damned vocal about their devices. They have a lot of complaints (and sound more like Apple fanboys.. but I'll get to that, later). So performance comparison between both devices... not much of a difference. In fact, some of the general use comparisons from pro sites showed that the HTC One was slightly faster than the S4 in a number of normal tasks... tasks that most people would confront daily. I can't find the relevance in arguing performance until both devices are running Stock Android (one down, one to go). Finally, the weird button layout. Yes, that is a problem. I don't know what HTC was thinking when they decided on the two-button layout and very intrusive menu option button while running in-app. Luckily, for power users, there is already a hack to turn the HTC logo into a capacitive button (apparently). Rejoice, current One owners who are tech savvy! There is also talk of HTC getting rid of that menu bar in a future update. Rejoice, every other non-tech savvy HTC One owners!
The button layout.. and that trickery of a HTC logo button that's not meant to be...
The menu bar, meaning that out of place, black bar with the 3 vertical dots... yeah, that one.
I'm sure there are more technical-related issues that the hardcore fanboys would dish at each other.. I feel that this is scratching the surface. The point is that, in the end, both of these devices are amazing. There really needs to be more recognition for that, instead of a e-peen measuring, "my daddy is better than your daddy" contest. It was stupid 5 years ago. It's still stupid today. The hard truth is this: fanboys are afraid of admitting their commitment to whatever company they think should rule the world. They'll deny it up and down, but for someone who has been observing the battle from a distance, it's clearer than day. You have to accept this:
HTC fanboys = Samsung fanboys = Apple Fanboys = Nokia Fanboys = Motorola fanboys... etc, etc, etc.
If you engaged in such activites or feel a sense of duty to defend your favorite companies honor, regardless if you stood to make money by doing so, than you are that person. You are a fanboy. You are part of the problem. You are not a solution. In the hastag of the recently ousted Adam Orth of Microsoft: #dealwithit
...and the war continues.
SUPPLEMENT. FANBOYS OF A DIFFERENT TYPE - THE MINDLESS, CASUAL OUTBREAK.
Example 1
...annnnd Example 2
So while the most noise can come from your typical fanboys, there is always a left out demographic within our midst. They're left out because they're simply silent majority. These are the people who don't look at phones the way power users look at their phone. These are the users who buy devices such as the S4, HTC One, iPhone 5 or the Nokia Lumia 920 (as shown in video), just to use Facebook, Instagram, play Candy Crush and text to their hearts content.. AND even obtain social status. These are just the average users who honestly know little or anything about the true capabilities of their devices..WHICH IS COMPLETELY FINE! The majority just wants a phone that just works.
The thing that I have been noticing as of lately is how vocal they are about their phones... and worse, the companies behind the phones. I see people asking their peers "which phone should I get?" Is it condescending to think that the random folks who quickly scream out "X, because derp derp!" is clueless and blindly following a device/company and bashing the other for some external, irrelevant reason? I'm talking about the people who use the "because its better" and "I hate blah blah, so you should get this" justification.
"What do you mean my administration derp dee derped in Benghazi?"
The contribution of what I like to call "depring points" doesn't help... at all. No, I'm not saying STFU. You have a right to say whatever the hell you want. I'm am saying that if you haven't thought about it all the way through and have some sort of backing or formulation or articulation as to why you think this device is legitimately better than another, than respectfully STFU! One can only read/hear/watch so much until they're flipping desks in rage. "Get X because I hate Y" is not legitimate. Here is the main point as to why you shouldn't be so quick to voice anything in regards to this: people are unique. People can think for themselves. No, I'm not saying that you shouldn't stop asking others what phone should you get. I'm saying that you should really read whoever answers that question; look who has given you well thought out answers or who actually has the device and whether they actually compared it to another device in question. Formulate your unique reasoning and decide on your own at the phone shop.
To not blabber anymore, I'm saying to think about it. Claim:"I need a new phone."Warrant:"my other phone is broken/old/shitty." Data:"This phone is better because the battery life is much longer than my old phone and/or other device i'm looking to buy," or"i'm looking to game a lot so I'll get X over Y because X has better graphic capabilities," or"X uses LTE and Y uses the older HSPA+ so i'll be getting X so I can have faster network speeds."Now you have the device and you can talk about it and recommend it to someone with legit reasoning instead of something as quaint or childish as "herp derp Apple is turd; Samsung is durr!" Every time I read the comment boards on Apple's, Samsung's, and even Hawaii News Now (of all places) FB pages regarding any phone tech, I see the shit comments everywhere. They bury the legit comments or are responded with childish and irrelevant replies. Don't be that person!
After several attempts of publishing a blog this year, I finally got to the point where I am satisfied to publish (not to mention emerging from writers block, and finding my blogging monkey xD ). This one is out of left field. I usually don't review guns of any kind, but I felt so compelled to do so tonight. I do want to make a disclaimer before I proceed. No fucking crybabies. I found some relevant uses for having airsoft guns in the house. For starters, suburbia Manoa is only a couple minutes from the city...this is an urban area, so it's only common sense that people not brandish their real steel around the yard when houses surround you. If you're too dense to sense that brandishing and even discharging your gun is wrong, you're just dumb; stop reading my blog. Secondly, even though I am saving up for this, much of O'ahu is not ideal for discharging your firearms. I'm not hooked up with the private range connections. Kokohead is dumb with their rapid fire rule. Magnum has an indoor range, and other places here and there Other than that, there are only a few hunting areas that permits us to hunt boars and feral goats (only during season) and that's it. Lastly, airsoft is good for muscle memory, form, and you get a bit of stress relief. In fact, I believe the stress relief is bigger than shooting downrange at Kokohead. You're getting a workout AND shooting someone? Damn, son. That's stress relief.
So, getting the above through your skull, I found a gem in the airsoft world, and I would love to review it
This is the KWA LM4 PTR (Professional Training Rifle) Gas-Blowback rifle:
Click for Larger View
This beast was recently released by the very diligent folks at KWA, a California based company, and the LM4 was considered a heavily anticipated system in the airsoft world (along with the Magpul Edition LM4, and the Kriss SBR). Needless to say, these folks delivered again. KWA is known within the Law Enforcement community for training. From the Colorado Springs Police Department, to DHS, they use KWA systems because of the quality and detail they go into for their Professional Line guns.
The LM4 is gauged in mil-spec configuration, so real components can be used if you want (The following is real deal stuffs: Magpul MOE Grip, and Mission First Tactical BATTLELINK Utility Stock Fake gear: Troy Battlesight Fixed Rear Sight (old style), Magpul PTS Rail Vertical Grip, SureFire Muzzle for a 1st gen SureFire FA556AR suppressor replica). In fact, it is possible (with minor mod work) to use a number of real steel upper receivers, so if you do have an extra laying around, you'll be able to use it
Bolt carrier in the lock position
The manipulation, and appearance is supposed to replicate the real deal M4 system, complete with a full-slide bolt carrier & charging handle, buffer plate, bolt assist (not recommended to use, but it does work), trigger assembly, the ping-pong paddle (taking a cue from Chris Costa), and the safety/fire selector in relation to the position of the hammer.
Magpul MOE Grip.
MFT BUS. Note the storage has watertight lining,
multiple strap & singlepoint attachment areas,
and the space for a separate cheekpad assembly
The SureFire suppressor replica with Muzzle.
The breakdown is also familiar among AR users. No need for high temp grease for your bolt assembly; just a couple sprays of 100% silicon [on the cylinder and hammer], barrel cleanup and an inspection/cleanup of the cavity (microfiber, recommended, but cotton is fine) will do the trick. Overall, maintenance is easy, granted you OCD on equipment to begin with. Special airsoft note: the hop up is at the front end of the upper, along the barrel. It is recommended that you open the rifle and adjust the hop up instead of what is shown in the manual. the teeth on both, the included key and the hopup adjuster can easily wear. Always make sure the teeth is flush on both ends and make small adjustments at a time.
Innards
Bolt Carrier & charging handle.
Finally, the magazine is a NATO STANAG style that holds 30 rounds, and it comes with a loading tube in case you don't own a speedloader. The material itself is made out of aluminum along with polymer on the top. I highly recommend that you keep the top of the mag free from debris, as this (if you can imagine) can damage your magazine! Based on personal testing in 85 degree weather, I was able to fire 3 1/2 magazines (105 BBs for those who keep count) before the gas ran dry. It tells me that this magazine (and the gun itself) is very efficient in the right conditions. Always remember that results may vary with the region, weather, and state of the magazine. In Hawai'i's case, the magazine is very efficient.
Overall, I absolutely enjoy this rifle. It's accurate at a distance for a green gas gun, customization is nearly endless since it's built with the idea that law enforcement agencies will be putting their own custom gear onto the rifle. Lastly, the price to performance ratio is unbeatable at the moment. A lot of the high performing gas rifles cannot keep up with this gun (as stated on various forums and the below video), and until [very] recently, the LM4 was cheaper! Regardless to the competition response, the price for this type of airsoft gun is plus. Online retail: $379.95. Local retail Power Edge (account the extra bucks for shipping): $395.00.
At this point, I'll let the folks at Airsoft GI talk more about LM4 Personal note: the target portion of the vid..lolz, but that guy did an ok grouping for using light, .25gram BBs. Still, before I got the LM4, I was more worried about the performance under certain conditions, and it convinced me well enough. Hey, this will keep me busy and richer until I drop my moneyz for a Larue.
Obviously, my title screams my position on the whole "end of the world" scenario. Anyway, using my favorite addiction, StumbleUpon, I stumbled across the below video. I wasn't too sure if this was under the space category, or science... or comedy. This is for all those people who believe in this crap without any sort of credible source:
lol Notice the gigantic FAIL overlay.. watch it. It's funny stuff. Hoping to find a followup, I jumped to the posters page to find this:
"Knock it off, dipshit!"<-- what an excellent tagline!
Please, stop saying that the world is going to end next year. Lookup "The Great Disappointment of 1844" and move on.
You see that? That's what we like to call the Apple iPhone 4S. We also would like to call this an Apple iPhone 4S armored with the Ballistic HC case, but we'll get to that in a bit. I have some explaining to do with a disappointed Android community that I just alienated in a full circle fashion. My very first smartphone was the Samsung Captivate. I instantly fell in love with this phone. I was on this "don't fall into the iPhone fad" phase, so originally, I had to force myself to like the Android format even though it was a pseudo copy of iOS (which I had some experience with through my 1st gen iPod Touch); all the way down to the framework and the terminal interface (both being UNIX based OS's). Regardless of this, there is one thing that separated Android and iOS. That being the fact that Android is Open Source. Basically, if you know how to, you can alter, replace and rebuild Android to your liking without any reprieve from original creators or current property owner, Google. iOS was designed by Apple, for Apple products, and is similar to OS X (technically is OS X). Under those terms, the OS is Closed Source, and that makes the act of Jailbreaking your iOS device evil and wrong [in Apple's eye].
Goodbye, old friend.
Now, that is Androids clear advantage over Apple. Yeah, people do Jailbreak their iPhones, so this applies more in the legal sense (and Apple just loves to sue the pants out of you). I enjoyed my Rooted Android devices for the time being, but ultimately, it has become victim to the network provider. Up until Tuesday (Dec 20th), I have been using my Rooted HTC Inspire 4G. For the past month, this phone has been suffering from massive network issues. Places where I usually get at least 4MBit/s is now getting around .9 if i'm lucky. Changing the Antenna drivers to boost signal failed to work. Smartphones are nothing without the network to interface with. You can have full signal, but what good is it for a smartphone when it can't access network resources like the internet? I was getting tired of it.
Another thing that started to bug me is my already integrated life in the world of Apple and moreover, iCloud. In particular, contact syncing, calendars, and document syncing. Yes, I know Google has the same exact thing, but one, the only thing I use is Google Docs. Two would be that the contact syncing, and calendar interacts with my Google sync phone lists and Google Calendar by default, so I can add a person or event and it'll sync not only with all my Apple products, but with Google Docs and address list anyway. I might as well use the devices that can do both. I have the newest iPod Touch, iPad 2, and my old Macbook. All interfaced through iCloud. I might as well complete the circle... and that's what I did.
So my 24 hours started on Tuesday at around 1:45pm when the phone went live. The rep asked me if I wanted all my contacts transferred and I said no. Giving me a weird look, he gave me the phone and I showed him the magic. I entered my login info for iCloud and after logging in, I set the phone to sync my contacts. Seconds later, all my contacts that were on my Inspire showed up on my iPhone. I set out to the local shop that sold phone cases and found this Ballistic set staring me down. I couldn't resist and I bought it.
The cool thing about this case is that it's quadruple layered with an extra silicon insert and a clip. It also has a protective film covering the screen and camera lens and I have experienced no interference between the film and the touchscreen itself.
I make it home by 4 with 20% charge remaining in the battery, so I register the device, and sync'd my device with the apps I wanted. I also started to download the top of the line camera apps due to my excitement that I now have a bitching camera for my iOS device and NOT that VGA crap that's on the iPad and iPod. Aside from the new camera hardware, the internals for the 4S are only slight upgrades from the iPhone 4. In fact, I'm know the average user wouldn't even notice the internal changes of the device, so without getting into too much detail as I usually do, I'm just going to say that the 4S runs on an Apple A5 processor which is slightly slower than the A5 processor in the iPad 2. It still uses the same 3.5 inch Retina Display known for it's clarity and brightness. It comes in 16, 32, and 64GB (model used is 32GB). It's particularly optimized for iOS 5, but you shouldn't notice any difference with the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and current gen iPod Touch. The camera is a very capable 8megapixel lens that can autofocus, tap to focus, and record videos at 1080p (30fps) with video stabilization in place. Add a app like 8mm, Camera+, and Instagram and you have a very potent camera with a variety of styles.
Also check out these generic shots with the default camera app:
The big thing that this phone has over the rest is Siri. For those who don't know, Siri is an AI assistance program built within the 4S, and it's main purpose is to dictate actions that you may want it to do. At the most basic, You can tell Siri to either call someone on your contacts, send a message/text, create an alarm, set up appointments, and create reminders. You can also ask about the time or the weather at a certain place. What restaurants are in the area, do web searches, and do math. Siri is a big hit for the majority of users. It is known for it's sassy personality and the best part is that there really is no preset way to ask things. All you have to do is ask as if you're asking somebody else a question. You can even ask further. For instance, you ask "Siri, what do I have scheduled on Thursday?" After her answer, you can follow up with "well how about Sunday?" Speaking to it is easy, and don't have to sound like a robot or someone reading off an instructions manual. There is a problem that people overlook. Siri is actually learning as you use the iPhone. No, it's not forever on, but the more you look up stuff and interact with programs, it'll pick up on that for further ease. It also picks up your unique tone, so if you say some things in a certain way, it'll pick that up and eventually learn and understand it. People overlook that, and some have written Siri off because of it. They don't realize that it has to learn and build knowledge in order to converse with it. Remember, Siri is not a gimmick. It was a DARPA funded project meant for military application. If you're one of those people, you have to give it time and actually talk to it casually instead of yelling at it or reading like you're reading a book for the first time ever. Look out for the Easter Eggs as well. Ask Siri if it knows HAL (as in 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000). You may also ask about Skynet, and what the meaning of life is. It'll even help you if you need to hide a body, call a prostitute, or find drugs.
Yep, dumps...
...and it knows Monty Python flicks, too!
So where do you stand with the 4S? Are you in the market for a new phone? In my humble opinion, if you're integrated into with other iOS devices, Macs, and iCloud, you might as well get the phone that interacts with all of the above. If you have an older iPhone, I suggest that you keep it until the iPhone 5 drops sometime next year. Those who already bought the 4S but have regrets knowing that the iPhone 5 is around the corner, stick with your 4S. Yes, the iPhone 5 is expected to be a major upgrade. Yes, you may feel a little Jelly about it. There are two factors which will make or break this phone for you. The first is the area you live in. No signal from one state is the same in the next. Hawaii is notoriously spotty when it comes to data coverage. You can have full cell/SMS signal, but as I said earlier, it does a smartphone no good if you can't utilize the data coverage. Some places work better than others, and it's always changing. This ties into the second factor.
The iPhone 5 is expected to carry the 4G LTE antenna. That's really fast data speeds; that's up to 34MBit/s or faster than most consumer broadband internet speeds. The problem is the slow rollout plan that companies like AT&T is doing. I mean, their fake-4G system (HSPA+) isn't even fully operational in Hawaii, and they already started rolling out LTE in 15 Mainland cities. Another thing about 4G anything is that it's coverage is much more spotty than expected due to the radio band it uses. I already see this going bad in Hawai'i and we're expected to get LTE last, so it'll definitely get here and cover the whole state well after the iPhone 5 is released. Stick with the 4S, alright? For the most part, it works with a consistent data speed and is predicted to be more reliable in the long run. This will ultimately set you up for one-upping the friend who rubbed his iPhone 5 in your face when you pull out an iPhone 5S or 6. You're welcome. Cheers!
