Google Nexus 4 pros and cons

I recently purchased a new Google Nexus 4 phone, I had previously owned iPhones and even though I am a great fan of the iPhone, I decided to try something different and the price of the Nexus is £300 ($465) cheaper than the iPhone 5 costing just £250 compared with £550 for an iPhone. My first impression of the device was it was well built with curved glass edges, the speaker at the back is positioned in a funny place, the camera lens and flash are where you would expect them. There is no physical home button like the iPhone, but the home button is part of the display, which is actually better and I expect Apple will do something similar with the next iPhone..

The power supply for charging is via a micro USB, which is not as nice as the iPhone 5, but is more standard. I have found that the charge like the iPhone does not last that long and need to charge the phone almost everyday.

The Nexus 4 uses the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system, which runs very fast thanks to the quad core snapdragon CPU, and the 2GB of RAM, twice that of the iPhone 5.

The dimensions of the phone are 68.7 x 133.9 x 9.1mm making it larger and thicker than the iPhone and it feels slightly heavier, it has a 4.7 inch screen which fits very close to the edge of the device.

The main camera is 8 mega pixel which works OK, but some of the photos I have taken the result is a bit saturated and the contrast is not that good, it does however have HDR and panoramic options which do work well. There is also a 1.3 mega pixel front facing camera, which currently I have only used to unlock the phone with the great option of face recognition for unlocking.

Here are what I consider the Pros and Cons of the Nexus 4:

Pros

• Price is amazing and what you get for the money cannot be beaten.
• Well made phone which feels nice to use, I have already dropped it from about 5 ft and it survived fine.
• Elegant design with the glass edges curving and the edges having more grip.
• Very fast.
• Latest version of Android.

Cons

• Using headphones the max volume is still a bit to low, solution was to download so free software to boost the output.
• Battery life is short like other smart phones.
• No expandable memory.
• Copy and paste does not work as well as the iPhone.
• Not as intuitive to use as the iPhone.  

In conclusion I am very happy with the phone and at the price is an excellent product.

Outlook.com First Impressions

Outlook.com is the new email service from Microsoft, which is designed to replace its Hotmail service. I received an email to my hotmail account with a link to upgrade to the new service, simply clicking the link upgraded the service almost instantly. My first impressions are good, here are some of the pros and cons I have found so far.

Pros

Clean looking more modern feel, more Windows 8.
Option to delete message from within the message line.
Sweep option to help clean up the inbox.
More email settings including an automated holiday reply option.


Cons

Need for larger screen, does not work well on a netbook.
Does not give a page number, just gives you the current page and options to more back forward and to a specific date.

These are currently my first impressions of the new email service, I imagine the more I use it the more will appear.

Canon 650D Camera Review

I recently bought a new DSLR camera after doing months of research I decided to purchase the Canon 650D. When I was looking for a camera my budget was in the £600 ($965) region, it came down to the Nikon 3100 and the Canon, after playing with them in a store it was clear that the Canon was a superior product even if the mega-pixels is less, 18 with the Canon compared with 24 with the Nikon.

After owning the camera for a couple of weeks and being on holiday with it I am very happy with it. It takes great photos and I like the touch screen, which I thought I would not use as much as I do. Here is a list of pros and cons I have found so far.

Pros

• Easy to use menu, I have owned Canon cameras before so I found I could use the camera straight away.
• Touch screen which I find very useful for changing settings and reviewing the photos.
• Continuous auto focus in HD video mode.
• When camera is in video mode it is also possible to take a photo when not recording.
• HDR function is useful is some situations and have had some interesting results from using this.
• Good image quality.

Cons

• Video is not have as many options as my other Camera (Canon G9)
• Lens included with the Camera was a 18mm-55mm which has a noisy auto focus so is not good for video. I am currently looking at the Canon pancake lens for video.
• Video file format is mov, would have like it to be in avi format like my Canon G9. There might be a setting I need to find for this.

Overall I am very happy with the Canon 650D and I am still learning some of the features. I think as a beginners DSLR camera it is the best on the market.

iPad Point of Sale Pros and Cons

Currently the company I work for is developing an iPad application for point of sale. I have noticed various other companies developing such apps but how good is an iPad as a POS solution? I can see quite a few pros and cons. Below is a list of what I consider as the pros and cons, first pros:

• Hardware surprisingly is cheap for each unit, other units can cost a lot more.
• Company image looks good when using the most up to date system. iPad is a cool device and this portrays an image of professionalism.
• Ease of use, if the application is designed well it makes the sales person confident about the system. This also applies to other hardware but at the time of writing this the iPad has great touch screen technology.

And now the cons:

• The iPad is a very basic device compared to others, it requires more hardware behind the scenes.
• Because it is a desirable device, it is more likely to be stolen, either by employees or by customers who later on break in to steal all the devices.
• I am still not sure how robust the device is but unless you get a decent case or cover I can imagine it will start looking damaged with scratches quickly.
• Development is expensive, this is because Apple developers at the moment charge more than others. Also it requires web service development, so there is a range of developers required. This is not the case if you manage to find a suitable out the box POS system.

These are some pros and cons but I am sure others will pop up as time goes on. I am still not sure how the battery life will handle a day of using. Will have to wait an see.