Picked up a Jambox Mini yesterday.

 

It is incredible.

 

I bought my wife a Sol Republic Deck for christmas. Just amazing.

 

 

Apparently the Mini sounds better than the regular, so I'll pass on that!

The Big is awesome.

Some cool stuff at CES:

 

Pebble is releasing Pebble Steel, a new, much-less-dorky-looking version of their pretty great smartwatch. They also announced Pebble 2.0, a major update to its operating system that includes its own appstore. Their most notable new partner is ESPN, so checking scores on your watch will be pretty easy. Each watch will come with a leather and metal band.

 

 

Samsung announced another line of tablet updates, finally making their Tab line non-s***ty while releasing a much larger Galaxy Note 12.2. I just bought a Note 8.0 and would have liked an update to that, though I really am fond of what I have...most of my beef is with the plasticky, rounded build of the whole thing.

 

ASUS had a quite well-received presentation, rolling out all kinds of new s***. I'm intrigued by their Vivotab Note 8 (did I mention I like the 8 inch size for tablets and really want an active stylus?), which has the much-improved Bay Trail Atom processor, runs full W8.1, has a Wacom active digitizer, and also comes with a free full copy (not a trial) of Office. $299, awesome

 

Their new ZenFones look very interesting as well. They have Zen 4, 5, and 6 models which correspond to size. 4 looks like it will be great in the budget part of the market. The ZenFone 6 has one particularly interesting feature - "PenTouch," a feature which they say allows you to use a pencil, pen, or anything like that on your screen as if it were a stylus. Sounds awesome if implemented well, but who knows. I'm still waiting for active stylus/things like this to be implemented in non-enormous phones.

 

 

And finally, they announced the Transformer Duet -- a 13 inch convertible (detachable screen to become a large tablet) that runs full versions of Windows 8.1 and Android. No virtualization. You press one key to switch over, which they say takes 4 seconds. I think Android needs some work to take on this size and functionality, but the option to dual-boot may get enough people to jump on board that they get the development needed to make it work. TBH, I think W8.1 is a big enough step that it may squash some of this competition, particularly from the mobile OS side.

 

Intel confirmed that they will be making a line of chips meant to support dual OS, which suggests this will be a thing the industry tries to implement further.

Some cool stuff at CES:

 

Pebble is releasing Pebble Steel, a new, much-less-dorky-looking version of their pretty great smartwatch. They also announced Pebble 2.0, a major update to its operating system that includes its own appstore. Their most notable new partner is ESPN, so checking scores on your watch will be pretty easy. Each watch will come with a leather and metal band.

 

 

Samsung announced another line of tablet updates, finally making their Tab line non-s***ty while releasing a much larger Galaxy Note 12.2. I just bought a Note 8.0 and would have liked an update to that, though I really am fond of what I have...most of my beef is with the plasticky, rounded build of the whole thing.

 

ASUS had a quite well-received presentation, rolling out all kinds of new s***. I'm intrigued by their Vivotab Note 8 (did I mention I like the 8 inch size for tablets and really want an active stylus?), which has the much-improved Bay Trail Atom processor, runs full W8.1, has a Wacom active digitizer, and also comes with a free full copy (not a trial) of Office. $299, awesome

 

Their new ZenFones look very interesting as well. They have Zen 4, 5, and 6 models which correspond to size. 4 looks like it will be great in the budget part of the market. The ZenFone 6 has one particularly interesting feature - "PenTouch," a feature which they say allows you to use a pencil, pen, or anything like that on your screen as if it were a stylus. Sounds awesome if implemented well, but who knows. I'm still waiting for active stylus/things like this to be implemented in non-enormous phones.

 

 

And finally, they announced the Transformer Duet -- a 13 inch convertible (detachable screen to become a large tablet) that runs full versions of Windows 8.1 and Android. No virtualization. You press one key to switch over, which they say takes 4 seconds. I think Android needs some work to take on this size and functionality, but the option to dual-boot may get enough people to jump on board that they get the development needed to make it work. TBH, I think W8.1 is a big enough step that it may squash some of this competition, particularly from the mobile OS side.

 

Intel confirmed that they will be making a line of chips meant to support dual OS, which suggests this will be a thing the industry tries to implement further.

 

Samsung finally got rid of that stupid menu button on their tablets. It's about time.

 

I still don't get physical and capacitive buttons on Samsung tablets, it makes me cringe.

I honestly love having as many physical/capacitive buttons as possible. For some reason I feel like I "trust" them more and I've never been fond of the black bar on-screen for that kind of thing. It may just be that I am so used to it, though my One lacks a physical button (there are two capacitive buttons). What Samsung has done here IMO is the worst way to do things, which is to keep the button but change the function. If I had one, I'd hit it to get to my home screen all the god damned time.

The Dual-OS tablet/laptop convertible I think is the only way I would ever consider getting a tablet. I don't need one now because I have 2 laptops and a phone. And I can't live without Windows, simply relying on Android OS to accomplish major tasks, so a device that can be both a laptop AND a tablet AND have fun apps using Android AND allow me to do real computing things through Windows is perfect. Maybe in a couple years when companies I trust more than ASUS are making them I may get it a go.

You are probably underestimating the productive capabilities of Android by quite a bit. Either way, tablets are very useful as consumption devices as well. I do most of my reading and posting on Soxtalk from my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, for instance. The active digitizer (aka, the S Pen technology) makes it much more useful for productivity for me, since I can take handwritten notes on it. I also wrote this entire post via handwriting recognition.

 

Curious why you don't trust Asus, as they are held in extremely high esteem throughout the tech community and have pioneered Android in the tablet format. They made the first mainstream convertible. To each his own of course, but I wouldn't want you to miss out on a good product for you at some point.

I honestly love having as many physical/capacitive buttons as possible. For some reason I feel like I "trust" them more and I've never been fond of the black bar on-screen for that kind of thing. It may just be that I am so used to it, though my One lacks a physical button (there are two capacitive buttons). What Samsung has done here IMO is the worst way to do things, which is to keep the button but change the function. If I had one, I'd hit it to get to my home screen all the god damned time.

 

On-screen navigation buttons just kind of work. I've never had an issue where the buttons become unresponsive or anything. Plus, with Android 4.4, those black bars can disappear in immersive mode when you play a game or watch a movie (although for video apps, they've always gone full-screen anyways). So you're really not wasting screen real-estate when you truly need it.

 

It makes a ton of sense for phones since it allows for smaller bezels.

 

And Samsung only changed the menu button to a multi-tasking button, not the home button. The stupid thing is that they used to do on-screen buttons for tablets. Then the GS3 and GS4 got so popular that they thought they had an iconic button setup (basically they thought they were Apple) and decided to bring it over to tablets. Now all of their tablets look like phones (especially that Galaxy Note 8).

Edited January 7, 201412 yr by chw42

You are probably underestimating the productive capabilities of Android by quite a bit. Either way, tablets are very useful as consumption devices as well. I do most of my reading and posting on Soxtalk from my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, for instance. The active digitizer (aka, the S Pen technology) makes it much more useful for productivity for me, since I can take handwritten notes on it. I also wrote this entire post via handwriting recognition.

 

Curious why you don't trust Asus, as they are held in extremely high esteem throughout the tech community and have pioneered Android in the tablet format. They made the first mainstream convertible. To each his own of course, but I wouldn't want you to miss out on a good product for you at some point.

 

Yeah, I don't get how you don't trust ASUS, they make great computers and tablets.

Curious why you don't trust Asus, as they are held in extremely high esteem throughout the tech community and have pioneered Android in the tablet format. They made the first mainstream convertible. To each his own of course, but I wouldn't want you to miss out on a good product for you at some point.

 

Just based on people I know who've had trouble with their laptops. I guess that was probably 5-6 years ago, so it sounds like they've improved, I suppose I've just had that idea associated with the brand since that time. If I get a real job with a real paycheck I'll look in to it.

Wow. I sold my wife's s***ty year-old Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and was able to get the new model Nexus 7 for her for not much more.

 

People are dumb. Why would anyone drop $190 on a year-old Kindle Fire HD. The f***ing thing is $229 brand new.

Wow. I sold my wife's s***ty year-old Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and was able to get the new model Nexus 7 for her for not much more.

 

People are dumb. Why would anyone drop $190 on a year-old Kindle Fire HD. The f***ing thing is $229 brand new.

 

eBay buyers have to be some of the most stupid people ever. I frequently see things going for more than their retail price.

eBay buyers have to be some of the most stupid people ever. I frequently see things going for more than their retail price.

It's the competitive nature in people. It was at $150 until about 5 minutes left. Then can't lose mentality kicks in. Advantage me.

Can someone let me know when hangouts can actually handle MMS and isn't a garbage app.

Edited January 9, 201412 yr by bmags

Can someone let me know when hangouts can actually handle MMS and isn't a garbage app.

 

MMS works for me.

 

Make sure your APN settings are correct (depends on your carrier).

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/08/hisense-x1-smartphone/

 

A 6.8 inch "phone".

That just can't be practical... Just like the 10" Asus tablet you can use to call with. Like wat?

That just can't be practical... Just like the 10" Asus tablet you can use to call with. Like wat?

 

I think you're talking about the Padfone. That's a tablet you can a dock a phone into, which is different.

MMS works for me.

 

Make sure your APN settings are correct (depends on your carrier).

 

I can't b/c of sprint. And judging by their dev forums I'm one of many people with this problem.

I can't b/c of sprint. And judging by their dev forums I'm one of many people with this problem.

 

Why can't you? From this: http://buzzmobile.us/sprint-apn-settings-android-us/, it looks like you can.

Moving from iOS back to Android has been so pleasant.

Can someone let me know when hangouts can actually handle MMS and isn't a garbage app.

 

Seems like carrier/model makes a huge difference here. My ATT HTC One has been working great from the get-go, my girlfriend's Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 hasn't been figured out across several updates

Why can't you? From this: http://buzzmobile.us/sprint-apn-settings-android-us/, it looks like you can.

Negative. The button is there but it's a grayed out link I can't access.a

Negative. The button is there but it's a grayed out link I can't access.a

 

Do other apps work with MMS? Or is it only Hangouts?

Do other apps work with MMS? Or is it only Hangouts?

 

Stock works with MMS. I just turned off hangouts handling SMS and everything is back to normal.