Tech Review: Samsung Galaxy S II

OS: Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread
About a month ago, I got the beautiful Android phone that is the Samsung Galaxy S II. This phone is AMAZING. It’s fast, well designed and the screen will make your eyes water. Samsung created a masterpiece which I think is the best Android phone existing, and the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (which I think will be available sometime next year January) will only make this phone better. Some people may argue that the Galaxy Nexus is better, but their main point would be that it has ICS, which the S II will get soon enough. The S II is overall the most powerful of the two. Here’s what I think.
Hardware:
The S II has a beautiful Super AMOLED Plus screen, and it can play movies in 1080p full HD (looks great). It can also record video in HD, has a 8 MP camera and it has HSDPA+ data connection (where available). Samsung tried to minimize the number of buttons on the phone, there is a home button, menu soft touch key (very helpful) and the usual back key. Samsung has chosen to leave out the search button, which I think is a good idea as I don’t use it and it disrupts the aesthetics. This button is easily replaced by holding in the menu button to search. The lightning fast 1.4 GHz dual core processor and powerful graphics card make for a great multimedia aspect and seamless usage.
Software:
The S II is currently using Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, which has a very TRON-like feel, in that it uses lots of black and blue in menus. The user interface feels good and works smoothly, but I don’t think Samsung has allowed for enough customization. You will, however, have enough homescreens as there are 7 which allows for easy access to vital apps and a bunch of widgets. The upcoming update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will make this phone completely outclass any other Android phone available.
Apps:
The Galaxy S II allows you to download every app on the Android Market, all +-300000 of them. My previous phone was an HTC Wildfire so I know how it feels to have blocked apps. It burns. That makes the S II automatically better. There is a huge choice of apps on the Android market, some great, but unfortunately a lot of bad ones because Android does not seem to have quality control. However, when you find a good one, you feel a sense of accomplishment. Invest a couple of hours trawling best Android Apps lists and it will enhance your experience immensely.
Extras and Features:
The S II has an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip which allows you to share information with other NFC devices, which is mainly used for apps that allow you to pay with your phone (Google Wallet etc.). It also has DLNA which allows streaming to other devices, such as Samsung’s Smart TV, useful if you store movies etc. on your device (and you don't need a USB cable to transfer files from PC to phone). One of the draws for social media enthusiasts is that it has a 2 MP front facing camera, usable in programs like Skype. This means when ICS gets pushed to the S II you will be able to unlock it with facial recognition. The S II has a lot of features you will still be discovering months after getting the phone.
I love the S II, and I would recommend it over any other phone on any operating system. If you have a choice, get it.

Game Review: Bulletstorm

Hey. Have some gaming goodness.

I love Bulletstorm. I find it extremely hard to nitpick about it as there is hardly anything to nitpick about. This game is almost perfectly balanced. The violence is gratuitous, but in a comical way as opposed to disgusting gore as in Dead Space or a similar game. The graphics are crystal clear and the slightly thicker outline somewhere between Borderland's semi-celshading and normal graphics produces a great effect. The plot is original and interesting, it's the first good Science Fiction plot for a game that I've ever played or heard of. The combat controls are great and it feels like wearing a second skin when you fight in Bulletstorm. The last great thing about Bulletstorm is the skillshot system. This is a very original idea and the satisfaction of collecting new skillshots is a great feeling. Any game that rewards you for impaling someone on a spike is already a great game in my book. The moment I got the skillshot database I realized that no other thing in my life could interfere with my ultimate goal- collecting every single skillshot in the game.

This is about as much fun as a game can give you. Bulletstorm is worth whatever you spend on it. Buy this game. Now.

Plus: Fun- Awesome Graphics-Original- Combat System

Minus: Nothing

Score: 93/100

Verdict: Play this. It's awesome.

Book Review: Plague by Michael Grant

Hey everyone.

Plague is the 4th in the FAYZ series, by Michael Grant. You'll need to have read the first 3 books or you can get a basic outline for the first three books from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_(series) (only read the synopses for Gone, Hunger and Lies). It's a good series.

Plague continues following Sam and Co, however several important characters do die in Plague so when the next book (Fear) comes out, the character pool will be slightly diminished. The new aspect introduced into plague is of serious diseases, one is a cough that makes you cough out your guts, and the other is a parasitic infection in which bugs eat at you from the inside. Nasty.

As you'd expect, Sam and Co have to save everyone again, however the problems do escalate and are more serious than in the previous books. I liked Plague, but I think it's time for Michael Grant to pull the plug. He is going to drag it out if he keeps writing.

7.5/10

Movie Review: Super 8

JJ Abrams' newest movie, Super 8, is a fun blend of alien and youth adventure movies. It is set in the 70s sometime, and 6 kids are trying to make a horror movie about zombies.  They are filming a scene at a house next to a railway track and a crash occurs, which the director (probably a semi-analogy for Spielberg) thinks is fantastic for his "production value", but has disastrous consequences for his town.
Watch the movie if you want to know the rest, I don't want to spoil it.

I was, however, surprised at how unoriginal Super 8 was. It seems a bit like a tribute to E.T. with bits of Indiana Jones thrown in (not that this is a bad thing), but it is slightly disappointing that Spielberg's nostalgic film tribute doesn't have a great original plot.

Abrams stresses the importance of kindness and understanding for when humans have First Contact. This may seem like a corny idea, but as we progress, we have to keep that in mind... anyway, back o the review. There are quite a few tropes of both the alien and youth-adventure genres in Super 8: The bad authority figure (an evil, sadistic USAF colonel), the hopeless parent who is good at heart from the youth-adventure genre and the protagonist who saves the day. The movie is not original in most aspects, as you see, but what saves it is the nostalgic feel and the 70s setting.

Super 8 is not a masterpiece, but it's a fun movie and definitely worth seeing. Peace.

7.5/10

PS: I saw it at the IMAX \:D/.

App Review: Pulse

Platforms: iOS, Android
Tested on android with Samsung Galaxy SII
Right, Pulse is a news app, like many others, but it is a great news app. Its interface looks like Gingerbread and feels modern and stylish. Pulse works really well and looks good, also it's free. That's right. Free.
Pulse aggregates all your news on 5 different homescreens, like Android does. You can choose any combination of sites and can have over 10 sites to a screen. Pulse also has the ability to sync data with all of your devices. This is really useful if you're using different devices all the time.
Pulse is a useful, fun and intelligent app, it can read any site with an RSS feed, which most major sites have, and all round it is worth downloading.
9/10

App Review: Whatsapp

Tested on: Android
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S II
Available on: Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone.
Whatsapp is a free messenger that works over data. This app will save you loads in airtime, and since it doesn't use very much data, is cheaper than using SMS (depending on country). It scans your contacs for other people who use it when you start it up. If you combine Whatsapp with a VoIP call service in a WiFi zone you can save ridiculous amounts of airtime for when you need it. This is a must have for any smartphone owner if you need to save or just want to. Go download this. Now. www.whatsapp.com

Ice Watches

Alright, so recently I acquired one of Ice's beautiful Big Size 50m water resistant watches, and I have to say that Ice makes very stylish and practical watches. Considering the average prices on the watch market, they're pretty cheap too. I got one for around R1100 (USD 150) while I was walking through a mall. While all the watches are fine, I'd recommend taking either the Big Size or XXL watches, as the other ones aren't as stylish or water resistant. I like these watches because they are very simple,as I feel analogue watches should be, they tell simply date and time, instead of complicating the face with dials and gauges. They are available in all colours of the rainbow, but i prefer the black and white watches. If you're in the market for a watch, and don't want to spend too much, I'd recommend the ICE XXL or Big Size series. icewatch.com

 

Hi

Hey. I'm Laurent. If you followed me on my last 2 blogs (probably not) you might know what kind of stuff I post, but if not, I post miscellaneous opinions on all sorts of topics, but mostly on technology, gaming and literature, as those are my primary interests. I guess you could describe me as a geek (hence the blog name) because of my interests, but I'm totally cool with that. I go to high school in Cape Town, South Africa and I hope to become a lawyer one day. My favourite city is New York City, for the general feel of the place and the architecture (I'd like to live there one day) and I want to study to be a lawyer. I got off Tumblr because of the lack of features and control, so I'm back on Blogger. Even so, I'll probably be posting a bunch of stuff from my old blogs so if you missed that, fear not. Please subscribe to this blog, and follow it if you can. I appreciate it, and it makes me ore inclined to post more. If you want more of my shenanigans, follow my Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/The_R0rschach.