technology
MacX Video Converter Pro free (normally $50)
The team at Digiarty is giving away free copies of their popular video converter app called MacXVideo Converter Pro. It converts videos into Mac and Apple product compatible formats easily, quickly and while maintaining the highest quality. It currently supports these formats for input : MKV, M2TS, AVCHD, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AVI, MPEG, MP4, H.264, MOV, FLV, F4V, RM, RMVB, WebM, Google TV.
Counterfeit smartphone cases are not worth it
I receive a lot of questions about counterfeit products and 80% of them are related to headphones. I recently read an interesting press release from Otterbox about their fight to keep counterfeit smartphone cases off the street. Otterbox is the grand poobah of smartphone case manufacturers. They are number one in most countries and are struggling under the tidal wave of cheap Asian knock-offs. In 2012 alone, the US Customs and Border protection teams seized over 118000 counterfeit Otterbox items.
9 Premium Mac apps free for another 2 days
You can download $130 of premium Apple Mac apps for free right now from the MacUpdate team. These are the full versions of these 9 apps. Once you register with MacUpdate (free), you can download these in minutes.
25% of everything at Griffin Technologies
Griffin is a well established manufacturer of smartphone accessories and they are now offering a full 25% of everything with the code SPRING25 You can use this discount to score some sweet gear for your iphone, ipad, ipad mini, android device and even a mac or PC. Griffin even has an Apple certified Lightning cable you can pick up through this promo for as low as $13US. Start shopping before the deal is gone.
Sonic Dash for iphone and ipad temporarily free
Sonic Dash (normally $1.99) is now free for a limited time. It's the first time this game has been made free so grab it while you can. iTunes Link here.
Download Glary Utilities Pro for Free (worth $40)
I love good system maintenance utilities but I like free and free system utilities even better. Now you can download Glarry Utilities Pro for free. It will clean, repair and maitain your system. It offers to securely delete files and folders and much much more. Normally this software costs a cool $US40 but they currently have a promo bringing the cost to $28. but wait there is more... Get it now for free using the below promo.
Rumors about the Google Nexus 5
With all the new shiny gadgets we have seen in the last month, the Nexus 4 seems less and less interesting. A user on a Korean website, who claims to be in the know, now says LG and Google are working together on the Nexus 5. He claims it will have a 5 inch full HD screen, a quad-core tegra 4 processor, 8/16GB storage, 2GM of RAM, a 13 megapixel camera and the next version of Android (Key Lime Pie).
Monoprice 9927 headphone review
In December, I wrote about how much I liked the Monoprice 8320 headphones. It doesn’t replace my Etymotic or UE Triple-Fi 10 but for $7 you get something that feels well-built and performs extremely well. I received requests from readers to review the new Monoprice 9927 headphones. This are newer than the 8320 and comes in black (9927), pink (9960), and white (9963). I had a chance to test the 9927 and wanted to share my opinion. The first change is the look of these headphones.
Apple's A7 will not be built by Samsung
Apple and Samsung have a strange relationship where they constantly fight regarding patents but Apple uses Samsung for many of its components. Digitimes is now reporting that Apple will switch production of its next generation A7 processor to TSMC. The rumor has it that TSMC will start producing the new 20nm processor in May and it will find its way into products in 2014.
BlackBerry Z10 drops to $99
When the Blackberry Z10 launched, it was priced at $149 (Canadian dollar) with a 3 year contract. Many thought that the device wasn’t worth that much and the Canadian carriers have now responded by lowering the price to $99 on a 3-year contract. Bell, Rogers, Virgin Mobile. Link to Rogers Link to Bell Fido sells it for $250 with a 2-year agreement. Telus sells it for $149 with a 3-year agreement. Koodo sells it for $400 (using the max $150 tab value)
WhatsApp messenger for Blackberry waiting for you
As wonderful as Blackberry messenger is, none of my contacts seem to be using it so it is pretty useless to me. Now Blackberry lovers can finally join the rest of the instant messaging world because WhatsApp messenger was finally released for Blackberry 10 (BB10). WhatsApp messenger on Blackberry integrates into the new Blackberry Hub and is Flow enabled. You can download it from Blackberry World now.
Nexus 5 may come with a Nikon branded camera
The Samsung Galaxy SIV seems like a solid well designed smartphone but most pundits were underwhelmed and expected much more innovation. Now that the Galaxy SIV is out of the way, we can concentrate on other rumored upcoming devices like the Nexus 5. Phonearena is now reporting that the Google Nexus 5 will come with a “triple camera sensor thing” designed (and branded) by Nikon. The same source told Phonearena that this camera will be the major selling point of the next version of the Nexus device.
Samsung Galaxy SIV coming to Canada in Q2
The minute last week’s Samsung Galaxy SIV announcement finished, Canadians started asking carriers when it would come to the great white Canadian north. Unofficial discussions with reps from Samsung, Rogers, Fido and Telus indicate that it will hit the streets of Toronto (and Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, etc) by the end of Q2. It seems the phone will come to Rogers, Bell, Telus and their sub-brands (Fido, Koodo, Virgin Mobile).
Which processor will the Samsung Galaxy SIV have
Now that the Samsung Galaxy SIV launch is behind us, many are wondering which version (processor) will come to North America. If you were hoping to bathe in the warmth of the Samsung Exynos 5 octa then you will be really disappointed. The quad-core processor that will power the North American Samsung Galaxy SIV is fast but many are disappointed. There are many reasons why Samsung may have chosen to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 which may include North American LTE built the chip, good battery usage, good thermal design, etc.
Tweeting from the grave will soon be possible
Twitter is one of those services that users love and the general public just doesn’t understand. Now a startup will enable you to tweet from the grave. The LivesOn service is being developed by a British ad agency called Lean Mean Fighting Machine. They setup a new twitter account with your existing twitter handle and add a “_liveson” at the end. For my twitter handle is ekiledjian and my LivesOn ID would be ekiledjian_livesone. The system is in closed limited beta and is still in active development but the company claims it will learn about the user (while alive of course) by studying tweet patterns, writing style, preferred content, re-tweet strategy ,etc.
Google News now in tablet flavour
I browsed to Google News and saw this: I clicked on the Learn More link and found an interesting Google Blog post. The crux of the optimizations are: You can find new articles, news sources, and even topics of interest with intuitive gestures. Swipe horizontally between sections – from Business to Entertainment, for example – or tap “Explore in depth” to see multiple articles and other info related to a particular story. We’ve also added more breathing room between articles, making it easier to spot the stories you really care about.
Pictures of the Samsung Galaxy SIV?
We are 3 days away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy SIV in New York’s Time Square and the rumors surrounding the device have reached a feverish pitch. Now a Chinese site has published pictures claiming to be the Samsun Galaxy SIV. We know Samsung takes confidentiality seriously and this may simply be a Galaxy SIV with a Halloween costume or may even be a decoy unit meant to take potential leakers off track. Coming from China, it may even be a knock off device made by a local manufacturer.
Baidu Antivirus Pro free
Baidu is China’s response to Google and they have just launched a free antivirus solution called Baidu Antivirus 2013. In my tests, it was light, easy to use and fast anti-virus. They promise to protect you from malware, viruses, spyware and adware. I tested it against some more common malicious code and it seems to catch and clean the system. Although we haven’t seen any independent tests yet, I expect them to be as good or better than many of the traditional free products but not as good as the stronger for pay products.
Get free home high speed internet in the USA
Canadian carriers are notorious for overcharging customers for mobile or home internet services, so we are jealous of all the competition and competitive pricing our US friends have access to. There is a neat little company (in the US) called FreedomPop that has launched a new home internet service which offers free internet services. You can buy the special 4G router for $89 (plus $8.99S&H) and then use it with FreedomPop’s free internet service. The free plan gives you 1GB of data a month with 1.
CWTA launches their Protect your data campaign
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the major Canadian carriers are joining forces to stop mobile device theft in Canada. By the end of September 2013, they will implement a new device verification process to ensure the device being activated hasn’t been declared lost or stolen. The purpose is to eliminate the secondary market for stolen devices making theft less attractive. In preparation of this initiative, the CWTA has launched a special protectyourdata website to help consummers. Le CWTA rend disponible un site web spécial qui aide les consommateurs à protéger leur appareil mobile et l'information contenue dans ces appareils.