Edward Kiledjian

More and more users are looking for unsubsidized smartphones that offer decent features without the 2 year carrier trap. I was excited about the Moto G when I heard about it but couldn't wait to pay with it in real life.

What is this phone? Its a decent looking phone with

• 1.2Ghz quad core processor
• 8/16GB of storage
• 4.5" 720p display
• 5 MP camera with LED flash
• WIFI, GPS, Glonas
• Bluetooth 4 

All of this can be had for a measly $200.

How does it perform in everyday "normal" use? Very well actually. This isn't the latest and fastest device but for most tasks, it performs very well. It doesn't have LTE but 3G performance is acceptable for the average user. 

The only times I noticeably felt the device was lagging a bit was during 3G gaming and some photo editing software (which is processor intensive). When you are reading emails, checking facebook, posting on Twitter or checking out Google Now, you won't notice any slow performance.

Surprisingly the battery last all day with normal use.

The biggest snag for me was photography. I wasn't bothered by the 5MP theoretical sensor limit but found the entire photo experience frustrating (since photography is one of my main uses for a smartphone.) Autofocus often took a couple of seconds and sometimes settled on the wrong target. Overall image quality was soft with lacklustre vibrancy. Pictures just felt flat. 

Verdict

This is a great mid range phone at budget pricing. It offers a great entry point for consumers looking for a smartphone, but that don't want to spend $700-900 (thats what your 2 year term subsidized phone is really costing you). Performance was admirable for 85% of normal user tasks. 

I only really was left wanting when taking pictures. So If you will only take rare pictures then this is a great option. If photography is important for you, grab a Nexus 5 instead (I would have recommended a Moto X but it is due for an upgrade this summer).

I love TheBrain (formerly PersonalBrain) but was starting to move away from it because they didn't offer an IOS client. We were promised one over 2 years ago but hadn't seen anything concrete. Then today I receive this email from TheBrain.

The IOS version includes everything you have come to expect from TheBrain including child/parent/jump thoughts, attachments and note.

The only requirement is that you have a webbrain account (since that is used to sync the data back and forth). I just downloaded it from the Canadian itunes store and I'll review it in a week or two.

Some screenshots for you

If you are an android user and have the Amazon app store installed (if not just install the app and log-in with your Amazon.ca/.com account). To celebrate its app store anniversary, they are giving away about $50 of free Android apps.

Not all of them are super hot in demand apps but the list includes Monopoly, Swype, Worms 2 and more.

Click this link to their promo page (link)

Search the Google Play or Apple Appstore and you will find hundreds of photo editing apps. One that tries to differentiate itself from the bunch is an app called Perfectly Clear from Canadian firm Athentech. Their claim to fame is a single click for 12 automatic corrections using their patented proprietary algorithm. They try to fix:

1. Exposure
2. Depth / Contrast
3. Color Vibrancy
4. Sharpening
5. Tint Removal
6. Noise Removal
7. Skin Tone Correction - Removes Infrared data captured by the sensor 
8. Perfectly Smooth - Produces flawless skin
9. Eye Enhance - Also removed red eye
10. Eye Enlarge
11. Teeth Whitening
12. De-Purple - Removes purple tint when shooting into bright light

When you start the app, you can shoot pictures directly from within the app or import a picture from your camera roll (gallery on Android). You can choose one of the presets :

1. Fix - Main preset you will use most often
2. Fix Dark - When a picture is overly dark
3. Fix Tint - When the white balance is off
4. Beautify - When the picture is a portrait and you want the portrait features used

Of course you can then you the tweak option to play with settings for each individual configuration. The configurations for each correction is done via slider (so it is simple and there is no learning curve).

IMPROVEMENT #1 - The IOS app should work like every other camera app and allow you to take multiple photos, save them to an application lightbox and edit them later. 

A slider in the middle of the picture allows you to see the before and after image for quick comparison. 

IMPROVEMENT #2 - There are times the apps should be able to improve a picture (because you can improve it manually in other apps like Snapseed or iPhoto for IOS) but the improvement is imperceptible with Perfectly Clear. The algorithm probably needs to be improved. 

The Beautify preset and improvements are fantastic and can make a big difference if used carefully. Over using them will make your target look fake and unnatural. 

IMPROVEMENT #3 - Perfectly Clear should incorporate many of the basic photo editing features users have come to expect. Having to bounce between multiple apps is annoying and unnecessary.

I would like to have the ability to apply some of the features to a section of the picture (mask). I know the creators want to keep it simple but should offer masking or selective adjustment for power users

Important Android differences

The photo editing capabilities are the same on both IOS and Android but the photo taking features of the Android app are much more sophisticated. The features mentioned in this section are Android only:

• HDR - Perfectly Clear gives you best-in-class tone mapping to keep colors realistic. A vivid HDR look is coupled with unmatched de-ghosting to produce perfect pictures even when your subject moves. Choose from either the Realistic or Artistic HDR mode. 
• Portrait - When you use Portrait mode, Perfectly Clear automatically takes photos at the optimal time. Our face detection has the highest overall detection rate of any technology in the market, coupled with the best coverage of face angles (in plane, out of plane) and the biggest distance to subject detection in real time.
• Panorama - When life's too big for your smartphone's tiny lens, our Panorama feature makes capturing landscapes a lot easier. Just pan in any direction and our advanced app automatically stitches your photo together with minimal error—and no complicated stop-and-go aligning of different photos. 
• Burst - For the fastest, smoothest, longest burst on the market, switch into our high-speed burst mode—up to 30fps! With just one shot, you can catch those perfect moments that used to be too hard to time perfectly.

Conclusion

I've been using this app for over 6 months on both Android and IOS. I love this app and keep wishing they would continue to improve it. I want new features added without diluting the simple workflow the authors are trying to achieve.

Even with all of the cons I have listed, this is an app I bought on 2 platforms and I highly recommend it. When it works, it makes an incredible difference. One friend I was demonstrating it to said "it was like a plastic film was removed from the photo". Everything seemed cleaner, better, more vibrant and more real. 

I wish they added the 4 additional photo capture modes from Android to the IOS version.

Download for iPhone (link)

Download for Android (link)

As a casual internet user, you probably don't need to send large files too often but there are times when a clean, fast and simple solution can be a lifesaver (sharing pictures, video, etc).

There are a bunch of for pay services catering primarily to the enterprise space but what does a user do? Enter WeTransfer.com. The site is clean, simple and functional. The free version (doesn't even require an account) allows you to send files of up to 2GB (per transfer). 

When you visit the site, you are greeted with a little transfer box on the left and a beautiful sponsored background covers the rest of the page. This one is a house ad but most a unobtrusive and visually appealing.

All of you interaction will be with the little box on the left hand side.

You can enter up to 20 recipient email addresses, you enter your own email address (of it auto populates this if you have sent files in the past and haven't cleared your cache) and you choose files up to 2GB. You press Transfer and wait for your files to be uploaded.

Once uploaded, your recipients will receive an email with a link to download all of the files as a single compressed cross-platform ZIP.

In my testing, every recipient I sent files to received the notification email (aka it never went to SPAM which is a good thing). You receive an emailed confirming the recipients, your message and the download link. 

If you make an error with an email address, you will receive another email from WeTransfer notifying you that the recipient email bounced. For each recipient that downloads the files, you will receive an email specifying who downloaded the files, which files and when.

Another advantage is that the site is clean for your file recipients. There aren't any misleading banner ads, pop-up ads or other elements that distract from your transfer or that could be dangerous,

This is what the download page looks like. 

What about upload and download speeds? I compared upload speeds on a 2GB file to WeTransfer, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive and Dropbox. All of the services took about the same about of time. This means that you are not penalized by using the free service (no intentional slow downs). Every transfer I threw at it worked at almost my maximum internet connection upload speed.

There are a handful of other sites that offer free file transfer services but every single one of them had ugly ad covered websites. One even showed adult content. 

My conclusion is that WeTransfer is a great reliable free service that will likely fill a gap most home users have. You are sending your files to a third party so I recommend zipping all of your files in an archive (Zip, RAR, DMG, etc) and using that format's native encryption function. This will make sure that no one (except the intended recipients) will be allowed to uncompress and access your files.

I first wrote about Telegram Messenger February 25 (link). As soon as I published my article, readers started asking me "how secure Telegram Messenger really is". The answer is not that secure. But then again, Whatsapp isn't a super secret messenger either. 

Most users aren't transmitting state secrets so ultra protection really isn't really a requirements. But for those that are interested, Telegram Messenger's security is not verifiably secure. Personally, I would not rely on it if I wanted to share something confidential.

If you are not interested in security, stop here and go about your day with this new knowledge.

They claim the protocol was designed by world leading mathematicians. Maybe but it shows a clear lack of understanding about basic cryptography constructs. 

• The SHA1 function is cryptographically broken (it has been theoretically broken which means it shouldn't be used). There are many other replacement functions that are just as fast but much more securre. Bruce Schneier had a 2005 article on SHA-1 being broken that you should read if interested (link).
• They are doing "Mac and encrypt" instead of "Encrypt and MAC". Message Authentication Code is a way to verify that the message wasn't tampered with. In the model used by Telegram Messaging, a padding oracle trick can be used by an attacker to find the plaintext message. The ideal model is encrypt then MAC. In this model the message is encrypted and then a MAC is performed. If the MAC test fails on the recipients device, the message is not decrypted and is discarded (meaning no padded oracle trick). An attacker can't forge a MAC without knowing the encrypted session key.  
• They are using their own cipher called "Infinite Garble Extension" which is a horrible idea when there are already time tested and proven ciphers available.
• No public key authentication

Overall Telegram Messenger is clean and fairly well designed (from a user perspective) and many have migrated over to it (after the major Whatsapp crash and then the Facebook acquisition). You should use it for its features but not because it is ultra-secure (which it is not).

Personally, I use Hangouts & Whatsapp when security isn't a critical requirement and Threema (link) when security is paramount. I like the fact that Threema is cross platform and only requires a one-time fee ($2).

Rapportive (link) is a free Firefox, Safari and Chrome add-on that brings social intelligence to GMAIL. For every email sender, it displays a picture, a brief bio,  location and links to that their social networks. 

Yes it does work with Google Apps accounts.

It replaces the (less useful) GMAIL advertisements with its own information. Another company called Xobni has a similar tool for Outlook. Installation took only a couple of minutes and then it automatically performs its magic anytime you use the GMAIL web interface. 

There is some debate about where the service get's it's information from. Some have claimed it comes from a service called Rapleaf, others claim it is an in-house culling service. All we know is that the company provides this blurb:

"We combine information from several sources; at the moment, these are Academia.edu, AngelList, Bitbucket, CrunchBase, Econsultancy, Facebook, Flickr, GitHub, Google Profiles, Gravatar, LinkedIn, Plancast, Posterous, Stack Overflow, Tungle.me, Twitter and Vimeo, as well as thousands of organisations' public websites. " (link)

In my testing, some contacts come jam packed with useful information and others get wrong or missing info. Overall I think this is a great way to gleam additional  information which can make the difference between winning or losing. 

Give it a try. It's free

February 25, I wrote an article about an announced upcoming feature called Whatsapp voice. It will basically allow you to make a Voice Over IP (VoIP) call to any other Whatsapp subscriber. Sure VoIP is a crowded space but many of your friends are likely already on Whatsapp (with its 400M subscribers) which means this may get immediate traction.

iPhoneItalia (link) published the first leaked screenshots of this upcoming feature .

When starting the updated version, you will be prompted to permission to use your microphone.  Like most calling apps, you have Mute, Message and Speaker buttons. I am guessing that bluetooth will also be supported but we'll have to wait and see.

Based on other leaks, we believe Voice calling will work on both WIFI and 3G.

Although the leaks only show an IOS 7 designed version, it is safe to assume Whatsapp will bring this to all of its other platforms (eventually).

Videotron has had a "interest registration"  page for a while promising to notify you when the iPhone eventually made its way to its Quebec only network. 

Now we see these tweets

We know Videotron bought 700MHZ spectrum outside of Quebec with the hopes of expanding its services accross Canada.  We know the iPhone typically drives new subscribers to carriers so pairing it with an attractive monthly plan can be really bad news for Rogers, Bell or Telus.

Nothing feel better than getting something of value for free. Now CyberLink is running a special promo for CNET's Download.com by offering their well respected ($99) photo management app for free.

Head over to this special promo page (link) and enter promo code PHD4CNET in the "redeem code" box. You get an immediate discount which brings the price to $0, nada, zilch.

My smartphone has become so indispensable to me, I typically travel with a portable charger and an Apple lightning cable on me all the time. My smartphone is used for entertainment, news consumption, communication and navigation. 

Needless to say, the battery and cable take valuable pocket space. My poor lightning cables typically don't last too long... The designers over at Nomad recently released a product that really caught my attention, the ChargeKey.

It is a short, flexible, key-chain attachable lightning cable. They also offer this little device with a micro-USB tip for Samsung, HTC and Nexus users.

Design

As you can see in the above images, one side has a USB connector (for your MAC, PC or portable battery pack) and the other has a lightning or micro-USB connector. The plastic holding those connectors in place is nice and rigid (the key chain loop is also rigid plastic).

The plastic bridge holding both connectors together is made from a soft flexible plastic. This is one of the design decisions that really works well. The flexibility of this peace means it is much less likely to break in your pocket. 

It is also very thin (thinner than most of your keys). The little hockey stick like angle tip means it is a little larger than the typical key but not by much. The shape and design of this means that you won't know its on your keychain until you need it.

Use

Its a short USB to lightning cable that is always with you. Plug one end into a power source and the other into your device. Its that easy. I tested it with a MAC, a PC, a bunch of power bricks and the original Apple wall plugs. It worked with every one of the power sources and successfully charged an iPod, iPhone and iPad.

And YES! you can use this to sync with your phone to a PC. It is USB 2.0 so it is compatible with every PC in the market.

Durability

I am not known for being gentle and I carried this little device with me for a week. I bent it, squeezed it and generally torture tested it. and it continued to work. 

The flexible plastic bridge meant I could angle the device when my iPhone and connected device weren't perfectly aligned. As I used it, I appreciated the small design decisions that make this thing a joy to use.

Conclusion

Small, portable and durable... Nice combination of qualities.

The device costs $25 and in the package, they give you instructions on how you can get another one for free. Whether you buy the lightning or micro-USB version of the ChargeKey, you won't be disappointed.

You won't use this with a wall charger too often because of its short length (which is by design). You don't want to dangle your $800 smartphone in the air. But that isn't the design purpose for this anyway.

I often test products and then forget about them and move on. The ChargeKey is now a permanents fixture on my everyday keychain. A 5 star rating by me.

You can order your very own directly from Nomad (link)