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Category Archives: Nerd Girl Tech Toys

Could the Samsung Foldable phone finally become reality in 2018?

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The Samsung foldable phone dream was big news in 2013 for 2014…2016 and 2018. Certainly the Mashable article last week recalling Samsung’s 5-year old teaser video got me excited about the prospect – that is until I saw the string of prior articles that keep the bendy-screen dream alive. I mean seriously, if you saw this, wouldn’t you get excited too?

New tech like this is a challenge, to be sure, and those that know and watch the industry can appreciate Samsung has had its ups and down with not just the perfection of, beta testing and manufacture of this amazing concept. Plagued in 2017 by the frightening epic fail of the Note 7’s battery meltdowns (literally), I am just personally grateful that it didn’t involve the flexible display’s premiere into the real world. And now that Samsung’s CEO of mobile DJ Koh has told CNBC that it’s “time to deliver” this long-awaited device, people are starting to lift their heads up from grazing the fields of high-end phone tech and keep their ears perked up for further validation that we will soon have this phone in our hot little hands.

And you can be sure that the second it is announced to hit the stores, I will letting you know and SQUEEING! about it all the way.

Living in Balance – or how I learned to love my cat and power network at the same time

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desk catsIf my Facebook friends have taught me anything, it is how much they hate Facebook, yet they still use it to talk about life off of Facebook. If this week of homophobic hatred, church burnings and Donald Trump giving the finger to illegal aliens and the all-mighty NBC has taught me anything more, it is how passionately we take to social media to talk about things that are not computer related.

The insane extremes of being a human being are at once maddening yet fascinating, infuriating yet entertaining. And it’s only just now as I ditch my desktop PC for my netbook, WiFi signal and the cooler weather in the bedroom, that I realized that.

My dad would have been proud of me balancing both with the skill of a trapeze artist today. He was an older man who had served at Forth Worth, TX, as a glider pilot instructor during World War II, and yet after the war, he acquired a passion for Japanese post-war advances in the world of photography by collecting 35mm cameras (you younger kids wouldn’t recognize those types of cameras – they actually had physical film in them – what’s film, you say? Never mind).

Even if the generations reading this had never lived through the Big W (another vague, historical reference), you can probably appreciate the irony of being a fan of emerging technology out of a former Communist enemy of the United States and it’s Allies. At least I hope you can. If you can’t, you seriously need to get your head to Google and search up, “World War II” and “japanese cameras of the 1960s and 70s”, then take your iPhone to a museum of history – yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!

Confused yet? Welcome to the world of Living in Balance with Technology and the Real World outside social networking.

I do it every day, live it, love it, experience it by taking a walk one minute and Tweeting about it the next. It isn’t that hard, really, for someone who wants to make it work in this insane world of love ’em, hate ’em, us vs. them when it comes to technology vs. life outside the wifi. And for business networkers in this day and age, it is an absolute MUST if you are to pimp yourself in social media and make a profit at the same time.

And while the world seems perfect this morning because I can take my netbook and wifi into a part of the house that isn’t roasting from an 80 degrees at 8:00 am start to my day, it wasn’t that that made me realize how lucky we are to have technology and humans in balance in this house.

It was my cat, Rhubarb.

He followed me into the bedroom and sat beside me as I leaned against the headboard of our bed, typing a mile a minute, fighting to get these thoughts down before they disappear. You see, he’s lonely. We lost his 11-year old mom, Harley, this past weekend, to cancer and now he’s my constant comfort, my constant companion. even moreso than he was before.

I went kind of insane with grief last week as I watched my beloved Maine Coon struggle to breathe as that tumor pressed against her windpipe. How they hell do I know when enough is enough, I begged my vet. I don’t want her to suffer, but human asthmatics suffer a little at a time everyday, yet no one rushes to put them down because of it. She can’t tell me what hurts…how the hell and I going to know when enough is enough when she can’t talk to me?!? I can’t wait until she’s gasping for breath, because by then she’ll have only a precious few minutes left – and it takes 40 minutes to get to the vet from where we live. I wanted her to have a peaceful, pain-free death.

How in God’s name do I do this?

The internet had answers we were too late to implement, answers the vet had either held back, wasn’t aware of or simply didn’t believe worked. The ‘net gave me hope at the same time it forced me to realize that we were just too late to use them.

Sometimes the ‘net is evil like that – just like life.

The two are not mutually exclusive – not anymore. Tech is here to stay, it’s only going to get more invasive from here on out, so we as human beings better learn to live with it and when you want that human touch, just reach down, pull your new, baby kitten into your lap and take a picture of her to share with your virtual world. Then, and only then, will you understand that balance is indeed possible.

The Samsung screw-up that was heard round the world

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Samsung Phones 4-6 at Civic Site DesignI usually ignore most announced Samsung security flaws. They rarely are enough of a threat to get my attention or that of my networkers. Today that drastically changed when a mobile security researcher with NowSecure blew the whistle on a flaw noticed by Samsung itself way back in December 2014 AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT.

I’ll just quote ABC7.com’s opening line on their online article to get you all up to speed. “A security flaw discovered in Samsung smartphones has left as many as 600 MILLION Galaxy phones at risk of being hacked.”

Don’t have your attention yet? Don’t care because you don’t HAVE a Samsung Galaxy phone? Maybe you don’t have that model and you are breathing a sigh of relief.

One tiny word of advice. DON’T!

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note IV – which, by the way is NOT affected by the security flaw, BUT I am plenty worried for my networkers, my clients, my customers…my HUSBAND who just got his brand new Samsung 5 corporate work phone a month ago.

Six hundred million is a helluva big number, and to put it in even tighter perspective for you – in my smallest networking venue (at which about 15-20 people show up each week) FOUR OF THEM HAVE AN AFFECTED PHONE!

That’s 20-27% of the room in that tiny little group. ONE QUARTER of the room I had to pull aside and give copies of the article and direct how to patch this train-wreck of a customer service disaster the carriers have on their hands.

309 million is THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the way. So it is the equivalent to TWO UNITED STATES worth of people that are scrabbling ’round the globe to deal with this mess.

Or, well, it WOULD be if the word got out as fast as the carriers lack of attention to the problem THEY KNEW ABOUT LAST YEAR!

So, enough torch-handling and pitchfork wielding. Right now you need to know what to do if you have a Samsung Galaxy 4, 5 or 6 phone and how to stay safe until your service provider gets off its collective butt and decides to let the world know if they issued the patch yet.

What to do if you or anyone you know is affected:
1. Turn OFF your wi-fi in your settings. The hackers get in through open wifi ports. The carriers say to avoid wifi areas, but that’s like trying to avoid the entire planet. EVERY major chain restaurant, Starbucks, government building, school, company that has a network-run computer system has open wifi broadcasting round the clock – even when they are not open!

2. Disable language updates. This is harder to locate and the best thing to do is take your phone to your carrier and have them do it and/or walk you through it so you know they did it correctly.

3. Call your carrier and find out the status of the update. Don’t be meek. THIS IS YOUR FINANCES AND PERSONAL SECURITY THEY ARE ENDANGERING BY STALLING IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS UPDATE! I cannot emphasize this enough! If they give excuses, claim they never heard of this security breach, promise to get back to you – DON’T BELIEVE THEM AND DO NOT let them blow you off.  Ask for their supervisor, email them DAILY – do what it takes to get them to get you off their back and give you an estimated patch implementation date.

These are simple steps that can save your contact list, your bank account access information, your credit card numbers from being taken without your knowledge and consent.

Tomorrow I will detail why this was NOT Swype Key’s or even Samsung’s fault, but the CARRIERS…ALL OF THEM. And I apologize in advance, but you are not going to like the answer. They need to take responsibility for this mess, and believe me, if they know what’s good for them, they will fix this flaw like, YESTERDAY.

Wait, didn’t we just have a Samsung Galaxy rollout?

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Phone review time again at Civic Site Design. Wow, well, this one was out fast. Why the rush, Samsung? I’m still getting used to my Galaxy Note IV. Losing the micro-sd card wasn’t a bright idea, imo and I was surprised to max out while at a convention, but to be fair, I do have 6 pages of apps and hadn’t downloaded my earlier pics yet. The average user probably doesn’t need that many apps. They may accumulate them, but I like to review and clean them out once in a while, along with my photos after I upload them to social media. And pushing 1K??? C’mon, Samsung, don’t be so greedy. Keep the reasons I love you more than iPhone or you’re going to have a mass exodus on your hands.

What do you think of their official introduction? Leave your comments here.

‘droid app review – Google Sky Map

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Sky Map by Google

Okay, I’ve got something really nifty for all us ‘droid nerds out there this week. I was reviewing a rather nicely set up mobile phone & broadband website and seeing the next generation of Samsung Galaxy S class phone out there listed under “Best Selling Phones”, it reminded me I have been wanting to review my newest ‘droid app I stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago. (The next generation of Galaxy S phone is, btw, white. Weird, considering I am so used to mine which is black with a purple, shock-absorbing case surrounding it.)

google sky map detail

Google Sky Map is the best app you could possibly hope for if you are a night sky watcher. A free, Open Source program donated by Google, over 175,000 users rate it a 5 out of 5 and with good reason. Point it anywhere, ANYWHERE, day or night, and it will show you exactly what is out there beyond planet Earth. It views stars, constellations, planets, Moon, Sun, Meteor Showers, the Horizon line, poles & Messier Objects (whatever that is). Any of these objects can be switched off with the flick of a finger for clearer viewing of your object(s) of study.

Perhaps one of the more fun perks of this app is called, “Time Travel”. Choose a date and a time somewhere between the years of 1900 – 2100 and view the sky as it would appear on that date. How cool is that? The Apollo 11 moon landing and solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 are pre-loaded under popular dates, but any date and time is programmable into the interface for your viewing study and pleasure. Once in Time Travel mode, one can tap the buttons to move forward or backwards in time at the ratio of anywhere from real time (1 second to 1 second) to 1 week per second. Teach kids how the movements of the planets appear from Earth in a real neat way.

Having trouble locating the object of your interest? There is a search mode. Just plug in the name of whatever it is you want to view and the app will find it for you on the map. Under the Gallery you can view beautiful shots of our sister planets, nebulas, galaxies, the Pleiades and star clusters as the Hubble telescope has caught them on its cameras.

This is by far the most fun app we have come across in our reviews AND if you pick it up NOW, you will be able to see many of the planets aligned in a straight line including Pluto, Neptune, the Sun, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Jupiter. Quite a line up, especially when the Moon gets into the act during the evening hours.

As always, we welcome feedback, comments, etc. Pick up Google Sky Map for yourself, check it out and let us know what you think.

‘droid app review – Facebook version 1.7.1

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The “official” Facebook app is an improvement over the earlier version of the app and worth it for all us Facebooking fools out there to either pick up or upgrade from an earlier version.

It opens up to Top Stories. When tapped, the “All Stories” button at the top opens up a scroll-up at the bottom with options to view Status Updates, Photos, Links, Pages, Events or Videos – an improvement over the old version of the app. The Photo and Status buttons at the top are convenient since they are the most often function used by people checking in on Facebook (the photo button also gives the option to upload videos). Status Updates is not to be confused with the “Status” button. The Status Updates are everyone else’s statuses while the Status button in the middle of the bar below is the one used to update your own status.

facebook 9-icon dashboard

For those that liked the convenience of the 9-icon opening panel, you can still access that dashboard by clicking on, weirdly enough, “Newsfeed” at the top left of the screen. (Guys, you could have just called it something plain yet familiar like…oh well, say, “Dashboard”? That way you wouldn’t have confused the heck out of us.)

I confess I have not yet tried the chat function, so if anyone has experience with it, please feel free to drop a comment on the end of this blog to let us know how it performs.

Note: version 1.7.2 is now available. I will be updating this review as soon as I install it and get some practical use out of it. Give it a day =D

‘droid app review – Dude, Where’s My ‘droid?

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wheres-my-droid

“Where’s My ‘droid” is an Android app designed to help you find your lost phone. Simple explanation, simple function, powerful app! Six million users and over 30,000 Likes on Facebook can’t be wrong, right?

This neat little gem is worth the space on your phone and the time and trouble to set it up right, though I found setting it up was no trouble at all for yours truly. If I can set it up, so can you!

What sold me on this particular app was the solution to the past, obvious hurdle of clever users calling their phone to find it, only to remember they had turned the ringer off! This app WILL TURN THE RINGER BACK ON. How smart and cool is that?!?

The opening paragraph on the ‘site declares, “When you lose your phone while the ringer is turned off it can be impossible to find it. Where’s My Droid fixes that problem. After texting your phone a custom attention word the app turns the ringer volume up and makes your phone ring. It’s also possible to get the GPS location of your phone in latitude and longitude and a link to Google maps.”

Among the features listed are:

  • Find phone by making it ring/vibrate
  • Find phone using GPS location
  • Text or email your attention word
  • Passcode protection to prevent unauthorized app changes
  • Notification of changed SIM card or phone number (BETA)

The Pro version also has a “remote wipe” function that will send the Hari Kari command of death upon your instruction, permanently wiping out all information in case your phone falls into the hands of evil doers.

The website is full of support features – instructions, video tutorials, troubleshooting, an FAQ page and an explanation of why the app needs permission to do certain things on your system.

If you have a ‘droid and no way to find it, do yourself a favor and install this wonderful application before you lose your phone and regret you didn’t have it.

Websites:
http://alienmanfc6.com/
http://www.wheresmydroid.mobi/

Requirements:

  • Android 1.6 or better
  • 2.65mg of free space

 

‘droid app review – CurveFish’s Battery Life

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thumbs_batterylife_1 thumbs_batterylife_3

App Homepage

One of my favorite ‘droid apps, CurveFish’s “Battery Life” is everything you could want in a phone app. – colorful, functional, useful and most importantly, it’s ACCURATE and it WORKS. Set it to show how much of a charge your battery has left, or get real nerdy and also set it to show the battery’s temperature (in Fahrenheit or Celsius), voltage AND technology. Mine is on my home screen and is so much easier to see and read than that tiny little icon up in the corner of the screen. It can also be color customized. AWESOME!

Playing App Catch Up

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trash-can-and-stick-man

I’m behind in my app reviews, to the tune of five pages worth of them on my phone. So it’s time to review and get rid of the stinkers, definitely.

Do live wallpapers count as apps? Well, no, but some are worth a warning when you learn a lesson from having one on your phone. For instance, get rid of that “2011 countdown” New Years Eve exhibition of noisy fireworks that goes off every 5 minutes whether you like it or not, whether you want it to or not and especially before you’re the new kid in the office being shown around by your Supervisor. The Supervisor laughs and says it’s “cute”, but they are secretly filing the information away to put on your eventual pink slip, trust me.

Do I speak from experience on that one? No, of course not.

Who the hell put all these default apps on your and my phones anyway?!? Do I really have time for “The Sims 3”? Uh, NO. Let them riot and starve and die in their make-believe city because I neglected them…better yet, I’m just going to reject them outright and throw them in my virtual trash can, which, by the way, is not an app, but boy, does it come in handy!

Maybe they’ll find some virtual psychotherapist in there to help them get over the trauma of me rejecting them.

virtual-cop

Nope, hate to break it to you, reader, but all this crud clogs up our phones because these developers stormed Samsung’s and Apple’s offices and bribed, begged and/or threatened these phone manufacturers to put their junk into your pocket. It’s certainly not there because we want it all or because they want to see our smiling faces as we play these mindless, senseless games as the nice traffic officer writes you a ticket on the side of the road. Oh and that reminds me, April is crack down on all those idiot driver, Lords of the Sims wannabes.

So if you’re in the San Fernando Valley, take my advice and bury that damn phone so deep in your pocket you can’t hear it while you’re driving. Again, do I speak from experience? YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT I DO!!! Don’t answer it – it’s only another twitter alert for the release of the 50th trailer for the new season of Doctor Who. It’s only another 16 days, 5 hours, 17 minutes and 2 seconds…CAN’T YOU WAIT THAT LONG, PEOPLE!?!