TripTronicTech

cheap lasix onlinetent/uploads/2012/08/GSII-Boost-4G-Angle.jpg” alt=”" width=”441″ height=”441″ /> White Samsung Galaxy S II 4G for Boost Mobile

Late last week, Samsung and Boost Mobile showed us some new devices from their Fall 2012 lineup. For those of us who find ourselves using a pre-paid, contract-less carrier like Boost Mobile, rather than T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T, our options are usually limited to phones which can be described as mediocre as best. Well, Boost and Samsung have an answer for that with their new lineup.

While the new lineup doesn’t feature a Galaxy S III, which to be honest really isn’t surprising given how much it would cost, features a more than adequate Galaxy S II, in a sexy white or black coat, the Samsung Galaxy Rush, for the mid end/casual smartphone users, and lastly, a good old slider, feature phone in the Samsung Array. You can find the specs to follow. Continue reading

Well, we all know that all carriers often advertise and love to chant “Unlimited 4G” in their various commercials and adverts, but it was never really “real.” I thought it would always merely by a facade, but T-Mobile recently made it real – yeah, t

hat means no more changing one’s download speed to Edge or 2G after hitting a certain data threshold or limit!

Wednesday, T-Mobile announced a new data plan, simply known as, Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data, and gave us all hope for a fast, cap-less internet experience on our devices once again. This new data plan can be added and kicks in on September 5th, and will throw you back $20 a month when being bundled with a Value voice and text plan or $30 a month, when added to one of the Classic voice and text plan. An example of what a bill may look like, directly from T-Mobile:

A single line Value plan with unlimited talk and Continue reading

Apple had a few big announcements in the Big Apple today. They announced an ambitious plan to change education. This includes education in the classroom and education outside the classroom as well.

The first thing Apple looks to change are textbooks. Textbooks are an old 20th century idea. Students carry around tons of heavy books with them every day. These books are expensive and sometimes come in terrible conditions if used. Textbooks are also not engaging, interactive, or stay up to date. To remedy this, Apple has announced iBooks 2 for the iPad. iBooks 2 will have a specific section for textbooks. These textbooks contain more than just text. Videos, 3D models, slideshows, and more will play a critical part in helping students learn the material. Students can easily highlight important text and take notes right within the textbook. These textbooks are also searchable. If a teacher says “jump to page 34″, this is now as simple as typing the number 34 in a search bar. The books will also contain searchable indexes and glossaries. The books also stay up to date via updates and students keep them forever. Apple is starting with high school textbooks and has gotten support from around 90% of the high school textbook industry. Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will have many of their textbooks available today with more in the future. Unlike their not so interactive hardcover counterparts, textbooks on iBooks 2 will be available for $15 or less. Aside from high school textbooks, DK Publishing is releasing some textbooks today for younger children and Harvard professor E.O. Wilson is releasing his new textbook Life On Earth exclusively on iBooks 2. The first two chapters of Life On Earth are available today for free with more chapters coming for a small fee. iBooks 2 is available now on the App Store. Click here to download it. If you have iBooks installed on your iPad, just check for updates and it should be there.

Sure these textbooks may look great but what if they were incredibly easy to create too? Apple has just announced the iBooks Author app for the Mac. This app allows anyone to create a great book with the same ease of use as Apple’s iWork apps. Everything and anything from photo’s, 3D models, videos, and more can just be dragged and dropped. The app can create any type of book but Apple is hoping that this is an easy solution to get great textbooks from people who are just not good with computers. The iBooks author app is available now on the Mac App Store. Give it a spin by clicking here.

The final app Apple talked about today is their new iTunes U app. The app, which just launched today for all iOS devices, will allow students to take full online courses from the comfort of their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. It’s not just lectures anymore. Students can also have full access to a course syllabus, presentations, and all other course documents. It operates very similarly to a management program such as Blackboard. Students can take notes within the app as well and can purchase course materials straight from the app. If a teachers sends students a message, it will come up as a push notification. The iTunes U app makes taking online courses simpler and easier than ever (until you start counting the actual course work). And now for the first time, there will be iTunes U courses available for K-12 students. Teachers teaching these grades can create online courses for not just their students, but the world. The iTunes U app is available now. Grab it here.

Apple seems to have brought the public education system into the 21st century and is making it easier for anyone to take online courses. The one problem I see is whether or not students and whole schools can even afford iPads for every student. This may take a few years to get off the ground but when it does, students will be learning more and hopefully since students are actually using technology in the classroom, the willingness to learn will increase as well. The future for Apple and education looks brighter than ever before.

One thing that was expected this year at CES was a natural interface for televisions.  A natural interface simply means a way of control that is natural to everyone.  Using the body and voice are of course the most natural inputs we have.  Samsung showed off Smart Interaction which will make its debut later this year on two of Samsung’s LED TVs and one plasma TV as well.  Smart Interaction allows a person to interact with Samsung’s TVs through gesture, voice control, and facial recognition.  This technology may seem familiar for those who own Kinect for Xbox 360, but this is the first time is it being natively added to a TV set.  The video above explains and shows off the concept much better than I can.  LG also showed a TV at CES with similar functions.  Comment below if you think this natural way of control is the way of the future or if you have spotted me in the video (I’m in it for maybe two seconds).  And of course if you have any questions, feel free to also comment below and I will personally answer you (same goes for all our posts).

Continue reading

At the Cons

umer Electronic Show yesterday HP unveiled it’s HP Envy 14 Spectre, sporting what might be one of the boldest – and beautifulest – designs of all modern laptops.

What makes the Spectre stand out above everything else is it’s lid. The Spectre sports an all black glass display, much like the iPhone 4. This is one of – if not the best – looking laptops on today’s market.

The HP Envy 14 Spectre has some great specs as well, although not boasting an optical drive or a built-in graphics card.

The Spectre does have:

• A 128GB SSD, with options to add another and double the space
• Beats by Dr. Dre built in
• An i5-2467M processor
• 4GB RAM
• Adobe Photoshop and Elements preinstalled
• An amazing 9 hour battery life.
• NFC built in, although it’s unclear how this will be used.

All in all this looks like an amazing computer, and it will definitely be my next.

Upon sh

aring their vision on the future of computing, Intel showed off this prototype Ultrabook at their CES keynote. It can act like a normal laptop or you can fold it into a slate mode where it works just like a tablet. Even with that full sized keyboard, it is just as thin as today’s tablets. All of this is possible because of Intel’s 2nd generation 22 nm processor known as Ivy Bridge. Although Intel will never sell this specific model, we at TripTronicTech got some exclusive information from a member of Intel’s Ultrabook team about who could. We were told that Intel is not patenting this model and that they have already shared it with various manufacturers. These Ultrabooks could hit the market as early as the end of this year. They are being worked on by various computer manufacturers. We will have to wait and see how this plays out but hopefully these Ultrabooks running Windows 8 will be a reality in the marketplace at that time. Stay tuned to TripTronicTech for more CES coverage.

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