Xiaomi releases an app which takes your health measurements

We were debating in a previous post the complexity and quality of China’s Apple which is Xiaomi, highlighting the great benefits that come with it and for quite a good price. Now Xiaomi unveils a smartphone clock that takes your blood pressure and other health readings, so Xiaomi concentrates in upgrading technology on their own terms.

It seems that the guys invested 25 milion $ in iHealth labs and already have gadgets to show for it. A few days ago Xiaomi unveiled a smartphone dock that turns your cell into a medical measurement machine. Quite a news and quite an unique approach when it comes to it, as while all the other well-known cellphone brands are concentrating on connectivity and hi-tech upgrades, Xiaomi is thinking about human needs and finds an interesting way to expand their technology and know-how, in order to meet them and make the most of them.

The dock will be available for $33 and will be accompanied by an app. The doc also comes with an attached pad which is simply attached to a person’s arm, as it happens in a real hospital.

With this, Xiaomi is probably targeting older customers, considering that it’s really not a high-end cellphone and it addresses to the ones of us with smaller budgets, like older people. For the moment, this is a China only initiative and we have no news about them expanding this benefit.

Above everything said, Xiaomi takes a pretty considerable leap in evolving and being actively present on the market, with new products and services which keep our eyes concentrated on what they have to offer.

Xiaomi is starting to have some good premium brand attributes so we’d better invest in such a device while it’s still cheap and affordable.

This entry was posted in Cellz, Electronics, Uncategorized and tagged gadgets, iHealth, new apps, Xiaomi onSeptember 29, 2014.

Bluetooth Speakers that rocked in 2014

Mobile technology is getting as complex as it can get, arriving with stunning design and technological progress statements. There is just this little thing slightly ignored by mobile technology companies…The sound quality of our high-end devices. In most of the cases, the speakers our devices come with are an affront to the music we listen to everyday. To make things better, music sharper and moods sweeter, the greatest brands have thought of releasing the Bluetooth speakers, to enhance the audio performance of your mobile device. These Bluetooth amplifiers come in quite a wide and confusing range, from the greatest variety of prices to the greatest diversity of shapes, colors and capacities. To make your choice easier, we thought of making a shortlist with the best you can now find on the market, from cheap and reasonable in quality to over expensive and over the top in everything. Because we know that when it comes to music, only a full-fledged hi-fi sound system will do. But if you’re looking for a more subtle and intimate ambiance, straightforward convenience and loud and clear music in a smaller room, the best choice is a Bluetooth speaker.

The Stanmore Black speaker is the cream of the crop, for starters. “Small in size, but not subtle in sound, says the headline. The Stanmore is a compact and active stereo speaker that yields clean and precise sounds even at high levels. Needless to say that this jewelry looks like it’s taken out directly from the hot pictures with the greatest Rock’n Roll icons in history. The appearance is timeless and it gathers all the proverbial Marshall quality.

The Stanmore comes with two standby modes, powersaver and standard, to minimize your speaker’s impact when not actively in use.

Second on our list is the Naim Mu-So, that looks deliciously minimalistic and it is thought and experienced as being one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers. The Mu-So Naim is very rich and powerful in sound, has an incredible sense of scale and soaring dynamics and excellent features list. You will get full fat high resolution through the Ethernet connection and you’ll experience one of the sharpest sound attributes.

Next on our list is the Bose Sound Link III elegant Bluetooth speaker. The volume of this darling is significantly louder than its previous models but you won’t notice the slightest bit of distortion, even at top volume.

All these three state of the art examples have an overpriced tag coming along with their looks and quality. If you are more the “on a budget type”, you will be delighted to know that there are some exquisite Bluetooth speakers addressed to your pockets too.

The Wooden Mini Bluetooth Speaker looks quite neat and sounds fantastic, with proper power pumped into the bassline and high volume. It would be an awful lie to say that it brings all the luxuriant clarity the ones above come with but it will nevertheless wonderfully upgrade the quality of your smartphone.

The Doss speaker is compact, comfortable and very clear and sharp in sound. It is not very spectacular in design, lacking the looks but it does a perfect job. Also, you will be surprised by the clarity of sound and you will be blown up by the volume power, for such a tiny device.

The last on our list but not least on our set of choices is the perfect combination between sound and light, wrapped in a perfect price. The Four Dazzle LED Lamp dancing water speaker offers a great sound quality and a stunning light spectacle, with the moving light creating an intimate and cozy ambiance. The price is also no less than fantastic. For no more than $50 you get an improved sound quality for your smartphone and a great light play to soften or boost the atmosphere.

Well, this is just a small part of a large list that brings all the variety one can find, when it comes to Bluetooth Speakers. The best Bluetooth speakers in 2014 are in our opinion those which deliver the highest quality along with the highest price or the most reasonable quality for the smallest price. Enjoy and don’t hesitate to choose one, as music sounds better with a well-chosen Bluetooth speaker.

This entry was posted in Cellz, Electronics and tagged Best bluetooth speakers in 2014, Stanmore Black, wireless speakers on November 14, 2014.

Asus releases a new device. We’re not impressed.

Padfone is the new comer launched by Asus, a company best known for designing laptops but with an improved know-how in inventing new gadgets and devices. In terms of that, well, the results are quite debatable.

Asus introduced to the Americans the idea of PadFone X, a phone that transforms itself into a tablet. PadFone X Mini is basically their new born child, which looks and feels quite ordinary. PadFone X Mini is the second release of the PadFone series, as we also have the Max model, which is sharper and bigger.

The main benefit of this toy is its price. For $200, you have a mini cellphone that turns itself into a tablet. The phone alone is nice to hold and its relatively small size makes it very manageable.

The downside lays in its weight, compared to the iPhone 6 for instance, it’s huge. Adding the entire weight of the device to the phone, makes it even more uncomfortable. The 4.5 IPS screen features an 854 x 480 pixel resolution and looks a bit fuzzy.

The tablet’s piece of photographic cake comes with a better resolution though, of 1280 x 800 pixels.

The making of a phone and turning it into a tablet isn’t as easy and nice as Asus would like us to believe. All the power is packed into the phone portion and to use the tablet, you simply slide the phone into the dock. The dynamic display of Asus is supposed to transition whatever you had on the phone screen, to the tablet. Unfortunately, the majority of apps don’t support the feature, so they simply crash when you add the tablet part to the cellphone. Although most of the built-in apps work with dynamic display, you will notice a delay of 3 to 5 seconds every time you dock the tablet.

In terms of specks, the PadFone X Mini is powered by a 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom Z2560 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Also, Asus packed 8 GB of storage into the smaller PadFone but it comes with a MicroSD card slot so you can expand the storage up to 64 GB.

PadFone X Mini spots a 5 megapixel back photo device and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.

The idea of a cellphone turning into a tablet is quite entertaining and if it comes packed in a decent price, it can become quite marvelous. But the idea is not everything, as its execution offer the value we’re looking for. PadFone X Mini has some more work to do as it only comes with an undoubtable price benefit.

Speaking of which, check out our list of affordable cellphones. Xiaomi is the Apple of China that delivers great quality for a very small price. See what we have here because the list of benefits is great and the prices are smiling back at you.

This entry was posted in Electronics, Uncategorized and tagged Asus, Asus release, PadFone Mini, PadFone Specs onNovember 3, 2014.

Apple Pay will buy you dinner. Soon.

Times are changing. Fast. Starting October 20th, you might say goodbye for good to your wallet and take your iPhone everywhere with you. Apple recently invented Apple Pay, a new payment technology that gathered both pros and cons. It looks like this new system will roll out with iOS 8.1 that will get to us on October 20th.

Using Apple Pay you’ll no longer have to take a bulky wallet everywhere with you, in the back pocket of your trousers or in your slim purse. iPhone will be your new digital wallet. So go cover it with the best protective cases you can find.

What is all about? 

Things are simple. In theory, that is. Apple Pay service will run on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus on Apple Watch. The service uses Passbook credit card-storage app, TouchID security and NFC communication chip. It works by simply holding the handset up to a card reader and pressing the TouchID button that confirms the person’s identity and authorizes the payment.

As Apple puts it, all data are encrypted and payment info is secured. The service will also let users add pictures of their credit cards and add them into their Passbook accounts. Users can pay with their credit cards via Apple Pay only after the bank verifies the details provided to Passbook.

Pros and Cons

Apple claims that Apple Pay will make our life easier. That might be true, but this system also brings a major concern: could the payment info get cracked via an unprotected WiFi network/malware installed on the handset?
According to Apple, paying system uses Dynamic Security Codes through NFC chip that grant a secure communication between the phone and the reader. Plus it transmits Device Numbers and not credit cards number to the reader so not putting payment details at risk.

Anyway, we don’t know yet how the image of a credit card is stored securely on the handset. Most probably it would still be stored on an unsecured file that could get read by background “bugs”.
What about if the iPhone gets lost or stolen? Apple says users can break all payments using Find my iPhone service. In that case, credit cards would remain valid so user can get back to his/her old payment method.
Our advice: take care of your iPhone, secure it, buy the accessories it needs, as this will become your biggest friend. If it isn’t already.