Time of the Tech

The last weeks have been a whirlwind. After patiently waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Note II to come out on Verizon for three months, I snapped. On Friday, November 23, 2012, which is also known as "Black Friday", I bought the HTC Droid DNA. Why would I buy the HTC Droid, if I wanted the Galaxy Note II? Two good reasons at the time. One, I wanted a large screen, the Droid DNA has a large 5 inch display with a stunning 441 pixels per inch. Two, I knew that the Galaxy Note II was coming out in less than a week, so if I had buyer's remorse, I could "easily" exchange the Droid DNA. Since the horrible exchange experience I suffered through is not the topic of this story, I will quickly summarize it: Two phone calls to *611 which is Verizon's customer support Three trips to three different Verizon corporate stores Two long nights of searching for a non-existing paper receipt Unnecessary stress on my sweet wife I will never buy something again, if I h

So while the suits in Motorola are chewing bubble gum, checking for updates on their Facebook page, and holding meetings, Samsung is preparing to host a big event on October 24, 2012. The Samsung event will be about their upcoming Galaxy Note II phone. Samsung is going to do what Motorola cannot do, they are going to give their formally announced product a release date. The Samsung Galaxy Note II will be another monstrous phone much like the original Galaxy Note. The original Galaxy Note has a 5.5 inch display, the Galaxy Note II has a 5.55 inch display. For reference, all iPhones (except the iPhone 5) have a 3.5 inch display and most Android phones have between 4 to 4.8 inch display. Bottom line, the Galaxy Note line of phones is gigantic. The tech blogs refer to these phones as "phablets". The offspring of a phone and a tablet. Yesterday, while at Costco on an errand to pick up some garlic french bread, my wife wandered over to the jewelry section. At the speed of lig

I mentioned in my previous post that there are a lot of great phones coming soon. Of all the upcoming phones, the one that catches my eye the most is the Motorola Razr HD Maxx (pictured above). The problem is... there is no release date for the Razr HD Maxx. And I will not twiddle my thumbs and patiently wait for Motorola to release the phone. The wait could be months! Motorola announced the phone and we deserve to know when it will be released. Motorola forgets that we have options. So last Saturday on September 22, 2012, I sent Motorola an e-mail regarding the unknown release date of the Razr HD Maxx. Here was my e-mail: Hello Motorola, I ask that you please give us the consumers a release date for the Razr HD/ Maxx. There are too many good phones out on the market (e.g., SGIII, iPhone 5) for those like me that would like the new Razr HD Maxx, but don't want to wait for an unspecified amount of time. Soon our patience will fade. Thank you, Enrique Esparza And h

What an exciting month September 2012 has been for smartphones! We truly are spoiled. We got three major announcements in the span of a week, they were: Nokia announced the Lumia 920, their first Windows Mobile 8 phone, it will be a thing of beauty. Motorola announed the Razr HD, also a thing of beauty. Then Apple announced the iPhone 5. As part of the announcement for the iPhone 5, iOS 6 was introduced. iOS 6 is now the operating system for Apple gadgets (i.e., iPad, iPod, and iPhone) including some older generations. The biggest change in iOS 6 was the addition of Apple's own Maps app. Since there is only room for one native Maps app that meant, goodbye to Google Maps. After using Apple Maps for two days here are three quick thoughts. Thought 1: Overall this is a better mapping experience simply because of the addition of turn-by-turn navigation and its integration with Siri. The first thing I did to test out the new Maps app was to ask Siri, "Directions to the nearest Ta

When I buy a product I do not just look at its price and function, I take into account the culture of the company that made the product. How does the company treat its employees and customers? Are they like AT&T where they only care about quarterly profits? What is their CEO like? Does he jump the line for liver transplants just because he has a personal jet, like Steve Jobs? These are all important factors when I purchase a product. The Apple v. Samsung lawsuits should be illuminating to all of us regarding Apple's character. Recently, Samsung was found guilty of infringing on several of Apple's utility and design patents. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple US $1 billion. Now Apple wants to ban the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Will Apple ever be satisfied, they are already the most valuable company to exist? Apple is acting like an entitled monopoly. Moreover, the US patent system is failing us, and helping to create Apple's monopoly. There is no doubt that for innovation to

On January 2011, I predicted that Facebook would become irrelevant much like of fate of Friendster and MySpace. I gave Facebook two more years of relevancy (i.e., January 2013). First prediction link. Clearly, that first prediction is not going to come true. I realized my error three months later and wrote about a special variable "K" which extended the life of Facebook, but I did not predict a time period for the end of Facebook's relevancy. Second prediction link. Thanks to CEO Mark Zuckerberg making Facebook a public company, their demise has been accelerated. The main motivation behind making a company public is the desire to make more money, a.k.a. greed. Now, Zuckerberg must answer to his investors every three months. Investors, who will never be as patient as the owner of a private company. An early lesson one learns in life is that evil defeats itself. Greed is an evil. While greed can give "good" results, the results do not last. Eventually the b

Yesterday, I was surprised by the use of an "old" technology, the e-mail, used in a new way. This started when I accompanied my wife to Macy's so that she could get some Origins lotion. Why women have to shop is beyond me, why women have to buy expensive lotion is also beyond me. Men, just know that is how they are, you can only hope to contain their appetite to shop, good luck! It is funny how they always "need" something. Makes you wonder if women understand the meaning of the word "need"... Either way, I love my wife. Anyways, back to the expensive lotion. After doing some asking at the Origins section of Macy's, my wife has the lotion she wants, Ginger Souffle. We take the lotion to the counter to pay. After I hand the young lady helping us at the counter my credit card, she asks me if I want a paper receipt or an electronic receipt. I am confused. I have never been given this option before. I ponder, "Well a paper receipt is nice,