Smartphones in the Year 2015: A New Age Of Technology

The worst thing about smartphones is the fact that when you drop all of your money on a shiny, brand new phone,the latest and greatest thing on the market, but it becomes outdated in just a few short months! Although you might be the coolest guy in the office today (*see photo below), next week you might as well be living in the stone age...Oddly enough, this is also one of the coolest things about the smartphone market; there is always something to look forward to and whenever you get an upgrade there is always going to be something fresh to pick up!

Starting this year, most of the new phones will be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chip. They are the latest and greatest chips out right now, and they are going to make tons of new things possible. Most of the top end smartphones that aren't iPhones use a snapdragon chip, so you know the next generation of Snapdragon is going to pretty much blow everything out of the water.

The processor in any phone is probably the biggest thing to look at. It powers everything; makes everything your phone does possible. Here is a list of some cool new things that are going to be possible with the new Snapdragon 810 chip:

4K Video:

Yes, some smartphones on the market right now already have a 4K display. But that isn't what they are aiming for here. New phones that come out this year will be able to stream 4K video wirelessly to a TV with just a few taps on the screen. (Now that is just super awesome.) You will also be able to record 4K video with most phones. Cameras capable of shooting 4K video aren't exactly new, but the point here is that you will be able to transport 4K video to other devices very easily and it is going to create a whole new world of possibilities!

Way better cameras:

 

Now that there will be way more powerful processors in smartphones, they can power way better cameras. There is a new smartphone camera made by a company called core photonics that is actually two cameras built into one. It has a wide angle imager, and a fixed telephoto lens that magnifies the image. By combining the two images together, you can take a picture that is better than a DSLR camera.

Recording audio in stereo:

One of the biggest downfalls of recording video with your phone is the fact that it always sounds like well, crap; especially if you are at a concert or something. But with these new processors, you will be able to record video with a high quality, stereo audio track. This means no more mono recordings; also means your chances of becoming a YouTube star greatly increase.

Using your phone as a computer:

 

The new Snapdragon 810 is 5 times more powerful than any other chip on the market. It has enough power that you will literally be able to wirelessly hook up a monitor and a keyboard and work on it like it is a PC. The possibilities are absolutely insane. Why even have a laptop when you can carry a PC in your pocket?

These are just a few very practical uses that you will be able to get out of the phones that will be coming out this year. There are way more things that you could do, I'm sure. And there will certainly be more apps and services that will come out based on all of the possibilities. If you didn't have an upgrade available when the iPhone 6 came out, don't even worry! You'll have a chance to get something that will make it look like a kid's toy very soon.

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How Tablet Rentals Can Help Your Musical Career

Being a touring musician is more than just playing rockstar for a few weeks in your dads van. Your band is your business, your crew are your employees, and we know how seriously you take your work. Some people think it is insane to hit the road in a bus or a 15 passenger van and go play devil music for a month, but you know better. You know that on top of your passion for the music that you play, there is some serious money to be made in touring. If you run your business correctly and use the correct tools, you can always make sure that you will be making a solid profit. It's hard to stay focused on business when you are driving 12 hours every night, getting no sleep, and living off of terrible food. There are a million ways that renting a tablet specifically for your tour can keep you on track and keep you making money while you are on the road.

First of all, you have a huge tour itinerary to keep track of. In the old days, we had to print them off and put them in a binder that we called a "tour book" to make ourselves feel more important with a Wal-mart binder in our hands. Now, tour managers and musicians alike can easily download and keep track of a full itinerary directly on their tablet. You can store it as a PDF, or access it from your Google account at any time. This also makes it super easy to simply copy the address of your next location and paste it into your navigation app on the exact same device. Convenient right? Yes, I know.

Speaking of navigation, people never think about using tablets for it. This rules, because you can keep track of all of your files and use the navigation on the exact same device. The screen is really big, tablets are really easy to mount on your dashboard, and you can also store all of your driving music on it as well so you can listen while you cruise. This is super easy and convenient if you have a 3G tablet, a mobile hotspot, or a tethering app. The possibilities are endless. This also keeps everyone from arguing about who's phone they are going to use for navigation that day, and if you are part of a touring crew or a band, you know that struggle and are probably laughing really hard right now.

I won't go into detail and try and sell you on specific apps, but with a simple Google search or sifting through the app store, there are a TON of absolutely free apps for keeping track of inventory and money from different sources all in the same place. This is completely necessary for keeping track of how much merchandise you have, how much you have sold, how much money you have made, and how much money you have spent. You can also calculate deductions for what you owe your crew, manager, label, and whatever else.

One other neat thing that you can do for absolutely free is accept credit card payments with a tablet. How many times has someone said "I don't carry cash" but they wanted to buy a shirt? Well now, you got the sale anyway. Being able to accept credit card payments will LITERALLY double your merchandise sales every single night. Download the Square Register app. You don't even need to buy the card reader if you don't want to, you can just punch in card numbers instead of swiping.

For zero money at all besides the initial rental of the tablet, you can make your life so much easier and so much more profitable while you are on the road.

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Mapquest Making A Comeback

At one point, Mapquest was one of the most important tools we had when it came to travel. These days, Mapquest has almost become 100% irrelevant in the modern world. In most cases, it would make you mad if you actually had to use Mapquest instead of your phone.

The mappers at Mapquest know that their product has fallen off, but they have not stopped developing their business. They have continued working and building on their product to make a big return to relevance in the mobile technology world.

Mapquest was intended to help you navigate your travels, but these days most people only use it to get a general idea of how much gas money they are going to spend ahead of time and figure out how long their trips will take. Even if it isn't being used as it was intended, it has still maintained its ranking as one of the top 200 websites in the United States. Recently, they added local discovery and sharing along with a brand new mobile mapping product. They have also gained a lot of partners to enhance the quality of all the listings on its map product.

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They have teamed up with MLB and Hampton Inn. Now users can see all of the Hampton Inns near them on one tab and will also be able to book hotel rooms.

Partnering with MLB has helped them out in several ways. It's nice for users to be able to explore the stadiums on Mapquest and have the ability to download specific team kits. It also benefits Mapquest because now they are the sole mapping partner within the official MLB app.

Now Mapquest results also include all of the listings and information for GrubHub online ordering, SinglePlatform, Booker's schedule for spas, SeatGeek results for event tickets, FAA airport delays, and in the coming months will also include Foursquare's venue tips.

Mapquest is trying to fight to become what they once were. They used to be the go to tool for anyone's travel needs. Now, it's going to take a lot more for them to rise to the top, especially with Google and Apple having their own built in travel tools and fighting every day to overcome each other. The competition is insane, and Mapquest thinks they have what it takes to move beyond simple road mapping and transform into a full-service utility for every day use.

Managing Your Money On The Go With Manilla

When you choose to manage your bills online, it's not always as simple as it sounds. There are different options that banks offer for bill paying, but more times than not, you'll end up more confused than when you started. Manilla is a free service which launched back in 2011, and they are making bill paying and money management easier than ever before.

When you sign up to start using Manilla, you can add any bank account, credit card, utility, health, travel, and subscription accounts to it. Once you get everything situated, you will be automatically updated at all times so that you can stay up to date on your bills and account balances. You will even get alerts automatically whenever a bill is due, so you'll never miss anything. As if that wasn't convenient enough, you can access Manilla through its website, or by using the app for Android or iOS. Perfect for managing all of your money while you're traveling, or if you just live a super busy life.

Another useful feature that Manilla has to offer is its ability to share bills with friends, co-workers, family members, or anyone that you may have to or want to share with. If you are sharing a bill with someone, like a roommate or a business partner, instead of giving them all of your account information, you can simply invite them to Manilla and share it that way.

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There are lots of reasons to use this type of service. It eliminates lots of headaches that you would come across when trying to juggle multiple accounts and having different bills due on different days. What also makes this particular service a little bit better than the others is the fact that Manilla doesn't really have any ads. No one wants to be distracted while managing their money. It also comes off as being a little more professional and lets you know that they take their service seriously.

Managing your money from one place is priceless when you are busy or traveling. It lets you focus on the important things in life and frees up a lot of time that you could spend being productive. Not only that, but once you have everything added to it, you never have to remember any of the passwords to multiple accounts ever again. It's already right there and stored permanently. It removes all the hassle and puts you in control of everything from your smartphone, tablet, pc or laptop.

Artemis Makes A Breakthrough In Wireless Connectivity

Last week, entrepreneur Steve Perlman announced his new company named Artemis, and showed off its new pCell technology. This new technology is designed to deliver consistent, full-speed mobile data to every single mobile device at the same time no matter how many users are connected at the same time in any spot at the time.

The idea behind the technology is pretty amazing, but some people would say that it wouldn't work exactly as planned. Some arguments that have popped up are saying that it would be impossible to run the network at full capacity to an unlimited about of users because the signals would become too complicated. But, that is exactly what Artemis intends on doing.

The way it works is pretty interesting. pCell does not try to suppress any interference, but instead combines radio signals transmitted from different stations. In doing so, it creates a personalized wireless network for each individual mobile device.

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Distributed Input-Output (a.k.a. DIDO) is another technology that Artemis is using. It's capacity has been proven to reach 10 times the limits given by Shannon-Hartley calculations, and has the potential to reach up too 1000 times the capacity. This is because instead of users sharing the same access point, they all get their own personal channel.

DIDO is a cloud-bases technology, and has been tested at every frequency between 1MHz to 1GHz. Indoor DIDO APs have a transmission range of up to a mile, and outdoor DIDO APs use Near-Vertical Incidence Skywave and have a coverage of up to 500 miles.

pCell works in all mobile bands and unlicensed spectrums like 900 MHz in the USA.

There are some huge benefits to pCell. It is compatible with every LTE device like the iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy, or any other LTE smartphone. Throughout all pCell coverage areas, these devices will be able to run at their full speed no matter what. Wireless carriers can set up pCell for way lower costs than traditional cellular, using base stations called pWave radios as opposed to building cell towers. It is currently being tested in San Francisco and will be ready for commercial deployment at the end of this year.

Lost Your Room Key? It's Ok, Just Use Your Smartphone!

 

Traveling of any kind can bring its own set of comforts and worries. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, we can all agree that our homes away from home carry their own stresses. More so for business traveling-- keeping up with all of your belongings can be an issue that you don't really anticipate. Your laptop is in check, you made sure to tip the waiter on your way out of the diner, but when you look for your room key, it's gone. Again, this is a common occurrence for anyone traveling, no matter what the reason may be. But once again, technology comes through for humanity. Don't have your room key on you? Don't worry. There's an app for that.

The new Starwood app for Starwood Hotels & Resorts is now offering an added new feature. Its added functionality of a "virtual room key" has given their customers the opportunity for less headaches when checking in and gaining access to their rooms. The app is set up to have a payment method and check in access directly involved with it. Now, when you book at the hotel, you don't necessarily have to wait in line or ring the bell for service at the front desk. When you arrive, check in and pay on your app, head to your room, and even enter your room via the app!

The access to your room is completely based on the app, should you choose to do it that way. It all works via Bluetooth technology. However, you need to have at least an iPhone 4S or newer for it to work. An Android device using the Android 4.3 OS or newer OS will also work. The locks on the door contain sensors which become active as soon as the Bluetooth connection is detected. One other good note is that the locks are completely battery powered. That means that although the batteries will need to be changed regularly, you will still have complete access to your room should the hotel's systems go down.

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This all seems very well and good, but could it be seen as just another gimmick to attract more customers? The CEO of the Starwood Hotels, Frits van Paasschen, actually addressed that very question. He admitted to seeing how the idea of it could seem to be a bit of a "novelty" when it first comes into use, but also said that he could see it actually being the new standard for checking into your hotel and your hotel room.

So far the only drawback is that this feature will only be available at the Starwood Aloft hotels in Cupertino, CA and Harlem, NY. Since they are the ones piloting the program, they do plan to see how well this new app works for their customers. Should the app and its uses see success, then Starwood plans to move it to all of their hotels by the end of 2015. But should you still want to keep things old school, you can always gain access through the front desk. You are not limited to the app. Just remember that having your key card and your phone become the same thing, essentially, can make life just a little bit easier for your travels.

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TripIt Releases Apps for Blackberry & Android

The TripIt app for iPhone was so popular, the travel website decided to develop apps for other platforms. Now, TripIt is available for both the Blackberry and the Android phones. The apps are free, but you do have to sign up for an account at TripIt.com (don't worry, the account is free, too).

The app lets you access your travel plans on the go, from your phone. Sure, lots of apps do this, but some say it's a lot more organized, particularly for a free app, than lots of the ones out there. It allows one-click access to your hotel, airline and other locations from your itinerary whenever you have a question or problem. Simply forward your confirmation emails from any airline or hotel and the app will organize your plans into one simple itinerary that lets you access and share your information with the click of a button. Also, the app sends you alerts and information about potential travel delays.

At the website, GeekSugar.com, a blogger talks about how a friend of hers used the app and received a flight cancellation notice from the app about half an hour before the airline notified her. She was able to get another flight to the same destination at the last minute before the other passengers from her trip attempted to do the same.

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Google Maps App for Android 2.0

For years, millions of people have used Google Maps to get directions online. The difficulty with online maps is you still get distracted trying to read a map and look for street names. An accident ready to happen, some say. Google has apparently taken note of this and yesterday announced that it's releasing the Google Maps app for Android 2.0.

For starters, the app is free. While many people pay for GPS service from various companies, some running as high as $100 per year and upwards of $200 per stand-alone device, the free app available for phones that have OS Android 2.0. The app provides 3-D views, turn by turn voice guided directions, and automatic rerouting.

Some more features of the Google Maps App include:

*The most recent map and business data - your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date information on maps and business information. No need to upgrade.

*Search in plain English - Even if you don't know where you're going, you can type virtually anything (ie: business name, landmark, etc) into the search and you'll get a map.

*Search by voice - Typing on your phone while driving is dangerous, and in most states, even illegal, so the Google Maps App allows you to simply say where you want to go.

*Traffic view - colored indicator lights, red, yellow, green, let you know about current traffic conditions.

*Search along route - If you need to find a business, gas station, etc, you can enter that information and the App will search along your route so you won't be taken too far off your path.

*Satellite view - The navigation app uses the same satellite imagery that Google Maps uses on your computer, turn on the satellite layer for a high-resolution, 3D view of your route.

*Street View - When you turn on street view you can easily spot your next turn or see where you are in relation to your destination.


The Google Maps App is a great alternative to a bulky stand-alone GPS device. The first phone to have Android 2.0 will be the Droid, from Verizon. And as of right now, the app is only available in the U.S.