Lilliputian Systems Can Keep Your Smartphone Charged For A Solid Two Weeks!

Tech:

Now this is sure to spark some interest for anyone who owns a smartphone.

Tired of having your smartphone connected to wall-charger to stay connected with the rest of the world? Well the people at Lilliputian Systems has created a portable fuel cell USB charger  that can fully charge your smartphone or other electronics 10 to 14 times before you plug your device back into a wall charger.

Yes you heard that correctly, that portable charger pictured above can keep your phone charged for a solid 2 weeks without the use of any other power-source. This new charger will be able to charge any device that has a USB cable, so you can keep your iPhone, iPod, Android, or GPS charged. 

Seems too good to be true right?...well ...yes there is a catch. In order to charge your devices, for two weeks at a time, you will need to purchase individual fuel cells that will cost "about the same as coffee from Starbucks," said Mouli Ramani, vice president of business development at Lilliputian. In layman terms a fuel cell (in this case) is essentially a plastic cartridge filled with butane. You can think of it as cartridges the size of a normal cigarette lighter.  

Lilliputian stated that the first store to sell the portable fuel cell charger will be Brookstone at a price that has not yet been released to the public. You can expect to see this on the shelves within the next year though.

Now I personally hate the fact that this will be in the hands of Brookstone shoppers first because that only means high price tags. The cost advantage towards owning this product does not seem to last when you start to think about the added costs over time. Lets run through them.

1. The upfront cost to pay for this charger at Brookstone will be high (my speculated "fair" price tag from a store like Brookstone: $25) 
2. The cost to refill your fuel cells every 2 weeks (~$3 per cartridge) 
3. The time and money in travel to purchase the cartridges bi-weekly ($3 in gas.....may be a bit liberal)

That is over $30 in just the first 2 weeks. Now add the costs up for the first year and we have a price tag of $337.....a bit ridiculous (that is if you use this all the time)

So I raise this question. Is this necessary considering the added costs? What about the fraction of the cost to just plug into the wall and purchase an extra battery to replace the dead one once the other dies? That is what I have resulted to. You can find 2 or 3 batteries for your phone on eBay or Amazon for a cost of $3...and guess what...They work completely fine! (Not to mention they come with an extra battery charging dock)   

So I am going to stick with my own method before I make this unnecessary purchase (because isn't Brookstone just filled with unnecessary crap that we never actually need)....of course I say this now and one day I will find myself out in the middle of nowhere with no battery left....then I am screwed.

For the science and more info behind this product check out CNET's story

New Verizon HTC Droid Incredible 4G

Tech:

Well the news is out, and HTC and Verizon are preparing to release their newest phone; the Incredible 4G. The information was spotted on DroidDoes.com earlier today but it was quickly removed. Was this just a slip up from some Verizon employee or was this intentionally done to draw up some publicity and excitement.

Whatever the case this phone looks to be packing a powerful punch. (Which is good news for those of you with contract upgrades) The Incredible 4G will be the third installment of the Incredible series phones and this came at the most convenient time where owners of the original Incredible phone will be looking for their next upgrade. I myself am a current owner of the original Incredible phone and I was looking for the next big phone that would not fade after 3 weeks. Before today I was thinking of switching to AT&T for the powerful HTC One X phone. Looks like my plans to switch have disintegrated.

Like I said The Incredible 4G will be packing a powerful punch with a 1.2GHz processor with a gigabyte of RAM. We will be seeing Android 4.0 software (a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich) with HTC Sense 4.0. This phone will also be slightly larger than the previous Incredible phones having a 4-inch display. The phone will also have a rear 8-Mpixel camera, and a VGA front facing camera. Like all new HTC phones, Beats Audio will be stalk and and the phone will support a 32 Gbytes microSD card.

Lets hope once Verizon officially puts the rest of the phone specs up we will see that there is some gorilla glass and NFC capabilities involved.

The Incredible 4G may sound like it is a step down compared to the HTC "One" Series. However it makes up the difference by running on Verizon's 4G LTE network.

I must say that I am very excited for this phone simply because it will be on the dependable Verizon Network. Looks like the stress of finding my next phone upgrade is over.....YES!!!

Temple Run Comes To Android

Tech:

Finally the iPhone game Temple Run has come to Android. Now you will never listen to what your professor has say in class, instead you'll be running as far as you can from those damn monkeys. Yes this is exciting news for all Android users, however the question that I must raise is....Did it come to Android too late?

I mean lets be honest, we have all played Temple Run on all our friend's iPhones and we have seen the game come and go with popularity. This "fad" I feel has trickled across to the Android users as well, and we are saying "Big Whoop" it was yesterdays big game. Now we have Angry Birds Space, which is now the top game to have and it may just over shadow the introduction of Temple Run to Android.

So you be the judge and let us know what you think about Temple Run coming to Android. Did it come too late or will it rise once again to the status it once held?

Smartphones: Are They Getting Too Big?

Tech:

Is bigger always better? This question can be swung in two directions when it comes to purchasing a new piece of technology. When I say two directions, I am talking about the purpose that your piece of technology will be used for, and the time frame that you purchased your product.

For instance, you may want the largest possible LCD TV that can fit in your living room, that way you can receive maximum exposure when it comes to watching the big game or a movie. Yet when you are finding a TV for your kitchen you are not going to want to have one that takes up too much space (at least in my own opinion).  This would fall along the the purpose that you will be using your technology.

When I state the time frame when purchasing a product, the example that clearly demonstrates time frame is the size of our iPods. When the iPod first came out  10 years ago they were the size of the classic iPod we see today, yet 2 years later everyone wanted small iPods; iPod Nano (which is even smaller today). Then the introduction of the iPad came about and everyone started to want bigger screens.

So here we are today, and I feel that when we begin to look at the smartphone industry, the general consensus is that the bigger the screen size the better the product. So is bigger really better....in the sense of owning a phone?

This is a question that I have found myself asking regarding my upcoming phone upgrade. I was instantly drawn to the Samsung Galaxy Note when I came across it back in October, and if Verizon offered the Galaxy Note, then I would already own the phone.

I was playing around with the Samsung Galaxy Note just the other day and thought it as the coolest phone on the market (granted I HATE the Samsung stock interface), but then I got to thinking, how the hell would someone be able to carry this phone around in their pocket.

Now I understand that females can carry this phone/tablet around in their handbag but the capabilities that come along with this phone is more for the business person, so no college age, gossip queen, chick will have a purpose with this phone.

So now I find myself in a tight decision where I do not know whether or not to purchase a phone of this magnitude.