BLU R1 HD - 2 Weeks Later

I have been using the R1 HD from BLU now for over 2 weeks as my daily phone, and I wanted to share my experience with it. So, two weeks in, and I am still impressed with the build quality of this phone. It still feels great in the hand with the aluminum edging.

After the 2 weeks of usage, I am even more impressed with the phone. I have experience no funny lags when switching between applications, or when scrolling webpages or applications like Newsstand. Even Google Maps and navigation run great. Battery life last me a day easy with my usage. I typically end with over 50% left at the end of the day. As my daily driver, it functions just fine for everything I do.

One of the shortcoming of the phone was lack of NFC, which meant lack of ability to install Android Pay, which I had come to depend on for my loyalty cards like Lowes, Qdoba, Best Buy, AutoZone and CVS. I found Stocard, an app that allowed me to store all the cards into it solving my lack of Android Pay. One other feature I have missed is the wireless charging I had with the Nexus 6. Plugging it in is a step backwards, but it is no deal breaker by any means.

Another difference I notice is the screen colors. Coming from the Nexus 6, I notice the green is not nearly as vivid on the R1 HD. It isn't that the colors are bad, it is just majorly tuned different and it has been a noticeable change. The screen works well with its auto brightness as I have used it outside and was able to use the phone without issue.

At this point I am still missing the VoLTE and Band 12 support. The BLU website still shows the update will come shortly after the phone is released. In addition, I will also miss WiFi Calling that the BLU R1 HD lacks for when I travel to the boonies to my parents where no cell carrier has clean coverage.

I was able to successfully use the camera for a mobile check deposit. Have only taken one photo of my pet, so not much to go on there, but the camera functioned fine and the picture captured what I wanted, so it can at least cover the basics. It is obviously not going to stand up next to the current top phones, but it gets the job done for a fraction of the cost.

After 2 weeks with this phone, I can now say I will be sticking with this phone for the foreseeable future as it covers all my needs at this time, or will when the Band 12 update arrives.

BLU R1 HD - First Day

BLU is well known for making lower end with multiple SIM phones. As we have moved towards removing contracts, these low cost phones have become more appealing. I've had my eye on them for some time but never moved forward cause they have only made phones supporting AT&T or T-Mobile, for reasons I completely understand, but never fully supported T-Mobile like Band 12, VoLTE or WiFi-Calling. Since I'm with T-Mobile, these were important to me, which is why for my last phone purchase, I went with a Nexus 6. Last week, I dropped that in a rocky driveway and now have a shatter screen. Now enters the BLU R1 HD, which is supposed to be releasing an update which will enable VoLTE and the Band 12 the phone hardware supports. I purchased the upper model with 16GB of storage and 2GB of memory. Seems like a no brainer at $10 more putting the total at $110.

Upon first sliding the phone out of the plastic wrapper, it is very shiny. It doesn't at all look like $100 phone. The outer border feels solid in hand and the back had a solid grip to it. Coming from a Nexus 6, the BLU looks and feels to be the same quality. Powering the device on you see BLU custom boot screen and then greeted with the standard Android setup. After getting my account setup and applications installed, I began to run my typical tasks on it. Reading email, scanning news articles and messaging with friends. After setting it up yesterday afternoon and using it all day today, I found no performance issues when searching IMDB, browsing Redbox or loading my usual webpages.

Upon inspecting the back of the phone, the camera bulges out. This is nothing unusual as even the iPhone does this as did my first smartphone the HTC EVO 4G. The micro USB port is not in the center bottom as with most phones. The power button is also different. It is located below the volume rocker. It took some adjusting, but it becomes natural.

The display is nothing special. The colors get a bit washed out when the brightness is up but overall, text is clear. The touch input works just fine. Never felt like there were delays or incorrectly read taps. The benefit to the lower resolution screen is that battery has less of an impact.

After using the Nexus 6 for over a year, I've come to know well what stock Android is. I notice a few differences that BLU has implemented in the R1 HD, but for the most part, it is stock. Some of the subtle changes are a clear all button in the recent section, status bar shows 4G LTE, and the quick settings auto starts with having hotspots enabled plus adds in audio profiles for quick changing audio settings.

The phone has a flash which is very bright. The camera take moderate pictures. I'm no camera expert but it appears to be similar to my Nexus 6, though it appears a bit slower at focusing and loading to take pictures, but its fast enough for me. One unique item is this phone has a front facing flash as well, but I haven't tried it yet at this point as I don't do video chats.

Network performance on the phone is fine. I don't notice any weaker signal than my Nexus 6, just the lack of Band 12. Phone calls were clear and data is fast over LTE. I haven't tested a second SIM in the phone. The SIM was difficult at first to figure out how to insert as the instructions were vague, but I soon figured out how to slide the holder so it can lift up and allow the SIM card to drop in. This setup is very nice as you won't risk getting SIM cards stuck, especially when using adapters like I had to for the nano SIM to fit.

What this phone lacks in hardware features is NFC, wireless charging and fingerprint sensor. This is no surprise for a phone at this price. With no NFC though, this phone is not compatible to run Android Pay, and that is the biggest drawback for me as I have all my reward cards in there like Qdoba, Lowes, Kroger, etc.

So, after a days use, I'm thoroughly impressed with the phone. Although it isn't as easy to read large articles or emails as the larger Nexus 6, it does grip well in the hand and performs solid enough for my needs. With no VoLTE at this point, I might find it hard to switch to this as my daily driver, even though my Nexus 6 has a shattered screen, I prefer the connection when in the office. Once the VoLTE update hits, then I will likely make the change to use the BLU daily and find another app over Android Pay to store my reward cards.

Ubuntu on a Dell Latitude e6320

About a year and a half ago I received a Dell Latitude e6320. Initially it had Windows 7 but I eventually put Ubuntu Linux on it. I've been running Ubuntu on it for over a year now and thought I would share my experience for anyone else looking to pickup this laptop for running Ubuntu as it is appearing on Woot and many other places as refurbished for

around $200.

My system was configured with the Core i5-2520M, 3 cell battery, broadcom wireless, 250GB hard drive and 8 GB of memory. The machine has always performed well and the 8 GB of memory is likely overkill for my day to day needs. Now I have a 6 cell battery and Atheros wireless card, more on that later, and a Samsung 850 SSD.

After first installing Ubuntu on it, which was 13.10 at the time, everything worked out of the box. The graphics is the Intel Sandy Bridge graphics with the i5 and has great Linux support. The touchpad works as expected and defaults to two finger scrolling, the touchpad disable switch worked as did the standby. The sound also worked fine without a hitch, but the audio jack port is the combine microphone/headphone, so you need an adapter for most headsets out there that aren't USB. The wireless card was from Broadcom and it worked out of the box during the install. Speedtests showed the card to perform perfectly fine as expected, but there was a problem as I came to learn later.

I was pleased with how well everything worked because my previous HP DV2 had numerous issues, some of which never got resolved. But after a few weeks, I began to notice an issue. The system sometimes failed to come out of standby. If it was a short period, it would work but not after 6 hours. The machine also would lock up while I used it periodically. I hoped after the upgrade to 14.04 the issue would go away, but it didn't. I thought it might be a overheating issue, but I ruled that out as times when it froze, it wasn't hot and the CPU temps were within normal operating range.

I eventually decided to check if it was the wireless. The laptop has a switch to disable all wireless devices and I found that when that was turned off, the laptop never froze and always came out of standby. I still had the Atheros chipset I bought for my HP DV2 to replace the Broadcom chip in it that performed sporadically so I grabbed it, put it into the Dell praying that the Dell didn't restrict the hardware. The Dell accepted the Atheros card and booted into Ubuntu without a hitch and connected to the wireless. I've not had the system freeze since.

The Dell e6320 has an older chipset compared to what is available now, but it still performs like a champ and works great with Linux. I've found everything works out of the box but if you have a Broadcom ship, be prepared to find an alternative. ThinkPenguin.com has chips that are 100% Linux compatible and its where I bought mine for the HP DV2 that I'm now using in the Dell e6320.

For $200 this laptop is great and once you add some memory if needed and change over to a SSD, the laptop is a great daily Linux driver that will suit the needs of most users. I use this machine now to develop Java applications and browse the web. It isn't flashy but it gets the job done and is a solid built machine.

Nexus 7 LTE (2013) - Review

I've been a fan of Android ever since I got my HTC EVO 4G on Sprint. Since I heavily use most Google Services, it puts all those right at my fingertips having access to do everything right at my fingertips.

I was interested in getting a tablet but I didn't know exactly what I wanted. A 10" would be great for viewing and reading, but I knew it wouldn't leave the house in that case, plus it was then nearly the size of the screen on my laptop. So, I pretty much settled on going with a 7" as it was good for reading, plus would be easy for use in the car or friends houses.

Nexus 7 (2013)

When the Nexus 7 (2013) was announced I knew that was the tablet for me. It had a 1080p resolution screen, Snapdragon S4 Pro with Adreno 320 graphics, plus it was thin and light. I opted for the LTE version because T-Mobile had just announced their free data plan, which was perfect for me cause most months, I wouldn't need more than the 200mb of data on the go, but a few months a year I did, in which I could upgrade the plan for those months.

The device is great. It is thin and lightweight. It is easy to use while watching TV or a movie. Great for playing videos in the kitchen while waiting for the food to cook or showing your favorite YouTube video to your friends. With it being the size it is, its not clunky to take in the car or around town.

The screen is top notch. With the tablet pixel density, the pixels are to small to discern and the colors are very vivid. The brightness can be cranked up for in bright light making it usable in all conditions. The touchscreen is very durable and responsive. The finger slides nicely along the surface though it does tend to pick up fingerprints but they wipe away with ease.

Since this is a Nexus device, it runs Android with out the bloat, just the Google Services and it gets its updates fast as compared to most other devices. The tablet is smooth and responsive, which it should be with the power it has under the hood. The device came with Android 4.3 and this was great on the device. Since then, Android 4.4 has been released and makes the Nexus 7 an even greater deal and purchase.

At $350, this tablet was just a bit more than the iPad mini, but with much better hardware plus LTE radio that is compatible with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

All in all, this tablet is an amazing device and a great buy. I've used many other tablets and this one is the best in my opinion as it doesn't have any bloat interface and is a great price.

Samsung Chromebook - Is it useful?

Recently, I picked up the Samsung Chromebook as it seems like a decent device for web browsing at a very compelling price. Since the laptop share hardware closer to a tablet, it runs very cool and has no fans. It has an SSD which offers quick boot speeds. 

So, lets start off with the good and what this machine has going for it. It is light, gets 6 hour battery life and runs cool but yet has with the dual core processor enough power for a good web browsing experience. This makes it great for coffee shops and students taking notes in class. The screen is very bright and has great colors and contrast. The keyboard keys are clearly a lower grade plastic but the keyboard does feel decent and the key spacing feels normal. Finally the touchpad which your finger easily glides over and the gestures to work well.

The laptop doesn't have many ports, but it has HDMI, 2 USB ports one being 3.0. It as a SD card slot which accepts SXDC which can have very high speeds, but the card doesn't insert all the way, so left in it could get snapped off. There is also a headphone jack for planes or to not disturb others.

Now, for the bad. So, this laptop has many limitations. The machine runs Chrome OS, which runs solid but only gives you access to the Internet and applications available in Chrome. This also means the machine is mostly useless without an Internet connection. You can use some application in offline mode that support it The machine has 2GB of memory, which is enough since Chrome OS uses little memory, but don't expect to be able to have piles of tabs open without impacting performance.

The laptop is not perfect, but if the drawbacks are not something that you need or care about, then this little machine could very well be the machine for you. My current laptop runs warm with a short battery life. I got this to do light browsing and emailing and it is working very well at that. I also will be starting classes in the fall and this will be very handy for notes without having to plug in or worry about the fan.

Ubuntu 13.04 - Worth the Upgrade?

Right on schedule the next release of Ubuntu is here. Looking over the listed changes, there doesn't appear to be too much to get overly excited about, so is it worth the upgrade. In short, yes. The new version adds some very handy features that make is much more enjoyable for everyday use.

So, first lets cover the major visual changes you'll notice. The first is the shutdown process which now brings up a nice looking window that fits more to the Unity style of things. They have also updated several of the system application icons which help improve the appearance. There are also some new wallpapers to choose from.

They have also added some new usability features. Most notably, more options for viewing multiple application windows. The previous way remains the same, but now you can right click on a icon and view the open windows names in that list. You can also scroll on the icon and it will cycle through the open windows. This is proving to be a nice addition to offer more convenience for navigating through open windows.

They have also beefed up the notification area. There is now a indicator for Ubuntu One which is very handy for accessing your Ubuntu One files and settings. They have also modified the Bluetooth menu. On top of that, they brought back the Messages indicator which went missing in Ubuntu 12.10. I am very happy to have it back for use with Pidgin. They have also added better integration in Unity with the social media networks to tie in with Unity. Many people will find updating status from Unity to be a new fun way to find out what there friends are up too.

The biggest change, in my opinion is the improvement to performance in Unity. The interface feels much more smooth and responsive on my laptop and desktop. This is most likely due to the Unity interface being adapted for use in phones and tablets as well. 

Ubuntu has come a long ways with Unity is now shaping to be a very usable and responsive interface. Now that is Steam is available on Linux with a slew of games and many more coming every day, Ubuntu has really become my daily driver and I rarely go into Windows. Even Netflix is available on Linux now with the help of Wine.

I am very pleased with Ubuntu 13.04 and would say it is worth the upgrade for the more responsive interface alone. This surely is shaping out to be the Year of Linux.

Why 2013 is the year of Linux

When compared to Windows, the number of Linux desktop users is very small. This has always been the case and is due to the lack of main application support that users are looking for. This would include programs like Adobe Photoshop or tier one games like Crysis.

Mac has been able to get a few of the major programs over to it which is why it has been able to remain popular for a small set of users. Linux has a great set of open source applications but not enough to convince users to make the move.

Linux has become more and more user friendly over the last several years and has many eye pleasing features. Ubuntu has made it very easy for a normal user to find applications that can do what they are looking for and install them with the click of a button. This is not enough as Linux needs the applications people want and are used too.

Valve is in the process of releasing there Steam platform to Linux. With this they will be porting over all their Source based games starting with Left 4 Dead 2. Steam will no doubt be very popular on Linux and get a slew of indie games that will be available on Linux but it will depend on how well Valve can convince other tier 1 development companies to move over to Linux as well.

All the major tier 1 games I have played that were available on Linux were very cumbersome to install. They required downloading the binaries from the Internet, and coping certain files from the CD in order to install the game. Steam will make the install and update process clean, making it easy on users and developers. There are many gamer's out there who run Windows only because they have too. If the option of Linux was a valid option, they would make the jump.

With Windows 8 out in the wild now, it is clear Microsoft has plans to have there own distribution store that they could force all development companies to start using it. This could drive the companies to Mac and Linux.

Next year has the high potential of bringing the popular games and applications to Linux which will make it a viable option to Windows or Mac. With the shift in the last few years to more Cloud based applications and services, the applications tying people down to Windows is growing smaller and smaller.

I look forward to 2013 with great anticipation. Please let me know your thoughts. Leave me your comments below.