Monthly Archives: January 2012

The Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX

Well it is here, and I’ll tell you it is not QUITE as impressive looking as the Droid RAZR (it is thicker) BUT (and there is a serious Sir Mix-a-Lot BUT here)… over 20 hours of talk time. That’s right… I said it: OVER 20 HOURS of TALK TIME. So what’s the deal with Droid RAZR MAXX? It’s the same configuration as the Droid RAZR it just has a bigger battery in it, which makes it thicker. If you recall the Droid RAZR (and the MAXX) doesn’t have a removable battery. This is kind of a departure from the “norm” and makes a lot of (us) nerds feel uncomfortable. This is the type of phone you want to have if you don’t want an Apple iPhone 4s but you still want to stand out. It’s sleek, the battery life is insane, it has great horse power, a lot of RAM, a huge screen, gorilla glass (I don’t even bother putting a screen protector on phones with this stuff) and the price is just… right.

GENERAL

4G: 4G LTE

ANDROID™ PLATFORM: Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) upgradeable

MULTIPLE NETWORKS: CDMA800, CDMA1900, LTE B13 700

TOUCH TABLET

CAMERA

CAMERA

MEGAPIXELS: 8 MP (rear facing camera)

CAMERA TYPE: HD P2P Video

DIGITAL ZOOM: 8x

FOCUS: Automatic

FRONT FACING IMAGER: 1.3 MP with 720p HD video capture

IMAGE EDITING TOOLS: Cropping, rotating, Geo Tagging, brightness, color, enhance, flip, resizing, and effects

MUSIC & VIDEO

MUSIC ENABLED¹

MUSIC PLAYER: Yes

SPEAKER EFFECTS: Equalizer with Bass Punch

VIDEO CAPABLE: Yes

VIDEO CAPTURE: 1080p HD, tri-microphone for audio scene selection

PLAYABLE FORMATS: AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA9, WMA10, eAAC+, AMR NB, AAC+, WMA v9, MIDI

STREAMING MEDIA: Audio, Video, Internet Radio

VIDEO CAPTURE RATE: HD 1080p quality, 1920X1080 resolution, up to 30fps capture and playback

WIRED STEREO DEVICE EFFECTS: 3D Stereo, Home Theater, Live Stage, Custom

POWER

TALK TIME (CONTINUOUS)²: up to 21.5 hrs.

BATTERY TYPE: 3300 mAh Li Ion

STANDBY TIME³: up to 380 hrs.

MESSAGING

EMAIL⁴: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, Push Email, Yahoo® Mail, Hotmail, AOL

MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING (MMS)⁴: Yes

PREDICTIVE TEXT: SWYPE®-enabled, multitouch keyboard with next word prediction

TEXT MESSAGING (SMS)⁴: Yes

INSTANT MESSAGING (IM)⁴: Google Talk™, Windows Live Messenger®, Yahoo!® Messenger, AIM®

IMAGE FILE FORMATS: BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG

VOICE MAIL⁴: Standard voice mail, Verizon Visual Voice Mail™ (capable)

CONNECTIVITY

SYNCHRONIZATION: FOTA, PC Sync, Corporate Sync, Google Sync

WIFI: 802.11 b,g, n

BLUETOOTH® TECHNOLOGY⁵: Bluetooth Smart Ready; Stereo Bluetooth Class 2, Version 4.0 LE+EDR OPP, DUN, SPP, GAVDP, AVDTP, AVCTP, A2DP, AVRCP 1.4, HFP 1.5, DID, HID, HSP, MAP, PAN-NAP, PBAP, SM,GATT/ATT,GAP,HR

DATA ACCESS⁶: Yes

4G MOBILE HOTSPOT: Be a mobile hot spot for up to 8 other devices

CONNECTOR TYPE: Micro USB, HDMI® Micro

DATA TRANSMISSION RATE⁶: USB 2.0 (High speed)

DLNA (DIGITAL LIVING NETWORK ALLIANCE): v. 1.5; Share content wirelessly with other DLNA equipped devices

GPS AND LOCATION SERVICES¹: aGPS (assisted), eCompass, sGPS (simultaneous), GLONASS

HEADSET JACK: 3.5 mm

WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK (WLAN)

INTERNET & GAMES

WEB BROWSER: Android HTML Webkit, Adobe® Flash® Player 10; Firefox browser via webtop

ACCESSORY COMPATIBILITY

HEARING AID COMPATIBLE: Rated M4, T3

TEXT TELEPHONE (TTY) COMPATIBILITY

BUSINESS SECURITY AND PRODUCTIVITY

BUSINESS READY: Business ready with productivity and security features.

CALLING

SPEAKERPHONE: Yes

CALLER ID⁴: On main display, Picture ID, Ringer ID

ADVANCED SPEECH RECOGNITION: Yes

AUTOMATIC REDIAL: Yes

CALL WAITING: Yes

CONFERENCE CALLING⁴: Group call

EMERGENCY DIAL: Yes

MUTE CALL: Yes

CALLING

NOISE REDUCTION: Dual microphone noise reduction

PHONE BOOK⁷: Unified contact list (Gmail™, Exchange,Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

SPEED DIAL: Speed dial, direct dial shortcut

VIBRACALL: Yes

VOICE DIALING: Yes

WAIT AND PAUSE DIALING: Yes

CARRIER FEATURES AND SERVICES

VERIZON WIRELESS: Back Up Assistant, Verizon Media Manager, VCast Music

GOOGLE MOBILE SERVICES

Gmail™

Google Calendar™

Google Contact Sync™

Google Latitude™

Google Maps Street View

Google Maps™

Google Maps™ Navigation

Google Quick Search Box™

Google Talk™

Google eBooks™

Google™ Search by Voice

YouTube™

INCLUDED APPLICATIONS

BUSINESS⁸: Quickoffice®, GoToMeeting®, MOTOPRINT

ENTERTAINMENT⁸: Netflix(support resolution up to HD), Blockbuster, Amazon Kindle, Let’s Golf 2, Madden NFL 12, NFL Mobile, Slacker

LIFESTYLE⁸: Smart Actions, MOTOACTV

MOTOCAST: Stream or download your music, pics and more from your PC to your phone.

MOTOCAST ENABLED

SMART ACTIONS: This application lets you take control and mastermind your phone’s settings and actions in an infinite number of combinations.

SMART ACTIONS ENABLED

INTERFACE

OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) upgradeable

LIGHT-RESPONSIVE DISPLAY: Yes

KEYPAD LOCK: Yes

HAPTIC FEEDBACK: Yes

DEDICATED KEYS: Volume control, Back, Search, Menu, Power/Lock, Home

BACKLIGHT: Yes

PINCH TO ZOOM: Yes

TOUCH SCREEN: Capacitive touch screen

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD: Multi-touch and Swype

VOICE COMMANDS: Google Voice Search and Voice Actions, and Voice Commands

PERSONALIZATION

RINGTONE FORMATS: AAC, AAC+, eAAC, MP3

WALLPAPERS⁴: Preloaded and downloadable, Live wallpaper

PHYSICAL

SIZE (H X W X D): 130.7 x 68.9 x 8.99 mm

DISPLAY SIZE: 4.3-in.; Super AMOLED Advanced qHD(540 x 960)

WEIGHT: 145 grams

ANTENNA TYPE: Dual

FORM FACTOR: Touch Tablet

MATERIALS AND FINISH: Made with Dupont™ KEVLAR® fiber and scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass

PRODUCTIVITY AND SOFTWARE

CALCULATOR: Yes

CALENDAR: Calendar, Corporate (Exchange) calendar, Google Calendar

AIRPLANE MODE: Yes

CLOCK: Alarm clock

TECHNOLOGY

MEMORY⁹: 16 GB internal; 16 GB microSD card pre-installed

ACCELEROMETER: Yes

NETWORKS⁴: CDMA800, CDMA1900, LTE B13 700

PROCESSOR SPEED: Dual-Core 1.2GHz , Dual-Channel RAM Processor

REMOVABLE MEMORY¹⁰: supports up to 32 GB microSD

SENSORS: Proximity, ambient light, eCompass, battery temp, Accelerometer

WEBTOP

WEBTOP APPLICATION: Extend view to larger screen, type on full keyboard & access full web – multi-task on-the-go

WEBTOP ENABLED

I like the Verizon Wireless Droid RAZR MAXX a lot. I would give it 5 out of 5 stars but I have to take 1 star for not shipping with ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0) and 1 star for not having the option to unlock the bootloader. I want to be able to do what I want to do with my phone and that includes removing the bloatware applications you bundle with it. They take up space, suck battery life, and are useless because I’m not interested in them. Unlock the bootloader so I can have root access and remove the stuff and I’ll be a happy camper. (For those not in the “know” you can’t uninstall the apps that most cell phone companies install on your phone by default, unless you have root access)

Affordable Healthcare in 2012

If you are like many Americans you may find yourself behind the eight-ball when it comes to health insurance. It is expensive, if you have not been covered in a fee months you may not be able to get covered due to pre-existing conditions or you might just be fat. If your bmi is over a certain number for your height you could be denied coverage simply for that reason alone.

So what are you supposed to do? In many communities there are health centers or community health centers. They are low cost/sliding scale/free clinics that can take care of about 90% of your treatment issues.

A friend of mine lost their job last year and is a diabetic. Without a group plan they are SOL because diabetes is an instant disqualify for single person coverage. This is not to say they can afford that coverage but even if they could it is not an option.

They found a place called the VNA Health Services clinic and have been able to go for three visits, get prescriptions and blood work for 75 bucks total. If they were not receiving unemployment there would not be a bill.

Many Americans are finding that makes sense to go to these places for treatment even if they have to relocate to do so. If you can save thousands a year by making this type of change you might just pull through this economic downturn. My friend plans to continue going even after they get another job. The service and bedside manor at the VNA is the best they have ever had.

Sometimes you don need to spend a lot of money to get a good value.

Problem with Samsung 305t Monitor? Flashing lights no image? We have the fix.

So you spent a lot of money on Samsung’s 32″ 305t Professional monitor and used it for 6 months or so, moved it into another room or around on your desk and now the flashing lights thing is happening. You went to Samsung’s website and saw that they have AWFUL customer support and a ton of complaints right? Sadly, that seems to be the case. We did the same thing.

So the fix is pretty simple… one of two things happened.

1) You tried to put your monitor into a resolution it doesn’t support (or changed the hz setting from something other than 60hz).

2) (The most vexing one to figure out) SOMEHOW you switched the monitor cables with a different monitor. Bad move. This will make is so that every time you try to use the monitor in a resolution larger than 1280 x 800 it will blink several different colors and do nothing. The cable is the issue. The one that comes with the Samsung 305T pro is a fat cable that supports the higher resolution? (best guess) Once we figured that out, we swapped them out and everything was wonderful once again.

Hope this helps, if you have any other tips, feel free to comment!

Problem uploading to your wordpress 3.3 site? No temp folder? We have the fix.

So if you are like many of the wordpress website masters that upgraded or installed the new version of WordPress 3.3 you might have found yourself getting the following error:

Upload Failed. No Temporary Folder (wording might be slightly different).

You probably searched high and low for an answer and didn’t get anywhere.

Fear not. I have the solution :)

So you have to be a little nerdy to do this, and you have to have root access. If you don’t have root access you need to tell the administrators of your website or hosting company to do this.

Step 1)

Go into your php.ini file. This is located in /etc/php5/apache2 (in Ubuntu)

So you do this:

cd /etc/php5/apache2

you want to edit the file php.ini and search for:

open_basedir=

when you get to that line make sure there is no ; in front of it. It should look like it is written open_basedir=

Now you want to add the path to your website. If you are hosting multiple wordpress sites you want to direct it to the main path of all the websites. For instance if you have all your vhosted websites in /var/www then you would change it to this:

open_basedir=/var/www/

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A TRAILING / at the end (i.e. /var/www/ NOT /var/www )

save your php.ini file

Now go to your sites-available directory for apache2. In ubuntu this is located in /etc/apache2/sites-available

so type this:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

type this:

ls -al

this should display all the websites you are currently hosting or you might have one file that has all the vhost entries in it.

Edit each file that runs a wordpress website, or the master file if you just have the one (default is the name) and find the spot where it says

<Direct

ory /var/www/yourwebsite/>

right under that line you want to put this:

php_admin_value open_basedir none

continue to add that line to each and every website you have that is running wordpress.

now Restart apache. In ubuntu you do that by typing this:exit.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

That’s it! You should now be able to upload.

Apple iPhone 4s and Apple iPAD 2 5.01 Untethered Jailbreak Released for the Mac

Finally the Apple iPhone dev team has released a Jailbreak for the new A5 processor iPhone 4s and iPAD 2. If you are running iOS 5.0 or iOS 5.01 you can get a full untethered jailbreak if you have a MAC computer. Just download this file.

Milo Performance at The Subterranean in Chicago

We stopped by the Subterranean to see Rory Ferreira (a.k.a Milo) perform. This video is a little rough, I grabbed it with my iPhone 4s.

EDITORIAL – SOPA and PIPA LETTER to Senator

I wrote this letter to Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois today. I hope that you will take the time to write a letter of your own to your senator and tell them that you will hold them responsible for their actions come election time should they vote to pass these two horrible bills.

Senator Durbin,

Making websites like facebook, youtube, google, imgur, and others be responsible for user uploads is absurd and impossible. The claim that corporate America loses money from these activities is false for two reasons. 1) Most of the time this user content is not used for the original purpose the content was put together for (i.e. A song played in the background while a small child dances was removed from youtube because the company that claimed ownership of the music didn’t want it there). 2) The people that are infringing would never have purchased rights to use the material to begin with, it was only because it was available that it was used. There is no loss as no one made money on it, and no one would have purchased it to begin with. When people want to watch a movie, or listen to music they buy it and listen to it or watch it, they don’t go to youtube to hear it (poor quality) or see it for free. They go to you tube to see some little girl dance and make a funny expression, the fact that the music was used is arbitrary.

Giving a company the power to remove a website domain from active status on the Internet does two things. It opens up a situation where a company can take out a competitor by hiring other companies to file false reports to hamper their services. (especially smaller companies that can’t afford to fight them) It does not stop piracy. Pirates don’t use DNS (web domains) to trade real pirated materials. There is a consumer side that engages in this activity but it is very small.

The real pirating happens on newsgroups, and through binary ftp transfers that use IP addresses. This will not be changed if this bill comes into effect. I have personally worked with the FBI in Chicago on some very high profile pirating cases in the 1997-1998. I worked with Agent ***** *******. My work was responsible for some of the largest pirating group arrests in the History of the State of Illinois.

In the United States I can tell you that 90% of pirating happens because kids age 8-24 (College kids on the upper end of that spectrum) use these materials. They can’t afford the price of admission and so they download this stuff. They were NEVER customers of these corporate giants to begin with. Therefore there was never a loss, since the property is a copy and not an original item. I’m not saying it is right, because it is not, but what I am saying is the financial loss claimed by these software companies is INFLATED and constitutes fraud on their part. They right off these huge amounts as loss but the fact is they do not represent actual loss at all. (Because the people that used them are generall kids that wouldn’t ever purchase them to begin with for lack of fund or valid reason other than general curiosity).

Instead these companies release software products that are laden with bugs, expect the consumer to find the bugs, they fix 50% of them and release a new version with more features that address the other 50%. The new version is of course another purchase. They have no accountability for claims their software does a, b and c when it only actually does a and sometimes c. This is fraud.

We need a smart representative of the people that will write a bill that will start holding these companies responsible for the promises they make. Something that will hold them responsible for the billions of tax dollars they steal from us by claiming that this issue represents a loss at this magnitude. Something that will address the outright robbery that they are committing by releasing product that does not do what they say it will do. A Product that is insecure and responsible for people losing their whole life to identity theft.

In short Senator… do you represent the people or corporate America? I’ll be voting against SOPA and PIPA come election time by voting for candidates that vote against SOPA and PIPA. I will be vocal on the internet, and through my circle of friends. I hope I can count on you to represent my interests sir. Thank you for your time.

-ReviewCrew Member (I left my name out in this writing because of the nature of the case I referred to with the FBI).

Make sure you look for our Appliance Guide in March!

So you are thinking about replacing one or more of your big appliances right? The problem is you’ve had your fridge, washer, whatever… for what? 10 years? More? You want to get out of it cheap and easy? Or do you want to invest a little money and get one of those nice snazzy models that you see on the commercials?

You have probably heard a lot of horror stories too right? There are also several other factors you need to consider, like technology, eco-friendly units, total-cost-of-ownership. It’s hard to tell which units have the goods and well… you have to pay for the findings in other publications.

Our 2012 Appliance guide will be out in March and we will be able to give you the run down of all appliances that matter most this year. If you don’t see it in our guide then it isn’t worth getting.

Beyonce and Jay Z’s new baby Blue Ivy Carter – First Photo!

Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z have welcomed their first baby (Photo) – Superstar couple named the baby girl Blue Ivy Carter.

NEW YORK / NationalTurk – Beyonce Knowles baby given birth Saturday at a hospital in New York City. Blue Ivy Carter will be a Nwe Yorker.

Baby’s parents Beyonce and Jay-Z were both “doing fine”. The 30-year-old chocalate star Beyonce is married to hip-hop icon and producer Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter since April 4, 2008.

Jay-Z’s birthday is December 4 , whereas Beyoncé’s birthday is September 4

BLUE IVY CARTER – Where does the name Blue IVY come from?

Ivy is in reference to the couple’s love of the number four – roman numeral for 4 is IV. Beyoncé and Jay-Z were married on April 4, 2008.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have matching IV tattoos on their wedding fingers. The singer’s latest album is called 4 which was her fourth solo studio album. Jay-Z has a trilogy of albums under The Blueprint banner which could have inspired his daughter’s name Blue Ivy : He has released The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse and The Blueprint 3

The 30-year-old beautiful singer’s daughter arrived via scheduled caesarean section at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City last night. The couple’s close friend Gwyneth Paltrow confirmed the baby’s name on Twitter, writing: ‘Welcome to the world Blue! We love you already.’

Jay-Z was telling friends he and Beyonce had named their daughter Ivy Blue Carter, E! Online reported.

Beyonce Jay Z : Big Ignorantness at the New York hospital Blue Ivy Carter born

Blue Ivy Carter is a beautiful girl but her birth occurred on some controversial conditions. Jay Z and Beyonce might have exaggerated the security measures before Blue Ivy Carter came to the world. The papparazzis are always annoying but some people complaint and that a father misses the initial moments his infant is born, is something you cannot repay wiyh all the money in the world.

The fithy rich couple, Beyonce and Jay Z rented out the entire fourth floor of Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, for the birth — paying $1.3 million, the New York Daily News reported.

The newspaper reported a hospital staffer had revealed Beyonce had checked in Friday night under the name “Ingrid Jackson.”

Hospital management reportedly put tape over security cameras and forced staff to hand in their cell phones in an effort to stop unauthorized photographs or footage of mother and baby being leaked.

Security guards were also reported to have been sighted outside the building, located off Park Avenue.

A father complains Beyoncé’s security team ‘barred him from seeing premature twins in hospital’s intensive care-unit’.

‘They should have been more strategic about it, These are children with problems in intensive care and you’re just going to take over the hospital like you own it? All I want is an apology.

Another couple from Brooklyn claimed that as they tried to go home at 11 p.m. on Saturday night, a security guard prevented them from leaving. The unlucky new parents were told they weren’t allowed to leave the 6th floor,

“We were told we could walk no further,” Nash-Coulon pair said Monday. When they asked for an explanation the heinous guard “claimed, unconvincingly, ‘Well, they’re handling hazardous materials,’ even as a large group of people screened from view were passing through the main hallway he had declared off-limits.”

**Source NationalTurk

How to get a free SAMS Club membership EVERY YEAR for the rest of your life.

If you are like me you like to save money and sure you can get a lot of great deals at SAMS Clubs across the nation. The problem is you have to pay for the privilege. After taking a good hard look at their policy regarding memberships I came up with away around this several years ago and it has worked for me ever since.

So the first thing you do when you go to SAMS Club is head over to the customer service counter. After all you actually NEED a membership to get into the store.

They will ask you for your ID and credentials, etc… just get the account you want, fill out the paperwork and pay for your membership.

Now go about your business and buy what you want for about 50 weeks (almost an entire year).

The SAMS Club membership agreement states that you can return your membership card for a full refund at any time for any reason.

Now I know what you are thinking… this is shady. I disagree. You see the one problem that I have with the membership is that I have to pay to spend my money in their store. With this policy, they address that issue. I can return my membership on week 50, get a full refund, and purchase another one. I’ve done this three times. A manager was called over the second time I did it and I explained that I was very satisfied with the product line, just not with the idea that I had to pay for the right to shop there, and noted that their return policy addressed this issue nicely. He agreed, gave the cashier the nod, and said good one. I got my new membership.

When a company gives a satisfaction guarantee they do it because they want you to be fully satisfied. If you can become satisfied by utilizing the membership, and the guarantee then they have fulfilled their mission, and so have you. It is ethical, you are the customer, and the money back guarantee is their offer that you will be satisfied.

So when you notice your membership expire date is approaching, don’t be afraid to go up to the customer service desk and get your refund/renewal.