As photo-sharing truly hits its stride, an entire ecosystem is born around it. But what is creation without consumption? That’s what Divvy is all about.
We met the folks behind Divvy at the TC Meetup + Pitch-Off. At it’s core, the app aggregates all your photos from Facebook and Instagram (Twitter, Flickr, Dropbox all coming soon) into one filter-capable stream. You can also save photos from… → Read More
In lieu of a formal review, Matt Burns and I sat down to take a look at the Samsung 700T AKA ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T, a convertible tablet that has a small button on the keyboard that pops out the Windows 8 tablet that forms the brains of the machine. The device is a bit chintzy – more pressed metal and injected plastic than I like to see on a laptop – but at about $1,000 retail it’s an acceptable… → Read More
Haven’t quite gotten your fill of the Galaxy S4? We haven’t, either. First came the announcement, then the obligatory berating posts about the crazy launch event, followed by the review, which brings us to this fateful judgement day.
Will the Galaxy S4 fly or die? → Read More
In a land where entrepreneurs are struggling desperately to integrate location into the worldwide photo-sharing phenomenon, Albumatic may have swooped in just in time.
Ventures like Color and others have tried and failed, and not for lack of funding, to let users enjoy location-based events by sharing photos with each other around that specific event. However, it turns out that sharing photos… → Read More
Skullcandy’s Crusher headphones may not be John’s favorite, but I must applaud the headphone maker for stepping outside the box and doing something different with the Crusher headphones.
The Crushers don’t try to fake a bunch of bass with digital signal processing, but rather use two Sensation55 drivers (one in each ear cup) to trigger a vibration system that gives the sensation of… → Read More
Google’s new Chromebook Pixel is a curious device. While its beautiful, seamless hardware nearly justifies its $1,299 price tag, the Chrome OS (which only offers access to Google products and the web) does not.
In the specs department, both John and I are impressed. The Pixel has a 12.85-inch 2560 x 1700 touchscreen. To be exact, that’s 4.3 million pixels (not 4.1 billion, like I mentioned in… → Read More
The BlackBerry Z10 running the new BB10 operating system is a pivotal phone for the company formerly known as RIM. It’s BlackBerry’s flagship all-touch device, and while it has fine specs and cool features, the phone may not be enough to save the beleaguered Waterloo-based company.
To be clear, the BlackBerry Z10 is not a bad phone by any means. According to various sources, the phone’s… → Read More
The gap between a full-fledged PC and a touchscreen tablet has finally found a bridge in the Microsoft Surface Pro. The Windows 8 device will be available for purchase on February 9, but we got a sneak peek with the Surface Pro and took it for a test spin in the Fly Or Die studios.
So what’s the verdict? → Read More
As an old man, I find Snapchat to be baffling at best but Jordan and I duke it out in the Thunderdome that is Fly or Die and come, in the end, to a conclusion. → Read More
Just in case you haven’t heard enough about the Google Maps for iOS app in the past few months, we decided to take the new app into the Fly or Die studios to figure out whether Google’s navigational offering is worth its salt.
As usual, John and I disagree over a couple of key points, but we both agree that Google Maps is an excellent upgrade to the old Google Maps, and it still has a leg up… → Read More
You’d think that doing an iPhone 5 Fly Or Die would be a piece of cake, what with 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours, but it’s not so simple. All the complaining of boredom and slight lack of innovation out of Apple… well, it’s not too far off of the truth.
Apple took a huge risk with the original iPhone, and even with the iPod. But it turns out that those products changed their respective… → Read More
The Kindle Fire HD is a big deal. Big.
It has rather excellent specs — a 1280×800 7-inch display, TI OMAP processor, dual stereo speakers, and dual-antennae Wifi (with MIMO) — and it comes at a ridiculously low price: $199. → Read More
Subscription services are blowing up. You can have your razors, socks, or really anything delivered to your doorstep. But what about love (and not on a creepy way)?
Dejamor — a new subscription service that essentially delivers his and hers boxes of romance once a month — is disrupting the dating space in a relatively original way. → Read More
For those of us who enjoy the occasional puff of sumptuous greenery, whether that’s flavored tobacco, leaves of mint, or good ol’ wacky tobacky, the Ploom Pax may be just what you’re looking for.
It’s a botanical vaporizer, meaning that it doesn’t combust the materials you intend to smoke, but rather vaporizes them offering a much cleaner, less smelly smoking experience. Since the Ploom Pax is… → Read More
Ever since I/O and the unveiling of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the blogosphere has been measuring Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet. The verdict in almost every case is good, including our very own iPad lover’s take.
John and I thus found it only fitting to bring the little 7-inch tablet into the studio for Fly or Die. The tablet, with a 7-inch IPS 1280×800 display, a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, and… → Read More
The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Sure, it stands to fudge up the Internet, but boy is it pretty!
The display boasts 5.1 million pixels, with a bump from 1440×900 (on the 15-incher) to a full 2880×1800 resolution. It brings Apple’s laptops into the display big leagues with the iPhone and iPad, and gets a bit thinner to boot. Plus, you’ll get an HDMI port instead of that optical… → Read More
Let’s just cut to the chase. The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is awesome. Pricey? Sure — it’s $300. It’s a toy that costs as much as the smartphone you’d be controlling it with, but it’s a grown-up’s toy, and one that makes a jaded John Biggs very happy. This is far more than I can say for most of the gadgetry on the market today. But John’s opinion aside, this thing just rocks.
The quadcopter… → Read More
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is arguably the best micro four-thirds camera Olympus has to offer. We’ve had issues with past m4/3 iterations like the EP1 and EP3, like awful color reproduction and slow auto-focus. The same problems don’t persist here, and anything that impresses John on the photography front is a rare gem certainly worth consideration. → Read More
It’s a bit hard to officially review the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight as it’s almost exactly the same as the previous version but with one important improvement: it glows.
Arguably, the Nook and the Kindle are equal contenders in the race to the e-reader throne and although I do prefer the Kindle Fire over the Nook Tablet, I feel the Nook Simple Touch is still an excellent choice and one… → Read More
Opinions on the new break-out social location app Highlight certainly aren’t in short supply.
Alexia thinks that friend-of-friend notifications should be customizable and that women may have trouble getting on board with the idea of constantly broadcasting their location. Eldon thinks that Highlight goes past social networking to be a potential business card swapping service, leaps ahead of a… → Read More
Two weeks ago at the Crunchies, Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s top executive in Silicon Valley, came up to me and handed me a Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone. It was out of the box, fully charged, and ready to go—alive in my hand. It’s a beautiful phone. Thin, solid, bevelled, and bright. Later that evening, I pulled it from my pocket and I’ve been playing with it ever since. This is not the first… → Read More
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is packed this year, yet its relevance seems increasingly in decline. Microsoft is bailing, no iconic products launched this year, and Apple’s presence can be felt everywhere even though they don’t exhibit at the show. In this episode of Fly or Die, TechCrunch Gadgets editor John Biggs (who is running our CES coverage) joins me remotely from Las Vegas to discuss… → Read More
I’ve been playing with the Lumia 710 for a week or so now and I’m pleased to report that Nokia may have a chance. The phone, while a bit chintzy, is inexpensive, fast, and feature-rich. I doubt you’d be able to find a device as easy to use and comfortable as the 710 at a $50 price with two year contract.
We also tried the Meizu MX and came away, well, un-awed. It’s a cool phone, it’s only… → Read More
There’s been a recent interesting trend in the tablet market: devices 8 inches and smaller that are as powerful as their bigger cousins but considerably more portable and convenient. In this episode of Fly Or Die we talk about the mid-size trend and decide whether a smaller tablet makes for a better tablet. → Read More
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a new, new Twitter world out there and we’re just living in it. The new Twitter interface is very, for lack of a better word, “appy” and although the desktop apps are abysmal, the website is pretty strong and interesting. This week Erick and I take a closer look at this improvement and assess its value in our lives. → Read More
Erick and I are both parents so we know from tablets. The $99 LeapPad from Leapfrog is cool, to be sure, and fun if junior’s aunt or uncle is picking it up, but we both found it lacking, especially when compared to other devices. Obviously if you don’t want the wee ones slobbering all over your iPad, this is a huge winner. Otherwise, the lack of apps, especially for geeks like us, was… → Read More
Erick isn’t much of a gamer, which is why he’s particularly suited at assessing the new Xbox 360 UI, dubbed Metro by those in the know. Aside from the obvious changes in design, the UI actually makes it easier for guys like Erick to use the Xbox to watch movies, Youtube videos, UFC fight, and other media ephemera that thus far has been lacking in the Xbox experience.
Microsoft knows that the… → Read More
The new Path app has been out on the iPhone for about a week, and it’s been getting good reviews among the early-adopter set. In this episode of Fly or Die, John Biggs and I go through the pros and cons. → Read More
Last night, Flipboard released its long-awaited iPhone app. The app is a companion to its popular iPad reader which renders feeds and realtime streams into a magazine-like experience. The iPhone app is already so popular that it took down Flipboard’s service earlier today.
In this episode of Fly or Die, John Biggs and I take the iPhone app through the paces. The app is gorgeous, as you would… → Read More
What are your goals? To walk the length of the Golden Gate bridge? To run a 5K? To plant a tree in a magical forest? The Striiv lets you do all of those things and more. This wee device is a fairly basic pedometer that measures your steps as well as flights of stairs taken during the day. However, there’s a bonus – it has a nice, bright LCD touchscreen to display your current steps as well as… → Read More
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