Canon always comes up with the perfect combination of hardware to make for the perfect device, and now these days people use DSLR for both video and photography but in this case they have with the new Canon 70D, the killer feature of continuous AutoFocus while recording Vidoe. Its not meant to replace the 7D but its capabilities seem very close to it.

From all the trials it seems the new 70D AF system works very well, with its new CMOS sensor’s 20.2 Megapixel resolution being divided into 40.1 million-photodiode architecture, so two diodes for each pixel, and their phase detection system working with the diodes resulting in the amazing AF system. I honestly can’t wait to try it out.

The main attraction of this DSLR is the instant Autofocus that they have built into the 70D. I have the 7D which I adore and it takes amazing photographs and I have used it for video, with amazing results, but the only major issue is that you have to manually focus the camera during shooting which can be very difficult and if you haven’t practiced the results are usually pretty bad. But production companies have been using the 5D & 7D for Commercials, TV Shows, and even some movies which is amazing. The camera will be available in September for $1200 (body alone), $1350 (w/18-55mm kit lens), and $1550 (w/18-135mm kit lens). But in my case I’m going to hold out and wait for the 7D Mark II which I hope is right after the 70D is released.

Link: Gizmodo

You can say what you want about Bose, but they are the kings of sound, different headphones have different effects depending on what you want out of it. Some people swear by Beats or Sennheiser and they are excellent products but from my experience Bose always tops the list. I have the in-ear Triport headphones which I live by them when I ride, and I have the the Quiet Comfort 15 which are the best to use when flying, and the battery is fantastic on them. Bose maybe mainstream, but their products are quality products and speak for themselves.

The Bose QC20 is Bose’s first-ever noise-cancelling earbuds from Bose, there have been other, but I think that Bose would have taken their time to do this and get it right. It’s price at $299 and set for release on the 1st of August and I for one will be purchasing it right away without a second thought, the QC 15 are amazing, but sometimes bulky to carry around. It comes into variations, the QC20 and QC20i, the QC20 is for Blackbbery, Android, and Windows, while the QC20i is for all Apple products, they have different reactions to the answer button.

Acoustic Noise Cancelling Technology in in a small device. There is also an “Aware” mode lets you hear what’s around you when listening to music, which is pretty intuitive when using this device, so you won’t feel like you are in a silent room. You still have to have some sort of controlling device to use it but I can live with that.

Link: Bose

Took a bit to get all the parts together, this was the first time a processor was flagged before they could ship it from my mailbox, but after a few days they shipped it out. Got all the parts together and a few pieces from Professional and I was good to go.

Hardware

• Thermaltake Urban S41 ($130)
• CoolMaster 1000W
• Samsung 840 SSD 500 GB SATAIII (Windows 7) ($331)
• OCZ 256 GB SSD SATAIII (Windows 8) ($239)
• Intel Core i7-4770 ($320)
• Gigabyte Z87 LGA 1150 Dual LAN ATX ($230)
• Corsair 16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz Vengence ($128)
• Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB GDDR5 ($400)
• Digistar BlueRay Drive (Slot Loading)
• 2 x Seagate 3TB SataIII

The other components I got from Kuwait for 254 KWD which isn’t too bad overall the most expensive parts in Kuwait was the original OS and I wanted both on it since I do love Windows 7 and I wanted to try Windows 8 on a Desktop, but its going to be missing the Gestures still an interesting item to try.

Installed Windows 7 First and then installed Windows 8, then it comes up as an option which one Operating System to Start at Boot, and when you choose, its up in only a few seconds. Years ago it would have taken over a minute and a half, and now its 10 seconds tops, I love SSDs.

I’m planning to install a few games on the Windows 7, nothing crazy just StarCraft II & the latest addition as well as Diablo III. Just worth having on my machine, and I do want to play those games. And what I love about this machine is that it is powerful and VERY quiet, no sound from it what so ever, I wouldn’t know it was on without that blinking lights on top.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Flip Cover Folio

This is the Case that comes from Samsung, a simple Folio with a small cut out for the screen at the top showing some quick information. It’s a simple cover which protects the screen from being scratched but doesn’t protect the body from damage.

Honestly I thought this would be a better cover, but you just replace the back with a folio attached and I was a bit disappointed by it. The folio looks good but then its just disappointing that it doesn’t really improve the use of the phone expect that it gets in the way of the phone. You have to flip the cover off every time to use the phone normally which gets annoying quickly, this cover isn’t for everyone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Spigen SGP Slim Fit Case

The Spigen cover turned out to be the perfect fit for my use. This is a full cover around the phone with the volume and power buttons working perfectly. The back is covered with a matt black plastic which makes it not slip like the normal back, and there is an opening for the Camera, Flash, and the speaker. The shape of the frame of the cover is perfect so you can really grip the phone easily and thats what I love about it, unlike the phone’s normal curved sides this gives it a bit of a better frame which makes it easier to grip. The only draw back is that not every USB head can fit into the bottom of this case.

The Beast from Samsung, they decided to combine their best selling product into a DSLR and came up with the Samsung Galaxy NX. It has Interchangeable lenses, Android Jelly Bean and 4G LTE to say the least. The device is said to be as big as the Canon Rebel than that of a smaller Samsung NX300 model. The size is a determination factor for some people looking for a DSLR but a very smart one in this case, connecting to Wifi or Bluetooth or LTE. This is when to great devices are molded together looks like.

Galaxy NX also packs a large 4.8-inch HD LCD display on its rear and is powered by a 1.6GHz Pega-Q quad-core setup and separate DRIMe IV Signal processor for imaging. The UI should look pretty familiar to anyone who’s used an Android device before, and specificly the Galaxy Camera before, with the common apps and widgets submenus, as well as the wheel interface for its 30 Smart Modes — employed when selecting imaging settings. And if you happen to own any of the company’s other NX cameras, you’ll be able to swap out lenses (13 in all) as the Galaxy NX is fully compatible with that range. It also incorporates a hybrid AF, culled from the best of DSLRs and compacts, with a shutter speed of 1/6,000th of a second and 8.6fps shooting.

This though is an interesting “mutation” from Samsung, there aren’t a lot of heavy duty use phone’s out there, and if there are then they are usually very low spec with a lot of armor. But the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is high spec and its also waterproof and a bit of added armor, and barely any reduction in quality. The camera on this phone is a little less powerful from the 13 MP to 8 MP but it seems to compliment under water use. I just think this phone can take a beating and thats why some people would like it in comparison to the S4. And honestly I prefer the buttons at the bottom then they do the touch panel on the S4, I missed buttons when they took them away.

This one though is truly a phone, not just a data enabled camera like the Samsung Galaxy Camera. The phone features a 10x optical zoom lens in front of its 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, with a Xenon flash for adding some extra light to your images.

The S4 Zoom has a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) Super Amoled display and 1.5GHz dual-core processor, runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and supports LTE. Predictably, it’s big and heavy, at 208 grams and 15.4 millimeters thick — nearly double the thickness of the original Galaxy S4. It is, however, measurably slimmer than last year’s Galaxy Camera, Samsung’s first crack at adding an Android interface to a consumer point-and-shoot. Photographically speaking, things look similar between the two: both devices shoot at the same resolution and max out at ISO 3200, although the older Galaxy has a much longer 21x optical zoom range. Its lens is also slightly (less than a third of a stop) faster, at f/2.8-5.9, compared with the S4 Zoom’s f/3.1-6.3 maximum aperture. So the Samsung Galaxy Camera is faster with a better Zoom but thicker, so who would go for this, I wouldn’t be too inclined since I have the Galaxy Camera and I’m very happy with it. But still its only a point and shoot, no comparison to the Canon G12 or G15 in my opinion as to speed or depth of shot.

Previously the only real Keyboard you could buy was Swift 3 and that’s what I did since I didn’t like the Samsung Galaxy S4 standard Keyboard. But as of June 5th the Standard Google Keyboard which was only available previously on the Nexus devices is now available as download for devices with Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and above.

There are different levels of predictive text as well as the swype option, it’s a keyboard with options and a clean feel. If you don’t have a Nexus phone try it out, you will like, its a different and clean feel for Google Keyboard. What I like is that they recently made it into its own App just like GMail, Maps, & G+.

Link: Google Play

With the release of the Samsung S4 & HTC One, everyone was running to get their hands on it, true 4G Android Devices which honestly make the iPhone 5 look like crap and its going to have to do a lot more then just another hardware design to beat these two machines. HTC have been having a hard time getting things right with Android after Samsung took the lead as the best, but I honestly think they have a great device on their hands with the HTC One. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was a smart move by Samsung, the S3 was so successful that they just improved on it slightly in regards to the design and packed it with the best possible hardware they could put together.

There were a lot of comparison and technical reviews, but I wanted a real use review of both machines to see which fit better and for what use. I wanted to really try both phones and after almost a month of having them both I can honestly say there isn’t just one conclusion, it just depends what you want because they are both really good.

Wifi

It’s very important for a device to have a strong wifi signal capability, it has to capture it and use it. And out of all the Android brands out there, I can say that Samsung has that down, they pretty much have everyone beat. And sadly the worst out of the bunch is HTC, I had the problem with the HTC One X and with the HTC One it’s signal always weaker then the S4 and sometimes it can’t see the Access Points.

Screen

The Samsung S4 screen is huge, both screens are crisp and excellent touch interface. Honestly they are both excellent. If you want the bigger screen then the Samsung S4 is the way to go, but its a matter of preference. Both of them have amazing brightness and you can easily see them during day time.

Design

Honestly hands down the HTC One wins in this department, if Apple wants to copy anyone for their next phone then it would be the HTC One. The Samsung S4 is 80% the same as the S3 just bigger screen and an aluminum frame which I liked. The one benefit to the Samsung S4 is that it feels lighter then the HTC One, but still it looks better then the S4. One aspect that I like about the S4 is the ability to add the a MicroSD Card, that is a huge win for the S4 in my case. You don’t need that much space on your phones these days but having the ability to is a huge plus.

Above is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Shot & Below is the HTC One Shot

Camera

HTC has the Ultrapixel which is sort like a supercharged 4MP which performs better then most camera phones with higher Megapixels. The HTC has the machine gun shot which shoots multiple shots and you can choose the best or keep them all which is a great feature. The Galaxy S4 has an amazingly crisp camera, they improved on their best selling Galaxy S3. And they included all the features of the Galaxy Camera with all the different settings and mode. The HTC One has the low light shots done perfectly, this is one thing that HTC has had down. Between the two I preferred the S4 camera, but it’s just barely better. And hands down both better then Apple iPhone 5.

Above is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Shot & Below is the HTC One Shot

Battery

This takes a bit longer to figure out but both Android devices lasted a full day of abuse. Nonstop wifi use, making phone calls and sending messages, they could both take it. And I know over time I will get the Mophie battery case for the either phone, and its a matter of time the case comes out for the S4 since its selling like crazy as expected.

Interface & Feel

To be very honest you can go with either of them, this really comes down to preferences. I prefer the HTC One Sense Skin feel over the Samsung Touch Skin, since its less intrusive in this case. I always prefer getting phones from Google because its a clean installation and I can do as I please, but in this case I had to choose, and the HTC One was cleaner and crispier. I just get annoyed with Samsung trying to make things more watery with the TouchWiz Skin. Now for the Sound hands down the HTC One has amazing sound, by far much better then the S4 and it can easily blast music in a room, you wouldn’t think its a phone speaker.

What I don’t like about the Samsung S4

I really hate the keyboard, had to get the Swift Keyboard so my fingers don’t feel like they are stretching across the screen. It really made me feel like I was learning how to type for the first time. The speaker is loud but not crisp, I wish they put it up front. The air gestures aren’t really that useful, I only like the finger hover when in the gallery for a preview but the rest makes you look crazy when your staring at the screen trying to make things move, if you have an S4 you know exactly what I’m talking about.

What I don’t like about the HTC One

I hate the Blink Feed, wish there was a way to get rid of it since its taking a piece of the screen that I could use and you only have a limit of 4 screens. The Weak wifi signal is a breaker for me, I have to have good wifi on my phone.

Which One

Choosing between them is tough but I had two deciding factors which were the Wifi Signal and Camera, which in this case the S4 was the better choice even though I really like the HTC One design. I picked up the Samsung S4 LTE from Al Babtain and got the HTC One from a friend. Honestly Babtain did a great job of making the phone available all over Kuwait and quickly, the HTC One was like hunting an endangered species.

Recently my desktop has had a few hiccups but being almost 3 years old it has taken a beating. A lot of things I do myself and around the house revolves around the Lian Li machine which was repurposed from a Windows Home Server to a Heavy Weight Single Desktop use. With the launch of the new Intel Haswell Processors and a few interesting pieces of hardware I had laying around I decided to put this new machine together and also add some more gaming capability to it.

Hardware

• Thermaltake Urban S41
• Thermaltake 1500W
• Samsung 840 SSD 500 GB SATAIII
• Intel Core i7-4770
• Gigabyte Z87 LGA 1150 Dual LAN ATX
• Corsair 16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz Vengence
• Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB GDDR5
• Digistar BlueRay Drive (Slot Loading)
• OCZ 128 GB SSD SataIII
• WD 3TB SataIII

For the software I want to dual boot both Windows 8 & Windows 7, honestly Windows 7 is amazing and does the job and extremely stable. I have one Windows 8 laptop with a touch screen, and for Windows 8 to work smoothly it has to be a Touch Screen integrated into it. So dual boot option looks like its something I’m contemplation at this point, but the first install is going to be Windows 7 at least. Then the Windows 8 install on the other SSD and W8 can handle the dual boot option on start up, but lets see how it develops.

What You Can’t Do:

Play games unless you connect to the internet once every 24 hours

• if you are unable to connect, your games will not function at all
• Yes, that includes single player games

Can’t disconnect the Kinect Sensor
You can’t Lend games
You can’t Rent Games

You can’t Trade games freely

• Only pre-approved retailers can accept trade-ins
• No independent game shops
• Less value for your trade-ins since there is less shops which leads to less competition

You can’t Sell your games freely

• In order to sell a game to someomne you must have been friends with them for over 30 days
• The game is then locked to that user forever
• They will not be able to see it afterwards

Seems like Microsoft really wants to lock you in, and this is how they are doing it, now it seems that the games you buy aren’t your to do with as you please. Its like buying a car but you can’t do anything with it except sell it back to the dealer. I will keep my XBox 360 for a little while until they change their stupid policies.

Razer just announced a more 14inch Blade, we always picture gaming machines as heavy bricks attached to a big screen, thats as portable as it will get. But Razor has a different idea, they wanted a Gaming machine as powerful as desktop yet as mobile as a Mac Book Air, I like where these guys are going, they have the vigor that Alienware and Voodoo once had. I really feel the guys behind the Razer are true gamers and want a portable gaming machine, not something that weighs a ton and has to be plugged in to play.

“We tried to distill the very best reference points of the MacBook Air for our gaming laptop,” says Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, pointing out that the 0.66-inch thin model is thinner than the thickest point of Apple’s machine. Despite the thinness, it uses the same graphics card and an unspecified fourth-generation Intel processor at 37W TDP, with a matte 1600 x 900 screen and a multi-touch trackpad.

The company claims it will run Crysis 3 at 45 frames per second on average. It carries 8GB of RAM and a baseline of 128GB in solid-state storage, expandable to 256GB or 512GB, and you’ll find three USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port on the sides. It promises six hours of battery life, which is far more life than one could expect from a larger gaming laptop, though that number might be a bit overzealous compared to real-world usage, but still not bad. The 14-inch Blade will start at a hefty $1,799, with pre-orders beginning June 3rd at midnight.

• Future 4th gen Intel Core processor (formerly codename Haswell)
• RAM 8GB onboard memory (DDR3L-1600MHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M (2GB GDDR5 VRAM, Optimus Technology)
• 14.0″ HD+ 16:9 Ratio, 1600×900, with LED backlight
• 256GB SATA III SSD

Price: Starting @ $1,799
Link: Razer