I honestly love instagram, I enjoy the interaction and people’s reactions to pictures and seeing what others may snap pictures of. There is always something to entertain someone on instagram, so much to see and I think everyone is on it at this stage. In Kuwait people migrate from one thing to another and the latest is instagram, with business setting up through instagram and spreading by it and honestly it works. Everyone is pointing theirs phones and taking pics all the time, but the states I didn’t see people as obssessed with it as we are. I tend to like taking good pictures and seeing what others may take, but the one thing that I see that drives me nuts is people following lots of people to get followed and then unfollowing, and sometimes it gets me wondering why some people would unfollow, I honestly know that I shouldn’t care but I’m always curious about it and I would be lying if I didn’t say it didn’t bother me, but it does just a little bit. I use statigram to follow up on the numbers and growth and so I see specifically who unfollowed and there are always surprises.

Its been about a month since I got the Nexus 4 and I have put it through it’s paces, I took a week to put all my Apps on it and configure to the way I want. So I have been using it for about three weeks as my main phone and abusing it in every possible way. First off it is a much better phone then the Galaxy Nexus, I am honestly happy with this experiment that Google did with LG, if it was Motorolla I would have been really worried. Google gives an opportunity to each manufacturer to show their coolest features and LG won them over this time, Samsung has been known for the SII & SII, as well as the large Note line, not for the Nexus line even though it was a solid phone. Samsung would always save the best for it’s S line like the SII & SIII, but I didn’t like layer they install over the basic or vanilla Android OS, so the Nexus line was always second class to the Samsung S line, the case was the same with the Nexus S & Galaxy Nexus. For the first time a Nexus phone feels like it is the best that Google has to offer on a hardware point of view, and their OS always feels clean and light.

Specifications:

• Screen 4.7″ diagonal – WXGA IPS
• 1280 x 768 pixel resolution (320 ppi)
• Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2
• Dimensions 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm
• 139g
• Camera 8 MP (main)
• Camera 1.3 MP (front)
• NFC (Android Beam)
• Wireless charging
• 16GB Memory
• 2 GB RAM
• Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU
• Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

What I Like:

• The New 8 MP Camera is fantastic, especially with HDR feature and extra tools while in use with the camera
• The Processor is powerful, you never feel that this phone is sluggish
• Its smooth and light, doesn’t feel bulky for a nice screen
• The Screen is Beautiful, crisp and very clean
• The Wifi signal is strong, it grabs on to the weakest signal without an issue
• The rear speaker is decently loud to my surprise
• LED flash on the camera is great a flashlight too
• Gorilla Glass on the front, it shows smudges but doesn’t scratch easily
• You can really tell they put a lot of effort into the design of it
• Jellybean 4.2.1 is perfect on this Machine, it is what makes it great
• I haven’t had a chance to try Wireless charging yet but I’m looking forward to it
• My 3G connection on this phone is better then my Galaxy Nexus, streaming isn’t an issue and almost never looses a signal
• This one almost never drop’s calls, even in locations that are known to drop calls it seems to hang on for its life which is a nice surprise, and the call quality is excellent
• The Battery life is pretty decent under normal use, lasts me from day until night, but defining normal is difficult

What I don’t Like:

• This is Gorilla glass and glossy on the other side, I love that it is but its insanely slippery so it may fall at anytime and you won’t even realize that it’s moving depending on the surface your place it on
• No LTE, honestly doesn’t make too much of a difference to me but it would have been nice to have it and working, but for now the normal 3G speeds is more then enough for me
• Under high abuse use the battery takes a pounding and barely lasts 10 hours, and that is extreme use such as steaming audio, while surfing and nonstop use of WhatsApp
• No removal battery, sometimes I want to remove or change the battery but it seems they went for a cleaner design rather then a functional one
• No SD card, sometimes we want to expand the memory, 16GB is not enough but I’m making due with it

I honestly love this phone and that it has such a well done operating system, smooth and powerful, and has never hung on me. The screen is beautiful, love scrolling through Instagram on it, and reading my Google Reader feeds, very clear, and easy to look at. Google gambled with LG and it’s paying off, they built an amazing machine with this phone and I hope that they make an even better one. I honestly don’t think I want any other feature on the phone then what I already have, its really good, you always want better but this was really worth the wait.

Check out The Verge Review for an extremely detailed breakdown

Is it just me or was Zain’s network acting weird yesterday. My data network kept dropping every 20 to 40 minutes plus it would drop from 3G to Edge a lot during the day. And today has been acting strange as well. At first I thought it was my phone but I restarted a few times to be sure with no changes, and my other phone was acting up as well so things were odd. It seems that Zain might be making some changes to the network because other people were experiencing these issues since yesterday.

Everyone went crazy yesterday went the new Terms & Conditions of Instagram was sent out. It sounds like they now have the rights to sell our personal pictures to whom ever they like and do what ever the hell they want to do with them.

In my opinion it was only a matter of time, Facebook is evil, that is something that I have believed for a long time and it was only a matter of time until they screwed up Instagram. I fell in love with it as soon as it came out to Android, the perfect platform to share with everyone but now this change to the ToS scared everyone and rightly so, its Facebook, they have done crappy stuff like this in the past.

It might be an over reaction but I for one am not a lawyer, but The Verge article I linked to below says it’s not that they could sell your pictures to an advertiser but that they could promote paid content through your timeline and you can’t opt out of it. It was only a matter of time before Facebook wanted to monetize their $1 Billion investment, I was just hoping they would leave it alone.

All startups learn harsh lessons like this sometimes, but Instagram is a startup no longer: the company just made close to a billion dollars selling itself to Facebook. That’s great, but the downside is that Instagram is now part of Facebook, the company we all love to hate because of its relentless quest to monetize our private lives. It’s no wonder Instagram’s new terms have triggered a passionate, emotional reaction in people who don’t understand them — the same thing happens to Facebook users who are constantly falling for privacy hoaxes.

In fact, the real lesson here isn’t about the legal implications of Instagram’s terms of service — it’s about how little we trust Facebook to do the right thing.

Yes I really don’t trust Facebook and I hate Zuckerberg, he encompasses evil on the internet. You really have to check out The Verge article, really breaks it down.

Link: TheVerge

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeevNvd_R5k?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

The guys from DevinSuperTramp did it again, another amazingly fun video but this time with a Zipline. I honestly think they are nuts, and put these very cool fun stunts together. I don’t even know how they make these amazingly smooth shots, I do love their videos, they are very cool. I wish I could try a zipline off a cliff like that, amazing.

I have to say the guy has a point, so true, I watch other channels to watch music videos these days.

Now this is really cool, makes these guys look like Tron Suits while running around Bangkok. An fun take on Parkour at night, I like it, and the video is pretty cool. Feels like a video game while your watching it.

I have been using the Nexus 4 for about a week now and it hasn’t disappointed at all, its fast smooth, no glitches, they even had two updates since I had it and I didn’t even bother checking why. I have wanted to write a full in depth review about everything this phone can do and just whats different about it being from LG. I will get into that later since I do want to give it justice, just know that if you are getting it then you are going to be very happy. I’m going to make the switch from the Galaxy Nexus to the Nexus 4 by this coming Sunday but my only hang up is one thing, I don’t want to cut my chip or replace it, but it seems that I can’t really use it anymore, I want to keep the old school MTC Vodafone colors, my only two options is either to cut the chip or replace, in this case I think I may just replace it and keep the chip since its for sentimental reasons. The hardware on this phone is top notch and it works that way, I have abused it and the battery is impressive, the build quality is perfect, feels good in your hand. I will follow up with an indepth write up on the phone. Also I blame Apple for my predicament, why the hell do they keep having to change the damn SIM Cards, I don’t think anyone had a problem with that, I also think we can lose them more easily these days.

I have always been a fan of LED lights, but sometimes they are just too bright or not bright enough. Surprisingly the high quality LED desk lamps are a bit more on the expensive side, there are those that are cheaper but not that good quality. The Piccolo peaked my interest so I pledged for it, not just because it produces a warm light which is not meant to over power the ceiling lights, instead its meant to compliment it and the right type of light when you don’t want the lights above switched on. Also one other cool factor for me is that it is power by USB which I think it is a genius feature.

Link: Kickstarter

I use my iPad to watch a lot of shows and anime, the one thing about it that is annoying is the speakers, most of the time I’m using headphones which work fine but the iPad speakers are good enough for music and not watching media when you want it a bit louder then what its capable of. It looks like I wasn’t the only one thinking that, and that is the idea behind the ORA iPad Sound System. These people are passionate about sound and this Kickstarter project is an ambitious one, they are really aiming high with it. A perfectly fit case to make a great watching experience on your iPad.

Designed by a team that has created products for the likes of TDK, Intel, Vizio, and Nike, the aluminum case/stand packs eight front-spacing speakers (tuned by the former engineer lead of Bose) into the space surrounding the screen, giving you a far more immersive sound experience than you’re used to from your tablet.

Links: KickStarter

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Nexus 4, after scouring Ebay for days after selling out. Luckily one Ebayer got his hands on it and was selling it for $475 in North Carolina when everyone else was selling it for $600+ so I clicked the Buy It Now without a second thought.

Firstly the box was very simple to open unlike the Nexus 7 situation, just a charger and wire inside with the phone nothing else. I was happy the phone was fully charged and once I signed in my GMail account it started automatically downloading most of my Apps. One thing that Android does that I like is that it also copies the wireless profiles from your previous Android devices so after the initial wireless connection it seamlessly connects to your wifi from previous saved profiles.

First impressions:

• I’m liking Android 4.2 Jellybean – Nice Improvements and Even Smoother
• The Camera is pretty good in low light shots
• The phone is light, I’m forgetting that its in my pocket
• All the Apps are working with it
• I’m loving the Keyboard

Its gonna take me a day or two to fully configure all the Apps I have on it, I keep using one thing and jumping right into and forgetting to configure the others. Do I think Google made the right decision with LG, well time will tell but as off right now I’m loving the phone and if you are a fan of Android phones then you will love this. I like the Samsung S3 but I’m loving the Nexus 4, the operating system just feels so clean and it just wants to be used. I’m going to write a full review at a later stage but for now this is my first impressions after one night of using it.