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I got this BoomBrick Bluetooth speaker by Olixar shipped to me by the awesome guys at MobileFun. This is some days ago and I have come to get used to this speaker. Actually this would be my first attempt at a desktop speaker in a very long time. I have only good things to tell after some weeks with it. Now Mobilefun shipped the speaker to me in 3 days tops from Birmingham, UK. 

Here’s a quick rundown on what to expect of the BoomBrick Bluetooth Speaker by Olixar:

It’s a Brick as the name says, basically it’s the shape and size of a brick, but doesn’t share the weight, it’s way lighter. In the box you get the speaker, 3.5 mm AUX cable, microUSB cable for charging and the documentation.

The speaker looks beautiful and is available in matte black. The finish feels velvet smooth and the general shape of the speaker is just like a brick. Controls are at the top and the ports in the rear. The controls include forward, previous, volume up and volume down, and the power button which functions also as the call receive button and the play button. the bottom has some rubber feet to get it to stay at one place on the desk.

Setting it up

Now how to set it up is very easy. Power the thing up and it automatically fires up Bluetooth. From your phone, search for Boom Brick and connect, it will be paired with no extra action from the speaker, and we are connected. From there on, as long as Bluetooth is on in the phone the speaker will connect and you can play music from the box. Also as long as the music app is open, you won’t need to unlock the phone, press play and you’re enjoying music.

Usage data you need to know

The box says the 1200 mAh battery will give you 8 hours of playback and require 3 hours charging, that’s correct. The average work day is eight hours. I love rechargeable batteries. And that’s how I moved from listening to music from earphones to having a desk speaker. Of course you won’t do this in a shared office, so the earphones still have an advantage over this one from that angle.

You can actually fit this in your backpack should you want to get the experience both in the office and ad the side of the bed. Did I mention that the speaker makes me become a podcast disciple? Yes it does that to you when you find some awesome podcasts to listen to while in bed. Dimensions for the speaker are 180 x 65 x 48 mm.

The audio is quite great with the two 3 watt speaker that bring out some quite good bass levels for an office. It can actually power a room with some un-intrusive music. You know the kind of sound you can actually work with in the background? Remember to make a good choice of music.

How to get it

The  BoomBrick Bluetooth Speaker costs some $50.99 and ships to tens of international destinations, that includes Kenya where I’m piecing this from with an option of DHL Global Mail, DHL Express and Royal Mail among others, see here for other options, information you need to know and if you are covered. See below other images of the speaker in a gallery. Click to view and scroll large photo gallery.

Full Story → BoomBrick Bluetooth Speaker By Olixar Is A Perfect Office Companion

Today’s students are busier than ever, juggling their studies with work and social life. Technology can help take the edge off, with the array of apps designed to help simplify and streamline the study process. From creating study-friendly flashcards to organizing finances, these handy smartphone apps can help students avoid falling behind.

Image Source: AFS-USA Intercultural Program/Flickr

Dictionary.com

No reference collection is complete without an up-to-date dictionary, and this app from Dictionary.com gives you access to definitions at your fingertips. Define and spell-check your work accurately, while building your vocabulary at the same time. The app is free to download and available for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.

StudyBlue

Mentioned in this roundup of the best apps for students, StudyBlue helps you save paper by creating virtual flashcards. You can customize your flashcards to include images, text, and audio to help you buckle down and absorb information at your own pace. Flashcards can then be shared with other students. Track your learning process with study reminders and progress checks, to make sure you’re staying on track.

Sparknotes

The ever-popular Sparknotes is available as an app for iOS and Android. These study guides provide summaries of notable books online, allowing you to catch up on your reading without falling behind. Depending on how much time you have, you can skim through the most important points of a reading or look at the key themes in greater depth.

Image Source: Hariadhi/Wikimedia Commons

Evernote

Keeping tabs on your homework assignments and class notes can be difficult if you don’t have an organized note-taking system. Evernote steps in here as a useful app to create voice memos, along with to-do lists and course notes. You won’t have to carry around several different notebooks; instead you can streamline all of your notes into one simple app. Evernote is available for most operating systems, including Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows phones.

Dropbox

When you’re taking several courses, files can quickly pile up on your computer. Do you need to revise your thesis paper from a café? Dropbox allows you to access your work from a secure connection wherever you are. It automatically saves all of your documents and photos so that you can access them from any synced device, including your smartphone. In addition to giving access to text files, you can also share your photo albums with friends and family which can be useful for those studying far from home.

Mint

Do you blow your budget too early each month? Student expenses can really add up, when you factor in the cost of tuition, books, and regular living expenses. Keep tabs on your student loan and bank accounts by downloading the Mint financial tracking app. It’s free to download for iOS and Android, allowing you to track your expenses and know exactly when bills are due.

Although not all of these apps are specifically designed for students, they’re all useful ways to stay organized while you work towards your academic goals. By staying on top of studies and finances, you can free up more time for the fun side of student life!

Full Story → The Best Smartphone Apps for Students

On September 30^th 2014 in an event in San Francisco, Microsoft revealed an early preview of the next version of the Windows Operating System, Windows 10. Yes, that is not a typo. Windows 10! You may ask what happened to happened to Windows 9, and I’ll answer that later on. First a little background on where the Windows operating system currently stands.

Windows 8: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Windows is currently being used by over 1 billion people on a range of devices that range from laptops, desktops to industrial machines, ATMS, POS and more. However, this pales in comparison to the number of connected devices in the world (hint there are more devices than people on the planet). The explosion of mobile devices means that Windows has found is quickly losing its dominance in a “Cloud-first, Mobile-first” world. To counter that trend, Microsoft released Windows 8 in August, 2012. A direct response to the iPad revolution, Windows offered what was essentially two environments in one operating system: The Metro (now called Modern design) that featured a UI designed for primarily for touch, and the legacy x86 desktop style that all of Windows users were familiar with.

The Metro side of Windows 8 borrowed heavily from the Windows Phone operating system (interestingly, the Windows Phone design team and Windows 8 design team did not collaborate as close as one might think). The start screen which replaced the classic start menu, used Live Tiles to provide the user a dashboard of information and applications at a glance. Not only did the UI of the OS change, but the actual operating system was designed to be more efficient and have a smaller foot print. This meant Windows 8 ran better on old hardware. However, the learning curve to adapt to the new Windows 8 UI turned off many users and most importantly, Windows most important customer base, Enterprise users. Microsoft attempted to address many of these concerns with the release of Window 8.1 in October 2013.

The result of this misstep in direction is that 2 years after the release of Windows 8, Windows XP (released in October 2001) has close to twice its market share and Windows 7 (released of October 2009) is close to four times its size. Source Wikipedia.

Windows 10: Moving from a Prius to a Tesla

The release of Window 10 is designed specifically to persuade the users of Windows XP and Windows 7 to upgrade easily, or as Joe Belfiore (Senior VP Operating Systems Group) put it;

“We’re looking to find the balance, so that all the Windows 7 users get a familiar experience on the devices they already have. We want all these Windows 7 users to have the sentiment that yesterday they were driving a first-generation Prius… and now with Windows 10 it’s like a Tesla. They don’t have to learn any new way to drive”

Whereas the previous Windows 8 design team closed off their customer feedback loop, the new Windows Operating System group headed by terry Myerson (the former head of the Windows Phone group) focused on soliciting customer feedback on the areas that Windows 8 could be improved. One of the main revelations that they heard was that customers did not detest Live Tiles, but they abhorred the time it took to learn the metro environment. This feedback resulted in the most striking change in Windows 10, the return of the Windows 7 start menu.

“We don’t want that duality, we want users on PCs with mice and keyboards to have their familiar UI.” Joe Belfiore

Why Windows 10 and not Windows 9? The naming of the new operating system confused quite a few people. However, what many people don’t realize is that Windows 8.1 was such a major update to Windows 8 that it should have been called Windows 9. This incidentally also applies to Windows Phone which just received a similar major update. It is also worthy to note that Windows will move forward in a very different way after Windows 10. Rather than have drastic versions released every two years, Windows will move to a continual update cycle. Features will be push out to users faster in small developmental cycles. Windows will just be known as Windows.

New Start Menu

The start menu in Windows 10 brings back the familiar design that pre Windows 8 users will be happy to see. Its functionality has been extended with the ability to pin Live Tiles to the right of the start menu This design accommodates all users from those who don’t like Live Tiles, to those who believe Live Tiles add value to their productivity. The menu expands as needed to accommodate more tiles. It can also be configured to extend along the bottom of the screen or the left edge of the screen. The color of the start menu can also be configured to match the theme color.

For those users who loved the Windows 8 Start Screen, it is possible to revert back to this layout. (Search for “Navigation Properties” then go to “Start Menu” and uncheck “Use Start menu instead of Start Screen” option). With the current build of Windows 10 Technical Preview it is not possible to use both the Start Screen and the new Start Menu.

Search

As with Windows 8.1, Windows 10 has Universal search. This means any search term you enter will the results of your search term will be pulled from your local machine as well as the internet. Whereas this happened on the charm bars in Windows 8.1, search now happens in the familiar search box in the start menu.

 Windows Stores Apps now run on desktop

Rather than have the Windows Store apps run in their own environment (as they did in Windows 8.1), Windows Store apps can now run on the desktop as independent floating windows. These windows can be resized at will and even pinned to the taskbar. The functions that resized on the charms bar, are now in a pull down menu on each app.

To aid in productivity, Windows 10 improves multi-tasking with the following  new features.

Multiple Desktops & Task View

Many Windows users know that trying managing numerous open windows can be end up being confusing. Windows 10 now includes the ability to create multiple desktops. This means you could group open windows by tasks, programs or whatever way you see fit. Switching between these multiple desktops is easy using the new “Task View” function, or with WINDOWS KEY+D.

The WINDOWS KEY+TAB on Windows 8 provides an overview of all the open apps (tasks) that are currently running on the system. This function now called Task View, adds functionality by also showing open desktops as well as open apps. There’s also a dedicated Task View button added on the task bar.

Snap Assist and Snap Fill

The snap feature introduced in Windows 7 has been taken to new heights in Windows 10. Snap is now intelligent as the system can automatically suggest the best snap configuration for the apps you are using. This combined with multiple desktops and Task view, makes multitasking very fluid. Snap Assist suggest an open app that you are most likely to use next, while Snap Fill automatically fills any open space with your selected app. These two options make snapping apps much easier and increase productivity

File Explorer

New “Home” option in File Explorer.

File explorer adds a Home section that collates your favourites, frequent folders and frequent files in one location. A “Share” section has also been added to the tool bar taht provides options for sharing content.

Touch “Continuum”

In a response to the fact the majority of Windows devices are still non touch, Windows 10 changes significantly from its predecessor. Whereas Windows 8 was touch first with the desktop being relegated to second class citizen, with Windows 10 changes the priority of environment based on the device you are using. This means on a traditional laptop, where the keyboard and mouse are the main interface elements, the desktop environment is prioritized. With 2-in-1 devices like the Lenovo Yoga or hybrid tablets like the Surface, Windows 10 will be able to automatically detect which mode the device is in and automatically adapt the environment to suit the interface. This feature, named Continuum, is still in development and will be released at a later date.

Devices that don’t need the desktop, for example Windows Phone, will run in full touch mode (also known as modern/metro mode). Microsoft hasn’t stated whether the small 9 inch and below windows tablets will ship with the desktop enabled.

App Store

Windows 10 will run on the broadest range of devices from Phone, tablets, laptops, desktops, servers, Xbox, and IOT devices. This opens up a market of over 1 billion users to Windows applications.

Windows 10 product family

Windows 10 run Universal Apps. These are apps that built on a common set of API and code that run across all Windows Devices. Meaning that as developer, your application only needs to written once to work on. Universal apps will be available in one app store, simplifying app purchases e.g. developers can opt to have their priced once for all form factors (phone, PC, XboX etc.). More details on the developer API’s will be released at Microsoft’s “Build” developer conference in April 2015.

Pricing and Availability

Windows 10 will under several iterations before its final release to the public in mid-late 2015. More consumer features will be announced at Microsoft’s Build conference in April 2015. As with Windows 8, I suspect the Consumer preview of Windows 10 will also be released then.

Microsoft has not announced any details on pricing. Industry analysts speculate that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to licensed Windows 8 users and a small upgrade fee to Windows 7 users ($30-$50).

How to get Windows 10 Technical Preview

To get Windows 10 Technical Preview, you will have to sign up for Windows 10 at the Windows Insider Program. The download size is 3.16 GB for the X86 version and 4.01GB for the X64 version. The aim of the Windows Insider program is to make easier for Microsoft to collect usage data and feedback that will aid in the refinement of the operating system. If you feel adventurous to try Windows 10, you will need to know a few things.

• Windows 10 Technical Preview is an early build of Windows 10, meaning that many features of the operating system maybe broken or missing. To minimize the impact that this may have on your productivity, I suggest you install Windows 10 TP on a secondary machine or run it VM.
• Microsoft will push a large number of updates over the coming months as they continue to polish the operating system. You will not be able to turn off the updates. As part of the Windows Insider Program, you will be expected to provide feedback about your usage through an integrated feedback app.
• Once installed, you may find it hard to revert back to your prior operating system. As such install it on a separate partition, to keep your data safe.
• Some older processors will not support Windows 10 Technical Preview. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not provided details on the specifics of these processors. (I installed Windows 10 Technical Preview on a Core Duo HP Laptop). If you have a Samsung laptop, I’d also advise that you hold off as Samsung specific drivers will not be available.
• Windows 10 TP is only available for x86. If you own a Windows RT device, you will have to wait until the developer preview is released in early 2015.
• If you have a touch device (tablet), I’d advise that you wait until the Microsoft improves the touch integration.

Be sure to follow TechWeez to stay updated on new features of Windows 10. If you have any questions about Windows 10, please comment in the section below.

Full Story → Windows 10 (because 7 “8” 9): The Techweez Hands On Preview

Data loss can happen anytime and on any system including Mac. It could be an intentional deletion of the files, or could be a result of accidental format of the drive, volume corruption, sudden power failure, etc. Such a loss is almost impossible to compensate with any manual techniques. However, there are various professional software that caters the need of recovering lost data on various operating systems including Mac.

In order to have any chance of recovering lost data on Mac, it is recommended to avoid using the Mac system after data loss has been reported. This is because, once the data is deleted, it is the entry of the data that gets deleted from the table, which the user fails to see. However, the actual data still remains on the storage device. Adding or moving any data onto the storage device, would overwrite the data that needs to be recovered. As a result, it would become nearly impossible to recover back the lost data.

Based on this concept, there are various data recovery companies, which develop software to recover data from such affected storage device. With the ever-growing technology and the amount of research done on such fields, the chance of data recovery has increased from even a severely corrupt device, which was impossible a few years ago.

However, with the increased competition among the so many companies, it is hard to find a reliable software to recover deleted files from Mac. However, most of them come with a free demo version, which can be used to check the credibility of the software. Some of the top popular software to perform data recovery on Mac are mentioned below.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery is a complete and professional tool to recover Mac data from any data loss situation. It is studded with all the required features that should be present in the best Mac recovery software. The advanced algorithm used in the software, makes it capable of recovering data from formatted media, missing volumes, etc. in its original format. It supports data recovery from any externally attached media including CDs and DVDs. With the simple and easy-to-use interface, the data recovery operation can be performed by users of any age group.

Data Rescue

The Data Rescue software has a set of advanced and powerful features that simplifies the entire process of data recovery. The tool provides quick and advanced scan option, to get back the lost data quickly and efficiently from even a severely corrupt media in no time. In addition, in order to minimize the recovery time, the software provides an exclusive option to recover data that has been recently deleted from the Mac system. It also provides a number of search options to search for any particular file types based on their size and last modification time. Such an option proves to be very useful especially when you are recovering deleted files.

R-Studio

R-studio is best known for its hexadecimal editor, which rebuild files in its original format. In addition, it has all the features provided by any other data recovery software for Mac. With some advanced options and features to recover severely corrupt data, the tool is best suited for advanced and expert users. The software also allows you to perform multiple scans and supports disk imaging to create a partial or full image of the drive. You can filter the searched files in number of ways and perform selective recovery on them.

File Recovery for Mac

File Recovery for Mac is yet another and popular recovery software. It uses a very simple approach to recover lost data from various devices including iPods attached to the Mac system. The tool is effective especially in recovering deleted files, which might have been deleted long time back from the Mac system. The software proves to be a great alternative in case you are not able to recover data from other data recovery software. With a simple and interactive interface to browse the system, you can apply a variety of filters to search through the found files.

Remo recover

Remo recover is an effective software to recover data from even unusual situations. The tool supports recovering data in case of unmountable drives, formatted volumes, deleted partitions, and more. However, the software comes in three different versions, each supporting a different set of file formats and data loss scenarios. With the Basic edition of the software, you can recover only deleted files. However, to recover photos, audios, and videos, you need to have the Media edition of the software. The advanced Pro edition supports recovering data in all data loss situations and in all formats. This makes it easy for the user to identify their loss and choose the edition accordingly.

Disk Drill Pro

The software proves its worth in minimizing the future data loss. It is embedded with a set of advanced preventive and recovery features that makes the tool ideal for recovery and Mac optimization. It comes with four different versions: Basic, Pro, and Expert, and Enterprise. The software is capable of building its own directory to scan file fragments. The data loss prevention feature allows archiving the metadata for all deleted data. In addition, the SMART feature available with the tool monitors the drive health and helps in avoiding any future issue that could lead to data loss.

Full Story → Some Top Software to Recover Mac data

Microsoft made a statement by releasing the Lumia 530. This was to be the successor of the Lumia 520, but offered a slightly new deal to the consumers. Microsoft Devices Group consolidated their product portfolio to be just Lumia for their smartphone and the only deviation to that being the basic feature phones that will in fact go on carrying the Nokia brand name. Lumia 530 represents that devices that get’s them the marketshare, just like the Lumia 520.

Recent research numbers show that Microsoft Devices Group can now easily be considered an entry level player considering that more than 60% of their sales are in the entry level. Devices like Lumia 520, Lumia 630 and Lumia 530. This is where we are at as Microsoft tries to make the word affordable also blend in with Windows Phone. We all know they  need it and the move has been overdue. Now onto the device of the day, Lumia 530.

Lumia 530 was announced sometime back in July with India getting dibs for the device in August. It was to become available in Kenya in October to complement the Windows Phone  entry level product portfolio that now comprised of Lumia 520, Lumia 630 and Lumia 530. Lumia 530 was positioned as the smartphone that was cheap first then value second.

You may well be aware by now that Microsoft lays claim to the same experience irrespective of devices from top down. Basically to say that if you use the Lumia 1520 at the top and use the Lumia 530 at the bottom the experience will be more or less the same. Well, of course minus the screen size, speed, performance and resolution difference.  So what does the Lumia 520 bring to the table?

Product Specifications

Let’s first delve into the specs sheet:

• Windows Phone 8.1
• 4 inch (480 x 854 pixels) FWVGA LCD capacitive touch display
• Lumia Colour Profile
• 1.2 GHz Quad-core processor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 Chipset
• Adreno 302 GPU
• 512 MB RAM
• 4GB internal, support of 128GB microSD, 15GB OneDrive
• Assisted GPS, WiFi positioning
• 5MP rear camera, no front camera, 1/4″ Sensor
• Video recording at 864 x 480 pixels at 30fps
• Camera resolution: 2592 x 1936 pixels
• Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, WiFi 8.0.11 b/g/n
• 119.7 x 62.3 x 11.7 mm
• 129 grams
• 1430mAh BL-5J battery, 13.4 hrs of talk time, 8.5 hours browsing time

Design and Feel

Lumia 530 is not close to being the most beautiful phone, but it’s design element tells you what it was meant to achieve. Comfort for daily use. It has average looks slightly leaning towards good looking. It feels comfortable to the hand for most on-screen activities. The only time it may feel like it needed some changes is when you try press the volume rocker or power button which are on the same side and the phone feels like it could slip out of the hand. Hasn’t yet though.

Everything inside the box

It does have the usual bells and whistles of a Lumia phone, minus the dedicated camera button. On the sides we have volume rocker and power button to the right of the phone, at the bottom sits the micro-USB slot and at the top there is the 3.5 mm AV jack slot. All these are embedded onto the removable back cover which also plays as the the colour determinant. Speaker outlet is in the rear bottom right while the camera is at the top middle. It has no flash and there is no front camera either.

Removable shell gives options to choose the colour of the phone from a range of  four colours; White, Black, Green and Orange. It also gives access to the back which has the removable battery, SIM card slots and microSD slot. Finish on the shell is quite on point with that matte that doesn’t collect fingerprints and stays clean while also giving the feel of durability. The front has onscreen keys for search, home and back and this slightly eats into the 4 inch display.

Display

The display is not exactly one of the most exciting things about the Lumia 530. But at the price point it comes in you would expect such compromises. It misses out on the Lumia Clear Black technology that makes the blacks completely black and also the resolution is wanting at 480 x 854 pixels as a 4 incher. It does do justice to the price point and has slightly more pixels than the predecessor Lumia 520.

The screen brightness is not close to dazzling as outdoor viewing is quite wanting, especially when there is bright sun. You will struggle to make out what’s on the screen, even on high brightness. It also does feel washed out, like the whites are not really white.

Windows 8.1 allows the device to get you more live-tiles on the screen since it has an option to allow for six columns of tiles. Comes in handy when you want to have as many tiles on the visible part of the screen as possible.

Features and Performance

The device comes with 512 MB of RAM, 1.2 GHz Quad Core Processor and an Adreno 302 GPU. This does mean something when it comes to device performance. It is able to push some performance intensive games that are only achievable by mid-range devices. Performance is mostly good though you will feel slight lag when it comes to heavy games and notice some feedback issues especially in games requiring user initiated motions. As far as motion control is concerned I have nothing to complain about, the device did quite well in games that required motion detection.

One of the key strengths of the phone is in the battery life department. When pushed to the limits, the device can do 2 days quite comfortably. As you may well know, battery life is one of the most important things in the low end and Lumia 530 holds up well. Well, I will say though, I am yet to plug in the second SIM card as this is the dual-SIM version and naturally this will have an impact due to two radios active at the same time.

Reviewing Lumia 530 without mentioning Windows Phone 8.1 features would be missing some elements that differentiate it from predecessors. Lumia 530 comes pre-installed with Windows 8.1 which brings the notifications centre which is also the action centre. This allows one to toggle WiFi, Bluetooth, camera on and off and also change display settings . Some though like WiFi are not exactly toggles but shortcuts to the actual setting.

Custom start-screen backgrounds also come in with Windows 8.1 and one is able to customize their screen with a background image of their choice the Lumia way. Independent volume controls allow you to finally differentiate notifications volume from media volume. Internet Explorer 11 works mostly well though won’t handle requests like the slide out menu in some sites. Wordflow keyboard works just fine when you choose to use it, but of course the learning curve there is quite steep considering many of us in this regions will type in a mix of languages and unofficial words.

Camera

The camera is somewhere below average with the 5 MP fixed focus shooter. There is neither a flash or front camera, so this demographic won’t be video calling via Skype which happens to be also a Microsoft product. 

There is the Lumia selfie lens among the lens options that will get you sorted whenever you need to take a selfie and cant see what your doing thanks to the missing front camera. Lumia selfie lens will detect your face and snap the photo once activated, so you are not exactly on your own there.

Lumia Selfie app is intelligent, knows you have fit in the picture and starts beeping to alert you that it’s capturing. Also gives you preset filters

Images coming off the 5 MP camera are just okay, give them good lighting even indoors and you will get some clear pictures, even though they are pretty pixelated and everything in full focus. This is the camera you take photos when the sun is in full glare and not exactly indoors especially when the light is low. See pictures, indoor, outdoor and selfies taken via the camera here (Google Plus link).

Conclusion

Lumia 530 is this device that will serve the main purpose of Lumia inclusion among both Asha and Nokia X users who wish to remain in the fold at a budget, while also giving both new smartphone users and new migrants to the Windows Phone world a cheap option to get their foot in. The device isn’t exactly marketed as the best thing since sliced bread and messaging does mention that it’s meant for the user who hasn’t had a smartphone experience before. And that’s what would save it from what’s coming after this.

When you look at some of the features of the phone, you see why Microsoft is able to get it at that price. For starters the display is quite wanting, the picture quality the same and there is a noticeable lag in when you give the phone a task like heavy gaming. The design element isn’t the best out there, at most it’s a plain Jane, even compared to Lumia 630 or Nokia X which manage to look good. But these are things someone who just came in from the feature phone segment might overlook in exchange for a good price and better experience. You know, that guy who wants to get email, tweet, WhatsApp and Facebook while at it. Throw in some minimal gaming while commuting, and selfies while out at play. Oh! And a Dual-SIM phone.

Full Story → Lumia 530 Review – Microsoft’s Foray Into Budget Windows Phone

Isurf is a company that has been selling laptops for enterprise and kids for sometime now, and they have quite a large portfolio of products in the PC and tablets line. These range from Mediatek powered Android devices to Intel powered Windows tablets. We got this Intel powered iSurf Primo review unit from Intel and I have been using it for a while now. The device is on sale in the Kenyan market at a price of Kshs 45,000 from main distributors like Mistumi and Safaricom. Target market is that youthful group especially students who want to be mobile while at the same time experience the whole computing abilities in a device.

It’s time to tell of my experience with it. First things first let’s see what the device got on board.

iSurf Tablet specifications:

• Windows 8.1 with Bing
• 10 inch IPS Display, 1280 x 800 pixels
• Intel Atom Z3735D Quad Core CPU Clocked at 1.8 GHz
• Intel HD Graphics
• 32GB Internal Storage, expandable by 32GB via microSD
• 2GB RAM
• Windows 8.1 With Bing
• Full Touch, 10 Touch Points
• USB, Bluetooth 4.0, G-Sensor
• 2MP front and 2MP rear cameras, Autofocus
• 7900mAh battery
• Keyboard stand.

 What comes inside the box?

Inside the box we got the 10 inch tablet, the keyboard stand, USB On the go cable (you use that to plug in a flash disk or external storage via USB), microUSB cable, pin charger, 1 year Office 356 subscription code for one PC or Mac and 1 tablet.

Tablet design and features

The iSurf Primo comes with a keyboard stand out of the box, that’s one of the guides as to what the device is meant to be used for. Actual computing and a replacement of your average light laptops. Sometime back Netbooks were a thing, but as tablets went on becoming mainstream, netbooks slowly started taking a backseat in computing. Now more and more designs and form factors are coming out to get the tablet more into the productivity side. It has been mainly a media consumption and entertainment device. Tides are shifting.

The iSurf, is basically a budget version of Microsoft’s Surface Pro. The whole design of accommodating as much as possible, it does that as compared to the average tablet. The keyboard stand has a chiclet keyboard with a trackpad complete with an armrest. It also snaps on to the tablet via a magnetic strip and gets supported in the back by the stand. This makes it an ideal buy for a mobile tablet/laptop for when you want to be light.
Ports available include SIM card slot, power port, microUSB Slot (doesn’t charge though), microSD slot, mini HDMI slot and a 3.5 mm audio jack slot. Oh, and add the power button to complete the list of elements on the left side of the tablet. The top is where the volume rocker is while the 5MP camera is in the rear, it has a VGA front camera. The back (the review device we got is black) has a black matte finish that looks good but once in a while will pick up finger-print smudges. These can be wiped easily though.

One downside of the tablet is that it doesn’t have sensors to detect when the keyboard dock is on to take the screen to sleep. So if you do not press the power button to get that done manually the keyboard will touch the display and open up or close applications on the screen.

It has the Realtek 802.11n Wireless adapter that does function well but will be limited when there is a 5GHz frequency. This should not bother anyone if you are in most wireless networks, but at events where there is thousands of people like at international conferences they tend to beam the 5GHz frequency and that means you will not be connected.

The display has a 1200 x 800 pixels resolution on a 10 inch display, and I cannot complain at all at the output. You will watch 720p HD videos quite comfortably, play games on it, read books off the kindle app and do co much you would on a touch PC. It comes in handy in that you can move with it in your hand, leave the charger at home and have a comfortable 8 hours of work. Reading Kindle e-books is also easy in bed or at a reception when you detatch it from the keyboard dock. It has WiFi and 3G capabilities so it will be self sufficient in terms of internet when you are on the move. Just plug in a microSIM and you will be good to go.

The 2 mp cameras front and rear are not much to talk about and in low light you will have quite pixelated images. Tablets are not meant for that though, they are meant for video calls so the camera output is quite sufficient for that purpose. Should you choose to be that person who goes with tablets to weddings make sure you take the photos in good light, otherwise you won’t have good pics at the wedding reception.

Sound output is also quite good for a tablet, so those who work while listening to music can get good sound quality when listening off the tablet’s speakers or via earphones.

Is this 2 in one iSurf Primo Tablet for you?

The positioning of this tablet is on point and it covers all bases. In Africa especially, you won’t have reliable WiFi everywhere, so the 3G card slot will do you good. It was not a good idea to limit charging to the pin charger as should you forget your charger home you cannot have a quick solution with the microUSB slot.

The keyboard experience is good, of course for me coming from a standard keyboard there was a slight learning curve with the more compressed keys, but once you train your fingers where to expect the keys then you can hit record word per minutes with this. It will work well on the desktop, but if you go to an event where you sit in theater mode, you can either use it as the standard tablet or place a magazine on the keyboard stand to position it in the center. This is where the Surface Pro keyboard would come in handy as it gets support from both thighs when seated. This one gets lost in the gap between the thighs.

Outside of that, it’s that tablet you can buy when you have a PC in the office or even another main laptop and feel like it still has a spot on it’s own. In this day and age where we are connected, days of unlimited cloud storage, a 3G and WiFi tablet with a keyboard, running full Windows 8.1 and promising a good day of battery life.

Shoot us a comment down here in the comments section if you have feedback, an opinion or any general question regarding the iSurf Primo. You could even give us feedback on the way we did the review. Did we give you much foundation to know the tablet?

Full Story → iSurf Primo IS1834ICT 10 Inch Windows Tablet Review

The Microsoft Lumia 535

Microsoft announced the Lumia 535 on last week, and Techweez has managed to get an exclusive hands on look at it. You may wonder why release Redmond decided to release another affordable Lumia device when the current product range seems to have all price points covered with the recent Lumia 530 (KES 11,000), Lumia 630 (KES 16,000), as well as last year’s Lumia 520 (KES 10,000) and Lumia 625 (KES 22,000). As the first Lumia device sans Nokia branding, the 535 continues the Nokia tradition of defining new products at amazing value points.

Let’s get this out of the way, when you hold the first Lumia 535, you will not believe that this feature packed device is priced at the MSRP of $140 (before taxes and subsidies). In summary, the Lumia 535 has a triple threat of “fives”, what Microsoft dubs the “5x5x5″:

• 5 inch qHD (960×540) IPS Display with Gorilla Glass 3 scratch resistance)
• 5 MP Wide angle Front Facing Camera
• 5 MP rear facing camera with LED flash
• Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 with “Denim” Firmware
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 Quad core (with an Adreno 305 GPU)
• 1 GB RAM
• 8GB Storage + microSD slot (expandable to 128GB)
• Full suite of Microsoft services (Skype, OneDrive, Office, etc.).

For full details on specs, see our earlier post.

Device Ergonomics and Build

At only 8.8 mm thick and with curved corners and edges, the Lumia 535 feels great in the hand. Even though it sports a larger screen than the Lumia 920 (5 inches versus 4.5), it is the same width, marginally taller and much lighter than the first Lumia powerhouse device. At 141 grams, the Lumia 535 is also a full 50 grams lighter than the Lumia 920.

The device build is solid using polycarbonate materials. The replaceable shell (which comes in 5 colors) fits snugly to the phone but is yet easy to remove. Underneath, you’ll find the removable 1905 mAh lithium-ion battery that is rated for 13 hours of continuous talk time on a 3G network. (Full battery tests will come in our full review).

The Lumia 535 comes with the Smart Dual SIM system. This allows you to simultaneously use two SIM cards so you can use an Orange SIM for your Data, and a Safaricom SIM for calls and messaging. As a newcomer to Dual SIM, I can already state that It wil be hard to go back to a Single SIM phone.

Camera

The 535 brings imaging features that have not been available at this price point. The tweaked 5MP rear facing camera comes with a single LED flash (absent on the Lumia 520, Lumia 530 and Lumia 630). The camera lens is slightly protruded (like the Lumia 1520). This helps keep the rest of the device slim. In my initial shots, the Lumia 535 camera is quite impressive with fast auto focus times and great color reproduction. Though we will test the camera to the extreme over the next few weeks, it appears that the Lumia Denim update has made large strides with imaging.

The standout feature of this device is the 5 MP wide angle Front facing camera. This is the same camera that the Super Selfie Lumia 730 has. This lens makes captures those moments with your friends in great detail. It also enables you to have great SKYPE calls.

Software

Lumia 535 has a 5 inch screen

The Lumia 535 comes with Windows Phone 8.1 update 1 and the Lumia Denim Firmware. This version of the Windows Phone software adds:

• Live Folders – you can drag and drop live tiles into a dynamic folder that will automatically update when the Tiles in that folder update.
• Apps Corner – You can create a specific start screen that’s allows access to only the apps that you choose. This would work well in a workplace environment where you’re issuing phones to employees
• SMS Merge and Forwarding
• Consumer VPN
• Improved IE Browsing.

In fact the combination of the 5 MP Front Camera, Dual SIM capability, the 5 inch screen, the productive Microsoft services such as Office, One Note, Skype, Lync and VPN access makes the Lumia 535 a great choice as a corporate device.

Though Microsoft has not provided a definite release date or price for our market, it’s safe to say that no matter what price point you are looking for, the Lumia device range (Lumia 530, Lumia 630, Lumia 730, Lumia 830, Lumia 930, Lumia 1320 or Lumia 1520)  including the Lumia 535, has you covered for the coming festive season.

Full Story → Hands On With The Lumia 535: TechWeez First Impression

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Full Story → Photography with the Lumia 535: Low Tier Price, Upper Tier Experience

Full Story → Microsoft Lumia 535 Full Review: The New Standard for Affordable Smartphones

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