Even with the economy relaxing somewhat, bank loans are still a little
tight and VC money is not always available for small businesses. So SME
entrepreneurs today are seeking more creative ways to obtain capital to
finance their business. One such new method to secure funds is from the
appropriately named platform, Kabbage.
For those addicted to the HBO’s hit series, Homeland,
the writers have inserted drones into their plot lines almost as if
they were dark villainous anti-heroes. Last season, lead
character Sargeant Brody sought revenge for a drone attack gone sideways
killing innocent Iraqi children. This season the unmanned aerial
vehicle is now used as "eyes on the ground" allowing Brody to seek
covert asylum in Afghanistan…
For as deliciously rewarding as canning your own fruits and vegetables can be, the actual canning process isn’t all candied rainbows and Martha Stewart smiles; it involves a fair amount of hard work
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Motorola has done its best to deliver a premium experience with an affordable price tag with the Moto G, the little sibling to the higher priced Moto X. Both phones have Google’s stamp all over them, and share a surprising amount in common besides that, too. Best of all, the Moto G is a phone that mostly delivers on its marketing premise, offering an experience that’ll have many doing a double take at that price tag.
Pros
Cons
Motorola’s Moto G is a little on the pudgy side, but it feels at once comfortable and familiar. The matte finish back cases are great for grip, (though terrible for showing wear, as you can see from the photos), and it almost reminds me of the design of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. It also feels heavier than most modern superphones, but only just, and the weight isn’t necessarily a problem, as it adds a feeling of resilience to the Moto G. In many ways, the Moto G’s design harkens back to an era where phones were phones and meant business, and I found myself enjoying that impression.
The one big problem with the design is the mechanism for removing the “removable” back case. You essentially dig in at the spot where the case breaks for the micro USB port, and then pull. Hard. Too hard. My fingers are tender from switching the device between case types, and I really felt I had to go beyond the point of what you could reasonably expect an average consumer to be comfortable with. Still, I honestly don’t think most people will care about switching the backplates beyond maybe doing it once.
The Moto G has a number of unique features, though most of the development of the phone was based on stripping out the inessential and making a phone that just performs well despite a lower cost to build. There’s Moto Care, for instance, which offers instant access to tech support from Motorola staff via instant message or phone; Assist, which offers special modes for Driving, Meeting and Sleeping that change your phone’s behavior with one tap to suit different contexts; and Motorola Migrate, for bringing your old settings, text messages, call history, media and more with you when switching devices.
These features are excellent compared to most glommed on by Android OEMs, if only for the fact that you wouldn’t even know they were there unless you were actively seeking them out. The service app is a genius move considering the audience is likely to be people new to smartphones or advanced mobile devices, and the Assist function is a very handy shortcut for what’s often an arduous series of steps. Migrate isn’t something I got the chance to try out, but it definitely sounds like a value-add for people jumping on the Android bandwagon for the first time.
The Moto G isn’t a $600 superphone, but the times you’re aware of that while using it are surprisingly rare. It moves around the OS smoothly and quickly, for instance. Likewise, it quickly calls up Google Now and delivers speech recognition with the same accuracy and speed as its more expensive cousins. The only place I noticed some lag and slowdown was in the browser, where image-heavy content can cause some stuttering, but only in extreme cases: even photo heavy tumblrs, which are otherwise pretty sleek, behaved well.
The camera on the Moto G isn’t wonderful, but it’s fine for general use, and much better than you’ll find on most other budget smartphones. In a device like this, what I’m expecting from a camera is a workmanlike charm, and that’s what Motorola delivers. It’s a phone where you have to continually call to mind that absurdly low price tag – and when you do that, the photos the Moto G takes look plenty good.
Motorola has done a terrific job with the Moto G’s screen, which is saying a lot coming from me. I’ve never liked how Moto tunes their screens – too contrasty, too saturated for my eye. But this time they haven’t gone overboard in that regard, and they’ve even managed to achieve the same high bar for pixel density that Apple does with its iPhone 5s (326ppi for those paying attention). It’s not full HD, the clarion call of the current crop of Android superphones, but it’s a far sight better than anything even in the same ballpark pricewise, and at any rate, text and images are still going to appear stunningly crisp on that screen.
Again, it still goes a little too hard on the color saturation and the excessive contrast, but it’s a big improvement for Motorola devices in general, and a true feat on a device at this price.
The Moto G earns its stripes with the battery, leaving aside its other nice attributes. It’s got “all day” life, according to Motorola, and that can translate to a lot depending on your usage patterns. I found that with light usage, I was getting around three days out of a single charge on average, which, in the age of smartphones, is just crazy.
The battery life on the Moto G makes it a great candidate for a “throw it in a bag, forget about it until you travel” phone, since in low power mode it can stretch its standby life to around a week. Under heavier use it returns to the realm of results achieved by other devices (but still beats most of them) and will definitely get you through the day. But again, in a budget phone, to have this kind of battery power is amazing.
The Moto G is remarkable device. It’s arguably the less talented sibling of the flash-bang Moto X released by the Google-owned smartphone maker earlier this year, but it’s more noteworthy because it offers so much at such a stunning price point. Make no mistake: I’ll still be going back to a top tier device as my everyday phone of choice, but if I didn’t prioritize tech in my personal budget, or if I didn’t have the means, I’d be more than happy to use the Moto G day in and day out as my daily driver.
Two years ago, Windows 8 birthed what feels like a thousand different varieties of twisting, bending, hybrid laptops. In the vast army of oddities, only a few stood out as being actually good. Of those select few, the Lenovo Yoga was our favorite. Now it’s back with a refresh, and it’s better than ever.
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There’s no more timely holiday gift for a dog this year than a Duck Dynasty t-shirt or jacket and a toy. Quaker Pet Group, one of my favorite dog toy makers, licensed the A&E Duck Dynasty
name and has gone absolutely quacky creating some really great
high-quality shirts, jackets, duck toys, and even realistic Duck Dynasty
hats and beards for your special dog – Family Certified. Redneck Approved!
The full-frame camera has been synonymous with the most high-end DSLRs—the biggest, the priciest. Not anymore. A new breed of camera that’s light on its feet but packs the best image quality outside of pro-grade gear is here, and it starts with Sony’s new A7 series
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A New Zealand break-out singer from New Zealand is out front again this
holiday season. Back in August when she released her successfully
popular top forty pop hit, "Royals," she confused the public with a
somewhat contradictory world debut. While on the one hand, she hid
behind the pseudonym ‘Lorde‘ to protect her anonymity, on the other. . .
Mom & Pop shops, sometimes derogatorily referred to as the dinosaurs of the retail
industry have of recent date been able to exert some clout during the
holiday buying season, at least for one day out of the year. Founded by
American Express, since 2010, the "Shop Small" movement (aka Small Business Saturday®) …
Back in October, Nokia announced its first Windows RT 8.1 tablet, the Lumia 2520, that would attempt to bring the very best the company has to offer from their line of impressive Windows Phone 8 smartphones to the Windows 8 tablet world. The Lumia 2520 is Nokia’s first foray into the 10.1-inch tablet market as it offers a 1080p IPS display featuring +Gorilla Glass 2 technology, a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a 6.7MP main camera with a Carl Zeiss lens that is capable of capturing video at 1080p at 60fps and a rather large 8000mAh battery. The Lumia 2520 also supports 4G LTE, which means if you have your own data plan for the tablet, you can use it while you’re on the go through your wireless carrier.
The Lumia 2520 reminded us of the Surface 2 when we first saw it as it looks to borrow some inspiration from Microsoft’s tablet, although Nokia certainly keeps the overall design and look of the tablet in line with its Lumia smartphones. With that said, let’s take a look and see just how the Lumia 2520 fairs as Nokia’s first 10.1-inch Windows RT 8.1 tablet. (more…)
Nokia Lumia 2520 Review original content from Ubergizmo. 
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