Here I am, almost a full year later when Howard asked me if I wanted to try out the new Motorola 360 2nd Gen. I immediately said yes because I still use my 360 Gen 1 daily.

So let me get into this with you and come at this from a slightly different angle then the other 2:
Howard Reviewed the 2nd Gen 360 already. He basically gave it 3.5 out of 5 saying it could look better and was expensive.

acurrie also had a look and shared his thoughts as well and being a self admittedly non wearable guy didn't really like it.

Bollocks to them I say! I am a wearables guy when it comes to watches. ...

When I first saw the Motorola 360 I immediately made a conscious decision that this was the best looking Android watch that would be available by far. At the time of the announcements / internet leaks and various other media outlets we basically had the LG G watch, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, and the Pebble off the top of my head. None of these looked as svelte as Motorola's 360.

The long road of its availability was another story. As seems to be the case with most internet announcements the path from pictures and teaser videos, even from Motorola themselves, was a long one. Low and behold the Motorola 360 is "here." I say "here" tentatively because it is still in relatively short supply at Canadian Brick and Mortar stores and even Motorola Canada's own web page has it as "coming soon."

Regardless, I have had the Stone Grey Moto 360 for the last week and wanted to discuss its strengths and weaknesses with everyone.

Let me preface this firstly by saying that I do in fact wear a watch daily. So to put on the Motorola 360 wasn't an issue. Just a swap out of my daily routine.
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First and foremost I'd like to thank Limefuel for providing this case for review.

Let me start by stating the obvious.
I Love my Nexu5. Love.

I've had S3's, S4's and Note 3's and I've enjoyed all of them, but the Nexu5 they aren't.
As much as I can understand and see the value that manufacturers place in putting their own touches to Android it drives me nuts.
I want pure, unadulterated Google Android goodness. To be quite honest, Google almost always refuses to give that to me / us. Not so with the Nexu5. Finally we'd have a powerful spec'd phone with the goods to back up the vanilla Android OS we've been lusting for.

With fevered anticipation I scoured www.howardforums.com and the general web at large for news and info prior to the launch of the Nexu5. As each day and week passed I was convinced that it would have a 3000mah option on the battery. "the G2 has it, LG makes the G2, so why wouldn't they include it" was the logic I had at the time, and it was sound logic.

the Nexu5 finally launched and instantly threw me into phone nerd tech rage when it was confirmed it would pack a 2300mah cell.
"2300mah, WHAT! Again!" I shouted towards the heavens with a clenched fist wondering what bean counter approved this battery. Why wasn't the 3000mah battery in the 32 gig model at least. I want more memory, and arguably more battery so make a slightly thicker model with 3000mah on board. Bah, all thoughts were in vain.

Should've
Could've
Would've.

Limefuel has stepped up with their L28N5 battery case to address our concerns friends. I'm going to assume that many of us here want more battery life from our phones, so that's a safe assumption to make.

Howard approached Lime Fuel for a unit to review and they so graciously shipped one for review so let's get to the brass tax here.
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I'd like to thanks TELUS for providing Howardforums.com the review unit of the Samsung Galaxy Gear first and foremost, so thank you TELUS.

When the Samsung Galaxy Gear was announced I had the same reaction as i'm sure many of you did. "What, why, what's the point?" Once those thoughts settled and I had moved past them I started thinking if I had one, how would I use it? Would I take advantage of all its features and would it really impact my daily life enough to warrant its pretty steep entry price?

I asked Howard if he had one that I could review because that's always easier then spending my $ on something I may just not like and low and behold, here we are!

First things first, let's get this out of the way.
Do you wear a watch currently?
Yes? Carry on then.
No? Nothing for you to see here, move along.

Why do I say this so abruptly?
Quite honestly, if you don't wear a watch now and you're interested in a smart watch the Galaxy Gear may not be for you. Firstly, there's the well known "issue" of it working with Samsung only hardware so all you HTC / Nexus / Blackberry / Nokia and all need not apply. Secondly, this isn't a small watch. I have fairly large wrists and I found even for me it was a big large. However, style is personal and some love huge watches. 50mm watch sizing shows there's a market for that. Now don't get me wrong, the Gear is not a 50mm watch, but for me it wore like one. Big, brass, bold and it got attention.

So with all that out of the way let's get this party started.
For this review I had the Gear paired with my Note 3 for those interested.
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Like so many of us here, I grabbed the Samsung Galaxy S4 for many reasons:

1. I was bored of my Nexus 4
2. I liked my S3 back when I had it but wanted a bit more battery power
3. refer to #1
4. it was the new, must-have phone (that and the HTC One)

I was truly hoping that the S4 would package in a 3000mah battery back when it was announced. On baited breath, I waited and waited and waited. Finally, as the S4 got closer to launch, rumors started flying around like seagulls being chased by my kid brother at the beach. Was it going to have a huge battery? Would it last me an entire day or even, gasp, MORE?

Now we all know that the battery packaged with the S4 is 2600mah. That itself, is a fairly large battery, but I was convinced that it was already doomed to last me 1/2 a day at most. Pushing a 1080p screen, 13mp camera and a Quad-Core 1.9Ghz processor, as well as all the other Samsung accouterments they tend to package in. I wasn't so confident it would last me.

Regardless, I bought the S4 anyway and put it through its paces. It did get me through my average day, but nowadays I have very low usage. I check bookface once in a while, Message on bookface messenger and use Google Reader, now Feedly, to check up on my news. Nothing too crazy compared to my usage a few years ago but I use data. I'm always using data. LTE juicy goodness.

By the time I was ready to go home, I'd have 20-40% battery left on my average day, and that simply wasn't enough to get me through the evening. Tired of always trying to top it up during the Day, I turned my sights to the MugenPower Extended battery + door for the S4

I knew full well it was going to take the S4's thin lines and bloat them up, but I didn't care. I wanted functionality over form. All these phones today are 8-10mm thick which is great, but I'd rather have a phone that is 12-14mm and stuff extra battery in there. Maybe that's just me, but I prefer phones that can just go and go and go.
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Howard gave me the Rogers LTE Rocket hub to put through it's paces and post up a review. How could I say no?
1> it's LTE
2> it's LTE data that isn't counting towards my 6 gig package
3> refer to #2

So with the Rocket Hub in hand I happily trotted down Free LTE MAD SEEG lane to test some speeds, download some stuff* and generally pillage and plunder the Rogers LTE network.
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More juicy updates for apps that I frequently use!
I love app updates, they make me happy. Let's dive right in:

LogMeIn
If you haven't tried or used LogMeIn on your PC yet, I highly recommend it. You can remotely and securely access your PC from your smartphone, or the Web at anytime as long as your PC is powered on.
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A few key apps that I enjoy using on iOS have received updates today so let's get right in.

Starbucks Canada
nothing to crazy here, very small revision that brings "Performance Enhancements and bug fixes" which seems to be the standard maintenance release
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The newest update to My Xbox LIVE app for iOS is improved functionality for your iPad.
I don't have an iPad so I ...

The Starbucks app for Canada was updated for iOS.
It now has the ability to manage and reload on the card screen, making it easier to spend your money
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WorldIRC alerted me to a story over at Mobilesyrup that finally has some light at the end of the tunnel for the "My Telus" app.


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Twitter has received a revision bump to 4.3


it Brings:
Expand Tweets

Since we introduced expanded Tweets on twitter.com, we’ve added several new partners like MLB and C-SPAN to a diverse and growing list of media sources. Starting today, you can also expand Tweets on Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. When you tap a Tweet linking to a Kickstarter project, for example, you can play its video directly from the Tweet details view in your app. You can also read article summaries when you tap Tweets linking to sources like The Atlantic or play videos or view images when you expand Tweets linking to websites like Etsy and Vimeo. This new experience will roll out gradually to web, iPhone and Android users.
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I use Facebook Messenger daily. I find it to be one of the easiest ways to communicate, cross platform with all my friends.

I generally find the app stable and usable but any minor improvement is one I"ll take gladly.
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If you use Google Chrome as your browser you'll be happy to hear that Chrome is now available for iOS.
All the award winning features are included including full sync of all your bookmarks and open tabs from your desktop PC or other devices that are synced to Chrome.
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LogMeIn has received an update. I use it all the time to remotely control my PC from the web and from my iPhone when I need to do some remote computing such as downloading the latest iOS version while I'm at work so It'll be primed for when I get home
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If you're into podcasting and keeping up with your favorite sites and online persona's thoughts and ramblings you'll be happy to know that Apple has released a new app called Podcasts
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The Facebook messenger app has received another bump in the upgrade status.
The update brings quite a few things to the app making a great communication app even better being that it's across multiple platforms. PC, iOS, Android and BlackBerry.
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Hot off the press of the Twitter Blog comes the latest update in the twitterverse:

The ability to get expanded tweets and rich information directly within twitter itself.
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