Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/_rG8RnjU0D4/
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Great Ideas! How to Create a Cozy Reading Nook for Your Kids
Apartment Therapy's Maxwell Ryan shares his best ideas.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Apple said to be ditching Samsung in favor of TSMC for A7 CPU
The fact that Apple relies upon Samsung, its arch-rival, for a healthy amount of its components, is one of the biggest paradoxes in the tech industry. Still, if The Korea Times is to believed, the unhappy marriage between the two could rapidly be heading towards a divorce. While Apple has previously splashed out several billion per year on Samsung components, the newspaper is suggesting that Cupertino will turn to TSMC to produce its next generation of mobile CPUs -- a rumor that's been making the rounds recently. It's source, and executive at one of Samsung's partners, claims the manufacturer has been cut out of development of the A7 CPU, adding a little bit more credence to those claims. What's more, the same source reports that TSMC is gearing up its 20-nanometer production line to crank out the hardware ready for 2014.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Korea Times
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lRMs8OUpQPI/
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Young children have grammar and chimpanzees don't
Apr. 10, 2013 ? A new study from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that children as young as 2 understand basic grammar rules when they first learn to speak and are not simply imitating adults.
The study also applied the same statistical analysis on data from one of the most famous animal language-acquisition experiments -- Project Nim -- and showed that Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was taught sign language over the course of many years, never grasped rules like those in a 2-year-old's grammar.
The study was conducted by Charles Yang, a professor of linguistics in the School of Arts and Sciences and of computer science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Linguists have long debated whether young children actually understand the grammar they are using or are simply memorizing and imitating adults. One of the difficulties in resolving this debate is the inherent limitations of the data; 2-year-old children have very small vocabularies and thus don't provide many different examples of grammar usage.
"While a child may not say very much, that doesn't mean that they don't know anything about language," Yang said, "Despite the superficial lack of diversity of speech patterns, if you study it carefully and formulate what having a grammar would entail within those limitations, even young children seem very much on target."
Yang's approach was to look at one area of grammar that young children do regularly display: article usage, or whether to put "a" or "the" before a noun. He found a sufficient number of examples of article usage in the nine data sets of child speech he analyzed, but there was another challenge in determining if these children understood the grammar rules they were using.
"When children use articles, they're pretty much error free from day one," Yang said. "But being error free could mean that they've learned the grammar of article usage in English, or they have memorized and are imitating adults who wouldn't make mistakes either."
To get around this problem, Yang took advantage of the fact that most nouns can be paired with either the definite or indefinite article to produce a grammatically correct phrase, but the resulting phrases have different meanings and usages. This makes the combinations vary in frequency.
For example, "the bathroom" is a more common phrase than "a bathroom," while "a bath" is more common than "the bath." This difference has nothing to do with grammar but rather the frequency with which phrases containing those combinations are used. There are simply more opportunities to use phrases like "I need to go to the bathroom" or "the dog needs a bath" than there are phrases like "there's a bathroom on the second floor" or "the bath was too cold."
This means that the likelihood of using a particular article with a given noun is not 50/50; it is weighted toward either "the" or "a." Such lopsided combination tendencies can be characterized by general statistical laws of language, which Yang used to develop a mathematical model for predicting the expected diversity of noun phrases in a sample of speech.
This model was able to differentiate between the expected diversity if children were using grammar, as compared to if they were simply imitating adults. Due to the differences of these frequencies, an adult might only say "the bathroom" -- never saying "a bathroom" -- to a child, but that child would still be able to say "a bathroom" if he or she understood the underlying grammar.
"When you compare what children should say if they follow grammar against what children do say, you find it to almost indistinguishable," Yang said. "If you simulate the expected diversity when a child is only repeating what adults say, it produces a diversity much lower than what children actually say."
As a comparison, Yang applied the same predictive models to the set of Nim Chimpsky's signed phrases, the only data set of spontaneous animal language usage publicly available. He found further evidence for what many scientists, including Nim's own trainers, have contended about Nim: that the sequences of signs Nim put together did not follow from rules like those in human language.
Nim's signs show significantly lower diversity than what is expected under a systematic grammar and were similar to the level expected with memorization.
This suggests that true language learning is -- so far -- a uniquely human trait, and that it is present very early in development.
"The idea that children are only imitating adults' language is very intuitive, so it's seen a revival over the last few years," Yang said. "But this is strong statistical evidence in favor of the idea that children actually know a lot about abstract grammar from an early age."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- C. Yang. Ontogeny and phylogeny of language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216803110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/Ked33y6puUA/130410131327.htm
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Crews find bodies of two buried children
STANLEY, N.C. (AP) ? Rescuers on Monday recovered the bodies of two young cousins buried when a wall of dirt fell on them while they were playing in a hole at a home construction site in North Carolina.
The bodies of the 6-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy were pulled from a 24-foot-deep pit in the town of Stanley, outside of Charlotte.
"We've been working a horrific scene here," Lincoln County Emergency Services spokesman Dion Burleson told reporters gathered near the rural site on a two-lane road dotted with modular and mobile homes.
Crews had been searching for the children since Sunday afternoon, when the boy's father called 911 to report the collapse. Officials were on the scene within minutes but couldn't get to the children.
The father had been digging with a backhoe on the site earlier in the day, Sheriff David Carpenter said. He would not say what was being built or if the man was doing it alone or had professional help. He did say authorities didn't know of any permits that had been issued for the work or plans detailing the project.
Burleson described the pit as 20 feet by 20 feet with a sloped entrance leading down to the 24-foot bottom. The children were at the bottom of the pit retrieving a child-sized pickaxe when the walls fell in on them, Carpenter said.
He said his deputies would continue to investigate what happened. Authorities have not released the names of the father or the children.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Carpenter later said deputies had not yet interviewed the family living in the home but planned to follow up on neighbors' reports that the man was excavating the two-story pit to build some sort of a protective bunker.
"They were so distraught we hope to be able to talk to them today and come up with some information on that," Carpenter said. "It's a very large hole. It would look to be something like that, but I don't know. ... We're going to find out exactly what his intentions were."
He said deputies would be speaking with county planning and zoning officials about any potential building code violations at the site.
Neighbor Bradley Jones said the children often played in the pit when the boy's father was working there. Jones, who said he works in construction, said there was no structure to support the pit's tall dirt walls and that he questioned the man about the hole's depth.
"I told Chelsea not to go in," Jones said, referring to advice he gave his teenage daughter, who babysat the children. "It was dangerous. There was nothing to reinforce those walls."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crews-bodies-2-nc-children-trapped-dirt-124557541.html
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Leaked Paper Reveals Wide Reach of America's Drone Killings
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Carbon dioxide released from burning fuel today goes back into new fuels tomorrow
Apr. 8, 2013 ? The search for ways to use megatons of carbon dioxide that may be removed from industrial smokestacks during efforts to curb global warming has led to a process for converting that major greenhouse gas back into the fuel that released it in the first place. Research on the project was a topic in New Orleans on April 8 at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"It may seem like trying to put the genie back into the bottle," Wojciech Lipi?ski, Dr. Sc.Techn.,said. "But it already has been proven with laboratory scale equipment. The process uses three of the world's most abundant and inexpensive resources. Sunlight is the energy source and carbon dioxide and water are the raw materials."
Lipi?ski also discussed another project that uses inexpensive calcium oxide, made from ordinary limestone, to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) before it leaves the smokestacks of coal-fired electric power stations. The CO2 reacts with calcium oxide, forming calcium carbonate, the same material in blackboard chalk, some calcium dietary supplements and some antacids. The calcium carbonate then goes into a reactor that removes the CO2 and regenerates the calcium oxide for another encounter with CO2.
Both processes use highly concentrated sunlight as the energy source. The test facility built at the University of Minnesota by Lipi?ski and his colleague Jane Davidson, Ph.D., is a high-flux solar simulator consisting of seven 6,500-watt light bulbs and mirrors that focus the light into a spot about 2 inches in diameter. Temperatures in that spot can reach 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, way beyond the melting point of steel.
In smokestack process, that heat would remove the carbon dioxide from calcium carbonate and regenerate the calcium oxide. In the genie-out-of-the-bottle CO2 process, that heat fosters breakdown of carbon dioxide and water to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen, the two components of "synthesis gas" or "syngas."
The name comes from its time-tested use -- for more than a century -- in making or synthesizing other products. Syngas can be converted into synthetic hydrocarbons, for instance, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel or aviation kerosene. Jet fuel is already industrially produced in significant quantities from syngas obtained from coal and natural gas. Lipi?ski and his colleagues are developing prototype reactors to demonstrate syngas production from water and captured carbon dioxide in the solar simulator. A full-scale commercial facility would use a field of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central reactor, similar to the emerging concentrated solar power, or CSP, facilities that now use heat from sunlight to produce electricity.
Lipi?ski noted that the sunlight-to-synfuels technology could be the basis of "carbon-neutral" energy production, in which CO2 is reused, with the same amount released into the air from burning of fossil fuels removed and put back into synfuels. With their similarity in composition to conventional fuels and long history of use, synfuels made with the solar process also would not require a new infrastructure.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via Newswise.
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/BNXzlEN75YM/130408152855.htm
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013
North Korea cuts another tie to South; UN says country 'cannot go on like this'
Lee Jin-Man / AP
A South Korean worker returns with electronic products from North Korea's Kaesong industrial park, which was operated jointly between the two nations. On Monday, the North said it was withdrawing its workers from the park and suspending all operations there.
By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News
North Korea ratcheted up its talk of war Monday by announcing that it was withdrawing its workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which had been run jointly with the South.
"The DPRK will withdraw all its employees from the zone. It will temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether it will allow its existence or close it," the government's official news agency, KCNA, quoted?Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying.
The North added that "how the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude" of South Korean leaders. While that wording might seem to indicate that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could be placated by the South with diplomacy, such statements from the North are common and have not been followed by attempts to negotiate.
Last week, the North stopped allowing South Korean workers into the industrial park as it increased its war rhetoric. Monday's statement called the park a "theater of confrontation."
As North Korea releases propaganda videos showing dogs attacking effigies of the South Korean defense minister, South Korean officials are preparing their citizens for the worst, issuing pamphlets outlining what to do in case of a nuclear attack. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Such talk has sparked strong reaction globally.
Army Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, on Monday canceled a trip to Washington to testify before Congress on budget matters. The decision was considered "a prudent measure" given the "ongoing tension on the peninsula," according to a military statement.
In a visit to The Hague, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed his concern Monday, particularly about reports that the North planned to carry out another nuclear test in violation of Security Council resolutions.
"I have been repeatedly urging the DPRK to refrain from taking any further provocative measures," Ban said in a news conference, referring to the country by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "This [would be a] provocative measure."
"The DPRK cannot go on like this, confronting and challenging the authority of the Security Council and directly challenging the whole international community," he added.
Confrontation worse than Chernobyl?
On Friday, North Korea contacted embassies and said it could not guarantee their safety after April 10 in the event of a confrontation.
The cryptic?communique?was followed by?Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying that Moscow was in close contact with the United States, China, South Korea and Japan over a request by the North to consider the possibility of evacuating their embassies, according to Russian news agencies.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Friday that North Korea?s actions were ?part of an escalating pattern of hot rhetoric.?
NBC's Jim Maceda reports from the Korean Peninsula where tensions are ratcheting up following aggressive statements made by North Korea's government.
?We?ve seen this sort of pattern in the past,? she said. ?What seems to be somewhat different is the level of the rhetoric and the pace of provocation.?
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking Monday at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover, said Russia was "worried about the escalation on the Korean Peninsula," according to ITV News, NBC's British partner.
"If, God forbid, something happens, Chernobyl, which we all know a lot about, may seem like a child's fairy tale," Putin said. "Is there such a threat or not? I think there is. I would urge everyone to calm down."
Putin also praised the U.S. for postponing the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in California.
"I think we should all thank the U.S. leadership for this step," Putin said. "I hope it will be noticed by our North Korean partners, that certain conclusions will be drawn, everyone will calm down and start joint work to ease the situation."
There was no immediate U.S. reaction to the North's statement.
Related:
China warns against troublemaking on Korean Peninsula
South Korea backs off statement about possible missile launch
Scenarios: What happens if North Korea gets out of hand?
?
This story was originally published on Mon Apr 8, 2013 7:05 AM EDT
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HTC seen ?losing the window of opportunity? with HTC One after component shortages
By Iain Rogers MADRID, April 7 (Reuters) - If Saturday's La Liga match at home to Real Mallorca was a test to see if Barcelona could cope without Lionel Messi, they passed it with flying colours. The World Player of the Year was ruled out with a damaged hamstring, the first league game he has missed through injury since the 2010-11 season, but Barca made light of his absence with a crushing 5-0 victory that maintained their 13-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid with eight games left. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/htc-seen-losing-window-opportunity-htc-one-component-182544158.html
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Christian mourners, mob, police clash in Egypt
CAIRO (AP) ? A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot Sunday at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt's Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes over the weekend.
The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.
The attacking mob, described by witnesses as residents of the area, forced the marchers to take shelter inside the sprawling cathedral complex. They also showered the protesters with rocks from the roofs of nearby buildings, according to witness Ibrahim el-Shareef.
Mohammed Sultan, director of Egypt's national ambulance services, said at least 17 people were wounded in the clashes.
Riot police later arrived, firing tear gas at the Christians and the mob. Several tear gas canisters landed inside the cathedral's grounds, causing a panic among women and children who attended the funeral.
Video footage aired live on the private ONTV network showed young men on the roof of a building adjacent to the cathedral firing handguns in toward the compound.
The four Christians, along with a Muslim, were killed in clashes on Saturday in a town north of Cairo.
Inside the cathedral, several thousand mourners chanted slogans against Morsi, calling on the Egyptian leader to step down. They shouted "Leave!" and "This is our country, we will not leave."
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 90 million people. They have long complained of discrimination. Attacks against Christians have increased since the ouster two years ago of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/christian-mourners-mob-police-clash-egypt-154013162.html
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Saturday, April 6, 2013
ThL W5 Android 4.0 Smart Phone MTK6577 Dual core 4.7 Inch IPS Screen 1GB RAM 3G GPS White
After reading a few reviews, I decided to do a PRL update right out of the box. The call quality has been great, and I've not once encountered the 'radio interface resource shortage' error. The 3G is fast, the GPS is wonderful, and again, for those who say the battery life is bad, I've been able to go 2 days before recharging. Of course, I don't live on my phone, because I do have a life. (Posted on 3/26/13)
Very very good performances on games and web browsing and for less than ?200 !!
This is easily the best deal I've ever made. I love my phone :) (Posted on 3/23/13)
It's a great phone to have because you will keep up to date with the Android builds. You were able to take advantage of 4.0, 4.1 and probably 4.2 before most other phones are even considered to have it. Owning this phone means you get the Google Experience.
I'm also not a fan of the back case on the phone. It's built out of plastic and seems a bit slippery, so get a case or you'll be dropping the phone. Also, the case has little plastic tabs that snap into place. If you frequently remove your batter I can see how these plastic tabs can break.
Finally, the camera. It's fast, it can take amazing pictures. It's only 8MP. It's a bit low in the world of "super phones", but it'll focus and take a picture faster than most of the 13MP cameras out there. So, you have to weigh out the pros and cons of that one for yourself. (Posted on 3/19/13)
The battery exceeds my expectations, getting through a full day is no problem for me using web, email, text, google talk, streaming music via BT, checking weather, reading Kindle, you name it. Average 12 hours or so battery for me with 20% or so remaining at the time I plug it in at night.
The screen! The screen is gorgeous and very fluid. The only app I have found a problem using the screen is the built in web browser. There is some minor vertical tearing, where one half of the screen will update faster than the other when scrolling. No biggie as video and flash works great. Fun fact - this screen is about the size of an iPhone 4, the whole phone! (Posted on 3/18/13)
I love the dual antenna because I have the wireless hotspot on my plan, and it allows my to use the internet on my laptop AND talk on the phone at the same time.
As far as the size of the phone - I'm 6'2", so this thing fits perfectly in my hand and I carry it in my pocket like any other phone I've owned. I usually put it in the seat next to me when I drive because it's just too big to get out of my pocket if someone calls, though. I assume a blue tooth headset would help.
The battery life is great. It gets me all the way through the day without having to plug in and that's with very heavy usage - I've been an Android user for years and I've never had a phone that will do that.
(Posted on 3/12/13)
the touch screen is very sensitive like others have posted.
i think the size is fine i didnt want a large phone to carry around.
so far i havent had any problems with calling and the person said i sounded good
i have dont some texting and that was fine with the android keyboard i turned off swype.
the true test will be when i travel to see how the coverage will be but according the the map if i stay on the main routes i should be ok going from west to the mid west and south. (Posted on 3/11/13)
This phone is at reasonable price of $200. If you look up at any other THL Mobile phone, the 3G newer models run for 2x more. Social networking, email, android marketplace, easy touch screen keyboard, accessibility, good looking phone for being a more affordable end smart phone, responsive ect. Its worth the price. I enjoy it and it was prompt on getting here! love this product and would recommend to a friend. The THL W5 is such a great phone. (Posted on 3/7/13)
I started to use immediately and did not have any problem till today. The flashlight on the back is amazing. so far its great,looks good an works even better,good buy for anyone who wants a budget phone (Posted on 3/6/13)
The screen is bigger than most, the internal components make this phone by far one of the best currently on the market. And whats better is that the new 4.1 software is soon to be released
for this phone on THL, making it even greater than before. you can't deny that this phone is just incredible. (Posted on 3/5/13)
The screen is a nice big size, the UI is easy to use, plus it just got updated to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) . Also the battery has a lot of juice and may last you up to a day , maybe more depending on your usage. The camera takes wonderful shots and the sound if your listening to music isn't bad either.
4.7inch hd display...yup
Expandable storage via sd card ...uh huh.
Motion commands....awesome
Screen shot option. Wicked.
Fully customizable....for sure.
Open android market with lots of free apps that are not garbage. Check check and check
Oh wait......on android you can get all the stuff they sell for less .......almost nothing. ;) (Posted on 3/4/13)
I got the phone on sale for $208 and it is just the best phone I have ever had, although I have not activated it yet (more on this later), at an awesome price. Why haven't I activated it yet? Well, it turns out, this android phone lets you install all kind of apps from the android market via wifi without activating the phone, you can pop in an 8Gb, 16Gb or 32Gb SDHC card and use this as a pretty awesome (and cheap) ipod/iphone substitute. I have installed apps for watching TV shows, read news (USA Today, NYTime, Bloomberg, etc), Pandora radio (sound through the speaker is very full for such a tiny device), GPS navigation/maps, calculators, MS Office documents viewer, a few games, GasBuddy to find cheap gas locally (pretty handy these days), etc. All FREE from the Android market. But, BY FAR, the best applications I installed are Google Voice, which together with SIPDroid (after signing up for a free GoogleVoice account and a free PBXes.org account) allows me to link them together and configure the phone to use VOIP to make my calls through the internet instead of using the limited 300 minutes I would get if I signed up with THL Mobile for $25/month, I can also use it to do unlimited free texting through my Google voice number.
I wanted to do this to make sure I did not go over the 300 minutes and start racking up a huge bill with VM once I activated the phone, but as it turns out, this has worked out so well that I am still undecided as to weather I will need to activate the phone and sign up for the monthly service. Granted, I can only make/receive calls when I am within WIFI range, but, WIFI is so prevalent these days. Many of the establishments a person does business with have free internet access for their customers: Starbucks, Dennys, Mcdonalds, Barnes&nobles, Homedepots, Panera bread, Hooters, highway rest stops, libraries, Krogers, Quiznos, Schlotzsky, FedEx offices, Hotels... the list goes on and on. I also installed a WIFI Analyzer App which shows if there is a free/open WIFI within range and its signal strength. You can get a nice directory of wifi spots in your area here-> [...] which of course does not list all the available ones.
What happens when I'm outside WIFI range? Well, of course I can not make calls, inbound calls go to my GoogleVoice voice mail and as soon as I get into WIFI range and connect, my inbound text messages get delivered and/or I get a notification of a missed call which I can check right away. Obviously not something I would want to use as a business phone, but for personal use when you do not need to be available 24X7 this works great! You also get a great excuse when you don't want to answer someone, later you can say... "Sorry, I was not in WIFI zone...", you can even put that in your answering message. This setup would be great for students who live on campus where they have free access to the campus WIFI network (many of them provide free open WIFI all over campus). All these for $0 a month plus the cost of the phone.
If you feel you need capability to make calls from anywhere in case of emergencies, or for 24X7 availability, then just activate the phone and pay the $25/month. You would get many other benefits which would make this device a very capable business phone. I've read that once activated, you can install an app to make the phone a WIFI hub for up to 4 or 5 devices (supposedly there is an app for that, :-) pun intended, in the android market). This would provide internet service to your WIFI based laptop anywhere. I will investigate this more if/when I activate the phone. I have to admit, it would be fun to be able to go on trips and have internet in the car for my kids ipod touches or laptops while we are on the road. The more they can entertain themselves, the less "are we there yet?, are we there yet?" questions we will get... :-)
Summarizing, if you activate the phone, you get unlimited texting, phone web browsing, tv watching, internet radio, etc. + unlimited internet based calls using the provided unlimited data service + internet for your computer/ipod touches anytime/anywhere. All these for $25/month? Sweeeet! I don't think any carrier can beat that, the closer unlimited everything plan is cricket for $55/month for an android or blackberry phone. ATT, Verizon, etc? $70 and up... THL Mobile uses the Sprint 3G network, so, it's coverage (at least here in Houston) is pretty good.
I hope you find this useful.
Enjoy! (Posted on 2/27/13)
Setup was easy and required a few simple steps to get up and running. I can't comment on customer support because I have had no problems with the phone or the cell service after 3 months of use.
The size is just perfect so it still looks like a phone when you have it up to your ear and not like a mini tablet that you have next to your face. It feels good in the hand, although I will probably get a case because I have big hands and would like a bit more grip.
The processor is more than fast enough to do PHONE related tasks - music, email, web, calls, multitasking. You are not going to be playing high end games on this thing. It opens and closes all apps really fast and allows me to bounce around between them with no lag.
I'm new to Android but had Iphones, Windows Mobile, and Palm phones previously. While I still prefer Apple's OS, Android is great and I'm happy with the amount of customization you can do.
I pull at least a 4-bar 3G signal everywhere I go (I live in the midwest). You should probably check 3G coverage in your area before purchasing. I had a Sprint phone previously so I basically get the same network but at a much lower cost. (Posted on 2/26/13)
Second-using WiFi (or VOIP). During my final 30 days, I decided to try using the phone without activating it. I am a long time user of Google Voice. I have one number that rings my cell (on Sprint), my wife's cell (iPhone on AT&T) and my computer (Google chat). That system works far better than you can imagine. As long as both I and my wife keep our contacts current, caller ID lets us know who should answer the phone over 95% of the time. Besides, the spam filter on Google Voice is worth it alone. I bought Groove IP ($4.99 on Android Market). I did not buy Sipdroid or use PBXes. I set Grove IP up for WiFi only. If you read the instructions, it says to disable the cell phone on Google Voice.A couple minor adjustments on echo cancellation and I am home free. Very impressive.
Now I have three choices. Activate my phone and pay the $35.00/ month-far less than the $69.00/mo. on Sprint. As most minutes will be over WiFi, get the cheapest option. (2)not activate the phone-but lose navigation and emergency use. Or (3) I could buy another phone, activate it, cancel the iPhone and leave it in the car for my wife and leave the unactivated one at home.
My summary: buy this phone, and Groove IP and start saving money!! (Posted on 2/23/13)
First, I read on a review here that I could use SipDroid & assorted complexities to get free cell phone via WiFi service. This path was a no-go. But - just try Groove IP instead! The app costs $4.99 from the Android Market, and you need a (free!) Google Voice account and phone number, which *must* be attached to a [email?protected] account. (My other one didn't work...) Other than that, works great! Set up in minutes, and *none* of it was as mystifying as the no-go Sipdroid route... I think the Sipdroid loophole has simply been closed. But with Groove IP, the cell phone receives and dials calls, direct from the cell phone icon.
Second, it's processor phones in general. It is not true. It was not easy... But I eventually did get this phone to run apps, directly from Adobe Flash Builder 4.6 (debug on device and everything!) To get Adobe AIR itself installed on the phone, just download the AIR SDK from Adobe.com, find the file C:\AdobeAIRSDK\runtimes\air\android\emulator\Runtime.apk, copy it to your cell phone SD card, and install that, with AppInstaller (also available in Android Market free if you don't have it.)
Sorry for the gory details. But I really did buy this phone intending to never buy a contract on it, and use it for Flex -> smartphone development. And for a while there I thought it was a lost cause, or I'd need to delve into rooting arcana. ;) So - yay! (Posted on 2/20/13)
The GPS runs off of google maps so the directions are pretty spot on. The only thing bad about it is that sometimes google maps will fail to load all together. Again, I find that resetting the phone helps.
Internet can also be hit or miss sometime. I think this may be due to the sprint network getting clogged up where I live. You have the option of setting up wi fi for when you are at home. This makes speeds faster and saves data so you won't reach your limit on you 'unlimited' data plan, although it does drain battery life.
Talk and text seems to be good for the most part, with good reception in most areas you would expect your phone to work.
Battery life is a little disappointing. Although its not horrible. Apps, music, gps, etc take a tole on the phone. For this reason I invested in a car charger as well as a back up charger for when I'm not around. Running an app killer or battery saver app will also help you keep your phone juiced.
All in all the price is great considering all the features and the compact size of this phone. (Posted on 2/19/13)
It has a 8 MP camera which is essentially the same as one of the two cameras . To be honest, I've hardly used the 3D picture feature on my THL so for all intents and purposes this is the same thing. The camera is also flush with the back, not jutting out.
Performance is good, and while it has only 1GB of RAM it's really good enough for anything except maybe some 3D games. If you care about such things, then yeah- get an iPhone, EVO, or Galaxy. If not, this is really quite good enough. The device has most standard features: bluetooth, micro-SD slot, GPS, etc.
The device runs Android 4.0 ICS and is generally very responsive. The screen is very bright and clear, and although it's not exactly a retina display it's fine for general tasks like browsing and email.
Oh, and on a sidenote, it is a 3G device- not 4G. However, I've found that 4G coverage is so bad in my area that it really makes no difference. If 4G is a selling point for you, you should definitely check the service map before you decide on anything.
In short, although it isn't the powerhouse , I actually wish I'd gotten this one instead. Aside from it being cheaper, it's simply a much handier smartphone due to its size, weight, and shape.
Pro:
Isn't super-expensive.
Decent performance
Nice light, thin, angled-lip form factor
Very nice screen
Good camera and easily accessible SD slot (Posted on 2/16/13)
Ty (Posted on 2/7/13)
The overall performance on this phone is okay - I wouldn't necessarily say it is any better or worse than any other phone out there as far as Wifi/3G connectivity are concerned. The Bluetooth works well. The Beats Audio is something I haven't found to make much difference other than boosting the volume.
One of the best things about this phone is the battery performance. I don't even have a battery-saving app on my phone, and I can get by sometimes only having to charge it every other day.
This phone is pretty good overall, and if you are looking for something with decent specs but don't care if it's the latest and greatest, this phone is your best option. (Posted on 2/5/13)
After much shopping i had actually given up on picking a smart phone because i had no idea what the heck to choose. Its like buying a PC now.
You see differing opinions on the battery life and ill tell you why from my experience. For standby mode and texting and calling the battery is pretty amazing, it will last a very long time but if you want to run any game apps it drains it super fast! Its not too bad or anything but i believe thats why you see the different opinions on the battery life.
I've had a couple issues but overall so far its pretty fantastic. It has reset itself a couple of times and the power button itself is kind of horrible with the protective cover on it. I have to hold the power button in for at least 10 seconds before it will actually power on but turning it off is far more simple. I dont know if thats normal for all of these types of phones or not. I find it to be a little bit frustrating.
I personally enjoy playing video games so i love them on this phone, it does drain the battery fast but its not so bad if youre just going to casually play something. I havent really timed it or anything but it seems you can get about 5 hours of use if you play game apps for that long before having to recharge it. When i left it on standby for an entire day and texted a few times the battery was at 91% i thought that was pretty cool.
Loving the phone so far especially at that price. So far its everything i was looking and hoping for. (Posted on 2/2/13)
The battery life has increased tremendously since rooting the phone, deleting the junk apps and also installing Juice Defender. I leave wifi on all the time, and 14 hours later, the battery still has 77% life left in it. Before this, the battery would be nearly empty by this point. I even bought extra charging cords to have in the office and in the car, but it looks like I won't be needing these too much now. I can now wait to charge the phone when I get home. (Posted on 2/1/13)
If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive yet quality smart phone without being taken advantage of in a contract this is it! over a year and the service has been impeccable thus far. Thank you VM for setting such a high standard in the cell phone business! (Posted on 1/26/13)
It's 8 megapixel camera takes clean and clear shots, and the flash is amazing. (On a side note, the "Brightest Flashlight Free" app utilizes the light and works amazingly) However, you may have to occasionally retake your pictures as the camera sometimes has difficulty focusing.
The battery lasts all day with no issues. Even when using video apps it holds up longer than I'd expected.
My only real qualm is the keyboard. It's nothing detrimental to a purchasing decision, but you will have moments where letter selection is off. The auto-correct is pretty handy, but the ES button (switched you to Spanish) is right near the space button, so I accidentally switch to Spanish a lot, and thusly it auto-corrects in Spanish. Annoying. I've never been a fan of touchscreen keyboards to begin with.
You get unlimited talk, text, and data for $25 a month ($35 if you're a new subscriber). And this phone will definitely help you utilize that unlimited data package. Just be aware of mild keypad annoyances and the camera's stubborn focus. (Posted on 1/25/13)
I wanted to do this to make sure I did not go over the 300 minutes and start racking up a huge bill with VM once I activated the phone, but as it turns out, this has worked out so well that I am still undecided as to weather I will need to activate the phone and sign up for the monthly service. Granted, I can only make/receive calls when I am within WIFI range, but, WIFI is so prevalent these days. Many of the establishments a person does business with have free internet access for their customers: Starbucks, Dennys, Mcdonalds, Barnes&nobles, Homedepots, Panera bread, Hooters, highway rest stops, libraries, Krogers, Quiznos, Schlotzsky, FedEx offices, Hotels... the list goes on and on. I also installed a WIFI Analyzer App which shows if there is a free/open WIFI within range and its signal strength. You can get a nice directory of wifi spots in your area here-> [...] which of course does not list all the available ones.
What happens when I'm outside WIFI range? Well, of course I can not make calls, inbound calls go to my GoogleVoice voice mail and as soon as I get into WIFI range and connect, my inbound text messages get delivered and/or I get a notification of a missed call which I can check right away. Obviously not something I would want to use as a business phone, but for personal use when you do not need to be available 24X7 this works great! You also get a great excuse when you don't want to answer someone, later you can say... "Sorry, I was not in WIFI zone...", you can even put that in your answering message. This setup would be great for students who live on campus where they have free access to the campus WIFI network (many of them provide free open WIFI all over campus). All these for $0 a month plus the cost of the phone.
If you feel you need capability to make calls from anywhere in case of emergencies, or for 24X7 availability, then just activate the phone and pay the $25/month. You would get many other benefits which would make this device a very capable business phone. I've read that once activated, you can install an app to make the phone a WIFI hub for up to 4 or 5 devices (supposedly there is an app for that, :-) pun intended, in the android market). This would provide internet service to your WIFI based laptop anywhere. I will investigate this more if/when I activate the phone. I have to admit, it would be fun to be able to go on trips and have internet in the car for my kids ipod touches or laptops while we are on the road. The more they can entertain themselves, the less "are we there yet?, are we there yet?" questions we will get... :-)
Summarizing, if you activate the phone, you get unlimited texting, phone web browsing, tv watching, internet radio, etc. + unlimited internet based calls using the provided unlimited data service + internet for your computer/ipod touches anytime/anywhere. All these for $25/month? Sweeeet! I don't think any carrier can beat that, the closer unlimited everything plan is cricket for $55/month for an android or blackberry phone. ATT, Verizon, etc?
I hope you find this useful.
Enjoy!
I spent away from the family working up North and they wanted 24X7 access... (great to be loved so much!). It is now even better. I have an app that shows how many minutes are left and when I'm getting close to using the 300 minutes, I can dial out using the internet and google voice through the data service from anywhere (where there is 3G signal). Came in handy to have Pandora on the phone when my car radio stopped working and it's great to be able to do everything I used to do only within WIFI range now everywhere. GPS worked great while I was traveling through the North East, except when cruising through the Adirondacks (no 3G service out in the sticks :-) ).
Virgin has raised the price of the plan to $35 a month for newcomers, (previous users are grandfathered in at the $25 rate) but even at $35, it still the best deal around as far as I know. Finally, Target has the phone on sale for $50 for the next two days... (Posted on 1/24/13)
if I get a phone that has those things, I'm locked into a 2 year contract for 3 or 4 times the monthly cost. If having a little better spec'd phone is important to you, go for the top of the liners! However, I'm techie, middle class guy that wants as much as I can get for as little as I can get it.
there are lesser "entry level" Android phones out there. You have to get into extremely remote places to lose reception, and those places will most likely be void of any cell coverage no matter the monthly cost barring satellite phones. Finally, maybe I'm lucky, but I just haven't experienced the shutting down and freezing problems others have. Sometimes this is a poorly designed app, NOT the phone or operating system. I've pulled the battery maybe 2 or 3 times total. I'll end this with a little math lesson. (Posted on 1/23/13)
I can see why people get hooked on smart phones. They are almost addictive. I can't seem to put mine down.
After I use the web, and other applications, and I think I have them closed, I see that my battery drains very fast. One of the many useful shortcuts I added to my home page is "Task Manager". I open this shortcut often and close all active applications. My battery lasts much longer.
I recommend this phone. (Posted on 1/22/13)
Well, I was looking for a gift for my wife's birthday and I really didn't like price of unlocked iPhone. I'm not US citizen so I can't get it through contract, so my only option was to buy it for full price and lets be honest - it's greatly exaggerated. So, I opted to instead switch to Android phone.
It took me awhile to choose which phone to buy and in the end, Inspire won with it's easily affordable price. Seriously, you can buy 2 of these for a price of 1 iPhone! And that is actually what I did - I bought one, used it for a week .
Lets be honest, though - phone is not perfect. Yeah, battery could be stronger, software could be slightly more polished but in all honesty, this is a 5 star phone.
PROs:
* HUGE screen! And with high resolution, wow!
* Easy to customize (software and hardware [i.e. stronger battery]). Take that, iPhone!
* PRICE! Did I mention that you can buy 2 of these for the price of 1 iPhone? Seriously? Steve, you've been awesome guy, may you rest in peace, but your products have been greatly overpriced.
* 8 MP camera! (not the best quality but surprisingly good)
CONs:
* Software could be slightly better. It does have some weird stuff going on, but nothing to tarnish this phone's great rep.
For me, this is easy decision - this phone trumps anything else in the market when it comes to price/specs ratio. Yeah I know, everybody wants iPhone 4s etc, but seriously, they can't really offer you much more considering huge price gap between them and this phone.
I know I bought 2 for reason. Trust me. (Posted on 1/21/13)
the Camera is perfect and it has quite a powerful flash.
If you are an android lover as I am you'll love this phone.
I have had it overheat a time or 2 while taking lots and lots of pictures for a long time. But even though it shuts itself down (to protect itself from heat damage) you can turn it on again and it boots up very very quickly (about 30 seconds).
It is lightening fast and can multi task, so you can switch between tasks quickly. (Posted on 1/19/13)
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