A few months back Microsoft announced their next generation of Sidekick– the KIN ONE and KIN TWO, two new phones focused on the teenager and what we use our phones for. Did they do a good job? Honestly, yes and no. After using the KIN TWO as my main phone for the last few weeks, there are a lot of things going in the KIN’s favor– a great keyboard and great social networking in particular– but also a lot of bad, like a somewhat slow interface and that  required $30 a month data plan.

So if your on Verizon is this the next phone for you? Read on for the full teen take on the KIN TWO.

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Intel Core i5. Whoooosh!

OK, let me say this from the beginning – if you are buying a new laptop for school, for anything – get a Core i5.

I’ve had the opportunity to be able to try out a laptop with the new chips, and to sum it up – it’s fast. Really, really fast. Think of things that you do often on your computer – web browsing, gaming, note taking in word, watching videos on Youtube, listening to music on iTunes, chatting with friends in AIM, updating things on Twitter, watching shows on Hulu.

I went through a few days worth of these usual things – and the experience is insane. Load times when opening applications is effectively non-existent. Hulu videos just played, at full resolution, with almost 0 lag. CDs ripped into iTunes in minutes, and huge downloads – including the entire game of Portal on Steam, a task that brought my not underpowered Macbook down for almost a day, finished in under an hour. The game itself ran flawlessly. Flash games ran so fast that a friend of mine had trouble playing, being so used to a slower speed. Youtube videos streamed and loaded in seconds, even in HD. The Zune software, which I had been running at a snails pace on my netbook, was fluid and fast. Word, always a pain to load, taking forever to open, just was there.

But, while all these individual facts are impressive – the ease that the i5 handled everything I usually do on a computer was fantastic. But, I felt that this wasn’t enough yet. So did all the above tasks again – at the same time.

The total list of multitasking involved – playing 2 Hulu videos in HD, playing a Flash game, running a 720p Youtube short film, writing this post in Microsoft word, an assortment of sticky notes, 5 Gadgets, Paint, Solitare, downloading an iTunes update, ripping a CD, playing tracks in iTunes, streaming music from the internet in Zune, downloading and playing a 1080p HD movie trailer, playing two flash games, as well as running Portal off Steam. Oh, and Tweetdeck.

The result – I gave up. The i5 handled it all without a hitch, only maxing out at 80% of the processor’s speed. Part of it is just it being fast, part in the hyperthreading feature that lets it boost itself from a 2.27 Ghz speed to 2.54 (which, during the Multitasking mayhem test, it was full time). It was seriously, seriously, impressive.

Battery life was also never an issue – took a whole day’s worth of usage just fine.

If you’re looking for a laptop, particularly for school, there are some important things to consider besides processor however – a good keyboard for note-taking is huge, since that’s typically the most important thing you’ll need it for. If you’ve got a big campus, make sure that you look at the weight of the laptop – a few pounds doesn’t sound like much, but added to 3 textbooks, 8 notebooks, and 13 folders it adds up a lot.

But overall, based on my experience with the i5, it’s a huge positive – and something that, if you’re a student looking for a laptop and want to have a flawless way to run everything you do (and all of it at the same time), consider the i5.

As a disclaimer in accordance with FTC guidelines, the laptop mentioned above was lent to me by Intel for the purpose of this review as part of Intel’s Youth Review Program.

Caffeine. Need. Caffeine.

Another random little Mac application. And yet, so useful. To ask a simple question – ever have to download some really big file (say, Portal) or need to sync, backup or restore your iPod (a task taking slightly less time then the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy). But even more annoying, is when you’re doing this on a laptop. A laptop, which goes to sleep to conserve battery life after around 15 minutes. So, you’re stuck either messing around with your battery settings or waiting at your computer for hours. Enter Caffeine. Caffeine is a little application that sits in your menubar, and has one purpose. Click on the little coffee cup icon, and your computer stays awake – no screensaver, no sleep, nothing. Hence the name, Caffeine.

It works flawlessly though, and is absurdly useful. Streaming an episode of Chuck from Hulu? Caffeine, eat dinner, and enjoy. Converting a movie? Caffeine. It’s singularly purposed, but incredibly useful.

So, go on – download it here. It’s free, so you’ve got no excuse. And next time where you’re trying to process a video for history class at 4 AM – at least you’ll be able to keep the computer awake.

KIN 2 is the not-square one (click to high-definitionize)

So, I’ve been using the KIN 2 as my only mobile device (no iPod Touch or regular cell) for the last two weeks. Check out my impression of how it held up to the theory of being a phone for teenagers in my guest column over at Slashgear.

A lot (if not pretty much all) of us have relied on Microsoft’s Office software for our lives over the years, whether for notes, school papers, or creating fliers. Every couple of years Microsoft introduces a major revision to the Office line, and 2010 is another one of those years. And while the basics of PowerPoint, Word, OneNote and all the other Office programs have stayed the same, there have been some pretty solid improvements that while may not be “must haves,” are without question appreciated and make Office even better and easier to use.

I’ve been testing out the beta (i.e. testing, not final) version of Office 2010 as my main Office suite for the past couple of months– using it to write papers, take notes, manage email, and create presentations; and I got to say– I really like it better than the older Office 2007. I’m not gonna go into a full out review of the new Office yet (partly because not everything is finalized in the beta I’m using), but here are a few thoughts.

Word 2007 vs Word 2010

Things are faster, look nicer, and generally easier to use. The “ribbon” interface introduced in 2007 is still very much here, though in 2010 it’s seems to be a lot easier to use. The older Office logo in the upper right of programs has been replaced with the simpler and familiar “File” button, allowing you to do everything from saving a doc, to printing, to saving to the web. You do still have the different tabs along the top of whatever respective program your using (meaning the “Home” tab in Word shows basic options like paste, font, spacing etc., while the “Insert” tab to the right shows options for a Cover Page, adding headers and footers, etc.). Even compared to their 2007 counterparts, I still found things to run cleaner and faster than in previous Office versions– and this is just a beta copy!  And for those that do a lot of presentations, PowerPoint also has gotten some tweaks and updates as well, adding a bunch of awesome 3D-like animations that I can tell you from first hand experience really add to whatever the presentation is on and can really help to bring up your grade (I’ve done this on 2 different school projects, and both times my classmates, and teacher, were wowed, which when you need a good grade definitely can’t hurt!). Outlook (the email program for those who don’t know), has also gotten a nice update– now allowing you to sort messages in threads (like in Gmail), rather than viewing a email conversation as separate email replies. You can even link the emailer’s profile to their social network (like Facebook, MySpace) so you can see not just that person’s latest email but also their latest Facebook status update at the same time. The beta version doesn’t yet have this feature active so I couldn’t test it for this First Look.

Now we’re still about a month away from Office 2010′s release (it comes out June 15th), and while at it’s core it’s still the Office we know and love, Office 2010 looks to be a really solid update and if your in the market for a new computer (or are looking for some graduation computer deals), you should definitely check out Office 2010 for your Office suite.

We’ll have more on Office when it launches next month, but you can pre-order it now from Microsoft’s online store (the Home and Student version– which has Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint 2010 costs $149.99) or from Amazon (where you can buy Office 2007 and get a free upgrade to that version’s 2010 edition once it comes out) now. Oh, and for those who can’t wait, you can download and try the beta of Office 2010 yourself from Microsoft (note: the Office 2010 beta expires in October, and after that your gonna either need to buy a copy of Office or return back to your older Office programs).

KIN – Teenagers dream phone?

I’ve had some time to be able to check out Microsoft’s latest phone offering designed for teens and the way we use phones – for a different take then most tech blogs, be sure to check out my guest column over at Slashgear for my take.

Master Chief Not Included.

As you may or may not know, the Halo Reach (next Halo game) Multiplayer beta’s going live in a few days for anyone with a copy of Halo 3: ODST. After playing a few rounds of Multiplayer, here’s my impressions:

First off – Jetpacks. Yes, you can get a Jackpack. And it is awesome. Really awesome. Basically – you hold down the Jetpack button. And you fly. You have a certain amount of fuel, that recharges, but it’s pretty awesome. Adds a whole new dimension – personal favorite of mine. But in general, there aren’t only jetpacks, but load-outs of a sort – Bungie (makers of Halo) has several preset load-outs, with Armor Abilities – no more will cloak and overshield be found on the map, instead replaced by coming with a set ability – Sprinting, Evasion, Cloak, Armor Lock (lock down in place, invulnerable, then kinda explode – it’s pretty cool). And my personal favorite, the jetpack, as described above. What you choose can be swapped out at any point when you’re respawning.

The graphics have been completely redone, and look fantastic.

Controls have actually been tweaked from the previous games, and the default control is different from that of Halo 3. Those comfortable with 3′s control would do best with the “Recon” setting, which changes “X” to grenade switch from LB, with LB now being equipment.

Dual wielding is out, and grenades have been trimmed down to just regular and energy (sticky). unfortunately, I was only able to try the Slayer and Cpature the Flag modes (with their new variations, like Headhunter, where you collect skulls for kills and get them to a selected drop point, or Capture the Flag with 3 flags.) Other modes that will be included will be an Invasion mode (which looks incredible – a multiphase gameplay, unlocking better weapons and vehicles as time goes on), and Generator Defense (Hold down 3 generators with a team from a fortified position against an advancing 3).

Of the two new maps so far, Sword Base, a multi-level map, with a bunch of bridges crossing between two sides over a big hall, is pretty fun, as is Powerhouse, which is a bit more open, and bears some similarity to High Ground from Halo 3.

So far, I’m liking Reach’s multiplayer. I’ll update once the new game modes go live.

Doxie. Saving my back in the near future?

So, this one’s a bit out there for me, but it was too cool not to let you guys know about. Yes, a scanner. But hear me out. Scanning stuff, if you think about it for a student, is a great idea. And I carry around 50 pounds of folders every day to know that I carry around more paper with me then that produced by a court of law. But yesterday, I came across this. Doxie. A small, portable, full color scanner. Easily could fit in a schoolbag or locker – just slide the paper right through. Scans in color and black and white.

And suddenly, a vision came into my head. Of getting a handout from my history teacher – of all the hundreds of handouts I’ve gotten. And just scanning them in on the spot. Never having to carry around asignment sheets for essays, never losing another critical chart – the potential is HUGE, especially for a student. And if all it did was just scan, that’d be great. But Doxie takes it a step further – by having built in integration with a whole bunch of stuff – including Acrobat, Google Docs, Flickr, Evernote, Twitter, iPhoto – just scan and have it automatically imported, or sent out to the internet cloud. And the dream gets better – not just scanning all my school stuff, but having them available for my whole class on our Google Group through Google Docs.

Furthermore, it’s totally portable – just plug it into a laptop – it powers off USB, and you’re all set. It’s also got some slick photo scanning tricks up it’s sleeve – automatically straightening, cropping, and importing to the photo software or site of your choice. So for anyone looking to have a scanner for non-school stuff, it’s not bad.

The clincher though is price – $130. Before you start losing it over a scanner that costs more then a Benjamin, go to Staples or Best Buy and search for scanner. I’ll wait. Most scanners, you might have seen, cost equal or significantly more – arguably, they offer higher resolution, and such, but lack the portability and application support Doxie has. And lets face it, you’re NEVER going to need to do anything beyond basic scanning.

Basically – I seriously want one of these. A portable scanner designed for sharing, uploading, and documents sounds perfect for a teenager – whether you’re looking to go paperless in school, or just manage your old-school pictures.

Check out Doxie here.

(And to the guys out there – it comes with some skins for the device, so you don’t have to carry something around with hearts on it.)

[Photo credit - getdoxie.com]

Behold! The iPad Cometh!

So. It’s finally landed. The iPad. And I’ve actually managed to get my mitts on one for a few minutes. So – here’s the review: We’ll jump right in.

First off – the iPad is cool. It’s been hyped for what seems like forever, and excitement has built to a fever pitch since it was announced by Apple in January. And it does live up to that – the entire thing is very, very, very, well done.

Let’s face it though. Enlightening (I hope) my comments on the iPad may be – you’ll be able to get effectively the same thing anywhere: every tech site in the world will be writing nearly the same thing, and at this rate, has already written it. So here’s my contribution – that isn’t anywhere else:

What does the iPad mean to YOU – a teenager and student?

It’s not an easy question. As media consumption and entertainment goes, the iPad is incredible. The huge screen, plus the fact it’s an extension of the iTunes library you’ve most likely spent most of your life building, as well as ALL your iPhone/iTouch Apps, along with the 1,400-odd iPad only one already out there make that a moot point. More serious stuff – like note-taking or, say, productive work – is also fairly nice: I personally find the horizontal digital keyboard excellent, and the compatibility with Bluetooth keyboards is a huge plus. And yes, better comments on that is down below.

But back to my question – is the iPad for YOU? I have to say no. And I mean this in no way to knock the iPad, but despite the serious awesomeness of the device, I can’t recommend it for most teens. The iPad, in the most basic breakdown is Apple’s netbook. And here’s the thing.

Teenagers do not use netbooks correctly – at least, how the manufacturers want. The netbook concept is that you buy a full laptop or desktop, and use the netbook to supplement it – for travel or on-the-go. But teens don’t follow that logic at all – for many teens, the netbook is the ONLY computer – the primary one, that they use for media, for school, for gaming, for IM, for everything in their lives – after all, money is something we don’t have available for big purchases for the most part, and netbooks are light, cheap, easy to carry and give full computer functionality.

And unfortunately, the iPad cannot deliver as a primary computer for teens. Both the $500 minimum for the device (not including a case, stand, or external keyboard), as well as it’s existing limitations – no Flash, no physical keyboard, and the limitations of using a mobile operating system – at that price, make it extremely difficult for me to recommend it for a teenager – save the money, or use it to get a full powered laptop. But the iPad isn’t meant to be a primary device, nor can it be recommended as such for a student.

Again – I think the iPad is a fantastic device. And if you’re interested in a secondary device, and can afford the price, or are willing to go with the limitations of the iPad as a primary device, then by all means. It still is an incredible device for the in between space between iPod/Phone and computer – but my personal view is that that particular space doesn’t exist for teenagers in a real sense.

Onwards to the review!

Hardware:

It’s sleek (0.5 inch), the screen is large, and wonderful to look at – nice, bright, and has a seriously wide angle of viewing (Apple’s saying 178º, which seems to hold up – to it’s great for watching stuff with friends). The rotation lock button on the side is useful, and the speakers are pretty loud. To sum it up – it’s on the surface, a big, shiny, cool iPod Touch. And that is a very good thing.

The digital keyboard in vertical mode is a bit difficult to use, but the horizontal one was excellent – I was able to typed at a normal speed in my test. (Two notes there – I have a “unique” typing style of a pecking sort of thing – so if you’re a real QWERTY typer, your milage may vary. Also, I was using it with Apple’s iPad Case, which was nice for getting the screen at a comfortable angle – which I in a side point recommend if you get an iPad). Also, the iPad is compatible with most Bluetooth keyboards (including Apple’s) as well as the sold-separately keyboard dock, which might be good options to look into if you’re looking to do some heavy work.

Finally, processing speed. The iPad, unlike, well, anything else, uses an Apple designed chip, the Apple A4 – which is fast. Coming from someone whose primary iProduct is an original iTouch, it’s blazing – internet, apps, search – everything runs seriously fast. Battery life, which I haven’t been able to really find out about yet, seems to be holding up at the advertised 10 hours.

Software -

The iPad runs an iPad version of the iPhone/iTouch OS – so it has the same Apps (running in either a small, 1:1 windowed style or a slightly pixelated doubled one – both are OK, and more then acceptable for accessibility for all your old apps), features (including Copy/Paste, Push Notifications, etc.), and the lack of Flash. (The biggest downside to the device).

Regarding the Apple bundled Apps – Almost all of them have been redesigned for the iPad, and look great. Calendar and Contacts have a much fuller view, giving access to all your info as opposed to the limited amounts you could get on the screen on an iTouch, and have been been visually spiced up. iPod takes a more iTunes appearance, and has the requisite iTunes support we all know and love. Video is video, but on the great iPad screen (The large viewing angle is real handy here for watching stuff with friends or family). Photos has been updated, with many of the features of iPhoto on the Mac, with Faces (people tagging) and Places (place tagging) available on the iPad itself.

One of the big draws, of course, is the new iBooks App. It’s great. The screen size, plus the fact that it’s a non-E-Ink screen (and therefore, has no annoying refresh rate, lack of backlight, and blackandwhite-ness) make it really nice for reading. Those who prefer E-Ink may disagree, but personally I happen to prefer the iPad here. If you’re considering buying, say, an iTouch and a separate e-Reader, the iPad should definitely considered.

The 3rd party apps that have been redesigned for the iPad are also pretty nice – If i Can, I’ll review some separately soon. (Special shoutout to the Scrabble App, which has the awesomeness of connecting to iPhones/iTouch’s, using the iPad as the gameboard and giving each player their own letter tray on their iPhone/iTouch. SERIOUSLY cool.)

Sum Up:

Overall – the iPad is a great device. For media, even for work. And I certainly would love to own one – I’m sure most teens feel the same. But in the end, it’s a secondary device, and an expensive one at that. And for teenagers, the money might be better focused on a netbook or laptop that can give a full computing experience. But that’s just my opinion, you’re free to make your own call.

Any questions? Comments? Have an iPad? Sound off in the comments.

[Photo from Apple.com]

Some math: Gmail – ads + contact social info = ?

Ok – so browser plugins aren’t really something I usually write about here – but this one here’s an exception. To jump right in, I love rapportive. Love it. It’s just cool.

Backing up just a bit. Gmail users – you guys all know the ads on the right side of emails you read, right? Well, rapportive is a Firefox and Chrome plugin, that simply replaces them. Now that’s nice, but not only does it get rid of the ads, it replaces them with something pretty useful: a contact profile of the person who sent the email you’re reading, based on public profiles. And for the most part, it installs and runs very smoothly – just go to the site, install, and a few painless seconds later, you’re ready to roll – just go to Gmail, read an email, and rapportive’ll do the rest – showing info pulled from their Google Profile, links to Facebook, Twitter, flickr etc, if they have that info publicly available, so it’s pretty neat for connecting with the people you talk to. Also, a nice feature exists of being able to jot down a private note about the person for yourself for the next time you talk with the person.

It’s not perfect – not everyone I talk to has a profile – but overall, its pretty nice. rapportive is available for my favorite price of “free”  – as a plugin for Firefox and Google Chrome, with IE support on the way. Check it out here.