The Gadgetry Thread

[Brian Fowler]

Also, man, the iPhone 5c isn't even all that cheap, it turns out.  199 on contract, which puts it right on the line between "flagship" and "good mid-tier" phone.

[LooseCannon]

Any suggestions for a $100-ish camera that can comfortably fit in my pocket and take better pictures than a cell phone?
 
My current four-year-old cell phone takes pictures of this quality (spoilered for size), which is apparently better than pictures taken by people with their much more recent phones:

[glfpunk]

Also, man, the iPhone 5c isn't even all that cheap, it turns out. 199 on contract, which puts it right on the line between "flagship" and "good mid-tier" phone.

It's $99 on contract. But yeah it isn't cheap because its $549 off contract which was supposed to be the appeal of it. That you could purchase it outright for non contract plans without breaking the bank. Hell you can basically buy two Nexus 4's for the cost of a 5c. And internally its basically an iPhone 5 but made of plastic.

[Craig H]

I have no opinion regarding the 5s or 5c. Iterative updates are boring, but then again, that's all Apple is it seems like. The iPhone 6 is going to need a bigger screen though, and the ability to read my mind to keep up with Samsung. Good job Apple. This is what happens when you take your foot off the gas. They better have Cyborg Steve Jobs ready quick.

[Dolfan in NYC]

Ooof.  AT&T tweeted this.... People are not happy.

 

[Tabe]

Yeah, not a good idea to try and capitalize on an event like that.  Some golf course got in hot water for doing a promotion where rounds of golf were $9.11 for the day.  They've been doing it for a couple years but this year it went viral and they got death threats and all kinds of other nonsense.

[Dank]

Subway is also taking a lot of flack for their 9/11 promotion

 

[Bustronaut]

Come on that HAS to be fake.

[Tabe]

Come on that HAS to be fake.

It's from The Onion and Subway is NOT happy about it.  Rightfully so, IMHO.  That's satire that could end up legit damaging their brand.

[Brian Fowler]

But it's also rather fitting satire, as seen just a few posts up.

[Dolfan in NYC]

And of course to show you the rocket scientists that Subway employs, a couple of guys went into a local Subway, who honored the $9.11 promotion

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/12/subway_store_honors_the_onions_fake_911_coupon/singleton/

 

Anyway, back to patiently waiting in the dark for GTA V to arrive. 

[Tabe]

Any suggestions on where to buy a brand-new, unlocked, phone to use at T-Mobile?  Specifically like an S3 or S4 and a Note 2?  Obviously Ebay is an option but I don't know who's legit, who's selling Asian models of phones as American and so on.  So who's legit, online or B&M?

[Brian Fowler]

S4 google play edition on the play store is unlocked

[glfpunk]

Nexus 4 was the best bargain out there but they've officially announced they won't be making new inventory for the google play store.  So that means the Nexus 5 will likely be announced very soon.  Other than that I've always had good luck with ebay.  Feedback is important obviously and you can tell if you're going to get the real deal or not by that typically. Edit:  Yeah I forgot about the google play editions of the S4 and HTC One.  I don't know that I'd buy one of those at that price at this point though with a couple other flagship models having launched since then and the Nexus 5 about to drop. 

 

My T-mobile prepaid $30/month plan with unlimited data and text experiment isn't going to work out.  Just got into my new house and I don't get reliable coverage there.  So back to AT&T for me.  I don't think I'll be getting the iPhone though.  I'm looking at the Moto X or the LG G2. 

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah, if all the various tech blogs and such are right, the Nexus 5 (or Nexus 4 2.0, or Nexus 4 2013, or whatever name it gets) should be announced just about any day now, built by LG, with a 5 inch (4.96, to be exact) display, top specs, all that.

 

But if the S4 is something you are specifically looking at, the Google Play Edition is unlocked, runs stock android instead of TouchWiz (no clue if that is a good or bad thing to you) and costs a hell of a lot of money.

[Tabe]

Good call on the Nexus. I can wait for that to come out. I didn't know there was a Google Play edition of the s4. I'm not beholden to the s4 but I have an s2 and love it.

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah. It's 649.99 though. HTC One GPE is 599.99 as well, iirc.

[Tabe]

Yeah, $650 is pretty spendy.

 

HTC lost me forever as a customer with my wife's One S phone.

[Tabe]

This article says the Nexus 5 will have a non-removeable back and no microSD slot, both of which are big strikes against for me:

 

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/09/17/nexus-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-note-3-expect/

[piranesi]

AUUGH.  I wanna wanna wanna ios 7.  But my battery life with ios 6 has been astoundingly good, like, miraculously good...so cue the reports of ios 7 devouring iPhone 5 batteries....in 5...4...3...2...

[Bustronaut]

There's some changes in functionality that are a bit head scratching.  I had to Google how to close apps completely, and you can no longer swipe to delete emails in the mail program.

[piranesi]

I think I'll like the app closing thing.  Stupid little dancing x's.  And I want to take a spin in iTunes Radio.  And have a 3d Michael Meiers as my wallpaper.

 

Hmmmm....I can probably wait.

[Cliff Hanger]

If LG is making the Nexus 5, I want to know how it cimpares to the Intuition. If they've learned some lessons from that it could be pretty sweet. On the other hand, the no removable back plate and lack of memory expansion makes me think it may just BE the Intuition. Which is perfect for me in many ways, but I donno if I would recommend it to a sighted person.

[Brian Fowler]

The Vu 3 is coming soon, with the 4:3 screen. The Intuition was a slightly rebuilt Vu, I think.

The nexus 5 is a more traditional screen shape.

LG also made the Nexus 4, which was basically an Optimus G, but the 5 is somewhat different than the G2.

[Brian Fowler]

This article says the Nexus 5 will have a non-removeable back and no microSD slot, both of which are big strikes against for me:http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/09/17/nexus-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-note-3-expect/

That's how google rolls these days, for better or worse.