Tech & Co.

In just this month we had Apple and Amazon already unveil some of their most exciting things of the year. Apple released their refreshed look and features for OS X Yosemite, and Amazon released another buying machine. This week, Google is strutting their stuff at I/O in San Francisco. Whether or not you believe that Google is making killer robots to wipe out mankind, Google did manage to show off some pretty neat non-lethal software. Let's dive in. Android One will probably have the biggest impact on the world. It is designed to be used in developing markets, and it will provide people with high quality and low cost smartphones, somewhat like the recent Nexuses but much cheaper. The reference hardware will have a 4.5 inch screen, FM radio, dual SIM card slots, an SD card slot, and it will be available for under $100. Micromax, Karbon, and Spice are the first hardware partners for Android One when it goes to India later this fall. Don't worry, it will go worldwide late...

Welcome to Gigabits, a new kind of post that gives you what you need to know. Earlier today Amazon released their much rumored smartphone, now known as the Fire Phone. It is essentially another method Amazon has to get you to buy their services. It has mid-range specs with a 4.7 inch 720p display, 13 megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM, and Snapdragon processor. Nothing will really wow you here, but it will not let you down either. Amazon claims that the camera does better in low light than the competition, but we'll have to wait for some full reviews to agree with that. What Amazon lacks in hardware, they somewhat make up for in software. The Fire Phone's operating system looks very similar to that on the Kindle tablets, but it has a few extra tricks. It uses special sensors and four front-facing cameras to add some gesture and 3D effects. Your wallpapers have realistic depth to them, you can move your phone from side to side to get more information, and you can have menus s...

Amazon's smartphone has been rumored for quite some time, but it is just now becoming a reality. It stands alongside the Kindle Fires as a portal into Amazon's vast and constantly growing ecosystem. Does Amazon's Fire Phone have the hardware and software chops to sway your wallet towards Bezos & Co? Let's find out. The Fire Phone is not some spec monster like the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the HTC One M8, but do you really need all of that? Like Motorola did with the Moto X last year, Amazon thought that you need a phone that is enjoyable to use and that's it. Why does the number of gigahertz and cores matter if the phone already works perfectly? If you have yet to buy these excuses, the Fire Phone has a 4.7 inch 720p HD LCD display, a Qualcomm processor, 2GB of RAM, and an Adreno 330 GPU. This puts the Fire Phone behind most Android flagships and squarely in the mid-range section. Amazon has yet to specify which Qualcomm processor it usesy. The physic...

As you readers have probably noticed, I have not been writing much over the past few months. A few things came up, and I no longer have as much time to write as I used to. No I am not going to end this website, but I have decided to instead introduce a new kind of post to you. All of the 2,000+ word articles and hands-on posts are somewhat slow to read and write, and that does not reflect how our society is today. We live in a fast paced, and constantly changing world. Today I have decided to introduce these new posts called "Gigabits". They are quick, short posts about what is happening, happened, or will happen in technology, science, and other interesting aspects of society. You could say they give  bits of information and opinions. There will still be lengthy reviews and wrap-up posts from time to time, but hopefully Gigabits will be some of the more ubiquitous posts. We have many exciting things to cover in the coming months, so stay tuned. -Tyler Sepulveda, Editor-in-...

Last week, Fox News and Neil deGrasse Tyson helped to revive one of the best Science programs of all time. Cosmos: A Personal Voyage  aired for the first time almost thirty years ago with Carl Sagan showing audiences the universe and more. Carl Sagan's way of breaking down the most complex concepts of the cosmos into ideas that everyone can understand made this science program fun to people that were not nerds. It gave many people a new love for science, and gave a new generation a passion for science. Since then we have found out so much more about space, have taken a planet out of the accepted Solar System, put a man made object outside our solar system, and have multiple rovers on Mars. One of them even sends us tweets. Today, not too many "youngsters" have that kind of passion for science. They want the most "hip and happening" jobs, and do not care about what science their country is working on. People do not want to be the same space explorers that we w...

When Google bought Motorola back in 2012, it shocked everyone. We all were expecting Google and Motorola to make great new smartphones, since they were both so good at software and hardware respectively. And what was Google's response? Google said they would work on a few devices, but they bought Motorola mostly for their patents. We will take a guess and say it did not work out too well, since they sold Motorola for $300 million less than a connected thermostat company. Shocking, isn't it? Let's take a moment to look deeper into why Google might have sold off one of the world's biggest telecommunications companies in the world. Late 2012: Just a short while after Google buys Motorola, Motorola releases their new line of Razr handsets. The Razr HD and Maxx HD are slightly improved with 720p displays and faster processors, and the compact 4.3 inch Razr M puts high-end specs in a small chassis. These phones continue Motorola and Verizon's Droid love affair, just ...

Over the past week, we have covered products from some of the biggest companies in the world. ASUS ,  Samsung , Lenovo , and Sony  are all we known and respected companies, that get their products out a little easier than others. In addition to all the big-dogs in tech, CES is home to many small companies and start-ups. These small companies show off their best stuff at CES to get the word out for their latest projects. There are a lot of products that you really don't want, but there are many products that are actually fresh and innovative. Here are our small company favorites from CES 2014. Pebble Steel Pebble made a gigantic splash last year at CES 2013. There were smartwatches out before Pebble, like Metawatch, but none of them were very good. They usually either thrust a mess of information at you and cannot handle notifications, or can handle notifications but cannot give you enough information. Pebble's original model smartwatch was the first to handle everyth...