A Day With The One - First Impressions of the HTC One

The One is one of my favorite Jet Li movies, but it’s also a neat phone by HTC. I've been excited about this phone for a while now, and it is turning out to be a great upgrade to my HTC EVO 4G LTE (quite possibly the worst phone name ever, which is Sprint's fault). Full disclosure, HTC did send me this phone to play around with. With that out of the way, how about some first impressions?

I think "quite brilliant would be better"

Right out of the box, the phone is damn pretty. The build quality is outrageous. The phone feels amazing in your hand. The rear of the phone is slightly curved and just feels “nice” in your hands. It is entirely made of aluminum and it just oozes sexy. It reminds some folks of the iPhone and I wager that the build quality is on par with it.

The screen is gorgeous. The HTC One is using a Super LCD 3 screen and does full 1920x1080. The pixel count is high. How high? Well it’s 468ppi. What does that mean? It means that the screen is very sharp. The iPhone 5 is 326ppi while the Samsung Galazy X 4 is 441ppi. Why is pixel density important? It makes things lovelier to look at (more difficult to detect pixels). Do average folks care? Not really, but it makes the display strikingly crisp.

The phone is snappy. The One ships with a Snapdragon 600 processor and it’s a big improvement over the CPU in my HTC EVO LTE. The UI flows more smoothly and the apps seem quicker and more responsive. I’m sure it’s great for games too, but I don’t play many mobile games, so...meh.

In addition to the fast CPU and snappy UI, Boomsound is also present. What’s that? Boomsound is two front-facing speakers with built in apps. What does that mean? It means that if you aren’t careful, you’ll wake up to the loudest alarm clock you've ever owned, as I did the morning after getting this device. It also means that speaker calls and videos can get loud, and with pretty good quality. There’s some distortion at the highest volume depending on the song style, but it’s still head and shoulders better than anything I've ever experienced from a smartphone.

One of the more interesting things that I noticed that was rarely discussed in the reviews I read and the press release was the IR blaster that the phone has in it. What that means is that the phone can control your TV, and it did! Last night I spent the entire evening without lifting my remote control, and it was glorious. The app interacts with most television manufacturers (I have an LG and a Vizio, it worked with both), and once you hook up the provider that you have, it gives you a little breakdown of what’s on television and allows you to favorite shows and set reminders. But wait Yev, I don’t have cable! No problem, neither do I. The channels I set up with the app were OTA (over the air, found via antennas). It still worked like a champ, though took a smidge more configuration as I had to go through many more channels and select the ones that actually appear on my television. The TV app/feature is under-appreciated and I wanted to make sure I gave it a large shout-out.

HTC TV - an unsung hero of the HTC One

Blinkfeed is one of the differentiations that HTC hopes sets the phone apart from its counterparts. Blinkfeed pulls the data from your social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and shows them on one of your “home screen panels”.  Unfortunately, while I believe in Blinkfeed in theory, in practice I found it kind of annoying. I’m a power-user when it comes to social apps and having a central repository for select social updates just doesn't do it for me. I’m always inside the Facebook and Twitter apps anyway, so it didn't really provide any value for me, and not being able to remove it from the panels is aggravating, as that is prime phone real estate. That said, I think a lot of “average” users will enjoy being able to get a random assortment of their social posts in that feed.

Blinkfeed -  posts from all your social channels

The camera is another big differentiation between the One and other phones.  While most companies are upping the megapixels (Samsung Galaxy S 4 has 13MP, the Nokia Pureview 808 has 41MP), HTC is taking a step back and trying to remind folks that it’s not all about the pixel count, it’s about the pixel size as well. The One has a 4MP camera, but the megapixels are 3x as big as “traditional” megapixels. HTC is betting that the images this camera takes will be just as good if not better as the larger megapixel camera phones (especially in low light settings). The problem is, if you use the camera phone as your primary photography device, sometimes having a bit more definition is a good thing, but the One takes great pictures if your intent is to post them to Facebook or Instagram and when you blow up the pictures on a large screen they still hold up pretty well, until you zoom way in.

The other neat thing about the camera is that it can take little things called Zoe’s . What’s that? A Zoe is a collection of photographs that are taken one after the other to create a 3-4 second video that you can pull images out of. The idea is that any frame of the video can be pulled out and used as an image. It also takes about 1 second worth of pictures from before you pressed the button, so if you’re in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, you will still capture a smidge of what happened. Think of the children, doing adorable things, don’t want to miss that do you? Zoe’s can help. Why Zoe? It stands for zoetropic.

It can’t be all good can it? Well, no. The thing is that despite this phone having incredible hardware, great software, and a good camera, some of the missing items really bug me. For example (and this is nit-picky), I got really used to having my phone stay “on” and awake while it was connected to a charger. This functionality appears to be missing on the HTC One. Not being able to remove Blinkfeed is also a bit of an annoyance as I mentioned earlier. There is one other thing that caught me a bit off guard. I cannot re-size widgets, which has been in Android for a while now and was part of the functionality of my HTC EVO LTE, but is inexplicably missing from this device. Additionally pre-installed applications are also a big pain in the neck. A lot of While none of these are deal-breakers, I am hoping that they get fixed in a later update to the phone, which would hopefully bring back some of that functionality.

Overall this phone is awesome, but take that with a grain of salt. I’ve been in love with HTC design and hardware forever now (my first smart phone was the HTC Hero).  If you are up on your contract and are ready for a new device, go for this one. It’s one of the most beautiful phones that I’ve seen, and it flies.  I haven’t rated any tech gadgets on here, but if I start doing that in the future, this one will get a 4.5/5 from me. The only real downside is that the phone does get a bit hot (but it’s aluminum, which is a conductor) when used heavily (streaming video) for long periods of time, and of course the ever-present disappointment of cell phone batteries. Outside of those two things, this phone is amazing, and it makes me happy to put it in my pocket. Now I just need to wait for the version with a kickstand.

Pictures? Below!

For me?

What's in the bag?!

This! And it's lovely!

That phone is pretty.

The HTC One, unpacked, and the case that came with it.

Fits like a glove.

It's Alive!

I'm going to continue enjoying this phone, I recommend you pre-order it ;-)

***UPDATE***

As promised here's some pictures taken with the camera on the HTC One

Lynmar Estates Winery

This is not the greatest wine in the world. No. This is just a Tribute.

Wish ribbons at Cornerstone Winery

Dinner at the Girl and the Fig in Sonoma 

Golden Gate Bridge - Panorama

As you can see the camera takes fine photos. It's not great, and the 4MP becomes a very clear limitation when you try to open the photos on a large monitor and really get down in to them. I think what HTC is trying to say is, this is not a DSLR, you won't be taking this on photography expeditions, but it can replace your point and shoot if your intent is to just post to Facebook or Instagram. It does that very well. Is it on par with the HTC Evo 4G LTE (which used HTC's previous high-end camera tech and an 8MP camera? I think so. And the Zoe's are fun! Is it groundbreaking or earth shattering? Probably not, but if they can fit the same sensor tech in to the next camera, which will hopefully have a few more megapixels, that will be a good thing and will result in more vibrant pictures that stand up and work in larger sizes. However, as a point and shoot replacement, it works well (less things in pockets is a good thing).

Finally...my Pebble emerges!

I just received my Pebble after a long wait and boy is it...interesting to use! I wrote about a lot of stuff in my 2-year Californiaversary blog post and one of the things I got to do while I was at CES, was check out the Pebble watch. I finally got mine and here's what the unboxing process looks like ->

 It's Time! For my Pebble to be unboxed...

Cute packaging with requirements and info....

Pretty spartan interior. It would have been nice to have a 2-page paper manual or something.

Once the app is installed on your phone you have to connect it.

Fuzzy time! 

Setting up the phone to work with the Pebble was relatively painless. The only issue came when I tried to give the Pebble access to read my +Gmail messages. It turns out that having 2-step verification (authentication) hurts the Pebble's brain, but one reddit user was able to figure out a work around: hurray reddit! 

Once I got that working the watch works like a champ. There's a few quirks and the device itself feels a little plastic-y, probably because it's made out of plastic. I'd love for it to be a bit more smooth around the edges, or made of metal to withstand normal wear and tear. Hopefully it will last for a while, I have a tendency to bump in to walls...

2 Years in Californiaversary

Today marks my 2 year anniversary at Backblaze! And my 2 year and 3 day anniversary of moving to California. A lot's happened since my last yearly update. Since the last update, my website yevyev.com now has quite a few more views, but still under the magic 3-digit mark. In addition to some occupational accomplishments, including joining the marketing team at Backblaze and taking over the social media and online advertising aspects of Backblaze, there's been lots of cool non-work related things too!  Let's take a picturesque stroll down memory lane shall we?

The "new year" started with a trip to Denver to see some good friends and die whilst climbing rocks.

 I did a 30 mile bike ride. Pretty proud of that.

I bought fancy running shoes and started running. I shortly thereafter stopped running.

I met my literary hero, Dave Barry and took a silly picture with him.

Got to watch some of the America's Cup races from the water! Way cool!

Met my mom and dad in Istanbul and felt like a real jet setter! (Me on top of Suleiman's Mosque)

I took this neat picture after returning from Istanbul. That's San Francisco.

Met Doug Benson and was wearing a silly wig.

Traveled back to Iowa and took some senior pictures with my +Lisa ;-)

Had my car broken in to. Bummer.

Traveled to the Dominican Republic, decided that shame was optional.

Went to CES  and took a picture in my dream car, the Dodge Viper.

Flew out to South By Southwest and met Matthew Inman from The Oatmeal!

He drew this picture of me last year...

I also met Matthew Lesko. Infomercial enthusiasts know who he is.

I got to sponsor and MC the RootsTech 2013 conference in Salt Lake City, this is the Mormon Temple.

I got to play with my next phone before most people.

Still digging this place.

Here's to a great 2nd year. I don't know how it can possibly be any more eventful, but I'll be damned if I don't try my darnedest to make it even more rad. 

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Or: Plot Holes a-Plenty

This is going to be a quick one. I went to go see this out of boredom and boy is it an odd flick. The action is good, the 3-D is used mostly for depth (which is a good thing) with only a couple of "pop-out" moments. The acting is probably fine if you're just going in to this movie for the boom booms and the hoorah's.


Basically it's Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis, and from way the hell out of nowhere The RZA. None of the story line really makes sense. If I remember anything from the previous G.I. Joe movie (and I don't) there was a lot of emphasis placed on how Cobra Commander was a bad dude and his Cobra symbol was on terrorist flags and things. Why then does when (spoilers?) Cobra Commander come back does the entire world give one giant shrug when the Cobra symbols start popping up on the White House? 

The plot is like Swiss cheese, but if what you're looking for is to see Adrianne Palicki in short shorts, then this is the movie for you! There is however one action sequence on the side of a mountain that looked incredibly stupid in the trailer. In the movie however, it the action sequence is well shot, but incredibly stupid.

2.5/5 for me, high marks for action sequences. The Director Jon M. Chu, does an OK job with the script that he was given. Fun fact, his previous movie was Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. That should tell you most of what you need to know.

Olympus Has Fallen - My Interest Has Risen!

Morgan Freeman. Even when he isn't playing the president, he ends up playing the president. That man is magical. Olympus Has Fallen is about the White House getting terrorized in spectacular fashion and Aaron Eckhart's President Asher getting taken hostage. It's up to our man on the inside Gerard Butler to rescue him and the First Child (not to be confused with the Golden Child), Connor.

Olympus Has Fallen - Trailer

It's a pretty good movie. There's lots of explosions. The action is gritty and it certainly deserves an "R" for violence. The story is "plausible" in that, it isn't out of the realm of imagination that the White House could be attacked by terrorists, however the way it gets infiltrated is a smidge over the top. The plot revolves around a group of North Koreans breaking in to the White House and taking the President hostage, and threaten to execute him unless the United States has pulls out of the DMZ and recalls the 7th Fleet, which is positioned in the South China Sea to support the South Koreans should shit hit the fan.

As fun and captivating as the story line is, lets take a moment to talk about the importance of not having a stingy special effects budget.When you have the National Monument falling to pieces, maybe have a little bit more pixels shaded eh? Or perhaps when you show the White House getting hit by a helicopter, a few more details would be good?

I took this screenshot from the trailer above.

                            

It makes me sad that often, fairly decent movies can "take me out of the action" by having some fairly wonky visual effects. I'm hoping that as visual effects get even more prevalent in films that studios will take an extra week or two and put some more detail in to the movies. Especially now that we're in a HD universe. 

Special Effects aside the movie's fun! I give it a 4/5, but make sure if you go it's with folks that don't mind a little violence. The movie's got plenty of it! It's a fine flick, but they really didn't leave themselves a lot of wiggle room for a sequel...which might be the best part!

South by Southwest - First Impressions

I flew in to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive and just like CES, it was cupcake time! The night I arrived at South By Southwest, or “South by” as it was referred to by more than one person in Austin,  I went to a house party, and boy was it full of bearded people. When I heard stories of hipsters and beardos (it’s a word) living in Austin in numbers that rival San Francisco, I was skeptical, but yea, there's tons. One of the most interesting encounters I had was a conversation that went a little something like this: “Are you here for South by?” “Yea, I flew in this afternoon” “Oh cool! Where are you from?” “San Francisco.” “Don't move here...”. OK, I won't! But I can see why people flock to Austin (a chamber of commerce member told me it has grown by almost 1 million folks in the last ten years or so), especially from San Francisco and the bay. It's clean, the weather is nice, the people are friendly-ish, and there's tons to do. Plus it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to live there. So yes, Austin is nice. I liked it.

I think SXSW is something that is best experienced. You can read or hear about it, but until you're actually there none of it really makes sense. I heard there was going to be lots of music, lots of parties, lots of lounges, and lots of people. All that is true but the way it all comes together is actually pretty spectacular. The bars and clubs around downtown Austin get skinned from the outside and are branded with company logos throughout. The streets get blocked off and stages are set up. Bands come out and “festival babes” fill the streets giving out fliers, chapstick, and trinkets, trying to get folks to tweet and mention their companies.

The tweeting thing is kind of interesting. I was approached by a very pretty lady, and asked to tweet about something, in exchange for a set of Logitech 500VM headphones. That struck me as odd, usually you have folks tweet in order to be eligible to win something or other, but to give out something that costs $60 for one tweet seemed a bit like overkill. Granted I was probably “lucky” and not everyone got a set of headphones, their cost was quite surprising. Also, it's a good thing that I'm not a member of the press so I could accept them! The amount of swag that you could get on the streets was staggering. It made me wonder if companies put aside $5 Million for “SXSW Swag” in order to burn through their left over budgets. The answer is, probably.

One of the things I found most strange was the exhibit hall itself. It felt almost like an afterthought. Granted, the focus of SXSW wasn't on start-ups and tech when it first started, but it seems to be headed in that direction now, and the exhibit hall left something to be desired. Maybe I was a bit spoiled by CES, but it seemed a bit cramped. The nice thing though, there weren't many iDevice and phone cases! Those seemed to dominate both CES and MacWorld, the last two large tech events that I attended.

But SXSW isn't about tech (not really) it's about music! And there was lots of it. One of the most interesting bands that I saw was called rdgldgrn (red gold green, but without the vowels). Rdgldgrn is a DC band that mixes rock and rap, I dug it. I also met Theolodge which is a neat name,  not sure if it’s a play on “theology”, but he’s a Florida rapper, and he’s quite good. Check out his song with Imogen Heap “First Train Home”. Pretty much ever genre was well represented and you couldn't walk around downtown Austin without hearing bass coming from somewhere.

SXSW was a blast, and I can’t wait to go back there. I liked the vibe, I liked the city, I liked the food, and I liked the people. I always had a soft spot in my heart for Texans (I lived in Dallas for 3 months), and Austin is filled with interesting folks. I’ll be looking forward to my next Austin trip, and hope to see you there at the next South By…just make sure to get your hotels books a year in advance.

*EDIT/UPDATE* -> I realized that I said to book your hotels a year in advance but I didn't say why, here's the financial breakdown of why you should plan way ahead:

My plane ticket from San Francisco to Austin on the days that I wanted to be at SXSW would have cost $1300 round trip, whereas a few days prior it would have been $350. I decided to fly in to Dallas instead for a more reasonable $400 and then rented a car to drive down to Austin from Dallas (I recommend flying in to San Antonio or Houston if you need to, they are closer to Austin). Renting a car in Dallas and then returning it in Austin after 5 days (the duration of my trip) would have cost $1600 (returning a car to a different location costs more money). I decided to rent a car in Dallas, drive it to the Austin Airport, return it, and get another one for the remaining 4 days. This worked out to $250 for the car from Dallas to Austin (essentially a 4 hour rental), and another $240 for the 4 days that I had the car in Austin. So it was less expensive for 4 days of renting than just the one-way trip. In conclusion, plan ahead! But if you don't make sure to play around with different transportation options so you don't get screwed!

And here are the pictures:

The cupcakes I was to deliver

Torchy's Tacos. If you go here, get the street corn.

Random guy in a bed...mostly naked...

rdgldgrn performing

Matthew Lesko!

Me and the fire fox.

Matthew Inman of Oatmeal fame. I met him at the Indiegogo party!

If you look closely above the building, you'll see hundreds of bats.

Find my name?

I like that # still means "pound" in some instances!

Wine in a cup! As seen on Shark Tank.

The "after".

Those hubcaps are not OK.

I liked the solar charging stations all over Austin.

The Hannibal food truck.

Path's cute posters.

This is a "Long Island Iced Coffee". It's as good as you imagine.

Homeless in Austin. Even they are tech savvy.

Texas.