Supertooth Disco 4 Bluetooth speaker review
Bluetooth speakers are becoming more and more popular, and SuperTooth is quite the superpower in the market of Bluetooth accessories. They make everything from car kits to speakers to headsets, and one of their latest creations is the fourth installment in their Disco line of wireless Bluetooth speakers. We got a chance to review a Disco 4, and despite its simplicity, there’s a lot to talk about with this little speaker.
A quick rundown of the specs gives us an idea of what the Disco 4 is packing:
- 8-watt speaker
- Bluetooth 4.0 (can pair a maximum of 8 devices at once, with one being connected at any given time)
- NFC (more on that later)
- A2DP
But enough of that, let’s get into the good stuff.
Design
Beginning with the most obvious aspect, this speaker just looks awesome. It’s incredibly simple, and doesn’t try to dazzle anyone with flashy buttons or designs. Its horn shape reminds me of the old speakers that are used in the P.A. systems in high schools. You know, the ones mounted high on the walls of the hallways, that deafen students when the alarm sounds during a fire drill. While this is an obvious design choice, it’s actually done in a very sleek way. The speaker is square, but has rounded, subtle edges. It widens toward the front, giving it that classic look.
Up top is a handle that’s made of a silicon-rubber material. The handle is another simple addition that SuperTooth made, but it actually makes a big difference in the portability and general use of the speaker. Too many Bluetooth speakers are pill-shaped or otherwise don’t have any real means of grabbing onto them, so it was nice to see a simple handle thrown in to address this problem. After using the Disco 4 for a few weeks and carrying it around, a handle on a Bluetooth speaker just makes more and more sense.
The back of the speaker is, as they say, where the magic happens. It’s pretty self-explanatory: a power button with multiple functions, a colored LED indicator, a microUSB charging port, and an optional auxiliary-out port for those devices that aren’t Bluetooth-friendly. Just as a clarification, the press images from the Disco 4′s CES announcement show it having several buttons on the top that aren’t present in the final production model. Supertooth didn’t mention why they removed these buttons (which appear to be play/pause and possibly volume buttons), but I would think that they were removed because they were essentially pointless. In any case, all the music functions and volume are controlled through your smartphone or tablet.
I think SuperTooth hit a sweet spot with the size of the Disco 4. It’s certainly not the smallest of Bluetooth speakers (at around 5 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 5 inches deep), but it’s still small enough to fit on a tabletop without taking up too much space. Despite being one of the larger Bluetooth speakers on the market, the Disco 4 is remarkably light. I was actually surprised when I picked it up for the first time, because I expected it to be much bulkier than it is. SuperTooth put a lot of time and effort into making this thing as portable as possible, and it shows in the weight (or lack thereof).
Sound & Usability
The Disco 4 is, in short, an awesome little speaker. Just from a sound perspective, it’s kicking out 8 watts of RMS power. Everything I played through the speaker came out crisp, clear, and loud enough to be heard from a fair distance away. There’s a surprising amount of bass coming from the Disco 4. It isn’t mind-blowing and you won’t be rattling any windows with it, but for most scenarios (i.e. parties, playing random songs, etc) it should be more than enough. All in all, the sound coming from this speaker definitely exceeded my expectations.
So it sounds great, but how usable is it? The short answer is that the DIsco 4 is remarkably easy to use. Within seconds (literally, I counted) of removing the packaging, I turned the speaker on, paired my phone and started playing my favorite tunes. There is almost no set-up required for the Disco 4. SuperTooth gave users a few different ways to pair their devices via Bluetooth. The first (and most obvious) method is by holding down the power button on the Disco 4 until it beeps and the LED indicator light flashes red and blue. This essentially puts the speaker in discovery mode, so all it takes is finding it via Bluetooth on your smartphone or tablet and pairing with it. This process takes a whole ten seconds, and I had no issues pairing my Galaxy S4 with this method.
SuperTooth went the extra mile and threw in NFC-Bluetooth pairing capabilities. The basic idea is that the Disco 4 is NFC-capable, so you can just hold your NFC-enabled device up to it, and it will ask you to automatically connect to the speaker. This sounds like a brilliant idea, but it needs a bit of fine-tuning in practice. The first time I tried to use the NFC pairing, I spent several minutes waving my phone around the speaker like a lost wizard that just couldn’t get the spell to work. After a bit of frustration, I finally found the NFC sweet spot, which is at the top of the speaker, toward the back. In hindsight, there are diagrams in the quick start book that depict a smartphone being held at the back of the speaker to pair it via NFC. But who reads those pesky directions anyway?
Still, even after finding the NFC pairing spot, I was still unable to get my phone to pair via NFC on the first try every time. It always takes a bit of moving the phone around until that beep is heard. I’ll give props to SuperTooth for adding this feature, but it does slightly defeat the purpose if I can connect my phone to the Disco 4 faster by using standard Bluetooth pairing.
SuperTooth claims that you can pull a solid 12 hours of life out of the battery if you’re playing audio at low-to-medium volume, and 3 to 4 hours at full volume. After a few weeks of usage, those numbers sound pretty spot on. In my experience with the Disco 4, I could get several days out of a single charge, playing audio for a few hours here and there. Something tells me that users will either drain the battery in one long music-listening session or gradually over several days as they use the speaker occasionally. Either way, the battery life for the Disco 4 is more than reasonable considering its usefulness.
Conclusion
So here’s the real question: is it worth it? After spending some time with it, I have no hesitation in saying that the Disco 4 is worth every penny. Overall, I was very satisfied with every aspect of it (minus that pesky NFC pairing). It’s a light, portable speaker that offers great sound quality and is incredibly easy to use. At $49, it’s well worth the investment. It also doesn’t hurt that SuperTooth offers the Disco 4 in five colors: red, black, grey, white, and blue. If you’re interested, you can grab a Disco 4 directly from their website.
The post Supertooth Disco 4 Bluetooth speaker review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Survey Shows Strong Consumer Interest in Larger-Screen iPhone 6
Research firm ChangeWave (via Fortune) has released the results of a new survey, showing that interest among early-adopter and professional consumers in a larger-screen iPhone 6 is at an all time high.
40% of respondents indicated they are ‘very likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to buy an iPhone 6 that is described as having a “larger screen size” and a “faster processor” along with an “updated iOS operating system” at a starting price of $199 with a two year contract.
“This is the highest level of demand for an unannounced Apple model in a ChangeWave survey – stronger than we’ve seen in previous years for the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5 models prior to their announcements,” said Andy Golub of 451 Research. “Speculation over a larger screen iPhone is clearly striking a chord with consumers.”
Internal memos from the second ongoing trial between Apple and Samsung indicate that Apple is eager to release a larger phone, as a slide deck from an April 2013 presentation showed that customers want less expensive and notably, larger screen smartphones.
Apple will likely unveil its next-generation iPhone later this year, as it has done with previous models. Unlike past iterations however, the iPhone 6 may come in two versions, including one with a 4.7-inch screen and another with a larger 5.5-inch screen that will be released later.
In addition to a larger display, the iPhone 6 is expected to feature a narrower bezel that surrounds a thinner design along with a faster A8 processor and an upgraded camera. According to a research note from well-sourced KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the high-end models of the iPhone 6 may also feature a durable, sapphire display as Apple is expected to become temporarily limited by the low supply yields of the material. 
Three days with TomTom’s Multi-Sport Cardio Sport Watch (2014)
TomTom’s always made fitness wearables on the side, but now that everyone’s in on that action, the Dutch firm has had to up its game. The 2014-era refreshes of its GPS watches now include optical pulse sensors that do away with chest-worn heart rate monitors and keep pace with at least one flagship smartphone. Is this hardware, however, the new gold standard for exercise gear in 2014? We grabbed the TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio Sport Watch, a device so good they named it twice, and put it through its paces.
In the looks department, there’s no difference between this and last year’s model, with both packing a 168 x 144 display and a four-way navigation button below. If you like to wear your timepiece loose and close to the wrist bone, you’re going to struggle here, as the unit has to be worn tight and high to ensure good contact for the sensor to work. It’s a small price to pay for the use, and we found launching into a training routine to be tremendously simple.
The unit is capable of accompanying you when you run outdoors, cycle, swim (it’s waterproof to depths of 50 meters) and when you hit the treadmill, as well as just behaving like a standard stopwatch. There are also options to add in interval, lap and zone-based training programs to each of the functions. When we took it out for a ride, it found a GPS signal within 20 seconds and offered up very accurate location, elevation and speed data. The only place we found fault was when it came to calculating our calories, which we found skewed heavily toward the pessimistic side compared to other systems we’ve used.
You can dock the watch on your desktop, or share your data with the companion iOS app over Bluetooth, although we found that transferring files was horribly slow and the app itself offered nothing more useful than placing our vital statistics beside some colorful icons. Considering that the watch has a vibration motor, we were hoping that it would offer up some smartwatch features like call alerts, but alas, this is a fitness-only device. If you’re in the market for a new unit, this is certainly one to consider, although we’re not sure we’d upgrade if we’d already shelled out nearly 300 clams on last year’s model. Speaking of which, the Multi-Sport will set you back $300 (£280), with the Runner priced at $270 (£250) and both will arrive toward the end of the month.
Google Play Music can now stream direct to Sonos on Android
Let’s face it, as cool as Sonos is, that Android app is ugly. You should definitely be rolling with the beta version. The new (and much cleaner, and less blue) look isn’t the big news though. That honor goes to the addition of Google Play Music to the list of streaming options you can enjoy from the Android app. Starting today, you’ll be able to access any music you’ve added to Google’s cloud service, plus all the music in the world (well, not quite, but a lot of it) if you’re fully paid up with All Access. There’s one more significant change to the world of Sonos today, and that’s the ability to stream music directly within the Play app to your hardware. The option will be under the same streaming button as if you were sending it to a Chromecast. So you might find yourself skipping that new slick controller app altogether. We’re no clairvoyants, but expect to see even more music services getting the same native support in the very near future.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet
Source: Sonos
Getting to know Microsoft’s new Xbox lead, Phil Spencer
When Phil Spencer was appointed the new head of Xbox following the departure of longtime lead Marc Whitten, he promised a re-focus on gaming across all Microsoft platforms. That wasn’t a huge surprise, of course –most folks know Spencer as the Microsoft Studios guy; the guy who makes game deals; the guy who speaks at E3 about games during Microsoft’s keynote. While that’s all accurate, Spencer is also a longtime Microsoft employee, starting as a programmer and working his way up. In an interview with Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Spencer detailed that 26 year history and how it led him to the lofty position he’s in today.
Beyond the history lesson, Spencer teased out at least one juicy tidbit: “we’ve got a game we haven’t announced yet, we’re gonna show on stage at E3.” Unannounced games at E3? Get right out! Joking aside, he said it’s got a “fantastic setting” and a “soulful” feeling (comparisons were made to indie darlings Limbo and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons). Color us intrigued.
Join us below for a bulleted list of quick facts about the man charged with running Microsoft’s gaming division, and the full video interview from Microsoft.
Quick facts about Phil Spencer:
- Joined Microsoft at age 20 as a programmer
- Has never left the company (for 26 years!)
- Worked with Ed Fries and the original Xbox group on creating Microsoft’s game platform
- His favorite game? Voodoo Vince for the original Xbox (yes, really)
- Some major franchises Spencer’s played a key role in: Halo, Gears of War, Forza Motorsport
- The most important “moment” for him in the history of Xbox: the launch of Xbox Live
- His favorite type of games are fun, story-based, and involve group play
- He’s got a pretty killer haircut
[Image credit: Flickr user ‘Criisi’]
Family Guy is canceled yet again in Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff
I know the hearts of several adult cartoon fans stopped for a second when they read the title of this article, but fear not! This is simply the plot to a brand new Android game featuring the cast of the widely known TV show Family Guy.
Fox Digital Entertainment has teamed up with the popular game app company TinyCo (Tiny Monsters, VIP Poker) to bring you the best of the Family Guy show to your Android device in the form of a game. They even brought along the original writers and cast to make the game as much like the show as possible.
The game’s plot begins after Family Guy is cancelled by Fox yet again. However, Peter is quick to learn at a town hall meeting that the President of Fox is in fact his nemesis, the giant chicken Ernie. After starting a quarrel that leaves the entire city in flames, its your job to help with the rebuilding of Quahog.
You can play as Peter, or other members of the cast, and help to restore Quahog to its normal state. Family Guy: The Quest for stuff is full of customization and items such as outfits/decos/etc that you can earn as well as buy in the app. Other than these in-app purchases, the game is free!
With cast from the TV show and the original writers leading the story on this constantly updated game, it should be a ride full of laughs and completely random nonsense! Grab it from the Play Store, and let your Family Guy fantasies run rampant through the streets of Quahog!
The post Family Guy is canceled yet again in Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff’ Launches for iPhone and iPad [iOS Blog]
TinyCo and FOX have released their new free-to-play iOS game based on the popular TV show Family Guy. The game, called Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, has gameplay similar to EA’s freemium The Simpsons: Tapped Out, released in 2012.
In the Family Guy game, the town of Quahog has been trashed by a fight between Peter Griffin and Ernie the Giant Chicken, and gamers must help Peter rebuild the town, collecting many the characters from the game along the way. The game features original content from the voice actors along with stories and jokes from writers at Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door productions.
The TinyCo team stressed that the freemium elements are solely there to speed up the game or for cosmetic decorations, but that users will never be forced to pay money to progress. It’s meant to be something that users play for short bursts — “on the bus or on the toilet”, according to the company — but it can also be played for long stretches, particularly later in the game.
Family Guy’s trademark irreverent humor — including numerous cutaway gags — are everywhere in the game, with some characters from the show making a brief appearance for a single joke before disappearing for the rest of the game.
The game features Facebook social integration so gamers can visit friends, but the social play is strictly optional. Logging in to TinyCo’s servers with a Google+ or Facebook login does make it significantly easier to play the game on multiple devices, however. The game backs up progress to the cloud, allowing users to seamlessly shift their ongoing game from an iPad to iPhone on the same account. It can also be used offline, on an airplane for example, but will need to eventually sync to the cloud to save progress.
“Not only is the game exponentially more entertaining than reading this press release, it’s the only place you’ll find Peter and Quagmire napping together,” said Rick Phillips, SVP, Fox Digital Entertainment. “We’re excited to deliver a game that brings the spontaneity and eccentricity of the show to the mobile gameplay experience for the first time. TinyCo successfully marries the world of FAMILY GUY, its infamous cutaways, lampooning of current events, and irreverent humor with entertaining game mechanics.”
“We’ve had an absolute blast bringing The Quest for Stuff to life,” said Andrew Green, head of business development and business operations at TinyCo. “Working with an IP like Family Guy wasn’t a responsibility we took lightly, and thanks to fantastic collaboration with Fox we’re delivering a game that both fans and newcomers will love.”
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is a free download for the iPhone and iPad. [App Store]
Is it a good idea to avail the services of epicseo.org for the growth of your business?
The world we are living is dominated by science and technology, and these advancements are visible in all areas of our living. As a result of these advancements, revolutionary changes have happened in all courses of our living and the business sector is no different. Nowadays, most of the businesses are running with the help of internet and various tools associated with it. Online marketing and online sales are gaining huge prominence, and in these days, even small scale business owners have official websites to proclaim their services.
Online marketing and advertising will take your business to a new level of fame and exposure, and thus you will enter a new corporate world of business in no time. The concept of ‘SEO’ can be considered as the spinal cord of these developments. In your journey to success, it is highly recommended to avail the service of a leading SEO company. While choosing the SEO Company, you should be very careful, and should always make sure that you are choosing the best one which will take you to new heights of success. EpicSeo is one of the renowned names in this arena, and business owners who are using their service are reaping the benefits out of it. There are various advantages of availing the service of Epicseo and some of the most noted ones are mentioned below.
EpicSeo Assure the visibility of your contents: The visibility of your content plays a crucial role in determining the success of your business. EpicSeo are masters in several optimized strategies, and thus you will reach your target audience in no time. This company uses manual SEO services, and they do not do any kind of automatic tools. The services of this company will help you to reach the top levels of search engines in a quick time, and thus you will come out with flying colors in your business world.
All kind of web related services under one roof: EpicSeo can boast about its impeccable quality, and they provide all kinds of web related services under one roof. You can approach this company for Blog Post services, Reputation Management and for web design services like Website design, Logo Design and Graphic Design.
24/7 customer service: This is another major advantage of choosing the service of EpicSeo. This company offer 24/7 customer care services, and you can reach them at any point of time. The customer care executive will help you to clarify any kind of doubts which may arise in your mind, and this client centric approach played a crucial role in determining the success of EpicSeo.
All the advantages mentioned above played a crucial role in popularizing the service of EpicSeo. The company offers 100% fulfillment and it will not disappoint you in any manner. Thousands of business organizations have used the service of EpicSeo, and they are now reaping the benefits. You can blindly trust their services, and the final result will be nothing less than you business growth.
Top Benefits of using a tablet phone or tablet pc
21st century can be considered as the age of technological revolution. Various devices and technological tools have literally reshaped our living, and most of us are reaping the benefits out of it. Several devices which got introduced in the last decade have made our life comfortable in all means, and one such device is tablet. The tablet market is growing day by day, and this is a clear cut evidence of the versatility and demand of these devices. Tablet market has grown a long way since the introduction of Apple’s ipad, world’s first consumer friendly tablet. There are various benefits of using tablet baratas phone, and some of the most noted ones are mentioned below.
Note taking feature: This is the first and foremost benefit of using tablets. With the help of a tablet, you can easily take notes. With the help of a digital pen, you can take notes in your own handwriting, and this facility is much useful for students. They can customize the papers as per their wish, and this is another highlight of this feature. Business people can also make use of this facility, and they can make use of this feature during times of seminars. With this note taking feature, we can say a big blatant NO to paper. This will also protect our environment which is facing various problems like Global Warming.
Comfort: This is another top most benefit of using a tablet. A tablet which offer huge amount of comfort than a laptop and computer, and this is quite unmatchable in nature. You can carry the tablet to any place you wish, and in most of the cases, you can keep it in your pockets. There is no extra space needed to keep keyboard, and this allows you to use it from any place you wish. With the help of highly sophisticated touch screens, you can type anything you wish with comfort and ease. These phones are light weighted as well, and it will not spoil your comfort quotient in any manner.
Wide variety of choices: Tablet phones are available in a wide variety of specifications, ie different size, speed and design. The customer can closely analyze all these features and can select the best one which will suit his needs.
Better Battery life: This is another feature which attracts more and more people towards tablets. A tablet will offer much better battery life than laptops, and it will not disappoint you in any aspects. You can take the tablet without a charger for a day use.
Expand your memory: A tablet will provide a fixed internal memory, but if you wish, then you can expand the memory through the external cards.
All the benefits mentioned above plays a crucial role in maintaining the popularity of tablets. While selecting a tablet baratas, you should be very careful, and should always makes sure that you are selecting the best tablet which matches your needs and tastes.
OneNote team goes off-key with Les Mis parody
Sometimes, it’s easy to get so excited that you spontaneously burst into song. After all, that’s the logic behind most musicals, no? Microsoft’s OneNote team took that idea and ran with it, cribbing from Les Miserables in the process. See, after setting its note-taking app free last month, the team had reason to celebrate. Naturally, it picked an upbeat song (“One Day More”) from one of the saddest musicals of all time to do so. Video evidence of the team’s “Weird Al” skills is after the break, but try not getting the track stuck in your head — it’s for the good of everyone, really.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Via: The Next Web
Source: YouTube
AIVAnet 