Review: Moto Insta-Share Projector for Moto Z

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

After receiving the Moto Mod accessories to test with my Moto Z and my Moto Z Play (review coming soon!), the Insta-Share Projector was the one I was least enthusiastic about. Once I tried it, however, it became the one I used the most.

One of the more intriguing Moto Mod attachments for the Moto Z and Moto Z Play smartphones was the Lenovo-made Insta-Share Projector which snaps into the back of these devices to create an instant home theatre projector experience.

I'm a big fan of projectors, I savour movies from my collection on 720P HD Viewsonic projector. I use a tiny ASUS S1 Pocket Projector as the TV in my room and take it with me when travelling. I've also used and enjoyed the Celluon PicoAir wireless pico projector.

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Review: Google Pixel XL

 

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla 

Exploding Note7’s have left a crater-sized void in the market and users looking for options can definitely consider a Pixel XL. It’s large, has the killer camera and specs combo, and it’s a Pure Google device. That’s great for consumers with $899 burning a hole in their pocket, but what about the rest of us?

Ambitious, bold, and aiming for the big guns in the smartphone flagship market, Google’s Pixel XL and its smaller brother, the Google Pixel, aim to give consumers the Google phone that they have always wanted but which the earlier Nexus devices may have failed to deliver. 

Pixel represents a brand new chapter for Google as an end-to-end creator of consumer products. The Pixel extends the Made by Google ethos, which is to deliver high-quality devices that serve as the best containers for Google’s technology. This idea has been percolating with the expensive and premium Chromebook Pixel, the similarly costly and ambitious Pixel C 2-in-1, and now is encapsulated in the Pixel family of phones as well as in Google’s Home and Wi-Fi focused devices.

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Video: See the Google Pixel's electronic image stabilization

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The new Google Pixel and Pixel XL boast the best cameras on any smartphone and while they have a notable 12.3 megapixel camera, these phones omitted optical image stabilization in favour of a computational solution that uses the built-in gyroscope to at 200 times a second to determine exactly how the camera is moving, even accounting for the rolling shutter and even avoiding the jello effect and rolling shutter seen in other forms of stabilization.

I was very impressed at what the Pixel XL could do in terms of grabbing stable video. You can see I shot video from a moving car, which is usually a nightmare scenario for any type of camera and often means it isn't even worth shooting video. I also shot video while walking and moving around in various conditions and as you can see the video isn't just usable, it is clear and generally vibration free. During the October 4 launch of the Pixel and Pixel XL, Google's VP Product Management Brian Rakowski mentioned the company's imaging and photography engineers spent a whole year working on the camera stack and the result is impressive.

Sony rises up to Nintendo, also plans to release games on iOS and Android

Following Nintendo's foray into mobile gaming on smartphones, Sony has announced that it is releasing five new games on iOS and Android by the year ending 2018. This signifies a shift in Sony's mobile strategy, it's onw PS Vita handheld is five years old and while popular in hardcore gaming circles is seen as redundant to current smartphone gaming experiences. 

The games will come to Japan first,where mobile revenues account for over half of the country's games market. Sony is currently relying exclusively on PS4 games and accessories for revenue and recently jumped headfirst into the VR game with the Sony VR suite, but it needs other areas to compete in.

Source: AppleInsider