Christmas Tech 2012 : what to get?

So we bring you our top 7 list of our best tech presents for under the christmas tree. The products aren't in any specific order. We will write a little about the product and give you pricing info.

iPhone 5 : a great design piece and one of the most popular mobile devices today. The newest iPhone gives you a faster expirience with iOS 6 and the new dual-core processor and a more pleasent viewing expirience with the new 4 inch screen. All this in a more thinner profile than the last generation of iPhone.

Price: 649$ - 16 gb /  749$ - 32 gb /  849$ - 64 gb > without contract

The Nokia Lumia 920:  a beautiful device with a goregous operating system. The device is going to shock you with the Pureview camera which has floating lens technology and gives you extraordinary low-light performance. The 4.5 inch screen in one of the best you've ever seen on a phone. And you can pick up the device in many interesting colors: black, white, gray, red, yellow or cyan. 

Price: 449$ - 32 gb

The Google Nexus 4 - a great device runnign the pure Android expirience. This device has Gorilla glass on the front and the back which not onkly protects the back camera and the front 4.5 inch screen but gives it that extra flare. A blazing expirience is guarantied with the quad-core 1.5 Ghz processor. And all this in a increadibly thin profile adn amazing price.

Price : 299$ - 8 gb  /  349$ - 16gb

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - this Phablet (phone/tablet) is one of the best bussines companions you are ever going to have. This beast does not just pack a quad-core 1.7 Ghz processor and the latest Android expirience but gives you a monster 5.5 inch 720p HD display! Yeah, you heard it. And it comes with a S Pen which is going to help you do draw and take notes on the Note 2. 

Price:  649$

iPad mini - this little device is going to be your best companion from now on. The iPad mini will fit in any bag or purse with its compact dimensions and 7.9 inch screen. It has two cameras, the back one is a 5mpx iSight. You will get the full iPad expirience in a more compact and really thin profile (it's also increadibly light).

Price: 329$ - 16 gb  /  429$- 32 gb  / 529$ - 64 gb

The Google Nexus 7 - this 7 inch tablet is runnign the real Android expirience and is going to be your best companion becouse it's going to fit in your back pocket. You have the Play store which not only has now almost a million apps, but has a ton of music, books, tv shows and lots more. This tablet is mainly a media conspution device, but aren't all tablets?

Price:  199$ - 16gb  /  249$ - 32gb

The Microsoft Surface tablet - this 11.6 inch tablet is  going to give you the best expirience with full Windows 8 on it. The device is really beautiful and sturdy with magnezium back and Gorilla glass front it has a kick stand and a optional touch cover which acts as a keyboard so you basicly have a laptop.

Price : Surface RT - 32 gb-  499$ + 100$ - touch cover

          Surface Pro - 889$

So, this is our top 7 list of gadgets you sould get under the christmas tree. Which one are you going to choose?

Windows Phone 8 vs Apple iOS 6

We will be comparing these operating systems on their flagship devices iPhone 5 for iOS 6 and the
new Nokia Lumia 920 for Windows Phone 8.

This wont be a review of two devices, their specs and what not. This will be a review and comparison (not smackdown) of two ''popular'' operating systems, their pros and cons, app selection and etc. We will be summing this review up in 3 diferent categories and give the OS a grade from 1 to 5 and then sum it all up and give our final oppinion.

The three categories are: 1. UI and user experience
                                         2. Speed
                                         3. App selection

   1. UI and user experience

Front screen (app selection menu)
on iOS 6

Start screen on Windows Phone 8

As you can see from the screen shots these two operating systems look really different (and work different as well). iOS or originaly called iPhone OS has been (basically) unchanged since launch in 2007. Don't get me wrong the OS is really a joy to use and really simple to use but after a time the experience gets a little bit static and that makes it boring. In 2010 Apple introduced a background image on the menu screen which gave a little life to the static grid of icons which is now a trademark of the iDevices of apple. You don't get much with updates of iOS other than some new apps (like the latest iOS 6 got us the passbook app) so as you can see in a design perspective iOs has not evolved much from its original in 2007.
On the other hand we have Windows Phone 8 from Microsoft. A completely new experience you can have with a start screen which holds your favourite apps. These are called live tiles, the can present you info on the app in real time, lets say the facebook app will show you how many notifications you have or even new statuses (depending on the tile size). The tiles really look alive becouse the flipp around and move as they show you notifications. You can set the size of the tile depending on how often you use the app and how much info you want to get you can set it to a small size, medium size and a large size. The start screen in copmletely customizable with the apps you love and use the most you can swipe from the right to reveal a full app list. Other than just apps you can also pin people, settings and much more to the start screen.

Grades:

iOS 6 - 3 > a solid operating system wich has great power but is stale and has been since 2007

Windows Phone 8 - 5 > something new and noteworthy, the live tiles make the user experience a new meaning.



 

   2. Speed

In terms of speed we have to agree that both OS systems are blazingly fast. But we would like to give WP 8 a higher grade becouse learning from WP 7 the OS can run as well on a single core 1 GhZ processor as on a dual core 1.5 Ghz. The OS itself is blazingly fast the processor just speed up app performance and opening. The phone has apsolutely no lag at all at never actualy frezzes unline the iPhone with iOS. So we would like to give the WP 8 platform a 5 and iOS 6 a solid 4.

   3. App selection

Windows Phone's panorama style app market

  

 A look at the iOS app store

 The app selection varies from these two platforms, Windows phone is a (young) platform that hasn't a big market share (yet) so not many appsare currently available on the marketplace. But those apps that are are really quality apps. The marketplace has about 150+ thousand apps which compared to the Apple app store is nothing. The Apple app store has more than a million apps available. So you know there really is an app for everything. But don't be sad, the windows phone marketplace is densly populated with real quality apps and if there isn't your favourite app that you had on your android or iOs there will be a great replacement.

So the apps on the marketplace are great but they are greately lacking in number so we will be giving the WP 8 platform a solid 3 and the iOS platform here deserves a 5.

So as we conclude all this and sum up the grades we thing the WP 8 platform is a clear winner. It's still a 'fresh' platform and it needs a lot of work but yep its on the road to become a really popular platform, the only negative side is the app selection but that wont be the problem in the near future becouse the number of apps is climbing from day to day.

iOS - cons: unchanged since 2007 and becomes really stale and boring, a stale user experiance
          pros: a solid platform, fast and really pleasent to the eye, largest app selection
          final grade: 4
          points: 16

WP 8 - cons: not many device yet, a poor app selection
             pros: a great platform, with the best user expirence, really fast, something totally different
             final grade: 5
             points: 18