• 24Dec 11

  Christmas

  I'd like to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas. May it be blessed with Joy and Happiness. Take some time to spend your Christmas with those you love. Being able to spend this time with others is greater than any gift you could ever recieve. As my priest said at church today make yourself "present" for other. Present meaning both with them and as a gift for others. May it be a great time of year for all of you and your friends and family.

  • Posted Dec 24, 2011 9:25 pm GMT
  • Category: General
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• 17Oct 11

  Gadget Review - Motorola Triumph

  So in inspiration of my recent acquisition of a new communications device I decided to movie out of only the occassional movie review and begin to review some of the fancy gadgets I come in contact with on a daily basis. So first up is the Motorola Triumphant.

  

  The Motorola Triumph is an android 2.2 powered smart phone brought to you by Virgin Mobile. It is a solidly built smart phone and comes contract free. It may possibly be the only affordable contract free phone on the American market. Is it worth the investment?

  Upon first opening my phone I recieved from Amazon (2 day shipping) I was greeted by a well packaged solid looking device. With a 4 in screen it was very visible and looked very professional. After Throwing around the packing products and obvious advertisments I finally removed the device from it's plastic containment unit. To my surprise it felt very solid. With a rubberized backing and a solidly built frame and glass screen the device feels very sturdy. At only .39 in thick and 3.4 onces it is very thin and light which makes the device easy to hold.

  Upon first boot I underwent the normal vanilla Android (very short) set up process. I noticed almost immediately that the screen was very bright and responsive to touch. Once through the set up I was greeted by the android home screen (seen above) Set up through Virgin Mobile's website was carefree and simply. Within 10 min. I had selected a plan and activated my phone. I was off to the races. Several hours and dozens of apps later I can now say the phone works extremely well. With a 1ghz (albeit a single core) CPU and 512 mb a ram it was very quick. I could navigate throught he menus with relative ease and enter programs with very short loading times. With flash support and downloadable video and audio codexes via the android market place this device can do anything that I need it to.

  This phone does work well but it does have it's flaws, considering it's only 269.99 without a contract. First off, the onboard memory. It only comes with 2gb of onboard memory. Thank goodness it has support for up to 32gb SD card expansion, after purchase of a $20 16gb SD card I had all the space I needed. The onboard speaker is also very low quality and difficult to hear especially when watching movies. However since I'm often using headphones I rarely experience this as a problem. Finally battery life, (like most smartphones) is low. Although this one is significantly lower. Using internet intense programs can drag my battery life down to only a couple of hours. It's talking time is also, only slatted for 4 hours. Since I almost also have the ability to charge it available it isn't at the moment a big deal but on the road or away from home this could definitely be a big draw back for the device.

  The plan itself (Virgin Mobile's 300 min talk plan) is what I would call the best deal in the mobile buisness. At only $35 a month I am gifted with 300 anytime minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data all provided through the Sprint network. With no contract I am also able to cancel anytime. This is a plus for anyone on a budget.

  Overall: The Motorola Triumph is an excellent smartphone device. It is a smooth interface running "almost" Vanilla Anroid, with a very responsive and large screen. The processor and ram makes the device very fast and simply to use. Plus the Sprint service and low price of the phone makes this an excellent choice for those that need a cheap alternative. The low internal HD space and small battery could be a problem for some but the pluses this contract-free smartphone provides I believe greatly outweighs the negatives. Overall I would rate this device an 7/10. If you need a solid android powered smartphone on your budget this is definitely the device for you.

  Tech Specs:Height4.8"Width2.6"Depth0.39"Weight3.4 oz
  Internal Memory: 2GB,Expandable Memory: 32GB,1GHz Processor,Android 2.2™ platform,RAM: 512MB

  

  • Posted Oct 17, 2011 5:07 pm GMT
  • Category: Technology
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• 23May 11

  Movie Review - The Kings Speech

  Summer is here and after a long absence it's finally time for a new movie review don't you think..

  

  The Kings speech is an award winning drama based on a true story, about King George VI's (Colin Firth) struggle with his lifelong speech impediment before and during the second World War. He eventually aquires a speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) to assist him in the art of speech. Through the grueling struggle of coming to terms with his inability to speak correctly and the family scandal that thrusts him onto the throne, King George overcomes adversity and leads his people through the difficult times. All the while creating an unlike friendship between himself and his therapist. The movie is as inspiring as it is well made.

  The acting is the first thing to look at in this film. All the primary actors were Oscar nominated and for good reason. Colin Firth gives one of the most compelling and inspirational performances in recent memory. He portays the stuggles and heart-brokeness of King George very realistically. The tension that takes places occurs without a doubt because of these phenominal actors. These performances literally lead you to feel for the characters. Some of the minor characters however were often uninspiring and seemed to slightly drag down the performances of Colin, Helena and Geoffrey, but not enough to overpower the absolute power these actors brought to their roles.

  The character of King George is played incredibly well. You can literally see and feel the characters pain. As his story begins to unfold you literally feel sadness and sorry for this character. The speech impediment would be no easy acting task by Colin does it flawlessly, as if he himself was born with the same impediment. How often do characters not fit their roles, in this case Colin fits it realistically and surprisingly well.

  Both Elizabeth (Georges' wife) andLionel (Speech therapist) interact with King George on a very personal level. Their performances add a certain drama and suspence as well as a feeling of hurt in the minds of the audience. There seems to be a real bond between the actors making their roles very believable and worthy of their oscar nominations.

  The movie direction and pacing was well done. You can certainly feel the tension grow as various circumstances thrust the characters into various roles. The devlopment of the characters while not rushed also does not drag out needlessly long. Just enough information is given when needed to allow the audience to come to know and associate with the various characters. So often do movies sacrifice story for character devlopment to viceversa but this film seems to find that perfect balance. My only complaint however is that occassionally it does seem that the story gets bogged down and seems to drag, however needed it may be. This however is greatly overshadowed by the inspirational and terrifically interesting trials and struggles the audience seems to experience right along side the characters.

  Finally the soundtrack associated with the movie never overshadows the performances. The music also seems to blend seemlessly with the era and helps to reinforce important events in the story. At the same time however, the soundtrack often seems to be drowned out and barely noticeable. This is obviously due to the fact that the movie is so focused on the actors that often times extra musical sounds are not needed. However it sure would be nice to hear a little more background abients.

  Overall this movie is pure gold. The minor flaws in supporting characters, pacing and soundtrack is no where near terrible enough to overshadow the pure joy I had in watching this film. It's exhilarating and at the same time deep and thoughtful. This movie shows that fancy explosions and car chases aren't need to keep audience engrossed and entertained. This movie recieves a much deserved 9.5/10

  • Posted May 23, 2011 5:44 pm GMT
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