[Sunday Evening Chat] Bracketology Edition

[pc747]

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It is that time of year again when we all fill out our brackets and enter office contests only to see the person, who cares nothing about basketball and picked teams based on color of their uniforms or based on their mascots who win while those of us who are in it are trying to predict the next big Cinderella team.

So post your brackets from accredited sites (cbs, espn, official NCAA site).

2) ASUS Duet: I have been interested in an Android/Windows hybrid ever since I saw Asus release the Asus Transformer a few years back. I always felt like when I was using the device as a tablet Android was my choice of os but once I put it in the keyboard dock I preferred Windows because of the various office programs and the whatnots (the ability to put programs like android sdk on it). So when I saw that Asus was basically going to combine their Asus Transformer android tablet with their Asus Transformer Windows 8 tablet I was already in line waiting to give them my money. Unfortunately the competition between Google and Microsoft was too heavy for them to allow a device that dual booted both. After pressure from Microsoft and Android (http://www.droidforums.net/forum/an...suring-asus-drop-dual-os-booting-devices.html) the Transformer Duet we saw at CES will not see the light of day and that is unfortunate because the public loses out on a market that would have really been a benefit to them. In fact there were rumors that Samsung was looking at doing the same thing with their notebook line of devices and even with touchwiz on it I would have loved to see a Note tablet that when docked can be used as a full Windows 8 laptop. So my question is given that Android is open source should the manufacturers make and sell the device, especially since there is a demand, despite the protests of Microsoft and/or Google?

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Question 3: From all the leaks and leaked reviews have you seen enough to make you choose the "New One" as your device of choice if not what do you need (or want) to see in order to make you purchase the device?

As a side note HTC has an issue and sadly as a result of so many leaks we can expect their testing programs to be less open. We ask manufacturers to be open and "let us in" and we have people who look to gather their 5 mins of Youtube fame violating NDAs in order to be "first". Other than @evleaks do any one remember the people who were "first" to reveal a device? For me I do not remember a channel because they were first but based on the quality of the video and the content they present.

 

[jspradling7]

1. The only useful information that can be gleaned from any bracket sheet I fill in is that it's wrong. I think I'll try the uniform color approach this time.

2. In general I'm not a big fan of "all-in-one" designs. Take our big color copier for example. We bought it so that we could copy, scan, email, fax, print, and who knows what else. It's great when it works but when it goes down we lose all of those service in one whack. So, we have to have secondary equipment to do those chores while we wait for Mr. Goodwrench to stop by. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to go back to having multiple and less expensive devices instead. We also have some of these Dell Vostro All-in-One desktop computers here. (Sort of like an iMac) They're neat an tidy... but when the display goes bad we lose the whole computer, we can't just toss down another 21" monitor and keep on trucking. I guess I'm a fan of diversifying my portfolio so to speak. It's not that I'm completely opposed to all-in-one designs, as stated above, we use them. And I may even get a dual boot device if it becomes available, but I won't disappointed if we never get one.

3. I'm fortunate in that my job allows me to acquire Verizon devices on a pretty steady basis. I regularly swap them out with my personal devices so that I get to spend time with the various phones. The current "stable" of phones I have for use are the RAZR HD Maxx, DNA, S3, Note 3, S4, G2, and my Moto X. My wife uses the Note 3 and I have been using the Moto X mostly and also the S4 and G2. I didn't pick up the HTC One when it came out and I have been curious about it. I had planned on getting the S5 next but I don't even care for the width of the G2, and the S5 is even wider than it. So now I'm thinking it's best to wait for the "New" One instead. I want a flagship phone that's small enough for me to use and I think Samsung ran off and left me.

 

[pc747]

Yesterday I was listening to the Droid-life youtube chat (I do not have cable and the weather sucked) and a point that I did not think about they made. It was that all these leaks may be HTC driven not in saying "leak it" but in putting it in the hands of people who would most likely leak it. Why, well free advertisement and hype. 3 years ago Google benefitted from something similar with the Galaxy nexus as far as the hype. Between social network and forums people were so hyped up about the Nexus that there was an outrage about it being "delayed" and there may have been one commercial (if that) about the device. If you can build hype for a device and keep it going with out having to spend a lot on advertising that is a win. And unlike Samsung, HTC is hurting on money not making near the profits they need. If HTC can capitalize on the hype and make the 25th the release day where people can go out and buy beating Samsung to release they could possibly pick up those undecided customers and even potential s5 customers. Remember people did not leave MWC impressed with the s5 at all, what was it called the "Samsung Galaxy s4s"? Be interesting to see what HTC does here.

 

[jspradling7]

I was looking on Phone Arena to see what specs they have listed. I compared the LG G2, the New HTC One, and the Galaxy S5.

LG G2 vs HTC One (2014) vs Samsung Galaxy S5 - Phone specs comparison

I understand these are just specs and that the user experience (as with the Moto X) can be very different than the specs may suggest. I'm about 99% sure I'll get a ONE next.

 

[pc747]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ncaa.mmlive.app

those looking for an app to keep up with the tournament.