Reviews

When it comes to laptops, Windows 8 machines are giving OEMs a lot to chew on and explore. Of all the companies to most impress me so far, it’s been Acer. Traditionally, Acer has been associated with more mid-range devices but their S7 Ultrabook (see here) and now their R7 transformer are quite remarkable designs, setting a new bar, in my opinion, for the company.

I picked up the R7 yesterday simply because I forgot it’s now available "exclusively" at Best Buy for $999 (not even Microsoft Stores have it, which is where I would have preferred to buy it). I checked out a few hands on reviews and decided to take the plunge (Best Buy does have a 15-day return policy, after all).

While this is far from a proper, full review, I’ll give you my quick impressions of the Acer’s latest and greatest creation after spending the last 24 hours with it.

With summer fast approaching, vacations are being planned and if you're headed to Walt Disney World, you may want to check out Disney Expedition for your Windows Phone 8 or 7.x device.

Disney Expedition is a well laid out companion app for the Disney theme parks that can help you manage your time and help you from getting lost.

Squids is a relatively new Windows Phone 8 game that has you playing the role of various squids in an under sea action adventure.

The story line has your team of squids in danger of an infectious black ooze that is corrupting the sea. Naturally, it's your job to build a team of squids to defeat the enemies and save the day.

Squids is a fun game that does grow on you and is a nice addition to the Windows Phone gaming library.

Windows 8 tablets are a great option for those wanting portable, compact options for their computing needs.  We've taken a look at the Samsung ATIV Smart PC and now we turn our sights on the Acer Iconia W510 tablet.

The Acer is a smidgen smaller than the Samsung or even the Microsoft Surface series, sporting a 10.1" CrystalBrite LED-backlit TFT LCD instead of a 11.6" screen. While the W510 may be smaller, it doesn't skimp on features.  The Acer Iconia W510 is a really nice option to consider if you're in the market for a compact Windows 8 tablet at a decent price.

If there is one thing Lumia 920 owners are happy about, it’s their camera. So it’s finally nice to see some aftermarket-accessories build off of what Nokia has started (though personally, we’d like to see Nokia get involved in this area too).

We’ve covered some magnetic lens adapters in the past, and while “cheap” they did offer users a new creative ability with their phones. After all, if you’re a good photographer, you can make “art” out of anything and those lenses enabled some neat options.

Now we have a 12x telephoto lens that comes out of Guangdong, China and it goes for just slightly less than $20 (plus shipping). We ordered ours through Amazon.com and it took about 10 days or so for the product to arrive.

EasyNotes is a fairly simple note app for your Windows Phone 8 device. EasyNotes isn't a note taking app per say but rather a feature rich app to create sticky notes or reminders.

Notes are highly customizable from fonts, background image, sharing and they can also be backed up/restored to Skydrive. EasyNotes is a nice app if your constantly creating reminders or notes for everything from grocery/shopping lists, to-do lists, or anything else a gentle reminder will keep you out of the doghouse.

Match It! is a Windows Phone app that may be a little on the elementary side for many. But if you want to test your memory skills or give your kids a challenging memory game, Match It! is worth a try.

There are four categories of images and five puzzle sizes. You try to match all the hidden images as quickly as possible with your time being your score.

Match It! is a simple game and not a bad way to pass short bits of time with.

The first Gravity Guy starred a hero wrongfully imprisoned by his evil government for manipulating gravity. He broke out of prison, only to be endlessly pursued by a heartless Gravity Trooper. At the end of the game, Gravity Guy escapes to his freedom.

Gravity Guy 2 disappoints ever so slightly by comparison because all pretense of story is gone. Players control a now-helmetless Gravity Guy, but the cut scene bookends and evil pursuer have vanished. The store description says Guy has been captured and cloned (Miniclip also published this webpage to expand on the premise), but that doesn’t spill over into the game itself.

In fact, the first game’s story mode and local multiplayer are MIA as well. An endless runner doesn’t need these things to keep players entertained, but the lack of context and modes still represents a small step back in an otherwise much improved game. Still! Forget the missing bits, this one really is much better.

While a review of the Blackberry Mini Stereo Speaker may sound like it's better suited for our friends over at Crackberry.com, the tiny Bluetooth speaker works rather well with our Windows Phones.

The Mini Stereo Speaker is compact, has very good audio quality and has decent battery life. While the mini speaker works great as a external speaker for listening to music, it may not be very practical as a hands-free solution for your Windows Phone.

Bowling games for your Windows Phone can be a great way to pass the time. AE Bowling 3D is a relatively new bowling game for our Windows Phone that has promise.

AE Bowling 3D has two game modes and the option to play solo games, games against the computer and multi-player games (pass and play style). Graphics are nice, you're not bogged down with a lot of transition screens, and you have the ability to control the angle of your throw with your Windows Phone tilt sensors. The physics could be better but all in all, AE Bowling 3D isn't too shabby of a game.

Interval is an Windows Phone 8 app that puts an alarm, stopwatch and timer all under one roof. The app has live tile support, a clock view and a nice selection (all be it small) of alarm tones.

Admittedly, alarm apps can be a little on the boring side but Interval does a nice job of spreading everything out on three main pages and even has a Sleep Cycle alarm feature designed to keep pace with your 90 minute sleep cycles.  Interval could use a little fine tuning, but all in all, it's not a bad option for those looking for a Windows Phone 8 alarm app.

Refocus is one of the cooler Windows Phone 8 camera apps we've run across. The camera app operates very similar to the Lytro Cameras or the Pelican Imaging that Nokia is investing in that allows you to choose the focal point after you capture the image.

Refocus lets you shoot now and focus later by capturing a RFI image file (SPEFO Stellar Spectra Analysis file) that can be manipulated to shift the focus point. When you get things just right, the image file is saved in .JPEG format. While we are a little shaky on the science behind Refocus, it's an awesome camera app that is a must have for all the Shutterbugs in the crowd (or anyone else who likes to take photos for that matter).