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Fail: Repair of smartphone glass goes wrong

I’ve seen so many different videos walking through the replacement of a broken screen for a Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Enough that I felt I could succeed. I did not.

A couple months back I was taking my phone from my pocket and it fell in just the right spot that the protective case didn’t stand a chance; perfectly on the corner at an angle where the case wasn’t covering it. The cracks were unsightly and spread from that corner up about a quarter inch into the display area, but mainly obscured the permanent soft buttons. I put a membrane on the screen to avoid finger tip irritation and researched how to replace the glass.

It seemed so simple.



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It’s not a podcast if you don’t offer a subscription URL

I have been on a bit of a podcast kick lately, subscribing to a multitude of shows and then listening to them from my Android smartphone while I am on the go. I use the Google Listen app, which is no longer supported, but there are many free alternatives out there if you are looking for an Android podcast app.

One of the most annoying problems that I have been running into while searching out good podcasts is that many of the shows that I am interested in make it extremely difficult to find their subscription/feed URL, or they don’t even have a subscription URL at all! In the latter case, I argue that they should not even be called a podcast.

Let’s define podcast

The Wikipedia page for Podcast currently leads with this sentence: “A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio radio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.” Emphasis mine.

Merriam-Webster defines podcast as “a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet.” Emphasis mine.

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of blogmybrain for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The casual gaming market has exploded in popularity in recent years, largely fueled by smartphone proliferation along with Internet connectivity becoming more and more accessible throughout the country and the world.

One of the most popular type of games in this surging casual gaming category are word games. Examples of word games include the time-tested and well loved classic, Scrabble and the relative newcomer Words with Friends, which is a smartphone hit.

With more and more people playing word games, the demand for word finder tools has spiked in recent years. This is evident by the increasing search volumes for related terms such as “scrabble cheat” and “scrabble word finder”.

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Real home theater: Gamer

This is the third part in the multi-part series What home theater is right for me?. The first part explored the basics of what a home theater consists of and how we’re constructing these realistic home theaters. The second part pieces together an affordable home theater for a movie buff. This episode will explore the unique needs for a video gamer.

The gamer

Ostensibly the requirements for a gamer are no different than the movie buff; but the gamer’s system is more fantasy. A movie system is a perfectly sensible luxury sedan while the gaming system is an over-the-top sports car, and for good reason.

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Vipre for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

In this post I will be covering some of my experiences with the VIPRE Internet Security software suite. I started out by checking the VIPRE product webpage and found that they require an email address in order to download the free 30 day trial. I submitted my email address and then immediately received an email from GFI software (the manufacturer) asking me to confirm my email address in order to download the trial software.

I clicked on the link to confirm my email address and was taken to a software download page. During this process, GFI software also asks you if you’d like to receive additional emails from them.

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Why is my subwoofer turning off?

A common problem people face with their home theater systems is the subwoofer setup. The most mystifying is why a surround sound system is set up and then the subwoofer turns off and you can’t figure out why no sound is being produced. It can be really disappointing after spending so much money on their audio system, especially with an expensive subwoofer. There are two common reasons for this, and even if you haven’t noticed it you may want to read on and try out your own system – you may be missing out on something.

Automatic room calibration

Most audio/video receivers produced today have automatic room calibration (ARC). Even inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box systems have this feature now. Room calibration sends a variety of test tones through each speaker channel to account for speaker distance, speaker levels, equalization and other factors. This is a helpful feature as no two rooms or setups are alike. However, there is a common problem with auto calibration that causes the subwoofer to shut off: speaker size.

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Real home theater: Movie buff

This is the second part in the multi-part series What home theater is right for me?

The movie buff

Also known as a cinephile, the movie buff loves watching a wide variety of movies and strives to bring the cinema experience home. They might watch four or five movies every week. The movie buff will prefer a home theater setup targeted at movies with little consideration for video games and broadcast television. A home theater for a movie buff must feature surround sound audio and the largest screen size to fit in the given room.

In addition to the audio/video components a home theater for a movie buff might also include acoustic room treatments, lighting control and even cinema seating.

Tips for the movie buff

The first aspect a movie buff should consider is where the theater should be located in the home. Most people just assume the living room or family room should be where a home theater is set up, but a true cinephile is less concerned about casual viewing and more with the best quality home theater experience. We suggest using a smaller room dedicated to the home theater. But why shouldn’t the big living room be used for home theater? Most main living spaces are large and cavernous with lots of reflective surfaces; a smaller room provides less sound reflections, doesn’t require large speakers, and doesn’t require as large of a screen either. Not only does the quality of the sound improve, but less money has to be put into the equipment – or an equal amount of money can be spent on higher quality equipment. The trade off is you will likely have fewer seats to share the theater experience with friends and family. Continue Reading »