You can now find Brisk Iced Tea in a galaxy both far far away and as close as your iPhone or Android device. I’m talking about the BriskSaber game that is making a splash in the App Store and Android Market. In preparation for Stars Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3-D, Brisk joins forces with LucasFilms to put a modern and techie spin on classic Star Wars action and fun that’s hard to resist.

Price: Free
Download: iOS App Store | Android Marketplace

Since its January 3rd debut, Brisksaber has amassed 520 reviews in the App Store rating it an incredible 4.5 star out of 5! And with good reason. Developed by San Francisco-based Mekanism working with Flying Wisdom Studios, the Brisksaber app follows the K.I.S.S. formula.

At the start of the game, you pick a side (light or dark) and a light saber (single or double).  Hit play and watch several enemies fly across your screen with the goal of killing you. Your mission is to slice and dice as many of your opponents as possible while avoiding killing your friends, using your finger to control your lightsaber.

Overtime, you’ll be able to redeem codes found on the back of caps of specially marked Brisk 1-Liter Iced Tea. These codes will unlock new features in the game such as lightsabers, powers, and characters.

If you’d rather play Brisksaber on a bigger screen like your desktop computer at home, you can visit  UncaptheApp.com or Facebook.com/Brisk. Be sure to check out the Brisksaber app video and grab a few Brisk Iced Tea drinks to unlock new content in the app and quench your thirst!

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Brisk. However, I personally love the game and will be keeping it on my iPhone. It’s the 2nd game to make it on my iPhone this year and one that has caused me to miss my stop on the subway in NYC several times now.

The Motorola RAZR was a mobile icon during my early teen years. Just about everyone I knew had one. It was surprisingly thin for a phone! The screen was impressive and it could do one thing very well that all of my friends love: transfer ringtones via bluetooth.

Fast forward to today and the Motorola RAZR doesn’t compare to my iPhone 4. So, I was skeptical and intrigued when Motorola announced a successor; the Motorola Droid RAZR. With the help of Verizon’s 4G LTE network, could the Droid RAZR recapture the swagger and appeal of the original RAZR?

The Look & Feel

Though the Motorola Droid RAZR is incredibly thin, it’s far from small with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED and scratch-resistant gorilla glass display. Adding to its strengths is a KEVLAR strong backplate that covers the back. It looks good in pictures, but my iPhone 4′s 3.5-inch display looks like a dwarf next to the Droid RAZR.

Is a bigger display worth comprising the size and look? Not in this case. Colors are vivid on the RAZR’s display, but pictures with low lighting appear over-saturated onscreen. On the other hand, watching videos is an entertaining experience and I found myself watching tons of them on the native YouTube app.

The larger display puts the Droid RAZR in a two-handed smartphone box; one hand to hold it, one hand to operate it. Those with larger hands might like holding the Razr, but getting my thumb to the navigation buttons at the bottom of the smartphone required more stretching than I cared to do for a phone.

The Experience

The Droid RAZR is a snappy smartphone, thanks to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), a dual core 1.2 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Verizon’s 4G LTE service in NYC kept things just as speedy when browsing the web. In fact, Verizon’s LTE service beat my WiFi connection in download speeds by 2-5Mbps on several occasions according to Speedtest.net app results.

As I previously mentioned, I’m a big fan of watching videos on this smartphone and found myself using the native YouTube app a lot. It’s slightly different from my iPhone experience. To differentiate itself from the iPhone’s native app, the YouTube app for Android plays a small thumbnail of a video in portrait mode and goes full screen when positioning the phone in landscape mode. A small change in design, but I absolutely love it! The Droid RAZR packs a powerful speaker on the back that makes music and videos sound refreshing to the ears.

The Droid RAZR’s 8MP camera is very nice to use for taking pictures and recording 1080p HD video, though the front-facing camera leaves much to be desired. Image quality is nothing to write home about, and video recording is smooth and clear. Interestingly enough, there’s doesn’t have a dedicated camera button around this smartphone. It’s the first smartphone I’ve come across in a while that doesn’t have a dedicated camera button on it. This is something to note if you’re used to a dedicated camera button.

Potential Deal-breakers

There are two deal-breakers for me when it comes to the Droid RAZR. First, it comes with a ton of crap-ware that you can’t get rid of. I was surprised to discover that Netflix (and other apps) can’t be removed from this smartphone. This is becoming a common theme with a lot of Google/Android products and a definite downside for users.

Second, the Droid RAZR has the worst battery life I’ve seen on a smartphone in years. With Verizon’s 4G LTE service enabled, you won’t make it to the end of the day with normal usage. You’ll barely make it to the end of the day even with the LTE service turned off. There are a number of smart actions and tweaks you can make to squeeze more juice from the battery, but don’t expect any drastic improvements if you enable them.

Apps to Get Started With

Aside from your typical social networking apps, there were a few good apps to get started with using the Droid RAZR. The first thing I downloaded was Advanced Task Killer. It’s the perfect app for shutting down apps that like to run in the background.  Next, I needed a news app. While Zite, is my news app of choice on my iPhone, it’s not  available for Android. Fortunately my favorite news reader, Feedly, is available and for free. I paired Feedly with Pulse news to keep up with my favorite reads and discover new content throughout the day.

Next, I needed a to-do list app. Any.do was my choice because of its beautiful design and free price tag.  UberMusic is a beautiful music player for Android! Coupled with Pandora and DatPiff, I was able to stay updated on my favorite music flowing through the amazing speakers on the Droid RAZR.

Conclusion: Haunted by Horrible Battery Life

While it doesn’t quite capture the air of the original RAZR, the Droid RAZR brings the RAZR legacy up-to-date. For $299.99 with a 2-year contract on Verizon Wireless, it’s one of the few phones on the market that can boast of having a gorilla glass display. It also hosts an HDMI micro port and 16GBs of internal memory. It’s even upgradeable to Android 4.0 (ice cream sandwich), though there’s no word on when that will be available for the device.

Coupled with Verizon’s 4G LTE network, the Motorola Droid RAZR is a powerful phone, but it can’t keep up with the excitement because of a crappy battery life. In the future, I hope the upcoming Droid RAZR MAXX will pick up where the DROID RAZR fails.

If you don’t want to wait, you can get Facebook Timeline right now by visiting: Facebook.com/Timeline. In the bottom right corner of the page, you’ll see a green button with the words “Get Timeline.” Click it.

The Basics of Facebook Timeline

You should now see a preview of what your Facebook Timeline will look like. There are a few features in Facebook Timeline to get familiar with. The first is your cover photo; that huge image that is otherwise known on the web as a “header.” This can be any picture you want it to be and doesn’t affect your profile photo.

Next, take a trip down memory lane in your Facebook archive by selecting a date listed just to the right of your profile. Play around with featuring or hiding your “stories” (status updates) and take some time to mark a few life events that have recently happened to you (did you have a baby or started a new job?). Use the Activity Log if you find yourself needing to hide or delete a bunch of stories as quickly as possible.

Stop… Think About It

Once you have your Timeline just right, hit the publish button. You’re all set! I’ll forewarn you that once you hit the publish button there’s no going back to your old profile. However, within the next week Facebook will be switching everyone over to the new look regardless of how you feel about it.

Get your head start now by visiting Facebook.com/Timeline. If you’re looking for a more personal example, check out my Facebook profile at: Facebook.com/Oprahoftheweb

Will you make the switch to Facebook Timeline? What are your thoughts on the new look? Comment below!

“For our next Instagram photo shoot, we’re going to a world-class GE jet engine facility in the UK to capture some amazing technology. Help us decide who the photographer should be. Because it could be you.”

Get your iPhones ready and load up Instagram to begin entering the contest. But don’t think any old picture is going to get you a golden ticket. This is a contest, so here are the rules:

The contest will end on December 12th at 11:59pm EST. All you have to do is take a photo inspired by or reflective of these areas of GE innovation and upload your photo to Instagram with the tag #GEinspiredme:

1. Moving: Sending people and goods around the globe. Capture a picture out the window of a plane, someone biking in the rain, or a crowded subway car.
   
   
2. Curing: Providing better health to people everywhere. Capture a moment where people are engaged in sports, someone is planting their vegetable garden, or your sister in law holding her newborn.
   
   
3. Powering: Delivering innovative energy solutions. Capture a moment of power in any form – the sun rising, wind holding up a kite, or an insane light show at a concert.
   
   
4. Building: Providing capital and infrastructure for a growing economy. Who’s making a difference in your world? Capture a local mom-and-pop shop that helps you save money, your favorite food truck, or a construction site that you can’t wait to see completed.

After tagging your photo with #GEinspiredme, your photo will appear on GE’s Facebook gallery for over 100,000 people to immediately view and vote on it. Be sure to use the share button in the gallery to get your friends to vote on your pic. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges (I will be one of them) from the finalist.

Last week, I posted tips for capturing the perfect picture from my favorite photographers and Instagram users. Consider using these tips as a guide when capturing your next shot or applying filters to your photos. If you’re interested in browsing current submissions, check out GE’s Instagrapher Facebook app or search for #GEinspired me on Instagram.

Good luck, happy snapping, and may the best image win!

Facebook, take notes! Readers, let’s take a look at what’s new, shall we?

The new design may seem very different at first, but honestly it’s not. Mainly, a lot of things have been swapped or moved so there isn’t a huge learning curve. The sidebar is now on the left instead of the right side of your home stream. You’re immediately greeted with a quick overview of your profile stats. Beneath your stats, you can quickly type a new tweet and a separate icon in the menu bar allows you to do the same.

The menu bar is the biggest change to your Twitter account. You’ll notice a new navigation menu at the top of the site. It divides the #newnewTwitter into four sections: Home, Connect, Discover,  and Me. You’ll also find a search bar and “new tweet” button up here. Here’s a rundown of what the four aforementioned sections hold for you.

Home

At home, you can see your stream. Selecting a tweet in your stream will expand it to include more information. This makes it easy to quickly see supported media (youtube videos, pictures) and statistics about that tweet within your stream. If you select an @reply, Twitter will display the full conversation in your stream. This is a great timesaver and reduces the number of clicks you previously had to do in order to get more information about a tweet.

If you open too many tweets and want to condense them all, look for the “close all open tweets” icon to the far right in the menu bar (see image below).

Connect

If you’re wondering where your replies and @mentions went, hit the Connect icon. Connect is also where you’ll find the actions that your followers have taken with your tweets. That includes favoriting your tweet, retweeting you, and Twitter replies. If you only want to see your replies, stick to the Mentions stream. That’s pretty much all you’ll see in Connect, and the lack of anything new leaves you to wonder  if anything else will join Interactions and Mentions in the future like analytic. Twitter lists would look great in this area too!

Discover

The new #discover tab is your window into what interests you right now. And the more you use it, the better it gets. #letsfly

— Twitter (@twitter) December8, 2011

Me

Branded Profiles

New Search Features

Embedding Tweets

The Verdict: It’ll grow on you.

No matter what level your skills are at, here are 10 sure fire tips from my favorite photographers and Instagram friends to help you capture the perfect picture!

Picture Perfect Photography Tips

LIZ STRAUSS: Successful-blog.com | @LizStrauss | Instagram: LizStrauss
Amp up the color. Get to know the photo effect apps that are available and stretch your creativity. Follow people like DocPop (on Instagram) who tries a new app or combo of effects every day and explains how he did what you see.

SOOZ: Photography.sooz.com 
When shooting two or more people, make sure no one’s hands are on another person’s shoulders. “Floating hands” is never a good look in a photo.

Also, try being unobtrusive. You’ll get the best shots when you stay out of the way and capture candid, natural moments shared by an event’s guests.

PAULA HERSEY: PenguinDigitalDesign.com | @CapeProducer
Early morning/late afternoon light especially fall/winter infuse some incredible tone and color that can turn a so-so subject into a stunning image. Living on Cape Cod, September through December the light in the morning and late afternoon is so beautiful the water, beaches and sky take on other worldly colors that bring me to tears sometimes.

CHRIS ODALIS: @chrisodalis | Instagram: ChrisOdalis
Put your feelings into the shot. We all can shoot a subway car or a flower, but when it’s done in a way that represents your feelings, thoughts, and attitude, you have the right shot. Some will like your shots, some won’t. It will always be that way

Take an experience and build, expand, redefine it. It doesn’t have to be another picture. It can be anyone or anything that has influenced your motivation. When you shoot, do so with that inspiration. To me it’s more than the shot itself. It’s what that shot represents

CLAY WILLIAMS: Claywilliamsphoto.com | @ultraclay
Work the edges instead of centering everything. You’ve got the whole frame, use it. Instead of putting the thing you’re shooting front and center, put it on the right or left and include some context.

Look for different angles. I just saw a photo on instagram where the shooter reached down to put his/her phone below platform level. I’d never seen that before. It was cool. Beyond that, we usually shoot at our eye level out of habit. It can be really interesting to reach up or down to get a shot. You’ll often get a perspective that people aren’t used to seeing.

GEORGE CAPALBO: Gncphoto.posterous.com | @gcapalbo
Always be sure it is behind you, i.e. your subject is lit from the front or slightly from the side. Light at sunset or sunrise is always better– it is more reddish and warmer (because it is traveling through more atmosphere). The light right after sunset (called the golden hour) is softer… but does not last long. Cloudy days can make colors pop, and the light is soft and shadows are diffused.

Photography for me is really the art of seeing things differently, geometrically– finding a moment in time where shapes line up and something beautiful is happening. When I walk around in a city I am looking for interesting details, contrasts between shapes, colors, etc. If you just look around you while you out and about on an ordinary day, you just might discover an interesting reality that is otherwise easily overlooked.

Here’s A Tip…

Preach what you practice to get that perfect shot in the comments! Also, what makes a photo stand out for you? If you’re an Instagram user, what do you love about the photos from the people you follow? What photos in the GE Instagrapher gallery stand out to you?

In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that my time and efforts have been compensated for by General Electric. All opinions are mine and all tips listed in this post are from their respective owners, hence the credit given.

Some people wonder if Instagram makes you a better photographer. Whether it does or doesn’t, Instagram has everyone from Snoop Dogg to General Electric (GE) inspired! In fact, GE actually has an official “Instagrapher” and they’re looking for another!

Who Wants To Be…An Instagrapher?

Currently, renowned Brooklyn photographer, Noah Kalina, has a one-of-a-kind job of as GE’s “Instagrapher”, sharing groundbreaking technology by GE on Instagram. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to a job like that?

Starting today GE is looking for another Instagrapher with an Instagram contest! The winner of the contest will fly to London and photograph a one-of-a-kind aviation facility with Noah Kalina.

The Rules

The contest runs from Nov. 21 – Dec. 12th and all you have to do is take a photo inspired by or reflective of these areas of GE innovation:

1. Moving: Sending people and goods around the globe. Capture a picture out the window of a plane, someone biking in the rain, or a crowded subway car.
   
   
2. Curing: Providing better health to people everywhere. Capture a moment where people are engaged in sports, someone is planting their vegetable garden, or your sister in law holding her newborn.
   
   
3. Powering: Delivering innovative energy solutions. Capture a moment of power in any form – the sun rising, wind holding up a kite, or an insane light show at a concert.
   
   
4. Building: Providing capital and infrastructure for a growing economy. Who’s making a difference in your world? Capture a local mom-and-pop shop that helps you save money, your favorite food truck, or a construction site that you can’t wait to see completed.

Be sure to tag your photos with #GEinspiredme and that’s it!

After tagging your photo, it will appear on GE’s Facebook Gallery for over 100,000 people to immediately view and vote on it. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges (I will be one of them) from the finalist.

Good Luck And Happy Instagraming!

Get your best photos ready to send to Instagram and be sure to add the tag #GEinspiredme! If you need a little inspiration to get started, check out what Noah’s captured behind his lens at various GE facilities: http://inkstagram.com/#/users/3839414

In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that my time and efforts have been compensated for by General Electric, and I was also provided a camera to participate in the contest. All opinions are mine.

After spending a few weeks with iOS 5, here are the tips and shortcuts that the update brings to iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. Most of them will save you a ton of time and taps in the future.

iOS 5 Tips and Shortcuts

6-Day Weather Forecast in Notification Center

Swiping the weather widget left or right in the notification center will give you a 6-day weather forecast.

Use Volume Up Key to Take a Picture

In the camera app you can you now use the volume up key to snap a picture. This is great for those one-handed photo ops when out with your friends.

Create a Photo Album

iOS 5 brings photo album support to the Photos app on iDevices. To create a photo album, open the Photos app and select the edit option in the top right corner. Select the add option and enter a title for your new album. Once you enter a title you’ll have the option to add numerous photos from your Camera Roll.

You can edit the name of an album from the photos app. To add more pictures to an album, make sure you’re inside of the album and select the add option at the bottom of the screen.

Text Shortcuts

You can now set keyboard shortcuts that can be used when messaging friends. For example, I often text people “I’m in a meeting”. It’s redundant to keep tying this. So, I set the following keyboard shortcut ‘iam’, which stands for “in a meeting”. Whenever I type the letters ‘iam’, my iPhone will fill in the rest for me.

To set your own keyboard shortcuts go to your Settings app. Under General > Keyboard  you’ll find the option to add a new shortcut.

Turn Off Read Receipts for iMessage

When you enable iMessage,  it includes a BBM-like feature that allows others to know when you’ve read their message. Don’t care to allow others to be notified when you have read their messages? You can stop this stalker like behavior within your Settings apps under Messages. There you will find the key.

Get Rid of Bloated Apps

In the same place that enables your battery percentage, you can also see which apps are using up the most space. Previously you were only aware of storage and space usage when plugging an iDevice into iTunes. With iOS 5 you can get a better visual breakdown of your apps and how much space they really take up.

Gestures (iPad 2 ONLY)

Multitouch gestures have been added to the iPad 2 with the iOS 5 update. With gestures enabled iPad users can use 4 or 5 fingers to:

• Swipe up to access the multitasking bar
• Pinch the screen to return to home screen
• Swipe lift or right to switch apps

Unfortunately, these gestures do not extend to iPhones or iPod Touches. Sorry guys, though it would’ve been nice.

Change Your Device’s Name

This is also another feature that previously was restricted to iTunes. You can now change your device name directly from your iPhone. Inside of your Settings app, head to General > About and you’ll see a ‘Name’ section that you can tap to edit the name of your device.

Open Links in the Background

When in Safari, you can now have links load in the background instead of taking you away from your current page. To access this option, head into your Settings app, under Safari > Open links, you’ll be presented with two options for opening links: in a new page or in background. Choose wisely.

How Do You Pronounce That?

In iOS 5, go into Settings apps within General > Accessibility there is an option to enable “Speak Selection”. After enabling this, highlight some text, (as if to Copy it) and select the Speak option. This shortcut should come in handy for students!

*Bonus Tip: Show Your Battery Percentage

This isn’t new to iOS 5, but I’m always surprised by the amount of people that don’t know about this option. You can display your battery percentage near the battery icon instead of guessing how much power your iPhone has left. In your settings app, head to General > Usage and there will be in option to enable or disable the battery percentage.

What Are Your Favorite iOS 5 Tips?

Do you have a favorite tip or shortcut in iOS 5s? Share your insights in the comments below!

(Gmail for iPhone vs Gmail mobile site)

Why You Want To Switch From Mail

The Gmail app gives you full access to your gmail contacts without adding them to your iPhone. For those that have hundreds of business contacts that don’t need to be in their phone book, this feature is a timesaver. The Mail app can only access what you input or what’s in your contacts. Access to the priority inbox within Gmail is a bonus for power users as well as the option to star emails.  Beyond this, everything is pretty much available at the gmail mobile site (go to gmail.com on your iPhone) in blue and grey instead of black.

Why It’s Not Worth Switching From Mail

My biggest complaint with this app is that it doesn’t push the iPhone any closer to the capabilities of the Gmail app on Android. There are no account switching options in this app. Photos are the only attachments you can use, as there’s no third party integration with other document apps on your iPhone. At least with an Android phone you can reply to an email from any address that you’ve already preconfigured into your gmail account. Not so in Gmail’s iPhone app. I have to admit, support for multiple reply addresses is the only thing that I was hoping to get out of this app. Hopefully it’s something that will come around in the next update.

In addition to the facelift, Google Reader is now sports a shiny new Google+ button. But this new button comes with a high price for longtime Google Reader users. While the new design may take some getting used to, integration with Google+ is something that many cried for since the launch of Google+. Did Google get it right or should you prepare to find another RSS reader?

Google Reader’s New Look

They call the new look “cleaner and nicer”, but really it’s just the new Google look that’s been popping up all over the place. Google Reader feels less cluttered with the new design, but it’s not perfect. More space was dedicated to seeing content in the previous design.  Now, the search bar and subscribe options take up space that I wish was occupied by content.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Google+ Button Replaces Everything

When the new look arrives, Google offers the option to export your Activity Stream (likes, shared items, starred items, etc.). The reason they’re offering this option from the beginning is because Google retired a lot of features within Google Reader today.

Most of Google Reader’s social features have been replaced with the Google+ share button. The +1 button is the gateway to your new shared links list and commenting means posting to your Google+ profile. You can still access the “send to” feature to share with your other social networks and starred items for those articles you think you’ll come back to.

(Click to enlarge)

Even with the option to export your data, longtime users in left in the dark. Data portability means nothing if you can’t take that data somewhere else and USE it.

What The Update Is Really About.

Don’t mistake this as an attempt at making Google Reader more social. This is not about Google Reader at all. In fact, it’s all about sending traffic and activity to Google+. Google Reader has a very active and loyal base of users, but they’re more interested in converting them into Google+ users.

I’m happy about the integration with Google+, but it’s very limited. At the moment, Google Reader is without a social component. Adding a share button to a website doesn’t make it social. I’d like to see a social component reintroduced into Google Reader in the future. Also, it would’ve been appreciative of Google to transfer previously shared items from Google Reader to Google+ accounts. This could’ve easily served as an incentive to get Google Readers more excited about the integration with Google+ and served as a reward for users who have paved the way for a product like Google+ to exist.

It’s hard to call this a disappointment, but if you were looking for something spectacular from this new Google Reader update, you will be disappointed. If you use Google+ a lot and you use Google Reader, you’ll appreciate the integration. I’ll be sticking with Feedly as my default RSS reader. If you don’t use either product, then this post is completely irrelevant to you.

What do you think of the new Google Reader look? Are you happy about the integration with Google+? Are you upset about the features that were removed? Share your thoughts in the comments!