Actually I starting doing all of my social media stuff from the Captivate. Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter was now being done on the Captivate as well as some emailing. I already was using the Captivate for the G Style telephone line since it is with Google voice, that just made sense. When it came to the media stuff, I copied a lot of the music I had on my Blackberry to the Captivate. As far as the videos I copied some from the Blackberry and I encoded a couple specifically for the Captivate.

Watching movies on this thing is a dream. I had a video file for a movie called The Convent, I re encoded for the Captivate’s resolution and it look very decent. Then I ripped Avatar straight from the DVD, man this looked soooo good! I would swear I was watching Blu Ray on this Samsung device. That Super AMOLED screen is serious! I can’t wait to convert my movies to watch on the Captivate.

Then were was all the social media stuff. I actually like checking in via the Android app better than I do on the Blackberry. Both are good apps, but on Android it just looks prettier. I also like the live wallpapers feature. I was using the one that you see a lot with the Nexus One, but now that I have rooted and enabled side loading, I installed a variation of the DROID X eye on there in blue. I love it! I’m really feeling Android 2.1 and this Samsung Captivate is a great piece of hardware to showcase Android and watching movies o a phone for that matter!

Next week will be the final week, I will actually turn off my Blackberry and exclusively use Android for an entire week with no Blackberry distractions! Which team do you think I will be, place your bets!

For Sprint the HTC EVO has help it for the first time stop bleeding more subscribers and gain new subscribers. If you follow our column we have in Laptopmag.com, you can see I call this before any report came out. I called it that the HTC EVO would be the true savior of Sprint unlike the Palm Pre. Looks like this may be coming true. While Sprint definitely still has a lot of work cut out for itself ahead, this is definitely a step in the right direction!

Then you have Motorola. What a turn they have made for themselves in recent days compared to before. At Motorola there was spin offs, attempts to sell their mobile division, and all kinds of trouble over there. Now like Sprint they definitely still have their work cut out for them, but wow at their comeback campaign.

First with the original DROID whose only challenger at the time was the mighty Nexus One, to a multitude of Android devices now. They definitely got the public’s eye back with the DROID, and now their flagship the DROID X is heating up the scene. And it isn’t even over yet, with stories of the DROID 2 coming, Motorola is definitely grabbing mindshare again!

Both companies beaten, weaken, and slowly dying, have been given a lifeline in the form of Google’s Android. Where they go from there is up to them, but if their business turns around, this was the moment it happened!

[Mashable]
[NY Times]

The biggest visual change we see is the new graphite color that will join the original white. The screen size is the same but the casing is 21% smaller and lighter. The screen is also brand new with 50% better contrast.

There is also 1 new addition to the Kindle family. There is now a entry level Wi-Fi only edition of the 6″ Kindle priced at only $139.00. That is very cheap for an eBook reader that pretty much undercuts anything else on the market right now.

The new Kindle is scheduled to ship out August 27th so if you are in the market for a new Kindle, I would hold off a month and get the new version based on the number of improvements the latest Kindle will have.

List of Features:

• All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen – 50% better contrast than any other e-reader
• Read in Bright Sunlight – No glare
• New and Improved Fonts – New crisper, darker fonts
• New Sleek Design – 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6″ size reading area
• 17% Lighter – Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback
• Battery Life of Up to One Month – A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off
• Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 Books
• Built-In Wi-Fi – Shop and download books in less than 60 seconds
• 20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading
• Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights
• New WebKit-Based Browser – Browse the web over Wi-Fi (experimental)

You can currently pre-order the Kindle right now at Amazon’s Kindle Store and it will include free 2-day shipping when the Kindle is released. You can pick up the 6″ Wi-Fi only model here for $139.00 or the 6″ 3G + Wi-Fi model here for $189.00.

Not to be the last to the announcement party, but yes G Style Magazine will be at the exclusive RIM/AT&T event this Tuesday!

Rumor has it that they will be unveiling the Blackberry 9800 Slider with Blackberry OS 6. If this pans out to be true, then of course we need to be there to see if the next generation of Blackberry devices will bring the style on the hardware & software side.

With strong comp from the likes of Apple and Google, RIM needs to go big or go home with this one, with even out Publisher Jason Anderson taking a hard look at Android. So stay tuned as we’ll probably be live tweeting from the event with a recap post after.

New video from Estelle called “Fall In Love”, off her new upcoming album All Of Me. First off I really like the song and the beat for this. Estelle also gets extra kudos from me for the video concept. The video took me back to a time when we were young and puppy love was something you just don’t see today. Back when you would be hanging out with your boys or your girls and you would cross paths, and have cute exchanges like the ones showed in the video. In today’s day and age of splitting game, ballers, gold diggers, drama, etc is is good to see a video like this. Takes it back to place where people had butterflies in their stomach with they bumped into someone they was feeling on the street…Good job Estelle!

Update: It looks like she did 2 of these videos, one featuring John Legend, check it out below.

On the homescreen you have six customizable slots of your choosing. They seem to blend in so well too with the design. If you scroll above you have a hidden profile slot. Notifications, time, and meters to your left side. Also this theme is wallpaper friendly so you can have fun with that too. The Apps screen looks good as i touched before as the icons are all created just for the purpose of this theme.

“Tribal” is something you haven’t seen before and may not see anything. It is a different direction and breathes some nice bright colorful life into your blackberry. It also runs smooth and haven’t noticed any lag or slowdown thus using this far. One of my fave from CockyCulture.

Tribal is available for 8350, 8500, 8900, 9000, 9500, 9600, and 9700 series for $4.99. You can pick this up from www.cockyculture.com

Apple today introduced their new Magic Trackpad. This is basically the Multi-touch trackpad from their Macbook Pro line but made for desktop use. The Magic Trackpad is much larger than your standard Macbook Pro multi-touch trackpad and supports all the gestures you already know.

I think its a neat concept, but I’m really not willing to give up my the easy of my mouse in order to use gestures. In fact, I have a Macbook Pro and I hate using the trackpad. When I can, I always plug in a mouse, and not the Apple Magic Mouse, but a “normal” 3 button mouse often used on PCs.

Whether the Magic Trackpad takes off or not remains to be seen but I have a feeling that most people would still rather use their trusty mouse. Plus, the trackpad is not a game friendly input device I would assume. Ever try playing Portal with the trackpad? Almost impossible.

If you are interested in more information about the Magic Trackpad, visit the source link and let us know your thoughts about it.

[via Apple]

The machine is of course customizable to the user so therefore I’m going to cut out all the hardware nonsense and get right into the case features.

This case has a front motorized door so with a touch of a button the front panel will slide down revealing the 5.25 inch bays for your cd/dvd drives. Both sides of the case swing open from built in hinges reducing the hassle of screwing in your side panel after tweaking with your hardware. Another thing Alienware adds to appease the crowd is custom lighting or better known as their “Alien FX”. Basically different parts of the case have lights and you can change each light to your own whim. As computer builders know, a case has to have good airflow. On the top of the case there are fins which adjust to the temperature of your system allowing more hot air to escape. This feature is also manually adjustable so the choice of up or down or in between is up to you. Flip it to the other side and you will see that Alienware has taken an innovative step and placed the hard drives on this side. It features 6 hard drive slots allowing you a whole lot of space.

Sure this case does have the looks but keep in mind that it cannot be purchased separately!

Style
We always have to start off with style, for this is what we are about and the Captivate doesn’t disappoint. Funny enough when I see the Samsung Captivate in pictures and even at the media event they had in New York, I wasn’t really too impressed with it. It wasn’t until I got it that definitely had a change of heart. The Samsung Captivate is one sleek piece of hard. Glossy piano black and a beautiful screen on the front, and a nice brush metal back with a carbon fiber pattern. It is squared, but adds a curvy aspect to it’s square design. Speaking of the screen the Super AMOLED is beautiful!. It looks good in clear sun light and phenomenal when watching movies. I encoded Avatar as well as some other movies to test out and you would swear you was watching an LCD HDTV screen in your hands! It looks that good! As for the rest of the look, it is very slim, and very light. Feels good in your pocket and is very easy to use in hand.

Experience
Using the Samsung Captivate is similar to most of the other Android devices out there, so if you have used Android before, then you have a shorter learning curve than most. The Captivate runs on Android 2.1 (though Samsung has said 2.2 is coming soon) and is overlapped with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. TouchWiz UI isn’t bad at all, just prior to using the Captivate I had used the HTC Aria. Using the Aria got me use to HTC’s SenseUI, so I did miss some of these features going to Samsung. One thing I wasn’t use to is with the Captivate in the Application folder instead of scrolling up and down to view your apps, you go left to right, it is a minor thing, but I prefer up and down.

Performance on the Captivate is smooth and speedy for the most part thanks to it’s 1Ghz Hummingbird processor. I do notice the stutter or slight lag here and there, but for the majority of the time, it is smooth speedy sailing. I do have to note that AT&T has meddle with this device and crippled a cool feature on most Android device, which is side loading apps. However I’m delighted to say that correcting that issue isn’t too complex. I was able to root my phone in 2 minutes and after figuring it out, change that setting. So now I’m able to side load apps with easy. I know other sites in their reviews have that as a bad mark on the Captivate, but I won’t on here. Why, well it isn’t the Captivate’s fault and it is quite easy to fix making it a no issue. So if you don’t have know how or want to bother with it yourself, find any tech savvy kid and they’ll be able to do it for you.

I can’t conclude the experience part without talking about the media aspects. The music player, I’m not to excited about. I mean it gets the job done and I’m sure there is some app for that in the Android Market, but it left me wanting more. The coverflow like way of going to little CDs looks nice, until you realize you are doing that for each song instead of maybe album. On the flip side, watching movies (and I can assume TV shows encoded well) was a dream. Now only was it like I was watching a pocket size 1080P HDTV in my hands, but when you plug in a pair of headphones, you can turn on simulated 5.1 surround sound. This made for a great movie watching experience that to me is unmatched on any phone. We just got the iPhone 4 in, so well load up the same movies on there for a head to head.

To close you can get this from AT&T for 199.99 without the trouble of a mail in rebate. So if you on AT&T and want to go Android, this is the droid you are looking for. If you are trying to device on either iPhone 4 or Android, it will no longer be a easy decision!

Now 10 years later, the spell wears off and Horvath is able to free himself. He now sets out to release a sorceress who has greater power than himself, so that together they can rule the world. He will first have to find the boy to find out what happened to the container the sorceress was trapped in. Balthazar also released from the spell, knows that Horvath will be going after the boy, so he must find him first. Meanwhile the boy, Dave (Jay Baruchel) is now 20 years old and doesn’t want to remember anything that happened on that day 10 years ago. When Balthazar finds Dave he convinces him that he will have no choice but to learn magic, for he will be the only one that will be able to defeat the sorceress and stop her plans. It will be a race against time as Horvath is also becoming more powerful by recruiting other sorcerers in his quest to release the mighty sorceress. Will Balthazar be able to teach Dave enough magic to stand up to the challenge he is about to face? Will Dave be able to defeat the sorceress and save the world?

I had been waiting to see this movie since the first time I found out they were filming it in New York City. I actually had the pleasure of seeing the cars that were used in the movie, when they had them parked outside of the building I work in. By the looks of the exotic cars that were there, I knew that there would be at least a really nice car chase scene in the movie. Then when I found out that Nicolas Cage was staring in the movie, I knew it would be good. I wasn’t disappointed on either thought. The action and special effects in this movie were superb. Nicolas Cage did a great job as Balthazar. Jay Baruchel was also good as the shy, geeky kid who was good at physics, but awkward around girls. The only girl he wasn’t shy around was the girl of his past who he had always liked. Her name was Becky (Teresa Palmer) and he wanted to be with her every since they were young. Teresa Palmer was also good as Becky and she’s a very attractive young actress who you might remember from the movie “December Boys “from 2007 where she co-starred with Daniel Radcliff. She was also in Adam Sandler’s movie “Bedtime Stories” from 2008. Jay Barachel is becoming quite the comedic actor as his stardom is gradually rising. He was just in the movie “She’s out of Your League” and did the voice of the main character in “How to Train Your Dragon”, both movies I reviewed and can be read here on G Style Magazine. That makes three movies where he was either the star or co-star in just this year alone. If you read the rest of his bio, your find that he’s been in a lot of movies that have made money, mostly dramatic comedies or romantic comedies.

Alfred Molina was very dastardly as the main villain in this movie. He played the character well and should be back, if they decide to make a sequel. Like I said earlier, the special effects in this movie were really good. The scene with the car chase was outstanding, and the steel eagle from on top of the Chrysler Building was a great effect. I enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it as a family movie. I give this movie 3 spells out of 4. It had a nice mix of special effects and adventure. The movie runs 1 hour and 51mins. It was rated PG for fantasy action violence, some mild rude humor and brief language. The story was written by David Berenbaum, Matt Lopez, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Lawrence Konner, and Mark D. Rosenthal based on source material from the poem “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. It was directed by Jon Turteltaub. It was produced by Saturn Films, Broken Road Productions, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, KNB EFX Group, Inc. It was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

Disney always brings a certain magical feeling to their movies. Ezo
Next week’s review: TBD

Today we are taking a look at a computer case. Why? Well because it fits in with the “good looks” category and comes with many features. When its time to change computers many of us just look through Dell and order one from there. But what about those people who like to build their own computer? Well being a one of “those people” I have stumbled upon this computer case and would like to share it with all of you! Even though this case has been out for quite a while now and if you keep up with the build your own computer crowd, you probably already know this case. Lets just do a run through for the others then shall we?

This case is built with a steel structure, has a matte black coating both inside out, and is finished with a brushed aluminum faceplate for a “professional look that’s both serious and awe-inspiring”. There is also a side window for onlookers to gaze in jealousy.

Features include
* Four easily accessed hot-swap drive bays
* Removable CPU backplate panel for easy heatsink installation
* Isolated cooling zones prevent heat buildup
* Unique cable routing holes guarantee a clean and clutter-free installation
* Three 140mm fans included, with the ability to add four more 120mm fans
* Tool-free optical drive installation makes building a system faster than ever
* Two year warranty with Corsair’s world-class customer service and technical support

Keep in mind that this is a full tower case so it will seem gigantic compared to your normal mid tower case. This case will set you back around $270 but lets be honest here, if you’re in the DIY crowd, how often would you really change your case?

I felt this movie was ingenious. I was hooked when I first heard of the concept of it. In a world of constant growth in technology, could this idea actually be far behind. Imagine being able to share dreams with people, where you and the person are both in the subconscious together controlling the landscape and outcomes of your dreams just by thinking of it. Could this be an idea for the future? Who knows? All I know is that if it did become a reality, could thief of ideas while unconscious be far behind? In the movie it took a team of specialist to pull off these mind robberies. Arthur (Joseph Gordon – Levitt) was Cobb’s right hand man, he and Cobb would convince their victims that they needed protection from people, just like them that were able to get into their minds while they were asleep. There was Ariadne (Ellen Page) who was able to shape the landscape of the dream to make it look like anything they wanted it to be. Then there was Eames (Tom Hardy) who was a master of disguise at portraying people that the victim would know. Everyone cast in this movie did an exceptional job. Another character in the movie was Saito (Ken Watanabe), who was the one that wanted Cobb to implant an idea in someone. The person who they all were going to go into subconscious was Robert Fisher Jr. who was played by Cillian Murphy. Also in the cast was Tom Berenger who plays “Browning”, an affiliate of Murphy’s, and Michael Caine who plays “Miles”, the grandfather of Cobb’s kids. Last but certainly not least was Marion Cotillard who plays “Mal”, Cobb’s wife.

The effects in this movie were fantastic. I thought that it would be mostly SciFi, but this movie also had a lot of action. There’s a great fight scene that involves Joseph Gordon – Levitt that was amazing, and has to be seen to be believed. Tom Hardy also did his fair share of some action scenes in the movie. When writing this review I didn’t want to give away too much of the story, so I just kept it basic. This is a must see movie. I give it 4 ideas out of 4. Leonardo actually topped his performance from “Shutter Island” with this movie. I have to say that it is a thinking movie, as you have to pay attention to the details, when they start to go into people’s minds. You have to follow very closely, so that you don’t lose track of what’s going on. Sometimes it gets hard to figure out what’s reality and what’s a dream, and what’s a dream in a dream and so on and so forth. Trust me it’ll all make sense when you see the movie. The movie runs 2 hours and 28mins, but it doesn’t drag at any time. It’s rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout. It was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It was produced by Syncopy Films, Legendary Pictures, Inc. Chef Robert Catering, PJF Productions, Inc., Double Negative Visual Effects, New Deal Studios Inc, Lidar Services Inc, Panavision, Ltd., Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, Inc., Zak Productions, Peninsula Film. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Before you fall asleep, set up some mental defenses, so that your thoughts are not stolen from you. Ezo
Next Review: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

So this is where I find myself this week. You see for my general purposes I don’t really need to download anything that would need to be side loaded, but the one application I wanted, currently wasn’t available in the Android Market. I had recently heard about a program called Swype that was a replacement keyboard for Android devices. Swype lets you type by tracing your finger across the keyboard to input your words. This was a program I really wanted to use, but the only way to get it was to side load. The only way I was going to be able to get this, was to root my Aria. And this is the journey I was set upon.

I started this journey by going to Google and entering in “Rooting the HTC Aria”. From there a wealth of links appear, some not really relevant, and many that led to the xda-deverlopers.com forums. This would be my next stop and would pretty much be the place I found all of my information. I found a thread that had info for the HTC Aria and I began to follow the steps. I quickly found I was a little over my head. I’m a new Mac user and the directions to follow for the Mac confused me, but I’m was in luck (so I thought) as I had Windows installed in my Mac as well. So I proceeded to follow the Windows directions. This eventually led me to much frustration, as the search for HTC drivers, trying to catch that right moment in the bootloader, and trying to flash the update.zip file gave me many problems.

The process to root this phone was literally driving me crazy. I tried to get this to work from the Mac, then Window 7 (in a VMWare session), and Windows XP. All attempts failed and I was left with still an unrooted Aria. I next decided to hop in a IRC chat that was being mentioned on xda-developers.com. From there I met a gentlemen who was also a new mac user but had gotten his phone rooted. He basically gave me step by step directions on how to successfully root it using a Mac. That night i followed his directions and YESSSS I successfully rooted my Aria. I immediately installed Swype (which I love by the way). Funny enough since I have rooted my Aria, I haven’t done anything special with it beyond installing Swype and removing AT&T’s crapware. So in essence I drove myself crazy to do very little else lol. Stay tuned for week 3 as we are half way through the 30 day challenge!

Signing up for Rdio is simple enough, and I really like the concept of the service. I’d like to call it Pandora with a social element. You see you can follow other people, invite friends to join and then get music recommendation based upon what your friends are listening to. Great concept I thought, but sorry to say, that doesn’t translate to the mobile app for Android that well. You see for the Android app I’m limited to just Collection (mines) and Playlists (ones I’ve created). I had a quick look back at the Blackberry app just for reference and it really shines on Blackberry. This is actually surprising as normally Android and iPhone apps are better featured than Blackberry ones.

On the Blackberry app you can see Your Queue, Recently Played, and Recently Added. You can also see the Heavy Rotation, Recently Added, and Playlists of those in your network. This mirrors what you can do from the main website as well. I’m actually glad I picked up my Blackberry again as I was ready to now give Rdio good marks based on their Android app. But Rdio is a really great service that shines as least for the Blackberry.

The one thing I can’t get down with on Rdio is the pricing structure. You see after the 3 day trial, unlike a Pandora just to use their main website on a computer you have to pay $5.00 a month. Now if you want to use their mobile app and the main website you have to $10.00 a month. Seems not like a really good choice when you can get Pandora, Last.FM, and even Slacker from the website for free. Now if the website was free, but you had to pay $5.00 a month to be able to use the mobile app with it, I could work with that, but definitely not just the main site for a price.

If Rdio can change up their fee structure I could fully recommend their service. But see for yourself, sign up and check out he 3 day trial (if you can get a invite). Really wish that trial wasn’t just 3 days, a week would be better. Check it out at www.rdio.com

Another song by Teairra Mari “Automatic” has a good beat and makes for s good track. As far as the video, well you have Teairra Mari in it with a bunch attractive girls as well. Not a bad video concept lol. What do you think of the video? Let us know, and hey does anyone know if she is dropping an album soon?