#kevinfonio

[neumannjoust]

Snapchat CEO Turns Down $3 Billion Dollar Offer

Well you saw it here, yes, you are reading this correctly. The CEO of Snapchat turned down an offer from Facebook!  I don’t know who this Evan Spiegel thinks he is, but he is one crazy guy.  I have to say I give the guy some chops, I mean he turned down $3 BILLION DOLLARS!

            If you don’t know how this Snapchat app was started, let me take you on a journey.  The journey is along the lines of Mark Zuckerberg, which is very compelling to me.  Here is the story in a nutshell: Evan Spiegel, who is in a fraternity at Stanford, and one of his buddies regretted taking a picture and sending the dreaded picture.  So what he and two other of his fraternity brothers did was started looking around for different apps that could do the same function as the current app, Snapchat.  They built a prototype and started using it amongst themselves and were having fun sending pictures back and forth to one another.  Spiegel and his fellow app makers started to use test groups with high school students, it was like testing a video game out with a focus group. The rest is history.

[neumannjoust]

Surface Pro 2

By: Kevin Fonio

            Microsoft has unveiled their newest tablet that will hit the stores on October 22. The Surface Pro is considered to be the favorite slate-based laptop replacement, as well as being one of the most talked about. One of the features that make this so well-known, besides the 10-inch screen, full Intel Core i5 processor and 1,9020x1, 080-pixel-resolution display, is the detachable keyboard. This remains to be the number one, top of the line keyboards for tablets on the market today.

            Microsoft has timed this release perfectly for Windows 8.1, which is a major update from the previous Windows OS update. The Surface Pro 2 will keep the best-known features of the original Surface Pro, but will add some flare with new internal hardware and new accessory options. The best part about this update, which Microsoft is supposed to fix, is the battery life. It does all of this by upgrading the Core i-series CPUs, which have a code name called “Haswell”.

            The Surface 2 also has a new look and feel to it as well. The body of the tablet has been given a new silver color called “magnesium”, but will still keep it’s original dark titanium color for originality. The body of the Surface Pro 2 will still feel like the original, but there is one new added feature that will make this tablet over the top. This feature is the kickstand, which will now have two different angles that the tablet can rest on.

            The keyboard is still the overwhelming factor on why people will buy this tablet. How much could a keyboard really make a tablet sell? If you think about it, when using an iPad or any other tablet and you’re typing something, either on a search engine, Twitter or Facebook, you wish you had a keyboard. But it’s not the functionality of the keyboard that attracts you. It’s the colors that attract you, it’s kind of like the iPhone 5c. Visual is such a huge part of our everyday life because colors can change our mood and attract us to any type of product from a type of food to a tablet. In the Surface Pro 2, the keyboard is one-third thinner than the original version, but still maintains that easy hands-on typing which consumers love. All of the keys have been replaced with the full array of sensors which will allow for partial keystrokes to be counted way more easily.

            The Surface Pro 2 comes out on Tuesday, October 22. There is a new OS and the keyboard is still the main attraction.The Surface Pro 2 starts at $899, which is pretty expensive, but if you want a great product that will last you a long time the Surface Pro 2 is the way to go.

[neumannjoust]

The Best Tablets for a College Student

By: Kevin Fonio

            Tablets these days are becoming the must have item for a college student.  There are a ton of brands that carry tablets all having features that vary from one another. But what is the best tablet for a college student? Here are two tablets that are perfect for a college student:

            Obviously my number one pick is going to be the iPad from Apple.  It’s one of the best tablets out there and there is no denying it.  There are many variations from the first generation iPad and any of them are great for a student but they are on the expensive side.  The iPad mini would be perfect because of it’s 9.7 inch screen which is perfect for book bags and on the go.  However, one of the key things that an iPad does not have is PowerPoint and Word. There are perfectly good substitutes for it such as Pages and Quickoffice Pro but they will cost you in the App Store. 

            My second choice would be the Microsoft Surface Pro (this tablet is the one with the commercial that has all of the people dancing while using the device). This tablet is strong; made with Gorilla Glass, which is scratch and crack resistant.  Unlike the iPad, the keyboard is automatically included when you buy the tablet.  This tablet also has Word processing capabilities, which makes it a better fit for a college student.

            So, the key thing when picking a tablet is: what do you want out of it?  Do you want your tablet to be strictly for work? If so, go with the Microsoft Surface Pro. Or do you want a tablet that is top of the line and more for relaxation and fun? In that case, I would choose the iPad. The choice is yours and yours alone.