iPhone 5 versus Samsung Galaxy S4 Head to Head

I've had the opportunity to test the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 head to head.  My testing was for work and it was more from a 4G Sprint (Samsung S4) versus LTE AT&T (iPhone 5) perspective but since I was doing the exact same thing on each phone I couldn't help but compare them.

Samsung S4 impressions:

• screen is bright, big and beautiful.  I loved that about it
• It's too big.  I cannot do anything one handed. When I put it up to my ear I feel like an idiot, like I have an ipad at my ear.
• its slippery.  The silver sleek back makes it slippery so a case is necessary, however if I added a case it would be really too big.
• I felt that I had worse voice calls on the Samsung than on my iphone 4s on the Sprint network.  In areas where I had not had issues before the Samsung had issues.  Why?  I don't know but it is what it is. 
• The keyboard just sucks.  On the iphone I can properly type out even with one hand a significant amount of text without it being morphed in to indiscernible words.  The S4, no way.  Some texts there wasn't a word that was recognizable so I found when I was texting or emailing I had to be paying significant attention to the phone and keyboard so I could choose the corrected words all the time. Irritating.
• I find the Google Play marketplace a pain to use.
• Android features in general do not have the same ease of use that similar functions on the iPhones do.  Everything on an Android take too many clicks or the options are buried in menus below menus.  It's just irritating.

iPhone 5 impressions

• Lighter than my 4s so that was nice and lighter than the S4
• fits quite nicely in the palm of my hand
• fast
• usability crushes the Android OS
• say what you will about iTunes and the app store but I know when I download an app there isn't some malware hidden inside it because Apple has vetted every single app.

Verdict
I'll take the iPhone 5 - hands down, every time

It's interesting how Americans love a winner but only if they win so much.  For example, the Yankees. Everyone loved them until they started winning the World Series too frequently, then people hated them.  Apple is a winner and were the darling of the tech sector for years.  Now - every tech and money blogger bashes them for lack of innovation, too controlling, blah blah blah.  Let's face it people - it's an American company.  Embrace it.  Why are you embracing a Japanese company?  Apple employs 1000's of workers in the US.  Support them - don't bash them.

Geocaching in Edmonton, Part 3

This was our last find.  It was by far the cleverest geocache I've ever seen.  It was really only a fluke that we discovered it.  The kids and my mom are determined cachers and do not give up until the find is made!  Look closely at the picture below.  Something is not quite right.  The birch tree cluster you see there, one looks like its cut off.  Upon closer inspection I thought it was odd that the birch bark was not adhered directly to the tree.  Viola!  The cache was found.  Looking closer at the second picture you see a PVC screw top on it.  This is a real birch log with one side somehow hollowed out, a 2.5" PVC pipe put into it, the original birch bark adhered to it and then its flipped upside down so you don't see the PVC cap.  It wasn't until I grabbed the log and heard a thud inside of the cache container that I realized what it was. 

Geocaching in Edmonton Part 2

Here's a picture of all of us on our hike - great shot!

 

11 Varieties this year!

Here are some pictures of my special heirloom varieties.  The top picture is the Costello Genovese - Hard to find old classic heirloom 8- 12 oz fruits.  I'm not sure why the deep ribbing, it didn't say that it was like that nor do the pictures look like that.  I have another that has deep ribbing, maybe I mixed up the labels?  The bottom one is one of the ones I am SO excited about.  The Lemon Drop - Translucent yellow/green cherries, sweet/tart flavor.  Doesn't it look like they are going to be SO interesting.

Geocaching with the Family in Canada

What a fun, fun afternoon we had yesterday.  I introduced my family and especially the kids to the world wide treasure hunt game called geocaching.  Geocaching in Edmonton is very different than in Los Angeles. With the incredible amount of greenspace in the city every cache we found was an adventure and unique.  The first cache we found was no more than a couple blocks from my sister's house but it might as well have been in the forest. The first picture is of that first cache.  It was hidden in a fake birdhouse.  I wonder if the birds get faked out too? 

Each cache we found had a large number of kid friendly goodies in it and we left a Los Angeles souvenir in each as we went.  Here's a picture of Sienna who is holding the GPS to cache #3 - as you can see, she is highly focused and was very good at it.

Cache #4 was a small micro and I was worried it would be hard to find.  I let the kids run with the GPS while I used my geo senses to track it.  I discovered it but let them make the find.  It was a toughie but Sienna made the grab.  As you can see by the picture it is a fake bolt.  The trick is in looking for things that are not normal.  None of the other 6x6 posts had a bolt in it - so, different...Clever hide for sure.

Cucumbers - yummmy

This is just a normal cucumber plant.  It's about 6" long now.  I should have put a quarter in the dirt beside the picture for context.