Month: January 2017

LeapFrog are selling this as a two models one is LeapStart Preschool and other one LeapStart Primary School both are  same. It’s just a sample book is different. each has appropriate sample book. Unit cost is about £34 but each book is about £10 but Mrs manage to buy the whole preschool books for £35 in here

I’m very skeptic when it come to this things. I thought it will be like another gimmick kids product,  but they actually put a lot of thought on this, for starters no screen it’s a real book you put in you have to connect the LeapStart unit to the computer and download the audio books and sync this audio books to the unit. It’s very easy soon as you connect they will walk you through the steps and I downloaded the whole audio books even before we bought it. it’s take double AA batteries so no charging troubles.

I tested the sample book with my 2 + years old daughter. she liked it. unit is very durable she dropped it many times.  carried around. the pen can take lot of beating too. 1st book I bought was leap start preschool STEM  I actually paid the full price as I bought that on amazon.  My daughter loved it she actually enjoyed playing with it and I think she learned few things with out screens.  We sit with her and go through with her. Unit is designed for her to play on her own as it has audio book telling what to do etc. It’s more fun for her to sit and go through with us (I think)

We thought her alphabet need improving. so now she now going though this  our lady doesn’t likes it as much as the STEM book but she is learning fair bit on this.

We buy lot of things for kids some of them are surprisingly good. This is one of those products. not sure who designed and plan this up. but they done a good job on  this.

 

 

 

 

 

I actually wanted to buy the lifeproof cases for the phone but it’s not avalable on the UK site and it will be very expensive to get them from US. so I decided to go with Otterbox commuter case. It’s a good case bit bulky no waterproof  though but it will keep your phone safe from drops. On the other reviews you will read power button is bit tight and yes it’s true but it’s true for all new cases thought.  with google pixel you don’t need to use the power button as well.  over all I’m happy with it. and yes case will let you put edge to edge screen protector.

I was always been a fan of Sony mobiles. They did a good job of making a good phone with enough power and releasing  new phones every 6 month so I can buy the older model for cheaper. I don’t like buying 2nd handphone phones.

Any way this Christmas I was given a google pixel xl 128 GB one.  this is the most expensive phone I ever owned. I was given  google daydream view headset  (Virtual Reality) as well.

1st I’ll write about the phone. in one word amazing. It’s really fast. My old sony z3+ had a snapdragon 820 CPU, but google pixel felt really fast compare to my old phone. operating system on it  is amazing as well. It’s only  had the base google apps and nothing else. GPS is amazing even is central London. it’s picks up location very quickly.  mobile signal is pretty good as well. I can get good signal to places where I couldn’t (with O2) with other phones.

Only downside I can think of is it’s a big phone. I bought a Otterbox commuter case   which makes it even bigger. if you don’t  have a case it’s very slippery phone. google assistant wasn’t all that, I think it’s not smart enough for UK yet.

google daydream view is better than I expected. It will come in handy when you making those long flights.

So far I haven’t found any issues, If I do I will update this blog post

update 10/01/2017

I really enjoy watching google daydream view. It’s can be just a normal youtube move makes it look like you watching it on a massive screen. quality is bit off  compare to real cinema

 

 

 

Now I have a google pixel xl  phone ( Christmas present ).It’s uses a USB-C port.  I thought I will buy a  USB-A to USB-C cable so I can use all my exiting  wall/ car chargers etc.

It’s not easy as I thought. google play store selling that cable for £25 so I looked in to other places.  You can get them cheap but apparently they don’t meet to USB-C spec and might damage the device or charger.  google engineer call   Benson Leung done lots of research on this.

going by what he was saying it’s safe to buy a USB-C charger with USB-C cable with known brands.  even to buy USB-C chargers from other phones like Microsoft Lumia 950 XL chargers, you can pick them up cheap.

Moral of the story is don’t buy the cheap cables. It wont save you money.