PS Vita as a Tablet Alternative (for gamers only)

If a hardcore gamer has been thinking about getting a tablet but has been eying that new PS Vita as well I'd choose the Vita.  These devices are pricey and not everyone can have all of the toys they want.  Another issue is having to carry all these things around with us. There's still too many things to cart around.  The PS Vita makes a great (smaller) alternative to tablets like the iPad.

The PS Vita features a gorgeous 5" OLED touch display. If you've seen OLED screens before, you know gorgeous is the word to use.  It also features a rear touch panel. That's more important for the games, not so much use for browsing the web. It comes in two variations like most devices these days, WiFi and WiFi + 3G. If you get the 3G (provided my ATT) you get better GPS quality. The latter relies on WiFi signals and is not so precise. I opted for the 3G version…just in case. I did not want to get the the WiFi only and later regret not getting the 3G option. If you want to save 50 bucks, forget the 3G option.  It also features like most modern smart phones and tablets a front and rear facing camera.  Hmm, sounds a lot like a tablet doesn't it? So far it more resembles the Galaxy Note without the phone functionality.

What the Vita does  not have is the large selection of Apps that are available in the Apple Appstore, the Google Android Marketplace, and the Amazon Appstore.  However, the most useful and commonly used Apps are available such as Facebook, Foursquare and Netflix.  Not all of the Apps have been released yet as of the Vita luanch date February 22nd. I would expect them to roll out in the coming weeks. There's also talk about Sony using the OS used for Vita for their smart phones. If that's true and it's a success I am sure there will be more apps available in the future.

 http://us.playstation.com/psvita/apps/

If you heavily rely on apps at the moment to get things done (and I don't mean games) then the Vita won't work well for you. But if you mostly use the above mentioned apps then you'll be ok with the limited selection. Another point to mention is that what most people do with their PC's, and tablets is use the web browser. More and more sites are becoming HTML5 rich and the need to be app dependant is less. The Vita features a rich HTML5 web browser. Add all of your favorite sites to the Bookmarks and they will be ready to use just like any App would be.  I should also mention that the Maps app is powered by Google Maps.

One issue I notice so far is the inability to play videos on Youtube. That could be a problem. The Vita browser is supposed to be an HTML5 browser yet when you attempt to play a video it tells you to get the latest Flash player or use a rich HTML5 browser. Huh? Then when you follow the link to get Flash from adobe, it says you have the latest Flash Player. So right now it's a bit confusing. Again, I am sure these kinks will be worked out in the coming months if not the coming weeks.

The rest of this review will be finished once the Flash or HTML5 issue is resolved. Doing a quick nav to Google Music tells me I need to have Flash installed. So we shall see.

Web Services I am curious to try out are:

Amazon Cloud Reader

Google Music

Amazon Music

Jolicloud

Dropbox?

Google Docs

Windows Live Services such as Skydrive

Is the Official Hotmail app for android really official?

So a few minutes ago I read on Android Central that Microsoft has released its official android app. I was pleased to see this and went to the Android Market to download it. Now I'm having doubts because the publisher isn't Microsoft Corporation but instead Microsoft + SEVEN. huh? Who's that? I tweeted Windows Live official twitter handle. I am curious to find out if it's real before I download and enter my windows live credentials.

Make a Chrome Shortcut to Launch Google Chrome in Incognito Mode

These days we are always logged into Google to get faster access to our Gmail, Picasa, Reader, etc, we stay logged into Google services. It takes too much time for us to log in each time. There are times when we want to do a search or go to a site and not have that be part of our search history. (Google Search history is erasable.) Google Chrome has an Incognito mode where you are not logged into any online services i.e. Google or Facebook. After you visit any site, cookies are deleted and there is no search history. You can get to Incognito Mode easily by launching a new Google Chrome window IN Incognito Mode. However, you might need access to Incognito Mode more often on a daily basis. You can make Incognito Mode run always by default but why would you want to log into your sites everytime you launch your Google Chrome browser. Another way to stay logged into Google and keep other searches private etc, is to launch another brand of browser completely like Safari, IE9, or Firefox and NOT be logged into Google Services. Keep in mind you will still have to clear out cookies locally if your a history neat freak.

Here's how to make a seperate Google Chrome desktop icon for Incognito Mode:

1: Make a NEW desktop shortcut to Google Chrome on your desktop. Go ahead and rename the icon.

2: Right Click the new Google Chrome desktop shortcut and select Properties.

3: In the "Target" box go to the end of the entry where it says chrome.exe and type [-incognito] without the brackets. Click on OK.

That's it! You now can easily launch Google Chrome in Incognito Mode while not messing up your normal browsing experience because you still have your original Chrome to launch. This is what you will see when launching Incognito Mode:

Finding An Audience

Trying to find an audience when your blogging about the same things a million other geeks are writing about is not easy. I've been blogging on and off with this site for about a year and even though I do show up in the search result (waaay down the page) it's going slow. Finding an audience is tough and I am going to try and stick to more things I don't see blogged about elsewhere. Mainly that means blogs about how to use things. More and more people are using "simple" devices,  like an Android Phone, iPod Touch, or an iPad. Even IN the home, the tools I grew up on are more simple like the PC or a Mac. They are being used in a more simplistic fashion. People remain buried within their APPlications like Picasa or iTunes or their favorite web browser. They know how to do what they need to do. However, questions do come up and it's far beyond their understanding as their is no button to push or icon to touch. If something goes wrong with iTunes, they are clueless and it takes a while to find a friend that knows or find the easiest to understand website to show them what to do. Lifehacker is a great site that shows people everyday tips and tricks and I will take inspiration from people like it's founder Gina Trapani to talk about what I know best. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as to what someone wants to see on here. I'll still want to blog occasionally on my opinions of tech matters, but I'll focus those things on Google+. Thanks for reading.