My New Tech Site: GeekOn.In

Earlier this week, I launched a new tech website called GeekOn.In. It's a blog for all kinds of geeks, written by geeks. We already have a team of three authors and we're looking to expand, so if you are interested in writing for the blog, email me at anthony@geekon.in and I will get back to you as soon as I can. So go ahead, and Geek on in.

Why Blogger Affiliate Ads Are a Bad Thing

I recently switched from a Wordpress hosted site to Blogger. Not because I wasn't happy with Wordpress or Technodes Host, but because I wanted to go back to not paying for hosting. I want to save up my money for other things. Now, if I didn't care about my blog quality, I would clutter the site with donation links, advertisements and anything possible to make as much money as I can. But because I care about how my blog looks and the experience for my readers, I choose to keep it as clean as possible. But Blogger users now get an extra way to make money by a new service called Google Affiliate Ads for Blogger.

The way Affiliate Ads works is as long as you have an active AdSense account, you choose a product from the searchable list in the side of the new post page and write a post about the product and include a link down at the bottom so the reader can buy the product, and you get a cut of the purchase. This sounds like a great way for some Bloggers to get paid for doing what they love, but this system can be abused very quickly. From what I have seen of this, there is no way that Google or the seller knows that you own the product. Anyone can write a review from what they read online or just re-write the description on Amazon.

In the right hands, this feature brings to bloggers who want to talk about something they purchased the added benefit of getting a percentage of the pay if someone buys it with their link. Unfortunately, there are people who will overuse this and hopefully, will get caught by Google fast.

So I'm Back to an iPhone

Let me just start out by saying I am extremely indecisive. I change the theme on this blog probably once or twice every week and then I decide to stick with the one I was using before. It’s not because I want to try the new theme, it’s because I thought that theme was the best theme on WordPress.org. But then I start using the new theme and I realize that the old one was just better, so I switch back to it. I don’t hate the new theme I wanted to use, it’s just the one I was using before was better. This is no different to me switching back to an iPhone.

Back in August 2011, my contract was almost up, ending on the last day of August. I just wanted to get rid of my iPhone 3G. Not the 3GS, or the 4, the 3G. It was painfully slow. Everything took so long to open, it would freeze doing nothing and it couldn’t be updated to the new-at-the-time iOS 5. So I hated this phone. In this time, I had looked for a new phone to get and I noticed the Windows Phones. After doing some research, I quickly decided that this was the best operating system out there. Many great features were built into the phone like Office, XBox Live, and the famous Metro UI, which is both extremely intuitive and awesome. After long weeks went by, I went on Amazon, and purchased my Samsung Focus for a penny. When I unboxed it and started to use it, I was still in love with it. Until about five months later, when I cracked the screen. I still liked the phone, it’s just for whatever reason, the cracked screen made me see the flaws about the phone. The almost-bare app store and the fact that I needed to restart the phone on an almost weekly basis. Now I understand the restarting thing is a hardware thing with nothing to do with Windows Phone, but the app store was the part that was really hard to keep using the phone. With apps like Instagram, Tweetbot and the hundreds of thousands of iOS only apps, I was missing out. That is, until Monday, March 26th.

My dad’s contract was up, so he decided to get an iPhone 4. When he got it, he asked if I wanted his 3GS. At first I was thinking “Nah, I love Windows Phone too much.” Then I started using it, and I thought “Why did I buy the Samsung Focus?” Now, it’s not that I decided right then I hated Windows Phone, it’s just the iPhone was doing what Windows Phone did better. I think Windows Phone is a great operating system, but for me, iOS just works better for what I want to do.

So here I am. With an iPhone 3GS. Of course, I’ll probably be back to the Samsung Focus in a couple of months, but for now, it’s iOS for me.

Sabrent USB Digital TV Tuner Unboxing

Unboxing Facebook Business Cards

My Cracked Samsung Focus

I've done something I never thought I would ever do. When I had my iPhone 3G, not once did I ever scratch it from the time I got it in December 2009 to September 2011. It did have a case on it for a month or two, but even after I took that off, I never dropped my phone. It was nice and clean. I try to keep the things I own almost new looking. Then when my contract was up for my iPhone, I decided to try Windows Phone and got the Samsung Focus. I got that specific phone because on Amazon Wireless it was a penny, and I couldn't pass that up. Plus I thought it was a nice phone. When it arrived on my doorstep, I was so excited to open it up and start using it. For months, I was so sick of the slowness of my iPhone 3G. Everything took so long to do. Don't get me wrong, I like iOS, and sometimes I miss having an iPhone for the apps and the experience I got from it. I just thought Microsoft was innovating in many ways Apple wasn't. So for months I was happy with my Samsung Focus and with Windows Phone.  This phone is never slow. Everything takes a second to open and complete. While I've had this phone, it has slipped out of my hands and fallen on the ground a couple of times. To my surprise, every time it happened, not a scratch on the device or any parts inside shaking around. This phone is really light and durable. I was happy with my phone, until a week ago. I was in the gym locker room. I was getting my jeans out of the locker, when I see something rectangular falling out. It was my phone, and before I could react, it hits the ground, front first. As I said, I've dropped my phone a couple of times so I know what it sounds like when it hits the ground. This made a different sound. I picked it up and the screen was cracked. At that time, I had a Beavis and Butthead moment. All I thought was "huh huh huh, that was cool." It wasn't 'til I got home and realized what happened to my phone. My 5 month old phone was no longer new looking. I thought I was going to need to get a new phone for it to work right.

Now, me thinking I would never drop this phone, I never got a case for it, and never got any warranty on it. But I hoped that maybe it had a year warranty on it anyway. So I called Amazon Wireless, and they told me that unless I got the warranty on it when I bought it, I was out of luck. But they told me to call AT&T to see if I had a warranty plan on their end. I called AT&T and they told me they only cover defects from the company. I was out of luck.

But then I turned it on and started using it, I noticed everything still worked. The touch screen has no broken spots on it, there are still no shaking parts inside the phone rattling around, and it still calls people! I gotta say, as angry as I am that the screen cracked, I've got to thank Samsung for making a solid device. After a lot of abuse to the lightest weighing phone I've ever felt, it's still kicking.

My contract for this phone ends on March 3rd, 2013, so hopefully it stays securely in my pocket for another year.

Click here to see the original picture.

Circle Me On Google+!

I've only been using Google+ for less than a day, and already I know it's awesome. Because I'm not a big fan of big blog posts, I'm going to start posting more on Google+, so circle me there by clicking the logo there!