Alexis Philippides

Email: alexis@stuff-review.com

Profile: Alexis is the founder of Stuff-Review and the primary editor. He's a blogger, an engineer and a web entrepreneur. Alexis has been building and managing websites for over 12 years. An eternal sufferer from gadget lust, he tries to keep his passion in check by writing overly lengthy pieces on technology and consumer electronics. Soft spots include digital cameras, high-end audio separates and portable devices. At times, his electrical engineering background peers out in technically convoluted articles, but otherwise he provides down-to-earth reporting.

Latest posts by Alexis Philippides:

Google Search for Android 2.2, 2.3 and 3.x now faster with a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich

News

January 12, 2012 at 3:51 am

Search is an integral part of Android, Google is search first and foremost after all. The search giant is now pushing an update for the Google Search app to Android 2.2, 2.3 and 3.x devices, which should bring some of the functionality, performance and looks adopted in the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version.

Google is claiming that you will notice how faster and smoother this new version is. New features include a simplified user interface, search results are now grouped by type, there are country-specific search results, while you can now remove search history items.
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Apple may not be at CES 2012, but 250 of its employees are

News

January 11, 2012 at 5:01 pm

Apple officially abandoned exhibiting its wares at CES, but that doesn’t mean the company doesn’t have a presence at the event. Of course, there are hundreds of vendors that cater to Apple products, from iPhone cases to Thunderbolt drives, but we don’t mean that.

Apple has more than 250 of its employees registered to attend CES 2012 in Las Vegas. So what could they all be doing on the show’s floor? It seems that covert operation is the name of the game. It’s normal for a company to want to be on top of what the competition is offering. Apple’s employees are also taking notes on how other companies present their goods and how booths are organized.
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Motorola Droid Razr Maxx brings 3,300mAh battery and slim design

News

January 10, 2012 at 3:43 pm

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (that’s a mouthful) is an updated version of the skinny Droid Razr but with an immensely bumped up battery.

The Razr Maxx variant carries a 3,300mAh battery which is almost double the 1,780mAh capacity found in the Droid Razr. With such a large battery, our dream for all day continuous use will become true. The company estimates the Maxx’s talk time at 21 hours compared to 12.5 hours of the original Razr. Surprisingly the new battery doesn’t add too much girth to the device, which is still just 8.9 mm thick against the original’s 7.1mm.
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Sigma introduces new fast prime lenses for Micro Four Thirds and Sony NEX cameras

News

January 10, 2012 at 10:41 am

Sigma has just announced the launch of a new line of lenses titled Digital Neo (DN). The DN lenses mark Sigma’s foray into the world of compact system cameras. Sigma is getting into the game with two fast primes, for the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) and Sony’s NEX camera E-mount systems.

The two lenses are the 19mm F2.8 EX DN and the 30mm F2.8 EX DN. Both lenses have a new linear autofocus (AF) motor for quiet operation, making them suitable for both stills and video.
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Corning Gorilla Glass 2: same strength but 20% thinner

News

January 10, 2012 at 9:23 am

It seems that we guessed this one right. Corning has officially announced the new generation of its popular damage-resistant glass. Gorilla Glass 2 has the same scratch and impact resistance as its predecessor despite being 20% thinner.

With thinner cover glass, devices don’t have any excuse for not shedding their holiday fat. So, you can expect slimmer devices and more variety in terms of designs and form factors — maybe we’ll now see more curved screens with Gorilla Glass protection. Also, because the screen will now be closer to your fingers, you will be getting a better touch experience, and better optical performance. If manufacturers choose to optically laminate the screen (i.e. iPhone), the screen will truly seem like it is floating at the edge of the device.
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Sony Xperia S, a.k.a. Nozomi, 4.3-inch 720p display 1.5GHz dual-core smartphone announced (video)

News

January 10, 2012 at 6:10 am

We’ve been hearing about the Sony Ericsson Nozomi smartphone for a while. Well plain Sony now (yeah it’s finally officially dropped Ericsson) officially announced the Xperia S Android smartphone on Monday. We already knew that it was good looking but we now have the full confirmed specs for the device.

The Sony Xperia S has a large 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 gap-less optically laminated display and features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The rear camera is a massive 12-megapixel Exmor R back-lit sensor affair and can shoot up to 1080p HD video; the front facing camera is 1.3-megapixels. You get all the typical Wi-Fi, GPS, HDMI ports together with NFC and DLNA support. The Xperia S will come in 16GB and 32GB flavors, though there is no microSD card slot for expandable storage.
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Asus and NVIDIA announce 7-inch Tegra 3 quad-core tablet with Ice Cream Sandwich for $249

News

January 10, 2012 at 3:35 am

There are a lot of new tablets at CES this year. The biggest piece of news however has just come in today. NVIDIA has announced that a 7-inch version of the Asus Transformer Prime, which will also run on the Tegra 3 quad-core SoC and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, is coming soon. The Asus ME370T tablet will sell for $249 at launch.

This completely blows the under-powered and barebones $199 Kinde Fire and $249 Nook Tablet out the water. Besides the super fast Tegra 3 chip, the 7-inch Asus tablet will have a 1280 x 800 screen resolution and an 8-megapixel camera.
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Behind the tech: the benefits of Fujifilm’s X-Pro1 3-inch RGBW ‘WhiteMagic’ LCD panel

News

January 9, 2012 at 6:27 pm

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 interchangeable lens camera (MILC) has been announced and one of the lesser-known features is the shooter’s main 3-inch RGBW LCD panel. The ‘W’ stands for white, which is in addition to the standard red, green and blue subpixels normally found in LCD panels. Because of the extra white subpixel, the display is quoted as having 1,230k dots (640 x RGBW x 480).

While trying to find out more information on this new panel I stumbled upon a new LCD panel made by Sony, and trademarked as WhiteMagic. Sony began marketing this type of panel in October 2011, with a model number ACX432AKM, for digital cameras. From a first look I am pretty confident this is the LCD panel inside the Fujifilm X-Pro1.

What makes this RGBW WhiteMagic LCD panel special? Well the extra white subpixel makes the screen brighter and more efficient. This has two benefits. First off you can reduce the backlight’s power consumption by around 50% or in a different mode you can double the screen’s brightens for better viewing outdoors. For a digital camera, it means you can have better battery life while shooting indoors, or improve the camera’s usability outdoors.
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First preview and hands-on videos of the Fujifilm X-Pro1: 40 minutes of pure camera lust

News

January 9, 2012 at 4:51 pm

Sure specs, pictures and comparisons are great, but we are sure you want to see Fujifilm’s latest marvel in action. We are not sure how else to foreword this, other than grab your pop-corn, sit comfortably and prepare for a total of 40 minutes of manual knob turning, metal body handling, hybrid viewfinder switching, retro camera lust.

The Fuji Guys, Fujifilm’s Canadian duo, take you on a video tour of every minute detail around the new X-Pro1 interchangeable lens camera. Head over after the break for the three hands-on videos and be sure to check out the rest of our coverage as well.
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Fujifilm X-Pro1 interchangeable lens camera is official with 16MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor, February release date

Volkswagen E-Bugster concept car slipstreams into your electric avenue

News

January 9, 2012 at 2:15 pm

It’s a sign of our times that many recent concept cars bear green credentials. Volkswagen’s E-Bugster concept is an all-electric Beetle with some Gotham City looks and some serious power under the hood and in the derrière. The E-Bugster houses a 114-horsepower electric motor with some generous 199 lb-ft of torque. The 695 pound lithium-ion battery, which is fitted under the rear seat and trunk floor, gives the car a 100-mile range.

The E-Bugster is three inches lower than the Beetle, and together with the 20-inch wheels and LED daytime running lights it should make for quite a sight — if not any sound thanks to its all electric credentials. Inside you will find an energy consumption display instead of a tachometer, driving range and battery charge indicators. The recharging plug rests inside the VW logo on the hood and can charge from level 1 (120 volts), level 2 (240 volts), and level 3 (400-volt quick charge providing 80 percent charge in 30 minutes) outlets.

Canon PowerShot G1 X announced: 14.3-megapixel sensor, larger than Micro Four Thirds, and 4x optical zoom lens for $800

News

January 9, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Canon will not enter the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera space, instead the camera maker has announced a new large sensor bridge camera in its PowerShot G series. The PowerShot G1 X will become the flagship model in the series ahead of the G12. What’s special about the G1 X is the new 1.5-inch 14.3 megapixel CMOS sensor which is slightly larger than a Micro Four Thirds sensor. The new sensor measures 18.7 x 14 mm compared to a Micro Four Thirds sensor which is 17.3 x 13mm. In fact the G1 X’s sensor is 6.3 times larger than the sensor inside the PowerShot G12.

We would imagine that such a large sensor will allow the G1 X some pretty respectable low-light performance, while the camera can shoot up to ISO 12,800. The lens offers an 4x optical zoom from 28-112m with aperture ranging from f/2.8 to f/16. Combined with the large sensor it should offer some pretty nice shallow depth of field. The G1 X has EOS-like features, like 14bit RAW shooting and is compatible with various accessories including Speedlite hot-shoe flash units. The camera comes with a 3-inch 922,000 dot articulating LCD screen and it’s capable of 1080p HD video shooting.
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Lenovo IdeaTab S2 10-inch tablet with Android 4.0 and keyboard dock

News

January 9, 2012 at 4:38 am

Did we mention we are expecting an onslaught of Android tablets at CES 2012? Hot on the heels of Acer’s Ice Cream Sandwich bearing Iconia Tab A700, Lenovo has announced its own Android 4.0 tablet. The Lenovo IdeaTab S2 with a 10.1-inch IPS LCD 1280×800 resolution and Qualcomm’s latest 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC. Similar to the Asus Trasformer Prime, the IdeaTab S2 can be used with a detachable keyboard dock.

Thin is the game now, and the S2 tablet measures just 0.34 inches thick and weighs a mere 1.1 lbs. Lenovo claims a 20 hours runtime when the tablet is paired with its keyboard dock. We’ve mentioned that it will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, though Lenovo will slap its own Mondrian UI on top. You get the typical set of Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, micro-USB and micro HDMI. The S2 is said to come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavors, though no pricing or availability has been made public yet.
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Acer Iconia Tab A700 10-inch tablet with 1080p display, quad-core Tegra 3 and Android 4.0

News

January 8, 2012 at 6:47 pm

CES 2012 is expected to open the floodgates for new tablets, yet Acer has managed to put its competitor early in. The Acer Iconia Tab A700 is a 10.1-inch tablet with some spectacular specs. The screen has a full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, it runs on the quad-core Tegra 3 SoC, which is clocked at 1.3GHz, and will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed.

Of course you get a typical set of ports, like micro-USB and HMDI, and connectivity, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G, together with a 5-megapixel rear camera and a front-facing camera for video chatting. The A700 also boasts Dolby Mobile sound. Measuring 9.8mm thick, it might not be the thinnest tablet around but with a 9,800 mAh battery you’ll be pleased to carry it all day with you.
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