Making a custom PC?

I've had some serious time spent into looking into a lot of the details entailing what I might call my perfect computer, so here goes... (this may evolve over time).  This is more of a notepad for myself than anything, but you can use it as a guideline to remember things.

6 core 4 gHz CPU (+2 cores for standard processing)
Overclock / Undervolt toggle ability
Ability to shut down / put to "deep sleep" cores
8 GB gaming RAM
50-100 GB Solid-state drive to speed up boot/most used programs/shut down/etc
50 GB Solid-state drive for factory reset purposes
25-50 TB Hard Disk Drive for everything else.
Ability to shut off certain sectors of hard disk to use for system speed-up
2-4 Disk Drives Blu-ray compatible
Triple Boot System (Windows 7 Ultimate / OSX / Ubuntu)
Full ergonomic keyboard with light up keys (keys are covered in plastic *not paint*)
Mousepad on keyboard
Dedicated Camera/webcam buttons on keyboard
Right-handed gaming mouse with a cloth-covered cord for least desk corner / side resistance
10+ MP webcam / camera
High Definition PCM Microphone
High Definition 7.1 Surround Sound Speakers / hook-up
The latest wireless network adapter
High Definition 32" 1080p LED screen

Your Android Phone and You

You may say that all you want a phone for is calling, texting and the ever popular Facebook application.  As some of you may not understand this, these things are available via a regular flip-phone (or a dumbphone).  So what is it that makes the smartphone so attractive?  Well, a lot of you would say the screen resolution and the ability to play games, whereas others might say they get better reception.  The truth of the matter is, people want a smartphone, when they don't need one, because everyone else has one.  A smartphone is able to be used for so much more than most people not in business use it for.  Yes, the ability to have the internet at high speeds and have high end gaming on-the-go is very nice, but that is still underestimating the power of any smart device.  The wonderful thing about smart devices is they bend to any lifestyle and, at the same time, open doors you've never seen before.  You may get your very first smartphone thinking you won't use it for anything but Facebook, texting and phone calls, but I can assure you that a lot of you will end up using it for more than that.  

The perfect android phone (my opinion)

There is a very simple way to make the perfect android phone, so Google and other manufacturers can stop doing all the guesswork.  Nobody wants a phone bogged down by "features", a.k.a. CPU bogging shortcuts.  What everyone wants is a classy-looking, hearty, smooth, battery-saving, fast, and easy to use phone.  Every attempt to make such a phone has fallen short in one way or another.  The perfect phone, in my opinion of the general populace, has everything anyone could want with the technology available to the public today.

A thin, sleek phone no smaller than the Droid 1 and no larger than the Droid 4 and as thin as the GSIII
A flexible, durable, ultra-responsive touchscreen and an ultra-thin qwerty keyboard
A very high definition screen (e.g. Super AMOLED)  No one cares about color lifespan of the blue subsubpixels.
A very large-life removable battery without enlarging the width of the phone.
A pure android experience (preferred 4.0.1+) *NO ADDED APPS except Google Play Store
An unlocked bootloader
...more to come.  But here's some ideas for the Google/Motorola "X-phone" ;)

The above is what most people want.  I want something very specific, although I'll probably never get it.  Below is what I would like to see.  :)

----------HARDWARE----------
1.) A handset by Motorola/Google.  (I love the reliability of Motorola handset hardware and I like the FM radio antenna :) )
2.) A phone size that is a happy medium between Droid 1 and Droid 3...Droid 4 is just too big
3.) A front face that won't break, chip or melt just by looking at it. (This includes the screen guard on the rim and a bendable display with excellent touch responsiveness and that can take a decent beating. {Android seems to be riddled with touch to move lag})
4.) A high resolution LED (better image and power usage) edge to edge display with very little margin on the top and bottom for speaker, mic, camera and "Droid 1, 2, 3, 4-like" haptic feedback buttons.
5.) A tungsten carbide/rubber (for bendable screen) casing with a removable slim 3000+ mAh battery with replaceable external storage up to 100 GB.
6.) A slim body (like a GSIII)
7.) An ultra-slim slider qwerty Droid 4-like keyboard
8.) Internal Storage of 5 GB
9.) RAM at 3-6 GB
10.) Dual - Quad core 1.0+ gHz processor with an extra "Required operations to run pure Android OS" core to allow main cores to go into sleep mode.
11.) 12+ MP Rear Camera with dual flash (like the original droid) and a front facing camera with a light for low visibility areas for video chat, etc.
12.) A headphone jack that has a reliable connectivity over long periods of time.
13.) 4G (or newest wireless generation available) capabilities with the availability of every other radio before that (with exclusive radios such as CDMA only, etc) to enable users to still be connected to the internet but save battery as well.
14.) The return of the camera button would be nice as well :)
15.) A phone that wasn't so sharp in shape as well...more rounded corners than the Droid 1, 2, 3, and 4

----------SOFTWARE----------
1.) Stock AOSP Jellybean with a Motoblur and non-AOSP apps ON/OFF toggle or make it into an app that people can download and install/uninstall or disable.  Everyone should have the freedom to do with their very expensive phones what they please as far as performance and how it looks.  Allow certain Motoblur features to be turned on while others are off.
2.) A safe overclock/undervolt (specifically using less voltage while being overclocked) feature with the option to change governors, schedulers, and I/O's
3.) Power toggles at the top of the notification bar when pulled down
4.) Swype Keyboard as an option
5.) A power button that is harder for jeans pockets to turn on...I assume Apple has a patent on their switch power button

Maybe more to come...distracted at the moment.

Why a smartphone? What can it do?

All logos shown are strictly copyright and/or registered trademark
 of their respective owners.

"Why do you have a smartphone?" I hear this quite a bit from people who don't own a smart-anything, (e.g. phone, watch, etc...)  The reason is simple.  It fits my lifestyle.  It may not be the answer for everyone though.  I use my phone for pretty much anything and everything.  I know some people who can't live without it, while on the other hand, there are plenty of people who are probably better off without one.  For some people, owning a smartphone is a status thing.  This goes along with owning certain cars, clothes, etc.  Some people have them for business.  More and more, people are starting to use smartphones for streamlining their business practices.  Others, like myself, own a smartphone because it's a major convenience.  Everything you could possibly want on-the-go is right there.  There are some things it can't do for you (i.e. make a pizza), but there are apps for ordering pizza straight from your mobile device.  Below are a list of things I have found to use my smartphone for and examples of an app for each item:

-Phone
-Texting (Handcent SMS)
-Camera/Video-recorder
-Web Browser (Maxthon Mobile Browser)
-Clock (Clock in notification bar)
-Thermometer (temp in current area) (Beautiful Widgets)
-Forecast (Beautiful Widgets)
-Calculator
-Calendar
-Alarm Clock
-Contact Book
-Email Access(Gmail, Y!Mail)
-Flashlight (TeslaLED)
-Hourly Facebook updates, if any that relate to you (Facebook for Android)
-Killing time watching Spongebob Squarepants (Netflix)
-Mosty recent news on any news topic of choice (News and Weather [stock AOSP]
-Paypal transactions/card swiping for business (Paypal)
-Mp3 Player (Music or Google Music)
-nook/kindle (Google Books, Kindle for Android, Nook for Android)
-Wireless Hotspot (Foxfi, Wireless Tether for root Users)
-GPS (Google Maps)
-attached internet modem (Easytether)
-Powerpoint controller (Android Mouse and Keyboard)
-Barcode Scanner to compare prices (Barcode Scanner)
-Internet Hard Drive (Google Drive, Dropbox)
-Internet calling/video chat (Skype, Google +)
-Online banking (Bank of America, Citi, First National Bank)
-Internet radio (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio)
-Order pizza online (Papa John's Pizza)
-Slang definition (Urban Dictionary)
-virtually travel the world (Google Earth)
-Order merchandise online (Walmart)
-Walkie-Talkie (TiKL)
-Police Scanner (Scanner Radio)
-Grocery List (Out of Milk)
-Taxes (TurboTax SnapTax)
-Scanner (CamScanner PDF Creator)
-Dog whistle (Dog Whistler)
-Notepad (Evernote)
-wirelessly manage anything computer related in-home (e.g. heat, lights, TV, etc)(OpenRemote, Intelligent Home)
-wireless file movement (Bluetooth File Transfer)

I hope this helps you become more productive with your everyday lives.
Until next time, and thank you for reading!

Android Phone Quick Tips

Android smartphones are quickly
coming up to their zenith in sales
and yet there are so many people
who don't know how to use them
to their fullest extent.

Virtually every day, I meet or talk to people who are frustrated with their Android OS phones.  Whether or not they realize it, there are some very simple things that they could do to make their lives a lot easier.  I'm going to share some things that could possibly make you device run a whole lot smoother and save you a good chunk of battery life as well.  Here are some common complaints I hear on a regular basis:

My phone is slow...

There are several things you can do to speed your phone up.  Do not attempt anything with the star (*) symbol next to it without reading up on it further.  Here is a very helpful site that will help you with those things.  If you don't know how to do something, let me know or you can find plenty of help on Google.  :)

One more note...

DISCLAIMER:  I am not responsible for anything you do to your device which may render it to operate in a way which is not desirable.  I am simply posting this to help those who are willing to help themselves.  

IMPORTANT:  PLEASE READ ALL COMMENTS OF ALL APPS BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD, IT MAY SAVE YOUR PHONE AND MAY SAVE YOU A LOT OF HEADACHE!

1.)  Download a third party home launcher (e.g. GO Launcher Ex, Lightning Launcher)  These launchers usually do not feed off of the Random Access Memory of the phone and keep the memory usage at a minimum using built-in task killers/managers.  There should be no reason to have to actually spend money on a third party launcher, as most are free.

2.)  If need be, download a task killer that has an auto kill feature (e.g. Advanced Task Killer).  Set the kill frequency to something that will save battery in the long run (e.g. 2-4 hours).  GO Power Master is an excellent way to kill standing apps and save battery.

3.)  *Uninstall apps you never use.  If you want to uninstall the preinstalled apps that came with your phone, you must root your phone.  Be careful!  As with every person who tells you how to do this, you can easily brick (make your phone so useless that it's only good to be a brick) your phone.  Please follow every step in any guidelines given to you when trying to do this.  To root your phone simply means that you force access to have complete control over every aspect of your device, (e.g. Owner/Admin account on a computer).  Most, if not all, cellular phone service providers say this will void your warranty.

4.)  *Overclock your phone.  This requires root access on your device.  Overclock simply means to make your phone's processing speed go faster.  It will cause your phone to go faster, but it will also drain your battery if you do not use a reasonable frequency and voltage level.  (e.g. for my Droid 1, I used Chevy no1's Ultralow Voltage 1.0 Ghz kernel).  Usually a phone cannot be overclocked more than a few hundred Mhz above the highest normal/stock frequency.

WARNING: Overclocking your phone without being careful might result in hardware failure and/or permanent damage to your phone.  Also be careful as your phone may get hot.

5.)  *Install a custom ROM that is not based off of the system that ships with the phone (e.g. blur, sense, etc).  Custom ROMs are simply a customized system that your phone runs on.  Cyanogenmod is a good place to start looking for custom ROMs because the developer always bases them off of the source that Google themselves releases to the wireless companies.  On top of that, they include many features that may not come with the phone initially (e.g. free wireless hotspot, built in overclock/underclock feature, theme engine, script tweaks that streamline processes on your device, etc).  Please make sure to say thank you to a custom ROM developer if you enjoy his/her creation/modification.

My battery life is terrible...

Your phone's battery is a keen reflection of how heavily the apps installed use it.  There are some very simple ways to get the best out of your battery!

1.)  Install a third party home launcher app (e.g. GO Launcher Ex, Lightning Launcher, Nemus Launcher).

2.)  Turn off anything you aren't using.  This includes GPS, auto-brightness, sound, vibrate function, haptic feedback, wifi, bluetooth, and most importantly mobile data (3G, 4G, etc).  There are several "one-stop" widgets that are available on Google Play (Android Market).  My personal favorite widget to use is GO Power Master.  It includes all of these functions to toggle as well as a way to make profiles and have them automatically change based on different situations.  If you are willing to spend a little coin, my all-time favorite automated app is called Tasker.  It can do pretty much anything your phone is capable of doing based on many possible circumstances.  It has a bit of a learning curve, but it is a wonderful replacement for several apps on the market.  Tasker is $6-$7.

3.)  *Installing a custom ROM may improve your battery life significantly based on which ROM you choose.

4.)  Use the built in data saver on your phone if it has one.  This not only saves data usage, but also battery.

My phone says Low Memory...

Unfortunately, this is a problem that some phones cannot be recovered from.  Low memory may mean one of two things.  RAM usage is high, or Internal/External Memory Card is close to full.

1.)  Uninstall apps you don't use.  I cannot express this enough.  If you do not use the app but think you might, uninstall it until you need it.  This is an almost foolproof way to keep RAM usage at a minimum.

2.)  Try to minimize used apps.  Like I said before, Tasker is a wonderful replacement for several apps. Try to find an app that can do the things that two apps you have can do and uninstall the replaced apps.

3.)  Use apps that use cloud (internet) storage instead of phone memory to store things like music, videos, etc.  I use Google Play Music because I can store up to 20,000 songs on one account that aren't bought from the Google Play store.  Any music bought from the store will not use up the 20,000 song limit.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to message/email me or leave a comment.

Thank you and have a great day!