When I was at Fry’s to get my 4TB drive, I came across this tiny tripod (if you can call it that) by Joby, called Gorillapod Micro 250 for $16.95.  Apparently, it’s supposed to be used for point-and-shoot cameras, but I want to use it for my JVC ADDIXXION camcorder.

As you can see above, when in the closed it’s tiny. In the picture below, you can see it being used with my ADDIXXON. The head pivots 36 degrees so you can put it on the table and point it up towards the action. Too bad the ADDIXXON doesn’t come with this imbedded in the camcorder itself. That would be a good idea.

The only small grip I have is that it’s so small, I think I’m going to lose it. It would be great if there was a way to keep it tied to my camcorder.

Otherwise, this little micro tripod has made my ADDIXXON more useful, especially when used in time lapse mode.

Last time, I went over the process of signing up for a “free” FreedomPop account. After getting the Freedom Spot Overdrive Pro in the mail, now it’s time for a test drive. What you get is a refurbished Sprint Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro with the Sprint logo covered with black tape. On a side note, Netgear has bought the rights to these Aircard products from Sierra and sell them to Sprint.

Also, by the time I finally got my Overdrive Pro in the main, my FreedomPop dashboard told me that I only had 17 days left on my “free” month of Internet. Frankly, I don’t think they should start the clock on your service until you activate your device. I lost almost half the month waiting on delivery.

But I digress.

As you can see below, the Overdrive Pro is small and can easily fit in your pocket or purse. It has tiny rubber feet so that it won’t slide if you have it on a precarious angle.

The battery is removed by sliding the back cover off as shown below. On the top side, there is an SD card slot and a mute slider switch. On the bottom, there is a micro USB connector and 2 external antenna connectors with sliding covers. On the main side, there is a lighted large power button as well as an LCD status screen.

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Goole Wallet (smartphone payment system) is now available on Sprint if you have a Samsung Galaxy S4, Note II or HTC One. After downloading and launching the app, you will get a screen that says it’s setting up Wallet and that it may take 5 minutes.

Usually, when you get a message like this, it takes a few seconds. In this case, it actually does take 5 minutes so don’t do this with an almost dead battery or right before trying to purchase something at a store. I assume it takes this long because it has to setup the encryption and security for Wallet before it can start.

It will first ask for a PIN, then later you can add a credit card to your account. Once you are setup, when you launch the app, you will get a login screen asking for your PIN. It’s nice that the numeric keyboard is imbedded in the app so you get very large keys to login with.

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In previous parts (part 1, part 2, and part 3), I’ve analyzed the feature list from Sprint and Samsung. This time, it’s my turn to list the top 10 features of the Sprint Samsung Galaxy S4.

Starting with #10…

#10 – Optical Reader
The optical reader app allows you to grab phone number and addresses off of marketing ads, banners, and even business cards. I don’t think this is new but it’s new for me. This is perfect for super lazy people like me that don’t want to read the phone number off of a business card, as shown below.

It doesn’t always work perfectly, especially if it’s dark but if you hold the phone steady, you can usually get it to grab what you want.

#9 – Google Now
Once again, this is not new in the Android world, and now it’s even available on iOS, but it’s a great feature. Google Now tries to figure out what you are interested in and will show it to you automatically.

Big Google Brother is watching but when it works, it’s almost magical. After doing some searching on my desktop browser, I left the house and looked on my phone and saw that it estimated how long the drive to that location would be. Creepy? Maybe a little. Sometimes, I wonder how it knows. Then I get scared and try not to think about it.

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Samsung quietly released a new version (1051.2) of their Smart TV firmware on May 10. As it turned out, it was not as easy as I thought it would be to upgrade the firmware.

In the past, I simply using the option to upgrade via the Internet but there were a couple of problems that I encountered. First off, from the Smart Hub, I would press the “Menu” on my remote, then scroll down to “Setting” to get the following screen.

As you can see, the “Software Update” option is not available. In fact, when I click on it, I get the following dialog box:

This stumped me because I had done an upgrade before without any problems. After some scratching of my head, and other parts, I used the support email on the Samsung website for help. Unfortunately, they just sent me instructions on how to upgrade the firmware. Not deterred, I then used the “Live Chat” support on the Samsung website and quickly found out that you cannot upgrade the firmware from the Smart Hub.

In other words, you have to press the “Menu” button on your remote, directly from TV without first going to the Smart Hub.  The support guy also told me that you have to wait at least 30 seconds after turning on the TV. The documentation says, wait 2 minutes but apparently, that’s over-kill.

When I did as told, I was able to access the “Software Update” option, but when I tried to update via the Internet, it told me I already had the latest version. Damn it.

The support guy told me that I would have to upgrade via USB drive and sent me the link to the full instructions. He also sent me the link to the new version of the firmware. Actually, I got my download from the Samsung support area so I’m not 100% sure this link is correct but the support guy seemed to know what he was talking about so it’s probably okay.

After I unzipped the files onto my USB drive, I plugged it into my Samsung LED TV and used the USB update option and got this prompt:

After this point, it was just a matter of waiting the update to be copied to the TV and eventually, the TV “rebooted” and the new version was installed.

Frankly, after looking at the list of new features, I don’t think there is anything there that affects me except perhaps #9 (improve picture quality). So unfortunately, this was not the “big” upgrade I was hoping would be the new Smart TV that was announced at CES 2013.

After getting the Samsung Galaxy S4, I was looking around on the Samsung website and found that they released a new version of the Smart TV firmware today for my Samsung 55″ LED TV.

If you click the image above, you can see everything including the release date (today). However, when I went to my TV to upgrade the firmware via WiFi, the menu item was not available. I’ll have to look into this more to see why I can’t upgrade my firmware.

Update:
After reading the website more carefully, the firmware upgrade (1051.2) is as follows:

1. Supports 2013 Evolution Kit(SEK-1000)
2. Solves Netflix login issue
3. Support iOS Smart view app.
4. Support Angry Birds app. and Yahoo SyncPlus app.
5. Improves performance of Smart Hub
6. Adds print function in photo applications such as the Photo function of AllShare Play or Picasa.
7. Supports Samsung Audio Dock and Wireless Keyboard VG-KBD1500
8. Resolves compatibility issue with DLNA devices and network router/switch.
9. Improves picture quality.
10. Enhances Voice Recognition feature.
11. Change the TV Power On command from ”Hi TV” to ”Hi TV Power On” or ”Smart TV” to ”Smart TV Power On.”

To actually install the firmware, you can see how I did it.

Last time, we looked at one of Samsung’s feature list. Amazingly, Samsung has yet another webpage that touts the features of the Galaxy S4. This one seems to be geared more towards a younger audience than the last one.

Up first, what to do with your S4 when you are at a party – Fun:

Dual Shot:
This camera feature allows you to include yourself into your picture by using the back facing camera. As you can see in the Samsung “demo” picture below, this is for people that always wants to make sure they are getting their fair share of attention, even when they are not in the picture.

You can resize and move the thumbnail, and even change the way it looks to fisheye, heart shaped, and other useless options. You can even use split the image in half and see yourself on the left, and the front facing camera image on the right.

Conclusion:
So far, I’ve not had any reason to use this feature. I suppose if you want to make a video showing your kids and your reaction to your kids, this might be handy. But for me, there’s a reason why I’m taking the pictures. Because I don’t want to be in the picture.

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Even though I really needed to upgrade my old Sprint Epic 4G to a newer smartphone for a while, I didn’t get the Samsung Galaxy S3 because Sprint did not have 4G LTE available in Los Angeles until very recently. And without 4G LTE, the phone would be using 3G and very slow.

Now that I’ve upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S4, let’s see if 4G LTE stands up to the hype. First, let’s see how fast my home WiFi network is using the SpeedTest app as shown below:

And now, the same test using 4G LTE from an enclosed building in the West LA area as shown below:

As you can see, the speed is less than spectacular. In fact, the old Sprint 4G Wimax gave results from 3.27 to 6.13 Mbps, which is faster than this slow result.

Next, I tried it outside still in the same area with the following results:

As you can see, this time, the 4G LTE was actually faster than my WiFi at home.

After several tests, it’s clear that Sprint’s 4G LTE is still very spotty in Los Angeles. In some areas, it’s below 1 Mbps, and basically unusable, while in other areas, it’s very fast.

Sprint has a long way to go before they are anywhere close to the coverage of Verizon or AT&T for 4G LTE. But starting up their coverage in Los Angeles is the first step. At least that’s how I see it here in LA.

As of April 24, 2013, FreedomPop, which offered limited free home Internet in select areas, will now offer free (or low priced) wireless Internet via the Sprint network. So if you were previously not qualified, it’s very likely that your area is now covered by their service.

To find out if your area is covered, go to Freedompop.com and enter your address and click “Check Availability Now.”

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As you can see below, my local Best Buy store in Los Angeles now has a micro Samsung store inside. Basically, it’s a rip-off, I mean, a copy of what Apple already has in most Best Buy stores. Apparently, Samsung figured out that Apple knows what they are doing and it’s working for them, so why not duplicate their success.

The Samsung rep told me that the “store” just opened so the inventory being shown are all Best Buy inventory that already existed in the store. However, every Tuesday, there will be new shipment of Samsung products that will be delivered specifically for them. They will have smartphones, tablets and laptop computers in these micro-stores.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know when they will have more accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S4 available and told me to check back on Tuesday. We’ll have to wait and see if they really get cool new stuff or it’s just more of the same items they already have.