Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) ReVisited

     Here is the honest to goodness truth, I haven't played GTA V since maybe the end of October, maybe the first week of November. Here is the thing, the game itself is a great game and it keeps you going.....that is until you beat it or your run out of things to do with your favorite character. I was talking with a friend the other day and he simply stated that he hasn't even beat the game yet. Before I was set to laugh or show a face of awe, he simply stated that the game didn't interest him long enough to make him keep playing over and over again. This is a guy who posed with the games box on social media, heck he was the one who basically got me on board to get the game in the first place. But to laugh him off and call him crazy, well he may be on to something.

     Grand Theft Auto 5 is a great and fantastic game that pushes the boundaries on what a game should be and what a game should include in it. GTA 5 is also one of those games that for some (like myself and my friend) that just kind of came out at the wrong time to keep our interest high. This week is the of the PS4 and next week is the week of the Xbox One. What if Rockstar decides to put out downloadable content between now and anywhere in the near future? I sorry but I am just not getting it. I don't care what's included. This is around the time where developers start to put out that extra content rather it is free or not and people rush to download and talk about later. For me, my conversation over the next few weeks and maybe until early 2014 will be all next gen based.

     I bought the downloaded version so I cannot sell my version (legally) to anyone and get money back for it. So when I spent $60 for the game it's mine forever. Not a bad thing, but now it just I can't turn it in and put money towards another game and all that jazz. However you want to look at it, downloading is a good thing or a bad thing, the end of this month is here and we are looking at next gen right in the face and sorry people, but GTA 5 is an after thought right now. Especially with it not coming to next gen systems (as far as we know). I play about three games right now, Hotline Miami, NBA 2K14, and Battlefield 4. I should be playing Battlefield more, but I am paying the $10 to upgrade to the PS4 and my version of 2K14 is the version that comes with the PS4 version, so the only real game that I am playing on this generations systems is Hotline Miami.

     But for those of you who have not purchased the game yet or are on the fence about getting it, all I can say is, if you are not worried about going to the next gen yet, then absolutely you must get this game. But if you have not gotten this game yet and you are getting a next gen system as well, it might just be time to skip a GTA game. MAYBE. GTA may be the last great game of this current generations life cycles (that is those that are made for both systems; Batman Origins as well) (Beyond Two Souls, The Last of Us are games that you also need as well but only on PlayStation). I know Watch Dogs maybe a game like that as well, but its coming to next gen, so why would I buy it for PS3 or 360?

     But why I said my friend may not be as crazy as you think is because, the game captivates your interest for about a few days or so and then, I don't know what it is, but it just kind of leaves without warning. GTA V Online is awesome. And if your one of the people when the last time I played, got shot or "trolled" by The_D_O_P_E_69, sorry but it was me and in that world there is no right or wrong! I would hear friends team up to do something good or do a mission and then there I am drive by, or setting people up with bombs. I really had a great time with it. But again, my commitment to this game just happen to come at a bad time. Since September, (well really since they announced it) I have been gearing up physically and mentally for these next gen systems and maybe that is why he has lost interest in the game, I can totally understand.

     For those of you who think that this logic sounds crazy, and yell and say GTA is one of the best games ever (as I said so in a earlier post and I stick by that) but the timing of the game and to capitalize even more on the games success, is an opportunity missed or screwed up. I know it beat out Call of Duty as far as game sales and all of that (thank God), but I believe Rockstar could have put the bar higher for, not for themselves but for as far as capitalizing on a great thing. Maybe they have a strategy going in who knows, maybe this is just the beginning of something more to come. All I know is, GTA is one of the best games I have ever played and (could be top 5 best games ever) has been sitting on my hard drive taking up space and whenever the last time I played it, may be just that, the last time i'll ever play it.

   

DualShock 4 (PS4 Controller)

Guess what day is around the corner? If you you said Thanksgiving, you would be right, but I was thinking of something just a little bit better. What could it be? How about the launch of Sony's 4th generation console, the Sony PlayStation 4 or as we all call it The PS4. That is right, the PS4 is right around the corner (November 15th if you forgot) and I have gotten my hands on a very necessary accessory, as in an extra controller. But since, I don't have the console in home yet, the closest thing I have to the actual PS4 is this new form DualShock 4 controller. So how does Sony's newest DualShock stack up? Let's find out. 

Well first thing is first, you can now pick up this controller at GameStop and Amazon. I also believe you can pick up the camera accessory as well and both will run you about $60 American. So the controller really feels good in the hand. It is slightly heavier than the current DualShock 3 and it follows the PS4's new two tone color scheme. So the one I have is black on black or a plastic black on a matte charcoal grey/black. There are rumors of other colors coming our way in America, but when is anybodies guess.

This Would Be A Day 1 Purchase!!

This Looks Good Too!! One Of My Buddy's Favorite Color.

The one problem that I think a person may encounter with the button placement is the share button. Maybe because I was used to start and select in the middle but I didn't press it often on accident but remembering that it is there when you need to press it may be uncomfortable at first. I am also going out to grab the PS4 camera and have that ready as well. There are a few PS4 titles rolling out slowly now. I know at our Best Buy you can get Call of Duty Ghosts now on PS4 and I think Assassins Creed 4 as well. The controller is responsive to input and after several hours of play, your hand (at least mine) didn't get sweaty from playing so long. That is why the Air Flow controllers are so popular, but with this controller, I didn't have that problem.

I have been playing with this for awhile now (well at least 5 days) and really all I play is Hotline Miami and Battlefield 4 with it. I have a list of games that is compatible with it right out the box here. Overall, the controller is stellar and a nice/big change for DualShock fans like myself. So until the real system drops in a few days here in America, this is the best I have to go on. Also want everyone to be aware that this controller is reportedly working with Mac/PC's right out the box as well.

So overall, since the controller is a must for the PS4 and you have no choice but to use it early on in the PS4 release, you'll just have to get used to it. Not saying that it is a terrible controller or feels funny, but it is a mid-major change to a controller that has been around for years (PS1 days) and if your one of the many people coming from Xbox to PS4, then it is a wake up call from what you are used to as well. But it feels good in the hand, and your hands wrap around the controller as if you two need each other (which in essence you do).

So that's it. That's my review of the PS4 DualShock 4 Controller for the PlayStation 4. If I had to grade it, I would say, 9/10 (8.5 at the least and a 9.5/10 at the max). It's not a 10/10, but its damn sure close.

Coming Soon: AOC 23" I2367FH Monitor; I run down my week so far with the Nexus 5. Also we are going to be looking at one of my new favorite things lately, and that is the Philips Hue. And once again we check out some of the most popular PS3 games to come out since 2006 until 2013 as we revisit the Sony PS3. If there are any games you wanted mentioned, send me a message and I will put it in there.

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POWER A FUS1ON Tournament Controller (PS3 Version)

The FUS1ON

Not thinking about upgrading to the PS4 or Xbox1 just yet? Need a new controller to handle all of the games and new games for the current generation systems? Well look no further than the FUS1ON Tournament controller by PowerA. This is the same company that makes those great air flow controllers and who also has their hands on a controller I reviewed a few months back and one of my favorite mobile phone and tablet controllers; the MOGA Pro. I also have a few other things from PowerA like a few WiiU accessories and Xbox 360 as well. But today, we are going to look at the FUS1ON PS3 edition.

First thing I want to say about this controller is that the presentation of this controller once you unbox it is top notch! Just unboxing it makes you feel like you are getting a very premium controller that you are not upset about spending your hard earned dollars for. The other thing that I want to say early on is that this controller is a corded controller, not a fan of cords but this controller is the exception. One of the main things you feel about the controller early on is the feel of the plastic and the smooth curves that hug this controller. The controller comes with a set of decals and other reading material like product information and warranty info. The box itself houses the kit. The kit contains the reading material, decals, and 4 soft grip handles for the controller and a small screwdriver. The controller out of the box has a unibody hard plastic feel to it. But where the handles are to grip the controller, you can unscrew those pieces and replace them with the included soft grip covers. I played a whole two days with the hard cover (playing GTA V and Battlefield 3) and then replaced them with the soft covers (playing NBA 2K14 and Battlefield 4) which I seemed to like a little better. If anyone out there owns a MOGA Pro controller, then you know what this controller feels like, they feel very similar and the button layout is almost the same.

The Controller also lights up in 6 different colors that are placed behind the two analog sticks and the four buttons (square, circle, X and triangle). The best feature that I like is that, the R2 and L2 buttons are more like "triggers" whereas the original PS3 controller has the buttons going inward. When playing games like Battlefield 3/4, I noticed my fingers didn't slip off the triggers or my thumbs didn't need to be repositioned every few shots because of the intensity. Maybe that is why the PS4 controller went this route as well (and I will talk about that soon as well). As you can tell the controller is set up like the Xbox 360. Which honestly is not a bad thing. The controls are tight and fluid. I didn't notice any "noticeable lag"and I thought the analogs were real responsive to movement and trying to target enemies real quickly. Other than that, there is not much else to say about this controller. It doesn't feel cheap, and other than the cord, which is a special tangle free braided cord, there is nothing real negative about the controller. Since my other controller has finally started to die out on me (well normal wear and tear), it was time to get another controller. But with the PS4 right around the corner, I had to pick up a controller to keep me gaming until November 15th. Thank goodness for PowerA and this wonderful yet lightweight controller. This controller is a keeper and if you are not jumping ship to the new kid on the block just yet this November, then picking up this controller will make sure that those future releases on the PS3 will ensure your most quality control.

Coming Soon: AOC 23" I2367FH Monitor; PlayStation Dualshock 4 (PS4 Controller); I know I said the review of the iPhone 5s was coming, but I decided to go with the Nexus 5 instead. And as soon as that comes in (about 2 weeks) I will have it up for all of you to check out. Lastly, well we check out some of the most popular PS3 games to come out since 2006 until 2013 as we revisit the Sony PS3. If there are any games you wanted mentioned, send me a message and I will put it in there. Also we are going to be looking at one of my new favorite things lately, and that is the Philips Hue.

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HP Chromebook 11

If you think the concept of Chromebooks is pointless or if you think they won't last long, boy are you wrong, twice. While it may have it's shot comings, this little slice of heaven is for those who want to be productive but without breaking the bank. This is my review of the HP Chromebook 11.

So this is the HP Chromebook 11.  This Chromebook was made by HP and Google, so you will see HP build with Google style and flare. I spent about a week with this machine, everyday and every night. This chronicles my week with the HP Chromebook 11. When you first get this, it comes in a nice size brown box. Once you open it, you are welcomed with a bright white case with a blue wrapped paper down the center (I think the wrapped paper goes with the color of your Chromebook. Mine is the white and blue model). On the inside of that is a nicely placed Chromebook and charger and Chromebook information. The presentation is very nice and clean. It makes you feel as if your getting something in high end but for a fraction of the cost. 

After you take out the Chromebook from the box, you are going  to want to plug your charger to it. Side note. The charger is your standard everyday micro USB charger. So that means that one charger can charge your Chromebook, your smartphone and anything else that uses a micro USB charging port (and there are a ton of them). So no more carrying like nine chargers for various items you carry. Alright, so back to the Chromebook. Once you charge it up, it seriously is three simple steps to get you right on the internet and surfing the web. After you put in your WiFi information (oh by the way, this is WiFi only and a lot of things can't be done on this Chromebook without the internet, but more on that later) you are greeted with an update that will be downloaded to your Chromebook.

I know I said it was three easy steps, but this is the longest of them. It says the wait is about five minutes but it was slightly longer than that. But it was not a big deal, just find yourself something else to do for about ten to fifteen minutes, just to be safe. Once you return to your Chromebook, you will need to sign in with your Google information or if you don't have any, I believe you can create one right then and there. After that, your welcomed to your new Chromebook. The specs for the device are here, just scroll to the bottom.

these are some of the offline apps like gmail, kindle, and docs

Once you are on your way, the Chromebook acts just like a real laptop, but with a slight twist, there is nothing to do with Windows or Mac on this Chromebook. So if you get this expecting to be able to use your same Windows 7/8 settings or things here or Mac OSX with Mavericks, think again because this is all Google services. That is not really a bad thing if you are deep into Google's offerings like with their Android Smartphone OS. Most of the things you find on your smartphone that have to do with Google, you will find here. One of the biggest complaints people have with the point of a Chromebook is that it only works while online. While that may be true, there are new offerings all the time in the Chrome App Store for applications to work offline. Honestly, today there are a ton of places out there that offer free WiFi and rather your in a big city or a little one, most fast food places have it and so tons of coffee shops. A lot of people like to do their work outside of the office and house anyway, so this may be something that fits right up their alley. So what do you do first? Well first off you want to go and take advantage of Google Music's 60 days free of all access and then the 100 GB of free Google Drive Cloud Storage for 2 years which is also free. Which is awesome. Just about 90% of my photos and home movies are in Google Drive. So when the 2 years are up, its only like $5 a month after that and Google has some crazy cloud storage space; like up to 16 TB (yes terabyte) of space for $799 a month. So you get an idea of how important storage is to them.

After you do that, and actually takes less time than the software update, you just go and do the normal things you do when you surf the web. You can still download pictures to you Chromebook. Run out of space? Attach a flash drive to a portable hard drive to it. It will run things off of it or save them to it. But the thing they really want you to do, is to use that cloud storage. So Google Drive is a Chromebooks best friend. There is a file system on a Chromebook and that's another thing I like (first thing was the price). And that is basically the run down for this Chromebook. Now on to how I use it and the likes and dis likes.

This is where this Chromebook becomes hit and miss. Any and everything you have or tend to have will have its goods and bad's and this is no different. This however is what are you willing to deal with on a day to day basis. For me, I actually like this Chromebook. It has a little style and flare and it actually feels really solid. I am a fan of chicklet type keyboards, and while this is not it, it does make the noise's that I like when I type because I like to know (hear) how much work I am doing (its just one of those things). What stinks, is this touch pad! The screen is bright, but you get the idea it could be brighter and it looks weird in the day time. Did I mention this touch pad stinks!! It stinks because the touch pad is emotional, its way to sensitive. The finger and swipe gestures are almost pointless. And this is where that "what you are willing to deal with" kicks in because, while you can plug in a mouse, how often do to you want to keep attaching it to your Chromebook, and if you use a Bluetooth mouse, that will help drain your battery just a bit more.

got it to play .mkv but no sound

a little bit of sound for you all

You have to also know coming in what this machine is capable of doing and not doing. You have to know that when you video chat through Google Hangouts (yes people no Skype or Face Time here), you just have to be aware that the camera in this machine is really, really poor. Like it's VGA poor. Like VGA in a dark room and can not sense the light poor. The rest of the design is great. I like the white with the blue accent and blue foot prints at the bottom. My favorite color is red, but when I get Android things or Chrome things, I like to get blue or blue cases and things like that.What is also nice about this model is that there are four other colors: white with red, white with green, white with yellow, and an all black model. If you understand what this machine is for, then I believe you will like it, maybe not love it, but like it for sure. There is no USB 3.0 on here, just 2 USB 2.0 ports on here. The machine plays movies (in .avi format not so much, but .mkv i got working but with no sound) in .mp4 and plays music without a hitch. Good thing I have music in my Play Music Storage so I just basically ran music from there and let the WiFi do all the heavy lifting. Also, The sound is built right under the keyboard and it sounds great, nice and loud. Other than the charging port (which you can use your cell phones charger) and the headphone jack and 2 USB ports on the side, that is all the connections you get and they are all on the left side of the machine.The right, front and the back, nothing.

In the end, this machine is not for me, however it might be for you and here is why. If my school used any other format than Microsoft Word, this machine would be a steal. Seriously. I find that when I do school work in Google Docs, its fine it looks great and all that but, when I save it as a word document and then view it in Word, the formatting is off just enough to make me lose points every week and that's just dumb. I could just edit it in Word and whatnot, but then that's just to much extra work and not everyone has the time for that. The point of this machine is to make it convenient for you to be productive and not counter productive. So because of that, I will have to pass and that IS the only reason. I guess I could deal with the track pad and the screen brightness and again those are nit pick items. The HP Chromebook 11 is really a nice computer. If your in school, this is perfect for it. If your a photographer or a musician, this is not for you unless you just want to view your work on the go or via USB, but then if that is the case you could just use a iPad or a another tablet, you actually can do more with those, in my honest opinion (or a regular laptop). But for $279.99 and the biggest thing here is school or second/third computer for your house or the kids (flash games like Y8.com and clubpenguin.com, seem to work well) than this thing is right up everyone's alley. If you just want to checkout your email or surf the web or do some shopping on Amazon or eBay or even write a review like I did here through Google's services, than it's great for that as well. Anything else, please look elsewhere and don't be upset if you get one and then complain about what it can't do.

HP Chromebook 11 is something I would recommend to others

Comming Soon: review of AOC i2367Fh full HD 23" LED monitor; The Fusion Tournement Controller for PS3; The iPhone 5s; and more

I am also going to revisit some great PS3 memories as we get ready for the PS4 this November.

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this is fast it loads up from sleep

NBA 2K14

On Monday night I was able to download the greatest basketball sim to grace any systems console. That is right, NBA 2K14 was installing and I just couldn't wait to play it. Did it live up to expectations? This is NBA 2k14.

Let me just say that, the game looks the exact same! That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you want to look at it. I thought 2k13 looked good but its like it didn't look as good as 2k12. But My eyes got used to looking at 2k13 and so it became the standard. So when 2K14 comes along, I thought it may look at least a little different, but as soon as I seen it, I just kind of shook my head. But so far that is the only (real big bad) bad that I have against the game....so far. There are other small gripes and complaints but for the most part, its the way it looks. There is one thing to keep in mind, this game will also be on PS4 and Xbox 1, so you can take the way it looks as maybe they will make the next gen consoles versions look bad ass instead of porting over this version. 

With that out of the way, now on to the good. The game may look the same, but it sure doesn't play the same. A lot of the animations are smooth (maybe to smooth) and that is such a good thing. I play the my player part a lot or as its called my career. Last years game used to piss me off so bad with the animations making me suck in to another player on rebounds or free throw attempts. I hated it. This year so far I can see that there is no suction. The thing that I did notice is that everyone plays excellent defence, even if the other player sucks at defence. You can take that for what it worth but I will save you the trouble and let you know that it was sarcasm. I guess where one thing is worked on, other things lack. But it is still not a killer for the game. So far out of the modes that I have played, exhibition and my career, I like it. I don't love it, but I do like it and I see myself going beyond the basketball season again playing 2K14 (I played 2K13 until GTA V came out). The game itself is not a big download, just in case you want to download it. Its about 8874 MB or as it said 8.7 GB. 

So when you first play the game, first thing you should do is, forget that you know how to play 2K13. Seriously, they changed the button layout for most things and it was a little weird getting used to, but by the 2nd quarter I was good to go. The right analog stick is now the cross over stick and the shooting stick. You could use it as that last year by holding the L2 trigger, but now if you hold that and hit the right stick, you throw a flashy pass or the Steve Nash/ Ricky Rubio passes. Hold the right stick in any direction makes you shoot. Holding down R2 and holding right analog up makes you dunk, R2 and right analog right makes you do a James Harden like layup, while down is a floater and left is a swing layup. It takes some getting used to if you use analogs to play, but you can still shoot with square and pass with X. Posting up is still the same, but its like posting up now actually works and the game lets you try to workout. Circle now is used to call for picks. You must notice that pick and roll is now the second option whereas last year it was the third option as you held it down. Dunk animations are just about the same, but with a few new dunks sprinkled in and now some of them look a lot more vicious. The blocking is a lot more beautiful. The arm actually swings as you try to block it. I had one of my shots chased down and blocked from behind in my game and it looked so great. All in all the game play is so much better than last year and that is such a plus. 

The soundtrack is much better. No dis to Jay-Z and his choices for last years game, but that soundtrack sucked to me. At least this year it is more diverse (well not really but its still better than last years). On of the things that I did like was that they added new shoes to the mix. Peak has been added in and I think another one. The shoe selection is a little small compared to last year but with updates I know they will fill out like last years shoe roster did. The one think I don't like about 2K, and this goes for 2K13 and 14, they skipped out on the details, the little details. I am a person that likes all the small things in a game rather the big things. Case in point is the shoes. For making the shoes, all this did was flip the design on the opposite foot. So instead of a Nike sign going the right way on the tongue of the shoe or the heel, it goes in the opposite direction and it looks odd. The crowd still looks terrible. People on the sideline still have cut throats. There are a few other little things that I don't like but to me its all in the details. 

The draft part of the game is hilarious. Why? Because they added audio from the actual draft. It seems like it would be sweet and when I first heard them call Anthony Bennett for the Cavs, I said hey that's how he sounded during the draft and then I heard the disbelief in the crowd and I just said to myself, that's cool, they added audio from the draft. However, my appreciation for that small detail was short lived and it seems later in the draft, they got lazy and the editing was terrible. Then it just kind of threw that all out the window. There is new dialogue for the my career mode and it seems like now your player says what you actually want them to say. I told the GM during an interview after the rookie game that I did not want to play SG. Because of that, I didn't get picked by that team and that kind of sucked cause I wanted to play for them but not at SG. The draft is still stupid. I got picked 11th to the 76ers where someone else got picked, but when the season started there he and I was, same draft number and everything. The little things. 

The game itself again overall is good though. I will play this just about everyday and I haven't gone online yet, but I am sure the servers stick like always with 2K basketball games. On a side note, it is almost time for me to retire getting games for the PS3. I know I said it before, but GTA V was to awesome to pass up and I am really considering getting this Beyond 2 Souls. I have a demo for that game (which I will delete tonight) and I have to say if you like Last of Us or Heavy Rain, this game will blow you away. The demo is really awesome and that might be my last game for the PS3 and because I am running out of room.

I have a lot of games on my PS3 and only one of them is a demo which is Beyond 2 Souls

So if you are interested download the demo and the game comes out next week on the 8th of October. As for NBA 2K14, I don't know if my game scales up to be apart of that promotion when you you get a PS4, but if I have to buy it again at full retail price, then I will. NBA 2K13 I bought twice for the PS3, once for the Xbox 360 and once for the Wii U. So buying this an extra time is not really a big deal, but if I can upgrade it to the PS4 for $10 like you can Assassin's Creed 4 or Battlefield 4 then I am really all over it. But NBA 2K14 is a great buy if your a basketball fan, and I think I would rate it a 8.5 out of 10. 

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ITunes Radio

Is iTunes Radio apart of your future? Well it sure looks like its apart of Apple's. They say at the pace that its on, it could surpass Pandora in a month with over 11 million listeners in the first few days. Until we get to that point to find out, find out now if its something you need or want. This is iTunes Radio. 

Think Pandora with the backing of iTunes. What's really cool about iTunes Radio is if an artist has a new song or new album coming out, you can hear that new song or songs from the album streaming live in its entirety on your playlist. Another thing I like is, if you hear a song you like, you can buy it right then and there. You can also tune the radio to your liking. Hit the red information button at the top and you then see a screen where you can purchase the song, create a station from that particular artist or song your listening to. Tune the station by hits of the genre, a variety or set it to discovery and get a whole slew of different songs and song types. Then you can even share it all via air drop, Twitter, Facebook, email or iMessage. The truth is there is a couple of good things to like about iTunes Radio, but again like anything else it does have its faults. 

iTunes Radio has ads. Honestly what doesn't have ads today? Not sure when photos and ads took over human life, but there it is in all its glory. The ads come on about every 4th or 5th song and they are not very long in my opinion. I listen to the smooth jazz station every night as go to sleep and the one problem that I have is that it will stop playing music and ask if I want to continue listening to music. That's a good and bad feature. If you don't answer music cuts off and saves your battery which is good. But the thing is, my iPod/iPhone is off and I am not waking up every few minutes just to answer that question. What would be nice is a auto shut off timer, so I could set it for an hour or let it play until I get up and manually shut it off in the morning. But I am sure as the service grows, so will the features. 

I think that I like the fact that every song in iTunes is available and ready to be added to your radio station based on that artist or that song. I made a radio station based on 2 Chainz. I tuned my services to hits and (even though I skipped all the songs just as a demo) most of the songs included 2 Chainz or had songs by others like him that were in a sense hits on the radio or billboard. The variety tune, gave me 2 Chainz new music off his new album and then the next song was off of Lil Wayne's newest album and the song after that gave new new music off of Drake's new album. I didn't go much further after that. While your listening to the music, you have a star button you can press and that either "play more like this", "never play this", or "add to iTunes wish list".

My Beautiful Playlist

The other features include changing the stations name to what ever you want it to be, sharing the station via email, Twitter, Facebook, and AirDrop support. I shared a link via email with my fiancé and it took her right to my "Bed Time Music" radio station on iTunes on our desktop PC. 

I really don't do a lot of music streaming. When I did, I did use Pandora and that was cool to use when I used it. As for iTunes Radio, I use this every night for bed and other than it asking me the option to keep playing or not (which is not all the time for some reason. Must be a bug) I like the service that it provides. I don't know what differences it holds over Pandora in terms of things that it does over the other. I wouldn't know what would make a person switch between Pandora to iTunes Radio, but I will say that the selection of music is better and I only skipped one song (when I was actually using the service and not demoing the service) and the option to purchase the music right inside the service was nice. I guess the only thing good I can see on it for a person to switch would be the idea of one less app to use or to have on your screen. I like the fact that when I updated to iOS 7, I did delete Pandora and I forced myself to use iTunes Radio to see if I would like it or not. So far so good and I know it should only get better. So my final opinion on this service is that it is a good service that has the potential to be great. I also think you should give it a try and you just might like it. 

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iOS 7

 It has been one week since the gold master version of iOS 7 dropped in an ota update. I have been spending every time that I could using iOS 7 and I must say that the good definitely outweighs the bad. This is iOS 7. 

I have never talked about an operating system, but I guess I should seeing as how there has been Windows 8, any Android updates, and now iOS 7. Soon there will be the anticipated Android 4.4 or Kit Kat and OS X Mavericks, and even Windows 8.1. My computer has been running Windows 8.1 for a couple weeks now and while the new changes are welcomed, there are always time and room for improvements (hint hint). But until those times come, iOS 7 is here now and while its not perfect in any way, I however, do not wish to go back to iOS 6 either. 

What is interesting to me is how the whole operating system has had a major overhaul. Every single app, every single setting, every single thing running on my iPod has been switched over, optimized and ready to go running on iOS 7. What's good about the OS? To me I believe it's all the little things. Of course there are the big things as in the appearance of how it looks and how it runs blah blah blah, but to me it's the things that are little that make a big difference to me and Apple is usually really good about the little things or the minor details to me. So when you hit an app, for example the weather app, the app opens up but as its opening, it flies open onto your screen. And as you hit the home button, it flies right back out of your view into the app it once was. I know some people have complained about it, but I love it. And apps like iMessage, I like how scrolling up and down let's the bubble messages bounce back-and-forth. It's just the little things that make it kind of cool. Another little thing I like is the parallax feature. It's where pictures or background images slightly move with the accelerometer inside of the device. So a picture or background image is then seen slightly leaning left and right or up-and-down as you move or pivot your hand which leaves a nice little effect. 

One of the things I really really like is the updates. I was getting updates for most of my apps about a week before IOS 7 even dropped and then after iOS 7  did drop on the 18th, there was a whole flood of new apps that were updated that were optimizing to iOS 7. It's so crazy how many apps were ready to go and upscaled and do whatever they needed to do to get ready for iOS 7. I also like the multitasking. Double hitting the home button will bring out a row of apps or cards that can let you switch in and out of other apps very quickly. 

If you want to get rid of one of the cards, flick it off the screen, its as simple as that. Or what I also found out is if you want to get rid of two or three cards at the same time, it excepts 2 to 3 fingers and you can just flick them all off the screen at once. 

Smooth Jazz Every Nite For Bed.

Also one of the new features of iOS 7, will not really a new feature more of like a new service, introduced us all to iTunes Radio. Think Pandora with the backing of iTunes. What's really cool about iTunes Radio is if an artist has a new song or new album coming out, you can hear that new song or songs from the album streaming live in its entirety on your playlist. 

Another thing I like is, if you hear a song you like, you can buy it right then and there. You can also tune the radio to your liking. Hit the red information button at the top and you then see a screen where you can purchase the song, create a station from that particular artist or song your listening to.

Tune the station by hits of the genre, a variety or set it to discovery and get a whole slew of different songs and song types. Then you can even share it all via air drop, Twitter, Facebook, email or iMessage.

A fan of the Safari browser, yes that has been me, even though I use Chrome a whole lot more, Safari on iOS has been a very nice upgrade.

Tabs are gone just by flicking to the left just like everything else on iOS 7. But the Browser itself is very appealing and to me it runs a little slow but it doesn't reload as much either. In a whole overview, it seems like iOS 7 is a lot about swipes and gestures even more. One hand operation seems to be a big issue for people at times and because the iPod and any iPhones are the size that they, one hand operation is not a problem and even in iOS 7 it works even better. 

My week with iOS 7 has been a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting it to blow my socks off like other people were for some strange reason. But I looks great and I think it has been a very good change for iOS and Apple in general. The direction of the OS you can tell is just the ground work for whats to come later. But the 1st phase of the new look iOS has been great in my opinion. I am not sure of what people are really expecting from Apple. They must want Apple to solve all of their problems with a OS. Everyone complains so much about wanting something different and then when they get it, they complain about how bad it is. I think Apple waited so long to change their OS because they didn't want to change it every time someone told them it was crap. Windows phone is totally different from iOS and Android and people bash it left and right. iOS is not perfect, as in you still can't swipe type (I love that) Safari seems to run a little slow, I have been force closed out of an app twice!, the passbook app is still pointless, weather app still uses Yahoo Weather for some odd reason and now you have unlimited items in a folder. The bad with that is, sometimes you forget where something is or you forget that you just scroll left and right. The gesture that you do when you swipe up is good but I think some of the items on the quick settings need labels to let you know what they are. 

Just small gripes and complaints, but they do matter none the less. I like iOS 7 and I look forward to what they have down the pipeline at Apple. Though I didn't go over everything that was new in iOS 7, I feel that you have to figure it out for yourself if you like it or not. My taste in tech may be different than yours and what pleases you may not so much as effect me. But if you base your opinion on others opinions then if you have not downloaded iOS 7 then today is the day that you should absolutely do so. 

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