Bose was kind enough to sponsor this video, and in this video I’ll be reviewing the Bose Wave SoundTouch Music System IV. This is a room-filling wireless speaker but with some other convenient elements built-in to it. So stick around and find out if this is right for you.
The Wave SoundTouch Music System IV is a feature-packed speaker that is looking to be an all-in-one solution for music lovers. It currently comes in 2 colors, espresso black and platinum silver. The system is about 5.5” tall,14.5” wide, and 8.5” deep and it weighs just under 10 pounds. You can wirelessly stream music to the speaker via Bluetooth or WiFi using a compatible device such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It also has a built-in radio which I was able to tune into my favorite radio stations just fine with no need for an external antenna. It has dual alarms which come in handy if you and your partner need to get up at separate times, and it also has a CD player just in case you can’t seem to give up those mixed CD’s that you burned in 2007. You know who you are.
First thing you may notice is that the design is really attractive. It’s very sleek and will most likely look good just about anywhere in your home. There is no physical power switch because to turn it on and off all you need to do is tap the top of the speaker which is cool and all but could be a potential nuisance if you accidentally touch the top and music starts playing at full blast when you’re not expecting it. Other than the fact that it’s an all-in-one system, the sound that it produces from a fairly compact speaker is one of its best selling points. It’s able to produce a clean, rich and room-filling sound by utilizing Bose WaveGuide technology. This is essentially a series of passages from the speaker driver to the speaker grill that guides air through two 26” folded wave guides. It makes it possible for a compact system like this one to replicate a larger system’s stereo sound. And it works from what I could tell. I was able to play music from the corner of my living room and you couldn’t really pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from. So it has crisp loud sound quality for sure, but as with most Bose products it has very strong bass. Luckily if you don’t like strong bass it’s easy to reduce the bass through the system settings.
Even though it does have an AUX port, this speaker’s most notable feature is its wireless capability. With built-in Bluetooth you can easily pair it with your smartphone, tablet, or computer and start playing audio immediately. But with the free SoundTouch app you can easily connect the Wave SoundTouch Music System to your WiFi network and play music from popular music services such as Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime music, thousands of Internet radio stations and even your own music library. Once your music sources are connected you can play them through the speaker via the SoundTouch app. I pretty much exclusively use Spotify and Pandora on mine, and it seems to work great with both of those. One drawback of playing music through the SoundTouch app is you can’t use your phone’s volume buttons when your phone is locked to adjust the volume. You have to unlock your device to do that or you have to use the included infrared remote.
Now I love this speaker’s ability to set presets with the SoundTouch app. You can set any of your connected songs, albums, playlists, artists or stations to any of the 6 presets and you can then use the SoundTouch app or the remote to press any of those presets and the speaker will automatically start playing that music even if it was turned off. I also love the informational display that shows the title of what’s currently playing.
Since this music system is part of the Bose SoundTouch family, you can easily add more SoundTouch speakers to your home and use the free app to play music across all your speakers at the same time or play different music on different speakers. It’s not cheap, but if you’re looking for an all-in-one music system that has built in alarms, AM/FM radio, and a CD player but mainly excels in sound quality and wireless playback then the Wave SoundTouch Music System IV may be a good investment for you. I would definitely recommend it to people who want a high quality speaker combo.
This is the DJI Phantom 4, and it’s the best drone out right now especially for beginners. It’s not cheap but I think it’s worth every single penny. Why, you ask? Well simply put this thing is sleek, it’s high quality, it’s intelligent, it takes amazing videos and photos, and most importantly it’s so much fun. If you stick around to the end of the video you’ll get to see some of its best features in action and when you see the footage it can take you’ll most certainly want one for yourself.
When you first unbox the Phantom 4 you’ll see that it comes with a foam carrying case that has a built-in latch which is really convenient. In the case you’ll find the Phantom 4 itself, the remote controller, 8 propeller blades, the battery, the battery charger, quick start guides and some various cables. It also comes with a 16GB micro SD card to get you started.
You’ll first notice the simple design when installing the propeller blades which are very easy to put on, you just push and twist. It’s also nice that the battery charger can charge the remote controller and the drone battery at the same time. At 100% charge the new Phantom 4 can fly for almost 28 minutes which is 25% longer than the Phantom 3. Now, just to be safe I only fly mine for about 20-25 minutes each time, but the Phantom 4 is a “smart” drone so it will warn you when the battery is low and it can land itself if the battery reaches a critical low level.
The build quality of the Phantom 4 is pretty stunning. It feels solid but looks carefully polished. It’s not too heavy, and I was glad to find out I was able to carry it easily by gripping the top with just one hand.
Of course the most important physical feature of the Phantom 4 is the high performance camera. It has a newly designed lens and can capture 4K ultra HD videos at 30fps and 1080p full HD videos at 120fps for slow motion shots. It can also capture 12MP raw photos. So if the camera is Batman, that means the gimbal is Robin. The 3-axis gimbal has a specially designed u-frame structure that stabilizes the camera at all times giving you smooth cinematic video footage even in strong winds which you’ll see during the 2nd half of this video. Now when you get your Phantom 4 I highly recommend getting these ND filters for the camera. These allow you to record at a slower shutter speed in bright conditions which will be necessary if you’re trying to get a more cinematic film look. The Amazon link for these filters will be in the description below.
The Phantom 4 body is only half of the main package. The other half is the remote controller which is very easy to get used to if you’ve ever played video games. Basically the left stick moves the drone up, down, or turns it. The right stick moves the drone forward, backward, left, or right. The back of the controller allows you to switch between the multiple flight modes and do other things like control the camera tilt. The two antennas allow you to control the drone up to 3.1 miles away while still seeing the live preview on your smartphone or tablet.
The controller has an adjustable clasp that holds your tablet or smartphone in place. The required device can be any of the supported Android devices or any Apple device with iOS 8 or later. My only complaint is that I wish it did not require a cable going from the device to the controller. I was hoping it would connect via Bluetooth. Other than that the free DJI Go app is the only thing left to get you up and flying.
With the dual satellite positioning system and enhanced Vision Positioning System, flying the Phantom 4 is super easy. It will automatically avoid obstacles using its new sensors and GPS technology so beginners can start flying quickly with the new Intelligent Flight modes. But if you’re an experienced flyer on the other hand, the incredibly fast Sport Mode will get you excited.
The Apple iPhone 6s was released in September 2015, and it’s been my only phone since then. Here is my full review so far.
Compared to the iPhone 6 the 6s has double the RAM, Apple’s newest A9 processor, an improved GPU, better cameras, stronger display glass, and a stronger aluminum exterior. The iPhone 6s looks nearly identical to the iPhone 6. You probably won’t even be able to tell them apart if you’re looking at them side by side. However, the iPhone 6s is slightly thicker and heavier due to the new 7000-series alloy back which is stronger but also slicker. Since it is so slick I do recommend keeping a case on it. My favorite is the Spigen Ultra Hybrid. The good news is that since the design is almost exactly the same, most iPhone 6 cases will fit the iPhone 6s.
The iPhone 6s still has the same 4.7″ 1334 x 750 IPS display as the iPhone 6, but it does have a stronger glass for added protection. A lot of people like to bash the iPhone 6s for lacking a 1080p full HD display, but at 326 ppi this screen is extremely satisfying to look at. It has a 1400:1 contrast ratio and if I am planning to watch an HD video, I will take the time out to watch it on my iPhone 6s. That’s how good this display is. So it’s not full HD, but it is a stunning Retina display.
Speaking of the new display, 3D Touch is a fun concept but I hardly ever use it. Sometimes it’ll come in handy like when I’m logging my food in MyFitnessPal but I mostly use it for switching open apps and moving the cursor while typing. There are still many apps that don’t support 3D Touch and until they do I’ll most likely forget about it.
The iPhone 6s is a fast phone, almost too fast for its own good. For example, Touch ID is instantaneous. It seriously took a while for me to get used to how fast it is because if I want to see my notifications I can’t use the home button because it’ll unlock too fast for me to see them. I had to teach myself to use the power button on the side to see my notifications if I want to.
The new A9 chip is also a big reason for the fast performance on the iPhone 6s. It blows the old A8 chip out of the water. A9 paired with iOS 9 is one of the best hardware software combinations that you’ll experience on a phone, hands down. Apps load fast, multi tasking is fluid, graphics in games are handled very well. If you want a new iPhone that will last you longer than 2 years, definitely go with the iPhone 6s over the iPhone 6 because the speed is definitely future proof.
The most popular social media apps are relying heavily on photos and videos so your smartphone camera is becoming more important each day. Even though the sensor is smaller than other flagship phones, Apple’s 12 megapixel rear camera is a major highlight of the iPhone 6s. It makes up for its relatively smaller sensor by excelling in color reproduction and by how fast the camera snaps the photos. It’s ridiculously fast, and I love the quality of the photos it takes. The front facing camera got a boost as well. It’s now at 5 megapixels so it’s way better than the iPhone 6 front facing camera, but I still tend to avoid using the front facing camera when possible just because the rear camera is so good in comparison. As for the new Live Photos feature that captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after you take a photo, I’ve literally only used it once. It’s kind of a gimmicky feature that sounds cool in theory but I just never use it, mainly because I forget I even have the feature and also because the Live Photos take up a lot of space on my phone. If I want a video, I’ll just record a video.
Speaking of that, the iPhone 6s can take some amazing HD videos. It can record full 1080p HD in 120fps for super smooth slow motion. But probably the biggest feature is the ability to record in 4K which really brings out the details in a video. For a smartphone camera, it doesn’t get much better than this. There’s just one flaw with that. Apple, if you are going to give us the amazing capability of recording 4K videos with our smartphone, why oh why did you insult us with a 16GB model for $649? It is 2016. There’s no reason that the entry level model iPhone should be less than 32GB, especially at that price. You know how many family members and friends I have that like can’t update iOS or their apps because their phone is just full, they have no storage space left? We need to kill the 16GB model of the iPhone. Apple, please upgrade the 16GB model to 32GB.
Since my iPhone 6s is a 64GB model I really don’t have any problems with storage space. The only big complaint I have with the iPhone 6s is the battery life. Last year I was hoping and wishing for a bigger battery, but Apple apparently left it out then they realized “Oh we left this bigger battery out of the iPhone 6s so let’s make a case out of it and sell it for $99.” I usually start my day with my iPhone at 100% charge, and I always have to charge it around halfway through the day so that it will last me until I get home at night. The good news is that the battery does charge pretty quickly. My biggest request for the iPhone 7 is just a battery that will last me a full day.
Obviously with all that said, the iPhone 6s is the best phone I’ve ever owned up until now. My favorite things about it are the camera, fast performance, and user experience. My least favorite things are the short battery life and the high price of the 16GB model. I’m looking forward to using it for the next 6 months until the iPhone 7 is released and then of course I will be drowning in my own tears and handing Apple more of my money. Why do I do this to myself? I don’t know, maybe so I can do more videos for you. I do one every week here. If you are interested in tech videos like this make sure you subscribe. Give this video a like if it helped you out. Leave a comment down below. Let me know what you think of the iPhone 6s and what you’re looking forward to with the iPhone 7!
So you’re wondering about the new Skylake Dell XPS 13 ultrabook? As a primary Mac user I replaced my MacBook Pro with the Dell XPS 13 for the past month, and I’m here to share my experience and full review with you right now. Full Disclaimer: Dell did send this to me at no cost, but these are all my honest opinions. The Dell XPS 13 9350 was released in late 2015 and starts at $799. The model I have comes with Windows 10, Intel’s 6th generation Core i7 6500U 2.5Ghz processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe solid state drive, Intel HD 520 Graphics, and a 13.3″ Quad HD InfinityEdge touch display.
The Dell XPS 13 is currently the world’s smallest 13″ laptop, fitting a 13.3″ display into a typical 11″ laptop frame thanks to the nearly bezel-less display. The outside is made of silver aluminum that definitely shows off its simple yet durable design. The inside of the laptop has a smooth carbon fiber finish which looks nice but feels even nicer. The left side has the charging port, a new USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, a battery guage button, and the left speaker grill. The right side has a lock slot, a USB 3.0 port, an SD card reader, and the right speaker grill.
When I first saw this laptop I immediately thought “Yep this is definitely Dell’s attempt at a MacBook killer.” But it’s hard to determine exactly which MacBook is closest in similarity to the Dell XPS 13. It has a stunning screen like the 12″ Retina MacBook. It has the portability and slimness of the MacBook Air, and it has the power and ports comparable to the 13″ MacBook Pro. Obviously my 2009 15″ MacBook Pro is slower and bulkier than the Dell XPS 13, but I did install an SSD and more RAM in my MacBook Pro a few years ago so that’s why it has lasted me this long and still works perfectly. So let’s see how well the Dell XPS 13 performed for me during the past month.
Let’s start with the InfinityEdge touch display because it’s one of my favorite features. The 3200×1800 QHD screen is absolutely gorgeous. It’s boasting 5.7 million pixels. That’s 276 ppi compared to the 2015 Retina MacBook’s 226 ppi. The colors are rich with just the right amount of contrast, and since it is an IPS panel it has good viewing angles. It can get really bright too. As a YouTuber I love watching HD videos on full screen mode, and I’m sure photographers and graphic designers would love this display. The only downsides are that some apps haven’t updated to accommodate such a high resolution screen so those apps can appear as lower quality, and since the display has such a thin border Dell had to put the webcam in the bottom left which is kind of awkward. But hey, at least it’s an HD webcam unlike some other laptops. The touch screen is a glossy finish with scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, but they do have a matte finish option for their non-QHD model if that’s what you prefer. Speaking of the touch screen capability, it’s definitely not necessary but it is fun to use and actually convenient to have. It’s very responsive. You’re probably saying “Andy, no way I would ever need a touch screen on my laptop.” But hear me out.
Let’s talk about one of the best yet most frustrating features of the Dell XPS 13: the touchpad. I’ll start by saying this is the best touchpad I’ve ever used on a Windows laptop. One of the reasons I immediately fell in love with my MacBook Pro when I first got it was the trackpad and mainly the 2-finger scrolling. Apple really mastered their trackpad, not just with the physical smoothness of touching it but with the smooth buttery 2 finger scrolling and multi-gestures. I’ve never had any problems with the Apple trackpad. For the most part, the Dell XPS 13 touchpad does a good job at implementing these features (I’ve especially enjoyed the three finger tap and swipe gestures) and the touchpad is comfortable to use.
However, the touchpad has big problems with certain apps, most importantly Google Chrome. This may be a Chrome issue or a Windows 10 driver issue because the touchpad works great in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. In those apps the 2-finger scrolling is almost always smooth. But in Google Chrome the touchpad constantly causes the page to jump up and down when trying to 2-finger scroll. I tried changing any relevant touchpad setting in Windows and nothing seemed to fix this problem. It’s extremely frustrating because I need precise smooth scrolling when responding to my YouTube comments one by one. I thought it was just me but it seems others are experiencing the same problem. So hopefully this gets fixed soon with an update. But that’s why the touch screen is convenient to have because I can scroll with the display instead of with the touchpad if needed. On the other hand, I love the keyboard. It has backlit chiclet style keys which I got accustomed to on my Mac and I seem to be able to type super fast like Bruce Almighty on this thing.
Now let’s talk about where the Dell XPS 13 really shines: mobility and performance. It weighs less than 3lbs and is super thin, making it one of the most portable laptops out right now. It’s much easier to carry around compared to my 15″ MacBook Pro. It has a 56 watt hour battery that lasts a decent amount of time. I’m getting around 6-12 hours of battery life on a single charge, closer to 6 hours when I’m streaming Spotify and watching YouTube videos the whole time and closer to 12 hours when I have the brightness down and I’m just browsing the web or typing notes. It takes about 2 and a half hours to fully charge the battery while using the laptop. In addition, you can purchase the separate Dell Power Companion which is a portable battery that can charge your XPS 13 and other devices in case you need some extra power for a special trip.
On the performance side of things, with Intel’s 6th generation Core i7 Skylake processor and 16GB of DDR3 RAM, the XPS 13 is a speedy machine and can handle nearly any day-to-day task. The 1TB PCIe solid state drive has considerably fast read and write speeds which you will notice when the laptop starts up from a cold boot in about 10 seconds flat. I was able to copy 16.5 GB of video files from my SD card onto the Dell’s SSD in 3 minutes 31 seconds compared to a copy time of 3 minutes 14 seconds on my 2012 Mac Mini’s Fusion Drive. Like with any solid state drive, apps load very quickly and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten stuck with the spinning circle of death. I tend to have a ton of browser tabs open at the same time and the XPS 13 was able to handle it just fine, no stuttering or freezing up. It scored a 3279 for single-core and 6868 for multi-core on the GeekBench benchmark tests. So even though this ultrabook was primarily designed with mobility in mind, it is still fast and powerful. Don’t expect to edit 4K videos or render 3D graphics without struggling, but it can definitely handle casual HD video editing and other multimedia work like Photoshop. Another exciting feature is the new USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, which has transfer speeds up to 8x faster than USB 3.0 and is twice as fast as Thunderbolt 2. The USB-C port has the ability to charge the XPS 13 and power up to two 4K displays. If you need more ports, you can purchase the Dell Adapter which can turn the USB 3.0 port into a single hub for Ethernet, USB, HDMI, and VGA ports.
As you can see I really do enjoy this new Dell XPS 13. Even with its minor flaws like having to uninstall bloatware and McAfee right out of the box, or having to manually update the drivers and BIOS to solve screen flickering and battery problems, or the speakers making a slight popping sound every now and then. Those types of inconveniences usually don’t happen with Macs since the software and hardware are from the same company. Not saying they never happen, but it is just a different experience. So is the Dell XPS 13 better than the MacBook or MacBook Air? That totally depends on what you’re specifically looking for out of a laptop. For me personally, I own an iPhone and as a video producer I use Apple’s Final Cut Pro X to edit all my videos so it just makes sense for me to use a Mac unless I want to start using a completely different video editing app. So a Mac would be best for you if you’re like me and you’re already invested in the Apple ecosystem, maybe you own an iPhone or iPad and you want the additional benefits of owning a Mac because of the tight integration between iOS and OS X. One of the features I really missed when I was using the XPS 13 was the ability to respond to texts from my laptop. You can do that with a Mac if you use an iPhone. So that’s just one example. The biggest thing holding me back is Final Cut Pro. As long as I’m using that exclusively I can’t permanently move to a Windows laptop.
However if you’re not already invested in the Apple ecosystem and you’re looking for a small, compact, yet fast laptop that looks good and feels solid then you should definitely consider the Dell XPS 13 9350. Other than it being the best Windows ultrabook of 2016, if I had to pick one word to describe the XPS 13 it would be: Productivity. This is perfect for people who are always on the go but still need a strong machine to help them get things done quickly. That’s why I’m keeping mine and will continue to use it as my go-to travel laptop when I don’t need to do any video editing.
The Dell XPS 13 gets a thumbs-up from me. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know!
