Monday, June 24, 2013

Car Cleaning Products Review: Wax Edition

Ok so as promised... regular programming will now resume. Sorry for the delay.

Today, I will be reviewing several car cleaning products. These products are over the counter and are not proffesional quality but get the job done. Not all products on the store shelf are on here but the ones that I have used on my own car are shown. Lets begin.


Waxes give your car that extra shine and protect your clear coat. They also bead water when it rains and makes the car easier to clean and dry.
Mothers Caranuba Cleaner Wax


This is by far my top pick for this category. It works well, gives a car a very brilliant shine, and beads water flawlessly . I have used both Paste and Liquid types. The paste wax is easier to clean off as you can easily apply too much wax to the car making it hard to rub off. That said, I dont mind putting on a bit extra as it gives me assurance that I am not wasting 20 min or so for nothing. Like most waxes, its recommended that you wax it in the shade. This wax can last for about a month or so and maybe more if you clean the car every few days... or I you are like me and make it a daily ritual to go down to the garage every night and clean the car.

9/10

Zymol Cleaner Wax

This wax claims to work well for some. For me, it didnt. I applied this to my car after I claybarred half of it and decided I needed to apply the wax to both sides. I found this sitting on my shelf of car cleaning products so I tried it out(The packaging made it look like a proffesional product even though you can buy it at most over the counter places). It is liquid based so it is harder to apply. However, it was much harder to take off and required some real hand buffing(I buff out the wax by hand as it is much safer). Once it was dried and my arms were tired, the result seemed moderately good but didnt wow me that much. What was more dissapointing was that over the next couple of days, the car seemed to have gotten dirtier than it should have been, compared to the Mothers Caranuba Cleaner Wax.

6/10


White Nu Finish "Once a Year" Car Polish


This Product is more of a paint sealeant but their website claims that it works just like wax... but lasts longer. So I went out and made the biggest mistake in car cleaning purchases I have ever made, and bought a bottle for $11. This product claims to last a year. So I tried it out on my car. Applying it is somewhat easy but be careful not to get it on any trim pieces (Especially the black plastic variety), or Nu Finish will turn your trim into White Finish. The shine after applying the wax was moderate. Some say that it has a plastic look to it. To me it wasnt that bad. That said, I already had a layer of wax underneath that was nearing the end of its life. Overall, the product did a decent job at beading water but still didnt keep the car as clean for long compared to the Mothers Wax. I even applied a second coat to it , but then decided to add yet another layer of Mother's caranuba cleaner wax on top. This is how my car stands for now( Yes its a bit excessive but thats just how I keep my car). Some say that proper paint prep is required for nu finish to work. I consider this a bit of a flaw because Mothers did not require any real paint prep except for washing the car before waxing.


Also the once a year thing is BS according to many and the product itself is mediocre compared to other sealeants out there. Some claim to use it for years and be satisfied. Ofcourse, the formulation of the sealent may have changed over that time.

5/10




Verdict: Go for the Mothers Caranuba Cleaner Wax. You wont regret it. Or If you have more money to spare and want a proffesional quality wax/sealent, go for DuraGloss or Collinite ( to be reviewed by me soon).


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Samsung Galaxy Nexus : the review ( Finally)

So I have been meaning to do this for quite some time.... so here it goes.


The Galaxy Nexus: When it first came out I was like this


..... well, if you take out the rainbows in the back that is. Anyways, It seemed like a pretty nice phone and but at the time i had no idea I would have my own Galaxy Nexus. Fast forward a few months and my LG Eve ( I am not going to be nice with this one, so if you work at LG you may want to look away) fully crapped out on me. It was one of the worst phones I have ever used. Even the Nokia C3 that I got as a loaner when my phone was gone for repair the SECOND time was better. This time the main problem was a touchscreen that thought you wanted to press 4 instead of 1 and various lag issues. So anyways, I decided I had enough of the Eve and started looking for a new phone... that's when I decided to get the Nexus. And thus, a few days later a fresh Galaxy Nexus arrived at my door step. I open the box and turn on the phone. I am greeted with the friendly "Google" written on the boot screen , which reminded me one of the reasons I bought this Phone. Most Android phones these days have a complete nightmare scenario when it comes to updates ( The update monkeys at Carriers/device manufacturers are always busy filling the OS with bloatware). The Galaxy Nexus is one of the few phones that skips the middle man ( for the most part) and gives you direct updates. This is updating the way it should be done. Anyways, enough about my journey to obtain this epic phone... lets get down to the finer details


Appearance


The Galaxy Nexus has a fairly large screen and overall size, which makes it slightly hard to get used to at first. But once you do, all the other "smaller" phones seem miniscule. The phone fits nicely in my hands and the feel of the back cover is a nice touch ( rubber/plastic). There are no physical buttons on the front of the phone giving it a clean aesthetic. There is however, a notification LED that you dont even know its there until it starts slowly fading on and off. The LED has a pretty neat touch to it as well. It can sometimes change colour based on what app has a notification. An example would be that the LED is blue when there is a notification from Facebook. The buttons on the side blend in nicely with the phone and are fairly ergonomic. The Headphone and USB ports are at the bottom like in most phones these days ( except for the super hipsta iPhone which has the headphone jack on the top). The Phone is fairly strong and has survived ( without a single scratch or crack) numerous drops that my clumsy hands/ horrible pockets have subjected it to. My only complaint is how finger print infested the phone becomes ( I can easily see all kinds of neat lines on my fingers by just looking at the phone).

UI

The phone comes standard with Android 4.0 but can easily be upgraded to Android 4.1. The UI is different than most phone's with the same OS however, due to the lack of physical buttons which are replaced my onscreen buttons. These onscreen buttons are fairly nice and automatically "minimize" when in certain apps or when watching full screen video. The most significant feature of Android 4.1 is Google Now. This is like Siri.... but different( lets call this one Bob). Siri is a household maid that likes to be told what to do and cannot think for herself. she is slow to pick up what you meant and does not use any of the tools she has at her disposal unless you tell that B**ch ( pardon my language) what to do. Bob is the smart guy. He recognizes when you are about to leave for work and plans accordingly. If he sees that there is traffic, Bob will notify you in advance so you can leave earlier. Bob also does the same for the commute home. Throughout the day Bob also tells you when you have an appointment coming up and offers directions ( note you do not have to specifically state to Bob to be reminded). Bob also tells you the weather for where ever you currently are and tells you if there is any places of interest nearby. Bob also looks into your google search history and offers directions as well as a traffic report to any place you may have looked up. Bob also does not rely on 3rd party apps as much as Siri does when it comes to searching the web. The search results are shown within the Google Now app instead of opening up a browser window.

Hardware

This phone is over 9000% faster than the LG Eve. Everything is quick to open and there is virtually no lag unless you try real hard to lag the phone. Wifi Reception could be improved since the Antenna is weak and constantly loses connection... but it might be a software problem. The Phone comes with a rear 5 mp camera and a front 1.3 mp camera. Both Camera's deliver outstanding results during the day and work decently at night provided there is enough light. the 1080P video is also very good and the audio does not sound like you recorded with a toaster ( like the LG). The live video effects are nice but mostly useless for everyday use. The flash is decent but I mostly use it as a flashlight for when I am too lazy to turn on a light... or when performing maintenance on a car in low light conditions . The Panorma mode is very easy to use but is easy to make the picture distorted/ blurry if you go too fast or dont keep the phone at the same level and angle the whole time The speaker is not too loud but its loud enough to be heard in a semi crowded area. The microphone quality is also great. The battery can last anywhere from 24 hours to 48 hours depending on usage. It is not the best but it is enough to get you through the day. Overall the Peformance in this phone is very good ( much better than that shit box LG Eve)



So thats about it for this slightly longer than usual review of the Galaxy Nexus. Overall, the phone is a 9/10 and I am very satisfied. If you have any further questions, I will gladly answer them in the comments below.


An important note on programming

so I have not been posting much lately... this is due to a variety of reasons....

The first reason is that I am currently attending college and my workload is about 110% worse than before. As a result I lack the time to make a quality post.

The second reason is that I am having a tough time choosing on which products I should talk about and which can be ignored. For example if a new iPhone comes out ( no offense to Apple) but the only difference is a bigger screen , then I believe it is not news worthy regardless of how many page views I might get from the potential Apple fanboy.

The third reason is this thing that is now sitting in my garage



A full review will might be in the works but i cannot guarentee anything until I get the motivation to make a semi decent article that isnt just some crap load on 0-60 times and fuel economy ( this is not Prius chat ).


Also further updates:


Galaxy Nexus review: still have yet to find motivation/time to complete this one.... might just be a quick run through of pros and cons.

iPhone 5: No i will not cover a phone that is nowhere as revolutionary as the original iPhone 4


Samsung Galaxy SIII: someone send me one and I will review it ( hint hint.... this is your chance to motivate me)


Other stuff: Site Layout is out dated and will be refreshed sometime in the next couple of months....


Forum will also be updated ( we need moar members)

Regular programming is currently on hold ( although I may post occasionally)... but it all depends on college/personal issues i may have to deal with. Expect increased posting sometime in the duration of December 2012 and April-September 2013...



For now here is something to keep you entertained

Friday, July 13, 2012

This is what car damage should look like in video games





What you see here is a demonstration of BeamNG, a revolutionary physics engine that uses CryEngine 3 and the same physics you saw in "Rigs of Rods" :


This is still in the early stages, but as you can see the cars deform very well and realistically. Looks like these guys are finally getting the attention they deserve.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Google I/O Day 1 So far

Alot has happened so far today at the Google I/O event So to Recap Today's main events:



1) Android 4.1 JellyBean







Google has announced their new operating system for their phones. Key Features include faster and smoother animations, improved UI, a "smarter keyboard", faster camera and much more.... expect a full review from us when the update is pushed out in Mid July



2) Google Nexus 7







This is Google's answer to the infamous ( and overly hyped) iPad. Priced at $199, this small 7" tablet comes with Android 4.1 Jellybean pre-installed. It also features a quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 and a 1280 x 800 IPS screen. Google has teamed up with Asus to bring you this somewhat intriguing tablet ( although the low price concerns me as tablets are normally 2-3 times that of which this once costs.




3) Google Nexus Q









This sphere shaped device is Google's answer to Apple TV. It is a multimedia box that allows Android devices to connect to speakers and Televisions that are connected to this device. It allows multiple users to choose what music they would like to play, or what movie to watch. The interesting thing behind this , is that this device can stream all of this content, directly from the cloud ( as opposed to from the device). Essentially you are controlling the cloud with your Android device.


And that is all for now.... stay tuned for more updates.....