Before You Buy 171 (Transcript)

Father Robert Ballecer: Coming up next Leo has got the brand new Apple watch, NAB, we’ve got coverage from Canon and Audio Technica and OMG an arrangement of Bluetooth speakers. You’ve got to watch before you buy.

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Fr. Robert: This episode of Before You Buy is brought to you by Prosper. Prosper is a peer to peer lending market place that connects people who are looking to borrow money with those who have money to lend. Visit prosper.com/twit and receive a $50 Visa gift card when you get a loan. Also by Casper an online retailer of premium mattresses for a fraction of the price because everyone deserves a great night sleep. Get $50 off any mattress purchase by visiting Casper.com/beforeyoubuy and enter the promo code beforeyoubuy.

Hello and welcome to Before You Buy. It is Twit’s product review show where we get literally the latest and the greatest and we give it to the members of the brick house to see what kind of honest reviews they can give you. Now we’ve got to start of course with the hot news, brand new for today, just came out. I don’t know how you so quickly; Leo the Apple watch.

Leo Laporte: You know I remember saying back in 2010, the night before the first iPad, the eve of the iPad came out that starting with tomorrow everything will be different. It wasn’t as different as I thought it would be but in a way you know the iPad era begins – today begins the Apple watch era. Are you ready to open it?

Fr. Robert: Let’s do this.

Leo: Oh I’m out of breath, ran all the way from the post office. I’m so excited. This is the stainless steel 38mm which was not my first choice but actually this is for Lisa.

Fr. Robert: This is the one that’s available. People are getting these whereas the other versions are delayed.

Leo: Yes, some people got on right at midnight on April 10^th are getting other ones but this was all that was left.

Fr. Robert: So nobody wants the 38mm?

Leo: Maybe the 42 sold better, the 38 is pretty small. Now I wore for comparison and we’ll see…my Motox, so you’ll get some idea of the size. I love Apple’s thoughtfulness you know. It’s always easy to get into these.

Fr. Robert: Normally I need to break out a set of keys to burst through all the plastic they put on…

Leo: Yes and you see even on the cardboard they had a little zip tie. It is always fun opening it. Can you see the embossed…

Fr. Robert: Detail, attention to detail.

Leo: Oh here we go. It always feels like a vacuum when you open it.

Fr. Robert: You’re teasing me. I can feel it. Of course Apple attention to detail.

Leo: I don’t know what’s in here. This is just extra. Oh we might as well look at this since we’re here. This is the charger. Now the rumor is people are trying the Apple watch and all sorts of things and I’m starting to hear rumors that any charger including my Moto360 charger will work with the Apple watch.

Fr. Robert: Well there’s an easy way to test that. We’ll plug it in and put it next to your Moto and see.

Leo: It is inductance charging. That means that it doesn’t need to go into any openings. In fact it looks like a little stethoscope doesn’t it. The sport watch gets a plastic one. This is stainless steel so it’s going to get a stainless steel charger. That’s magnetic so it should just snap right on there.

Fr. Robert: Nice.

Leo: Here’s the watch box. This is new for Apple. Usually Apple only does cardboard. This is plastic so it’s a little different packaging.

Fr. Robert: But it’s nice plastic, it is Apple plastic.

Leo: Well you know one of the reasons Apple doesn’t do plastic is because it’s not recyclable and they like the recyclable stuff. But on the other hand this is a watch, it’s a different business isn’t it.

Fr. Robert: Doesn’t that look like a stethoscope?

Leo: Wow. Feel that, it is like magnetic.

Fr. Robert: Actually I think I could charge myself with this.

Leo: Either this man is dead or my stethoscope stopped. Just lift that up here. Feel how that feels. It’s like a little bento box or something. Like it’s magnetic. Oh baby.

Fr. Robert: Ok here it is. This is the stuff.

Leo: Oh baby there she is, there she blows. This is as you can see a Milanese Loop and this is the stainless steel model.

Fr. Robert: That looks nicer than I expected it to.

Leo: That’s the 38mm. You can compare it. Give me your hand Lisa, because this is Lisa’s watch. She’s going to very kindly let me wear it for review purposes. Somebody seems to want her watch. I think that’s a good size for you. Apple is not being sexist and I’m not going to be sexist saying the 38mm is for women but it is for smaller wristed people. Clayton Morris has a 42 and it looked gigantic but of course he’s a little girly man so…No it’s just a joke.

Fr. Robert: Josh got the 38mm but I’m sure he’ll…

Leo: Josh is really worried.

Fr. Robert: Is he watching?

Leo: Josh Windisch. Now one of the reasons I got the Milanese Loop is because this magnum means it is kind of infinitely sizable. So let’s open it up and put it on. They say it is… we’re both lefties.

Fr. Robert: That’s an awful lot of bling on the screen right now. It is bling on bling.

Leo: Get the watch on there, get out of my way, go over there to the camera.

Fr. Robert: Leo, can I see your Moto. Let’s see if this charges that then yes.

Leo: Is it plugged in?

Fr. Robert: Yes it’s plugged in.

Leo: Put on the back and have you got the right sight on?

Fr. Robert: I don’t know, maybe.

Lisa: That looks pretty nice.

Leo: It’s probably the middle sight. Yes, charging.

Fr. Robert: Ok so that confirms it.

Leo: It did in fact start charging the Moto360. That means it is a Chi charger.

Lisa: It looks a little geeky. I like the Milanese Loop.

Fr. Robert: I don’t know, what do you think?

Leo: It looks manly.

Fr. Robert: It does look a little manly right.

Leo: Well all geek watches are somewhat manly. Alright take that sucker off you.

Lisa: Wait.

Leo: You won’t see it again for another few months.

Lisa: Hey!

Leo: Say goodbye.

Fr. Robert: I hope you enjoyed your 60 seconds with the watch because you won’t see that for a long time.

Lisa: That was like 35.

Fr. Robert: I forgot the pricing on Apple watches.

Leo: So this one is $750. They start at $350. For the Sport, that’s the aluminum body with the rubber, they call it floral elastomer band. This one the 38 is $650 and then I think $700 for…

Fr. Robert: And no plans to get the Apple addition? You could sell my car, it might buy half of that.

Leo: They want you to make pretty good contact with your skin here.

Fr. Robert: Oh right because you’ve got to have contact for all the sensors.

Leo: So I press the digital crown, where are we? There we are.

Fr. Robert: Oh.

Leo: Press the digital crown. Oh I hope it has got some juice in it.

Fr. Robert: It should, all Apple products have a little bit of juice.

Leo: There it is, you can see the Apple Logo dimly as it boots up here. I suppose I could read the manual.

Fr. Robert: No we don’t have to… we’re geeks.

Leo: Here it is, it’s not very big. It says; turn on, swipe up for glances, force touch, and firmly press to choose or customize your watch face. We’ll do that right away because I want to take a look at some of those.

Fr. Robert: That’s a really dim screen. I just have to say.

Leo: It doesn’t feel like anything is happening. Let’s put the charger on here.

Fr. Robert: I hope it’s a first boot type of thing.

Leo: Well I don’t think you’re ever going to boot it again right?

Fr. Robert: Well actually here, we can have the charger on your wrist.

Leo: No, no, that’s silly crazy talk.

Fr. Robert: For those people who really want to be mobile.

Leo: You’re talking crazy. See this…

Fr. Robert: Is it supposed to…?

Leo: Oh it is the plastic side and it does in fact sort of hold it. So the plastic side is the charging side.

Fr. Robert: It has to be adjustable.

Leo: We weren’t planning to do a review today because obviously this is a first look but this isn’t even a first look apparently, this is an unboxing. As you know the crown has some functions. When you press the home button. This takes a long time to boot.

Fr. Robert: We’ve only had it out for a while. It is a finger print magnet I can see that.

Leo: There we go. Now we can read it. I’m going to have to make it so you can read it.

Fr. Robert: Got it.

Leo: There we go. I’ll take the charger off. English right?

Fr. Robert: That looks better.

Leo: This is the first step, ever since you upgraded to iOS 8.2 boys and girls you’ve had this Apple watch app that you can’t get rid of on your iPhone. Let’s tap it.

Fr. Robert: It’s a reminder of what you don’t have.

Leo: It immediately sees it. Let’s start pairing.

Fr. Robert: That’s pretty slick.

Leo: Something magical is happening.

Fr. Robert: Wow.

Leo: Hold the Apple watch up to the camera.

Fr. Robert: That’s how you pair it?

Leo: It is capturing some sort of digital…

Fr. Robert: Ok, yes I like that.

Leo: Some sort of digital interface. Set up Apple watch. We have paired it. Now look at that, I don’t know can you really…

Fr. Robert: Can you get it on the side camera. The side camera has a better angle.

Leo: There you go. That’s a little bit better.

Fr. Robert: A little higher, right about there.

Leo: Where are you, there you are.

Fr. Robert: I’ll hold it for you. There you go, right there.

Leo: On this it says which wrist do you wear it on? I’m going to wear it on my left. That’s good to know if you’re a lefty because I am, sometimes people wear watches on their right. That means you turn it upside down which means the home button and the stem would be reversed. So let me say left.

Fr. Robert: That’s probably the easiest pairing I’ve ever seen.

Leo: That was very cool wasn’t it? It was kind of a space dust nebular cloud.

Fr. Robert: It’s Apple QR Code essentially.

Leo: Oh lord, sign in with your Apple ID. Alright, this is for Apple Pay.

Fr. Robert: Will it take the finger print?

Leo: No but fortunately I have last pass on here and it won’t take too long.

Fr. Robert: Now this you’ll be able to Apple Pay with the watch but it still needs to be within range of the phone?

Leo: Not exactly.

Fr. Robert: No.

Leo: The first time you turn on Apple Pay you’ll turn on the finger print on the phone. The watch as long as it remains in contact with your skin continues to be able to do Apple Pay which is interesting. And by the way the Apple Pay you have to face the watch towards the Apple Pay. You will be able to pick the payment method from the watch which is kind of cool.

Fr. Robert: I had a chit chat with an Apple engineer who did tell me that since the sensors can detect blood pressure and pulse if someone were to remove your hand it would no longer Apple Pay.

Leo: An engineer told you that?

Fr. Robert: Yes they did. I guess that’s a question that they’ve had.

Leo: Ok, I’m verifying my Apple ID. Here we go. Watch is already turned on. This is hard to do. How do you TV types do this? Alright here we go. This is showing by the way 38mm… location service is yes. What is this? Yes I want Siri. Let me turn on my sound and make sure. What is this? Diagnostics, ok Apple, they don’t give you a not ok looks like. Do I want a passcode? When you set up a passcode Apple watch locks when you take it off and requires the passcode to unlock. Yes I think so. Here you can look at this while I’m pass coding.

Fr. Robert: Doctor Mom says it’s not blood pressure, it can sense that there’s blood flowing through your skin. So if someone were to chop off your hand I guess that would no longer be the case.

Leo: Alright so I’m entering a passcode, it’s a 4 digit code very much like on the…

Fr. Robert: It is 1234 folks.

Leo: That seems to be the easiest. Unlock Apple watch with iPhone, do you want to unlock Apple watch with your iPhone. Yes I think so right. Whoops I said no. How do I go back? Where is your camera? Ok don’t show a picture of me sticking my butt out because that’s what I’m doing. Ok now since I already have apps on here that are installed it’s giving me the option to do that. So let’s do that. Your Apple watch is almost ready. You’ll get an alert when it’s done syncing. Maybe I made a mistake. I wonder if I can go back because one of the things I wanted to do… going back will un-pair the devices and reset.

Fr. Robert: No!

Leo: No!

Fr. Robert: Don’t do that Apple watch!

Leo: Because I said something I don’t want to do which is I want it to pair and I said no… so that I don’t have to unlock it when I have my iPhone there. So this is the set up. What do you think of the Milanese Loop? That looks pretty.

Fr. Robert: It does actually. Very well done.

Leo: I guess I could put this on now.

Fr. Robert: So the pairing was quick, the syncing process there’s no way around it, you’ve got to set all your preferences.

Leo: This is now syncing with my apps so it’s putting all the apps on here that have interfaces. What does it say, reset setup? No.

Fr. Robert: Can you move the camera a little bit down.

Leo: Where am I?

Fr. Robert: No, you go to a comfortable spot.

Leo: I’m comfortable. Anyway this might take a while. So I’ll tell you what; we’ll be talking about this a lot more over the next few weeks obviously and more and more people will get Apple watches. This is the 38mm and it’s the stainless steel. I think it doesn’t look bad. The Milanese Loop is a nice band.

Fr. Robert: I think it looks good. I will say it looks manly. I think you were right, it does look a little on the manly side.

Leo: Didn’t it look great on Lisa? We might have to get her a different band.

Fr. Robert: She says it’s alright.

Leo: Alight.

Fr. Robert: I think Lisa would look good in the Apple watch edition.

Leo: Yes, there you go.

Fr. Robert: Initial impressions though.

Leo: It says your Apple ID and phone number are now being used for iMessage on the new Apple Watch.

Fr. Robert: So you should receive messages on your watch.

Leo: You swipe up to get to glance, you swipe down to get to notifications.

Fr. Robert: Can you put Mickey next to it?

Leo: There’s Mickey, there’s the big Mickey. So you can see it, it makes the Motox360 look quite big doesn’t it?

Fr. Robert: Not just big but very thick.

Leo: Yes, I think this is much more elegant. But really it is all going to come down to usability. We have a long way to go, it’s only up in the upper corner there in the syncing so I think I’ll let you continue with the rest of the show. This is 38mm, we’ll get a 42mm here I hope in the next couple of weeks.

Fr. Robert: Yes, hopefully within a week or 2 we can have a full review and you can tell us exactly how you feel.

Leo: Next week, let’s do it next week.

Fr. Robert: Ok let’s do it next week.

Leo: I feel I’ll be ready next week.

Fr. Robert: Alright. There we have it, Leo LaPorte – an unboxing of the Apple watch. We know that you want one because everyone wants 1 and we know that you’re going to love it especially since if you use a Chi charging…

Leo: This will charge everything. See if it’ll charge my phone.

Fr. Robert: Before You Buy it’s about experimentation.

Leo: Yes let’s see here. Let’s see if it charges. It has to be in the right spot. That’s one of the tricky things about Chi charging.

Fr. Robert: It might not provide enough power. This might be lower power Chi because you don’t need a whole lot for the watch.

Leo: Your Chi is low powered.

Fr. Robert: Chi-ting.

Leo: But it did do the Moto360.

Fr. Robert: It did.

Leo: What it also means is that if I have other Chi chargers which I do it’ll probably work. Can you unplug that so I can take it away and get out of your way?

Fr. Robert: Folks you may see this on Leo LaPorte’s wrist of course assuming that it doesn’t get stolen by Jeffrey Needles. Leo LaPorte will be coming back in just a bit to give us a full review of the Apple watch. Not today of course.

Leo: Next week.

Fr. Robert: Next week. But for now let’s go ahead and take a trip back to NAB. That’s right we were at the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas Nevada. We had a change to take a look at some of their products. I stopped by the Audio Technica booth to see what they had in the way of professional microphones.

(Video: Fr. Robert: NAB isn’t all just about cameras, screens and drones. You’ve also got a fair share of high quality audio which is why we stopped by here at the Audio Technica booth and I’m speaking with Brent Chamberlin who’s going to explain some of the products AT has for those folks who want high quality. Brent, thank you very much for talking to us.

Brent Chamberlin: Sure, absolutely! With a lot of video and everything like that everyone’s kind of starting to realize that audio is an important aspect of that and you need to be able to hear with your video. Audio Technica has been pretty big as far as coming out with some innovative designs with microphones. Today we’re actually debuting our BP 40 which is our large diaphragm dynamic microphone. Very similar to the popular RE 20’s store SM 7 microphones for broadcasting everything like that. Very similar design to that so rugged build on that. A different frequency curve on this so it actually has a nice bump right there in that Fletcher Munson curve, very popular for voice. We did some recordings with it, very nice tone to it. Just another option for our customers to kind of decide what’s going to work best for their sound.

Fr. Robert: I’ve been using Audio Technica AT 20-20 condenser mics in my personal studio for a while and I’ve lamented 2 things. 1 that it wasn’t a big dynamic mic and 2 that it was side firing. This is perfect for broadcasters because it is a front firing mic and it does have that big bottom, that big boom that broadcasters like so much. What about pricing and availability? So like if someone said hey I’d like to start up my own podcasting network. I want good sounding audio, I’d love to get a couple of these. Where would they go and how much would they expect to pay?

Brent: So they could pick this up through any authorized Audio Technica dealer. Same price point as the other microphones that I mentioned so double check with your dealer for pricing. These are going to be available June/July…so end of June, early July is when we’re expecting to have these out.

Fr. Robert: Now this is 1 option for people who want to broadcast and it is sort of a higher end option. You’re going to need a decent sound board and something to record but Audio Technica also does have some unique products if you go over right here that plug straight into your editing machine or device. Now this I’ve seen and I know about. This is the Audio Technica AT 20-20 USB, we’ve seen this on Before You Buy review show and it’s a fantastic model. It is all the quality of an AT 20-20 but all the convenience of having that USB interface. You have a new product for the show specifically for those people with lightning equipped devices. Tell me about it.

Brent: Just 1 quick correction there for you. This is the USB plus that we have here. The USB is actually being discontinued and replaced by the AT 20-20 USB Plus which has the headphone out there. So we are debuting today the AT 20-20 USB-I. So that is going to be able to plug directly right into your iPhone and your iPad. What it has on the bottom there is a lightening connecter, so that’ll go into your popular new iPhone or your old iPhone if you still have that or your iPad. Basically you just pull out any recording software that’s going to allow for an external microphone and you are on the run. So if you need to pick up and go do an audio recording somewhere you pick up your 20-20 USB-I, plug it into your iPhone and you have high quality audio sound coming from your 20-20 microphone that everybody knows and loves.

Fr. Robert: What I’ve always liked about Audio Technica’s approach is that you fill the full range. If you want a good studio mic you’re going to go ahead and get the BB-40, if you want something that’s for field recording – so you want to be able to make decent recordings but you need to be on the go so it has to be small, it has to be light and it has to have a simple interface then you go with something like this. It’s either a USB or a Lightening Connector. If they wanted to find out more about Audio Technica’s entire range of products for production where can they go?

Brent: If they just go to our website we’ve got everything there so www.audio-technica.com. We’re also on all the Social Media, if you go to audiotechnicausa on Facebook, Instagram, you know they’re all out there. You could always give us a call as well. I’m Brent in the audio solutions department and we’re here to answer your calls.

Fr. Robert: Brent thank you very much for speaking with us. Thank you for sharing the Audio Technica magic and you stay tabbed because we’ve got more from NAB 2015. END OF VIDEO)

Fr. Robert: I’ve been using Audio Technica gear in my lab probably for about 3 years now and I love the fact that they’re coming out with a more professional – their BP 40 which is front firing instead of side firing which is what I’m used to from Audio Technica mics. And I love the fact that they’ve got mics now that can work with mobile devices. The USB version of the 20-20 was nice. It was nice and had a nice quality to it but the fact that now I can use it with my phone be it an iOS or Android device means I’ve got true portability and really good audio on the go. Now when we come back we’re going to be speaking with Miriam Joire. She’s got a brand new Lumia for us to take a look at but before we do that let’s go ahead and thank the first sponsor of this episode of Before You Buy and it is Prosper.         Now quick question; what would you do if I told you that right now you could apply for a loan and get $35,000 in as few as 5 days and use the money for pretty much anything you needed to use it for. Face it there aren’t that many good ways to borrow money when you need it. You could go to friends, you could go to family, you could put it on your credit card which is a horrible idea and you could try a traditional bank loan which I’ve done which is just no fun at all. But now with a low fixed rate Prosper can give you a better way. That’s right, borrow up to $35,000 in as few as 5 days and use the money for just about anything you desire. You can pay off those high rate credit cards, fix up the house, maybe put it into a business. This is a new way to borrow money. It’s all about the market place, it’s all about the community. It matches people who need money with people who have money to lend. If you want to get into this next generation of financing you’ve got to try Prosper. I wish Prosper had been around when I was still running my own business. At 1 point I needed to go in for a bridge loan, just to fulfill my contracts. I was plenty cash positive but going from 1 branch manager to another to try to explain my business which was still kind of new at that time was just kind of demeaning. I wouldn’t have to do that if Prosper had been around. Prosper’s online market place does connect you with those who want to invest in you. It’s that simple, don’t wrack up more debt on your credit cards and don’t bother your friends and family for loans. Go to prosper.com and do lending the right way. Right now and for a limited time Prosper is offering Twit viewers a $50 Visa gift card with your low interest loan. You can get up to $35,000 in your account in as few as 5 days and a $50 Visa gift card. Just got to prosper.com/twit. That’s prosper.com/twit for this special offer just for Twit viewers and we thank Prosper for their support of Before You Buy.

Next up we’ve got the Queen of cellphones, Miriam Joire is here with another Lumia.

Miriam Joire: Hey there, it’s Miriam and this is Before You Buy and we’re reviewing the Lumia 535 and you know what? This is the 1^st Lumia that is Microsoft branded. Check it out. Yes this was the 1^st from the manufacturer that basically finally got rid of the Nokia branding which you know a big page was turned. So what’s so special about this phone you’re going to say? The 535 from the… sounds like a low end phone and it is but it’s interesting because it’s better than both the 530 and the 630 which are the current low range phones on Windows Phone from Microsoft. It differentiates itself with 3 things – that they above at length in all the marketing. 5 5 and 5. 5 inch display, 5 mega pixel rear camera and 5 mega pixel front camera. What’s cool about this phone is that it’s a pretty big phone. It feels like you’re holding a higher end device despite actually holding onto an entry level device. The price reflects that, it is $125 or so, you can probably find it for less than $100 now which is really incredible. It’s being replaced by a bunch of new phones – the 40s series, there’s a 640 and a 640 xl that were announced at Global Congress that are at least in the basic 640. Similar in specs but even better, better display, more resolution. So know that there’s better coming for about the same price but if you can get a good deal on this it might be worth your while. Let’s go quickly through it. So as I mentioned the display is QHD so it’s not quite as low resolution as 480 but not 720P either. It’s that middle resolution and also it doesn’t have very good black levels and a lot of screen reflection as you can see because it doesn’t have an air tight layer coating and doesn’t have an oil resistant coating which most smart phones have today. So this thing becomes a finger print magnet in absolutely no time. Look this is just from touching it 2-3 times and there’s already 3-4 finger prints on the front. They don’t go away, you can try wiping it and you pretty much have to use some sort of cleaner. So it becomes dirty and filthy very fast. That’s 1 of the major drawbacks. It’s not really the resolution or the quality of the screen that’s the problem at this price but they should have coated this with something. Inside it is a Snapdragon 200, 1 gig of ram so that’s good. The 1 gig is kind of a must have for a good Windows phone experience but the Snapdragon 200 isn’t going to give the greatest performance but it’s still not sluggish. That’s the 1 things about Window’s phone that even on entry level processors it runs well. 8 gigs of built in storage, you’re going to need a card to upgrade this. It has a slot so you’re set but just be aware that you might want to spend a little bit more money for a card when you buy this phone. Let’s talk about the camera. Microsoft devices have inherited this awesome Lumia camera experience and even though the specs on this are just basic auto focus, 5 mega pixel camera with an LED flash you get this great camera view eye that you have on the higher end and the mid-range. Let me show it to you real quick. It’s great because it gives you full manual control, let me bring that up real quickly. As you can see there’s a bunch of sliders here that lets you do things like focus manually and shutter speed manually. So you can actually do these cool long exposure shots. Also a 5 mega pixel front facing camera and that means that you can do selfies. Yes everybody loves their selfies. This is a dual sim device so it takes 2 sim cards. This is a very popular and common thing in parts of the world where you might have 1 carrier for voice and 1 carrier for data because the pricing is optimized that way and this phone lets you do that. So if you take the battery cover off… By the way this whole battery back is replaceable. So if you drop the phone again you’re not going to damage, unless you break the glass you’re not going to damage much other than this cheap plastic shell that costs nothing to replace and it comes in different colors. So keep that in mind. You can change the shell. Under the shell there is a battery. It’s just a small 1905 power battery but it lasts quite a while because Snapdragon is very power efficient. Keep in mind though if you buy this phone – which this is a European model – there is a US version that has 3G for the US but this particular European model doesn’t have any 3G band for the US and Canada. So I’m actually using this on the edge of AT&T right now which is pretty abysmal. Obviously that’s what they sent me as a review unit so if you were to buy here in the states you’d be fine. Entry level Windows phone, 1^st with Microsoft branding. Let’s talk about the pros and cons real quick.

Fr. Robert: Pros.

Miriam: The price. Probably less than $100 now on the street as it were $125 was the retail price. Unbelievable for a phone that gives you…it’s a real… you get Instagram, you get all the apps that you’re used to on a Windows phone. You get all the Microsoft apps like Office One Drive, One Note, all these things that are really nice productivity apps, Outlook. You can use this as a business phone, it’s perfectly fine. So for the price you’re getting a full smartphone experience. The camera is half decent because Lumia phones usually have half decent cameras and it gives you some manual controls which is really nice. What’s bad about it… the display, not the quality so much of the display but the fact that it’s not coated with anything that repels finger prints and also is very bad at reflecting light and viewing angels because it doesn’t have a polarizing filter and it’s also not an IPS, it’s just an LCD. If you buy the European version no 3G in the US, you’re on Edge Only. Of course you’ve got WIFI and GPS and all that and Bluetooth and all that other stuff but just keep that in mind. At this price point you also don’t have wireless charging which is a very common thing on Microsoft’s phones. Yes that’s basically it in a nut shell. Is it a buy, a try or a not buy? Well it is a buy actually. I think that there are a lot of people who’d be perfectly served by a phone like this. Kids in particular. People that are on a budget and are really trying to get the best phone experience for their money. Honestly you’d be better off at that price with this phone than any Android phone at $100 and I’m talking about the Android phones that are not subsidized, the really cheap Samsung’s and LG’s that are common place everywhere. Other than perhaps the MOTO-E and the MOTO-G which kind of straddle the price point you really don’t have any Android devices that can touch this phone in terms of overall the price point and what you get for the money. So this is my review of the Lumia 535 here on Before You Buy – the 1^st Microsoft branded Windows phone device.

Fr. Robert: There you have it, it’s a buy for the Lumia 535 from Miriam Joire. $125, that’s a pretty good entry level phone and Lumia does have a really nice camera so if you want an entry level phone that has a camera that’s a step above most entry levels maybe that’s going to be your next purchase. Thanks to Miriam Joire. Of course you can find her on the Twit TV network, she often guests on All About Android and she’s always on Before you Buy. If you want to check out her other work go to Twitter. That’s probably the best way to find her. She’s @tnkgrl that’s with all the vowels removed – tnkgrl and see what reviews she’s working on next.     Now let’s go ahead and move into the next little bit that we’ve got here again from NAB. Now 1 of the trends that we’ve seen over the last I’d say 3 years, both at NAB and CES where screens that were just bigger, more screen, 1k, 2k, 4k, 5k, 8k and then you make them larger and larger which is nice but you can only take that to a certain level before it gets boring. Well this year at NAB Scott Wilkinson found another trend and that is to take 1k and 4k monitors and just make them better, not bigger, not with more pixels but just make them better viewing experiences. So without further ado let’s take a look at Canon’s HDR display.

(Video: Scott Wilkinson: This is Scott Wilkinson reporting for Before You Buy and what we’re looking at here is in the Canon booth at NAB. It’s not a product you can buy today or probably tomorrow. It’s what’s called a high dynamic range display. It’s a LED display and it has a peak brightness of what’s called 2000 nits. Normally the TVs that you buy today have a peak brightness while the content is graded for a peak brightness of 100 nits. So we have a tremendously greater dynamic range on this set. You can see here it’s a very brightly lit scene, here’s another very brightly lit scene. The color is another interesting thing. The color of this car is a much deeper red than you see on an HD TV or even an Ultra HD TV that you can buy today which uses the color gamut known as BT709. This color gamut is closer to what the digital cinema uses which is called P3. It even goes beyond P3 so this red – you won’t see that on any TV that you can buy today. Here’s another example of that red on the pool table and even more important take a look at this door; as it opens up you see the detail outside that door as well as the detail inside this low lit area. Here’s another example of an open door, you see some highlights on the guy’s face. Here’s another shot of a window with some bright information outside. Inside the dull dark bar and you see the detail in both ends of the dynamic range. Here’s another 1 with the window, it’s remarkable what you can see here and I’m looking forward to being able to buy 1. Of course you can’t today. This is a pre-preview. This is a prototype but it does point the way to a future that is looking mighty good. This is Scott Wilkinson for Before You Buy. Back to you. End of video)

Fr. Robert: Thanks to Scott Wilkinson for showing the future of displays HDR. It’s hard to show in a screen on a stream that’s going to your computer but I have to tell you if you see it in person it is immediately apparent why you want 1 of these. It looks good, it looks sharp and it just makes you appreciate what good color matching will do for any bit of content. You can find Scott Wilkinson here on the Twit TV network, he is our home theater geek. We’ll get back to our coverage in just a bit. We’ve got to take a look at some Bluetooth speakers, we’ve got an OMG round up but before we do that let’s go ahead and thank our 2^nd sponsor of Before You Buy. Now I want to talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart. Sleep…hey Cranky Hippo what do you think about sleep?

Bryan: Well you know how I got that nickname in the 1^st place? I didn’t get enough sleep Padre. But I love it.

Fr. Robert: That’s a great lead in here because we know what not enough sleep does. In fact, Cranky Hippo what happens when the Hippo gets cranky?

Bryan: You don’t want to know Padre. There’s a reason why the Hippo is the number 1 killer in Africa.

Fr. Robert: That’s right because cranky people will do bad things. It’s not just that you don’t have the energy for the day, it’s not just that you make bad decisions. It’s that the world just doesn’t seem as good without a good night’s rest which always baffled me because why in the world would you not put money into something that you’re going to spend a 3^rd or in my case half of the day doing – sleep. Well that’s what Casper is here to solve. Casper is a different kind of company for beds. They’re going to combine 2 different types of technology. They’ve got that memory foam that we all know and love but we tend to sink into and it tends to be hot and they’ve also got latex which will provide the support. Well what Casper will do is they’ll put these on top of each other which means you’ve got a mattress which is both soft and comfortable but will give you the support that you demand. Now it’s not just the bed technology which Leo tested out quite well here. It’s the way that they sell it to you. If you go into a show room you’ve got 60, 90 maybe even 180 seconds for you to roll around on that bed, feel how it feels and decide whether or not you want to buy it. But that’s no way to buy a mattress. You’re going to be sleeping on this thing for hours a night, you need hours a night to decide if it’s right for you. That’s what Casper lets you do because they give you 3 plus months to experiment, to have this thing in your room, in your home, on your bed to see if this is how you want to spend all your sleeping hours. Now at the end of that 100 day trial period if you don’t want it just send it back. That’s what makes Casper different. Also because they’re selling it this way it means that they’re not paying a middle man, they’re not paying the showroom. They pass the savings on directly to you. Casper understands the importance of a good night’s sleep and they wish you would too. Now Casper mattresses are made in the United States and you can get 1 today. $500 for a twin, $950 for a king size which when you compare it to industry averages it is an outstanding price and you can save an additional $50 as 1 of our audience members by going to Casper.com/beforeyoubuy and entering the promo code beforeyoubuy. That’s casper.com/beforeyoubuy and promo code beforeyoubuy. Casper, a good night’s sleep is waiting for you. Now we invited OMG Chad our favorite Mine Craft master to take a look at some Bluetooth speakers and this is what he came up with.

Chad Johnson: Hello my name is Chad. I’m with Twit and Before You Buy and today I’m reviewing 3 Bluetooth speakers. These are all travel speakers, they all have batteries built in and they can all take phone calls from the device. They have microphones built in a ready for that. So the 1^st one we’ll look at is the Eco Pebble, the Eco Pebble is a water proof Bluetooth speaker that is submersible in 3.3 feet of water. It has 7 hours of playtime of music, it also happens to float on the water which is nice. On the top you have power and Bluetooth button, you have a play/pause and answer button and a volume up and volume down button. On the bottom there is a carabiner which will allow it to attach to a back pack or something like that and on the back there is a door which shows all the ports. So there is an aux in and a USB, micro USB for charging as well as an on/off switch. This little door is a little difficult to get back on, to make sure that it’s water tight and secure; mostly because you have this little piece of string that is keeping the door from being disconnected away from the speaker so if you give it a little… you’ll hear the nice click once it is fully attached and water proofed. So this is it at its loudest setting an arm’s length away from the microphone. Ok it just turned off. The next speaker is the Blue Tune Bean. Now with this it is more of like a selfie and phone call assistant than really a music Bluetooth speaker. On the side there are buttons for power and for phone calls and then on the other side there is a button for camera so you can take a photo. There are not play/pause, next or volume up and down on the sound live. There’s also a metal carabiner clip. This doesn’t open you can just loop something through it and keep it on your backpack. This is much more sort of for being able to take really cool selfies with the button. That being said let me show you the sound of this. Still playing some Sand Storm at its loudest setting at arm’s length away. It’s a little bit quieter than the Eco Pebble but it is still pretty loud. The phone button on the side can be used as your play/pause button. So there is the Blue Tune Bean. Next is the Braven 805, this is kind of in a different class to the other Bluetooth speakers that we’re looking at. Also in terms of price, so far this one has been around $60. This is around $23. This is around $200. Some of the features that it includes are play/pause, volume up and down and answer phone button on the top as well as a USB out/power in and then aux in as well on the front here. That USB out is because the Braven 805 has a 4,400 milliamp battery inside of here that you can charge your cell phones with if you want to. That also means that it has a very, very, long play time of 18 hours if you were going to throw this in a party. I don’t know of any party that lasts 18 hours. It is also the best sounding speaker out of the 3 mostly because of the size. So let’s go ahead and play something. This one has the best bass response, the fullest sound, the smoothest sound and probably the loudest sound as well. It comes through both sides, mostly this side really. It comes through on both sides as well. So this one has treble in the front, bass in the back with the Braven. Now let’s get into pros and cons for each of these very quickly. On the Eco X gear – Echo Pebble the pros are that it has play/pause and multiple midi keys on top, it’s water proof and it floats in water. For the Blue Tune Bean the fact that it has a dedicated selfie button and is a pro and it is the smallest and cheapest of the bunch. For the Braven 805 pros are the multimedia keys on the front, the fact that it has a 4,400 milliamp battery inside so you can charge your phone and the great sound quality. On the cons we’re going to give this one a difficult to operate door on the back and it doesn’t have the best of battery life. For the Bean it doesn’t have an aux jack, there’s no way to plug in an aux thing and the lack of media keys are the cons and also it is the quietest out of the bunch. For the Braven the cons are that it’s not incredibly rugged, I’d be worried about this at a party. It might get knocked over or get something spilled on it but that is basically the only con for the Braven. So buy, try, don’t buy; this is going to be a try, this is going to be a “don’t buy” and the Braven is going to be a buy. Thanks for watching, I’m Chad Johnson for Before You Buy. See you next time.

Fr. Robert: That’s OMG Chad with the verdict on 3 different Bluetooth speakers. He’s giving the Eco Pebble a try, he’s giving the Braven 805 a buy but the Bean gets a “don’t buy”. Now don’t forget you can find OMG Chad on his own YouTube channel – he’s got OMG Craft a very popular YouTube Channel and there were some special announcements going on this week. He and the Gizwhiz are taking the Gizwhiz on to Patreon so if you want to support them go to Patreon.com/gizwhiz. I want to thank all of our reviewers for just giving us an honest view of everything that we had today from the Apple Watch to some fantastic TVs at NAB to the speakers and of course to the phone. Now I also want to thank you because you make the show possible by coming back each and every single week to see what we think about the various products that come into the brick house. I want to make it easy for you to get Before You Buy so if you go to our show page at twit.tv/byb you can find all of our reviews. We also break them down on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/twitbeforeyoubuy. If you missed a review, if you want to see Leo’s opening of the Apple Watch, if you want to see what I said about a laptop in the past it is a great place to go. Remember twit.tv/byb or youtube.com/twitbeforeyoubuy. Also don’t forget that you can follow me on Twitter. Just go to twitter.com/padresj. If you follow me there I promise I’ll always give you announcements as to what’s going to be happening on the Twit TV network on the shows that I do and also what I think about the Apple Watch and the Apple Masters. That’s right Danny fought to give us our freedom I don’t know if we should be giving it back so easily. Also I don’t know if Brian has it up but you can find me on Google Plus. If you find me on Google Plus you’ll find this – this is my new mascot, the happiest dog in the world with a pizza slice that’s way too big. This is the kind of entertainment you get on Twit TV. Of course again thanks to Leo Laporte, Miriam Joire, Scott Wilkinson and Chad Johnson. To Leo Laporte for having the network along with Lisa and of course to my super fantastic… I don’t even have enough adjectives for them, TD Mr. Bryan Burnett. Bryan tell the folks where they can find you each and every single week.

Bryan: They can find me like you pointed out before the Casper ad – Cranky Hippo is kind of my internet nickname and you can follow me on Twitter @cranky_hippo where I like to post gifts of going fast. I’ve just got to go fast.

Fr. Robert: Folks this is what happens late night at Twit TV…after we turn off the screen…

Chad: When we’re doing Know How. Good job today Padre.

Fr. Robert: Before it goes any further off the rails I’m Father Robert Ballecer the digital Jesuit just reminding you that you’ve got to watch before you buy!