HOOKD.in

We’ve heard it before. Brands need to be more human if they want to survive – or at least thrive. They (brands) need to connect with people, and not just in the traditional sense. Brands need to discover what it takes to be part of their customers’ lives and to truly make an impact. Brands need to adopt an empathetic, flexible, humorous tone in order to become “human.” Unfortunately, some have…

If you’re an avid online shopper, whether that be through retail sites, Amazon, eBay, etc., the Jet.com app is going to be right up your alley. Jet is a shopping site geared to the deal-hungry consumer looking to purchase anything from home supplies to laptops, gardening tools to lawn mowers. What’s the difference? Jet, and the Jet app, find the lowest price on goods from around the web and offers instant savings on each of your purchases just for being a member. More than just that, Jet gives you more saving options during check out, such as the ability to waive your right return an item, or choosing a certain payment option such as a debit card vs. a credit card.

Here’s how it works:

Beautiful Design

Outside of the incredible savings, the Jet.com app has one of the greatest UI experiences I’ve seen in a shopping app, maybe even any app. The material design is done perfectly and Jet’s bright brand colors offer a relaxed a positive feeling when spending your money (gotta love consumer psychology). As I mentioned in week 3’s app review of Food.com, I love when an app truly feels like an extension of your device, as opposed to a completely separate ecosystem. With the Jet.com app, I can quickly jump in and find an item I’m shopping for without feeling the jolt my brain reorienting itself for a new experience.

The apps material efforts extend beyond hamburger menus and flat colors. For instance, while searching for an item inside of a category, a floating action button, which has an amazing animation, allows you to filter (by way of category, brands, color, etc.) or sort (Relevance, prices low to high, member savings, etc.) your results. The app’s shopping cart is not without pleasing aesthetics either. Entering the cart, you can quickly remove items by swiping left, exposing the brands purple color and a vector trash can icon.

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Incredible Savings

So back to the savings which is most important in a shopping app. For the little bit of time that I’ve spent with the Jet.com app, I am very pleased with the savings that I’ve seen. The concept of scouring the web for the lowest price and then adding member savings and additional options for savings is brilliant in my opinion. As a test, I found a particular bag of dog food on the Jet.com app and compared the price to Amazon.com (the app does this for you, but I checked on my own as well). According to the Jet app, the prices matched exactly, however, when researching myself the Amazon price was actually a couple dollars less. BUT, I then realized that Amazon was going to charge me $22 in shipping for 30 pound bag of dog food, and Jet would charge me $0.

What’s the Catch?

When you first download the app and start to realize the savings potential, it’s incredible. What they don’t tell you up front is that all these great deals are part of a 3-month trial period that starts at your first purchase. After your 3 months, you’ll have a to pay an annual fee of $50 to keeping getting the deals. Not so sure about it now? Well, remember, Amazon charges $100/year for their Prime service to get free shipping and exclusive offers. Another perk to Jet.com? There is no sneaky auto-renew feature when your trial ends. And for that, we thank you.

So, all-in-all I’m a huge fan of Jet.com’s app. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great deal and a pleasurable shopping experience.

What do you think of Jet’s shopping app? Let me know in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKD.in! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to be the first to receive next week’s app review!

– A.J.

Ad Spotlight #2: WhiteSquad.com Pushes it Uncomfortably Far and It Was Great

“Is your skin color holding you back?” Never have my ears perked and head raised so quickly to pay attention to my T.V. screen as when I heard those words, and that of the commercial that followed. “White Squad is a team of carefully selected white representatives who act on behalf of people of color. We’re your stand-ins for life’s racially unbalanced situations.” At first I couldn’t decide if…

In last week’s app review, I mentioned how smartphones have primarily become time wasters killers. Many of the spare seconds we have are spent scrolling through Facebook, browsing Twitter, and of course, playing games. I personally am a gamer at heart, so to no surprise, most of my smartphone time killing comes in the form of games. Well, I’ve found a new game that has proven to be quite good at…

Become a Search Engine Pro: Tips and Tricks for Mastering Google

Have you ever spent hours trying to find the perfect source to cite in you paper, or find a statistic that supports a product you are trying to sell? Or maybe you stumbled across an article a while back on a particular site and now you need to find it again. These can be frustrating tasks when you’re using a search engine such as Google, but if you know exactly what to enter, you’ll quickly…

FINALLY AN APP THAT LEGITIMATELY MAKES SOMETHING EASIER.

I like cooking (though my wife does the majority of it) but I literally HATE meal planning and grocery shopping. So, finding an app that helps with both of those, and does it well, is amazing. Food.com’s new app allows you browse through recipes with large photos, reviews, and details such as prep and cook time. As with most food apps, you can search by food category (types of meats, dish type, etc.) to find a recipe your interested in. Users can also save and categorize their recipe for later preparation. So what’s the big deal?

MATERIAL DESIGN

Let’s start with the design of the app. The Food.com app looks and feels like it was created for Android. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it almost seems like a Google app. Most apps I use these days have one or two material design elements (maybe a hamburger menu or something) but Food.com takes material design all the way. Holding your finger on various buttons results in the bubble animation in which the button slowly fills up with a shade of grey. The header image with text overlay inside of recipes fades into a solid header when scrolling down the page. The hamburger menu found at the top left corner of the app brings a hidden menu out from the left. Users will also find a familiar floating action button in various locations of the app.

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The material elements combined with the pale color palette really make me feel like this app is an extension of the Android experience. It feels familiar and easy to use, and it just looks good. Job well done here, Food.com.

SEE ALSO: “WEEKLY APP REVIEW #2: FLYNX“

SEAMLESS INTERACTIONS

One thing that has annoyed me in the past about recipe discovery apps is that once I’ve found a recipe, I’ve then got to use another app to list out the ingredients I need to make a grocery list (again, my wife typically handles this. Thanks, boo!).

Food.com’s app eliminates the need for the extra app by integrating a grocery list component. Once you’ve found a recipe you like, hit the “Grocery List” button and all of the individual ingredients are added to your grocery list. What’s even cooler (more cool?) about the grocery list in the Food.com app is that it automatically categorizes your ingredients into sections such as baking, produce, meat, canned, etc. so you aren’t spending an extra 15 mins running around in circles at the store.

TAKING IT LOCAL

Another feature that goes a long way in making this app extremely useful is the localization aspect. The Food.com app allows you to add local stores to the app, magically integrating sales and offers. Once you’ve added your favorite stores, you can start your recipe hunt by finding what ingredients are on sale and going from there. Additionally, if you’ve added a recipe’s ingredients to your grocery list, the Food.com app will recognize ingredients that are on sale at your local store so you know before you go.

IT’S NOT PERFECT

As great as the app is, and as useful as it can be, the app isn’t perfect. Using the app for a few days, I noticed a few minor things worth noting. For me, and this could be just an issue for me, I had a lot of problems creating an account. I continuously received error messages when trying to create an account with my email, and trying to use social accounts to set it up wasn’t a great experience either. I finally managed to create the account, but now, it’s logging in that is the problem. I’ve reset my password and all that jazz to no avail. I’ll continue to work on it and see if I can find a solution myself or with the help of the support team.

I also noticed some text formatting issues throughout the app. I don’t know much about coding or building apps, but it looks like some of the code didn’t translate when syndicating reviews from other sources (see image).  I don’t think this is a huge deal, as the error doesn’t seem to appear too often.

Given that the app is brand new, it’s to be expected that there will be some bugs to work out, but there is more good news. Food.com is a part of the Scripps Networks Interactive portfolio, which also includes big name brands such as Food Network, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, HGTV and Travel Channel, so there is likely a lot of money and resources behind this app. I expect that because of this, the app will receive frequent updates, new features and a substantial support platform.

Overall, I’m a huge fan of this app and highly recommend it for anyone needing help finding recipes, planning meals, and building shopping lists.  If you’re interested in checking out the app, you can download it for free on the Google Play store or from the App Store with the links below.

Download for Android • Download for iOS

What do you think about Food.com’s new app for Android? Are there any other cooking/recipe apps that you prefer over this? Let me know in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKDin! Be sure to subscribe to receive next week’s ‘Weekly App Review’ the second it goes live!

– A.J.

Imagine you’re scrolling through Twitter, finding all kinds of juicy links that you want to click through to and read, but once you’ve clicked on one and read what you wanted to read, you’ve lost your place in your stream. Well, Flynx’s main premise is that you can open links in the background all while continuing to find more interesting sites, articles, videos, etc.

Clicking on a link in Twitter, Facebook, Google search and more will spawn a little bubble overlaid on your screen which is very reminiscent of Facebook’s chat heads. From there you can continue scrolling/reading and find more interesting links to click on. Once you’re ready, click on that floating bubble and all of your tabs are magically ready to be viewed. Done with a tab, or all tabs? Just drag one or all down to the little circular ‘X’ at the bottom of your screen. Poof!

You may also like: “Weekly App Review #1: Opera for Android”

Upon digging further into the app, I found that Flynx isn’t as bare-bones as it may seem. It actually has a few cool features that enhance the user’s experience. Pages loaded in Flynx are automatically stripped of advertising and other unnecessary elements to provide a distraction-free reading environment for users. Flynx calls this mode ‘Quick Read’. Don’t worry though, if you need to view the full site, you can easily switch back to a normal view.

Users can also save sites to a read-later folder which is found by entering the actual Flynx app. Sharing functionality is built in as well, so you can pretty much do anything a normal browser can do.

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Luke Larsen of Paste Magazine made an interesting point about the app in his review. He states: “The interesting thing is that although I switched to using Flynx as my default browser, it’s pretty much only used for opening links, so Chrome is still there for when I want to search for something or check a specific website. In that way, it doesn’t even feel like it was meant to replace Chrome, but instead just to be a second browser made specifically for opening links.”

I can agree with that statement in that Flynx is great for curating multiple articles on a certain topic, or even multiple tops for that matter, but for a full-blown experience I’ll stick to something like Chrome or Opera. It is worth mentioning though that Flynx has a dedicated button in which you can quickly open the page you are viewing in a different browser. Good thinking from our friends at InfiKen Labs.

Pros:

Allows you to quickly and easily queue up multiple sites for further reading

Familiar mechanics if you’ve used Facebook chat heads

Quick Read mode removes ads to provide a distraction-free reading environment

Great for multi-tasking

It’s free!

Cons:

Only can have up to 4 tabs before needing to invite friends for more – 2 extra tabs allowed per install

Some apps (Twitter and clients, Facebook, etc.) may need additional settings to allow external browser link opening

Download Flynx for free from the Google Play Store here.

What do you think about Flynx? Does the ability to quickly open multiple tabs and read them when you’re ready seem like something you’d be interested in? Let me know in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKDin!

Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified of next week’s app review.

– A.J.

Ad Spotlight #1: Dove Men + Care

Father’s Day may have come and gone, but the feels from Dove’s #RealStrength campaign is still in full effect. Starting by airing the first spot during the Super Bowl, the campaign focuses on how men can show their real strength in how they care – how they care for others, and an even larger focus on how they care for their kids. The latest spot for the Men + Care #RealStrength campaign centers…

1. It’s Clean

The first hesitation I had when downloading the first alternative to my go-to browser, Chrome, was that there would be a learning curve that frankly, I just don’t have time for. But, it was the exact opposite here. Opera has a very clean interface that after using for a few minutes, I feel like I’ve been using for years. In case you face this hesitation too, Opera offers a simple tutorial when launching the app for the first time. Like most apps these days, Opera for Android has adopted a flat UI design with only a thin URL bar at the top of the screen and a simple navigation bar at the bottom.

Compared to Chrome: 

Yes, Chrome may technically be considered “cleaner” with all of it’s settings and functions tucked away in one menu, but I found it easier to access and call up certain features inside of Opera. For example, Opera’s quick menu (that’s what I’m calling it) in the bottom right hand side of the screen offers easy access to your downloads, settings, history and more. The way it presents these tools is less of a list, and more visual, making it easier to find the button you need to hit. I find my self scrolling through the Chrome menu for a few seconds longer when trying to find the same feature or tool.

You may also like: “Google Hangouts vs. Google Messenger”

2. It’s Intuitive.

Building off of #1, Opera seems to be a more intuitive interface. If you need to access other tabs, you have a dedicated button for that constantly available. Switching between tabs is made easy with a side-scrolling interface which rarely ever lags. From the same menu, you can easily access previously closed tabs, open new tabs, or close all tabs with one touch. Another dedicated button in the Nav menu takes you directly to a feature called Speed Dial. Really, this is just a bookmarks page, but since it is so easy to access and use, I’ve already found this to become one of my favorite features. Another great feature is that the Nav menu itself changes depending on what page of the app you are on (web tab, Speed Dial, tab view, etc.) so that you have instant access to the features you need, when you need them.

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Compared to Chrome: 

Recently, the Chrome browser app updated to now show browser tabs as separate windows when you use the recent apps button in Lollipop. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Maybe it’s just because I’ve only had to use this for a couple of days, but it doesn’t feel intuitive to me to have to open all of my recent apps with the Lollipop UI button in order to access my other Chrome tabs. I also find that this makes it really easy to accidentally dismiss a browser tab when really you were just trying to close some of your other open apps.

3. It’s fast.

In general, Opera’s UI is very quick. Like I mentioned previously, the tab functionality is far better in my opinion than Chrome and it works incredibly quickly and smoothly. Additionally, the menus inside the app open fluidly and without stutter, including when bringing up a list of downloads or entering and exiting the settings page. Now, on to the page load tests.

When running multiple tests loading a post page on HOOKD.in in Opera, here are the times I found (in order of the three tests).

00:04:03 – 00:03:44 – 00:03:56

Not too bad.

I also decided to test it on a site that was a little more heavy, Tested.com – one of my favorite tech sites. Their homepage has a lot more going on including embedded YouTube videos, photos, links and more. Loading this page and measuring in the same manner, the time I clocked with Opera is below.

19:25

(Keep in mind this is not the time to a usable state of the page, this is the time to load the page in its entirety.) 

Compared to Chrome: 

I handled the page load tests the same way with Chrome, clocking the time from when I selected the tab with the website I was testing (a post page on HOOKD.in) to the time the loading bar reached its end. The load times are below.

00:04:03 – 00:04:94 – 00:03:40

When running the same test for Tested.com, the time I clocked is below.

00:15:92

(Keep in mind this is not the time to a usable state of the page, this is the time to load the page in its entirety.) 

So, as you can see, the two are quite comparable. Chrome did, in fact, clock the fastest load time at 00:03:40, but only a mere 4 milliseconds faster than Opera. With the heavier page, Chrome seems to handle the weight better, resulting in a faster load time. However, the fact that Opera runs that close, and in some cases faster, to Chrome says a lot to me. Chrome is (or should be) optimized for Android considering it is from the same Google lineage, but Opera, a lesser-know, lesser-used browser keeps its pace with ease.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who got the same results here. In a blog post from Laptopmag.com, Opera was tested alongside Chrome, Dolphin and Firefox. Laptopmag.com declared Chrome and Opera a tie when it came to speed. It is worth mentioning that Opera won their overall comparison when that blog was published in 2014.

To sum it all up, I’m very pleased with Opera on Android. I’d highly recommend that you give it a try if you aren’t one of the 50 Million people already using it. The features, speed and design make it a clear runner compared to the big boy, Chrome, and in some cases, put it a step ahead. For now, I’ll continue to use the two for different situations until I can make a clear decision of which is my favorite.

Do you use Chrome or Opera? Tell me what you think of the two in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKDin!

– A.J.

This year’s E3 conference was packed full of exciting announcements, reveals, trailers, hardware and more. Unless you dedicated those few days to keeping up with all the action, it’s likely you missed some big announcements. Somehow, one announcement that I find particularly interesting and game-changing slid under my radar, and after reading about it days later, I couldn’t believe I haven’t…

Camera Candy: Sony Reveals New A7R II – Full Frame & Internal 4K

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard the buzz surrounding the release of Sony’s new mirrorless beast, the A7R II. When it comes to full-frame mirrorless cameras, your options are kind of limited. Sony’s A7 line, including the A7, A7 II, A7S, A7R has become the most popular choice in this category. Now, with the release of the A7R II, Sony is looking to solidify it’s dominance in…

So, you own, or work for, a small business, and your marketing budget is small – almost non-existent – what can you do? Contrary to popular belief, marketing doesn’t have to be expensive! There are plenty of cost-effective means of getting your brand and message out there, you just have to get creative and put in the work. One thing’s for sure. If you abandon your marketing strategy, your brand…

1. Open Google Now or the Google Search App and select the hamburger menu located in the search bar.

2. Choose ‘Customize’ in the expanded menu.

3. On the next page, scroll down and tap ‘Places’.

4. Select the ‘Home’ or ‘Work’ address you wish to change.

5. Enter your new address – voila!

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For more quick tips like these, be sure to subscribe and follow on Twitter – @HOOKDin!

– A.J.

Meet Lily: a fully-autonomous drone that will follow your every movement, capture all of the amazing things that you do, and keep a smile on the whole time. Snowboarding, hiking, sight-seeing, running and even kayaking can all be captured with Lily even if you’re out there all alone. How’s it work, you ask? Simply pair the Lily drone to the tracking device, toss it in the air, and begin recording. Lily’s detection system will follow the tracking device which can be carried in your bag, pocket, or in a waterproof bracelet case.

Lily’s pre-programmed modes include:

FOLLOW: The Lily drone will follow close behind and capture your every movement.

FLY UP: Lily will slowly increase altitude while keeping you in focus.

SLIDE: Lily follows at an angle from the side.

LEAD: Lily keeps a steady pace ahead of you to capture that pretty smile.

LOOP: Lily takes an epic panorama view while you stand in the center of it all.

THE SPECS

Lily’s tracking and pre-programmed modes are impressive by themselves, but the camera isn’t too shabby either. With a 94º field of view, the camera can shoot 1080p at 60fps and 720p at 30 fps. The built-in image stabilization keeps your shots steady, and your photos will have nice detail with 12MP stills. Rated at IP67, Lily can be submerged in up to one meter of water while maintaining functionality, although the creators suggest you not operate the motors underwater. To maintain its underwater rating, Lily’s battery, which lasts 20 mins of flight time is not interchangeable. The creators of Lily also specify that the drone does not have obstacle avoidance in order to keep costs low, so you will need to make sure you’re flying in open airways.

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Other details:

Min tracking distance from user: 5 ft.

Max tracking distance from user: 100 ft.

Min altitude: 5 ft.

Max altitude: 50 ft.

Max speed 25mph.

Charge time to full: 2 hrs.

Weight: 2.8 lbs.

Video format: H. 264, .mp4 format

The Lily drone looks to be one sweet little device. Whereas with some of today’s most popular drones such as DJI’s phantom line, the Lily, once shipped will have no learning curve, and will be ready to capture your life’s amazing moments right out of the box – a huge selling point. If you’re interested in getting your hands on one of these, now’s the time to do so. Right now, until June 15th, you can pre-order Lily for $499. After that date, the price will steadily increase to the regular price of $999. So far, Lily is expected to ship in February of 2016.

What do you think about Lily? Let me know in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKDin. Also, be sure to subscribe for more posts like these!

– A.J.

What does it take to be the best? A solid brand! Here are 5 Tips for Building a Better Brand.

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

What does it take to be the best in your industry? It takes time, a team, a vision, a good product, but maybe most importantly, it takes a brand. A solid brand gives your current and potential customers something to hold on to. Instead of just buying a product and being done with you, having a…

Last night while indulging in the latest episode of my favorite NBC television series, The Blacklist, a new TV spot from Google aired and caught my eye. The one-minute spot circled around the idea of “A question is the most powerful force in the world.” Overtaking the TV screen, the commercial demonstrates in full animation the search possibilities of the Google App, highlighting such features as…

SPECS

The ASUS Zenbook ux305 is a great portable machine that packs a punch. Its 1920 x 1080 IPS display hits the sweet spot at 13.3 inches and takes advantage of a matte screen to eliminate glare. Under the hood is 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, and the new Intel Core M processor that allows for a fan-less design and silent operation. If that’s not enough, this bad boy comes packed with ports. If one of your deciding factors against the new Macbook was the lack of ports, you’ll be happy to know that the ASUS Zenbook ux305 includes 3 USB 3.0 ports, a Micro HDMI port, SD card reader, a headphone/mic jack and DC-in. Go ahead. Charge and store at the same time – no accessories required.

Benchmark results from LaptopMag.com

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PROS/CONS

After reading over a couple of hands-on reviews (linked at the bottom of the article,) there really aren’t many cons to speak of. The primary complaint about the Zenbook is that the speakers are very small and don’t produce very good sound. In fact, according to tests completed by LaptopMag.com, the ASUS Zenbook ux305 falls well below the industry standard when it comes to decibel level. The only other shortcoming that I came across was that the keyboard lacks backlighting.

As for the pros, well, there are a few. LaptopMag.com’s hands-on testing revealed that the ASUS Zenbook ux305 outperforms the industry average in various areas including graphics performance, hard drive speed and battery life. Aside from this, the ASUS packs in all of these benefits at the reasonable price of only $700 direct from the ASUS online store.

WHO’S IT FOR?

Unlike the new Apple MacBook, the Zenbook ux305 has the power and accessibility to be considered for a wider range of consumers. Whereas the Apple MacBook is panning out to be a glorified Facebook browsing machine, the ASUS is more capable – able to have multiple devices (USB drives, monitors, etc.) plugged in while charging. I wouldn’t go as far as saying this laptop is for the pro user – one who is in constant need of heavy photo and video editing – but I think this device is great for those who need a portable, daily machine that will hold up well for heavy web browsing, emailing and light photo/video work.

So, if you’re in the market for a new laptop that keeps the portability, and still fits in some performance, the ASUS Zenbook ux305 may be something you should consider. If you’re interested in reading more about this sweet little machine, check out some of the hands-on reviews below.

Wired.com Review

TechRadar.com Review

LaptopMag.com Review

If you like what you’ve read here, be sure to subscribe for more posts like this, and connect on Twitter (@HOOKDin) to stay up on the latest.

– A.J.