Are you looking for a house or apartment? Check out these apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone

The real estate market is showing signs of life again in the US, and has been for the better part of the past year.  While the days of the "NINJa" loan (No Job No Income) mortgage are long gone, generally lower prices in many markets are making housing widely accessible, especially for people who have been saving up money for a down payment, or people who might qualify for an FHA loan, or recently honorably discharged veterans with a VA loan at their disposal.

Markets on the coasts are heating up again, inventory levels in parts of Northern California are as low as a couple weeks (meaning that if no more houses went up for sale, remaining listings would be consumed within two weeks).  Florida and Arizona are the other hot markets right now as well.  If you are in the hunt for a house, that means that finding listings fast, looking at them and contacting the real estate agent quickly can mean the difference between getting the house you want or not.

These apps can be a handy helper in your search for your dream home and they may prove indispensable if you are the type who wants to shop without the help of an agent tracking properties down for you.  All of these apps use GPS, show properties for sale or rent (including apartments), enable quick contact to listing agents and provide a myriad of other tools which you might find useful.  All but one are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone.  Of course it is not a complete listing either, but if you were thinking of looking around, these app are a fine place to start.  So, get out there an find a place to call home!

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House of Marley Redemption Song On-Ear Headphones hands-on

The last time we checked out a pair of high-end House of Marley headphones, it was none other than the $300 priced Destiny Series model, which featured active noise-isolation technology to mute background noise and have you focused solely on the music. Obviously, not everyone is going to want to unload that amount to experience something so grand, therefore, if you’re in that exact boat, you might want to check out the House of Marley Redemption Song On-Ear Headphones instead.

Indeed, is $200 price point might still be perceived as excessive to some, but when Beats Audio headphones cost nearly the same, it’s not all that unconventional. Above all, we absolutely love the homemade look and feel of the Redemption Song headphones, as it employs earth-friendly materials such as recyclable aluminum, FSC certified beech wood, and durable canvas. In a world where futuristic industrial designs are rampant amongst on-ear headphones, it’s undeniably refreshing to find something that harkens back to something that looks as though fine labor and lots of love was put into its construction – instead of something that's churned out by a manufacturing line.

With its cushioned pads, they’re comfortable enough to put over our ears, but it can feel a bit irritating after an extensive amount of time due to the tight feel of the headphones. When it comes to audio quality, its 40mm dynamic moving coil speaker drive produces a frequency range of 15Hz – 22kHz, which essentially churns out some quality tones that don’t sound strained at all. Rather, it delivers some punchy tones that have a lot of bite to make the listening experience pleasant.

All in all, if you really want to stand out from the crowd, especially when those plasticy monster-type headphones are commonly used by people, the House of Marley Redemption Song On-Ear Headphones are a perfect fit – even at $200!

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Qualcomm CEO sees cell base stations in your house

Qualcomm has been able to achieve success in the mobile industry that few other component makers have. The company recently surpassed Intel in market value and is now the biggest company in the semiconductor sector. Qualcomm is well positioned to maintain a leadership in the mobile communications field, since just about every handset manufacturer that uses 3G or LTE technology pays a patent royalty to the chip maker, from Apple to Sony.  CEO Paul Jacobs, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, discussed the company’s perspective on the industry as whole, the “patent wars,” and what the future holds for the company, and you the consumer.

Despite cellular service penetration reaching or nearing saturation in many markets, smartphone shipments are still growing. Qualcomm sees that as continued growth for mobile broadband. Jacobs also commented about Qualcomm’s patent-licensing in the midst of all the patent litigation going on throughout the industry, “Right now, we’re…trying to be as neutral as we can. But you never know. These things can happen. We are always prepared.”

With regard to Apple and Samsung making their stand-alone processors, Dr. Jacobs was not overly concerned. Citing that most of the industry is not investing in developing their own processors, the goal is to get companies that are not using Qualcomm chips to start using them. Many companies are using Qualcomm’s processors and the company will exploit the opportunities to attract more use of the Snapdragon series of processors.

Some forward looking concepts are quite intriguing. Qualcomm is committed to the mobile space, high-performance chips with low power consumption and new radio technologies. The company also sees an opportunity on the network end of the spectrum, “[W]e have a project to improve the capacity of wireless networks by 1,000 times.” Dr. Jacobs also envisions cellular base stations that plug into household Wi-Fi or Ethernet to complement the “big” network, noting that the technology is much smaller and for a home based application, might be the size of a deck of cards.

Other ideas in development involve social and professional network integration as well as devices and automobiles being able to talk to each other (imagine being able to see traffic immediately around you, augmenting your mirrors). Jacobs also floated the concept of walking in to a social or professional engagement and devices can automatically update with relevant information about everyone that is there.

When it came to location based services, such as pushed advertisements as you walk by a McDonald’s restaurant, for example, Dr. Jacobs provided insight to an idea that seems similar to a project being worked on by Google. In the current arena, GPS ads are pushed when you walk by an establishment.  That poses the opportunity for that establishment to also track you, and know when you walk by.  Dr. Jacobs is not a fan of that model of merchants being able to track activity like that, “What will happen in the future is that McDonald’s will just send out information, and as you walk by your phone will decide if you’re interested in that information.”

Qualcomm has some neat ideas looking forward, and it is clear the company will be playing a key role in how mobile technology continues to develop.

source: The Wall Street Journal

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