Tad Gear Dispatch Bag

Well boys and girls, it's been a while since I posted.  But fear not, I just received my newest package from TAD Gear, the Dispatch Bag (pictures coming soon).

I've had this for one day and really like it.  I'm not quite a TAD Gear fanboy, but they do make great stuff.  I've had the Lightspeed for about 7 years and it's held up like a champ.  It's been my daily computer bag, hiking bag, and went to Iraq for a while.  It still looks and works like new.

I expect the same from the Dispatch Bag.  I got this more to carry notebooks and a laptop.  The Lightspeed can do the same thing, and actually has a bit more room, but the Lightspeed doesn't allow as easy access to everything.  The zipper on the main compartment makes it hard to see everything down inside, whereas the Dispatch Bag is wide open.

The DB features a padded pocket for a laptop, plenty of other areas for organizing your pens and stuff, several zipper pouches and the famous flashlight cave.  That said, I have to agree with other reviews that note that the flashlight cave is a little too narrow for a normal sized hand to fit in all the way.  Anyway, it's there if you want to try to use it.  

The DB also features Molle on the front and sides and I managed to fit an OP1  pouch on the side below the shoulder strap and it works pretty well.  I started out with it on the front, but it stuck out more than I would have liked and could possibly be the difference between fitting under an airplane seat or not.

Just like all the other TAD Gear, it's built like a tank and seems to have storage in all the right places.  If you packed well, I think it could serve as an overnight bag, if you weren't travelling for more than a day.

Stay tuned for updates and pictures once I get some time and more experience with this.

Nice job again TAD Gear.

Moto X Pure

The Moto X Pure
I was happy to see another version of the Moto X.  I had the 1st gen and it held up nicely and was probably the best phone I had ever used.  I also like Motorola products.  So when I saw they were releasing a new phone that could be used on (virtually) any carrier, I thought I'd check it out.

I'm not going to bore you with all the specs. They're out on a million different websites.  Google it if you're really interested.  I'm here to give you my impression.

First off, it's a giant phone compared to the 1st gen version.  I got used to it pretty quickly though and even though it didn't fit in the pockets as easily, it was not a big deal.

It also didn't have all the bloatware that comes with carriers' phones since I ordered it right from Motorola.  Customers can use MotoMaker to customize their phones during the ordering process.  I got the blue back, as opposed to the leather or bamboo and was happy with the handling of the phone.

One of the best things was the turbo charge feature.  You could get nearly a fully charge in about 15 minutes using the provided turbo charging cable.

So, bottom line, I was pretty happy with the phone...until I dropped it and shattered the screen.  It shattered the screen at the bottom of course, where the buttons are, so the phone was pretty much toast.
What really surprised me was that I had the bumper on the phone (the "case" that came with the phone) and a screen protector, and it only fell from a height of about 2 1/2 feet.

Seems as though a short distance like that shouldn't do as much damage to a phone, but I guess I dropped it on it's sweet spot.

So, overall, despite how much I liked the phone, I would not buy it again.  In fact, I ended up trading it in during Verizon's sale of the Droid Turbo 2, which allowed users to trade in phones even with broken screens.  The whole idea behind that is that the Turbo 2 has an unbreakable screen.

Anyway, as good of a phone as it is (was), I don't think I'd recommend it based on how fragile it is.