All posts by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

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About Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

President, CEO & Editor of https://gavinsgadgets.com Reviews & News of Technology

Warning if you are buying a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – the sim has restrictions – read on

Android, Tech News

Clove Technology (www.clove.co.uk) started dispatching stock to its customers. It noticed the following sticker on the box.

notesim

In a nutshell, the Note 3 European SIM model, SM-N9005 has restricted functionality limitations regarding SIM cards on the Note 3.

As a consequence, this is the advisory message from Clove Technology.

“If you travel internationally (outside Europe) and usually insert a local SIM card when in those countries, the Note 3 will NOT be able to use the local network. It will lose all mobile connectivity with the exception of emergency calls.

For example, if you travel to the USA and insert a SIM card issued in the USA, you will not be able to use the Note 3 for any voice calls, text messages and mobile data connection. It will work via a WiFi connectivity only.

We are accepting and shipping all orders from Europe, with the exception of those countries mentioned.

As a result any orders received outside of Europe will not be shipped”

Just why Samsung has done this is unknown at present.

The same applies to phones sold in other regions. It only works with sims sold in that region. The Note 3 is a business phone and I cannot believe Samsung have been so underhand imposing this restriction without pre warning its commercial customers and its end users.

After the S4 internal memory saga, you would have thought Samsung would have learnt about being open with information that impacts its devices. Clearly not.

The secrets of iOS 7 and the iPhone 5S

Apple, Tech News,

iOS 7 to most appears to be a brighter and lighter face lift over iOS 6.

But actually it is a lot more. Apart from its 64 bit architecture support and the A7 and M7 chips inside the iPhone 5S, there are still approximately 100 new API’s under a non disclosure agreement that having been made public, even to developers.

The M7 coprocessor manages the sensors and does this without using the full power of the A7 processor. So what is Apple keeping secret from everyone with iOS 7 and these processors?

1. Game Controllers – expect to read and see more of this. This will be a game changer, excuse the pun. Playing games with a game controller creates a whole new experience. It will also be the death of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP Vita.

2. Sport accessories – expect to see more sport related accessories and apps

3. iWatch – hidden APi’s to reveal the extra functionality

4. Cross device syncing instantaneously

5. New hardware support for future devices.

So what else do you think will arrive?

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 impressions

Android, Tech News

Blog user “Jah” picked up his Samsung Note 3 the other day.

These were his comments and first opinions –

The S-Pen application is much more advanced than on the Note 2 & 8. There are many more templates (like checklist and schedule) and much better integration with Evernote. You could get away with not using Awesome Note (which is inly on the Note 8). The accuracy and precision of the S-Pen really makes this a “Note” taker. Music playback is more neutral than the HTC One with good control of the lower registers. Voices sound realistic and I “see” the 3D sound stage. Need to spend more time listening. There are lots of Samsung apps. I am interested in the health related ones – will look at these at the weekend. Also I want to use this as a business and personal device so will take some thinking about how best to use Knox. Overall, it is great value. Exactly what I thought I was buying.

After a bit more music playback with quality headphones I realise how neutral the Note 3 is and it reproduces the bass without the need for the Beats software and headphones. I am now very impressed. All my music is from the Amazon cloud store.

So have you received the new Note 3? If so leave a comment with your first views.

The Devils in the Detail – iPhone Homescreen on iOS 7

Apple, Tech News,

With the new iPhones, iOS 7 came along too and provided an opportunity to do something you couldn’t do before.
IMG_0233

Quite simply, you can add unlimited number of apps in a folder. This means if you have 100 games for example you can put them all in one folder. This is something I have actually done. This in turn means you can have all your apps and folders on one page.

So have you any tip?

Further iPhone 5S views

Apple, Reviews, Tech News

The iPhone 5S running iOS 7 has been in use for a few days. It is a really slick piece of kit, partly due to iOS 7 and partly due to its hardware.

In no particular order, the Apple way is simple. If you have a contact listed in your address book, it is simple to do a FaceTime Audio or Video call. There is no setting up, no different app to find, it is just one app and works. If for example you call somebody where reception is dreadful but the iPhone is connected to wifi, then FaceTime Audio is a superb way of calling that person without fear of signal loss.

The integration of iMessages into the Message app in another simple solution. You don’t have to decide which way to send a text message, the phone decides for you. And it lets you know simply by the change in text colour. Blue for an iMessage and green for a SMS text.

Photo sharing and backup to your mac is also idiot proof. Photostream backs up your last 1,000 photos, and then on your mac in iPhoto each month has its own event with photos saved to it whilst your iPhone is on wifi. Create shared photostream albums and as soon as you add a new photo, the other person or people you are sharing the photo album with will receive that photo. A great way for friends and grandparents etc to share with ease. And the camera has one of the best auto modes on a phone. Simple but effective. I just wish it did a 16:9 resolution to match the phone’s wide screen.

Siri is out of beta and it shows. More refined and useful, like a personal assistant. Apple Maps is vastly improved but is still 3 seconds late on turn by turn navigation versus the map. But now background sync and multitasking is implemented into iOS 7, Google Maps works just fine even with turn by turn. And that is the story with iOS 7. Background sync and multitasking makes everything work really well.

And then there is control centre swiping from the bottom up. This is much better than swiping from the top down. And this is another example of simplicity and something done correctly.

Flow and experience. I do not understand what it is, but when you use an iPhone it provides a satisfying experience. Scrolling is ultra smooth too.

Some of your might say Apple is too controlling in its eco system. So what. Do you really think Google or Microsoft is really any different. In fact, all the eco systems are being tightened up and slowly closed.

But, the iPhone is not for everyone. Watching films on a 6 inch screen is a lot easier than a 4 inch screen as are other tasks. That is why the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be ideal for some people for different reasons. It is also a bespoke and well thought out device.

And ironically but the iPhone and Note 3 cost an arm and a leg, yet are the best in their class.

iPhone tips

Apple, Tech News

Two tips today.

Siri by default uses Bing for searches. If you want to use Google do the following –

1- Hold down the Home button to activate Siri.
2- Tell Siri to “Google” or “Search Google” and what you want to search for. For example: “Google Gavins Gadgets”
3- Watch Google results appear.

Grid lines in the camera.

Open the settings app. Look for Photos and Camera. Then turn on or off Grid lines. There is also an option to save the non HDR photo or not.

20130924-083555.jpg

Samsung announces new camera image sensor

Android, Tech News

Samsung has announced their new imaging sensor technology, ISOCELL. They say that ISOCELL will substantially increase light sensitivity by “controlling the absorption of electrons”, which results in better colors in low light.

According to Samsung, BSI (Back Side Illumination), is limited with how much it can affect photos in low light.

ISOCELL has a barrier between each pixel. This will reduce electrical crosstalk by up to 30 percent, and as a side benefit allows a wider field of light absorption so the camera module can actually be thinner.

At the end of the day the proof will be in the end user results

Apple is doomed! These were the headlines prior to Apple’s iPhone Launch but …

Apple, Tech News

So many tech sites seemed disappointed at the iPhone 5C and 5S. Apple held it launch of both phones on the 20th September 2013. And today Apple released its actual sales not shipped of the new iPhones.

So lets put this in perspective. When the first iPhone came out, selling 10m of these in a YEAR was going to be incredible.

So what happened in 3 days. 1 in 800 people from around the entire world bought an iPhone.

In 2011 Apple sold in its launch weekend 4m iPhones.

In 2012 Apple sold in its launch weekend 5m iPhones.

And at best case, Apple was expected to hit 6m by the analysts. In fact it SOLD 9m. 9m iPhones in 3 days.

Another stunning statistic is 200m Apple users updated to iOS 7. No other platform can boast this level of uptake.

Some companies can’t even sell that in a quarter!!

And Tim Cook summarised it perfectly on Twitter.

IMG_0158