The WSJ is reporting that Yahoo had paid $1.1bn for social networking site Tumblr.
The deal will be officially unveiled tomorrow in a press event.
All posts by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond
Perspective – Apple sales vs Samsung figures
Samsung earned industry praise for estimating that it will ship 10 million Galaxy S4 to carriers in its first month on the market, six months after the same journalists voiced disappointment that Apple had sold only 5 million iPhone 5’s in its first 3 days.
Just a little perspective.
And a bit more.
The Apple iPhone is launched as being available in 16/32/64gb. Guess what. From day 1 you could order whatever size you wanted. The Samsung S4 was launched as available in 16/32/64gb. Guess what. From day 1 only the 16gb was available.
Just a little bit more perspective.
iOS or Android or Blackberry or Windows Phone
Have you ever visited a website that has the word mac, or Apple, or android, or windows or Blackberry used in its title, or that promotes one operating system over another. It is rare to find a site that isn’t biased towards one system or one manufacturer.
Why does this happen? Fact of life. Advertising. Appealing to get more views and more advertising. PR companies send free phones to a lot of these websites, with NDA agreements and such like. If a manufacturer is spending thousands or more on advertising you are not going to slate their new phone.
That’s why Gavin’s Gadgets is so non biased. Look around. No advertising. And any devices reviewed have been bought from my pockets so far. I genuinely love tech and everything with a pulse. That is anything with a on / off button that does something techie. Even my vacuum cleaner is a gadget. It’s a Sebo. It has sensors that detect thickness of carpet or floor covering and raises or lowers the height from the floor. It flashes as it adjusts the height. Hoovering is so much more fun.
So what operating system do I use or prefer. Well believe it or not I currently have every operating system in the house and love them for what they are. I also am not afraid to move to something else if it is better. I want the best or the best compromise for a certain situation. I am also not afraid to mince my words if I don’t agree with something.
Currently my phone of daily choice is the HTC One. My backup phone for when my daily adventures may be more rough and tumble due to the outdoor weather environment of Dartmoor, is the Nokia Lumia 620. In fact I have a weak spot for this phone and the operating system. iPad Mini for tablet viewing and for work I have a Blackberry Curve.
My phone and tablet choices change quite a lot, but I have to say I don’t dislike any platform. I like to find the positive attributes of each platform, and apply them to a given situation.
My dream smartphone doesn’t exist yet but it is getting close. My key ingredients for this phone would be practically unbreakeable, water and dust resistant,a 5 inch 1080p screen, week long battery life with auto charging via light, stunning audio quality and speakers and pureview 808 camera quality or higher, all in a 9mm body with expandable memory and replaceable battery.
Problem is that if a company manufactured the perfect smartphone as described above, nobody would really need to buy another. And that is why you will never get to this stage as companies need you always to have and want an upgrade path.
Three UK Customer Support – Where is the HTC One update? Their advice was crazy
I have phoned Three UK customer support trying to get some sort of eta regarding the HTC One firmware update from 1.28 to 1.29.
I didn’t want to root and use a custom rom, as I really wanted stock and some apps when rooted don’t play ball.
So I phoned Three UK support, since on twitter they had announced the update was live and would appear over the air. Sadly that advice was wrong. So I phoned Three UK just to get some estimates. After chatting for a while, the guy turned round and said, you sound technically minded, just unlock the boot loader, add a recovery, do a nandroid backup, root and flash the updated rom. Unbelievable advice. So as the call was recorded, I had nothing to lose.
I setup an account at HTC Dev, followed the instructions to unlock the boot loader, and continued with all of the above. Fortunately, on the HTC One forum within XDA Developers there is a guide to flashing and some helpful people. I borrowed a windows laptop. I then had to download a lot of different files and the custom rom. I got stuck a few times but thanks to my twitter buddy Paul and a few people on XDA I managed to complete everything. Actually now it will be so much easier to flash anything.
So what’s the difference. I’m still using as the base on the custom rom stock HTC One, but the latest firmware. This improves the camera so much. New widgets, and lots more tweaks. I am using a custom rom called Android Revolution which is very good. I can turn the phone back on just by pressing volume down. No more stretching for the power button. I have system toggles in the notification area. The battery life is much better so far.
This has really transformed my HTC One into a more friendly to use, powerful machine.
Samsung S4 news
Samsung announced that by the end of next week they will have sold 10m Samsung Galaxy S4 phones. They also short changed the same amount of people by not being transparent about the free user memory and what the memory card can and can’t be used for.
The S4 health accessories are now available to pre order from Clove Technology . These include the bands, scales and heart monitor.
Samsung announced on BBC Watchdog it would potentially be releasing a software update to free up some internal memory space. Watch this space!
Apex Launcher Themes – 16 options
The beauty of android of iOS is the ability to customise it. This can be done without rooting just by using a different launcher which has optional themes. I personally prefer Apex Launcher Pro.
Below are 16 screen shots and a note of the theme name. Let me know your favourite.
First up is the default theme.
Next up is Crystal HD
Cube Theme
Next is DCikonZ theme
Next up is iDroid
Inspire
iPhoned HD
Jellybean HD
To make sure these all display, the next 8 will be in the next article.
Smart Remote for the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4
Both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One have an IR Blaster. If the included software is not powerful and feature packed enough there is now an app that covers all your remotes, called Smart IR for HTC One or Smart IR for Samsung S4.
With Smart InfraRed Remote for your HTC One or S4, you can add, create and customize any number of remotes, combining controls from any of your existing remotes. Imagine a single remote on which the CHANNEL UP button controls your Set Top Box from your TV provider, the VOLUME keys control your home theater system and the arrow keys control your TV’s menu. If your mobile rings the remote mutes your TV etc. If the app detects a sudden increase in volume, like big explosions it can automatically lowest the volume. This is the first app available making use of the IR Blaster and consequently costs more than most apps at £6.42.
The links are as follows: HTC One Smart Remote and Samsung S4 Smart Remote
Smart Remote can control your TV, Set Top Box, Lights, Projectors, etc.. Virtually anything that has an Infrared Receiver can be controlled by Smart Remote with the correct remote codes. DSLR camera support apparently is in the pipeline.
There is one difference between the S4 and HTC One, the S4 due to a hardware limitation is not able to do automatic learning of codes.
Apex Launcher Themes – 16 options continued
Carrying on from my last post, here are the last 8 themes. Decide which is your favourite and let me know and why.
Lustre HD
Plate Theme
Plus
Rage
Robot
Splashy HD
Tersus
Touchwiz
My favourite are ironically Touchwiz and Lustre. What’s yours ?
Thanks to my HTC One – news notoriety
Just after 10.30pm on Monday 13th May 2013, a snow blizzard was in full swing in Princetown, Dartmoor. I discovered this when I went to walk one of my dogs. My next reaction was to pull my HTC One out of my pocket and snap in continuous mode 20 shots. I had a quick look at them, and agreed with the phone’s choice for the best shot of the 20. I quickly shared the photo via twitter.
There has been much discussion around the HTC One camera, it’s strengths and weaknesses, but one can’t deny that it’s super fast shutter speed enabled me to capture the snow as shown below.
And that is why I like the camera on the HTC One. It always captures that moment. Sometimes the 4mp shooter lacks details on scenic far away shots but the fast shutter speed is a good compromise.
Following my tweet, little did I know that I would be contacted by Apex news agency, ITV news, BBC news, Channel 4 news and Channel 5 news. The photo has appeared in all of these channels and also in the Daily Mail online and the Metro. Photo taken from the Metro (thanks to Glenn for noticing this and taking the photo from the paper)
I am also expecting the photo to appear in a number of national and local newspapers. Below are some of the online links. If you happen to see any other references can you please let me know.
Funny thing is snow is not unusual at here on the Moors. In 2009 I opened my front door to over 4 foot drifts.
And using the classic HTC HD2 I took this snow photo of the local church.
Larry Page – Google’s Vision
At the end of keynote speech at Google’s Developer conference, Larry Page appeared on stage.
With his croaky groggy voice he managed to detail his vision. In fact the more he spoke, the more compelling he became. Larry outlined a vision of a world where technology is simply freeing us from remembering phone numbers, calendar reminders, or even being lost again. He added that he imagined a world where everyone has access to the latest in ideas and education. And where those who already have the access and the technical skills bear a responsibility to help spread the best technology has to offer to everyone else.
Larry Page started talking about himself, about every Google employee, the 6,000 in attendance at the conference and the 1 million people watching on YouTube. Just a shame it couldn’t stream smoothly. Larry Page continued as to how he wanted an army of tech-savvy people to help him transform, not just Silicon Valley, but every industry, from automobiles to healthcare, and every institution,from law to every type of industry.
I believe he was after world dominance, but selling it as a flowery vision. Larry Page also added how the world’s tech companies don’t share and end up leeching off each other. Ironically, after the speech, Google’s lawyers issued a cease and desist letter to Microsoft over their WP8 YouTube app.
Whatever your views on Google, it clearly is a company being spearheaded by a man with a vision. And that is a powerful one.
My only concern is that once Google become the master of their apps and services, will there be any competition left to compete with them. Are we moving to a monopolised tech world, and will this provide simplicity or make us into dumb humans who no longer think for themselves.
