Samsung has gone on record to state it is actively working on a watch, and hoping to beat Apple to the gate. My initial thoughts are plastic lovers rejoice.
However, since that statement Google has also gone on record saying it is looking at releasing the same.
Since smartphones have reached a peak in terms of performance or ground breaking changes, it makes sense that the next big thing is not a phone.
Samsung has released a range of its own S4 accessories. This makes the device even more attractive. From Smart Covers to S Bands to more.
The Gamepad looks like an excellent addition.
And does the wireless charging pad.
And then there are more cases, premium headphones and more as below. Just no dock shown yet.
Amazon’s App Store is celebrating its 2nd year birthday this week and therefore will be offering promotions on certain apps through this weekend, discounting some stuff over 50% off. And there’s still the famous Free App of the Day.
Android and Fire users rejoice.
Google Flight Search is now available in the UK, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands. You can search for the most affordable travel times and airlines, Flight Search also allows you to compare alternative airports in the same country or region, and there’s a handy map view to make this a little easier.
Click here for the web page.
The U.S. version of the Galaxy S4 was put to the test by benchmark specialists Primate Labs. The Galaxy S4 scored a 3,163 on the standard Geekbench 2 speed test, nearly twice the iPhone 5′s score of 1,596. That score was also good enough to top the upcoming HTC One, the Nexus 4 and the previous-generation Galaxy S III. The chart below shows the Galaxy S 4′s results compared to other leading smartphones tested by Primate Labs.
Of course this is a brand new phone, so we will just wait for the iphone 5S with faster processor. Also whilst these tests are impressive, real life use is what counts.
I always thought Samsung was trying to go it along, but never realised have far they have got to actually achieving this goal. Since owning my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and watching the S4 launch, this is where Samsung has got –
1) it’s own app stores, film, music and more stores for purchasing content but in one convenient place and all nicely presented now.
2) The ability to upload your music to their cloud and stream songs back
3) S Voice was a joke, but it is now much more polished and works very well
4) Maps and Navigation – this is still Google
5) it’s has its own email app
6) it’s uses Chaton for communications like iMessage
7) It has a Learning Hub – a take on Apple’s education offering
8) S Heatlh – the beginning of offering accessories like the iPhone
9) Backup of key data to its servers and using Dropbox
10) and lastly its has its new Home Sync box to create an Eco system in people’s homes.
And all the services work a lot better or are new since I had the Samsung Galaxy S3 last year.
It’s bad news for us Brits. Samsung is only using a 1.9GHz quad-core processor which will work better with the U.K.’s forthcoming 4G LTE networks.
Sky Sports is available in pay-as-you-go form on its Now TV service, priced at £9.99 for 24 hours of access to Sky’s six sports channels. That does however open up streams for all of the sports it airs, like F1, soccer, cricket and more, on TV-connected devices like the Xbox 360 and its mobile apps.
So watching an F1 live race is going to cost a cool £10 per race. Is that value?
Yesterday I hit a stumbling block and something that has incensed me.
The Note 2 cannot be used with a micro sd card properly. You are told you can expand the memory using one but this is a lie. It can only be used for photos and music you transfer there from iTunes or another source. The Note 2 sold by Three has 16gb memory of which about 12gb is free.
So all apps, movies and music you purchase get saved in to the pathetic 12gb internal memory. Gone is the option to move apps to the micro sd card. Third party solutions don’t work and rooting voids your warranty and doesn’t work either. And why should I need to do this after spending over £500 on a phone.
Apparently this is a jelly bean premium suite feature. Even worse still is that when you link your Dropbox account to the phone it creates a cache. Mine was 4gb. So I ran out of memory and didn’t have all my apps on the device either.
So what should have been a simple return and refund to the Three Store was a stressful affair. First I was told they only do exchanges and no refunds and I would have to call customer services to get a refund agreed. Customer services told me it was the stores problem. So I exercised my legal rights and told the store they had mis sold the phone as the memory is not expandable. After a call back 5 mins later they agreed to do a full refund. Very illegal tactics stating the cant do refunds in the first place!
Now had this been Apple, the refund process would have been easy and painless.
Anyway despite the memory issue the Note 2 was amazing. In the meantime I’m back to my boring but reliable iPhone 5. Now the dilemma on finding something else.
Spotify has removed the 5 play limit imposed on us UK users of the free version of its music streaming service.
Removing the cap, which was introduced in April 2011 now brings it in line with other European markets where Spotify began ditching the 5 play limit in March.
What hasn’t changed, however, is the 10 hours of streaming per month limit associated with the Spotify Free.
