Over the last 10 years, I have written many reviews covering phones, software, gadgets and all sorts of accessories. Coming up shortly, and over the Christmas and New Year period, I am going to add some of these reviews.
It sure does bring back memories.
Another year has passed, and the competition is expanding rapidly. There are 5 key operators that exist – Apple, Google, Amazon, RIM and Microsoft.
My predictions for each for 2013 are as follows –
Apple – more of the same. The iPhone 5 becomes the 5S just with better internals and a software feature exclusive to that model. Possible colour options too. iOS 7 will add dynamically changing icons and improve the operating system is minor ways. The iPad Mini will get thicker and heavier but have a retina or near retina screen. The new iPad will be better somehow, probably with better internals like a spec bump on the camera, processor and maybe memory up to 128gb. The remainder of the Apple products will start to feature more iOS like software integration.
Google – expect to see mind blowing specification devices – phones and tablets. Huge screened phones will be abundant. Android will in 2013 close the gap between its Eco system and Apple. But will it be as easy to use? Or will android turn in to a computer operating system and be too clever. Market share will increase again. It wouldn’t surprise me if Samsung release a handset to excel in performance and art form over Apple.
Microsoft – more and more handset will appear and it’s market share will start to grow rapidly at the expense of Apple and Google. This company has the ability to become a major player again. It has plenty of money in the bank at the moment, and has a decent suite of office / work applications that everyone is familiar with.
RIM – Blackberry 10 get launched end of January 2013. I’m certain it will be a big fanfare event. However, by the end of the year, they will have been bought by either Microsoft or Samsung. Maybe Amazon even.
Amazon – and now on to the dangerous competitor, armed and ready to obliterate its competition. New tablets and ereaders plus it’s first smartphone. In 2013 it will strengthen its position and offering. But I say watch out everyone. 2014 is the year Amazon explodes with great new products along with a ready made ecosystem. Plus they already have the cloud sorted and understand about logistics.
Interesting times ahead. What do you think?
Just a very quick post.
Halfbrick Studios have reduced all their games to free for the next 24 hours. So time to get your Fruit Ninja.
When Google Maps was available to download in the AppStore I sensed a mass rush to install it. This was backed up by it only needing a few hours to rush to the top of the free charts.
Sadly, on iOS you cannot change the default mapping app from Apple Maps to Google Maps. But you can fool Siri.
Here’s how. Hold the home button, and ask Siri to take you to the nearest pizza restaurant. This will fire up Apple Maps. But if you say to Siri, take me to the nearest pizza restaurant “via transit” then Google Maps gets launched.
Simple but effective.
The latest and greatest handsets from Apple and Android respectively are vying for your wallet, but each offer a different experience/cost.
The Nexus 4 is undoubtably a cheap/great value handset. It costs over a third less than the iPhone. Yet the pain of ordering and receiving one is widely documented as painful and hit or miss. Many people who ordered on first day of release, still haven’t received their phone, and Google cant tell them when or where it is. The MD of Google UK has even apologised. Also, to sell a handset at such a low price , quality components in some areas are missing. If they can’t get the selling right, then the after sales service will also be fractured. I have experienced this when I tried to buy a Nexus 7 and kept receiving faulty units which became impossible to return and receive a refund.
The iPhone 5 is a work or art. It is also a mortgage when it comes to purchasing. But what is you get is a no holds bar piece of engineering excellence. However, unlike Google you have the best customer service experience, either online, via the telephone or in the bricks and mortar stores. Apple also provide training, both free and paid on all their devices so you get the most out of it. Also, if you buy in store, they help set it up so it’s ready to go. Superb for beginners. And then there is the sales. Even if its out of stock, you still get an estimation of delivery, which is normally accurate. This weekend Apple sold 2m handsets in China. Huge. By the end of this year, the iPhone 5 will be selling in over 100 countries. Just think of the logistics required.
So, question is would you buy a Nexus 4 or pay more for the iPhone 5 based on the experience from purchase to end of use ?
A month or so ago Google opened up its music service to other countries other than the USA.
I jumped with joy. I downloaded the software and started the procedure of uploading my 10,000 songs. Well what endured was a painfully slow upload along with Google’s server crashing. After 22 days non stop uploading my collection was all in place. Along the way I did curse with it taking so long. My thoughts for waiting so long was two fold.
Firstly, I would have my entire music collection in the cloud which would act as a backup. As Google don’t charge for the first 20,000 songs its a free backup. Also Google stream the music at a much higher bit rate than Apple and Amazon. I rip all my CDs at 320 bit rate, and this is the same rate Google use. Apple and Amazon are at a max of 254. Whilst that might not sound a big difference it actually does make a big difference. Instruments are clearer, in fact the whole sound spectrum improves noticeably.
I have been reluctant to move away from physical CDs as I like holding and then adding to my collection on the bookcase. It feels like you have something. However, sometimes I have downloaded the odd album or song. So as we download more, so does cloud storing of our media become more common.
So for the first time since that big upload, I’ve put being using Google Music non stop today. I am playing my entire collection in shuffle mode. And it’s just works. And my iPad’s memory has not been used to store any of the songs. Nor could it fit all 10,000 songs. So being able to stream my music at a high bit rate has been very enjoyable. If only the upload had been faster.
So long as you have access to unlimited internet you can have access to all your songs and play them. This in turns negates the need for huge memory sizes on tablets or phones for storing.
I do wonder what would happen if the internet got hacked. Sometimes local offline storage is simpler and safer.
Have you used or do you use a streaming service? Do you feel safe using it? Is if the future?
To my annoyance, I have discovered a fault with the iPhone 5 which is a real nuisance. Every iPhone 5 has this problem, but not everyone will have had it hit them yet.
I first noticed that I was in a high reception area, but my iPhone 5 had “No Service” on the status bar. Previously I had been out of range for over 10 mins. So after some investigation in the web and with my handset I can conclude the following.
Creating the fault – simply allow your iPhone 5 to be out of network range for more than 10 mins. The 5 drops permanently from the network.
Workarounds – None of the workarounds are ideal. First turn mobile data off. Second if you lose reception try turning airplane mode and or off. This works for some people. Otherwise you need to hard reset the iPhone 5 by holding the home and power button together until phone reboots with Apple logo.
Cure – testing iOS beta 6.1 seems to resolve this. Just how to wait for the official release which could be months away.
Ideal ? Not at all !
Update – by turning off mobile data but using wifi instead the iPhone 5 has kept a signal is my rural location and battery life has dramatically increased.
Have you ever wondered why we seem so fascinated with the next latest smartphone release, be it from Apple or Samsung or even HTC. Problem is with each new model, companies are finding it harder and harder to really make them better. What you normally get is a slightly faster processor, better camera and a piece of software you need, well you need apparently according to the respective marketing departments.
Have you ever thought about only ever buying last years model? It will probably have firmware updates to take it to the latest android or iOS versions, so it won’t miss out on hardly any features, if any at all. Also, after being released for a year, most of the irritating bugs that were present at release have been ironed out. Plus you’re probably save around £90-140.
Examples that come to mind are the iPhone 4S vs the iPhone 5. Buy the iPhone 4S for a lot less than when it first came out. Plus the accessories are all being heavily discounted due to Apple’s new lightning connector. So you’re save on that speaker dock too. The Samsung Galaxy S3 vs the S2. Same principle here but some might prefer the S2 as its easier to hold since its not as large.
Food for thought? What do you think?
Today I spent my first proper time with Windows 8 on a tablet. The tablet looked good and was fairly thin at 8.9mm. It also looked fairly familiar with the metro interface and icons with Microsoft word and excel apps.
So what are my initial impressions. Well, it seemed sluggish. The web browser seemed slower to load pages than my iPad. It wasn’t clear how everything worked, but over time I started to learn more and more. It also lacked the depth of the app ecosystem.
So while I wouldn’t consider it at the moment, future generations could be of interest.
Not a day doesn’t go by with news of another mammoth 5 inch + phablet/phone device being released. Samsung really started the trend with the Samsung Note, and more recently introduced the Note 2 which featured an even larger screen than the original Note.
Now, manufacturers like HTC, LG, ZTE and others are all scrambling to produce 5 inch plus devices. My thoughts are in two minds about the larger screens based on my experience when I owned the Samsung Note for several months. The larger screen area is superb for viewing anything, the S-Pen on the original Note was ok but not as well implemented as the newer model, but it did become a nuisance when out and about trying to make sure I had clothes with large enough pockets. To be honest, most of my clothing fitted the Note size with relative ease. But it still was bulky and cumbersome.
Also, is 5-6 inches a compromise. It sort of sits between a 4 inch phone and a 7 inch plus tablet. The larger and smaller devices have more focus on their tasks. A 4 inch phone is more pocketable and lighter. A 7 inch tablet is even better for viewing websites and media.
So what do you all think?
