Category Archives: Android

Google I/O Developer Conference – Highlights plus views

Android, Tech News, Wearables

Yesterday, Google live streamed its developer conference opening keynote. And it wasn’t without drama, when protestors tried to interrupt the affair. In all honestly, I think that was the most exciting part of the near 3 hour opening. Google really needs to try and work at its presentation style, and perhaps copy Apple Keynote’s.

But as they say, its not all about the glamour, its about the substance. So what’s new.

1) Well android lollipop or L for short is the name of the next version of android which comes with 5,000 new API’s. Android L is the new OS for your car, TV and phone or tablet. The design of the OS has had a makeover, using more cards and a tweaked colour scheme. It also runs on ART now instead of Dalvik which will provide a major improvement in smoothness and less lag (hopefully).

2) Unified multitasking with your apps and chrome tabs

3) Remote wipe and finally a kill switch

4) Improved battery performance

5) Android apps on Chrome now being supported

6) Microsoft Office files can be edited natively on Google Drive. Google Slides app also announced. Also android L will allow the phone to split work and personal properly with all work data stored in a separate area. Google called with Android for Work.

7) Google Fit platform – Nike, Adidas, Withings, RunKeeper, Basis and Fuel are all on board to support this new Health framework from Google.

8) Chromecast via the Cloud – A feature called Backdrop run feeds of photos, news, weather while you’re not using the Chromecast. And a cast screen button lets you directly mirror anything on your Android device to your TV as long as you’re using a supported phone or tablet from Samsung, HTC, LG, or the Nexus program. Chromecast will also get Live Screen Mirroring, Casting from Other Networks, Google+ Photo Galleries

9) Google Play Games – new features include a new Game Profile, unified leaderboard which lets users compare how they play with their friends. Quests and Saved Games now included. Quests – Allows developers to integrate time-based goals into their games without having to update the app each time. Saved Games – This saves players’ game progress across devices, and displays the total time played along with a cover image. This is cross platform too. Game devs are also getting access to more tools, like Game Stats and a C++ SDK, for, you know, dev stuff. Games will also be able to support Open GL ES 3.1, the Android Extension Pack , and a standard for gamepads. which will make it even easier for games to gain Android TV integration.

10) Android Auto – Google’s OS to support car use- signed up 40 companies including Bentley, LG, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Maserati, Volvo, Pioneer, Parrot, Alpine

11) Actionable lockscreen notifications

12) Google announced a new project at I/O called Android One for emerging markets. The project involves a reference smartphone that’s made of affordable components that manufacturers can model cheaper smartphones from.

13) Android Wear – full SDK available for developers – Google OS for wearables

14) Google TV – new hardware and software – with voice integration

The above is as brief a summary as I could make, without straying off in to tech speak. So what does all the above mean. Google wants to be on every screen you use and at the same time will gather data at an unprecedented level on each and every one of us. On the other side, Google is offering a platform with API’s covering all aspects of its new L operating system, Auto, TV, Wearables and Fit platforms.

All we need is beatiful hardware and software tightly integrated together – oh wait, that’s Apple!

Nokia releases another android phone – the X2

Android, Tech News

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The X2 is the next Nokia phone to run a forked version of Android. It has a low off-contract price of $99 and comes with dual SIM card slots.

Don’t worry about the specs as it’s all low end, including a 4.3″ 800×480 screen, a 5MP rear camera, a front-facing camera for Skype, a Snapdragon 200 processor, 1GB of RAM , and just 4GB of storage plus a MicroSD card slot.

Nokia X phones, the X2 runs a super-customized version of Android, which has all traces of Google removed and replaced with Microsoft-powered alternatives like Skype, Outlook, and OneDrive. Nokia’s purpose-built app store will give you access to new software, but excluding any Google services and apps.

This phone is not for me. Probably more for emerging markets.

Google I/O Developer Conference is today – can Google one up Apple

Android, Tech News

Apple held their World Wide Developer Conference on 2nd June and some 3 weeks later it is now Google’s turn to woo the crowds.

Expect wearables and the home to feature heavily, with new hardware being shown for the first time. Google’s car integration will likely be revealed plus updates to its Google apps and services and a preview of the next version of android operating system.

Could be an exciting day later today. So what are you waiting for to be announced?

Nest buys DropCam for $555 million – home automation advances

Android, Tech News

Nest purchased IP camera company Dropcam for $555 million. The purchase of Dropcam is happening without the assistance of Nest’s parent company, Google, and Dropcam will be incorporated into the Nest brand.

Dropcam is known for creating WiFi surveillance cameras, and released a Pro version of their camera last year for $199. Dropcam also provides a service to allow users to see what their camera is seeing via the web or a mobile app.

It seems the next big push is towards home automation.

PhotoSync app – awesome app for wireless photo transfers – read on

Android, Apple, Reviews, Tech News, Windows, , , , , ,

PhotoSync is an app that really everyone should own. It is so well designed with so many features and works exactly as advertised.

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So what does it do? Depending on what devices you have you install the respective mobile app. So if you own an android phone or tablet, head over to the Google Play store. If you own an iPhone or iPad head over to the Apple App Store. The iOS version costs £1.99. The android version is free with in app purchase of £0.99 to remove the banner ad. There is even a version for Kindle. If you own a mac there is a free companion app on the Apple Mac App Store. The same applies if you have a Windows PC. So once you have installed the software on your respective machines it now is as simple as ABC.

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As an example, I have opened the app on my Samsung K Zoom and selected 4 photos. You can tap to select which ones you want to send, or press and hold to select a range. You can view your photos by all or albums on the K Zoom. Now open the iPad app.

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Now, tap the red sync icon top right on the K Zoom, confirm your selection and as quick as ABC the photos are sent on to the iPad.

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So what the above screen shots show is the process of moving 4 photos I selected from my android phone to my iPad. The order is slightly wrong, but I’m sure you can fathom out the correct order of the screen shots 😉 But you could move the photos, or receive, between any combination. What is also clever is that you can send the photos from say my Samsung Galaxy K Zoom to my mac. The photos can either go to a folder chosen by yourself, or end up directly in iPhoto or Aperture. Neat touch. And because it’s using wifi you can be downstairs and send the photos to your mac which can be located in another room.

Within the app, the options and settings are extensive. You have the option of using a web browser, personal hotspot, drag and drop, creating new albums, the app remembers which photos have already been transferred, raw photos also supported as well as video , meta data left intact, size of photo left untouched, transfer speeds of up to 5mb/sec and much more.

The iOS app version has been around for longer so adds so extra functionality allowing transfer to and from cloud services like Dropbox, Flickr. Google+, Picasa, Facebook, SmugMug, Zenfolio, Box, 500px, OneDrive, Google Drive and Sugarsync. Backing up videos and photos over (S)FTP or WebDAV to NAS, mobile storage, or remote server. You can also use 3G or LTE. And even more features.

At the end of the day, the app just works really well and being cross platform is such a bonus. Highly recommended.

Mipow Playbulb – a Bluetooth Lightbulb – with built in loudspeaker

Android, Apple, Tech News,

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Clove Technology are now selling the MiPow Playbulb for £49.99 each.

The MiPow PLAYBULB is a Smart Bluetooth LED Speaker. You can turn the light on and off, dim it gradually, and as it uses LED’s is energy efficient.

It fits most E27 sockets and with an adapter now fits bayonet fittings.

The PLAYBULB is also a Bluetooth speaker using the latest Bluetooth 4.0. So now you can listen to your favourite podcasts like Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast and hear the voices from high above from your ceiling light fitting.

You can control the PLAYBULB through the dedicated app (available on both the App store & Google Play). Once it’s paired with your smartphone lighting and music are under your control, the unique interface of the app will let you adjust the LED brightness of the light, turn on/off the light and will let you control the volume and of course control the playback of your preferred music.

More advanced settings include four functional buttons, wake up, energy saving, night mode and sleep mode. You can set the time to turn on/off the light and play music automatically in the morning and just before you lay your head. With this app the PLAYBULB becomes intelligent; it will add fun and utility to your day whilst improving the quality of your life.

I should be receiving one of these very soon, so will add any further reports on usage.

Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – number 2 – disappointment perhaps?

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

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Last night I snapped a few shots in the glorious weather, a rarity on Dartmoor. Normally its foggy or raining!

I got back home and examined the photos. This is my second K Zoom so I was keen to see whether I had any lens issues. The below shot is an enhanced HDR version using Snapseed.

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And one last shot from the collection of a few hundred taken last night.
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Now the above photos are slightly compressed for the article, but the detail didn’t seem to be all there. I was cursing thinking I had a faulty Zoom and would have to send back this one for an exchange. And then, it dawned on me. When I had taken the shots for the other post for today, I dropped the resolution camera settings to just 2mp.

So actually, the K Zoom even at 2mp can snap some lovely photos. So if you do change the settings, be careful to change back to your normal default options.

I really am so impressed with this phone/camera. But it does have weaknesses. My feelings about this device are consistent in that its extra weight and thickness don’t matter. Why? Because its curved back make it excellent to hold and it is a good size for one handed use. The 720p screen is ok but having used the best 1080p screens on the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 sometimes I do wish it was higher. However, as the screen is 720p I have not got from Google Play store and apps/games that can’t be installed as not compatible with phone. Speed of the K Zoom. Generally it is responsive and nippy. But I do have 92 apps installed, 20 of which are games, and at some point lag does appear or the odd slow down. Being honest I thought it would be a lot worse but it is perfectly acceptable.

But my biggest frustration is its wireless capabilities. It has bluetooth, wifi and more. But it appears its signal strength on for wifi, bluetooth and cellular signal are not as strong as other phones I have owned. This means wifi can drop at the further point in my house, whereas my other devices hold the wifi signal just about. Bluetooth stereo audio breaks up a lot and the phone signal strength is 15% weaker than other modern flagships I have owned. And sometimes, the Bluetooth connection is perfect. It is just not reliable. Maybe a software update will help. In the meantime, the bluetooth issue is out of all the wireless options is driving me mad at times. If this can get fixed, then I would be very happy.

Before I bought the K Zoom, I thought the 8gb internal memory would be the number one reason I would not keep this phone. In fact, I am managing with 8gb internal (about 4.6gb user available) and with 92 apps installed have 1.96gb free currently.

Of course, you buy this phone for the camera with its 10x optical zoom and xenon flash. And as the camera is a key feature for me, there is no other phone on the market at present that rocks my boat. Once you have the option to optically zoom in, you just cannot live without it.

Why I’m finished with iOS? The last straw has been broken – updated with a top solution using PhotoSync

Android, Apple, Tech News

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Before I let some steam off, I will just say that I am not an iOS hater, or an Apple hater. I have just reached the point where Apple’s lack of interoperability takes the biscuit. This applies to iPhones , iPads and macs. These are gorgeously designed devices but there comes a point when enough is enough. Take a look at the above screen shot from my iPad. Now clearly I am trying to power some monster power rig from my iPad! Now look at the photo below.

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I have an android phone, a Samsung Galaxy K Zoom. Now if I had any other device apart from an Apple device I could send the photos by Bluetooth or wifi direct. But oh no, Apple has to have a closed system. No problem I thought. Buy the USB to lightning port camera adapter for the iPad, shown above in white. Buy a USB storage stick. So using the micro OTG adapter I plugged the memory stick into my K Zoom and copied the photos across. Then, I placed the memory stick into the lightning adapter and plugged it into my iPad. And xxxx xxxx xxxxx piece of crapware produces the message as shown in the first photo. Not enough power. Well my phone that costs over 50% less had no issue. Now before anyone says, use the cloud. There is no way I’m waiting for 500 photos to get uploaded to a cloud service , for me to have to them re download them on to another device. It takes minutes using a USB stick.

Well it would do if you didn’t have an iPad. So despite the wonders of the iPad it simply doesn’t cut the mustard for me. Adios my friend.

Update – thanks to @ratkat who left a reply in the comments below and recommended PhotoSync , I now have perfect photo and video transfers between android, mac and iPad. You do need to buy the device on both your android and iOS but at £1.99 on iOS and free on android (£0.99 to remove banner ad) , it’s cheaper than a coffee and a memory card stick by far. And based on my early testing a marvellous solution. You can quick select a batch of photos as well, use personal hotspot and so much more.