Category Archives: Android

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 reviews are out and they are confusing

Android, Tech News

All the major US websites have released their reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. I doubt many of these website spent detailed time with the device or used it exclusively as their main phone.

If you want to see a proper review, scroll back to Tuesday for the review and unboxing.

First up Samsung has introduced region sim locking with has angered many customers even though they thought they were buying sim free unlocked phones. Samsung still hasn’t completely clarified the position on this.

Next up the reviews are very conflicting although there are some consistencies. Lag was confirmed as present in all reviews. All agreed the screen was excellent. Some said battery life just managed to 8pm, others said 2 days with ease. Call quality was shocking apparently. Mind you who uses this type of phone for calls. Camera was said to be excellent in good light but due to its large size it was easy to cause blur. The Verge made the point that actually it took longer to enter tasks and data using the stylus. Other comments noted some bugs and pointless features. Overall it was the best Samsung phone.

I must admit reading the various reviews and sometimes different opinions leave me none the wiser as to whether this is a phone or phablet worth adding to my collection.

Curved phones to become a reality next week and the week after that..

Android, Tech News,

Samsung has said that next week it will release the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 but with a curved screen. LG then went on record to say it would bring out its own curved screened phone the LG Z, the week after.

Samsung went on the record to say the curved screen version of the Note 3 will be limited, very expensive and difficult to come by.

New phone dilemmas – do you suffer ?

Android, Apple, Tech News,

Apple launches new iPhones. Samsung releases it’s new phablet. LG, HTC and more all coming out with their next great phone.

And as these phones come out you wonder if your phone you just bought was the right decision. Or are you the sort of person who buys and doesn’t worry about the next big thing.

So here I am looking at my iPhone 5S and am wondering whether I should use Apple’s 14 day return with no obligation and get the Note 3.

I have tried to draw a pros and cons list. And fundamentally it’s a spec vs apps vs one hand vs screen argument. The Note 3 is state of the art. But the apps on iOS are more advanced and function better. But the the Note 3 is probably future proof. But then you could say when will you ever use all those hardware specs?

Watching the YouTube review posted yesterday made me crave the Note 3 even more. So with 2 days to decide what would you recommend ?

More views on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear

Android, Tech News,

You may recall blog reader Jah left some views on the Samsung Note 3 and Galaxy Gear.

Jah left some more comments on both which you may find useful if you are still undecided about buying either devices.

“Gavin, I know you have a very long history with PDAs as well as Smartphones so hopefully you’ll appreciate that the Note 3 is really what PDAs should have been. That is, providing a set of integrated PIM apps and ability to take notes. The Note 3 s/w is so much more integrated now and I am using S-Planner as my primary PIM (with data added via Action Memo) and once Blackberry launch the BBM for Android I may sell my Q10 as I have been very impressed with the keyboard on the Note 3. So I may only use Android in the future with two devices (Note 3 and my new S4 Active). The battery on the Note 3 has also surprised me. I would say that it is 30% better than the Note 2, which itself was very good. But for serious note taking I still feel more comfortable with my Note 8 tablet. But given the superb quality of the digitiser and S Pen on the Note 3, I may even end-up selling my Note 8. Will give it another 2/3 weeks of testing.”

“I’ve been using BT watches for years and find the notification aspect useful. Also I had a couple that allowed me to control my mp3 player which I found convenient. My Gear is more capable and in particular I like the quality of this wearable. I think it is a niche. Like all good products if it does solve a problem then will not be successful. By the with careful battery management I can three working days of life from the Gear.”

If you have any further views on the Samsung Note 3 or Galaxy Gear, please leave a note in the comments.

Is this the Nexus 5?

Android, Tech News

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A user of Macrumors posted the above photo purported to be the rear of the Nexus 5.

The rear has a similar texture to the Nexus 7. It seems to have rather a large camera sensor too.

Hopefully, it won’t be long before Google makes this public and for sale. It’s pricing will be the other interesting aspect. Will the keep to around last years Nexus 4 or will they have to make it more expensive and by a fair margin?

Dropbox for Mac gets cool update

Android, Apple, Tech News

Dropbox has released version 2.4 for the Mac.

This update adds a number of new features including the ability to import photos directly from iPhoto into your Dropbox.

You can also set iPhoto Events to be imported automatically into a folder called “Photos from iPhoto” with subfolders for each event.

In addition to the Import from iPhoto even, Dropbox 2.4 also adds Screenshot to Dropbox: any screenshots taken on your Mac will be automatically saved in your Dropbox along with speed and folder improvements.

This new update will make having an Apple and android device even easier now.

Which new iPad would you want?

Android, Apple, Tech News

With Apple rumoured keynote this Month approaching and the expected iPad updates which iPad would you chose? Or if you would rather have a different tablet, why?

Just in case you haven’t read any news in the tech world the next full size iPad will be based on the iPad Mini hardware. This will make if 2mm slimmer probably 25% lighter and potentially feature some other wonderful novelty like touch id. The iPad Mini should receive a retina screen and remain fairly the same otherwise. It may also get touch id finger print scanner.

So ultimately it’s a choice between a 9.7 inch screen versus the smaller and pocketable iPad Mini. Because I take lots of photos I found the Mini screen too small so sold it a month ago ready to get the larger full size iPad.

But what would you prefer? Or would you rather save money and buy a Google Nexus, Amazon Kindle or Tesco Hudl tablet which will cost 50% less approximately?

Ads are coming to GMail mobile app

Android, Tech News

The latest version of Gmail 4.6 is now card based like Google Now. We all know the desktop version of Gmail has ads, well the mobile app version 4.6 also allows for ads using cards.

As its card based you can save an ad and it’ll become part of your inbox. Don’t like it, and you can swipe it away.

I am not sure how I feel about this as normally with a phone one would have paid a certain amount of money already for the hardware. If for example I have just bought the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 which costs in excess of £600, I would not be too happy to start having ads in my inbox.

But is this the future of android, or the death of it?

HTC One Max arriving in a month

Android, Tech News

HTC’s phablet is due to be announced on 15th October. Based on the HTC One, the 5.9 inch screened phone will be huge with front facing speakers.

But will front facing speakers make it too large? I think this will be a challenge on the size front and I am concerned that HTC might be using the same processor as used on the HTC One which is nowhere as good as the new S800 Qualcomm processor.

Fortunately, it won’t be long to find out.