Category Archives: Android

Did you know that all iDevices

A small titbit of information.

If you have one of the Apple approved DACs, then using a USB-A socket, any of the new lightning connector made Apple devices can be used as a digital transport.

That means the iDevice sends the audio digital out via USB allowing you to connect it to a standalone Digital to Analogue Converter and then amp for much better higher quality music reproduction.

One major benefit of the lightning connector that wasn’t so obvious in the beginning.

Pheed – more popular than Facebook & Twitter

Pheed is the new social network that is taking the App Store charts by storm. So what makes this different. You take control, you take ownership of your information and more.

The catchphrase for Pheed, which launched in October 2012, is, “A new way to express yourself.” This can be done via text, photos, videos, audio, voice or live broadcast, Pheed offers all of that functionality. Other social networks offer some of that, but not all of it.

One of the most interesting things about Pheed is you can put your content behind a paywall and charge $1.99 to $34.99 per view, or $1.99 to $34.99 per month, and split the proceeds with Pheed. You can also put a watermark on your content and always have ownership of it.

Looks like it could be worth a peek. Do you believe there is room for another social network?

Samsung copies Apple’s PassBook

Samsung is unveiled its “Samsung Wallet” mobile app solution, clearly inspired (copied) by Apple’s iOS 6 ticket, card, and coupon solution known as Passbook.

Samsung Wallet appears to work much the same way. The app will allow users to store event tickets, membership cards, coupons, and boarding passes in one central app. From there, users will be able to present the digital passes and companies supporting the standard can scan a barcode included for each digital ticket.

Surely another patent war is looming.

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Sony Experia Z Midnight offer

At midnight Sony had an offer where the first 500 people who bought the Z got a £300 pair of headphones free. You knew if you were successful as the price after entering the code would drop the phone price by £1.

So the site went live at 11.57pm. And I got my cart updated saying I had the free headphones. After that and for the next 30 mins Sony’s website kept crashing and each time I got further to paying for the phone with the free cans.

But the after the last crash with 30 mins passed my cart showed I didn’t have the free headphones. I called it a night.

Perhaps this was a sign not to buy the phone. Very disappointing that a company like Sony couldn’t cope with the web traffic

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Sony Xperia Z vs Samsung Note 2

At the weekend I got to play with the new Sony Xperia Z. I also had the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 side-by-side with the new Sony.

This is not meant to be a detailed technical examination more of a quick comparison. They say first impressions count and in this case they really do.

The Xperia is available in white and black. I would suggest ignoring the white and simply focusing on the black as the white looks rather cheap in comparison to the black finish. The Sony is actually larger than I thought it would be and that I think its size is amplified due to its squareness. If it had curved corners and sides it would look a lot smaller probably. I would only get the Note 2 in grey and avoid the white finish as well.

The Sony screen is fabulous and makes the Note 2’s screen look like it has fake colouring. Also the Sony launcher is not in your face and looks a lot more professional than Samsung’s Touchwiz launcher. The Touchwiz wastes a lot of screen with blank spaces. The square sides of the Sony are not as comfy to hold as the Note 2. The Xperia is water and dust resistant. The Note 2 isn’t. The Note 2 has a stylus and the Xperia doesn’t. Each device comes with bespoke software. The camera on the Sony took better quality photos. Plugging my headphones into each phone revealed the Xperia Z had a better headphone amp and sound quality but not by huge amounts.

But overall they are different devices. And they are both amazing. If I had to choose between one of them I really couldn’t.

MWC & Lenevo

Mobile World Congress, Lenovo is showing tablets. At their top end is the S6000, a 10-inch, 1,280 x 800 IPS display and a quad-core MediaTek’s 8389 / 8125 processor, clocked at 1.2GHz. The tablet, which measures 8.6mm thick and weighs in at 560 grams , with eight hours of battery life, and an optional HSPA+ radio.

The 7-inch A3000 has a 1.2GHz quad-core MTK processor, IPS display and optional HSPA+ , but a resolution of 1,024 x 600. Its thicker, at 11mm. Then there is the A1000, a 7-inch tablet with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and Dolby Digital. Both models have microSD expansion, but the A3000 supports cards up to 64GB, while the A1000 can only handle 32gb.

Again another slab or two but nothing special really.

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