“Pokemon Go launches in the UK, is now the biggest mobile game in US history.
The Pokemon Go deployment rolls on with the game appearing in the U.K. App Store overnight on Thursday, one day after the title went live in Germany.”
Finally Pokemon Go is live in the UK. And I had to download it and give it a go. It’s a fun game but it’s popularity is unbelievable considering its fairly easy to play.
Welcome to my first impressions of the Withings Activite Steel watch. The key features are –
– Automatic activity tracking – Steps, runs, swims (water resistant – 50m) and calories burned
– Sleep monitoring – Sleep cycle analysis (light and deep sleep) plus silent vibrating alarm
– Automatic synchronisation – Visualise trends and data on your smartphone with the free Health Mate app available on iOS and android
– Premium materials – Stainless steel, chrome hands, silicon sport strap
– No charging – Up to 8-month battery life
The Withings Activite Steel smartwatch arrived yesterday. Photo above shows watch on my wrist. Settings up is a breeze. You download the Health Mate app, and follow the simple instructions. I was all setup within 5 mins. Syncing is done periodically during the day using Bluetooth Low Energy. This is an analogue, swiss style watch. The watch strap is easily removable with a built in slide pin. Withings sell leather straps made from quality Barenia leather from Haas Tanneries, the supplier of the finest French Haute Couture houses. Choice of black or tawny brown colours. A single leather strap is £100. The silcone strap is also replaceable with other colour straps. Withings sell a 3 pack of coloured silicone straps for £25. The colours are orange, plum and teal.
The watch has a dial for the hands and minute hands. The other dial moves from 0 to 100% of step target. On the app you set how many steps is you goal. The Health Mate app displays a whole range of data, more of which I will cover off in my review.
The first thing I noticed is the comfort of the strap. Next the watch size is smaller than expected. I think changing the strap for orange or black leather would be a better choice. I cannot believe this doesn’t need charging and lasts 8 months. This takes all the pain out of charging a tracker. My main issue is the watch costs around £139 but just doesn’t look expensive enough.
However, seeing the analogue dial move round felt far less stressful than having an actual number of steps travelled on the screen. Opening the health app does reveal step count and more.
More soon.
“Black Onyx Galaxy Note 7 leaks in all its glory!
A new batch of photos has been leaked from China and it shows us the Galaxy Note 7 in Black Onyx. The handset is completely black, even the metal frame is black. Samsung has confirmed that it’s going to formally announce the Galaxy Note 7 at an event in New York City on August 2nd, pricing and availability information will be confirmed after the event. There is also a rumour that it will be available immediately to order.”
Not long now for the big reveal. I must admit I am excited to see what Samsung include with the new Note 7.
“Asus’ Zenfone 3 Deluxe will be the first phone with the new Snapdragon 821.
Asus introduced its new Zenfone 3 Deluxe at Computex earlier this year. It disclosed that the phone would come with a 5.7-inch 1080p display, a 23-megapixel front-facing camera, 3,000mAh battery, USB-C 3.0, and up to 6GB of RAM. We also knew it would have a Snapdragon 820 series processor, but now we have confirmation that it’ll be the first phone to feature the Snapdragon 821. Qualcomm only introduced the chip yesterday. Asus didn’t wait long to share its news. The 821 follows the 820, which was included in most every top-end Android phone this past year, including the Galaxy S7, the HTC 10, and Xiaomi’s Mi 5. The new chip comes with a 10 percent increase in performance”.
The new Asus Zenfone 3 range is full to the brim with value, and the Deluxe model takes this one step further.
“NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet meets Android 6.0 Professional Audio requirements following Software Upgrade 4.2
The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet provides one of the best Android gaming experiences you can currently have, and right now an update is rolling out to the device. Following this latest release, the slate now meets Android 6.0 Professional Audio requirements. This means low latency audio, MIDI support over USB and Bluetooth, 24-bit@192kHz Stereo and 7.1 HDMI output, and other audio improvements. In-game audio should sound more responsive, and the same is true when listening to music or watching video.”
The Nvidia Shield Tablet is one of the best android tablet available. This update makes it even better. From a gaming perspective, the games specifically designed to work with this tablet are way better than the typical games found on other phones.
“Pokemon Go expected to launch in UK and Europe in ‘a few days’ as Nintendo stock soars 25%.
Pokemon Go has become a huge hit rallying hundreds of millions of players in just a few short days. Widespread media coverage of the game (and its consequences) has made the Nintendo freemium title somewhat of a phenomenon, continuing to top App Store charts. This success — likely propelled by pent-up demand for a ‘real’ Pokemon game available on iOS — comes despite the game only launching three regions; the United States, New Zealand Australia. A new report from the Wall Street Journal indicates fans from other countries will not have to wait long for an official launch of Pokemon Go in the UK, Europe and more.”
Just shows if you have a social media hit, you can add $6 billion on to your share price overnight. Incredible success.
Honor 8 now official with dual-camera setup, up to 4GB of RAM.
“Huawei sub-brand Honor has announced its latest phone, the Honor 8. The phone comes with a fingerprint sensor and a dual-lens rear camera setup. The Honor 8 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow under the EMUI 4.1 custom software layer. The Honor 8 features a 5.2-inch 1080p display, and is powered by a Kirin 950 processor, with 3GB or 4GB of RAM. It comes with either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, which can be upgraded with a microSD card. The dual lenses on the back are both 12-megapixel shooters, while the front-facing camera is 8-megapixels. The Honor 8 also has a fingerprint sensor on the back, allowing for easy authentication. The phone has a 3000mAh battery, which can be charged over a USB-C connection. The Honor 8 is currently available for pre-order from a number of Chinese retailers, with the 32GB option with 3GB of RAM running ¥1,999 (around $300), while the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM costs ¥2,499 (around $375). You can get the Honor 8 in Sunrise Gold, Pearl White, Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, or Sapphire Blue.”
It seems to me that the Huawei and Honor brands and becoming confusing. With the sheer number of phones with slightly varying specs or software additions and or omissions, it is becoming all too complicated. And the price points charged for each brand also seem mis matched versus the specs and what is being offered?
Android Pay coming to TSB in late 2016.
Q4 launch for Android Pay confirmed by TSB on Twitter. Despite the UK-wide rollout of Android Pay in May, some major British high street banks still aren’t signed up to the mobile payments service. Among those is TSB, and while the bank has made clear its intentions to support Android Pay at some point in the future, there’ve been no further details offered until now. Today TSB has confirmed on Twitter that it’ll be offering Android Pay to customers from the fourth quarter of 2016.
Let’s hope the other UK banks like Natwest pull their finger out too and confirm support for Android Pay.
Apple uses the Health app to integrate other services and act as a hub. This makes sense to me. The Apple Watch acts as a fitness device and feeds basic information back into the Health app.
Google are trailing behind with their equivalent, Google Fit. But again, it is to serve the same purpose as Apple. Since Google where trailing behind, Samsung has powered ahead with its offering, S Health. It has come an awful long way in the last 4 months.
Samsung also sell a range of watches and fitness trackers.These are good devices.
Pictured above is the Garmin Fenix 3 HR. Probably one of the ultimate fitness devices on the market place, capable of so much and then some. Garmin also sell wireless scales. Garmin also sell a large range of activity devices and some of the best in class. There are many other brands too.
Other companies like FitBit also sell trackers and scales. In fact the market place is flooding with options but not everything plays nicely with each other. FitBit does not integrate with Apple Health app directly.
Why? The Health market and the data it will harness is worth millions. So before you decide what fitness or tracker you would like, ask yourself a few questions –
– What do you need it to do?
– What devices have your friends got, so if you need the social aspects, you all use the same brand
– What apps and services do you need the device to integrate into
– Apart from a fitness devices, do you need any other medical or fitness hardware / services. If so check which work with what.
So what devices are you using and why?
A few weeks ago I posted an article on how I took footage upside down on my Samsung Gear 360. Click HERE to recap.
A lot of you have written in asking how I achieved this.
First of all, connect the Gear 360 to your Samsung phone. Check using the Gear 360 app on your Samsung phone for any firmware updates. Update if required.
Next with the Gear 360 powered on, connected to the phone, make sure your settings look like mine below.
Take some footage. Save it to your phone. And share it from the Samsung Gallery app to YouTube or wherever required.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 