LG has dropped its first teaser regarding the LG G5 launch at Mobile World Congress next month.
Really what we need to know, is when will this be available to purchase in the UK and will the UK get treated like poorly with an inferior specification version?
Whatever, the LG G5 is meant to come with an upgraded camera to the LG G4, an improved audio system, build quality and lots more.
Source – LG/Pocketnow.com
Apple Pay made the first big splash into mobile payment acceptance as a mainstream option. Apple Pay offers a quick and easy way to use your compatible iPhone to make a purchase. When everything works, it is as simple as ABC. And it generally works every time.
It fails to work when the cashier hasn’t pressed a button on the till or the amount due is over £30. Lifting the limit for mobile payments over £30 really needs to happen immediately as its the biggest stumbling block for faster adoption. I don’t know the answer, but if you knew you were going to buy £50 in groceries, is it not possible to split the food into 2 transactions of £25 each, thereby getting around the £30 limit? If this is possible, why bother having the £30 limit in the first place.
The UK does not have Android or Samsung Pay yet. It is due to arrive this year and I am predicting for Samsung it will link up with the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S7. Samsung Pay is available in the USA, and in my opinion offers a better solution as the compatible Samsung phones can use both contactless and magnetic terminals, thereby being further accepted at more places instantly. Android Pay is also not available yet in the UK, but it is in the USA, and works similar to the concept used by Apple.
The world needs android pay to take off as most phones work with this operating system. This will push forward conversion across the industry regardless of platform.
So all seems rosy in the world of mobile payments? Not really. LG have thrown their hat in the ring saying they are going to launch their own payments system. Walmart too. Plus there are other large companies looking to provide mobile payment solutions. This is going to get messy as companies fight it out for market share and dominance. What we need is simplification. If its an iPhone you use only Apple Pay. If its an android phone then it should be just android pay and so on.
The problem at the moment is contactless payments like Apple Pay need transactions to include loyalty cards and vouchers. This is where it gets messy. Why should retailers share sensitive data with Apple or Google or Samsung? So what happens, retailers launch their own system so you could end up trying to remember which app you need in which store!
Another complication is that sometimes using for example Apple Pay is not the best solution. Take Wagamamas. MasterCard have an app that Wagamamas use that allows you to order food and drinks from your app. You can order more food during the meal too. And when finished eating, use the app to pay. It gets even better. Lets say you’re a party of 10. All 10 use the MasterCard app to pay for just the items ordered. The process of splitting the food/bill is a breeze. Of course the other benefit is the speed. No more waiting to order your food and drinks. And no more waiting for the bill to arrive. The benefit to the restaurant is a faster turnaround. The MasterCard app can be used by other places too. With its location settings on, it can alert you to a place nearby that accepts the app. There are other options too.
So at the moment, the options for mobile payments is just taking off and is looking like it is going to get messy before its gets refined!
What have been your experiences so far with contactless payments? Have you used another system or app that you would recommend?
I am currently using an iPhone 6S Plus which has my main sim along with a Huawei G8 in backup. Well in about a week I should have the Asus Zenfone Zoom. Check out the video below to see what’s unique about this phone.
Shortly after the Asus Zenfone Zoom arrives I will receive the LG V10. The good news is that I will have the phones all available to carry out a 3 way camera shootout with my iPhone 6S Plus. I will use a Sony RX100 as a measure to compare how much better or worse each of these 3 phones compare to a dedicated camera with a decent one inch sensor found in the Sony RX100.
As the Asus Zenfone Zoom is likely to arrive first, I will start with some camera shots from it and then carry out some comparisons with the iPhone 6S Plus until the LG V10 arrives. I could include the Huawei G8 in some of the shots too.
However, I wouldn’t mind knowing if there are any particular aspects of the Asus Zenfone Zoom or the European LG V10 that you would like mean to cover off in terms of the camera and hardware/software. Both phones will also have a full review written in due course.
From day one I got a case for my iPhone 6S Plus. I also bought a screen protector and a tempered glass screen protector.
After applying both screen protectors one after another I decided I hated the way both screen protectors ruined the view from the front, so removed them. Touch wood, I have no scratches on my front screen.
Now to the subject of using a case. As I said I fitted a case from day one. I bought the Apple silicone and leather case to start off with. The silicone case in my opinion made the phone look cheap and I didn’t like the feel and dust collecting abilities of the silicone case. There are some benefits of using a silicone case in that if you have an Apple Watch you can buy matching sports straps. So I settled with the Apple leather case with provides extra grip and slightly more protection should you drop the phone.
Move forward to a few days and I received some clip on macro and fish eye lenses for the iPhone. To use these you have to remove your case. And then I stepped back, looked at the iPhone and thought “wow”. The iPhone 6S Plus looks damn gorgeous without a case.
And now I’m left with a dilemma. I don’t want to put the Apple leather case back on BUT the consequences of not having a case and being unfortunate and dropping the iPhone could be a costly affair. The chances of dropping it are higher without a case as the aluminium finish is slippery.
So I have this emotional feeling to decide to whether to use my iPhone naked or cased?
What do you do with your phone?
Dropping from the 16mp camera on the LG G4 to the 12mp iPhone 6S Plus does frustrate me sometimes.
Below is a 17mp 16:9 photo. As there was loads of pixels, I could crop it to produce this cow selfie shot. These were taken on the Sony RX100 MK3.
Or just create something straight forward like these two shots below –
As good as the iPhone camera is across video and stills, on several occasions I do miss the extra pixel data. The RX100 is small enough to fit in a pocket to the point that I might stop using the iPhone completely and then I would not have to worry about how good or bad my camera was on a my phone.
Have you ever felt this?
Some good news for UK people wanting the LG V10. It is definitely coming to the UK and Europe as model version LG V10 H960a.
The bad news is it’s not 64gb storage but 32gb. However, it will work with all the UK network bands so that is more important. The other versions sold around the world don’t have all the UK LTE bands.
Today, at CES, Lenovo announced the development of the first consumer-ready smartphone with Project Tango. By adding a few extra sensors and some computer vision software, Project Tango transforms your smartphone into a magic lens that lets you place digital information on your physical world.
For some inspiration, Lowe’s is developing an app where you can point your Project Tango-enabled smartphone at your kitchen to see where a new refrigerator or dishwasher might fit virtually.
Elsewhere, developer Schell Games let’s you play virtual Jenga on any surface with friends. But this time, there is no cleanup involved when the blocks topple over.
To support the continued growth of the ecosystem, we’re also inviting developers from around the world to submit their ideas for gaming and utility apps created using Project Tango. We’ll pick the best ideas and provide funding and engineering support to help bring them to life, as part of the app incubator. Even better, the finished apps will be featured on Lenovo’s upcoming device. The submission period closes on February 15, 2016.
This is really exciting news and it will be interesting to see what these phones can achieve.
Source – Google
CES 2016 in Las Vegas is in full swing along with some exciting and crazy tech announcements.
Fridges – Samsung displayed a fridge with an android tablet built in to the front fridge door. Well that’s what it looked like. So now you can read your tweets on your fridge. On the other hand LG decided it would scan your body and if both hands were full, it would automatically open the fridge doors. That’s a bit more useful.
Fitbit – And along came the FitBit Blaze. A smart watch attempt by FitBit. Just a shame they left out GPS. All for $199. The stock market didn’t react well, and knocked 12.5% off the share value. I personally think the shape of the watch is odd.
Samsung – not to be left out of the luxury watch market announced 2 new finishes for their Gear S2 Classic. The new Gear S2 classic will be available in Rose Gold case with an Ivory Genuine Leather Band and in Platinum case with a Black Genuine Leather Band beginning in February. If you need to know the price, you can’t afford it!. The bigger news is iOS support is coming for the Gear S2 later this year!
Samsung also announced new sexy curved TV’s and lots more including the TabPro S tablet running windows 10 and not android. It also had a cool keyboard case. The whole affair was rather slim too. The Samsung Chromebook 3 got announced too.
Chinese Phones – I lost count of all the mid market and budget Chinese phones being announced. All slight spec bumps of the previous models with more storage and ram, more premium builds, finger print sensors and more. In the end, it just becomes a blur.
Casio – The Casio Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10 is its first Android Wear device with sport watch styling and a typical Casio style rugged design. In monochrome mode the battery can last a month. Expect to pay around $500. Ouch!
Weird but True News – Facebook sabotaged its android app to crash to see how loyal its users would be. Rumour is FaceBook is looking to leave the Google Play store. Just how significant a blow would this be for android ? Then Twitter announced its looking at allowing up to 10,000 words per tweet. I hope not. 200-300 is enough.
HTC and Under Armour – A partnership with the announcement of the Healthbox. This contained a fitness band, heart rate strap and scales. Functional and well designed too.
Parrot – unveiled the Parrot Disco, a new drone prototype that’s actually a full-blown fixed wing plane that can travel at 50mph.
HTC – HTC Vive Pre – HTC showed off its second generation VR headset. This is really looking amazing. The second generation has built in cameras and new controllers.
Huawei – Huawei held a big press conference and launched the Mate 8 and a new tablet that came with a stylus. New Huawei Watch models designed for women were also announced.
There were hundreds more products released and announced at CES, but the above are my personal favourites. Was there anything else that caught your eye?
Honor – The Honor 5X got announced. A 1080p 5.5 inch display, Snapdragon 615, 3000maH, 13mp rear camera and well built as usual and low cost phone.
Snapdragon 820 Phones – LeTV Le Max Pro – this is a beast of a phone from LeTV. A 6.33inch 2K display, 3,400mAh battery, Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB ram, Android 6 with LeTV’s own skin, 21 MP OIS rear camera that takes incredible shots and really fast.
Sources – HTC, Huawei, Parrot, FitBit, Casio, Samsung, LG, AndroidCentral, Pocketnow, Verge, Engadget, Pocketlint
The Asus Zenfone Zoom has been a long time coming and finally Asus have overcome whatever manufacturing issues it had and is releasing the phone for $399 in the US. However, this amazing feat of engineering has some superb specifications but when it comes to the camera it is also let down by a couple of aspects.
The Asus Zenfone Zoom has a Panasonic 13-megapixel SmartFSI sensor and a HOYA 10-element lens. The magic is that this camera is able to provide 3x optical zoom without any parts protruding. Optical image stabilization, laser auto-focus and a dual-tone flash are also present.
And the negative – the aperture ranges from f/2.7 to f/4.8. This is somewhat disappointing as the LG G4 for example managed with a f/1.8.
The Asus ZenFone Zoom comprises of an aluminium body with a removable leather back cover for accessing the micro SD and Micro SIM slots.
The other specifications –
– Display – 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD, 403ppi, IPS LCD
– Corning Gorilla Glass 4
– Processor – 64-bit 2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Atom Z3590 CPU
– Graphics – PowerVR G6430 GPU
– RAM – 4GB LPDDR3
– Internal Storage – 64GB eMCC Flash or 128GB eMCP Flash
– External Storage – microSD (up to 128GB)
– Cameras – 13MP rear-facing camera, 10-element Hoya 3x zoom lens
– 5MP front-facing camera
– Software – Android 5.1 with ASUS ZenUI
– Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/b/ac
– Bluetooth 4.0+ EDR
– NFC
– micro-USB
– Battery – 3000mAh non-removable Li-Polymer – comes with a rapid charger
– Dimensions – 158.9 x 78.84 x 11.95mm
– Weight – 185g
I really hope this comes to the UK and Europe really quickly as this is one phone I really would love to to test. 3 times optical zoom sounds brilliant and the rest of the specifications are strong too. I just hope the f/2.7 isn’t a show stopper.
Sources – Asus, Engadget, Talk Android, Android Central
I had hours of delight with my LG G4 and it was sad to sell it on to a new home a few months ago.
Now it is time for the rumours to arrive about its predecessor, the LG G5 and it is likely to be one knockout device.
Features will include –
– Snapdragon 820 Processor
– 4gb Ram
– 32gb Storage
– Micro SD slot
– Metallic Build
– 5.3 inch QHD screen
– Secondary Ticker Display like the LG V10
– Rear Camera – dual lens 16-megapixel camera providing a 135-degree wide-angle capability
– 8mp front camera
– More sensors on rear – fingerprint, RGB, focus assist, flash
– Magic Slot – to provide extra hardware functionality e.g. more camera options, HIFI
– Battery 2,800mAh
I really look forward to seeing what the new Snapdragon 820 can produce with LG’s camera prowess. The magic slot for hardware expansion on features seems exciting too. As does the improved metallic build. Just a shame the battery is still too small even with marshmallow on board and a better SOC.
Now in case you’re wondering about the new Samsung Galaxy S7, this will feature similar specifications but bizarrely the rumour is suggesting the S7 will only have a 12.2mp rear facing camera. Let’s hope this translates into huge pixels for exceptional low light shots! It appears that Samsung and LG are going to tackle photography different this year in terms of optics. I am looking forward to seeing what each of these phones can create especially with the powerful snapdragon 820 processor being able to allow for some serious photo processing during each shot.
The S7 will also come in two variants, the curved edge and non curve.
Are you looking forward to this phone?
Source – Venture Beat
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