Category Archives: Android

Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 – Camera Samples with my views

Android, Reviews, Tech News, ,

Over the weekend I have been putting the £125 Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 through its paces. My review will be live on Monday.

In the meantime, below are some camera samples with my views on each photo.

Low Light Shot

The Expendable Burger - testing the low light performance of the £125 Vodafone Smart Ultra 6

The VSU6 really does not like low light from the rear camera. Loads of noise. On the plus side, the Expendable Burger was magnificent. Auto mode used for this shot.

Close Up

The Green Shot - testing the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 - macro type shot

The lighting was good for this shot, but the result was just passable. Auto mode.

Landscape Shot

The Landscape Shot - Auto mode on the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6

Good daylight, and a reasonable photo. I would be happy to share this. Snapped in auto mode.

The Famous Church Shot

The Church Shot - Auto mode using the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6

I always take a photo of my local church with nearly every phone. That way it is easier to compare phone from phone. This is a much better result, although the sky is blown out by the sun. Taken in auto mode.

The Famous Church Shot – HDR

The Church Shot v2 - HDR mode - Vodafone Smart Ultra 6

The resolution drops in HDR, and personally I have not liked any of the other HDR shots snapped on this phone. Avoid using HDR on this phone.

Again, remember this is a £125 phone. The camera does have a wealth of extra modes which I will cover off in the main review.

LG G4 – New firmware changes and tip

Android, Tech News, ,

My LG G4 received an OTA changing the firmware to V10c-EUR-XX.

Apart from bug fixes and improvements that were not listed in the changelog , I have noticed the following.

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Pressing the recent menu icon, you can now pin apps to stop them being closed out of memory.

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The ringtone and notification volume has been separated into individual sliders.

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SlowMo mode in the camera has been moved to the modes menu. It was under video size previously.

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A new Bluetooth icon with battery level of the connected device now appears.

Now this is a tip for those that use Google Music. For some mad reason there is no Equaliser option on the app. If you had over to XDA and install AudioFX you now have huge EQ options. You do not need to be rooted.

Link – http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/themes-apps/cyanogenmod-audio-fx-t3115358

HTC to slash jobs, projects and smartphones – details

Android, Tech News, ,

“Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp said it would cut jobs and discontinue models as part of its strategy to focus on high-end devices to better compete with the likes of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

“The cuts will be across the board,” Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang told reporters after HTC reported a second-quarter loss and forecast another for the third-quarter. “They will be significant”

HTC’s position is sad to see. It follows a number of other companies who have fallen or that have shrunk, including Palm,Nokia and Blackberry. Now it looks like HTC is in jeopardy. This action has come about following news that HTC Corp. forecast a quarterly loss five times more than analysts’ estimates, which has occurred due to plummeting sales.

Source – http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/06/us-htc-outlook-idUSKCN0QB14M20150806 / http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-06/htc-expects-loss-five-times-wider-than-estimates-as-sales-plunge

Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 – Initial Views

Android, Reviews, Tech News, ,

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The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is a ZTE manufactured phone for Vodafone based on the ZTE Blade S6 Plus.

The specifications are –

– Dimensions (mm) 154 x 77 x 8.35
– Weight (g) 159
– Operating system Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop)
– Screen 5.5 inch 1080p, 441 ppi, Touchscreen, IPS Quantum, 70.3% screen to body ratio,
– Camera 13 megapixels, 4x digital zoom, LED flash, 5mp front
– 2G standby time (hours) 240
– 3G talk time (hours) 15
– Processor – Snapdragon 615, 64 bit,Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53,quad-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A53,Adreno 405
– SIM type NanoSIM
– Internal memory 16GB, 2gb ram
– Memory card type MicroSD
– Connectivity
– Network region LTE FDD 2600/1800/900/800 Mhz,
UMTS 2100/900 Mhz,
GSM 900/1800/1900 Mhz
– Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP
– FM Radio included
– Wi-Fi, Wireless tethering
– Battery 3,000mAh
– Micro USB 2

Photo from the rear camera below taken yesterday.

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As you can read, you seem to get a decent level of specifications for your money, £125 on pay as you go, with Vodafone. It is locked to Vodafone, but if you search on ebay it costs around £3 to unlock.

The phone runs near stock android except for a few Vodafone apps, most of which can be uninstalled, or frozen, or hidden in a folder if necessary. The build is cheap plastic and I do worry how long the buttons will last over time. I have the anthracite colour. It is also available in white/silver.

After installing all the app updates and a 40mb software OTA update, the phone had 9.46gb free. This included space for my default Google apps and the respective data for each app.

Compared to my LG G4, the Smart Ultra 6 is the same width but slightly taller. Speed – jumping between screens and apps seems fairly fluid. The camera so far is ok. More testing needs to be done on everything, so these are just my initial thoughts. The 5.5 inch 1080p screen looks good with reasonable viewing angles. Brightness seems around 500 nits. AnTuTu scored 26,199 which is lower than the Nexus 5, LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy S5 which are around 38,000+.

However, so far so good. More soon.

Apple developing more Android apps – details

Android, Apple, Tech News

Look what we have here. Apple is looking for Android software engineers for developing Android apps!

Applications SW Engineer – Android

Job Number: 41632321Santa Clara Valley, California, United StatesPosted: Aug. 5, 2015Weekly Hours: 40.00
Job Summary

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, great ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there’s no telling what you could accomplish. We’re looking for engineers to help us bring exciting new mobile products to the Android platform.

Key Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have 6+ years of software development experience
Highly collaborative problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills
Ability to rapidly iterate from prototype to shipping product
Comfortable with Test-Driven Development, Continuous Build and Test, and other Agile methodologies
Expert knowledge of Java
Broad experience in Android application development
Knowledge of C++, Objective-C or other languages is a plus
Significant mobile development experience
Experience with Apple platforms and technologies is a plus

Source – Apple – https://jobs.apple.com/us/

Samsung’s Note 5 is on course for a disaster – my reason why plus latest photos

Android, Tech News, ,

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Droid-Life.com released images of the Samsung Note 5 as shown above.

The photos confirm (apparently) that the micro SD card and removable battery are now history. The Note 5 will come with 64gb as standard. Now, some people will be very unhappy with these changes, but honestly they won’t make a scrap of difference. Well actually, they will make the Note 5 a gorgeous looking phone.

The reason why I think the Note 5 is looking like a disaster is the fact its battery is meant to be around 3,000mAh. With a 5.66 inch QHD screen the only battery size acceptable is 4,000mAH plus. The only way I will change my mind is if Samsung has invented some snazzy battery tech. And Quick Charging is not a solution. I personally want a phone to have a decent amount of juice especially when its meant to be a flagship like the Note range!

Editorial – Are Android Phone Manufacturers panicking over the next iPhone?

Android, Apple, Tech News,

There is no doubt that Apple is currently selling millions of iPhones all over the world and at the same time making decent profit margins on each phone sold. It is an incredible feat.

The new iPhone(s) due to be announced and released in September have the potential to sell like crazy again, especially if the rumoured improvements are true. For example, iPhones have had a 8mp rear camera for years. Rumours are this will be increased for the better to 12mp. Force Touch – this also might arrive on the next iPhone, along with all the minor bumps in processor and other components.

Normally, smartphone manufacturers wait until IFA to announce their products, but this year we have seen many companies make product announcements already, and some to announce earlier than usual to try and combat the iPhone threat eg Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Honor and more.

How can an android phone manufacturer compete at the luxury end when you can buy for £120 an Elephone P8000. This has a 1080p 5.5 inch screen, Octa Core Processor, Fingerprint sensor, unibody metal design, 3gb ram, 16gb storage, micro sd card to 128gb, less than 9mm thin, 13mp Samsung rear camera and so on. There are plenty of other examples too. Ok, its not a QHD screen with 32gb storage, but the entry level specs will still do a decent job. With the iPhone there is only one or two new iPhones a year. So if you want an iPhone, you have to buy an iPhone. Market cornered!

I do worry how Samsung will fare with the new Note 5. It is all internal memory, no replaceable batteries or micro SD card slot. This will go against the grain of what its customers want but it will be copying the iPhone 6 Plus design of fixed storage and non removable batteries.

The only hope is there is some new feature(s) on the next wave of android phones that truly are the next big thing!