As you know, I co-host a weekly podcast with David from UKMobileTech called Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. It is a light hearted tech podcast broadcast bi-weekly. To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.
Episode 9 is now live.
If you get a moment and have enjoyed the podcast, please leave some feedback in iTunes. Thanks.
Huawei has unveiled the TalkBand B1 over at MWC 2014 – a wristband with a 1.4-inch flexible OLED display.
Its main focus is fitness, and it promises to track sleep patterns as well as steps taken, calories burned and so on.
As well as the wrist-based business, the TalkBand B1 comes with a detachable Bluetooth earpiece that you can use for taking calls.
The device supports Android 2.3 and up, and iOS 5.0 and up.
It should hit shop shelves in parts of Europe, China, Russia, the Middle East, Japan and Latin America from March 2014.
At first glance I wasn’t too keen on the style but it is growing on me. Also it’s simplicity is admirable.
Just a quick heads up to let you know that Dave and I have moved the date to record the next podcast episode to next Sunday.
We will then be able to bring you all our views and news from Mobile World Congress 2014.
BiteSMS for iOS 7 is now out of beta and available to all jailbroken iPhones running iOS 7 or later, including the iPhone 5s.
BiteSMS completely replaces iOS’s standard messaging app with a full-featured solution. You can schedule messages, read and compose messages in a small window on the iPhone without leaving whatever app the might be using at the time, automatically forward messages, use message templates and much more.
BiteSMS for iOS 7 is available immediately on jailbroken iPhones for free in the Cydia app store. The app is ad-supported after a 7-day trial, and users can pay a one-time $7.99 fee to remove ads permanently.
One of the better tweaks for jail broken phones.
When this hit the internet last night I. was not happy. I don’t and won’t use Facebook but now it seems another great app succumbs to a large corporate.
Sadly, my kids use this app so for the foreseeable future I will still have to use it. I don’t like Facebook and don’t use it either so this is a disaster in the longer term.
How long before you will need a Facebook account to use the service or will Facebook just integrate it into their platform.
What’s your view?
Press release –
MENLO PARK, CALIF. – February 19, 2014 – Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.
WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real-time mobile messaging service, with: Over 450 million people using the service each month; 70% of those people active on a given day; Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume; and Continued strong growth, currently adding more than 1 million new registered users per day.
The Cellz Bluetooth Portable Speaker is a great little Bluetooth speaker.
It is a rechargeable, mini USB chargeable, 3W digital power amplifier. It takes 2 hours to charge with a 3 hour music playback time. It is specified with Bluetooth v3 with support for AD2P and AVRCP.
The first thing that surprised me was after I turned the power on. It announced in a Japanese female voice “Bluetooth music play system turned on” and then “Bluetooth pairing successfully” . And really loud. Once of twice I started to play music to quickly after pairing and the sound kept breaking up. A quick power off and on solved this.
The speaker has music controls built on the bottom with the mic and call accept close by. It also has a line in input and micro USB card slot for playing mp3 songs on a micro USB card. In the box is the speaker, quick start guide , mini USB cable and 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.
In use the 3W amplifier did sound rather loud and heavy a reasonable bass for its size. Taking a call on it was rather odd. You need to be 5-10cm from the speaker. It worked but it felt even stranger than using my Galaxy Gear to take a call on. Listening to podcasts was a joy on this little speaker. Clear and loud.
All in all though a very versatile nifty little Bluetooth speaker.
Rating 8.4/10.
It’s strange how in a few months my view of my iPad Air has altered. When I got the iPad Air I was very excited by this beautiful piece of hardware. It’s extremely well manufactured, with a lovely screen and on screen keyboard and supported by a really powerful processor. It comes with fantastic battery life, and for its size is one of the lightest tablets.
In fact despite my changing views it still is all of the above. And let’s not forget iOS 7 and all the bespoke tablet apps. So what’s changed?
Owning the Samsung Note 3 has altered my view point on the iPad Air. For a start I’m not using the iPad Air as much now I have the Note 3. The Note 3 has been designed to make full use of its screen size with multi view and small floating apps. Now you won’t have 2 apps open at the same time all the time, but when you need to, it is very effective. The same applies for the floating small apps.
At the weekend, I was in Carphone Warehouse and used the Samsung Note 10.1 2014 tablet. This integrates many of the Note 3 features but in a larger form factor. This then got me thinking about the new NotePro 12.2 which allows up to 4 apps on the screen at the same time. And then I went back to using the iPad Air. It really feels like it’s missing out on a trick by not fully utilising all the screen real estate. Plus with the Note 12.2 you have proper sharing of data between apps and the ability to connect USB hardware to it.
So here I am debating whether I should change the iPad Air for the Samsung NotePro 12.2….. To be continued…
The Cellz InEar High Performance Headphones only cost £6.86 with free UK Shipping.
So how on earth could these be high performance. Let’s start with the specs-
– Drive units – 11.5 mm
– Sensitivity – 110db
– Impedance – 32ohm
– Cord – Flat 1.2m
– Microphone sensitivity -42db
Well, they are not high fidelity headphones but they are incredible value for money. The are for people who like a bit of bass, actually a lot of bass. Consequently, the miss and treble are recessed. I had to turn off my EQ on my Note 3 and iPhone. And still they pounded the bass out. Actually, these are a great fun headphone sound and one for my collection.
The flat cord is handy too. The microphonics are ok, nothing to set the world alight. There is a play , pause option on the cord too.
But for just under £7 I have not heard a better fun sounding headphone.
Rating 7/10.
From bright yellow to line green and other colours, Samsung has introduced the new replacement back covers for your Note 3.
I’m trying to decide if I want a yellow or lime green and at the same time whether it’s even a good idea.
Would you change your phone to one of the above colours?
As you know, I co-host a weekly podcast with David from UKMobileTech called Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. It is a light hearted tech podcast broadcast bi-weekly. To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.
Episode 8 is now live.
If you get a moment and have enjoyed the podcast, please leave some feedback in iTunes. Thanks.
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