Category Archives: Apple

iPhone 5S dreadful battery life woes

Apple, Tech News

There is one thing to suffer a poor battery when using your phone, but it is an entirely different matter when you main sim is in the Lumia 820 and you notice the iPhone 5S battery life dropping like a bomb.

It was off the charger at 7am and by 8am it was at 81%. At 1pm it was down to 19%. So last night, I put a call in to Apple Support. First they remotely ran on my device a full battery diagnostics. This then got sent back to Apple and a discussion with a technical support agent continued.

He explained, that some Apple services, 3 in total, had been left running by either the operating system or by an app(s).

The only way to confirm exactly what was happening was to hard reset the iPhone, and setup the iPhone as a new device. No apps installed. From fully charged, then monitor the runtime of the battery.

I explained to the Apple advisor that obviously if you have no apps installed the battery will last longer. He said that they would need to do this, to see whether it was a fault with the iPhone.

My issue is that to restore the device isn’t difficult, but just will take a lifetime as I have 260 apps installed. Not only will I have to redownload all the apps from the cloud, but then enter all the user names and passwords needed for many of the apps. This is a laborious task and not one I really want to do.

So what would you do? Wipe, run as fresh. Or accept crap battery life?

For the record Apple state 250 hours standby time and 8 hours talk time, 10 hours internet browsing via wifi. My view is no way in a million years.

£3.47 is the cost to transform sound from your iPod and iPhone headphones

Apple, Tech News,

The Denon Audio app for iOS is probably the best £1.49 you’ll ever spend on in app purchases.

Denon describe the app for on the go audiophiles. The premium audio player gets the best possible sound from your music library and Tune In Radio. You can create custom EQ curves and playlists.

The EQ is an in app purchase of £1.49. It provides a graphic equaliser for your iPod Music library with 1,000 possible discrete bands. 10 built in EQ bands. Save and create your own. Bypass mode. No spatial distortion.

What this app does is provide a much better EQ calibration and with the headphones I’ve tested it with completely changed them into something totally different for the better. This means not spending another penny on new headphones.

The app does use more battery than the standard built in EQ options.

Very impressed but does beg the question why hasn’t Apple included something like this as standard.

And this is now my default music app. My Sony MDR-1R now have sub bass at levels to smile about !

And then Shaun McGill from Lostinmobile suggested CanOpener which tackles the sound issues a bit differently. First off it fine tunes the sound dependant on your headphone. If they don’t appear in the included list you can add your cans.

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The app also has EQ settings for a number of different options.

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It also allows you to adjust the cross feed. This is a proprietary algorithm.

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You also get tone shaping, a dosimeter and loudness metering to monitor your listening levels and protect your hearing.

For audiophiles it has FLAC support with file sharing via iTunes and uses a 64 bit audio path with sample rated upto 96 khz.

CanOpener costs £1.99 and is highly recommended. It is also a universal app.

I really thought the Denon app was the best but it really is a close call. My suggestion get both. My preferred app is the Denon due to the crazy EQ bass adjustments.

Logitech UE 6000 headphones – final review

Apple, Reviews, Tech News,

To recap on the early part of the review click here.

I have been able to use these headphones a lot longer and despite their many strengths, the constant background hiss that appears when the noise cancellation is active, is starting to frustrate me. This means I can’t enjoy my music.

Classical songs are a complete disaster. Jazz is just as poor. The only genres that don’t get impacted are dance and heavy bass tracks. So if you like this type of music then these headphones will be fine for you.

However, in conclusion, I have decided to return these headphones and cannot offer my recommendation unless you like bass led tracks which hides the noise cancellation hiss. Of course, you can use these without noise cancellation being active, but then that defeats the whole purpose of these headphones.

Happy Birthday “Gavin’s Gadgets” – One Year Old today

Android, Apple, Firefox, Historical Reviews, Jan 2013, Reviews, RIM, Social, Tech News, Weather, Windows

Gavin’s Gadgets celebrates it’s first birthday today.

In one year, I’ve written 1,700 articles and reviewed 23 phones/gadgets. Gavin’s Gadgets is viewed in 180 countries, and some that even I didn’t know existed. If you like podcasts, I also co-host a podcast with my friend Dave Rich from UKMobileTech. Details are on the about page, or search in iTunes or any podcast app for “Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast”.

Don’t forget, you can catch up on the reviews using the reviews index page.

In addition weather for Princetown, Dartmoor is updated daily using my basic weather equipment.

And remember there are no adverts to distract you. All the views are my personal views and opinions.

So from me to you, thank you for visiting, following my blog, adding your comments and returning. And thank you to everyone that helped me along this journey. Here’s to another year!

A few more reviews – details

Apple, Reviews, Tech News, Windows, , , ,

Just a quick heads up.

I have a Nokia Lumia 820 arriving soon which I’m looking forward to putting through its paces.

Headphones – following on from my review of the Logitech Ultimate Ears 6000 and Sony XBA-H1, I will be reviewing the Sennheiser Amperior soon. The Logitech UE 6000 and Sony XBA-H1 will also have a longer term update as well. I have used a wide selection of headphones, so please ask if you have a question or two.

Ballistic case – I will be looking at a Ballistics case for the iPhone 5/5S next week.

Apple Leather Case for iPhone 5S – report on long term usage on the red, cream, brown and blue cases. A quick reveal. The brown leather case isn’t that lovely light shade of brown anymore!

Apple Store app giveaways

Apple, Tech News

If you have the Apple store app installed have a look in the “holiday cheer” section.

If you are in the USA, Apple is offering 8 free classic holiday songs –

“Children Go Where I Send Thee” by Nik Lowe,
“Duck the Halls” by The Robertsons,
“Joy to the World” by Celtic Woman,
Silent Night” by Kelly Clarkson,
“The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an open Fire)” by Kool and the Gang,
“The First Noel” by Mary J. Blige
and “What Child is This” by Marvin Sapp

If you are in the UK,

– Visual Cookbook – baking cakes

Logitech Ultimate Ears 6000 – review impressions part 2

Apple, Reviews, Tech News,

Following on from my first impressions yesterday, I’ve have had a bit more time listening to these. The official specifications are –

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

HEADPHONE TYPE:Around-the-ear
DRIVER DIAMETER:40mm
IMPEDANCE:50 Ohms DCR Powered Off, 1K Ohms Powered On
SENSITIVITY:97 dB SPL/mW Powered Off, 99 dB SPL/mW Powered On, 1KHz
FREQUENCY RESPONSE:20 Hz – 20 kHz
CONNECTION:3.5 mm (1/8 inch)
NOISE ISOLATION:10 dB
BATTERY TYPE:2 AAA batteries
BATTERY LIFE:Over 40 hours of listening on average

The specifications don’t grab you and say these headphones will rock. They need a fair amount of juice to be powered hence why they sound more dynamic and with increased bass with the noise cancellation switched on. I also found to achieve the bass slam and depth you really needed the iPhone volume in the higher end of the scales at around 66% of volume and above. There is still the slightly annoying hiss with noise cancellation.

I have done several tests with the noise cancellation. Let’s just say it removes the sound partially but not completely. The Bose QC15 are much better for this but then cost 3 times as much. However, the UE 6000 noise cancellation is better than not being there at all.

Despite feeling heavyish to hold, the headphones are comfortable even with extended listening periods. Their sound signature is rather uninspiring with the noise cancellation off, although for some tracks the sound balance is more accurate. With the noise cancellation on, the bass is far more prominent and the tracks comes alive. I feel at times the treble and vocals become too muffled. The presentation is fun with a bass line. The added bass can be a very good thing even on classical music but sometimes it can overpower the track. I’ve tried the full spectrum of music genres and these headphones can surprise you irrespective of genre.

My verdict is a fun sound, sometimes really good, sometimes the bass overpowers the track and sometimes the bass adds more enjoyment to the experience. The noise cancellation is ok, but does add a hiss which I did find annoying but not all the time.

But let’s put the above in context. These were originally £200. And at that price there were better options. Except now, they are not £200 and can be had for around £88 on Amazon. At £88 these are a good offering, not perfect for me, but for many will be excellent.

Apple and China Mobile – in business

Apple, Tech News,

The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Apple and China Mobile have finally reached a deal that will see the world’s biggest mobile carrier offering the iPhone on its network from 18th December 2013.

China Mobile, which has more than 700 million subscribers, is one of the last major carriers in the world that does not currently offer the iPhone, and this deal should bring a huge boost in sales to Apple.

To put this deal in perspective, this deal with China Mobile would give Apple access to a subscriber base that is seven times the size of Verizon Wireless, the U.S.’s largest carrier. Greater China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, is Apple’s third biggest market after the U.S. and Europe in terms of revenue.

Logitech UE 6000 headphones – first impressions

Apple, Reviews, Uncategorized,

The Logitech Ultimate Ears 6000 are a noise cancelling pair of over the ears headphones made for iPhone, iPod or iPad.

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The first impressions you get of these headphones are the packaging. Some serious marks for such a well presented and stylish box. It opens to reveal a pouch for the manual, a soft zipped case which had the headphones inside, the wired cable, and a cool looking headphone splitter, allowing for an extra pair of headphones to connect to your iPod or iPhone or iPad. The wired cable also has the controls for your iOS devices.

You connect the wired cable, remove the battery plastic strip and voila. Slide the power button on and you have the UE 6000 ready to rock.

So the good part of these cans in that the noise cancellation works even when the 2 AAA batteries run out. And the fact that it uses batteries you need to make sure you have a spare pair if on a long journey.

Switching the power switch on does cut out a lot of background noise although not everything. The noisy dishwasher was considerably quieter. With the noise cancellation on, the cans had more punch and dynamics. The bass is excellent. But I have noticed a slight hiss when the noise cancellation is switched on. This might be a nuisance with quiet classical music. The UE 6000 are very comfortable on first impressions.

More impressions to follow shortly.