Category Archives: Tech News

Taylor Swift wins compensation for artists during 3 month Apple Music Trial

Apple, Tech News, ,

Over the weekend Taylor Swift wrote an open letter saying Apple was wrong not to be paying artists any royalties during the 3 month Apple Music trial. She said she could afford to take this stance, but other new or upcoming artists would be too scared to take on the might of Apple.

Well surprise surprise Apple have backed down and confirmed they will pay money to artists during the trial music. I’m sure Taylor Swift did extremely well out of this, since the amount of publicity for her was off the charts.

Next questions, does Taylor Swift use an iPhone, if not I’m sure a MacBook, iPhone, Apple Watch Gold and iPad are all on there way to her!

Xiaomi Mi4i & Mi Note Pro – update

Android, Tech News,

minotepro

Coming soon from China, the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, Xiaomi’s flagship phone and their Mi4i budget £200 iPhone 5C lookalike. Just how good are these phones versus the rest of the world offerings?

So what questions have you got?

Both devices comes the MIUI version 6. See below –

Image source – Mi.com/Note Pro

LG G4 – Artistic Shots from this week

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

By now you all would have seem the camera quality possible from the G4. Well, I have been using RAW a lot more this week. This has enabled me to create a base image with a lot of high quality data and then finish off post processing the image myself. So instead of showing off pure unedited images, these are all edited myself.

My personal favourite of the week is my local church below. This was created taken 3 bracketed shots in raw with exposures of -2, 0 and +2. Then merged to create a black and white HDR. The photo has superb depth to it.

Church of St Michael and All Angels , Princetown #lgg4 #hdr

With the another 3 raw images taken at the same time as the shots above, I created a totally different look using Adobe Lightroom.

Princetown Church

Another set of 3 bracketed shots, taken while I was waiting for my Chinese takeaway to be cooked. Notice the viaduct running above.

Taylor Square, Tavistock #Devon #Viaduct #LGG4

This was a jpeg edited. This is RBS at St Andrews Cross, Plymouth, Devon, UK. It is a listed building. And the water was filthy.

RBS #Plymouth, St Andrews Cross #LGG4

In my village, resides the Visitor Centre, a grand old building with tons of history. At one point this was the Duchy Hotel.

National Park Visitor Centre #LGG4

Help choose my next phone ?

Tech News

Can you help me choose my next phone to review?

Probably a near impossible question, but whilst I have the LG G4, Sony Z3 Compact and a blackberry curve (mandatory work supplied device)  all in current use , I would like something else to try and review. Just not sure what, so looking for some inspiration. 

Phones I’ve had this year include – iPhone 6 Plus, Honor 6+, Samsung S6 edge, Amazon Fire phone, Blackberry Passport, Samsung S6, Note 4, Note Edge, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy A5, LG G3, LG G Flex, HTC One M9, Desire 820, Desire Eye, Acer s55, Yotaphone 2, Honor 4X, Honor Holly, Moto X, Moto G, Nokia Lumia 830, Lumia 1520, Lumia 1020. 

You can read all my reviews on the above (and more devices) by following this link – https://gavinsgadgets.com/review-links/smartphonetabletlaptop-reviews/

So based on something you have used yourself, what would you recommend is worth a punt?

LG G4 – Bugs and Batteries – UPDATED

Android, Tech News,

I thought I would be helpful and contact LG Customer support with all the bugs I have discovered with the G4 and  those that also impact the Watch Urbane.

I also asked where I could buy a battery for the G4 along with the charging kit. Let’s not forget that in the USA, LG are offering G4 owners a free battery and charging kit and a 32gb micro sd card. You can also buy extra backs in different colours. 

Around 3 weeks has passed, and LG customer support cannot progress any of my bugs as they are not in possession of a G4, to replicate and confirm problems, following which something might occur. I’m speechless over this. 

Then we get to the bugs. One of which is repairable if I send my phone back in for repair. Very funny not. It’s a brand new phone, so my solution is that they can take back my phone and give me a brand new working phone. Except,  this won’t fix this issue, a software update more than likely will. 

The removable battery is flouted as a selling point of the G4 versus other phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6 that have moved to an internal battery that is non user removable. LG customer support informed me that LG Korea decided not to sell or send batteries to the UK. If you could buy and then use a third party battery you invalidate your warranty!

So I’ve elevated the above to within LG and wait their response. On the plus side, LG customer support is reachable with ease by telephone and they do call you back. 

UPDATED – Well, I didn’t expect a response at 6pm on a Friday, but the Head of LG Mobile UK has personally responded and has started to address all my points. The email was about 3/4 A4 in length. As my website signature was not used the content is private currently. Once, I have less sensitive data to share, I will update this post again. I will say just one thing, customer support now have a G4.

LG G4 – Shooting in RAW – Continued

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

I have taken a few more shots using the LG G4 in RAW mode using both the default camera app and Camera FV-5. Camera FV-5 is used as it does bracketing automatically.

Typically using FV-5, I am shooting 3 shots with EV differences of +2, 0, and -2. Each sequence creates 6 shots, 3 jpegs and 3 raw DNGs, requiring around 120mb in total. 9 bracketed sequences taken, and that’s 1GB!

So the photo below was captured with 3 raw shots, and I merged them and created a HDR jpeg. Click on shot to see full resolution over at my flickr account.

Trees HDR

The next shot is a single raw photo, which I then post processed in Lightroom 6. I must admit, I need a lot more time to understand Lightroom 6.

Princetown Church

Back to 3 raw shots taken in a bracketed sequence, then merged to create a lovely Black & White moody shot.

Church of St Michael and All Angels , Princetown #lgg4 #hdr

Same again, except this was a hand held shot, using the bracketed mode on Camera FV-5.

St Peter's Church, Peter Tavy, Devon #lgg4

But is shooting in RAW worth the effort, extra space and time? Below is a shot taken normally in auto mode, using the default LG G4 camera app, and post processed on the phone using snapseed.

St Peter's Church, Peter Tavy, Devon #lgg4

Next 2 shots, all shot on, but no post processing applied. These are jpegs not raw files.

Down by the canal #Birmingham #lgg4

Down by the canal #Birmingham #lgg4

From my initial findings, raw shots do allow for better shots once post processed and stunning HDR shots. But RAW isn’t necessary either, but I would rather I had a phone that provided this feature than not. The options with RAW seem to improve the more I understand Lightroom 6. And that is the key. If I can grasp Lightroom 6 I will be able to create spotless photos!

LG Watch Urbane – All the Review Posts

Android, Reviews, Tech News, Wearables,

wpid-150613_100213_collage-1.jpg

Since receiving the LG Watch Urbane, I have written many posts. Below are all the links so far. This post will get updated when more individual posts go live.

– LG announce the Watch Urbane – details and specs – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/02/16/lg-announces-the-new-lg-watch-urbane-its-luxury-android-wear-smartwatch-details/

– Impressions part 1 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/09/lg-watch-urbane-beauty-and-disaster-first-impressions/

– Impressions part 2 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/10/lg-watch-urbane-part-2/

– Impressions part 3 – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/12/lg-watch-urbane-part-3/

– How to change the Urbane strap – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/11/lg-watch-urbane-replacing-the-strap/

– Decisions required on strap choice – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/14/lg-watch-urbane-be-careful-on-strap-choice/

– Gallery of all my watch faces photographed – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/15/lg-watch-urbane-my-watch-faces-shown-photographed-gallery/

– A new thicker strap and the issues fitting it – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/06/17/lg-watch-urbane-a-new-strap/

LG Watch Urbane – a new strap

Reviews, Tech News, Wearables,

image

My second orange strap arrived the other day and this time I managed to fit it to the Urbane. Fitting it was tricky and I found that the only way to connect it, was with the strap at 90° when pushing the pins back in place.

You can also see due to the thickness of the strap at the watch end it slightly protrudes. Leather straps sit flush on the back.

image

Just a reminder here are the other straps. So far brown leather is my 2nd favourite but for now orange is the new king in town 🙂

image

I suppose at some point I will fit a metal strap too. So which colour option do you prefer?

LG G4 – raw photo images vs jpeg – samples – updated with Lightroom 6 sample

Android, Reviews, Tech News, , , ,

This was a quick test using the G4 camera in raw mode.

I used Camera FV-5 app in bracketing mode to take 3 shots. Exposures from +2,0,-2.

I then uploaded the photos in my macbook and used Photomatix to create a fancy HDR shot. As I’m using the trial the HDR images have 3 watermarks. I will be buying this app soon as its so funky to use.

image

Normal shot above. This is the original jpeg. Below new HDR shot created from 3 raw images. Whilst HDR adds some excitement, the quality is also improved.

image

Same again. Normal JPEG below.

image

And now a fancy HDR combined using 3 raw images.

image

And one more. Original jpeg belw.

image

Just look at the HDR shot from the 3 raw images. Absolutely love the drama in this shot.

image

OK some trees. Jpeg below.

image

And the new image which again was created from 3 raw images.

image

Now granted HDR is not everyone’s cup of tea, but its mine.

I will be exploring lightroom to carry out some normal post processing shortly.Also worth noting is the file sizes. Each raw image was 30mb. So for a bracketed sequence of 3, 90mb needed. After post processing the new jpeg created from the raw images is around 14mb.

You also have to factor in the extra steps of transferring the raw images, uploading them into the mac or pc software and all the time needed to create one super amazing shot. And then you share it on twitter or facebook and all that quality is lost!

Update – below is an HDR processed shot via Adobe Lightroom 6. Weighs in at 17mb. Same process as before, merges 3 raw shots.

Lightroom 6 File 1