Category Archives: Tech News

iPhone 6 rumoured to have a 1810mAh battery – please let these be untrue

Apple, Tech News

Many tech websites are running with a rumour that the new iPhone will have an increased battery to 1810mAh.

I really hope this is not true or there are some software surprises.

With all the social networking and background services that iOS 8 brings to the table, surely a larger size battery is needed. I sold my 5S due to battery life being dreadful.

We can only hope that iOS 8 is frugal on the battery, but in my mind, if you are playing a game you need juice and for a decent amount of time. Of course, Apple may reinvent the charge process and the new screen acts as a solar panel as well. Now that would be slick.

Google’s Q2 Earnings Report – Summary

Android, Tech News

Google released its Q2 2014 earnings. The key facts :-

– Revenues hit $16 billion up 22 percent from the year previous
– Operating income was $4.26 billion, 27 percent of revenues, up from $3.47 billion the year earlier
– Net income was $3.42 billion up just slightly from Q2 2013
– Earnings Per Share (EPS) came in at $4.99, up from $4.77
– Google sites generated $10.94 billion of the company’s total revenues, a 23 percent increase over Q2 2013 – Partner sites accounted for $3.42 billion of revenues
– Paid clicks for ads increased 25 percent over the last year, and cost-per-click was down approximately 6 percent in the same period.
– Google also announced along with earnings that the number of employees at the company has increased to 52,069 (48,584 in Google and 3,485 in Motorola Mobile)

Glad somebody is making some decent money!

A new networking protocol for smart homes – Thread

Android, Tech News,

Samsung, Google-owned Nest Labs, and five other companies have partnered to create Thread Group, which will focus on developing a new wireless networking protocol for smart homes. Thread uses both the same frequency and radio chips as Zigbee, a standards-based wireless technology utilized by products like Phillips’ customizable Hue LED light bulbs.

This cannot come soon enough. I have some smart home devices, with each system having its own configuration and setup process. I really look forward to the day when this is simplified and all companies adhere to the new standard.

Fortunately, if you are using android there is an app called Imperihome that does combine several networked devices but even this app would benefit from Thread, as this would mean a simpler setup procedure.

Apple goes in partnership with IBM – thoughts

Apple, Tech News

Apple announced that it’s partnering with IBM to “transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps.” The relationship will combine IBM’s enterprise data specialties with Apple’s iOS hardware and software.

“iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement. “For the first time ever we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”

Apple already has huge in roads into the business sector, and with iOS 8 arriving in September and this announcement with IBM, it looks like Apple is heading for another pot of gold.

LG G3 – review update

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

I have posted a few articles already on my daily thoughts with the LG G3. I will write a full review, once I have got to grips with all the features and quirks of this phone.

It has a lot to offer and is certainly worthy of a top spot in any phone awards at the moment.

It is the first phone in ages that “feels” good to use, that provides a “happy” emotion when using it and that does not take over your life, but simply slots in.

If you have anything particular you would like me to cover, please let me know.

Google+ changes its rules – You can now call yourself Batman

Tech News

Google posted (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+googleplus/posts/V5XkYQYYJqy) the following on its blog –

“When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.

Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use.

We know you’ve been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today’s change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be. Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is.”

I wonder how long it will be before we have pets on Google+!

LG G Watch – just over a week later – update – plus some new apps

Android, Reviews, Tech News, Wearables, ,

So I have had the LG G Watch just over a week so far. In fact it is nearly 10 days. My thoughts and experiences on this device have changed since using it.

After just a few days, I really thought this smart watch would be returned as I was thinking it is simply an overpriced piece of plastic that does nothing useful.

Fortunately, I have been really busy with my day job, so I have not been able to give the G Watch any specific time, and that is actually why I am loving it now.

It has simply just slotted into my life, providing useful information in a timely manner and nothing too excessive. Each day, I find another handy thing to do with it without too much fuss.

It does help that I like the look of the white/gold finish as well. It has also saved me time as I have not had to pull my smartphone out of my pocket that much, meaning that at the end of a working day, I still have 90% battery left on my G3.

It is sad however, the it needs a charge daily, although that does not take too long and the charging cradle is magnetic making it a breeze to drop on and off.

As time moves on it will be interesting to see what improvements are made to the Android Wear firmware and apps.

Now just a quick note of a couple of new apps that I have installed –

Android Wear Calculator – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rocketstartups.wearcalculator
A calculator on your watch and on the square LG G Watch is simple and easy to use.

Wear Camera Remote – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dheera.wearcamera
This is an awesome app. It is a remote camera shutter for your phone, but you also got a preview on the watch.

And another called IFTTT. I’m not going to say anything about this app. Just install it and get blown away at what can be done. Eg. Use your watch to turn the lights on. Silence your phone. Or turn volume to full. And another 100 options.

The annoying part of the Android Wear apps is Google’s own list is missing over 100 apps. So it is a search and search again at the moment.

And in other Microsoft news – Microsoft about to announce huge staff layoffs

Tech News, Windows

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim down and integrate Nokia Oyj’s handset unit, people with knowledge of the company’s plans said.

Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in an interview last week that he has preparing to make sweeping changes at Microsoft. The reductions will probably be in engineering, marketing and areas of overlap with Nokia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.

The restructuring — which may be unveiled as soon as this week — may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009, two of the people said. Some details are still being worked out, two of the people said.

Nadella, who took over from Steve Ballmer in February, said in the interview that Microsoft would have to become more focused and efficient. The CEO issued his first company mission statement last week, calling for greater emphasis on mobile devices, cloud-computing and productivity software as consumers and businesses buy fewer personal computers to check e-mail, browse the Web and access data and software.

Not unexpected, but a real shame for the individual people who might be impacted.

Source: Microsoft Corp. via Bloomberg.com.

Upodate via Reuters –

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is planning to cut 1,000 jobs in Finland from its mobile phone unit, a Finnish daily said on Wednesday, quoting anonymous sources.

Microsoft announces Lumia Cyan software update roll out – full info

Tech News, Windows

Microsoft Devices today announces that the Lumia Cyan software update will start rolling out to Nokia Lumia phones running Windows Phone 8 today. Lumia Cyan brings the latest Windows Phone 8.1 features and unique Lumia experiences to your existing Windows Phone 8 smartphone.

THE LATEST WINDOWS PHONE 8.1 FEATURES COMING TO YOUR LUMIA INCLUDE:
· Cortana. The world’s first virtual personal assistant built around you. Available first in the U.S.
· Third column of Live Tiles on the Start Screen. Make your Start screen as unique as you are with three columns of customized tiles and a start background picture to shine through your system tiles.
· Action Center. One swipe takes you to your settings and notifications.
· WordFlow Keyboard. Glide your finger over this super-fast and intuitive smartphone keyboard to save time and effort.
· Business support. Work made easy on the only smartphone that has Office for Windows Phone built in so that you can access, edit, and share documents with anyone. New enterprise features make work safe and easier to access.

UNIQUE LUMIA EXPERIENCES TAKE YOUR SMARTPHONE TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
· Enhanced Nokia Camera and renewed Camera Roll. Access your images, image editing and sharing even quicker directly from the camera. Reframe and zoom in high resolution directly in Camera Roll.
· Updated Storyteller app and Living Images. Share your Storyteller stories on your favorite social network with an automatically created video of your best memories with background music. Living Images bring your still photos to live on your Lumia Icon and Lumia 1520.
· Install apps to MicroSD memory card. You can now free up space on your Lumia by moving apps to the memory card.
· Rich Recording with Surround Sound. With Lumia 1520 and Lumia Icon, you can capture and relive immersive video in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 sound that is more true-to-life than ever before.
· Nokia Device Hub. Manage all your accessories in an easy and fun way.

THE NEXT EVOLUTION OF IMAGE AND VIDEO EDITING APPS:
Apps like Adobe Photoshop Express and Creative Studio make image post-editing even easier and richer, while Microsoft’s latest app Video Tuner delivers a leading experience for editing videos on a smartphone.
Available exclusively for Windows Phone 8.1, Video Tuner is a new and differentiated app that allows users to quickly edit and share high quality videos straight from their Lumia. With a range of tools to crop, rotate, flip, mirror and change videos’ speed; adjust volume and music; apply fun filters, effects, and more – pumping out amazing videos to share on social networks, OneDrive or with friends and family has never been easier.

TIMINGS
The Lumia Cyan update will be rolling out to Lumia devices running on Windows Phone 8 as of today and is expected to become available for the full range in the coming weeks.

HOW TO UPDATE
Your Lumia smartphone automatically checks for updates every week, and will notify you when it finds one. Available updates can also be manually checked by going to Settings -> Phone update. The update can be downloaded and installed straight from that screen.

Sony offers a bootloader unlocking service – it’s simplest yet

Android, Tech News

Sony has now made it easier to unlock your Sony smartphone.

Quote from Sony –

“If you’re an open source developer working with custom ROMs and kernels, or if you’re part of the custom ROMs community, Sony have some great news for you. As yet another step in our strive for openness, our Unlock boot loader service is now re-launched with improved usability. It will now be easier to go through the steps it takes to unlock a device.

Three main steps-

With the re-launched Unlock boot loader solution, you now have to go through three main steps to unlock the boot loader:

-Select your device and enter an email address.
-Submit your IMEI number.
-Get your unlock code and perform the actual unlocking of the device.

We’ve also improved they way you check whether a device is supported, we’ve revised the instructions, and we’ve made sure you’ll only get the information relevant for your particular device all the way through the unlock process, without having to browse through a lot of information applicable for other devices. In addition, we’ve also added an FAQ section, for your convenience.

Why not go to unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com and take a look yourself?”

This is good news for those that like to tweak their android smartphones and the developer community.