All these phones claim to have 16gb memory. But as Which discovered and many of us techies will know the story is not quite that as each phone uses part of the memory for the firmware and bloatware. But what stands out is the Samsung S4 will just over half the memory only free!
BT’s tech boffins, joined by experts from French company Alcatel-Lucent, have set a new record for data transfer speeds over fibre cables.
Peaking at 1.4Tb, the speeds were achieved using commercial hardware, suggesting that home networks may be get similar bandwidth in the future.
That’s the equivalent of 44 HD films per second. That’s fast.
The USPTO granted Samsung a new design patent which shows a smartphone with no buttons on the front. The patent comes after Samsung was recently granted another patent for a buttonless phone. The first patent may be related to the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the Galaxy Note 4.
The designs in the patent, No. D697,886 S, show a mysterious rectangle on the right side of the device.
The device is rumored to have a release date before MWC 2014, which is next month, or it could also possibly be released in March. Other rumors about the device include a Quad HD (1440 x 2560) display, a new Exynos processor, and at least 3GB of RAM.
Source – USPTO
Samsung and Google sign a 10 year cross licensing patent deal to help with innovation.
Samsung and Ericsson agree a patent deal which involves Samsung paying for Ericsson’s licenses.
Now all we need if for some love between Samsung and Apple!
Breakdown of sales per region.
Shares in Apple fell more than 8% in after-hours trading after the firm reported flat profits of $13.1bn (£7.9bn) during the October to January quarter.
While the earnings beat expectations, the firm lowered it sales outlook for 2014, worrying investors.
Apple said it sold a record 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads. Tim Cook acknowledged the iPhone 5C hadn’t met expectations.
Selling 51 million iPhones in the quarter was shy of the 55 million or so analysts had expected, reflecting intense competition from Samsung and others. In the December quarter, Apple recorded a net profit of $13.07 billion, flat from a year ago. Its gross margins came in at 37.9 percent, roughly in line with expectations.
Apple sold only 6 million iPods during the holiday quarter. That’s a decrease of 55% year over year for revenue and 52% for units when looking at the 12.7 million it sold in Q1 2013. That’s also the biggest year over year drop ever for the iPod, which fell from 15.4m units in Q1 12 to 12.7m in Q1 13 before being cut in half this year.
Whilst Apple seems to have suffered a drop in numbers in reality it was not alone. This was the same problem that faced every major phone company. The next quarter could prove very interesting with new products in the wings.
Maybe, phones have reached their natural plateau and it’s time for the next big thing. But despite their shares falling I still think it is staggering that a company can sell so many products which such a high price tag.
The BBC reports that the operators of two exchanges for the virtual currency Bitcoin have been arrested in the US.
The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella – known as “BTCKing” – and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant have both been charged with money laundering.
The authorities said the pair were engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1m (£603,000) in bitcoins to users of online drug marketplace the Silk Road.
Finances just got tougher for Sony. Moody’s has just valued Sony as junk status.
It will now cost Sony alot more money to borrow and could leave to further complications.
Apple has issued updates for the iOS editions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. All three — updated to version 2.1 — gain the ability to share password-protected documents via iCloud link, in line with the recent iWork for iCloud update. The suite sees improved compatibility with Microsoft Office 2013 documents, and bug fixes and stability improvements. Additionally, each app has its own individual upgrades.
Make sure you update the apps on your iPad, iPhones and MAC.
If you are running android, live wallpapers and widgets are all possible for your home screen setup. This is marvellous if you enjoy weather apps and forecasts. Below is my current home screen.
Below the Google Search widget is WeatherPro, my favourite weather app. The developers have several apps for iOS and android with in app purchases. The good news as I found out the other day, even though I bought a 12 month subscription for advanced weather data when I had my iPhone 5S, I was able to transfer this in app purchase to up to 5 devices across any platform. So my Note 3 now has the benefit of this data. The developers of WeatherPro also sell MeteoEarth.
MeteoEarth comes with a live wallpaper which displays live wind, precipitation or whatever options you select. I love the live aspect of the weather displayed as a wallpaper.
And below the WeatherPro widget is the Natatmo Urban Weather Station Weather widget. There are 4 options but I have it set just to provide hourly updates of the actual temperature from the outdoor module.
And finally folders and apps. The icon theme used for Nova Launcher is Tendere.
Of course, the cheaper way to check the weather is either a) look out the window or b) step outside, turn 360 degrees and deduce it’s rather nippy.
Of course, there are many other great weather apps and widgets out there. So what’s your favourites?
Brando Shopping sell the NFC enabled GalaRing.
GalaRing G1 is the first smart product under the consumer electronic brand GalaGreat. You can use your NFC Ring to share WiFi information, links to websites, contact information or whatever you think is suitable to be passed securely to your friends, smartphones and tablets. Your NFC Ring can also be used to start apps with custom settings (parameters), making it a really easy way to personalize the app experience to match your ring.
It comes in 2 sizes, 17mm and 22mm. The 17mm is too small for me so I suggest opting for the larger size. As you can see from the photo below, it just comes in a box with no instructions other than a barcode for you to scan to download the app. The screen shots from the app are shown, but even after opening the app I still wasn’t sure as to how everything was going to work. In fact I found it difficult to grasp. Also the NFC was hit and miss with my Note 3. I think you really need to be very geeky to want this product and understand NFC in depth. It really could do with some proper instructions and explanations.
Key Features
G1 is the first product of GalaGreat smart electronics brand.
G1 smart ring is designed to contact human skin as well as numerous
possible environments, so high-qualitymaterials and workmanship are required.
The two core smart NFC chips of G1 are provided by world-class chip company NXP.
The waterproof level reached the top IP68 industrial level. It can resistup to 10 meters of free fall impact.
GalaRing has basic functions brought by the NFC chip.
It can also transmit information between the ring and the phone via the latest NFC technology, providing personal social information storage and exchange functions.
Android Apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.galagreat.galaring
Size:
Small – 17mm
Large – 22mm
Compatible Models:
SAMSUNG: Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S3 Mini, Galaxy S4, Google Nexus S, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 3
MOTOROLA: Moto X, Droid Maxx, Droid Razr M, Droid Razr HD
HTC: One, First, One X
LG: Google Nexus 4, optimus 4x HD, Optimus L5, Optimus L7
Sony: Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z, Xperia T, Xperia P, Xperia S
Other: Mi 2A, Mi3, OPPO Find5, GEAK Eye, GEAK Mars, Machine with NFC function.
Available from Brando Shopping
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