Category Archives: Tech News

The successor to the HTC One – the HTC One+ – specifications

Android, Tech News

Let’s hope these specs on the rumoured replacement for the HTC One turn out to be correct. If so HTC have a killer phone in the making more than the original.

HTC One+ (HTC M8)

-5-inch full HD 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 3
-Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, 2GB LPDDR3
-6MP or 8MP “UltraPixel” camera with possible dual-lens with 2.1MP front facing camera -OIS unknown
-2,900mAh battery
– No capacitive buttons (software)
– Android KitKat with HTC Sense 6.0
– Micro-SIM
– NFC
– SD card slot – country dependant

Pebble Smartwatch ready to make a big announcement at CES next week

Tech News,

The Pebble Smartwatch has been around for around a year, so it should come as no surprise that version 2 is likely to be appearing soon, and whilst no details were revealed by Pebble, they did announce they would be making a big splash at CES.

This could also include more details of the Pebble App Store as well.

Starbucks loves iOS 7 and iPhones

Apple, Tech News, ,

Starbucks, this week, updated their Pick of the Week promotion to take advantage of iOS 7′s ability to use the device’s camera to redeem iTunes gift cards.

Before that you had to manually type the code into the iTunes Store. Earlier this year, Starbucks began offering the promotion via an App Store app. The pick of the week promotion allows customers pickup cards from participating Starbucks locations and download an app or other piece of iTunes media for free.

Handy is you like Starbucks coffee and own an iPhone.

Samsung Note 3 – 3 months later review – day 3

Android, Reviews, Tech News, ,

They say anything can happen in 24 hours. Well, my Samsung Note 3 has gone from a thing of frustration to a golden entity.

From a software point of view the Note 3 needs a few tweaks to prevent the constant reboots when powering on the phone. Also Google need to update their Google Play Music app so it works with the phone. I am sure both these will happen at some point in the future.

However, a trip over to XDA Developers (link provided in comments on part 2 published yesterday) revealed this was a common problem and solved by unticking the box in wifi advanced settings “allow scanning” as shown below.

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With this box unticked it is safe to reset or switch off and on phone. After phone is back on you can retick the box. I have installed Nova Launcher and now have 2 home screens as below and app drawer all organised.

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Despite missing out on free albums and other apps, I have found that I am still eligible for a free years subscription to the weekly magazine “Business Week”, free app MarketWatch and 3 articles free for the New York Times. There was also a magazine and photo printing app to peruse.

My other observations are that the loudspeaker doesn’t go loud enough as I would have liked, but it is crystal clear, the output volume via headphones could be louder but at least you won’t go deaf in a day, the headphone quality using the supplied in ear headphones is rubbish but using a number of decent in ear and over ear headphones provided high quality audio playback. Battery. Finally a phone that can last a day. It has at least 60% more juice than the iPhone 5S. The screen is gorgeous. Whether it’s watching a movie, looking at photos or indeed anything it’s really amazing. Gaming takes on a new level which such a vast screen. Clip the Note 3 into my Moga Pro game controller and it’s game on. The camera is much better than I thought. Low light photos aren’t brilliant but passable at best. The iPhone 5S and Lumia 1020 trounce it but as soon as the light increases the Note 3 is providing some stunning shots.

I finally have found an acceptable way to sync between my mac and the Note 3. iTunes music and movies (non drm) are handled wonderfully by an app called iSyncr. I realised I had photo uploads going to Google, Dropbox, Skydrive and Flickr yesterday. And still I got through a whole day in one battery charge. I have selected Dropbox for the time being as it integrates better into the mac folder structure. However, I have 80gb storage on my Google account so need to investigate options for using this more, as I enjoy the auto awesome features. Then there is the infra red remote control, ideal for controlling the TV.

How would I compare the Note 3 to the iPhone 5S? You can’t. They are totally different devices. The iPhone is a one handed masterpiece. All your apps and information as the flick of a thumb or finger. I think the notification centre in iOS is better as there are normally choices of how the notification is delivered, badges and more. The Note 3 uses the status bar instead for handling notifications. The one huge score for iOS is using twitter. I haven’t come across any twitter app on android that provides proper streaming and instant notifications as they appear. On iOS the official twitter app is better than any other twitter app on android, even the official android twitter app. The iPhone is technology made easy. iTunes syncing and backup is legendary. But then the Note 3 steps in.

The Note 3 provides over and above the iPhone, a 5.7 inch screen that enhances media engagement, 4K video recording, camera settings and options to fuel a nuclear reactor, in fact that applies to the whole device. Everything is adjustable. Options include intelligent S-View Premium cases, wireless charging, blocking mode, enough motion controls to make you sea sick, smart stay x 100, a decent hands free mode great when driving , S-Pen, air gestures galore, USB 3, USB OTG, and the list just keeps going on and on. The more you learn about the Note 3, the more you realise if you only could have one device, this could be it.

So at the end of day 3, I’m absolutely loving the Note 3. The iPhone 5S still has not been powered back on. My wife reckons I will be back with the iPhone in about a month. I don’t think so whatsoever!

But then again………

Twitter – no more notifications once you have reached 25 devices and or apps

Android, Tech News,

If you have 25 devices/apps or more with granted permission to interact with twitter, once you go to add a new interaction notifications will not be allowed.

See here https://support.twitter.com/groups/55-troubleshooting/topics/234-mobile-apps/articles/20169333-managing-push-notifications-on-twitter-for-android

At the moment I cannot activate push notifications on twitter for android on my Note 3.

I just wonder if this is a method whereby twitter charge dependant on needs. Or maybe they will allow free up to a certain amount of connections?

Rumor: Apple’s unannounced ‘iWatch’ faces manufacturing issues

Apple, Tech News,

Apple’s unannounced ‘iWatch’ faces manufacturing issues, much like Qualcomm’s Toq.

Apple has yet to even announce such a product exists and there are no signs of an impending product launch of Apple’s iWatch.

However rumours wont die down and now it is reportedly facing poor yield rates of less than 50 percent in trial manufacturing.

If it’s a trial run then this is when issues are meant to be found so really it’s not that surprising.

WebOS is coming back – CES 2014

Tech News, ,

image

LG’s long-awaited webOS TV has been hitting headlines ahead of CES 2014.

Outing the picture over on Twitter user @evleaks tweeted the image with “webOS TV, by LG, 2014”.

On the display of the TV we can see apps including a web browser, Skype, Facebook and YouTube.

The photo shows that LG has tinkered with the card-based interface of webOS that it bought from HP earlier this year, but it looks like multitasking is very much at its heart.

It would be interesting to see if LG uses WebOS for any other hardware.

Samsung Note 3 – 3 months later day 2 – review

Android, Reviews, Tech News, ,

So after a frustrating first day, I’m giving the Note 3 another chance. I’ve reinstalled all my apps nearly, but will have to go through the painful process of setting each and every app up.

Samsung seem to have included a crazy amount of bloat ware apps. Totally unnecessary. By trying to flog their apps and services they part ruin the device. Within the Samsung Apps/Hub was a Winter Wonderland offer app with a free gift every day. I installed it to find the offers were no longer running. There was also 5 free albums on offer. I got the redemption code from the Samsung Music app only to find the same thing. Then Samsung Music Premium shows as stopping at end of Jan 2014. Then some of the apps for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 within Samsung’s App Store were just bloat ware again. Totally unacceptable.

So, I was setting up the Note 3 again from scratch installing all my apps without a sim installed as I had moved it back to another phone temporarily late last night. So after everything was installed from an app point of view, I powered off and put my sim back in the Note 3. Therein after it just kept rebooting with no end in sight. Don’t you love this phone! This was cured by removing the battery and powering up without the memory card installed and just the SIM card. Then I added the memory card whilst phone was powered on. Finally. And the memory card has to be removed every time you turn the phone on.

Right let’s put some balance back in the Note 3. Despite everything so far I really like this phone. Side by side with my iPhone 5S it looks like a bad boy and the 5S a kiddies toy, despite my 5S being the shiny gold version. So as you guys may realise I have a number of accessories that work with phones from my Sony QX10/100 lenses, Moga Pro Game Controller, WeMo internet plug and my new Sphero Robotic Ball. And with every single one of these the Note 3 flies above anything other phone using these hardware accessories. Let’s take each accessory in turn.

WeMo – nothing special here just a much larger screen to operate all my WeMo’s from Belkin

Sony QX10/100 lenses – using the Note 3 NFC these work from start far quicker than the iPhone. The clamp doesn’t really fit, so a tripod or flat surface is needed to use these. But the processor power of the Note 3 provides a seamless integration.

Moga Pro Controller – OMG – this controller was awesome when I got it, but compared to the iPhone version which I have, android Moga compatible games are on a different level. Air Attack HD and Need For Speed Most Wanted are now Moga A compatible. Asphalt 7 and 8 too. Playing on the gorgeous screen is breathtaking. The Note 3 fits fine in the Moga clamp. There is no way in a million years I can go back to the iPhone 5S after playing games with the Moga and the better screen. On Android there are over 200 games that work on this game controller versus 60 on iOS.

Sphero Robotic Ball – works perfectly as expected. But having a bigger screen to operate the on screen controls just provides a much better experience.

It’s all about the screen so far. The Note 3 first impressions is flawed but you must give it a chance. It doesn’t have the slickness of software and hardware integration of iOS 7, nothing does. BUT it does have its own magic.

In the next part I will cover more and more of the phone.

Google-owned Bump and Flock announce January 31st shutdown, app store removal

Tech News, ,

With the acquisition of the company in September, Bump and Flock CEO and co-founder David Lieb quietly announced last night that both apps were shutting down effective January 31st. According to a brief blog post on the Bump site, Lieb says his team is “deeply focused on our new projects within Google” and given that the acquisition appears to be talent-driven, the shutdown comes as little surprise.

Another app and service swallowed by the big boys.  This is the danger when using smaller services.  Acquisitions can occur and suddenly the app or service you depended on is gone.