Category Archives: Tech News

Samsung launches it’s own game controller – the gamepad

Android, Tech News

The Smartphone GamePad instantly transforms the user’s Galaxy smartphone or tablet into a portable gaming console or even a home console. Through its premium, easy-to-carry design and durable steel frame, GamePad is attachable to mobile devices ranging from 4-inches to 6.3-inches, allowing users to play games wherever they are. Users can also connect Galaxy devices to their TV through an HDMI cable or AllShare Screen Mirroring for video game console experience from their living room.

GamePad easily connects with smartphones and tablets through Bluetooth pairing. The most convenient features optimized for Samsung Galaxy devices running Android 4.3 such as Galaxy Note 3, S4, Note II, and S III enable easy connectivity with GamePad via NFC tag and quicker access to games via the “PLAY” button.

With just a tap of the “PLAY” button, users can easily access the Mobile Console app, Samsung’s new integrated game launching app that opens in conjunction with GamePad to allow users to conveniently browse and purchase game pad supported games. Users can save money by enjoying reasonably priced console-quality games without the expense of additional gaming systems, as Mobile Console features games across a variety of categories including traditional racing titles such as EA’s Need for Speed™ Most Wanted and Gameloft’s Asphalt8 : Airborne, first-person shooter titles such as Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4 : Zero Hour, sports titles such as SEGA’s Virtua Tennis™ Challenge, and action titles such as Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia : The Shadow and the Flame. The Mobile Console app is available for download through Samsung Apps or by tapping the GamePad’s ”PLAY” button, and offers 35 dedicated games at launch with much more to come in 2014.

The GamePad is is currently available in select European markets and will be available in additional regions in the coming weeks. The availability of the GamePad varies by market.

Samsung Smartphone GamePad Product Specifications

Compatibility
Android OS 4.1 more (Optimized for Samsung devices with Android 4.3 more)
Connectivity
Bluetooth® v3.0, NFC(Samsung devices with Android 4.3 more)
3.0 class 2, HID
Control Keys
– D-Pad (8 way)
– 2 Analog Sticks
– 4 Action buttons and 2 Trigger buttons
– Select button and Start button
– PLAY button (Samsung devices with Android 4.3 more)
Dimension
137.78 x 86.47 x 31.80mm, 195g
Battery
Rechargeable 160mA
Colour Black

Personally I would recommend the Moga Power Pro as this can charge you phone at the same time as playing as well as having an amazing feature set.

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Samsung to launch 4 new tablets at start of 2014

Android, Tech News,

One of SamMobile’s sources claims that Samsung is planing to release a total of four new tablets in the first quarter of 2014 alone in an apparent effort to improve upon the gains that it’s made over the last year in global tablet sales. SamMobile says that it can only say for certain that Samsung will release the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite in Q1 2014, although it suspects the company might also release a 12.2-inch version of its Galaxy Note tablet and a 13.3-inch tablet that may dual-boot with both Android and Windows.

This should come as no surprise. Samsung seems to release a plethora of devices at an alarming rate.

Motorola Moto G – first impressions

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

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The Motorola Moto G has arrived yesterday. Actually, I was asked to get some vegetables on my way home, and to my shock horror Tesco were selling the Moto G in both memory sizes, 8gb and 16gb, and both were in stock. So a few carrots and leeks ended up being a bit more expensive.

Tesco sell the Moto G for £99 but it is sim locked to their Tesco Mobile network. £2.04 on eBay and ten minutes later and the sim lock was removed. Then 5 minutes to reflash the firmware with the Moto G default firmware and now I had an unlocked and de-Tesco’d phone. All for £101.04.

The system firmware needs 3gb. So with the 8gb I only had 5gb left. That was enough for about 30 apps, most of which were games. The phone feels comfortable in the hand and isn’t too big. The volume rocker rattles as does the power button. It’s fine just not premium engineering. Everything else about the phone seems ok. In fact the overall build quality is quite reasonable.

If you have this phone especially with the 8gb version you will have to stream everything and use the cloud services that Google and or others provide.

The screen is great. Battery life is unknown at present. Most of my apps installed ok. So surely there must be a catch. Well 5gb user available memory isn’t much. But you can manage. Sound via the headphones is astonishing. I was expecting it to be crap or poor but it wasn’t. It was well above average. This is achieved using the Equaliser settings. I will report back on the loudspeaker once I have had more time with it.

The Moto G includes an FM Radio, Moto Assist, Moto Care and tips, and all the Google services.

So would I sell my iPhone 5S for the Moto G ? Find out over the course of this week?

Nokia Camera – new beta now available for all Nokia Windows Phone 8 phones

Tech News, Windows,

Nokia Camera Beta is now available for all window phone 8 smartphones. This is great news.

This beta is provided as a standalone app for Lumia phones that have the Lumia Amber or Lumia Black software release. You can check your software release from Settings >> Extras + info.

This was a great app to use on the Lumia 925 and 1020, so I can’t wait to test it on the mid range Lumia 820.

iPhone Flashlight tip – rather neat this one

Apple, Tech News,

I love the control centre in iOS 7. It has some neat settings and apps that I personally find using on a regular basis. It is also great to swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone.

One of the features I use in the Flash Light. So handy too. But after a while the screen locks, so I would imagine if you wanted to turn your flash light off you are at present, unlocking the home screen, swiping up to reveal the control centre and tapping the flash light icon to turn it off.

Well, try this easier method. With the flash light on and the screen locked, just press the home button, then bottom right tap the camera icon and it turns off the flash light.

Rather neat tip.

Apple releases OS X Mavericks v10.9.1 – full release log

Apple, Tech News

The OS X Mavericks v10.9.1 Update is recommended for all OS X Mavericks users. It improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

This update includes:

-Improved support for Gmail in OS X Mail, and fixes for users with custom Gmail settings Improves the reliability of Smart Mailboxes and search in Mail
-Fixes an issue that prevented contact groups from working properly in Mail
-Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from speaking sentences that contain emoji
-Fixes an issue that prevented iLife and iWork apps from updating on non-English systems
-Addresses an issue that may cause multiple prompts to unlock “Local items” keychain
-Addresses an issue that may cause Japanese keyboards to retain a previously used language
-Resolves issue that prevents a Contact group name from populating the address field
-Includes Safari 7.0.1
-Fixes an issue that could cause Safari to become unresponsive when filling out forms on fedex.com, stubhub.com, and other websites Improves Credit Card Autofill compatibility with websites
-Improves VoiceOver compatibility with facebook.com
-Updates Shared Links periodically when open in the Safari Sidebar

Some useful updates in this release.

Swiftkey 4.5 Beta receives welcome update – details

Android, Tech News, ,

Swiftkey is one of the leading keyboard replacements on android. It offers great word predictions and the option of swipe text input as well as themes and different layouts.

In its new beta it introduces probably one of the most useful options. Emoji icons support (available on all iPhones ) and an additional row for numbers. No need to switch from ABC to 123.

All I need to do is switch to an android phone to make use of these features 🙂

Windscreen Wipers will soon be history due to technology – details

Tech News, ,

The Telegraph have reported that car manufacturer is working on a new technology that will use sound waves to create a force shield around the windscreen, thereby negating the need for windscreen wipers.

The force field will not only stop water, but insects, dirt and anything else sticking to the screen.

Let’s hope this doesn’t take more than 5 years to be standard on all cars.

Episode 4 of Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast

Tech News,

Episode 4 of Gav & Dave’s Tech podcast which, I co-host with David from UKMobileTech is now live.

To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.

Episode 4 – Show Notes

Welcome to Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. This is a podcast covering our views and thoughts on technology.

Episode 4 – Agenda

1) Feedback & Questions

2) News in brief – Apple and China Mobile. Google Play Movies and Google Play updated to allow SD card support.
Amazon Air Drones. Apple has 1 million apps. Nokia Mix Radio. Kit Kat now allows lower grade hardware to be supported.

3) Main Articles –

– Dave & Gav’s Budget Phone recommendations
– Windows Phone 7 Day Challenge
– Gav & Dave’s Top 5 Phones of 2013

Why did Microsoft offer Samsung $1bn ?

Tech News, Windows,

Microsoft is rumoured to have offered Samsung a $1bn deal to continue producing windows phones. But if this is true why would Microsoft offer this incentive?

Simply Samsung has decent manufacturing resources. Also by getting Samsung to manufacture for the Windows Phone platform, android users might be more willing to try and move to a different platform. Also, if Microsoft can draw Samsung away from android, that will weaken that operating system. Google might have to look more to LG and Asus.

So what would be the advantage for Samsung. A huge payout and more domination across another operating system and the ability to destroy its competitors.