Category Archives: Tech News

Further Thoughts on the Sony QX10 and QX100 Hub Lens Cameras

Apple, Reviews, Tech News,

I have had the QX10 and QX100 now for several weeks and my views on them have slightly changed. They are both excellent however I now carry the QX10 with me more than the QX100.

I carry the QX10 permanently with me as it is considerably lighter and smaller to pocket. It also has 10x optical zoom so for most situations it is a better option to carry.

If I know I will be travelling to somewhere specifically where I intend to take photos or where there might be an opportunity for good shots then I will take the QX100. The QX100 takes incredible quality photos.

But if I had to choose just one, it would be the QX10. If I wanted QX100 quality I would use a DSLR camera instead.

However, my wife and I have been out several times with our iPhone 5S’s using the QX10 and QX100 and had a great time using them. More fun actually than most cameras.

Samsung launches top specification flip phone in China

Android, Tech News

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Samsung and China Telecom revealed the latest flip phone for their customers, the SCH-W2014. The dual-screen flip phone comes equipped with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM to power Android 4.3 on the device. Samsung loads it up with 32GB of internal storage and the capability to expand that via microSD. The W2014 also has dual-SIM capability.

This phone won’t see the light of day overseas but it does demonstrate how versatile Samsung is when it comes to manufacturing different phones in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Google Nexus 5 views

Android, Tech News

Google released the Nexus 5 via its own Play Store for a low price of £299 for the 16gb and £339 for the 32gb model. The 8mp camera with optical image stabilisation has been heavily promoted along with Google Now and Google Search being tightly integrated into the handset.

Over the weekend there has been plenty written, tweeted and camera samples posted. It seems that the whole phone is now one large Google Search machine. This is great if you like Google and being honest when integrated into Google Now becomes an interesting proposition. The camera whilst not being super awesome is still above average and for the majority of people will be fine.

If I hadn’t just bought an iPhone 5S and iPad Air and didn’t have close friends and family also on iOS, I would buy the Nexus 5 without blinking an eye. It represents good value and backed up by Google’s services and excellent voice search, search, Google+ photo enhancements and more.

It’s live and it’s raw – Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast

Tech News

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Dave from UKMobileTech and myself have teamed up to create a new tech podcast.

It’s our first podcast, so please be kind.

Go and listen. Click here Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast

You can contact me on twitter @gavinfabiani and Dave @davidmarkrich .

If you wish to subscribe to our podcast, copy and paste this URL into your favourite podcast app http://GGUKMT.podbean.com/feed/

How to crash your iPhone 5S and iPad Air

Apple, Tech News,

Both the iPad Air and iPhone 5S and Apple’s latest devices and both are so easy to crash. In fact, I have never seen Apple hardware suffer this much. Even iTunes on the mac running mavericks keeps quitting unexpectedly.

So how do you get the iPad Air and iPhone 5S to crash and cause a reboot all by itself. Start using either device. Open and close all the apps or games that you would normally use. Now double tap the home button to launch into the multitasking mode and jump to another app. Now do the same thing again. After repeating this a few times you will get your iPad Air or iPhone 5S to soft reset all by itself.

I haven’t lost any data when this happens and it only takes about 5-10 seconds to reboot back to life. It has happened once on my iPad Air yesterday and happens at least once a day on my iPhone 5S. I would hope a software update for iOS 7 will fix this annoying bug.

So have you been affected by this too?

iPad Air First Impressions

Apple, Reviews, Tech News

Yesterday morning was a quick rush down to Apple Plymouth, only to find that at the crazy early hour there were only 9 people in the queue. By 7.45am there was nearer to 35. But that was the same amount of Apple staff too. I had to go early as I was working. Anyway, I was in and out in 10-15mins. I bought the space grey iPad Air wifi only in 128gb. I got both the Smart Cover and smart case in black as I wasn’t sure which one I wanted. I will probably stick with the cover but it is too early to decide.

Unlike my last iPad which was the Mini I decided it was time to break the cord and not sync it to my MacBook. So now I am only using my MacBook to rip CDs and store photos and music. It’s getting close to me ditching the MacBook completely. After the Mini I got the new Nexus 7 which I ended up returning as it was faulty even after a few software updates.

But. I am pleased I did return it. The iPad Air is massively better than any tablet IMO. It’s better than the Mini. It’s better than my MacBook. Why? Well the onscreen keyboard on the Air is so damn fast to type on it is scary fast. I’ve typed this article using the Air and I am flying with keyboard entry faster than I would be on my MacBook mainly because the iPad auto correction is so fantastic.

So, first up the Air screen is fabulous. And the extra size for viewing and typing is perfect. Also the iPad had loads of beautifully designed apps for it, and that makes the user experience so much more enjoyable.

The reduction in bezels is noticeable, the depth not so much, but the weight is much better. It’s not as light as the Mini but it is lighter than the previous iPad by a fair amount and that makes this new Air more pleasurable to use for long periods.

I synced my entire music collection, 10 videos, my entire photo collection, and hundreds of apps. I have now have 9.4gb freememory left free. 128gb is extreme but I now feel I have a device with no compromises.

In fact I would describe the iPad Air as a tablet with no compromises. Stunning build quality. Stunning audio thru headphones. Good camera. And great software. I’m very happy with it.

Screen shot of my home screen below.

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Apple gives developers power to amend Game Center scores

Apple, Tech News

Have you ever played a game that links to Apple’s Game Center and wondered how on earth anyone could legally achieve such high scores.

Well Apple has the answer. It advised developers of the following-

“You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period. To learn more, read the Managing Game Center Leaderboard Activity section in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.”

Long overdue feature in my mind.

The Best iPad Air Review

Apple, Reviews, Tech News

AnandTech have written the best review I have seen of the iPad Air. Click here to read it http://www.anandtech.com/show/7460/apple-ipad-air-review .

It is insanely detailed, but it is worth reading to truly appreciate what Apple have achieved with this new iPad. If you were undecided between which size iPad to get, reading this review should help you decide.

And to give you an idea as to how good this review is, a comment was left that read “after reading just two paragraphs of this review, it is already better than all others”.