Category Archives: Tech News

Apple iPad Air – In The Queue

Apple, Tech News

This feels like deja. I recall queuing in the same spot some 5-6 weeks ago for the iPhone 5S and swore I would not queue again.

I am tired but I am hoping to be away fairly promptly after the early 8am opening.

For those of you wondering why I didn’t opt for the new iPad Mini with Retina Display, it was simply that I wanted a larger overall screen size to make web browsing and on screen typing easier on the hands and eyes.

Also, weight is now not an option with the full size iPad. Weighing 469g is really light. It was a no brainer for me.

I will post my first impressions of the iPad Air tomorrow or Sunday.

Nexus 5 is official and its cheap, good value but there are compromises

Android, Tech News

Google is now selling the Nexus 5 16gb for £299 and the 32gb for £339 in the UK Play Store.

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The specs are as leaked –

-Android™ 4.4 (KitKat®)
-Screen 4.95″ 1920×1080 display (445 ppi), Full HD IPS ,Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
-Camera 1.3MP front facing, 8MP rear facing with Optical Image Stabilization
-Size, 69.17 x 137.84 x 8.59 mm
-Weight 4.59 oz (130 g)
-Battery 2,300 mAH
-Talk time up to 17 hours*, Standby time up to 300 hours*, Internet time up to 8.5 hours on Wi-Fi, up to 7 hours on LTE*
Wireless Charging built-in
Audio Output
Built-in speaker
3.5mm stereo audio connector
CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800, 2.3GHz GPU Adreno 330, 450MHz

There are some early first impressions published over the internet and the verdict so far it is not on par with the build quality of the iPhone 5S or HTC One. It is plasticly, the camera is not as good as it looks on paper. It has an aperture of f/2.5 which is not cutting edge sadly. As a comparison the HTC One is f/2.0, Samsung S4 f/2.4 and the iPhone 5S f/2.2.

But it does represent a lot of phone for your money. You could buy this phone outright and then get a sim only contract.

So who is looking forward to theirs being delivered?

Samsung Galaxy Gear – Impressions

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

I have had the Galaxy Gear with the Note 3 for 48 hours. I didn’t like either device to be honest so returned both items.

To be clear, the Note 3 was too big for my liking but pretty awesome nonetheless. Just simply too big for a phone. So it you like large phones, this is probably one to check out.

As to the Galaxy Gear, well it was clever and geeky and did a lot of things, but I just couldn’t see the point. I lost interest in it after an hour. It didn’t help that I thought it was ugly to look at on my wrist. My wife thought it looked like a kids toy.

HTC ONE MAX – its so big its need big letters

Android, Tech News

The HTC One Max is now available to buy from online retailers, including Clove Technology. Click here for details http://www.clove.co.uk/htc-one-max

To recap the HTC One Max has the same design styling as the HTC One. It includes HTC BlinkFeed, Zoe, BoomSound and TV Remote IR.

It has a 5.9″ Full HD 1080 x 1920 LCD3 screen. It measures in at 164.5 x 82.5 x 10.29 mm. It weighs over 200g. So it is heavy and huge.

Unlike the HTC One it has a removable back cover, giving you access to the SIM card slot and support for micro SD cards up to 64GB.

I imagine in 5 years time, we will think 5.9 inch phones are all too small.

Google adds new cool features to android with – Nexus 5 looking to be a killer phone

Android, Tech News,

Google held an event to highlight some of the key software improvements for android. These will be present in the new Nexus 5, making this handset potentially super amazing. The improvements are as follows –

Hangouts
-Added Single tap location sharing
-Added the use of Animated GIFs
-SMS integration so all your messaging can be in one place. Finally an iMessage competitor.
-Auto Awesome features such as boosting the light of people that are in the Hangout.
-Hangouts On Air – Better planning including a dedicated event page plus special editing features

Photos
– Backup – Backing up photos on Google+ has always been full size by default, but iOS users will get auto backup as well with their next update.
– Highlight – Google+ has been picking out our best photos since Google I/O, but they have improved the algorithm.
– Search – We already could search our photos, but 1,000 additional words have been added so that you can search your images even if they aren’t tagged.
– Editing – Auto Enhance has been around since Google I/O for those that have no time, but Snapseed is also available for those that are more experienced and the Google Nik Collection for the seasoned pros.
– You can now adjust the Auto Enhance setting to Low or High and you can also control it by album. Snapseed adds HDR Scape, which takes any photo and converts them to HDR with one touch.
– Auto Awesome gets two new features – Auto Awesome Action and Auto Awesome Eraser

Auto Awesome Movies
– Google will take your photos and videos from an event and put them all together in one movie set to music. This can be done automatically or manually. It includes stabilization, music, automatic cuts, and effects. Users will have full control for further editing including trimming and how long the video is to be. As to music, you will be able to choose from a predefined set of licenced tunes. This seems like HTC Zoe’s.

The LG G2 Impressions

Android, Reviews, Tech News

I have spent a few days with the LG G2. The specifications are readily available on the web, so I am just going to cover off my lasting impressions of this phone.

First the negative. The model I had was a 16gb version which in my books does not provide enough memory if you are going to want to store your music, apps and games on it. My theory is networks in the UK did not want to stock the 32gb version so they could force you on to using a larger data tariff.

Now the positive. It feels great to hold in the hand. The rear buttons are weird but you do get used to them. The screen is simply the best I have ever seen. It embarrasses my iPhone 5S screen. 5.2 inches of gorgeous screen and hardly any bezels. In fact the screen is the one aspect of this device I will really miss.

The camera was fairly good, but the freak UK weather meant photographing in 100mph winds was not possible.

Double tap to turn on or off is excellent. It also works when in other apps, if you tap on the status bar instead.

Battery seemed capable of getting me through the day despite me using it constantly.

Overall, it was the screen with its gorgeous display and tiny bezels that stand out. Now if the new Nexus 5 is based on this, but with a 8mp OIS camera, we really are in for a treat.

Forget 4G we need decent 3G coverage first

Tech News

The UK’s mobile phone operators could be forced by Government to invest more in next generation services after figures showed thousands of miles of roads have no 3G coverage at all.

Ofcom said it was launching an investigation of the 3G and 4G speeds of each operator in the country, admitting that some parts were cut-off from the so-called super-speed revolution happening in towns and cities across the UK.

The regulator revealed that just 35 per cent of the length of Britain’s A and B roads were served by all major 3G networks such as Vodafone and EE. Nearly 10 per cent of the 30,000 miles of major roads have no 3G service whatsoever.

And down in Devon and Cornwall that percentage decreases rapidly.

Apple’s Q4 Take Out – its doing rather well

Apple, Tech News

Apple just announced it Q4 earnings. Just sit back and read these numbers –

– Apple has $146.8 billion in cash, 76% offshore.
– Apple made 15 strategic acquisitions in its financial year. That’s around one every 3 week!
– Apple sold 33.8m iPhone sold in the quarter, up 26%, record Sept. quarter and 150 million iPhone sales in fiscal 2013.
– Apple sold 14.1M iPads in the quarter
– 94% of tablets in education are iPads
– Best Education quarter ever. Up 8% YOY. iPad up 22% YOY. Mac up 8% YOY. $1 billion in Education revenues in a Quarter for the first tim
– 99% customer satisfaction rate with its iPads
– $4.4B in iTunes Store sales, $4.3B in iTunes software/services revenue
– 60 billion app downloads
– 20 million iTunes Radio listeners
-iPhone sales up 36% per store, per week from last year
– 49 stores opened or remodelled this year
– 8 new stores opened in Q4, 2 remodelled, 99 million visitors. 416 stores total, 162 outside US, $10.9 million in revenue in Q4.
– 30 new stores coming in 2014, 20 remodels. 2/3rds outside the US.
– $55-$58 billion revenue estimate for Q1 2014 – LOOK AT THIS FIGURE AGAIN. A massive increase from last quarter
– 4.6 million Macs sold, down from 4.9 last year
– 16 million Macs in fiscal 2013

So these are the numbers. Also worth noting –

– Tim Cook not sure there will be enough iPad Mini with retina display for the Christmas demand
– 2014 will see the launch of not 1 but 2 new product categories for Apple
– the iPhone 5C was never meant to be cheap
– China represented 15% of all Q4 income
– Apple’s margins down from 40% to 37%.

I wish I could create a company with such massive margins and sales.