Category Archives: Tech News

It’s Black Friday – My Top Picks on Amazon along with times of the best lightning deals – UPDATED

November 25, 2016Amazon, Tech NewsGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Amazon’s Black Friday Deals. There are so many today. I will update this list throughout the day, so do check back. Also have a browse yourself for the tech deals using the link below.

All the tech , gadgets, phones, headphones, audio & computing deals today
http://amzn.to/2gicX51

The best deals on TV’s, laptops, Surface Pro, Sony Playstation bundles, Xbox and more
http://amzn.to/2glmFDt

20% off Amazon Echo now £119.99
http://amzn.to/2glpIf3

£10 off Amazon Echo Dot now £39.99. In case you’re wondering this does have a speaker built in.
http://amzn.to/2fKvZ43

55% off Sennheiser HD598 Closed Back Headphones. These are desgined for portable devices.Two cable options: 3 m detachable cable with 6.3 mm jack and 1.2 m detachable inline remote with 3.5 mm jack. These are 23ohms and have a 115db efficiency.
http://amzn.to/2fWXaeR

128gb Sandisk Micro SD card £22.99 – amazing price
http://amzn.to/2fX7GTr

30% off Amazon Kindle Paperwhites
http://amzn.to/2feZFFq

£10 off Amazon Fire TV Stick £24.99 now
http://amzn.to/2gJiRks

£20 off Amazon Fire 7 Tablet now £29.99
http://amzn.to/2g1YhYd

28% off Fitbit Blaze smartwatch fitness – lowest price
http://amzn.to/2fX85VY

32% of Wileyfox Swift 2 and Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus
http://amzn.to/2g6jdgC

28% off Nest Security Camera now £114.99
http://amzn.to/2gCYO6t

£30 off Sonos Play Speaker
http://amzn.to/2gmhzqD

Up to 40% off Withings Activity Watches, Trackers
http://amzn.to/2g6mEUz

Up to 50% off Smart Home lighting
http://amzn.to/2fxc9LY

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan: Photoshop CC Plus Lightroom – 12-Month Licence – Download (PC/Mac).
http://amzn.to/2gsAgKD

Lightning deals. Most Amazon Basics cables, iOS cables, adapters, on a lightning deal from 7.59am. Includes all batteries, packs, chargers.
http://amzn.to/2fWZRNs

Lightning deals. Most Amazon Basics laptop cases, iPhone 7 Cases, on offer today. Deals from 7pm on some speakers.
http://amzn.to/2gliAPB

Lightning Deal. 7.59am. Apple iPhone SE Gold 16gb Sim Free Certified Refurbished
http://amzn.to/2gr4nlC

Lightning deal at 8.59. Amazon Basics AA Pre Charged Rechargeable Batteries. Pack of 8.
http://amzn.to/2g9uQ6I

Lightning deal at 8.59. TP Link Smart Plug. Works with Alexa. With energy monitoring too.
http://amzn.to/2fdcx3B

Lightning deal at 10.14am. Fiio X1 Music Player.
http://amzn.to/2glcLBI

Lightning deal at 10.34am. Beyerdynamic T1 Luxury 2nd Gen Headphones.
http://amzn.to/2fwoUq5

Lightning deal at 2.14pm. AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ Headphones
http://amzn.to/2gr63vq

Lightning deal at. Harman Kardon External Wireless Bluetooth Adaptor. 6.24pm
http://amzn.to/2fWXGtk

Lightning deal at 7.14pm. RHA T10i High Fidelity In ear headphones.
http://amzn.to/2gFlGT5

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – Day 2 – Battery and More Experiences

November 24, 2016Apple, Reviews, Tech Newsbattery, Day 2, Experiences, MacBook ProGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Day 2 with the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Don’t forget to check out yesterday’s first experiences.

So after a full day, I am still enjoying my MacBook Pro. I have found a few more instances where I am using the Touch Bar too.

So firstly the first full charge and near discharge of battery only produced 8 hours usage. Apple claim 10 hours. I can never see this being reached. To achieve my 8 hours battery life, I had bluetooth, wifi and location services left on. 4 email accounts were active using the mail app. Tweetbot for Mac was streaming in the background. For 60 mins I was streaming a TV show to the Apple TV directly from the MacBook Pro. Other activities including watching some YouTube videos and typing a few bits and pieces, as well as browsing the internet using Safari.

The enhanced colour gamut retina screen is beautiful. Anything and everything you do on it looks great. Listening to any sound is superb via the in built speakers. I have had one instance when the sound wouldn’t play through the inbuilt speakers so I had to soft reset the machine to fix the problem. Bluetooth music audio is truly excellent.

I deliberately subscribed to iTunes Match to ensure my 100gb of music sitting on my old MacBook would be available on any Apple device. This also meant I did not have to worry about transferring data using cables between the old and new devices. Nor would I need a dongle or adapter. I also paid for a higher storage limit with Apple, along with iCloud Photos. With iCloud Drive switched on, all my documents appeared on my new mac. With iCloud Photos and iTunes Match I now have all my music and photos on my new device. To get all my music stored locally as well as the iCloud, I just created a new playlist for all my music and downloaded this playlist, which would make iTunes Match to download every song to the new machine. This was completed overnight.

I have deliberately wanted to try and use all the Apple services and hardware to try and experience the Apple Eco system in full. iCloud seems to work really well, but with more usage and testing I am sure I might found some bugs.

The power and speed of the new MacBook is incredible. Go to the applications page, select all the apps, then do command O. (O is for Open). This will open every app on the MacBook. It will do this really fast.

And now to the Touch Bar. I am not going out of my way to use it all all, but it definitely improves the flow for some tasks. I haven’t found it essential yet, but like having Touch ID, it is a pleasant extra to have available. Scrubbing through YouTube videos using the Touch Bar works really smoothly. Having menu shortcuts on the Touch Bar do bring to life shortcuts that I didn’t know existed.

I haven’t really found any negatives yet. It really is a positive experience, albeit an expensive one. In time as I use it more, I will see whether I believe it represents good value for money. However, the reality is this. If you want a new MacBook Pro, either buy one or don’t. These are your only choices!

The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – My First Impressions – Speed & Beauty

November 23, 2016Apple, Tech NewsFirst Impressions, MacBook Pro with Touch BarGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Welcome to my first impressions of my new MacBook Pro 13 inch with the Touch Bar. Below are my first impressions of the new MacBook Pro from Apple.

It is late at night when I typed this post on my new MacBook Pro but I wanted to try and share how things have been plodding along. Plodding is the wrong word as you will read shortly. Whilst typing this post, I tested the bluetooth audio with my Sony MDR-1000x and Beats Wireless Solo 3 headphones. Both sounded excellent and there were no drop outs with the bluetooth.

I wasn’t meant to receive my MacBook Pro order until mid December but fortune happened to be in my favour yesterday. I had to pass by my local Apple Store in Plymouth to try and sort out my wife’s iPhone 6S battery problem and whilst I was waiting to resolve the issue (which was resolved brilliantly by the Apple staff in Plymouth, see update to yesterday’s post) I asked if they had a demo of the new MacBook with Touch Bar available. The answer was no, but stock had just arrived in the store and did I want to buy one now. Well, I said yes, surprise surprise.

I am upgrading my MacBook Pro from 2010 which had 4gb ram, a 512 hard drive and some anaemic processor compared to what’s available in 2016. I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar which is the perfect size for me. It also has 16gb ram, 512 SSD and a 3.3GHz Core i7 processor.

So unboxing the MacBook Pro is a joy. The hardware is stunning in space grey. The MacBook Pro looks stunning. My wife totally agrees with me on this front too. It feels a lot lighter than my old machine and is a smaller profile. Adapters are not an issue for me as I have a few Choetech USB Type C to USB adapters and other Type C cables already. A pair of the Choetech adapters cost £5.99 – Click HERE for More Info. so the issue of adapters is a non starter. The benefit of the more powerful Thunderbolt 3 ports is a bonus in the long run.

The next massive difference is the SPEED. OMFG. This machine flies like a rocket. Lifting the lid, and it starts automatically from a cold boot. A few logins later and less than 5 mins, its setup with my Apple ID, iCloud Photos, Siri, Touch ID, Apple Pay and iTunes Match. Next its time to install Adobe Creative Cloud and Lightroom and Photoshop. To give you some idea in the difference of the speed between my old MacBook Pro and new MacBook Pro, Adobe Lightroom would take the same amount of time to open on my old machine as it took to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea. The new MacBook Pro took just over 6 seconds.

So what else have I noticed? Well the keyboard is totally different to my old keyboard and I was thumping the keys too heavily at first. I now am using less pressure and I am typing really really fast. Took me about one hour to adjust to the new keyboard. The screen makes my photos shine. The new colour gamut which matches the iPhone 7 Plus screen is noticeably better than my old MacBook Pro.

So what about the Touch Bar? Is it gimmick or useful. At first I completed ignored it but as I have gone to do more and more things with the MacBook Pro I have started to use it and it is a smart tool to have. As I type circa 80 words a minute, the word suggestions on the Touch Bar aren’t really useful unless I am trying to type a long word that I am not 100% sure on its spelling. But for other actions it is a quick way to adjust settings, scroll and more. However, it is a feature that I will need to adjust too as time progressed.

For the first time, I have the latest iPhone with the latest MacBook hardware and can fully utilise all the tight integration between the devices. This makes me very happy.

Anyway, these are first impressions. More soon. Any questions, ask away in the comments or find me on all the usual social media channels.

Finally, my thanks to Will and all the lovely staff at Apple Plymouth for their assistance. They are really a friendly bunch and when I unboxed the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, this was the first time any of the staff had seen one first hand. Some it was a wow moment for everyone 🙂

What has happened to the legendary Apple Service? – UPDATED

November 22, 2016Apple, Tech NewsApple Service, Genius BarGavin Fabiani-Laymond

UPDATE – So after Apple Telephone support rattled my cage, all got resolved by a quick visit to my local Apple Store in Plymouth. After a few diagnostic tests, Apple decided to replace my wife’s iPhone 6S with a new one, and without any fuss. My thanks to the everyone at Apple Plymouth.

Yesterday I mentioned about Apple’s Battery Replacement Programme for the iPhone 6S.

In a nutshell Apple had determined that a very small number of iPhone 6s devices unexpectedly shut down. This is not a safety issue and only affects devices within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October 2015.

I mentioned that my wife’s 6S had been constantly shutting down unexpectedly. I had thought this was down to a software failure. So I followed the links in the Apple support article to book an appointment at my local Apple Genius bar to get the battery swapped.

There were none available for the next 7 days at my local Apple Store. In fact there were none anywhere except one location which only had one time slot left and this was for a store too far away. So I decided to instigate a call to Apple Support to double check that my wife’s phone was being impacted by the fault as described.

So after holding for 25 mins for a support agent, I was told that the battery diagnostic test that can be run remotely does not confirm if the particular phone has the problem. The suggestion by Apple was for them to post me a box, to place the iPhone into, return back to them, and they will then return the phone once fixed. I told the support agent this solution was not acceptable. There was no way my wife could be without her phone. So the support agent told me to keep checking back each day to see if there are any new Genius appointments.

Why are there no Genius appointments anywhere? There are more Apple stores than ever before too. This NEVER used to be like this. It seems to me Apple was deliberately forcing the postal option.

Well my wife had the best solution. She made the following comments. The phone is just over 12 months old and a lot of money was spent on the iPhone. It Apple can’t fix the phone, they can bloody refund my money in full, and I will then buy one that does work properly.

Sounds fair to me!

Hackers target European ATMs in spree that highlights new cyber threat – It just gets worse

November 22, 2016Tech NewsHackers target European ATMs in spree that highlights new cyber threatGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Via Reuters –

Cyber criminals have remotely attacked cash machines in more than a dozen countries across Europe this year, using malicious software that forces machines to spit out cash.

The recent heists in Europe and Asia were run from central, remote command centers, enabling criminals to target large numbers of machines in “smash and grab” operations that seek to drain large amounts of cash before banks uncover the hacks.

“They are taking this to the next level in being able to attack a large number of machines at once,” said Nicholas Billett, Diebold Nixdorf’s senior director of core software and ATM Security. “They know they will be caught fairly quickly, so they stage it in such a way that they can get cash from as many ATMs as they can before they get shut down.”

Gone are the days when mugging at knife point was the best way to steal your money. Now it seems criminals can work remotely from the comfort of their living room. Cyber attacks are getting so common now that I think Banks need to re-think their security setups.

More at Reuters.

Samsung issues a statement regarding the Samsung Galaxy S7 Battery

November 21, 2016Android, Tech NewsSamsung issues statement on its S7 batteryGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Call this one rather odd, but Samsung has decided to issue a statement with reference to the Samsung Galaxy S7 battery.

This no doubt has been issued followed the Note 7 saga and potentially the impact and association on other models in the range.

Samsung stated “the company “stands behind the quality and safety of the Galaxy S7 family” the short note goes on to say that “there have been no confirmed cases of internal battery failures with these devices among the more than 10 million devices being used by consumers in the United States.”

Android Authority

Apple offers free battery replacements for iPhone 6S handsets that keep shutting down

November 21, 2016Apple, Tech NewsiPhone 6S Official Apple Battery Replacement ProgramGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Via Apple

“Apple has determined that a very small number of iPhone 6s devices may unexpectedly shut down. This is not a safety issue and only affects devices within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October 2015.

If you have experienced this issue, please visit an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider and have your device’s serial number checked to confirm eligibility for a battery replacement, free of charge.

Replacement Process –

Choose one of the service options below to have your battery replaced. Your iPhone will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program and in working order.”

This is interesting to note as my wife’s iPhone 6S has this exact problem. The phone just turns off, even though when plugged into the mains, it turns on at around 20-30% charge. Seems she will need a replacement battery now.

The Day after Storm Angus – The South West & Dartmoor hit by a huge storm

November 20, 2016Photography, Tech Newsdartmoor, the day after storm agnusGavin Fabiani-Laymond

It is hard to believe that yesterday evening and into the early hours the UK got hit by Storm Angus. In the South West of England, the storm hit hard causing flooding, gale force winds with lots of trees falling and more.

Up here on the Moors of Dartmoor, I was expecting the storm to be significantly worse due to the rural exposed environment. It wasn’t pleasant but we didn’t get the full force luckily.

Anyway, this morning I took my 3 Labradors out for their walk on Dartmoor. It was water logged, soft sinking mud in places but otherwise the sun was out looking glorious. The weather is due to turn nasty again, as I write this the sun has now vanished leaving an overcast sky.

I created a short video using my iPhone 7 Plus and Sony RX100. The video is from the iPhone.

Three UK got hacked – Here’s the official statement & facts from the CEO of Three UK

November 18, 2016Tech NewsDetails of customers affected, Official response by Three UK, Three UK got hackedGavin Fabiani-Laymond

From Three UK

As you may already know, we recently became aware of suspicious activity on the system we use to upgrade existing customers to new devices and I wanted to update all our customers on what happened and what we have done.

I understand that our customers will be concerned about this issue and I would like to apologise for this and any inconvenience this has caused.

Once we became aware of the suspicious activity, we took immediate steps to block it and add additional layers of security to the system while we investigated the issue.

On 17th November we were able to confirm that 8 customers had been unlawfully upgraded to a new device by fraudsters who intended to intercept and sell on those devices.

I can now confirm that the people carrying out this activity were also able to obtain some customer information. In total, information from 133,827 customer accounts was obtained but no bank details, passwords, pin numbers, payment information or credit/debit card information are stored on the upgrade system in question.

We believe the primary purpose of this was not to steal customer information but was criminal activity to acquire new handsets fraudulently.

We are contacting all of these customers today to individually confirm what information has been accessed and directly answer any questions they have.

As an additional precaution we have put in place increased security for all these customer accounts.
We have been working closely with law enforcement agencies on this matter and three arrests have been made.

I understand that this will have caused some concern and inconvenience for our customers and for that I sincerely apologise.

David Dyson
CEO

Source – Three UK

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