Category Archives: Tech News

Honor 8 now official with dual-camera setup, up to 4GB of RAM

Android, Tech News, ,

Honor 8 now official with dual-camera setup, up to 4GB of RAM.

“Huawei sub-brand Honor has announced its latest phone, the Honor 8. The phone comes with a fingerprint sensor and a dual-lens rear camera setup. The Honor 8 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow under the EMUI 4.1 custom software layer. The Honor 8 features a 5.2-inch 1080p display, and is powered by a Kirin 950 processor, with 3GB or 4GB of RAM. It comes with either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, which can be upgraded with a microSD card. The dual lenses on the back are both 12-megapixel shooters, while the front-facing camera is 8-megapixels. The Honor 8 also has a fingerprint sensor on the back, allowing for easy authentication. The phone has a 3000mAh battery, which can be charged over a USB-C connection. The Honor 8 is currently available for pre-order from a number of Chinese retailers, with the 32GB option with 3GB of RAM running ¥1,999 (around $300), while the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM costs ¥2,499 (around $375). You can get the Honor 8 in Sunrise Gold, Pearl White, Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, or Sapphire Blue.”

It seems to me that the Huawei and Honor brands and becoming confusing. With the sheer number of phones with slightly varying specs or software additions and or omissions, it is becoming all too complicated. And the price points charged for each brand also seem mis matched versus the specs and what is being offered?

More at Android Central

Android Pay coming to TSB in late 2016

Android, Tech News,

Android Pay coming to TSB in late 2016.

Q4 launch for Android Pay confirmed by TSB on Twitter. Despite the UK-wide rollout of Android Pay in May, some major British high street banks still aren’t signed up to the mobile payments service. Among those is TSB, and while the bank has made clear its intentions to support Android Pay at some point in the future, there’ve been no further details offered until now. Today TSB has confirmed on Twitter that it’ll be offering Android Pay to customers from the fourth quarter of 2016.

Let’s hope the other UK banks like Natwest pull their finger out too and confirm support for Android Pay.

More at Android Central

Staying Fit & Healthy on iOS & Android – Editorial

Android, Apple, Tech News, Wearables,

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Apple uses the Health app to integrate other services and act as a hub. This makes sense to me. The Apple Watch acts as a fitness device and feeds basic information back into the Health app.

Google are trailing behind with their equivalent, Google Fit. But again, it is to serve the same purpose as Apple. Since Google where trailing behind, Samsung has powered ahead with its offering, S Health. It has come an awful long way in the last 4 months.

Samsung also sell a range of watches and fitness trackers.These are good devices.

Pictured above is the Garmin Fenix 3 HR. Probably one of the ultimate fitness devices on the market place, capable of so much and then some. Garmin also sell wireless scales. Garmin also sell a large range of activity devices and some of the best in class. There are many other brands too.

Other companies like FitBit also sell trackers and scales. In fact the market place is flooding with options but not everything plays nicely with each other. FitBit does not integrate with Apple Health app directly.

Why? The Health market and the data it will harness is worth millions. So before you decide what fitness or tracker you would like, ask yourself a few questions –

– What do you need it to do?
– What devices have your friends got, so if you need the social aspects, you all use the same brand
– What apps and services do you need the device to integrate into
– Apart from a fitness devices, do you need any other medical or fitness hardware / services. If so check which work with what.

So what devices are you using and why?

Tidal adds Chromecast support for its iOS and Android apps

Tech News

Tidal adds Chromecast support for its iOS and Android apps.

I have been using Tidal streaming services for a while again. I did briefly stop using it, but I missed the FLAC streaming and music discovery aspect. One feature had been missing. But not anymore.

Tidal’s latest app update added Chromecast support for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

Superb!

Sony MDR-XB950BT Bluetooth Headphones – Redefining Bass – First Impressions 

Audio, Headphone, Reviews, Tech News,

Nothing in life will prepare you for the Sony MDR-XB950BT headphones. Nothing!

The Sony headphones arrived about 3 days ago and I have been putting them through the paces in both Bluetooth and wired mode. 

Some basic specs – 

– Bluetooth with NFC

– 20 hours battery life

– Bass Boost button

– Foldable cups 

– Sensitivty 102 db/mW

– 40mm dynamic driver 

– Frequency range 3 – 28,000 hz with headphones cable, 20 -20,000 hz Bluetooth mode

The very first thing I wanted to do when I received these headphones was pair them to my Samsung Galaxy S7 and listen to the bass these headphones are meant to be able to produce. I think I swore when I first heard them. I then thought the bass boost button was left on, so I pressed it, and OMFG. The bass and sub bass was so extreme my teeth felt like they could rattle. I’ll be honest I don’t use the bass boost button as these headphones produce plenty without it. I do however press it and listen for a few minutes just to bring a smile to my face a few times a day.

Now you can also connect these via the supplied audio cable. Bluetooth turns off. So does the use of the bass boost button. But in wired mode these operate at a gut drawing level of 3 – 28,000 hz. They also sound better too in wired mode. And there is still epic levels of bass. 

Now the cons. I have listened to every genre. Some tracks collapse with the bass levels and sound wrong. But the majority are fine. In fact, in some cases having the extra bass or I should say sub bass adds a whole fun listening level. Some jazz and classical tracks really worked well with these. Some just got swamped with too much bass as the mids got lost. For example Michael Buble, Feeling Good has lots of depth and didn’t get ruined by the extra bass. With dance , rap or electronic music these are like being at a rave or club, and even better if you switch on the bass boost button!

These headphones aren’t for everyone, but I love them. They go against all the rules I believe in, but they add swagger to a lot of my music across many genres that for the times the bass becomes overpowering, I just skip to the next track or lower the bass in the equaliser settings. These are my first impressions, and I will evaluate these for a longer period and report back accordingly.

The question to ask yourself, are you brave enough to own a pair 🙂 

Available from Amazon UK – Click HERE.

Samsung Gear 360 – Using it upside down – the required settings & more

Android, Photography, Tech News,

A few weeks ago I posted an article on how I took footage upside down on my Samsung Gear 360. Click HERE to recap.

A lot of you have written in asking how I achieved this.
First of all, connect the Gear 360 to your Samsung phone. Check using the Gear 360 app on your Samsung phone for any firmware updates. Update if required. 

Next with the Gear 360 powered on, connected to the phone, make sure your settings look like mine below. 

Take some footage. Save it to your phone. And share it from the Samsung Gallery app to YouTube or wherever required. 

It’s a phone! It’s a tablet! It’s the newly unveiled 7-inch Samsung Galaxy J Max

Android, Tech News

“It’s a phone! It’s a tablet! It’s the newly unveiled 7-inch Samsung Galaxy J Max.

“Designed for those who are looking for a complete entertainment experience on a mobile device.” The Samsung Galaxy J Max has a 7-inch screen, with in-box Bluetooth headset.”

The future is big. Big phone / tablets. Or is it ? Come summer where do you stash your huge phone! 

More at Pocketnow 

Nissan sold a car on Twitter

Tech News


“A Nissan dealer in Spain just sold a car over Twitter — a first for an automotive brand in Europe, Nissan said this week. Twitter user Raul Escolano used the hashtag #compraruncocheportwitter (“Buy a car on Twitter”) to challenge automakers across Spain to sell him a car solely using social networks. Antamotor, a Nissan dealer in the Spanish city of A Coruña, used Periscope to stream video of the Nissan X-Trail, giving @escolano a personalized walkthrough of the car. He also posted a poll on Twitter asking followers to rate the cars he was considering. The X-Trail received 43 percent of the vote, which Nissan says helped “seal the deal.” The keys to the car were delivered to Mr. Escolano by courier, keeping the dealer at arm’s length”.

Just wow. Could twitter become the new shopping channel. Perhaps with flash deals?


More at the Verge

Samsung’s world-first UFS memory cards are blazing fast

Tech News

“Samsung’s world-first UFS memory cards are blazing fast that looks like micro SD cards but aren’t.

Samsung is the first to announce a series of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) removable memory cards, with its 256GB flavor boasting an SSD-like sequential read speed of 530MB/s — that’s about half a gigabyte per second and almost five times faster than the top microSD cards these days. It can also do 170MB/s sequential writing, which is almost two to three times faster. More importantly, Samsung claims that its upcoming 256GB card is rated with a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, which is 20 times higher than that of a typical microSD card; and likewise, it has a random write rate of 35,000 IOPS, which is a whopping 350 times higher.”

These new cards sound fantastic but won’t be cheap . It would be marvellous if these cards worked with the new Samsung Note 7!

More at Engadget