Category Archives: Tech News

Bluetooth version 5 gets announced – Big Improvements – Details

Tech News,

Bluetooth 5 has been officially announced.

Kirkland, Washington – June 16, 2016 – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced that its next release, coming late 2016 to early 2017, will be called Bluetooth 5 and will include significantly increased range, speed, and broadcast messaging capacity. Extending range will deliver robust, reliable Internet of Things (IoT) connections that make full-home and building and outdoor use cases a reality. Higher speeds will send data faster and optimize responsiveness. Increasing broadcast capacity will propel the next generation of “connectionless” services like beacons and location-relevant information and navigation. These Bluetooth advancements open up more possibilities and enable SIG companies – now at an all-time high of 30,000 member companies – to build an accessible, interoperable IoT.

“Bluetooth 5 will transform the way people experience the IoT by making it something that happens simply and seamlessly around them,” said Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “Increasing operation range will enable connections to IoT devices that extend far beyond the walls of a typical home, while increasing speed supports faster data transfers and software updates for devices. And now with the ability to broadcast a much richer set of information, Bluetooth 5 will make beacons, location awareness, and other connectionless services an even more relevant part of an effortless and seamless IoT experience”

Bluetooth 5, projected for release in late 2016 to early 2017, will quadruple range and double speed of low energy connections while increasing the capacity of connectionless data broadcasts by 800 percent. It achieves all this alongside its industry-leading power performance. With the major boost in broadcast messaging capacity, the data being transferred will be richer, more intelligent. This will redefine the way Bluetooth devices transmit information, moving away from the app-paired-to-device model to a connectionless IoT where there is less need to download an app or connect the app to a device.

More than 371 million Bluetooth enabled beacons are projected to ship by 2020, according to Patrick Connolly, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. With eight times the broadcast messaging capacity, Bluetooth 5 will further propel the adoption and deployment of beacons and location-based services in the home automation, enterprise, and industrial markets. In scenarios where contextual awareness like navigation and pin-point location are crucial – such as hassle-free airport navigation experiences, asset tracking of warehouse inventory, emergency response, even smart city infrastructure that helps the visually impaired be more mobile – Bluetooth 5 will send custom information people actually find useful in that moment without connection and application barriers.

Bluetooth 5 will also help accelerate the death of the 3.5mm headphone jack, as the added speed and bandwidth will allow hi-res audio via bluetooth to become less the norm.

OnePlus 3 – A much better shopping experience

Android, Tech News

I was definitely one of the 1,000+ haters of the stupidly annoying OnePlus invite systems that the company used for all their previous phone launch and methods needed to buy their phone.

However, in advertising there is no such thing as bad advertising and regardless to how much you disliked the system, it did create “brand name” for OnePlus.

It appears the company has grown up a lot. This time with the launch of the OnePlus 3, there is no invite system. Simply go to OnePlus’s website and order. No timed sales, no anything just a good old regular add to cart and buy.

The next surprise is the stock is available immediately. So if you order now, it will arrive in a few days to a week. I received my shipping notice yesterday!

The ordering and delivery timescales are nearly as slick as an Apple launch where a product is announced and then available to order that day for delivery in a week or two!

And OnePlus held pop up shops at several locations across the world.

Time lapse of New York queue.

Samsung is quietly creating new software for its phones – And You can get it now!

Android, Tech News,

Let’s face it, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are beautifully made pieces of hardware. Even the software is the best Samsung has ever created.

But you can actually make it better right now using some of their new “beta” software, which in my testing is fantastic.

First up you can head over to the settings app, scroll down to advanced and select a number of options to improve the phone experience.

One of these options is Game Launcher. Make sure you turn this on. This has options to lock the capacitive menu keys to prevent accidental presses, prevent notifications bothering you whilst gaming, reduce the frame rate to save battery, record your game play and more. It also automatically lumps all your games into the game launcher.

In the advanced menu is a menu for Labs. In here I turned off the app drawer. I have to say that after not using an app drawer for over a month, I can whizz around all my apps twice as quick. I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

But the best change you can make is going to the Galaxy App store and downloading Samsung Good Lock. This changes the notification centre and lock screen. The before and after is huge and I really can’t recommend this enough.

HiFiMan Edition S Headphones – The Open & Closed Back Headphones – iOS & Android controls – Review

Audio, Reviews, Tech News

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Welcome to my review of the new HiFiMan Edition S Headphones. The HiFiMan Edition S cost £189 and now is the cheapest headphone in their range with the most expensive costing over £2,000. So HiFiMan have taken all the audio knowledge and create a more budget priced headphone that sounds superb.

Key Specifications

– On Ear – Closed or Open Back Desgin
– Frequency Response: 15Hz-22kHz
– Sensitivity – 113db
– Impedance: 18ohm
– Weight: 248g
– Driver Technology: 50mm Dynamic Driver
– iOS / Android in line cable with mic and controls

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Audio Quality

Work in an office and don’t want everyone to hear what you are listening to. Get home and wait to experience the full benefits of an open back headphone. Or fancy a slightly punchier, stronger bass sound that you can get from a closed back headphone, then the HiFiMan Edition S tick all the boxes.

I tested these headphones using my Samsung Galaxy S7. The S7 does not have a powerful headphone amp, yet the HiFiMan sounded excellent. This is helped by being highly efficient cans. They possess quick timing and have a slightly warmish sound. I really liked these headphones straight out of the box.

In the box, you get a hard carry case, a 6.3mm and airplane adapter, and the cable which has basic controls for android and iOS devices. Because the cable is removable, you can upgrade or replace it as required.

So what else is special about the HiFiMan Edition S. Well they are comfortable and very easy to drive. They sounded superb straight out of my Samsung S7. In open or closed back modes, the bass is tight and fast and deep enough to keep me entertained. The headphones were able to pick out nuances in the music that other headphones hadn’t been able to do. Whether in open or closed back mode the sound stage was wide. Obviously, in closed back mode (this is with the speaker plates on) bass is slightly enhanced and the sound stage reduced. A tiny amount of sound does escape in closed back mode at medium to high listening levels. With the speaker plates off, this is open back mode and the sound freely escapes. The speaker outer plates are held on via magnetism. See video below.

Genres used were pretty much everything – classical, pop, rock, jazz, blues, opera, dance and more. I used streaming apps from Google and Amazon as well as USB Audio Player Pro and Poweramp Alpha apps.

Upgrading the Audio Quality

So after testing the HiFiMan with my S7, I decided to upgrade the experience and use an Oppo HA-2 Headphone/DAC and replace the headphone cable with an Atlas cable. The difference using both of these extras created a cleaner and tighter sound, and more insightful. I could pick out even more detail and the sound stage was even wider. This was a perfect upgrade in my view.

Video Overview and Unboxing – Plus Upgrades

Below is a video to compliment this written review.

Conclusion

Out of the box the HiFiMan Edition S shine. With the versatility of open or backed and being one of the easiest pairs of headphones to drive from HiFiMan, these are highly recommended.

More information and latest deals on Amazon UK – Click HERE.

OnePlus 3 – Launch and Store – All done in Virtual Reality – My Experience & Detailed Specs

Tech News

OnePlus decided to launch their new flagship phone, the OnePlus 3 via Virtual Reality. The process was simple. Download their Loop VR app from the Google Play store and open it at 5.30pm UK time.

Well, that was the first flaw by OnePlus. The app upon opening needed to be updated before it could be used. The download was 604mb. Now anyone waiting to watch the launch could have been on mobile data and or not the fastest wifi speeds. I really think that the app should have had a big warning saying that minutes before launch, you will need to update that app and that the app is 604mb.

So after patiently waiting for the app to download, I started to view the show with my Google Cardboard. The VR experience was pretty cool. The launch was not a live stream, hence the 604mb was mainly VR created video.

Within the VR world, you were able to explore and discover new features about the phone in different rooms, see the 360 degree office and a lot more. Pretty cool to be honest. Then you had to find 3 badges to get the ability to purchase the phone using the VR store. The different areas had lots of cool content and highlighted various aspects of the phone. The UK price is £309 for a 64gb storage, 6gb ram OnePlus 3. Yes, 6gb ram!

So after finding all 3 badges, going to the VR store section, you entered your email. OnePlus then sent a special link. So in reality the payment aspects were not done in VR.

All in all, super cool experience. And now to the specs. You will notice the OnePlus 3 includes nearly everything including NFC.

– Android 6.0 Marshmallow
– Display 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED ,1920×1080, 401 ppi, Gorilla Glass 4
– Processor Snapdragon 820, Quad-core, 2.2GHz,Adreno 630 GPU
– Storage 64GB UFS 2 – no micro SD card slot
– RAM 6GB LPDDR4
– Rear Camera 16MP IMX298, f/2.0, 1.12-micron pixels,PDAF, OIS,RAW, 4K video, 720p slo-mo
– Front Camera 8MP IMX179, f/2.0, 1.4-micron pixels, Fixed focus, 1080p video
– Connectivity USB 2.0,Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2,NFC, GPS, GLONASS
– Network bands GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
– Network bands (North America) WCDMA: Bands 1/2/4/5/8,FDD-LTE: Bands 1/2/4/5/7/8/12/17,CDMA EVDO: BC0
– Network bands (EU/Asia) WCDMA: Bands 1/2/5/8,FDD-LTE: Bands 1/3/5/7/8/20,TDD-LTE: Bands 38/40/41
– Network bands (China) WCDMA: Bands 1/2/5/8,FDD-LTE : Bands 1/3/7,TDD-LTE: Bands 38/39/40/41,TD-SCDMA : Bands 34/39, CDMA EVDO: BC0
– CAT 6 (LTE)
– SIM Dual Nano SIM
– Audio – bottom facing speaker, dual mics with noise cancellation, OnePlus Music, Dirac HD,
– Charging USB-C, Dash Charge 5V/4A,Battery 3000 mAh,Non-removable
– Security One-touch fingerprint
– Sensors – Fingerprint sensor, Hall sensor, , Accelerometer, Gyroscope,
Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor and Electronic Compass
– Hardware keys and on-screen navigation ,Alert Slider
– Custom icon packs, Gesture Control (Display On + Display Off),OnePlus Shelf
– Vibration motor
– RGB LED notification light, Night Mode Display, Dark Theme, System Accent Colours
– Dimensions 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.35 mm
– Weight 158 g
– Colours Silver, Gold

WWDC 2016 – Ian’s Thoughts of the Keynote Speech

Apple, Tech News,

Ian has jotted down a few thoughts following Apple’s WWDC Keynote speech –

Thoughts on WWDC

So as an Apple Watch, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro owner have been waited for this for a while, and just invested in S7 edge and 360 Cam so wanted Apple to step up.

WatchOS -Good badly needed update, as apps pretty much unusable. Happy with new Swiping through apps, speed increases.watch faces

TVOS – Poor hmmm sold mine and moved to the shield, nothing impressed here, need to really improve gaming aspect,

MacOS – Good, watch unlocking, ApplePay, sync between macs, not totally convinced on Siri but solid update

IOS- Great, much needed Apple Music, and blatant copy of Google photos , maps and messaging – finally HomeKit !!! …guess no support for Nest or Smart Things

So great Keynote All in all

What was missing, PadOS ??? Hmm much needed on the pro, mouse support, file system, I can dream

WWDC 2016 – Wow – My Thoughts on the New Betas , Features and Keynote Speech

Apple, Tech News,

Apple held their WWDC 2016 Keynote Speech yesterday. It was great to see a mix of employees present on stage. It was also apparent that Apple had tons of stuff to try and get through.

Highlights included a whistle stop tour of iOS 10, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

watchOS 3 seemed to address many of the complaints of the current firmware with considerably faster running apps, new watch faces, improved ways to respond and a tweaked user interface. The activity app became more social too. All in all, the Apple Watch just became far more polished and potentially easier to use.

iOS 10 – so much to cover, new features across the board from Photos (RAW photo editing is also possible now), Maps, iMessages and more. Siri suddenly became more useful and functional. The lock screen got spruced up. API’s galore for developers including access to Siri and iMessage. Lots of new gloss too. BUT some of the more interesting changes were those not discussed. A high level take is Apple opening up the platform more than it ever has done.

Apple apps can be uninstalled. These include – Calculator, Calendar, Compass, Contacts,FaceTime,iTunes Store,Mail, Maps, Music,Notes, Podcasts, Reminders, Stocks,Tips,Videos,Voice Memos, Watch, Weather, Game Center – That’s a big list. Of course, as these Apple apps now appear in the App Store, it means Apple can provide quick updates to the core apps without a new firmware.

macOS – this also had lots of new features, the biggest with Siri integration, Apple Pay on the web which also features in iOS 10, universal clipboard and many more.

tvOS – lots of changes here from support for 4 game controllers, a dark theme, single sign on for all the different web services and lots more.

In fact, the list of changes is huge. My concern is how is everybody going to learn how to use all these new features and will it make Apple products harder to understand. Apart from that, the Apple software for the future looks exciting and provides a glimpse of what new hardware could be released to accommodate all these changes.

So what are your thoughts?

Choetech 33W USB C Car Charger – The Car Charger with the latest tech – Review

Reviews, Tech News, , ,

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Welcome to my review of the Choetech 33W USB C Car Charger.

With the rapid expansion of USB Type C and Quick Charge 3, I knew it would not be long before car chargers would be released that were more specific. The Choetech comes with dual ports. One which is a USB C charging port and means it doesn’t matter which way around you place the cable. This as I found is handy at night.

Key Specifications

– 1 x USB C Charging Port: Custom made for Type C charging device like Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Lumia 950, Lumia 950XL, Meizu Pro 5, ZUK Z1, LeTV One Max, LeTV One Pro
– 1 x Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Port: Compatible with all versions of Quick Charge technology (1.0, 2.0 & 3.0), up to 4X faster than standard chargers
– Up to 5V/3A for charging Type C supported devices. 5V/2.4A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A full charging speed for Quick Charge 3.0 compatible device, 5V/2.4A for most devices
– Safe Guarantee: Over-current, over-charging, short-circuit protection will make the charge safely, without any risk of overheating or damaging your devices.

The Choetech 33W USB C Car charger does exactly what is says on the tin. I also liked the fact that it has a compact like profile. See photo below of it inserted into my car charger.

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Video Overview

I have also created a quick video overview of the product.

Conclusion and Special Offer

A useful and recommended car charger for anyone thats needs fast charging and ideal as it has a USB C port.

Offer. Choetech have kindly offered a 70% Amazon UK discount code for the first 10 people to email me at gavinfabl at gmail dot com. You then need to ensure you order item via link below too. Be quick!

More information and the latest pricing on Amazon UK – Click HERE.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – New Firmware OTA – updated

Android, Tech News,

Screenshot_20160610-223834

Everyday I always manually check for a firmware update on my devices. I had check my Samsung Galaxy S7 first thing this morning, but for some unknown reason, just before I was going to bed, I checked again and voila a 333mb software update was available.

I will update this post later this morning with anything new discovered. It does include the latest security update too which is 1st June 2016.

If you have a S7 and find anything new with this update, leave a note in the comments and I will add your findings to the main post.

My Samsung Galaxy S7 is a UK version, unlocked from Carphone Warehouse.

Update 1 – When sending email in the Samsung email app a banner pops up at the bottom now saying “sending email”.