The Battle for Cloud Storage

January 30, 2015Tech Newscloud storage options, Dropbox, Flickr, google drive, MicrosoftGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Yesterday evening I received a notification and an email from DropBox that my HTC 23gb free allowance was due to expire.

The fact that I thought this was a lifetime offer and not 2 years is another matter. The fact that had I known this, I would have created a new Dropbox account with a different email, signed in to my Note 4 with a brand new account and got 50gb free for 2 years. I could have done this with my Note 3 and Samsung S5 and Note Edge. But I didn’t as I thought I had enough space and keeping the same user name was less messy. But alas that was not to be.

So now it was time to throw all my toys out of the pram. It was time to abandon Dropbox forever. Except I couldn’t. Some of my critical apps needed to use Dropbox. So no matter what I decided to do next I could not give it the 2 fingers.

So after knocking back a bottle of whiskey to place me in a better frame of mind (joke) I decided to look at the options available. First option was to pay Dropbox for a Pro account. If you pay upfront for a year this costs £79 for 1 TB of storage. Google also charge the same amount for the same storage space. They also have a 100gb plan for $1.99 a month. About £15 a year and plenty space for me.

And then Donald (@crimsonsky76) emerged with the fact that Microsoft offer 1 TB storage for $99 (same price as the others) but this includes a family subscription to Office365. But that deal can be made better. You can buy a Windows 8.1 Tablet for £79 and get 1 TB data and Office365 included in the price. Add to the fact that OneDrive now have snazzy photo integration and its a superb deal. So with Microsoft I can get a free tablet if I wanted 1 TB data.

So what have I done. Well, as I mentioned I still need Dropbox, so I am in the process of moving files post 2013 to Google Drive including photos. Pre 2013 files can stay with Dropbox as this keeps me under my revised lower storage limit. I have 175gb of free storage with Google which will expire in 12 months approx. At that time, I will reconsider my options.

I omitted Apple Cloud in the above options. One because I don’t have an iPhone currently and secondly because we all know it is the most expensive and not as open as the others.

Flickr was another option banded around. You get 1 TB of free photo storage. I use Flickr but only to upload my favourite photos that I don’t mind sharing. I do not upload my private snaps. If Flickr allowed you to mass download your photos then I might have considered this as a solution.

So what would you have done?

Amazon Fire Phone – First Impressions

January 30, 2015Amazon, Reviews, Tech Newsamazon fire phone, part 1, ReviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

On Wednesday, Amazon reduced the Fire Phone right down to £99. Across twitter and many forums many opinions raged as to whether it was worth it or not. Well, here are all the orders Amazon received. So clearly a lot of people thought it was worth of shot.

My first chance to use the Amazon Fire Phone was last night. I opened the box and realised that the phone needed a charge as the battery was at 36%. Once it reached 100%, I turned it on and was presented with a video that explained clearly all its main features and how to use the gestures, along with practising them too. Simple idea but genius.

The phone’s hardware feels good in the hand and comfy to hold. But it does seem to pick up fingerprints. The screen is excellent. So a short while later I realised a software update was waiting. This was date 26th August 2014. So this got installed and from there I started to explore the phone further.

The next step afte the video was logging in to twitter and facebook, this is not mandatory. Then I setup my Google account for email, contacts and calendar. Then I explored further. I had heard the headphone audio was outstanding and I can confirm that the sound output via the headphone jack is possibly the best I have ever heard from any smartphone. However, I can not find any sound equaliser. Camera. I have done some limited testing but it appears the camera takes good shots but its operation is both excellent and then at times weird. Again I need more time to explore this feature.

Now I know some of you are screaming “it does not have Google apps or the Google Play store” . Well, I can shout back just as loudly. So what! For most people the world does not evolve around Google. So long as the apps you need are available on the Amazon app store then all is fine. If you are heavily invested in to the Google Play store then this phone is not necessarily for you, but those starting fairly new to the world, or perhaps are invested in the Kindle Tablet eco system, then on paper all should be ok. However, I need more time to assess everything.

Fire OS. Now my thoughts on the Fire OS and its skin and for another day. I will add that I am pleased I bought this phone. Whilst I can see potential areas where it is not perfect, I think I can see what Amazon might have been trying to do. Anyway, more soon when I have had a week or so with it.

One thing I did want to test was the Mayday help button. Video support call worked just fine with on screen guidance. This really was the ultimate support call and shows up so many other companies who provide a poor after sales service.

And don’t forget to “fire” off any questions.

And here are some photos from the Fire Phone. What I have found is that it is able to capture a wider field of view than several other smartphones.

IBM to fire 110,000 employees – Ouch

January 29, 2015Tech News000 employees, IBM to fire 110Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

I don’t think I need to say much more, but firing 110,000 employees is horrendous. The fact it will be a fast process and all these people will be jobless by this time next month is staggering.

This is the largest redundancy is corporate history and sure to impact not just the employees but all the communities connected. In fact the trial of devastation will be far reaching.

I hope these impacted people find alternative income quickly.

HTC Desire Eye – review – conclusion

January 29, 2015Android, Reviews, Tech Newsconclusion, htc desire eye, ReviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Over the last week I have penned my thoughts on the HTC Desire Eye. It really reminds me of the previous HTC devices that I have owned, the HTC One M8 and HTC One M7 – good design from a hardware and software point of view. I have shown this phone to a number of people and the all have liked the look, feel and speed of the device.

I believe that the HTC Desire Eye has had thought and purpose as to who might use this phone. This is a great social phone. Ideal for content creation and sharing. Cameras back and front to capture that moment, good editing tools with filters and more, video highlights and Zoe, and finally decent front stereo speakers to enjoy that moment even more.

Take all the above, add a water and dust resistant design, Sense UI which has minimal bloat and an easy learning curve, Blinkfeed, good 1080p screen and a fast snappy 801 processor and the Desire Eye becomes a good phone.

I have one last final thought. Some smartphones lack character and feel bland when you hold and use them. For some reason, the HTC Desire Eye makes me feel good when I use it.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are buying anything on Amazon, please use the link below. This will help support Gavin’s Gadgets with all the running costs and more and won’t be any different in cost. Thanks in advance.

GavGadgets@Amazon

Say Hello to the new HTC One M9 and the HTC One M9 Plus – photos

January 29, 2015Android, Tech Newsdetails and photos, HTC One M9, One M9 PlusGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Twitter leaker @evleaks was at it again, this time revealing the press renders for the 2 new phones form HTC, the One M9 and the M9 Plus.

Looks like both phones have a decent front facing camera similar to the HTC Desire Eye and perhaps a fingerprint sensor on the front home button. Otherwise looks very HTC in design.

What do you think?

Qualcomm cuts in financial outlook – details

January 29, 2015Tech Newsqualcomm cuts outlook over snagdragon 81-Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Telling times.

Qualcomm said Wednesday that it is cutting the financial outlook for its chip business as its Snapdragon 810 chip was dropped by a large customer.

“China continues to present significant opportunities for us, particularly with the rollout of 3G/4G LTE multimode, but also presents significant challenges, as our business practices continue to be the subject of an investigation by the China National Development and Reform Commission,” Qualcomm said in a statement. Qualcomm also said that, despite settling one dispute, it still believes some customers in China are underreporting sales of licensed chips amid the government probe.

A Qualcomm representative declined to say which phone maker has dropped the Snapdragon 810, though reports have said the chip has heat issues and that Samsung had pulled the processor from its upcoming Galaxy S6. The 810 has been announced for use in some other products, including the LG Flex 2.

The announcement came as the company released its latest quarterly earnings. The company reported it earned $1.17 per share in earnings, on a higher-than-expected revenue of $7.1 billion. Per-share earnings, excluding certain items, was $1.34, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $1.25.

For the current quarter, Qualcomm said it expects overall company revenue of between $6.5 billion to $7.1 billion, with per-share earnings, excluding charges, of approximately $1.28 to $1.40. That’s roughly in line with what analysts had been expecting. Current estimates forecast $1.28 in per-share earnings and revenue of $6.74 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

However, Qualcomm cut its revenue and earnings forecast for the full year, saying it now expects revenue of $26 billion to $28 billion, down from an earlier forecast of $26.8 billion to $28.8 billion. Full year per-share earnings are now seen between $4.75 and $5.05, down from a prior range of $5.05 to $5.35.

Source – http://recode.net/2015/01/28/qualcomm-cuts-outlook-warning-its-snapdragon-810-dropped-from-a-flagship-device/

Sony Prepares for Life after Game Consoles

January 29, 2015Tech NewsSony prepares for life without gaming consolesGavin Fabiani-Laymond

“As Sony (SNE) forecasts its sixth loss in seven years and struggles to keep its internal files out of the hands of hackers, its lone bright spot is its gaming division. The company has sold about 15 million PlayStation 4s in the year since its release, regularly outpacing rival Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One in the $44 billion console-gaming industry. But as the PlayStation franchise turns 20 this month, Sony is preparing for a post-console world.

The company says one of its top priorities in 2014 has been buying servers and expanding its cloud networks to make sure it can reliably stream high-bandwidth games through PlayStation Now, the service it introduced over the summer. Players using PS Now don’t need to own any Sony hardware beyond a game controller or two: The service relays its 200-odd titles directly from a data center to a player’s TV, which doesn’t have to be Sony-made.”

Without a doubt, this is the way to go. There is no money is hardware, it is all about software and services. If Sony can migrate over to a cloud based service then this could pay dividends providing they could guarantee no disruptions to the cloud streaming. Sometimes, playing offline has major advantages.

To read the full article head over to BusinessWeek – http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-11/sony-prepares-for-life-after-game-consoles

Amazon Fire Phone – reduced to £99 for one day – details

January 28, 2015Amazon, Tech Newsamazon fire phone reduced for 1 day to £99Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

The Amazon Fire Phone is reduced to £99. The 64gb version is reduced to £149.

Specs for the Fire Phone are –

-Size 139.2 mm x 66.5 mm x 8.9 mm
-Weight 160 grams
-Processor 2.2 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, with Adreno 330 GPU and 2 GB of RAM
-Display 4.7″ (11.9 cm) HD LCD display, with 1280 x 720 resolution at 315 ppi, 590 cd/m2 brightness (typical), 1000:1 contrast ratio (typical)
-Cameras 13MP rear-facing camera, multi-frame HDR, auto focus, optical image stabilisation, f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens, LED flash
2.1MP front-facing camera
-OS Fire OS 3.6
-Storage 32 GB or 64 GB (actual formatted capacity will be less)
-Cloud storage Free Cloud storage for all Amazon content, and photos taken with Fire phone
-Battery Battery size: 2400mAh. Talk time: up to 17 hours; standby time: up to 285 hours. Video playback: up to 11 hours; audio playback: up to 65 hours. Battery life will vary based on signal strength, network configuration, device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results may vary.
-Video recording 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps (front- and rear-facing cameras)
Audio playback Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio processing
-Sensors Dynamic Perspective sensor system with invisible infrared illumination, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, barometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
-Location GPS, Assisted GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi/Mobile network location and Digital compass
-Mobile Penta-band UMTS/HSPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz), Duo-band DC-HDSPA (900, 2100 MHz), Quad-band GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), 9 bands of 4G-LTE (bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20)
-Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, up to 300 Mbps ; Bluetooth 3.0 wireless

If you are interested click below –

Amazon Fire Phone, 32 GB (O2)

HTC One M9 vs Samsung Galaxy S6 – Benchmarks

January 28, 2015Android, Tech Newsbenchmarks, HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Bgr.com reported that “According to the test results, which were revealed by Techtastic.nl, the HTC One M9 registered a single-core Geekbench 3 score of 1,232 and a multi-core score of 3,587.

How does that stack up to the upcoming Galaxy S6? Samsung’s upcoming new smartphone racked up a single-core score of 1,520 and a multi-core score of 5,478, crushing the M9 in both tests.”

To add some comparison points the HTC One M8 has a multi-core score of around 2,900. This means that the new Snapdragon 810 will add some oomph over last years model.

But here’s the point. These benchmarks are useless. In real life the HTC is generally faster and nimbler than its Samsung competitor. So my advice is to ignore these so called benchmarks and see how fast the phone is for you with your setup!

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