I took this yesterday. Tiggy posing in the snow. Voice control of the shutter on the Note 4 is ideal when one hand is holding a lead and the other positioning the Note 4.
Apple Pay is storming the USA
“Apple Pay launch partner Bank of America on Thursday revealed that nearly 800,000 of its customers had signed up for Apple’s nascent mobile payments initiative, bringing 1.1 million cards to the service in the last three months. Bank of America has 60 million customers.”
This is just one financial institution sharing its success of Apple Pay. What is even more important is that these 1.1m Apple Pay users are more than likely ones that spend money too. Impressive stats.
Source – appleinsider.com
Every unreleased Android Flagship Specs revealed – full details
This is full details of my exclusive “prediction/factual” of every android flagship to be announced shortly. This is world exclusive stuff that every tech website is posting. So here goes the rocket science.
Every phone will feature a 2K screen from the HTC One M9 to Samsung Galaxy S6 to Joe Bloggs. A minimum 13mp Optical Image stabilised rear camera, unless it some Chinese/Korean device that has some odd twin 8mp setup or the new iPhone. The processors used will be a Snapdragon 810. And they will all feature android lollipop out of the box.
Disclaimer – whilst the above is true it is also taking the biscuit too. But in reality expect most new android flagships to have the above as a minimum.
What I do hope is that 32gb storage for a flagship is used plus micro sd expansion. There is no way I could use anything less. Water and dust resistance will feature on many devices too. What could differentiate one flagship from another is the software unique selling points. So who will still the crown this year? Samsung, HTC, Sony, Huawei, OnePlus or another manufacturer?
Reviews Ahoy
Long overdue but hopefully if the wintry weather continues I will be indoors writing some reviews.
Fingers crossed, there will be a different something reviewed every weekday next week.
Three UK – the reasons for ditching the One Plan and unlimited tethering
Recently I’ve had a rocky experience with Three UK. It took them one month to fix my local mast and judging by other mast repairs it seems that length is of time happens regularly. If only Three had been upfront in the beginning with the time frame and not kept promising 24 hours later it would be fixed. Still, the one month free line rental and free signal booster helped compensate. The signal booster is brilliant.
During this downtime, I ended up speaking to several people at head office in the UK. They told me that everybody over the next 18 months would be contacted to change their plan to one of the newer ones. No exceptions.
We then discussed tethering abuses where people would download crazy amounts of data and not think it was out of order. We are talking tethering around 300gb plus per month. You can see why Three is having to restrict tethering to just 4gb.
However, I was also told that there was another type of customer who tethered a lot of data and these were ones who would really suffer with all the changes. These were customers where at their home address there was no fixed line broadband, or any other broadband other than that provided by the 3 mobile Internet tethering to the entire family household. Usage was high again from 100gb and upwards but by removing this facility would be causing a real hardship. Often these locations were remote too.
Personally I use upto 5gb data a month and might tether up to 500mb on some months. Has Three’s new terms affected you?
Google Maps got a decent update – details
If you haven’t installed or updated Google Maps, now is the time to do so.
It has just been updated with the following –
– Filter searches for restaurants by cuisine type — Google Maps users can finally drill down restaurant searches by cuisine
– View current weather information for cities around the world
– Drop a pin for your starting and destination points in directions and navigation
– Add transit directions to your calendar
– in the Android version of Google Maps, share directions with any contact.
Source – Google
Is the Tech Press delusional – The Xiaomi Mi Note is NOT an iPhone contender
Xiaomi launched the new smartphone yesterday, the Mi Note and immediately claimed it was the best phone available as of today. Xiaomi compared the Mi Note to the iPhone 6 Plus and selected a few supposed features where it exceeded Apple’s iPhone. Then the world’s press started making comments like Xiaomi launches the Mi Note, its iPhone killer.
I respect all mobile platforms and even though my current phone of choice is the Samsung Note 4, the Xiaomi Mi Note is so not anything like the iPhone 6 Plus at all. In fact the Mi Note looks more like the Samsung Note 4. But that is as far as it goes.
So let’s not beat around the bush. The Mi Note is no iPhone killer simply because it does not run iOS 8. It does not have the same polished iOS apps. It does not have the same killer camera that the iPhone does and the list goes on and on e.g. Touch ID, Apple Pay, lightning connector and so much more. And it does not have the Apple eco system.
In fact the Mi Note is no Note 4 killer in any shape or form either. The list is huge as to why as well.
What Xiaomi have produced is last years hardware, in a svelte body and at a low price. But this feat is also being carried out by many other android manufacturers.
I am not going to say anymore on this until I have had a chance to test this phone. But please no more iPhone killer comments.
Official Samsung Hard Protective Cover Case – review
Cases. I have a history with buying cases that goes back years and is still part of my DNA. I can quickly spot a naff case, poor quality, poor usage and more. I had zero expectations for this case from Samsung but it is a pleasant surprise.
The case is a made from injected moulded thermoplastic construction which provides protection against shocks and drops. The case is easy to apply and remove, but also extremely protective. The case offers protection against impacts, so your phone is protected whether it’s in a bag or pocket, or if you happen to accidentally drop it.
The outside of the case has a special high polymer coating that gives the case a clean look, while also helping to resist dust and grease. This is prevents no unhygenic build-up of grime around the openings.
The case features a tough shock-absorbing silicone bumper, the Samsung Protective Case shields your Note 4 from damage and scratches, keeping your phone looking as good as new. The smooth textured finish also improves grip, making for a more enjoyable in hand experience, as well as reducing the risk of accidental drops.
It also has a small lip on the front edge.
So that’s the tech speak above. It is a slim fit, quality plastic product that feel good in the hand, looks good and I really like it. Will it win over another case coming from Noreve? Find out next week 🙂
Updated – here’s some better photos taken in natural daylight
The case is available at Amazon – Samsung Protective Hard Cover at Amazon
Is there no shot the Samsung Note 4 can fail at ? – updated
Taken yesterday before the snow.
If you knew how high this shot is and how far away the seagull was flying you would be even more surprised. Nuts I tell you, nuts good the camera on the Note 4.
Below is the orginal without the crop.
Xiaomi new flagship for 2015 announced – Mi Note – specs and video
Xiaomi has just announced its new flagship phone the Mi Note. It sure looks similar to the Note 4 and style of the iPhone.
Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides, 2.5D curved glass on the front and 3D curved glass at the back, has a thickness of 6.95mm and features a 13 MP camera with OIS.
The Mi Note has a 5.7-inch 1080p display, 3.0mm bezel, Gorilla Glass 3 back and front, 2.5D curved glass on front, 3D curved glass on the rear, only 6.95mm thick, 13mp OIS rear camera using a Sony IMX214 cmos sensor. 4mp front with 2 micron pixels for great selfies. Processor is snapdragon 801 with 3gb ram. Runs MIUI 6.
The screen has adaptive contract and a blue light reducing mode.
There will also be a “pro” version of the Note with a more powerful octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor and 4gb ram and a screen resolution of 2048×1536.
Storage options are 16 and 64gb.
The regular model is powered by a 3,000mA. In terms of features it seems Xiaomi has copied Apple’s reachability for reducing the screen to the bottom half.
And below is a video from Xiaomi.
Source – Xiaomi
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