Lenovo’s Vibe Band VB10 Fitness Band and the Vibe X2 Pro Smartphone – details

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Lenovo announced a fitness band featuring a curved E Ink screen. The main body is wrapped in metal either black, gold or white along with a rubberized strap. The band weighs just 30 grams. E-Ink means 30 days battery. The device continuously monitors your steps, calories, travel distance, sleep quality and you also get notifications from your phone using Bluetooth LE.

What is interesting with this band is another wearable that doesn’t use Android Wear operating system being announced at CES 2015.

Lenovo also announced several phones. Of interest, was the Vibe X2 Pro Smartphone.

VIBE smartphones gets bigger and faster with X2 Pro
Sporting the same eye-catching, award-winning layered design of the Lenovo X2, the Lenovo VIBE X2 Pro limited edition smartphone brings craftsmanship, power and style to the next level with its sleek, lightweight full-metal body. The VIBE X2 Pro packs a 5.3-inch FHD display with stunning visuals and a 64-bit Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Octa-Core processor that delivers jaw-dropping performance and long-lasting battery life.

For greater ease of use, the Lenovo X2 Pro incorporates the intuitively designed VIBE 2.0 user interface, featuring personalized lock screen, Instant On camera, elegant transparent icons and more. The smartphone also utilizes dual 13 megapixel auto-focus cameras (front and rear) with LED flash, gesture controls and beautification features, which combines with the new VIBE Xtension™ Selfie Flash to capture flawless selfies.

Note the auto focus front and rear cameras and both 13mp.

Source – http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1880

Asus Announces ZenFone Zoom With 3x Optical Zoom 13MP Camera – details

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This announcement from CES really caught my eye – Asus Announces ZenFone Zoom With 3x Optical Zoom 13MP Camera, Laser Auto Focus, and A 5.5-inch 1080p Screen. The Zoom’s 13MP shooter has a 10-element lens, 3X optical zoom, and optical image stabilisation.

And the key point is this is a mid ranged device selling for less than £300. Will this be one of several new cameras on smartphones this year. Certainly looks this way.

Source -www.androidpolice.com/asus.com

Google unveils Google Cast – AirPlay is being suffocated now

“Google Cast, the same technology behind Chromecast, lets you cast your favorite music from your mobile device to your speakers. Simply use your Android tablets and smartphones, iPhone®, iPad®, Mac, Windows and Chromebook to control the music directly from the apps you already know and love.

The easiest way to send music to your speakers

With Google Cast, there’s nothing new to learn — listening to your favorite apps on your speakers is as easy as the press of the cast button. Search and browse, play, skip, and turn up the volume directly from the apps you know and love on your phone, tablet or laptop. Friends can even join in and use the apps on their phones to cast to the speakers, too.”

Sony, Denon and LG will all be producing speakers with Google Cast support”

So there we have it, Google have no added one last ingredient to kill the Apple TV Box. Will Apple ever update this box? Or does it need to? Remember, this is cross platform!

Source – http://www.google.com/cast/audio/

LG G Flex 2 is real – full details and specs

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The LG G Flex 2 goes beyond its predecessor’s groundbreaking 700mm radius curved profile. The new smartphone harmoniously incorporates a symphony of curves ranging from a radius of 400mm to 700mm across the front, back, sides and top-to-bottom edges.

The phone’s ergonomic design brings the microphone closer to the mouth which allow much more outside noise to enter the phone through the microphone. The slimmed down 5.5 inches screen with curvatures makes the perfect fit for eyes and the grip. The display’s resolution is now a 1080p Full HD. The P-OLED display gives the G Flex2 its shape and durability

The G Flex2 is the first phone officially announced to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor 64-bit Octa-Core CPU. The screen is 20% more durable.

The Self Healing back, which keeps the phone looking new even through the nicks and scratches from normal everyday use, has also been improved with significantly faster healing time. LG reduced the healing time from about three minutes to just within ten seconds at room temperature.

The LG G3 Laser auto focus comes included with the G Flex 2 combined with OIS+ technology and dual LED flash.

The G Flex2’s curve-enhanced user experience carries over to software as well. It comes fully loaded with the best of LG’s unique software features optimized for its curved form factor:

ŸGlance View displays key information such as time, recent messages or missed calls with a downward swipe of the curved screen even while the display is off.

ŸFast Charge allows the embedded 3,000mAh battery in the G Flex2 — the only curved mobile battery in the world to be charged up to 50 percent in under 40 minutes.

The LG G Flex2 will be available starting at the end of the month in Korea to be followed by additional global markets. The device will initially be available in two colors: Platinum Silver and Flamenco Red.

Key Specifications (may vary depending on market):

Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 2.0GHz 64-bit Octa-Core CPU
Display: 5.5-inch Full HD Curved P-OLED (1080 x 1920 pixels / 403 ppi)
Memory: 16/32MB eMMC ROM / 2GB DDR4 RAM / microSD slot (up to 2TB)
Camera: Rear 13.0MP with OIS+ with Laser Auto Focus / Front 2.1MP
Battery: 3,000mAh (embedded)
Operating System: Android 5.0 Lollipop
Size: 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1-9.4mm
Weight: 152g
Network: 4G / LTE / HSPA+ 21/42 Mbps
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth Smart Ready (Apt-X) 4.1, NFC, SlimPort, A-GPS / Glonass, USB 2.0
Color: Platinum Silver, Flamenco Red
Other: Gesture Shot, Gesture View, Glance View etc.

I previously owned the first LG G Flex and this update basically fixes everyone that needed tweaking on the original version.

Source – http://www.bgr.com

Carphone Warehouse tops retail league of shame – details

Carphone Warehouse, which came last in the rankings, was accused of “giving retail a bad name” with customers facing “nauseating hard sells” from teenagers and queues “reminiscent of Soviet Russia”.

More at The Telegraph

Personally I’ve had reasonably good experiences with Carphone Warehouse but what about yourself ?

Withings Activité Pop Fitness Tracker – details

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Withings has announced a cheaper version of its Activité watch that measures steps and sleep. The Activité Pop costs $150, that’s $300 less than its more expensive big brother. For that you lose some of the higher quality materials used in the construction and end up with a rubber strap instead of a calf leather strap. One major point is the battery doesn’t last one or two days. It doesn’t last a week like the Pebble it lasts 8 months. Yes 8 months.

However, I really like this watch. It’s what technology should be all about. Unobtrusive and beautiful. It also comes with a companion app for iOS and Android.

Withings is a French company with the watch made in Switzerland.

Samsung Note 4 – 2 months later review

So its 2 months later with my Samsung Note 4. To read the main 17 Part Review click here.

Well there was a period of about 2 weeks when I changed my black Note 4 to the black Samsung Note. I also detailed my views on the Note Edge. To recap on the 14 part review of the Note Edge click here.

The Edge is identical to the Note 4 except for that edge / panel. So even though I had a break of 2 weeks it doesn’t really count as I was in reality using the same hardware and software. As you all probably are aware I moved back to the Note 4 as I could not tolerate the reduced battery life of the Edge over the Note 4. Moving back to the Note 4 allowed me to pick a different colour and I chose white this time. IMO it looks better in white but I’m certain many of you will disagree ☺

So what has it been like using the Note 4 for nearly 2 months. It’s the equivalent of having the best in class smartphone and topping all the categories. It has the best screen. It’s clarity and quality is incredible. It works brilliantly in sunlight and then goes so dark for night time reading. The colour accuracy of this screen is currently the best out there. As this is the Note range it has all the multi tasking options, s pen, infra red blaster, user changeable battery and micro sd card support. It also looks great and has decent battery with 2 battery saving modes ; the standard power saving mode and the life saver mode “ultra power saving mode”.  This last mode is so good that one night I was out and about and had 2% battery left. I switched to this mode, got home and forgot to charge the phone. By early evening the next day it was still on 2%. But fear not, the Note 4 has quick charging too. And this is  a theme in its spec sheet. It’s a battleship of specs. If you are into health and fitness, it has sensors for its built in pedometer,  heart rate and oxygen saturation as well as a UV sensor. This is all integrated in to the S Health app which has even more options. And if you use a Samsung wearable like the Gear range then you have a tightly integrated system.

And the best in class continues with its camera and audio. I am constantly amazed by the photos coming from the Note 4. The audio via the speakers is clear and ideal for voice and podcasts. It’s not boomsound bassy but it’s a clear sound. The audio sound via the headphone jack is very high quality. USB Audio is supported out of the box. Voice recording has support for its directional mics with the ability to separate up to 8 different sources of sound and remove any of them during playback of recording. Adaptive sound support is excellent too as it’s adjusts the sound according to each of your ears hearing abilities. Adaptive sound carries out a hearing test on each ear to set this up. Different adaptive sound profiles can be saved dependent on what headphones or ear you are using for phone calls.

But it’s not just the hardware that’s exceptional. The software package is also excellent.

Samsung has also provided a few small updates to improve performance and remove any early bugs. With android lollipop due in the next few weeks I am excited to see what more can be squeezed from this formidable hardware and software combination.

In case you hadn’t realised I totally love this phone !

Looking back to 2014 and my favourite top 10 photos – all taken on a phone

I was having a look at photos taken last year. The photos are all taken using the camera on a smartphone. Some of my favourites –

I like the one below as it’s created a nice bokeh and captured the cold and sunshine well.

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This is so good a shot. Fury and Tiggy (Fury is the black labrador ) are crashing through the water. Splashes everywhere but frozen in time.

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Below is using one of the fancy modes whereby you capture the action. Same horse but at different stages of the jump.

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The architecture below looked dull, but using the inbuilt stock camera and photo filters became more fascinating. Love the architectural lines in this shot.

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Symmetry at its best. A world famous street too.

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The long bridge captured well. This phone might surprise you.

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Logs, trees, vivid colours and a lovely shot by a solid performing phone.

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Merrivale stones on Dartmoor. Liked the scene probably more than the shot itself.

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A real classic Dartmoor shot with the sheep and landscape.

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Can you guess which phones though?

And lastly this is the most popular photo from 2014 from my flickr account with 14,211 views currently. I have no idea why it’s so popular either. And again which phone took this?

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Update. The answers. Top to bottom.

Samsung Note 4 – HDR
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – burst mode
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – Shot and More , drama

IPhone 6 Plus
Samsung Galaxy S5
BlackBerry Passport (bridge photo)
Samsung Note 4
IPhone 6 Plus (Merrivale stones)
Samsung Note 3

And the last one is HTC One M8, hdr mode.

Nokia Lumia 830 – now reduced sim free

I have just noticed this morning that the Nokia Lumia 830 is reduced down to just under £258.22 at Amazon UK. If you like the Windows Phone operating system, you get a lot of bang for your buck along with a decent camera. Bear in mind Vodafone UĶ has the HTC M8 on pay as you go for just £289 which is also a bargain.

For the Nokia Lumia 830 just click the link below. Disclosure – this is an affiliate link.

<a href="Nokia Lumia 830 5 inch UK SIM-Free Smartphone – Black
“>Nokia Lumia 830 5 inch UK SIM-Free Smartphone – Black