Samsung Note Edge – selective focus mode and battery update

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

Below is a shot using the selective focus camera mode. Click on photo to get taken to the flickr original. If you download the original and have a Samsung phone you should be able to go into the selective focus mode and edit the effect from near focus, rear or pan focus. The file size of this shot is 19mb and has tons of detail.

Delicious and Extraordinarily Sinful #selectivefocus #SamsungNoteEdge

I also have some better news to report on the battery. Yesterday I managed 10 hours with 2 hours screen on time. This reduced the battery for down to 50%.  This should  translate to 20 hours and 4 hours on screen time. I was in a good cell signal area yesterday.

However compared to the Note 4, the Edge battery life is still poor.

Yesterday I was using my bluetooth headphones to listen to some of my music. I kept getting small static like breakups. So I deleted pairing and repaired. Slightly better but still not as good as I expected.

I feel that this phone could do with a stability and performance firmware update.

It’s live – Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast – Xmas Special 2014 – Please RT

Amazon, Android, Apple, Blackberry, Historical Reviews, Reviews, RIM, Tech News, Wearables, Windows,

As you know, I co-host a monthly podcast with David from UKMobileTech called Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. It is a light hearted tech podcast broadcast.

To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.

Episode 29, Xmas Special 2014 is now live for your listening pleasure. Today we rate our top 3 phones in several categories.

If you have enjoyed the podcast, please leave a 5 star review in iTunes. It helps others find our podcast. Go now and leave a review !

If you have any comments, questions or feedback, please drop a line at feedback@gdtpodcast.com .

Sands Casino – Hacked – Full story

Tech News

Business Week has an excellent article about a major hack or I should say major crime.

” Most gamblers were still asleep, and the gondoliers had yet to pole their way down the ersatz canal in front of the Venetian casino on the Las Vegas Strip. But early on the chilly morning of Feb. 10, just above the casino floor, the offices of the world’s largest gaming company were gripped by chaos. Computers were flatlining, e-mail was down, most phones didn’t work, and several of the technology systems that help run the $14 billion operation had sputtered to a halt.”

” Computer engineers at Las Vegas Sands Corp. raced to figure out what was happening. Within an hour, they had a diagnosis: Sands was under a withering cyber attack. PCs and servers were shutting down in a cascading IT catastrophe, with many of their hard drives wiped clean. The company’s technical staff had never seen anything like it.”

” In an effort to save as many machines as they could, IT staffers scrambled across the casino floors of Sands’ Vegas properties—the Venetian and its sister hotel, the Palazzo—ripping network cords out of every functioning computer they could find, including PCs used by pit bosses to track gamblers and kiosks where slots players cash in their tickets.”

If you thought Sony was the first major hack, it most certainly isn’t. The story of this casino hack is documented in great detail by Businessweek and is well worth a read. Begs the question are we safe to be connected?

Reminder – Top Phones Reviewed – All the Links

Reviews, Tech News, ,

Below is links to the latest top 4 phones. Currently the Samsung Note Edge is being reviewed on the website. As this is currently ongoing click https://gavinsgadgets.com/?s=samsung+note+edge

Don’t forget to use the menu to get access to all the other 100 plus reviews on more phones , tablets, wearables and audio and app enabled accessories and much more.

Apple Phones

Apple iPhone 6 Plus – 24 Part Review

BlackBerry Phones

BlackBerry Passport 10 Part Mammoth review

Android Phones

Samsung Note 4 – 17 Part Review

LG G3 review – 31 Part Review

Samsung Gear S – standalone mode

Android, Reviews, Tech News, Wearables, ,

Yesterday it was my works Xmas party. So for once,  I left my Note Edge at home and used the Gear S as a phone that was independent of the Samsung Note Edge.

From my other post you will have read that 3 UK are without a network service within a 10 mile radius of my home address. I’m not sure how much of a battery drain this was on the Gear S,  as it did try to connect to the Note Edge and turn on call forwarding. This was not possible due to lack of service.

However,  and to my surprise any notification that arrived on the Note Edge using wifi got sent to the Gear S.  After 12 hours of using the Gear S you realise how many notifications you receive and perhaps it may be best to turn them all off. Receiving and not being able to reply really highlighted that I had too many notifications.  With the Gear S in independent mode,  you can call, text or email.  Using the Opera Mini Web browser you could respond to other services.

But what about battery life in this mode. 12 hours only versus 2 days when connected via Bluetooth to your samsung phone.

This is what Three UK calls an acceptable service – updated 4 times

Tech News

image

My first title of the post was very rude so I changed it.

4-5 days and no network service by Three UK. Each call promises a fix that day or the day after.

Last night I received the above text. They are implying 7 DAYS IS ACCEPTABLE TO UPDATE ME ON THE PROBLEM.

ARE THREE UK THAT IGNORANT. No proper explanation. 

My wife, myself and my Gear S all have 3 UK contract sims. And the 12 month plans all expire in 5 days. 

Now what should I do? ???

Update – after speaking to Three again it is likely to take 7 days. So I asked the question “are the engineers really going to work on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day.” Answer “No”

Update 2 – So after 5 days plus no work has started as no health and safety certificate has been obtained. And the tweeted timeframe provided for fixing is not correct as ascertained later on. It’s 7 days plus to fix.

image

Update 3 – PAC codes were promised to have arrived 2 hours ago. Guess what nothing has arrived yet. I’m keeping my options open at the moment but the longer this goes on …….

Update 4 – Three in Touch app is f**king useless so don’t bother suggesting using it. Why ? Calls over wifi are so bad even Three UK asked if I had a landline number they could call me back on! Texting. As I discovered I was in a different area last night at a work Xmas party. I had perfect 3 signal. But I couldn’t send my wife, also on 3, a text message because she was in an area without service. So that defeats the purpose of this app. I could text to a phone on a different network.

Apple lays down the law – and this is why apps looks so good on iOS

Apple, Tech News

Apple had already warned developers that from 1st February 2015 all new apps had to conform to 64 bit architecture and the iOS 8 rules. Now Apple goes one step further. From 1st June 2015 all app updates need to abide by the same rules.

It is this strict enforcement of the app store that helps iOS and Apple produce some of the best looking apps and highly functional with the latest hardware.