Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – one month later

Android, Reviews, Tech News

Well, it’s been a month nearly with the K Zoom. It’s my vintage device and my main phone still.

I still have some of the small issues mentioned previously, but it’s unique enough that no other phone tempts me. Well, that’s not true. Every new phone is tempting 🙂 but the camera on the K Zoom keeps me on track.

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Finally, I’ve given touchwiz the boot. I’ve installed Apex Launcher Pro. I own Nova Launcher too but Apex is better when it comes to theming, although the difference between the two is very close. The above screen shot is using 2 Netatmo app widgets, and the 1theLucent theme. I have 2 other screen shots. One for the camera widget and the other my calendar. What I like about Apex Launcher is with the phone on any home screen, just say “Ok Google” and Google fires up listening for your commands. This is done with needing to add the Google search widget to the home screen and makes the user experience really slick.

I have a feeling that I’m enjoying the K Zoom so much it could be my main driver for quite a while longer as there is not much to dislike if photography is your thing.

Because I’m using Apex Launcher and customised the number of row and columns the camera widget looks better as shown below.

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So it’s happy days for now.

Episode 18 – Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast is live – Please RT

Android, Apple, Reviews, Tech News, Windows,

As you know, I co-host a weekly podcast with David from UKMobileTech called Gav & Dave’s Tech Podcast. It is a light hearted tech podcast broadcast bi-weekly. To subscribe click here for iTunes or copy and paste this link into your favourite podcast app.

Episode 18, is now live for your listening pleasure. Time travel included.

Apple kills iPhoto and Aperture

Apple, Tech News

The future of Apple and its photo apps is changing. According to the Loop –

“With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture,” Apple said in a statement to The Loop. “When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS.”

Let’s hope the new Photos app is top notch.

Apple iPod Touch changes

Apple, Tech News

Apple has changed its iPod Touch line up.

iPod touch Lineup Now Starting at $199

CUPERTINO, California—June 26, 2014—Apple® today announced its 16GB iPod touch® is now available in vibrant colors and equipped with a 5 megapixel iSight® camera for just $199. The entire iPod touch lineup features the 5 megapixel iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording, brilliant 4-inch Retina® display, Apple’s A5 chip and FaceTime® camera. iPod touch features an ultra-thin and light anodized aluminum design and is available in pink, yellow, blue, silver, space gray and (PRODUCT) RED. iPod touch comes in a 16GB model for $199, 32GB for $249, and 64GB for $299.

iPod touch comes with iOS 7, offering more than 200 features including Camera app filters that let you easily add real-time photo effects. Additionally, the Photos app offers ways to automatically organize your photos based on time and location. With iCloud® Photo Sharing, it’s simple to share photos and videos with exactly the people you want to see them and your friends and family can comment and access their shared streams from any iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch, Mac® or PC at any time. This fall, iOS 8 will be supported on the entire iPod touch lineup.

With the revolutionary App Store℠ on iPod touch, users in 155 countries have access to over 1.2 million apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, including hundreds of thousands of games. More than 75 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. Customers also have the iTunes Store® at their fingertips, giving instant access to an incredible selection of music, TV shows, movies and books to purchase and download directly to their iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability – iPod touch 16GB is available starting in the US today and worldwide in the coming days, in pink, yellow, blue, silver and space gray through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested price of $199 (US). Starting today, the 32GB and 64GB models have been repriced worldwide, at a suggested price of $249 (US) for the 32GB model and $299 (US) for the 64GB model. iPod touch requires a Wi-Fi connection or a Mac with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes® 10.7 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later and iTunes 10.7 or later. An Apple ID is required for some iPod touch features.

(PRODUCT) RED models of iPod touch are available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) and Apple’s retail stores.

LG G Watch vs Samsung Gear Live – specs compared and my views

Android, Tech News, Wearables

Available to pre order on the US Play Store are the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, both running android wear. Below is the Gear Live specs –

Display – 1.63" Super AMOLED (320 x 320)
Processor – 1.2 GHz Processor
Google Services – Google Now, Google Voice, Google Maps & Navigation, Gmail, Hangouts
Additional Features – Notification (SMS, E-mail, etc.)
Heart Rate Monitor, IP67 Dust and Water Resistant
Changeable Strap, Colour Options -Black and Wine Red
Connectivity – Bluetooth® v4.0 LE
Sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Heart Rate
RAM – 512MB
Storage – 4GB Internal Memory
Dimensions and Weight – 37.9 x 56.4x 8.9 mm, 59g
Battery – Li-ion 300mAh

So all fairly similar to the Samsung Gear smartwatch running Tizen OS. But if I had to chose between the two, I would pick the Live version due to the longer potential of the app support. However, I would the infra red blaster and camera that comes with the Samsung Gear, although most people wouldn't care about those features.

Just as a side note, the LG G Watch also announced has a larger display at 1.65 inches vs the Live at 1.63 inches, but the LG has a lower resolution at 280 x 280, instead of the Samsung Gear Live at 320 x 320. Also the LG has a bigger battery at 400maH but does not have the heart rate monitor of the Samsung. So if fitness is your thing, then I would opt for the Samsung Gear Live.

So what do you think of these new watches? Are you going to be getting one, or are you holding out for the Moto 360 which will be available later in July.

I don’t wear a watch, so not sure why I would get one, plus why pay ÂŁ159 for the LG or ÂŁ169 for the Samsung for a device, when you have a phone in your pocket that does everything anyway? Plus the Samsung is saying battery life only 1 day. So it will constantly need charging.

Play store links

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=samsung_gear_live_black&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=lg_g_watch_black&hl=en

Google Play Services 5 – what does it include ?

Android, Tech News

Google Play Services 5.0 includes a number of key attributes. Below is a summary that will be integrated into each phone –

Services for Android wearables — Your apps can more easily communicate and sync with code running on Android wearables through an automatically synchronized, persistent data store and a reliable messaging interface.

Play Games services — Build a great gaming experience with Quests, which allow event-based challenges for players to complete for rewards, Saved Games (a snapshot API allow synchronization of game data along with a cover-image and description), and Game Profile (providing experience points for players).
App Indexing API — Surface deep content in your native mobile applications on Google search and drive additional user engagement.

Google Cast — Use media tracks to enable closed-caption support for Chromecast.

Drive — Sort query results, create offline folders, and select any mime type in the file picker by default.

Wallet — Build a “Save to Wallet” button for offers directly into your app; use geo-fenced in-store notifications to prompt the user to show and scan digital cards. Split tender allows payment to be split between Wallet Balance and a credit/debit card in Google Wallet.

Analytics — Get insights into the full user journey and understand how different user acquisition campaigns are performing with Enhanced Ecommerce, letting you measure product impressions, product clicks, and more.
Mobile Ads — Use improved in-app purchase ads and integrations for the Play store in-app purchase API client.

Dynamic Security Provider — Offers an alternative to the platform’s secure networking APIs that can be updated more frequently, for faster delivery of security patches.