Gavin’s Gadgets updates

Over the weekend a few changes have been applied to my blog.

I’ve updated the design to a more modern style which is meant to look great on all devices including mobiles and tablets.

Check out the additional pages either tapping directly to the page or using the Menu system.

Reviews have been overhauled into separate pages.

Smartphone reviews, click here. Notice the reviews are now divided into operating system. 

Accessory reviews, click here. This section has been also divided into many categories from cases, headphones, wearables, app enabled accessories and more.

The HTC One has its own page here. It’s still receiving so many views I have kept it’s own page for now.

Don’t forget the Shopping, Dartmoor Weather which is updated twice a day every day, and finally if you would like to know more about me click here .

And if you could manage a small donation, please paypal me using this email. Clicking the link will reveal paypal email. Thanks in advance.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know here or on twitter @gavinfabiani .

The new iPhone will be radically different – details

The press is saying the next iPhone will have a larger screen and probably less bezels. And I believe this will happen but with even more potential. Why?

Apple has filed solar patents that will allow them to power their electronic devices directly through solar cells ending the issues of poor battery run times and potentially enabling a thinner and lighter iPhone.

So what if the screen itself became the fingerprint sensor enabling the end of the home button and thereby having even smaller bezels.

Apple also signed a $578m contract with GT Advanced Technologies to provide sapphire cover screens and that they would be spending $10.5B in capital during fiscal year 2014 including cutting edge lasers.

Apple posted a Manufacturing Design Engineer position that includes scribing and PVD coating which relate to solar cells and lasers.

So what could all this mean.

Well a new iPhone design with ultra thin bezels, no home button and the sapphire screen allowing usage as the fingerprint scanner and as solar cells to recharge the battery. If Apple mastered the solar recharging the iPhone could end up being seriously thin, possibly around the 5mm mark.

Of course the sapphire could be used for the rumoured iWatch too.

A Patent for a Phone with No Buttons – Samsung secures it

The USPTO granted Samsung a new design patent which shows a smartphone with no buttons on the front. The patent comes after Samsung was recently granted another patent for a buttonless phone. The first patent may be related to the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the Galaxy Note 4.

The designs in the patent, No. D697,886 S, show a mysterious rectangle on the right side of the device.

The device is rumored to have a release date before MWC 2014, which is next month, or it could also possibly be released in March. Other rumors about the device include a Quad HD (1440 x 2560) display, a new Exynos processor, and at least 3GB of RAM.

Source – USPTO

Can your broadband download 44 HD films per second?

BT’s tech boffins, joined by experts from French company Alcatel-Lucent, have set a new record for data transfer speeds over fibre cables.

Peaking at 1.4Tb, the speeds were achieved using commercial hardware, suggesting that home networks may be get similar bandwidth in the future.

That’s the equivalent of 44 HD films per second.  That’s fast.

Apple’s shares fall 8% on earnings results plus Apple lowers it’s sales outlook for 2014 – details

Breakdown of sales per region.

20140127-231144.jpg

Shares in Apple fell more than 8% in after-hours trading after the firm reported flat profits of $13.1bn (£7.9bn) during the October to January quarter.

While the earnings beat expectations, the firm lowered it sales outlook for 2014, worrying investors.

Apple said it sold a record 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads. Tim Cook acknowledged the iPhone 5C hadn’t met expectations.

Selling 51 million iPhones in the quarter was shy of the 55 million or so analysts had expected, reflecting intense competition from Samsung and others. In the December quarter, Apple recorded a net profit of $13.07 billion, flat from a year ago. Its gross margins came in at 37.9 percent, roughly in line with expectations.

Apple sold only 6 million iPods during the holiday quarter. That’s a decrease of 55% year over year for revenue and 52% for units when looking at the 12.7 million it sold in Q1 2013. That’s also the biggest year over year drop ever for the iPod, which fell from 15.4m units in Q1 12 to 12.7m in Q1 13 before being cut in half this year.

Whilst Apple seems to have suffered a drop in numbers in reality it was not alone. This was the same problem that faced every major phone company. The next quarter could prove very interesting with new products in the wings.

Maybe, phones have reached their natural plateau and it’s time for the next big thing. But despite their shares falling I still think it is staggering that a company can sell so many products which such a high price tag.

Own Bitcoin – You might be worried as the Operators get arrested

The BBC reports that the operators of two exchanges for the virtual currency Bitcoin have been arrested in the US.

The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella – known as “BTCKing” – and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant have both been charged with money laundering.

The authorities said the pair were engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1m (£603,000) in bitcoins to users of online drug marketplace the Silk Road.

Have you updated your iOS iWork apps yet?

Apple has issued updates for the iOS editions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. All three — updated to version 2.1 — gain the ability to share password-protected documents via iCloud link, in line with the recent iWork for iCloud update. The suite sees improved compatibility with Microsoft Office 2013 documents, and bug fixes and stability improvements. Additionally, each app has its own individual upgrades.

Make sure you update the apps on your iPad, iPhones and MAC.