iPad Air First Impressions

Apple, Reviews, Tech News

Yesterday morning was a quick rush down to Apple Plymouth, only to find that at the crazy early hour there were only 9 people in the queue. By 7.45am there was nearer to 35. But that was the same amount of Apple staff too. I had to go early as I was working. Anyway, I was in and out in 10-15mins. I bought the space grey iPad Air wifi only in 128gb. I got both the Smart Cover and smart case in black as I wasn’t sure which one I wanted. I will probably stick with the cover but it is too early to decide.

Unlike my last iPad which was the Mini I decided it was time to break the cord and not sync it to my MacBook. So now I am only using my MacBook to rip CDs and store photos and music. It’s getting close to me ditching the MacBook completely. After the Mini I got the new Nexus 7 which I ended up returning as it was faulty even after a few software updates.

But. I am pleased I did return it. The iPad Air is massively better than any tablet IMO. It’s better than the Mini. It’s better than my MacBook. Why? Well the onscreen keyboard on the Air is so damn fast to type on it is scary fast. I’ve typed this article using the Air and I am flying with keyboard entry faster than I would be on my MacBook mainly because the iPad auto correction is so fantastic.

So, first up the Air screen is fabulous. And the extra size for viewing and typing is perfect. Also the iPad had loads of beautifully designed apps for it, and that makes the user experience so much more enjoyable.

The reduction in bezels is noticeable, the depth not so much, but the weight is much better. It’s not as light as the Mini but it is lighter than the previous iPad by a fair amount and that makes this new Air more pleasurable to use for long periods.

I synced my entire music collection, 10 videos, my entire photo collection, and hundreds of apps. I have now have 9.4gb freememory left free. 128gb is extreme but I now feel I have a device with no compromises.

In fact I would describe the iPad Air as a tablet with no compromises. Stunning build quality. Stunning audio thru headphones. Good camera. And great software. I’m very happy with it.

Screen shot of my home screen below.

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iPhone 5S vs Nokia Lumia 1020 – Camera Shootout and the winner is not the 1020

Apple, Windows

This is not going to be popular but the new iPhone 5S was pitted against the venerable Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41mp camera versus the 8mp iPhone 5S camera. The test was done by Laptopmag. To see all the photos and verdicts click here http://blog.laptopmag.com/iphone-5s-vs-lumia-1020-camera .

Now most would already give this contest to the Lumia 1020 but I am afraid it lost the shootout. Laptopmag used both phones in auto mode and HDR off. Wait, it had to do this as the 1020 doesn’t have HDR mode. It also used the Sony NEX-F3 mirror less camera as the control.The 5S even won the night time shot.

I must admit I was somewhat surprised by the results myself. And I also felt laptopmag were fairly balanced in their scoring as they did not mention that the Lumia 1020 needs 4 seconds between each shot using the ProCam app.

Now I will add that if you were to start using all the manual mode options with the Lumia 1020, better photos will be possible than the iPhone 5S in my opinion.

Apple gives developers power to amend Game Center scores

Apple, Tech News

Have you ever played a game that links to Apple’s Game Center and wondered how on earth anyone could legally achieve such high scores.

Well Apple has the answer. It advised developers of the following-

“You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period. To learn more, read the Managing Game Center Leaderboard Activity section in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.”

Long overdue feature in my mind.

The Best iPad Air Review

Apple, Reviews, Tech News

AnandTech have written the best review I have seen of the iPad Air. Click here to read it http://www.anandtech.com/show/7460/apple-ipad-air-review .

It is insanely detailed, but it is worth reading to truly appreciate what Apple have achieved with this new iPad. If you were undecided between which size iPad to get, reading this review should help you decide.

And to give you an idea as to how good this review is, a comment was left that read “after reading just two paragraphs of this review, it is already better than all others”.

Apple iPad Air – In The Queue

Apple, Tech News

This feels like deja. I recall queuing in the same spot some 5-6 weeks ago for the iPhone 5S and swore I would not queue again.

I am tired but I am hoping to be away fairly promptly after the early 8am opening.

For those of you wondering why I didn’t opt for the new iPad Mini with Retina Display, it was simply that I wanted a larger overall screen size to make web browsing and on screen typing easier on the hands and eyes.

Also, weight is now not an option with the full size iPad. Weighing 469g is really light. It was a no brainer for me.

I will post my first impressions of the iPad Air tomorrow or Sunday.

Nexus 5 is official and its cheap, good value but there are compromises

Android, Tech News

Google is now selling the Nexus 5 16gb for £299 and the 32gb for £339 in the UK Play Store.

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The specs are as leaked –

-Android™ 4.4 (KitKat®)
-Screen 4.95″ 1920×1080 display (445 ppi), Full HD IPS ,Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
-Camera 1.3MP front facing, 8MP rear facing with Optical Image Stabilization
-Size, 69.17 x 137.84 x 8.59 mm
-Weight 4.59 oz (130 g)
-Battery 2,300 mAH
-Talk time up to 17 hours*, Standby time up to 300 hours*, Internet time up to 8.5 hours on Wi-Fi, up to 7 hours on LTE*
Wireless Charging built-in
Audio Output
Built-in speaker
3.5mm stereo audio connector
CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800, 2.3GHz GPU Adreno 330, 450MHz

There are some early first impressions published over the internet and the verdict so far it is not on par with the build quality of the iPhone 5S or HTC One. It is plasticly, the camera is not as good as it looks on paper. It has an aperture of f/2.5 which is not cutting edge sadly. As a comparison the HTC One is f/2.0, Samsung S4 f/2.4 and the iPhone 5S f/2.2.

But it does represent a lot of phone for your money. You could buy this phone outright and then get a sim only contract.

So who is looking forward to theirs being delivered?

Samsung Galaxy Gear – Impressions

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

I have had the Galaxy Gear with the Note 3 for 48 hours. I didn’t like either device to be honest so returned both items.

To be clear, the Note 3 was too big for my liking but pretty awesome nonetheless. Just simply too big for a phone. So it you like large phones, this is probably one to check out.

As to the Galaxy Gear, well it was clever and geeky and did a lot of things, but I just couldn’t see the point. I lost interest in it after an hour. It didn’t help that I thought it was ugly to look at on my wrist. My wife thought it looked like a kids toy.