Tag Archives: thoughts

Amazon Kindle Oasis – My Thoughts

Amazon, Tech News, ,

Amazon has just announced their new luxury Kindle E-Reader called the Kindle Oasis.

oasis

oasis 3

The key features are –

– Amazon’s thinnest and lightest Kindle – read comfortably for hours
– All-new ergonomic design with buttons for effortless page turns
– Longest Kindle battery life ever – no need to recharge for months as the included removable leather charging cover boosts battery life
– Choose from a black, merlot or walnut removable cover
– High-resolution 300 ppi display – reads like the printed page
– Adjustable front light – provides ideal brightness, day or night

New—Designed to feel as light as paper, Kindle Oasis is over 20% lighter and 30% thinner on average than any other Kindle. The handgrip tapers to an ultra-thin 3.4 mm display so you can read comfortably for hours.

New—Kindle Oasis combines our strongest cover glass and a featherweight frame infused with metal using structural electroplating, ensuring it is lightweight while also resilient enough to take it with you everywhere you go.

New—A tapered ergonomic handgrip shifts the centre of gravity to your palm, to rest in your hand like the spine of a book. Perfectly balanced for one-handed reading, Kindle Oasis lets you lose yourself in your story.

New—Comfortably turn the page with either the touch display or dedicated page turn buttons located on the front of the handgrip. Whether you choose to read with your left or right hand, Kindle Oasis automatically rotates the page orientation to match.

The Kindle Oasis costs £269.99 for the Wi-Fi model and £329.99 for the Wi-Fi and 3g model. That is a lot of books just for the price of the reader. But for some reason, it is tempting me. I am wondering if I purchased this it would start my passion for reading books again.

What about yourself?

For more information on the Kindle Oasis click HERE.

Apple Keynote – Highlights and My Thoughts on Apple’s Blockbuster Sales Pitch

Apple, Tech News,

So Apple held their spring keynote speech yesterday and it was one monster of a sales pitch.

The key points –

– iPhone SE announced – the iPhone 5S with iPhone 6S specs. 16gb starts in UK at £359. 64gb is £439.

– iOS 9.3 launched – Night Shift, Touch ID for Notes, improvements to News, Car Play, Apple Health and other smaller bug fixes and tweaks for various apps

– iPad Pro – this time at 9.7 inches. 32gb, 128gb and 256gb versions.

– Reduction in pricing for Apple Watch and new bands

– Siri search for Apple TV 4th Gen plus tvOS update

– Apple Watch update allows pairing more than one Apple Watch to an iPhone

– Details on environmental policy and progress

– Carekit

On the face of it, the Apple Keynote could have seemed quite boring but actually it was a stroke of genius. Here’s my thoughts why –

– Apple now have a fully featured flagship specced iPhone for sale at £359 in the UK. That is really going to so many other brands. On contract, this phone is likely going to be free. Despite the trend towards larger phones, many will opt for this. Also, Apple now have a new iPhone to buy mid year and prior to the launch of the new iPhone release in September 2016. This will push iPhone sales even higher.

– Price reduction on the Apple Watch just as you allow more than one watch to be paired with an iPhone. Plus new bands. This will create repeat sales and bring people to the table who haven’t got an Apple Watch due to the lower price point.

– iPad Pro 9.7 inch. Apple repeatedly told everyone that the iPad Pro 9.7 inch was the perfect upgrade for you with your 5 years old windows pc and for those with ageing iPads. Apple kept repeating this was the iPad upgrade that was worth upgrading too. In addition, Apple included a 256gb storage option to help rake in the money.

So there you have it. A great sales pitch by the best marketeers in the business!

Editorial – My thoughts on Samsung’s new phones

Android, Tech News, ,

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6 Edge and Note 5. And then came the shocker. Samsung was not going to bring the Note 5 to the UK or Europe in 2015, and maybe not at all.

Personally, I think Samsung are pulling a PR stunt in poor taste. Tell somebody they cannot have something and they want it more. It is as bad as the OnePlus invite system!

Except this is 2015, and there are plenty of alternative phones available, and more choices to be announced shortly. So Samsung might suffer where it hurts, when loyal fans buy phones from different companies.

Brushing aside my thoughts from above, what do I think of the 2 phones.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge +

Just a bigger S6 Edge, with a few improvements in software and hardware, mainly dominated with a bigger screen. So if you wanted a bigger phone, this is the phone you would buy. If you are in the UK and Europe this is the only phone you can buy. However, the new phone is only available in 32 or 64gb. That tells me that 128gb was not selling so well. BUT I do wonder if Samsung had offered the 128gb from day 1 whether it might have sold a lot more phones. Either way for most people, 64gb should be enough.

Samsung Note 5

The new S6 Edge type design really makes the Note 5 a premium looking phone. Built in wireless charging (fast charging), the improved stylus and software really make this a classy device. A shame there is no 128gb storage version. But if you needed to save space, you could copy video off the phone onto a usb stick. The battery should have been bigger, but Samsung decided to make the phone smaller. I can see some logic in this. At least with the Ultra Power Saving mode you really can have a phone to make a call or SMS in an emergency. Maybe next year extra colours and a higher storage option will become available as an exclusive to a carrier/network.

Fortunately, for you and I, there are plenty of phones due to be released that might steal Samsung’s thunder, and if a phone does, I hope it teaches Samsung a lesson.

The Apple Keynote from yesterday – new products, software and my views

Apple, Tech News, , , ,

So yesterday Apple streamed its keynote speech live to the world. It was a rather dull affair but a fair amount was announced or confirmed.

First of all the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been off the charts successful. OS X Yosemite will be free as well as iWork for the Mac. iCloud Photo library beta goes live. iOS 8.1 launches on Monday as brings back the camera roll, fixes loads of stuff, and for US citizens incorporates Apple Pay. Other improvements are occurring for iOS 8.1 too.

Hello to the iPad Air 2. Thinner at 6.1mm. Faster processor A8X. Better camera with more shooting modes from burst, time lapse, panoramic. The screen is laminated on this time, producing the same great visuals as that found on the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Touch ID was added. The screen also had a anti reflective coating. Faster wifi too and more LTE bands on the cellular version.

The iPad Mini 3 hardly got changed. Faster wifi and Touch ID.

Both the iPad Air 2 and Mini 3 will be available now in a 3rd colour, gold.

Apple mentioned a WatchKit would be available next month for developers.

Apple announced a 5K iMac Retina and a new Mac Mini.

Apple SIM – Each cellular iPad will now come with its own Apple SIM card. This SIM card will work with multiple US carriers—AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile—and allow users to not only enable or disable a cellular plan as they see fit, but also switch back and forth between carriers to find the plan that works best for them at the moment. It will also work with EE in the UK. Verizon isn’t supported on the Apple SIM at present.

Apple is now selling 5 iPads. The original iPad Mini. iPad Mini 2. iPad Mini 3. iPad Air. iPad Air 2. Confused? Apple has dropped the 32gb memory option. Just 16, 64 and 128gb. If you want the full specs head over to Apple http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/

So what are my thoughts?

First up Apple seems to have been trying to focus more on the software, the 2 new iPhones (6 and 6 Plus) and only the larger iPad. This makes me wonder if it thinks that the iPhone 6 Plus will kill off the iPad Mini. All the other changes were really small changes, but if you were looking for a new tablet, Apple reduced the price of everything by $100. So clearly it is a competitive world. My worry is can the tablet arena really get any better where people actually care about buying the better specs. I for one will not be considering any of the new hardware Apple announced. What I already have works just fine and I am sure that will apply to many of you. However, I am sure the new iPad Air 2 is far more exciting in person than on paper.

So what do you think? Has Apple done enough?