Archive for December, 2008

By December 27, 2008 Read More →

Reset your Windows Mobile device automatically

image It’s always been the best way to keep your Windows Mobile device running smoothly and free up memory that is being used even after closing applications, a soft reset a day keeps the slow downs away as we say, well now you can automate it with A-A Reset Manager, a free application from XDA Developers. A-A Reset Manager is a Soft Reset scheduler, which allows you to schedule soft resets by time or by button press, handy if your device does not have a physical soft reset button. Its available as a free download from xda right here. Apparently we are receiving feedback that the app doesn’t work too well on lots of devices, we will keep an eye out for an update.

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Posted in: Phones
By December 27, 2008 Read More →

Xperia X1 build quality problems

image A large thread is building over at xda-developers which shows a problem with the Xperia X1 hardware developing cracks around the outside of the case. This seems to have been a problem with a few different devices this year and to be honest it is not acceptable when you pay such a high price for a device like this. It seems the problems are more apparent on the silver models although the black models seem to have another problem with peeling paint. We have some pictures after the break, if you have an Xperia take a close look and check out the thread over at xda.

Posted in: Phones
By December 27, 2008 Read More →

SPB Online v1.2

2m7hkt3 Mobile TV, radio, news, weather, online games and on-device catalog combined in one application with breakthrough usability optimized for smartphones.

Posted in: Phones
By December 27, 2008 Read More →

Sony BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray player review

The Sony BDP-S5000ES is a Blu-Ray player that sits at the upper end of the price range.

Touted as being their "top-of-the-line Blu-ray Disc player" – can it live up to that description ?

 

What’s in the box?

  • the player itself
  • remote control and batteries
  • composite AV cable
  • Sony USB memory card
  • power cable (the power cable in our test unit was a european 2 pin, but I’d fully expect the final product to have correct region specific plugs)

Personally I would have thought that a product like this would at least warrant an HDMI cable thrown in.

 

Sony BDP-S5000ES Specification:

  • Weights and Measurements
    – Dimensions (Approx.) : 17" x 4.92" x 14.37" (430 × 125 × 365mm)
    – Weight (Approx.) : 22lbs (10.0kg)
  • Video
    – Video Digital-to-Analog Converter : 1080i, 720p: 14 bit/296 MHz (HD); 480i, 480p; 14 bit/216 MHz (SD)
    – HD Reality Enhancer : Yes
    – Precision Cinema HD Upscale : Yes
    – Super Bit Mapping : Yes
  • Audio Features
    – Dolby® : Built in Decoder & Bit-Stream (via HDMI and Coaxial and Optical) output
    – Dolby® Digital plus Decoding : Built in Decoder & Bit-Stream (via HDMI) output
    – Dolby® TrueHD Decoding : Built in Decoder & Bit-Stream (via HDMI) output
    – dts® Decoding : Built in Decoder & Bit-Stream (via HDMI and Coaxial and Optical) output
    – dts®-HD Decoding : Built in Decoder & Bit-Stream (via HDMI) output
    – LPCM : 2ch & 6 Ch (192kHz/96kHz/48kHz); 8 ch (96kHz/48kHz) output; 2ch (96kHz/24bit) over Coaxial & Optical
    – Individual Speaker Setting : Large/Small; Existence or Nonexistence; Distance

 

General

As you look at the player you can see that Sony has gone for a fairly clean design – with just 5 buttons – Power, Eject, Play, Pause and Stop.

BDP-S5000ES_Front

There are indicator LED’s above the play and pause buttons, and 3 additional indicator LED’s to denote when certain modes are on (24P mode, HD Audio and SBM[super Bit Mapping]).

Plus the actual display itself of course 😀

BDP-S5000ES_03_ES-EC

Round the back you have more connections than you could shake a stick at. If you look at the full resolution image you can see them all clearly labelled. Pretty much every video and audio connector you would want. The only connection I could think of that wasn’t on there was SCART, but as that’s a European format that is not HD capable I didn’t see that as much of a loss.

DPP_0086 DPP_0088

The XMB (Cross Media Bar) in action

Highlights

  • very good picture and sound quality
  • remote illuminates at the touch of a button
  • ability to dim and even disable the illuminations on the front of the player
  • upgradable firmware

Lowlights

  • price
  • no HDMI cable supplied
  • slow loading

Review

The very first impression you have when you get the box is that it weighs more than you’d expect. As you can see in the specifications above, the BDP-S5000ES weighs in at 10kg – this along with its size means that it is going to need a bit of space on a reasonably sturdy shelf.

Initially I hooked the player up to a 28inch Sony Bravia.

Once everything is setup and you start the player you are walked through a quick-setup that will get you up and running – you can always tinker with any of the settings again later.

I just want to take a moment to mention a feature on the remote that I find useful – the backlight button. Dead useful when you’ve darkened the room to enjoy the movie and then want to find the pause button.

So now I was setup I had a quick wander around the player’s interface menu.

It’s very similar to the PS3’s XMB (cross media bar) – you select the main area, which offers dropdowns, which in turn can offer sub-options etc. All very nice though with the remote I had it would sometimes double-jump, taking a keypress twice instead of just the once, which lead to a little frustration (again this might just be the test unit we had, but I wanted to mention it).

As you look through all the options it becomes obvious that you can tweak just about anything you want to, there are options in there that I’ve never seen before.

My favourite option was the ability to dim or even disable the illuminations on the front of the player. What you may not realise from the photos above is that the slot for the Blu-ray is illuminated, so that along with the 5 coloured LED’s and the display on the front was very distracting to me in a dark room – a very nice option that I wish more companies would include on their electronics.

And whilst the player can easily handle photo-CD’s and audio CD’s, the main reason for the player is its Blu-Ray playback. So let’s take a look.

Initially I’d connected up with the supplied composite cables (well they included them) and I put in a Blu-ray.

And I have to say I was a little surprised, on first inserting the disc I was greeted with a message that told me that loading of the Blu-ray could take 2-3 minutes. Pardon? The video format of the future takes how long to load ?

This lead me to my second discovery about Blu-ray players – they have loader animations (similar to the hourglass in Windows) between ‘chapters’ – don’t worry this doesn’t happen mid movie, just as you move from one area of the disc to another, like from a menu to the movie or back.

In the end it didn’t take that long to load, but it was a noticeable period – and then I was into the trailers (on a side rant, why do movie companies insist on putting trailers at the front of the disc instead of just letting me get to the movie I’ve paid for? Put them in as additional content and I can watch them IF I want to). Several frustrated clicks of remote later I got to the main menu, started the film and was totally under whelmed by the picture.

Which is what I was expecting from a composite cable. I really don’t understand why it’s in the box, supplying a composite cable with a player of this quality seems like madness, especially when you consider that there’s no HDMI cable provided!

So then I powered down and connected up an HDMI cable I’d borrowed.

Powering back up I went into the settings and changed the video output to 1080i (the highest this particular TV could achieve).

And I started the Blu-ray again, after waiting and clicking and finally getting into the movie, I could now see the sharpness that was missing with composite cable. OK, cool – I can actually see what Blu-ray is offering a sharper picture on HD TV’s.

So now I tried a DVD of the same movie so that I could compare the sharpness between an upscaled DVD and a Blu-ray.

Once settled back on the sofa, Whilst I had a general feeling that the Blu-ray was sharper, I could definitely live with the upscaled DVD – and I could get an upscaling DVD player for a lot less than the Blu-ray player.

Unconvinced by Blu-ray I decided to try it on a friends larger TV.

This time it was connected up to a 50" Panasonic Plasma (very nice).

Again I was connecting up with the HDMI cable, but now I could switch the player into full 1080p mode. So now I was able to see the ‘full HD’ capabilities of Blu-ray. And there is no question that on a large screen in 1080p, Blu-ray is noticeably sharper than an upscaled DVD.

We took a couple of photos to show the difference (not quite the same exact video frame, but you’ll get the idea)

 

Combined

Upscaled DVD on the left, Blu-ray image on the right (click to enlarge)

 

So having agreed about the differences between upscaling and Blu-ray, and seeing the PS3 under the plasma, I was curious how the PS3 stacks up against the BDP-S5000ES.

The first thing to say is that as we’d been setting up the BDP-S5000ES I’d mentioned some of the things I’d observed on my TV and when I mentioned loader screens I was greeted by blank stares. After inserting the Blu-ray into the PS3 I understood why – it loads a LOT quicker than the BDP-S5000ES, to the point where the loader animations barely appeared before they were replaced by the video after.

So PS3 loads quicker. How does its picture compare?

Personally I preferred the PS3’s picture, banding seemed less noticeable and black and white footage didn’t seem to get colour tinged the way it was on the dedicated player.

I think that the picture on the BDP-S5000ES was slightly sharper, but that’s more of a feeling than anything we measured – we all agreed that both were very watchable.

 

Conclusion

So if you have a large enough TV that is capable of full 1080p HD playback then you will notice the difference between upscaled DVD’s and Blu-ray’s.

Coming back to Sony’s tagline of "top-of-the-line Blu-ray Disc player" – whilst I’m sure that video and audio philes everywhere will have flame wars about this one, if it were my money I’d get a PS3 and a whole load of movies and games with the change.

That said, it’s a personal choice and with the firmware being upgradable it might be that future improvements to the BDP-S5000ES would change my mind.

 

Review by: Iain

Posted in: TV & Home Cinema
By December 27, 2008 Read More →

HTC Touch Viva review and video

image We haven’t heard much about this one since it was announced alongside the HTC Touch HD and HTC Touch 3G and put mostly in the shadows but the guys over a pda.pl have managed to get hold of one for review. It is in Polish but there is a google translation which is pretty bad but also three videos which we have after the break. It seems that this device is definitely in the budget range as it doesn’t even come with a headset and has TouchFlo 2D as it has no 3D graphics acceleration. Videos after the break.

Posted in: Phones
By December 27, 2008 Read More →

Zumobi Xbox 360 app for iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry

image If your an Xbox 360 fan and lots of us are then you should try out the latest application from Zumobi. It is available free for the iPhone, Windows Mobile and the Blackberry platforms and you can get Xbox 360 news, video & audio clips, community updates, gamer tag status, and more. Zumobi also have other applications like Snow and Ski reports and NPR News. All the details can be found at the Zumobi site.

Posted in: Phones
By December 26, 2008 Read More →

Apple’s iTunes free Christmas give aways

image Apple’s ’12 Days of Christmas’ promotion has started, and for all those plugging in their brand spanking new iPhones and iPods the first free piece of content is a music video from the Ting Tings. The promotion, which will run from Boxing Day until January 6 will see iTunes users offered a free piece of content on a daily basis.Go to http://www.itunes12daysofchristmas.co.uk/ and sign in with your account to download the Apple freebies each day.

via Techradar

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Posted in: Phones
By December 26, 2008 Read More →

eXpansys Boxing Day deals!

Whether you missed out on that gift you were hoping for or you are just looking for some Boxing Day bargains, eXpanasys have some sweet offers on the following products. Deals are only accessible via the links below and are active between 11am and 4pm UK time on Friday 26th December*. Normal pricing will resume at 4pm.

 

image TomTom ONE Classic GPS with UK, EU and Ireland Maps:
Will drop from £99.99 to £79.99 (save £20):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=176280&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image BenQ E72 Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone:
Will drop from £99.99 to £79.99 (save £20):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=173343&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image iGo EverywherePower 3500 for iPod. iPhone, miniUSB-powered devices and more:
Will drop from £19.99 to £9.99 (save £10):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=173095&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image Chilly the Singing and Dancing Polar Bear for iPods and MP3 Players:
Will drop from £19.99 to £11.99 (save £8):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177241&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image Fudge the Singing and Dancing Bear for iPods and MP3 Players:
Will drop from £19.99 to £11.99 (save £8):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177243&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image eXpansys 4-port USB Car Charger (charge 4 USB devices from your car charger port):
Will drop from £12.99 to £5.99 (save £7):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177500&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image UBiQUiO 101 Skype and Landline Dect Handset:
Will drop from £12.99 to £7.99 (save £5):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177240&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image Premier Systems Travel iPod Speakers:
Will drop from £12.99 to £1.99 (save £11):
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177238&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

 

*Voucher codes do not apply with these deals. Limited to 2 units per customer, available while stocks last.
Prices and availability subject to change, www.expansys.com website price and availability always applies.

 

Posted by: Matt

[ Post Tags: expansys, deals, special offers, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Posted in: Deals & Offers
By December 25, 2008 Read More →

Merry Christmas!

Tracy and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or Chanuka, Eid, seasons greetings).

I’d like to thank everyone that’s contributed towards the site throughout the year and to all of you that come to the site, read our articles helped out other readers.

Special thanks to Clove Technology, eXpansys and Devicewire who’s continued support and regular supply of devices has helped to make tracyandmatt.co.uk the site it is today.

We will be making a few changes in 2009, which I hope you’ll enjoy, but you can expect more reviews, videos and news. We’re also developing some partnerships with other manufacturers/distributors and hope to be able offer reviews on a wider range of products.

If there is anything specific you would like to see on the site or if you have any comments/suggestions then please do drop me a line.

Posted by: Matt

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Posted in: Site Announcements
By December 24, 2008 Read More →

Seasons Greetings to all our readers

image This is a very special time of the year and what makes it extra special for us is it is our first Christmas for the Mobile Tech Addicts Site. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who visits us every day for news, takes part in the forums and listens to our weekly podcasts, we are steadily building a great community and have big plans for next year and should have loads of new devices in our hands for review. We would also like to thank Clove and Superetrader for their fantastic support with review devices and finally we hope you all have wonderful Christmas and enjoy the holidays. Best wishes from all at Mobile Tech Addicts.

Posted in: Site Announcements
https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/surgical-face-masks