Archive for 2009

By December 22, 2009 Read More →

Clove – Last minute Xmas deals!

If you are in the UK and want to get one of these last minute Xmas bargains then do not fear as Clove can get it to you in time for the big day.

 

clove

 

Samsung B7300 – £195 + VAT HERE

omnia L

Samsung B7300 Omnia Lite

 

Sony Ericsson Satio – £350 + VAT HERE

SE Satio

Sony Ericsson Satio

 

Nokia 6303 – £60 + VAT HERE

Nokia 6303

Nokia 6303

 

Nokia 6700 – £130 + VAT HERE

6700

Nokia 6700

LG Chocolate BL40 – £300 + VAT HERE

BL40

LG Chocolate BL40

BlackBerry Storm 2 (9520) Vodafone locked – £300 + VAT HERE

Storm 2 999

BlackBerry Storm2

 

The above devices are all ready for dispatch today so be quick!

clove

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard Driver coming to Cydia soon

The iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard driver allows you to use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone and iPod Touch. Foldable, travel-friendly keyboards have been supported for at least a half of a decade by all smartphones, except by the iPhone. That is a shame, as the the iPhone is a compact computer you already carry around. Combined with a portable keyboard, it can replace your laptop for taking notes or writing emails at meetings or at your favorite coffee shop.

This iPhone Bluetooth keyboard driver fills this gap. It is based on the open-source BTstack project, a Bluetooth stack designed for embedded devices where resources are scarce.

This driver runs on the iPhone 3G(S) and all iPod touch devices with Bluetooth support. It is unclear yet, if it works properly on the iPhone 2G. It will be available via the Cydia Store soon.

via

Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

24 Hours with the Archos 5 Internet Tablet

archosa5android1From my darling Leana I was given the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android. This in the latest device from the French portable media masters Archos. I do not feel it right to review a device I own so I thought I was draw up some passing thoughts on this 160gb flavoured bad boy.

Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

More of Clove’s Xmas bargains

clove_logo_thumb

The cold weather must be getting to them, as they are offering some last minute Christmas Deals.

Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

Acer Aspire 5738G unboxing video

The Acer Aspire range is no stranger to us as we’ve reviewed several models in the past and have also owned previous Acer models so I was pleased to accept the Aspire 5738G when Acer asked me if I’d like to review it.

The Acer Apire 5738G

The Acer Apire 5738G

 

In general the laptop or notebook PC market is a pretty saturated place, dozens of manufacturers having dozens of models available at any one time means there is a great deal of choice and competition for your business.

So how does the Aspire 5738 hope to grab your attention?

Firstly this is no tiny netbook affair, the 5738 features a 15.6″ (1366 x 768) high-brightness TFT Widescreen display which is a TriDef 3D screen and comes with 3D polarized glasses for viewing 3D effects. This in itself was not something that I’d seen before and upon initial inspection I thought that the glasses in the box had been left by a previous reviewer by mistake!

In terms of specification (which you can see below) the Aspire should deliver. The model we have is a Core Duo 2.0GHz model with 1066MHz FSB and 4GB of RAM so we’re expecting good things from it.

We’ll be reviewing the Aspire 5738G over the next few weeks and we’ll let you know what we thought of it, especially the 3D display! Take a look at the brief unboxing video below for a quick tour of the hardware.

 

Acer Aspire 5738G unboxing video

 

Acer Aspire 5738G specification:

  • Windows 7
  • Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz with 1066MHz FSB
  • 4GB 1066MHz DDR 3 RAM
  • 500GB 5400RPM HDD
  • Integrated variable-speed Super-Multi drive
  • Acer® CineCrystal full HD 15.6" (1366 x 768) high-brightness TFT display
  • Built-in SD Card reader
  • Discrete ATI Mobility RadeonT HD 4570 graphics
  • VGA and HDMI connectors
  • Dolby®-optimized surround-sound system
  • Four USB 2.0
  • V.92 56Kbps data/fax modem
  • Gigabit LAN, Wake-on-LAN ready
  • 802.11b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
  • 15.1" (383.0mm) W x 9.8" (250.0mm) D x 1.0" – 1.5″ (26.0mm – 37.0mm) H
  • 6.2 lb. (2.8kg)

 

The Aspire 5738G with the TriDef 3D screen is a 3D notebook that will take your breath away. Put on the sporty and stylish 3D polarized glasses that come with the notebook and you’re ready for a visual feast. Play games, watch movies and view photos-all in 3D.

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

Vodafone Free mobile internet from Christmas Day until New Year’s Day

image Santa Claus is coming to town, which means from Friday 25 December until Friday 1 January you can enjoy free mobile internet on your phone, all week.

Asked Little Saint Nick for a new phone this Christmas? Get online and find out what it can do. From finding the perfect venue for New Year’s Eve to seeing your friends’ photos on Facebook. With free mobile internet for a whole week your Christmas fun need never stop.

It’s easy. Just use your phone to go online anytime between Christmas Day and New Years Day. The offer is open to Vodafone pay as you go and pay monthly customers with a consumer contract. If you have a mobile internet bundle, the data you use during Christmas week will not count towards your monthly data allowance.

There’s no catch. Our free Christmas mobile internet offer is available to all our consumer customers, pay as you go or pay monthly.

Via Press Release

Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

Pre Order Vodafone iPhone today for delivery 14th Janurary

image Vodafone have opened the pre-order channels for the much anticipated appearance of the worlds best phone on their network. The contract prices surprise surprise are not exactly ground breaking or price war stimulating to say the least, but if your like me and have struggled with bad coverage from O2 this may be a god send, plus you can always add on the Vodafone Access Gateway which is a femtocell that should give you a full signal using your ADSL or Cable broadband.

All the pre-order and price plan details can be found right here, good luck, took me five attempts this morning to complete the order, looks like demand is strong.

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Posted in: Phones
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 Review

Yes, it’s another Omnia. This time though with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. There is certainly a market for this style of device but can the Samsung compete with the all ready well established HTC Touch Pro2?

B7610-angled-open

Samsung OmniaPro B7610

 

What’s in the box:

  • Device
  • Battery
  • Charger
  • USB Cable
  • Wired Headset
  • Manuals
  • Software

Take a look at Matt’s Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 unboxing video for a preview of the hardware and OS.

 

The ten second review:

Device: Samsung OmniaPro B7610

Price: £366.85

Summary: A feature packed Windows phone with the bonus of a slide out keyboard.

Best of: Keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, 1GB Internal Memory + MicroSD up to 32GB.

Worst of: Lock button

 

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 Specification:

  • Operating System – Windows Mobile 6.5
  • Processor – 800 MHz
  • Memory – 1GB Internal
  • Display – AMOLED resistive touchscreen, 16M colours, 800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches
  • GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 
  • 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100  
  • 3G HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
  • WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
  • Bluetooth  v2.0 with A2DP
  • MicroUSB
  • GPS – Integrated with A-GPS
  • MicroSD up to 32GB
  • DivX/XviD/MPEG4/3gp/H.263/H.264 player
  • TV Out
  • Stereo FM Radio with RDS
  • Camera – 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
  • Battery – Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
  • Dimensions – 112.6 x 57.8 x 16.2 mm
  • Weight – 159 g with battery

 

General:

On the top of the handset are two ports which come with plastic covers. One is the headphone jack and the other is the microUSB port.

B7610-bottom

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Top

 

The left hand side houses the up/down volume rocker and also the “work & life” button.

B7610-left

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 left Side

 

The dedicated camera button and the lock key are located on the right side.

B7610-right

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Right Side

 

On the rear of the device is the camera lens, flash and speaker grill.

B7610-back

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Rear

 

The front is fairly typical Samsung with a menu button between the call send and end keys. In addition, at the top, are the secondary camera lens and light sensors.

B7610-front

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Front

 

Highlights

  • QWERTY Keyboard
  • GPS
  • 3G/Wi-Fi
  • Multimedia

 

Lowlights

  • Lock button
  • Finger print magnet

 

Review:

 

Straight out of the box the Samsung OmniaPro B7610 feels quite chunky and weighty but I would expect this as it has that nice slide out QWERTY keyboard. Its rounded edges give it a comfortable feel in the hand. Like most of Samsungs devices it would appear to be very well made although very plastic. The battery cover has that nice maroon colour to it, like on the Samsung Jet and Omnia II, which appears black in some lighting conditions and maroon in others. Its quite a finger print magnet though like the 3.5 inch screen.

Any one who buys this device is obviously after the slide out keyboard, otherwise you would have bought the Omnia II.

B7610-front-open

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Keyboard

 

As I mentioned at the top of the page this device will be up against the HTC Touch Pro2 as both are slide out Windows phones. The keyboard on the Samsung is quite different to that on the HTC. For a start the Samsung has a four row, compared to five on the HTC. This means that when entering numbers you must hold down the ALT key to allow you to access the numbers on the top row. Not a major issue but its easier on the HTC with its dedicated number keys.

The keys themselves are also very different. They are actually a bit larger on the Samsung but there is no spacing between them like on the HTC.

2

1

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 vs. HTC Touch Pro2

 

The feel of the keys is also totally unique. The Samsung keys have a kind of rubbery feel to them and require only a very light press. The HTC keys are much firmer.

Which keyboard is better? That’s a hard one. If I had to pick I would probably go with the HTC Touch Pro2 purely for the fact that the spacing between the keys makes for slightly easier typing due to the fact that you can feel your way round the keyboard better. The Samsung OmniaPro B7610 keyboard is fantastic too but I think HTC have just got the edge on this one.

However the sliding mechanics feel a little better on the OmniaPro. It does not tilt like the HTC but its a much smoother slide and requires less force to perform the for mentioned slide movement. Unfortunately once open though the OmniaPros screen feels a little wobbly when you move the phone. On the Touch Pro2 it is real tight.

B7610-bottom-open

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 with keyboard open

 

The Samsung OmniaPro B7610 runs Windows Mobile 6.5 which has been around for a while now. Like all Windows phones you get the standard stuff such as Office Mobile, My Phone, Marketplace and Windows Live Messenger.

As on the Omnia II, Samsung have put a heavy skin over the top of most things in Windows Mobile. To start with with we have the homescreens.

The OmniaPro comes as standard with three different options. The first is new Windows homescreen that all 6.5 devices come with. Its not the most fancy but it does work.

winmo home

Windows Mobile Homescreen

 

Next we have Samsungs Touchwiz that has been around for a while and it features on the Omnia II, Jet and Pixon among others. This is made up of three screens.  These can be accessed by a simple swipe left or right.

Screen01

Samsungs TouchWiz

 

On the left hand side of the screen is the widgets bar. From here you can drag and drop widgets of your choice onto the homescreens giving you access to common features. These can be positioned anywhere on the screen you like.

 

The third option was a surprise and I didn’t know it existed until half way through the review. On the left hand side of the phone underneath the volume rocker is a button with “W&L” printed on it. This stands for Work and Life. From Touchwiz if you press this button a new homescreen will appear.

Screen07

Work Homescreen

 

This new homescreen is the Work one and is obviously designed to give you fingertip access to any information you may need to keep in communication with people. The screen comes as standard as seen above but I was pleased to see it can be customised:

Screen17

Work Screen Settings

 

I have never been a fan of Touchwiz and finding this option was a real treat as I really liked it. Its not as fancy as Touchwiz which is the “Life” option but its meant to make you as efficient as possible, as many people that use Windows phones have them as a business tool. Within the main menu you will find the “mode manager”. This will allow you to tweak the settings for the homescreens. The best bit here I think is that if you do toggle between “work & life” you can alter the sound settings which will be handy if you are not allowed your phone to be ringing in the office.

 

As I mentioned earlier in the review, Samsung have heavily customised the operating system. The first example of this is the menus on the phone. You have two options:

Screen04

Menu Option One

 

Menu option one is the standard Windows one and this as always is accessed by pressing the start icon on the top left of the screen. Here you can scroll down the list and this list can go on and on depending how many apps you put on the device. Its a jumpy scroll though! You cannot scroll from top to bottom in one go but only in sections which is a bit annoying. This is a Windows thing though as its the same on many devices.

 

Option two is accessed by pressing the hardware button between the send and end keys.

Screen03

Menus Option Two

 

This is the Samsung menu. It contains the same stuff as the windows menu but just in a different format. This time the menu is made up of four screens that can be scrolled left or right. I’m not sure why Samsung do this as its not any better or worse than the Windows menu in my opinion but that’s just the way it is.

 

The Samsung OmniaPro B7610 (God, that’s a long title!) comes with a great calendar and this can be accessed from the “Work” homescreen if you choose to have that option onscreen. Scheduling appointments in the calendar is simple and once entered you have several options of viewing the calendar, which you don’t get on some handsets.

 Screen11 Screen13 Screen14

Screen15 Screen12

Samsung OmniaPro B7610 Calendar

 

Another nice application on the OmniaPro is MSN Weather.

Screen09

MSN Weather

 

Its fairly basic but gives you all the info you need and with three different views. Cor blimey govnor, its chilly today!

 

Messaging on the Samsung OmniaPro B7610 is a breeze. You can use active sync for one email account and this will push mail to you. In addition you can add numerous other email accounts but these will not be push email. You can set these to sync with the server every 5, 10, 15 mins etc.

For business users you have the added benefit of Office Mobile. Here you can create Word, Excel and OneNote docs and also view PowerPoint. It works a treat on the OmniaPro much like on similar devices.

 

Web browsing is as good as you would expect on this high end device. The device comes loaded with two different web browsers. The first is the latest version of Internet Explorer which I am not so keen on. The second, and better one,  is Opera Mobile. As the AMOLED screen is so good, web browsing looks fantastic. Scrolling is super smooth and it scrolls faster than some other smartphones. You have the option to view the web pages like you would on a PC or you can select "mobile view" which takes away a lot of the adverts on certain websites and presents the page to fit the phone screen allowing you to only scroll up or down. I prefer browsing this way and the Omnia rendered the pages beautifully.

When using in portrait mode the onscreen keyboard if fabulous. Its sensitive, the keys are a decent size and you get some haptic feedback to round things off.

 

Watching video on the OmniaPro had its good points and its bad. The bad bit is I could not find a YouTube player on the phone. I cant remember the last time I had a phone that did not come with one but if it was there it was hiding. Its a shame as I tend to use YouTube apps quite a bit.

On the upside watching movies was excellent. The Samsung OmniaPro B7610 comes with a media player installed and I thought this may be restricted to a few formats like WMV files but I put a full movie on the device I had converted from DVD to MP4 and it played fine. The AMOLED screen certainly helped the colours pop out from the screen. It looked sweet.

 

The one thing that frustrates me the most about Samsung phones is the lock button they put on the device. Once the device goes into standby mode its a real pain having to hold down the lock button for a couple of seconds. Then you have to unlock the screen with the new windows mobile 6.5 screen lock. Its just too much and it got right on my nerves.

 

One thing I am always pleased with on Samsung phones is the music player. Once again it was fantastic on the OmniaPro B7610. The speaker was of reasonable volume but where Samsung do a great job is with the headphones. They just sound great. They are in ear headphones and feel well built. The music quality always sounds good through these and me and Linkin Park had a good rock session. Good job Samsung.

 

The camera on the OmniaPro was also very good, just like on the Omnia II. The interface is very nice with lots of on screen options. You can have the flash on, off or on auto. Focus options include macro, face and auto. You can change the exposure so in low light conditions you can let more light into the lens. There are many shooting modes including, single, continuous, smile, mosaic, panorama and action. All work well. There are also many scene modes – portrait, landscape, sunset, dusk & dawn, night, text, sports, indoors, beach & snow, fall colour (autumn), firework and candle light. Samsung really want you to get the best results possible. Its a shame the other major manufactures cant supply as many features with there cameras! In the settings you can alter white balance, effect, ISO, contrast, saturation, sharpness, metering and quality. There is a timer and an anti shake option as well.

 

 

Conclusion:

So is the Samsung OmniaPro B7610 a decent device? Hell yeah. I found very few things I didn’t like about it. Its a good all rounder with the added bonus of the slide out keyboard. Is it as good as the HTC Touch Pro2? I would say they are pretty much equal. The keyboard on the HTC TP2 is very slightly better but apart from that its a real close call. The camera on the Samsung is better than on the HTC so that may be a deciding factor.  Keyboard aside I think deciding which to get may come down to the user interface. If you like TouchWiz and its other options then go for the Samsung. If you prefer TouchFlo 3D on the HTC then that’s the one to get.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Reviews
By December 21, 2009 Read More →

Christmas Competition 2009 – announcing our winners!

Our 2009 Christmas competition has been running for almost 4 weeks and we have had an unprecedented response, the number of entries measures in the thousands!

It’s now time to announce some winners. If you see your name listed below then please get in touch with me ASAP so that we can get prizes to you as soon as we can. UK winners may get them in time for Xmas!

 

So our winners are:

 

Prize

Supplied By

Winner

XBOX 360

tm-logo-url 

Forum user ‘Doug’

HTC Touch Diamond2

tm-logo-url 

Forum member ‘MrRees’

HTC Hero

Gráfico1

Simon_Harper who entered via Twitter

Samsung Genio QWERTY

orange-logo

Forum member ‘Remi’

Plantronics Audio 655 Digital USB Stereo Headset

Clove vector logo

‘lisanorfolk’ who entered via Twitter

Plantronics Discovery 665 Bluetooth Headset

Clove vector logo

Adam Clifford via Facebook

Clove Technology £30 Voucher

Clove vector logo

Forum member ‘UKJeeper’

HTC Tattoo

Expansys-Logo

‘iceman7679’ via Twitter

Nokia 5800 SIM-free

SuperETrader-Logo

Forum member ‘Loladelorean’

iGame Family iPod Dock

SuperETrader-Logo

Alison Quinn from Facebook

 

So if you see your name above contact me. Twitter winners should Tweet @tracyandmatt and make sure you are following me as I will DM you a reply. Facebook winners please contact me through Facebook and forum winners please PM me on the forum. I will do my best to contact you direct over the next few days too.

 

Thanks to Clove Technology, Devicewire.com, eXpansys, Orange and SuperETrader for supplying the prizes, you guys are the best!

 

Commiserations to those of you that did not win BUT don’t fret, I will have a new competition starting just after Xmas and I’m pretty sure you’ll all want to enter so watch this space!

 

If you are wondering how I’ve chosen winners, I added the names of everyone that entered in to an Excel spreadsheet. I then used a website that generates random numbers to pick 10 numbers, these numbers equated to the row numbers in excel that belonged to the winners.

 

Posted by: Matt

Post Tags: [Christmas, Competition, prizes, tracyandmatt.co.uk]

Posted in: Competitions
By December 20, 2009 Read More →

BlackBerry sales still growing

Research In Motion (RIM) the company that makes BlackBerry smartphones has this week announced its quarter three results and once again the company are still picking up an astounding number of new customers.

RIM

RIM

 9700

BlackBerry Bold 9700

 

As a recent convert to a BlackBerry I am constantly amazed how popular the handsets are and I’m sure that RIMs position will continue to increase despite the rapid ongoing growth of both the iPhone and the newer Android OS.

Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 was $3.92 billion, up 11% from $3.53 billion in the previous quarter and up 41% from $2.78 billion in the same quarter of last year. Approximately 4.4 million net new BlackBerry(R) subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 36 million.

 

"We are pleased to report record shipments of more than 10 million BlackBerry smartphones during the third quarter with higher than expected revenue, earnings and subscriber growth," said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "RIM is experiencing a great start to the holiday buying season and the strong Q3 results and Q4 outlook clearly reflect the strength of our diversified product portfolio as well as the success of our efforts to expand into broader customer segments and new geographies while maintaining our strong position in North America."

storm 2

BlackBerry Storm2

 

If you are thinking of getting a BlackBerry you can read my recent review of the Bold 9700 here.

 

Posted by: James

 

Posted in: News
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