Author Archive: Matt

More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.

By Matt March 31, 2014 Read More →

HTC One (M8) full hands-on video

We’ve had our HTC One (M8) for a while now so thought iut was about time that we recorded a full hands-on video to show off some of the more important features and take a more detailed look at the hardware.

In the video below I’ll show you the hardware and discuss the specification before booting up and playing with the OS and user interface to look at some of the features that have changed in HTC Sense 6.0. I’ll also show you some of the elements that are part of the Duo Camera experience that features so heavily in HTC’s push of the HTC One (M8).

So what do we think of the HTC One (M8) so far? We’ll I’m really impressed with the design and build quality but that’s no surprise from and HTC device. Performance-wise the M8 is great and out-performs anything else that I’ve previously used. The camera is brilliant and the Duo Camera features allow for some really creative shots.

It’s a long video so I’m going to come back to some of the other features in another video soon…

HTC One (M8) specification:

SIZE: 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35 mm

WEIGHT: 160 grams

DISPLAY: 5.0 inch, Full HD 1080p

CPU SPEED

Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 801, 2.3GHz quad-core CPU

PLATFORM

Android™ 4.4 with HTC Sense™ 6
HTC BlinkFeed™

MEMORY

Total storage: 16/32GB
RAM: 2GB
Expansion card slot supports microSD™ memory card for up to 128GB additional storage (card not included)

NETWORK

2G/2.5G – GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

850/900/1800/1900 MHz

3G – WCDMA:

EMEA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
Asia: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
AT&T: 850/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps
Sprint: 850/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA up to 14.4 Mbps
Verizon: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 14.4 Mbps
TMUS: 850/AWS/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps

CDMA:

Sprint: 800/1900
Verizon: 800/1900

4G – LTE:

EMEA: 800/900/1800/2600 MHz
Asia: 700/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1800/1900/2600 MHz
Sprint: FDD 800/1900 MHz , TDD 2600 MHz
Verizon: 700/AWS/1800/2600 MHz
TMUS: 700/AWS MHz

SIM

Nano SIM

SENSORS

Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor
Gyro sensor
Barometer sensor

CONNECTIVITY

3.5 mm stereo audio jack
NFC
Bluetooth® 4.0 with aptX™ enabled
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz)
DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer,
HTC Connect™
micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection (Special cable required for HDMI connection.)
Support consumer infrared remote control

SOUND

HTC BoomSound™
Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
Sense Voice

CAMERA

Duo camera

Primary camera: HTC UltraPixel™ camera, BSI sensor, pixel size 2.0 um, sensor size 1/3”, f/2.0, 28mm lens
HTC ImageChip 2
1080p Full HD video recording with HDR video
Secondary camera: capture depth information

Front camera

5MP, f/2.0, BSI sensor, wide angle lens. with HDR capability, 1080p Full HD video recording
Gallery with UFocus™, Dimension Plus™, Seasons, Foregrounder, Image Match

MULTIMEDIA

Audio supported formats:

Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 10)
Recording: .aac

Video supported formats:

Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 10), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
Recording: .mp4

Location

Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS
Digital compass

BATTERY

Capacity: 2600 mAh
Embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery
Talk time: Up to 20 hours for 3G
Standby time: Up to 496 hours for 3G

Posted in: News, Phones, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: Featured, HTC One (M8)

By Matt March 29, 2014 Read More →

HTC One (M8) Benchmark video

With the launch of the HTC One (M8), many of you are asking questions about performance, in particular the speed of the new device and how this compares to its predecessor, the HTC One (M7).

The M8 has a Snapdragon 801 chipset and Quad-core CPU clocked at 2.3GHz (The Asian market gets a 2.5GHz version!), and 2GB of RAM. Clock-speed wise this is a decent step up from the 1.7GHz quad in the M7.

So what does this clock speed jump equate to? In general usage the difference isn’t that noticeable but in intensive apps and games you’ll notice it more.

In the video below you’ll see an HTC One (M8) Benchmark compared to the HTC One (M7). The benchmark was run simultaneously to give some impression of the speed and how much quicker the M8 completed the test.

Interesting results in that the M8 has twice the score of the M7!

Posted in: News, Phones, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: Benchm, HTC One (M8), kitkat

By Matt March 28, 2014 Read More →

Futuristic Business Cards

Business cards might not sound like the cutting edge of graphic design, but you’d be surprised at how adventurous people are being. Some of today’s designs look like they belong in the far future, for example the ingenious card for a cargo company that folds into a cardboard box.

For more examples of incredible business card designs, look at these examples of innovative design. The business card printed on paper money is especially maverick, as is the dog trainer’s card printed on actual dog biscuits.

Until now business cards were just a way of swapping contact details, but it makes sense that they have the potential to communicate so much more to a customer or colleague. If first impressions are everything, then why are so many professionals happy to give out bog-standard, uninspiring business cards? If you want to meet your customer’s expectations, you might also need to think about your chocolate bar packaging.

Potential clients could look at these cards and make a quick judgement based on design, without even realizing it. As the current job climate is so harsh, no wonder more and more people are thinking of unusual and clever ideas to make their business cards stand out from the crowd. If you’re in the business of financial planning, you have to know how to market yourself as a financial advisor so you can perform effectively.

Andy Defrancesco believes that a business card is an opportunity to tell people about you in a few seconds. Seeking for a recognized business Print management could help you in producing state of the art prints. Follow the example of the creative mechanical engineer who designed his business card to transform into a mini paper catapult, or the hair and make-up artists who gave out cards with Kirby grips slotted in them to look like the hair of a cartoon girl.

Perhaps the future of business cards lies in cards becoming more technologically advanced. Cards will become less about the material and more about the virtual. Technology is becoming cheaper and cheaper: perhaps one day businesses will give out tiny screens that switch on to reveal contact details or sound recording devices that relay important information by way of a voice message. An IT consulting company can put in place security strategies that ensure your business is up-to-par with security standards.

It sounds gimmicky, but in this challenging job market gimmicks might just work. You don’t have to go over the top, but you should make sure your business card is well-designed. You should consider hiring a logo maker to make your card stand out. Potential clients will judge you and your business on the quality of your business card, so make you use a professional to print off your design. Some print companies will even let you upload you own design, for example Instantprint have a design and print function. That way you know you’ll be using a unique design that will look fresh and interesting.

Posted in: Editorial

By Matt March 26, 2014 Read More →

Facebook Announces $2 Billion Deal with Oculus VR

Social networking giant, Facebook has announced a $2 billion deal to acquire the virtual reality company Oculus VR. The company is best known for their development of the Oculus Rift headset, which was originally funded on Kickstarter and was targeted at innovating gaming experiences.

However, Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said that he believed the virtual reality technology had wider implications. During a conference call with analysts, he stated: “Oculus has the potential to be the most social platform ever. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.”

Oculus VR founder, Palmer Lucky previously recognised the social potential of the Oculus Rift in an interview with PC Gamer. He said: “Think of Facebook. People interact on Facebook a lot and in real life a lot. But right now Facebook is largely a tool to organize meeting up with people in real life. And that’s because even though we talk to people online, it’s a very crippled experience to actually doing things and spending time with people in real life. It’s more convenient, but you lose a lot.”

“We’re in a similar situation with VR. Right now, VR is kind of a crippled version of reality where there are reasons to use it, but you wouldn’t use it for everything. When VR is going to be exciting is when it gets as good as real life at everything, and you start to say, well, why would I travel on a business meeting across the world just to go sit face-to-face with people, if we can just plug in Rifts and get all of the same nuance of communication we could have gotten otherwise.”

The news of the acquisition raised concerns among the gaming community, who saw the possibility for Oculus to not only become a gaming platform of its own, but one that could pioneer VR technology for other social gaming sites. The worry was that the deal could limit companies like Social Gaming Network and Full Tilt Poker who may not be able connect users from multiple social platforms or will be charged high rates to be able to use the technology on their own networks.

However, the deal will see the Oculus team work independently within Facebook and remain focused on creating other gaming experiences. There are also plans to create other experiences, opening up the possibilities of enjoying a court side seat at an NBA game, studying in a classroom of students from around the world or consulting face to face with specialist doctors for a fraction of the cost.

Despite this, the development community has been hit hard by the news. “I never would have backed them if I thought this was even a remote possibility. I’m literally sad because I feel like a promising future was really just a hopeless dream,” said programmer Chip Collier. “VR has just been set back another 20-30 years.”

George Buckingham, a developer with Die Gute Fabrik studio, mirrored these sentiments, saying: “I’m irritated. The FB acquisition of Oculus seems 80% likely to kill their momentum… It’s probably going to get locked down in annoying ways and stop being a cool, weird tech you can freely hack on. I hope someone else comes and makes basically the same thing. Though I guess, that’s Sony, now.”

However, others are taking a more optimistic perspective, feeling that Facebook can provide opportunities for Oculus Rift to move forward. Head of Games at IHS Technology, Piers Harding-Rolls concluded: “Reaction from the gaming industry will fall into two major camps. There will be independent developers that will feel alienated by this move and may shift their priorities to other platforms. Others will see the advantages of having a much bigger entity behind the platform with deeper pockets alongside a massive audience of potential consumers across Facebook.

“Judging by Zuckerberg’s comments, Facebook is keen to accelerate the development of Oculus’ gaming capabilities, but I sense this is more about proving the concept and driving early adoption for a much broader set of applications many years down the road.”

Posted in: Editorial, News
Tags: Oculus VR

By Matt March 26, 2014 Read More →

Increase Productivity With a Small Business Technology Makeover

More than 80 percent of small businesses responding to a recent j2 Global survey said they are ready to retire their old systems in favor of new technology. Look at your company’s equipment and processes for those areas taking up too much of your time and money. Consider the following technology as a way to put new life, and efficiency, back into your business:

Small Business in the Cloud

Entrepreneur magazine sees the migration of small business practices to the cloud as a natural growth step. Once used primarily as a place to store information, the cloud now offers a variety of services, such as:

data backup and recovery
applications
testing and production platforms
networking services
disaster recovery

Some companies offer entire office environments in the cloud. Intermedia’s Office in the Cloud provides file storage, syncing and collaboration, office tools, voice and email services. All of these services are through secure connections and can be accessed by all desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

Back Office Processing Revamped

Many vendors have moved their standard business software offerings to the cloud, enabling customers to get rid of cumbersome and expensive desktop-based software, licenses and support fees. CRM, sales force management, marketing tools, accounting and payroll are all available in the cloud. For example, Intuit’s invoice application is now cloud-based, and like most products in the cloud, it includes mobile interfaces.

These cloud-based tools save you money and are accessible whenever you need them and wherever you can get a network connection. This makes your sales force on the road more productive or lets you look up current customer data quickly before an offsite meeting. It also opens up more outsourcing opportunities since it’s easy to give a remote worker access to these tools, while if you want your workers to be more efficient services like Jason Linett professional hypnotist can really help giving training to your business and more.

Updated Cash Registers

Point-of-sale (POS) solutions have altered the way payments are taken. Entire POS systems now run on tablet computers. Small card readers plug into tablets or smartphones and let you swipe credit cards. The smallest of retailers can now take a variety of forms of payments with these tools. Many of them interface with cloud-based accounting systems making reconciliation and reporting easier. As your business adapts to these technological advancements, be mindful of your financial stability. If you encounter any financial challenges, don’t hesitate to Get Advice on Business Insolvency to help manage and overcome obstacles effectively.

Phone, Netbook and Tablet in One

Fox Business predicts phablets will be adopted by small businesses in 2014. These phone/tablet devices have been on the market for a few years, but have not been well received in the UK and US. They are popular in countries where people want to save money by buying this all-in-one device versus a separate smartphone and tablet.

The larger screens are easier to work on and browse the Internet. With smartphones becoming even larger, phablets may have already filled the niche of people who want to do real work on their mobile phones.

A Cloud on Your Desk

Businesses are concerned about storing data in the cloud until a high-level of safety and security is proven. But they still want the ease of getting to it as if it were in the cloud. Western Digital’s My Cloud is a network drive that sits in your office but can be accessed by you and your staff over the network. Up to 4GB can be stored on the drive fully encrypted. Software lets you control who has access to certain areas. You can use any laptop or mobile device to get to the secured data. With devices such as this and cloud data storage, you’ll have access to all of your business information when working away from the office.

Posted in: Editorial

By Matt March 25, 2014 Read More →

HTC One (M8) features and specification

After months of speculation, rumours and leaks, HTC have just officially announced the successor to the 2013 Android phone of the year, the HTC One. The official name for the new flagship phone is HTC One (M8), using the internal M8 codename to distinguish it from last year’s model which now becomes known as the HTC One (M7). This puts the rumours of the ‘All new HTC One’ and ‘HTC Two’ names firmly to bed, thank goodness!

True to form, HTC are cramming in a lot of innovation and new technology with the HTC One (M8) and it goes well beyond the dual rear cameras that seem to have become the focus of so much attention.

HTC’s focus has been firmly upon the design of the HTC One (M8) and this certainly shows. The aluminium body construction, that HTC say has taken them 12 years to perfect in terms of getting the antenna design right, now extends round the sides of the handset and right up to the edge of the 5-inch full-HD screen for a truly edgeless feel.

The Metal Grey version of the M8 has an honest metal finish with hairline striations one the back for that brushed metal finish that HTC say takes more than 120 polishing oils to get just right. If the metal look isn’t to your liking there will also be Arctic Silver and Amber Gold versions for you to choose instead.

Despite the increase to a 5-inch full HD display, the use thinner bezels and the menu buttons now being on screen means that the physical size of the HTC One (M8) is dramatically different to the M7, at 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35 mm, it’s just 9mm larger and 17g heavier. The screen has Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it and, like other models, has the LCD screen bonded to the back of it so there’s no air gap between the two. This leads to a huge improvement in the clarity of the display and almost insane viewing angles.

You can check out my HTC One (M8) first-look video too.

Motion Launch

Motion Launch is a new feature HTC have added to the the M8 and has both software and hardware elements. On the hardware side, HTC have created their own silicon co-processor to take care of sensory input. These sensors are in an ‘always-on’ state and the extremely power-efficient co-processor is able to continously monitor that input. This enables the user to use gestsures to interact with the phone even when it’s in sleep mode. So, for example, a double tap on the screen will wake it up and turn on the display while a swipe from one of the four sides of the screen will wake up with one of four functions.

Additionally, holding the M8 up in the landscape orientation and waking it up with the volume key launches straight in to the camera app and a second press of the volume key captures an image.

Duo Camera

The cameras on the HTC One (M8) have attracted a LOT of attention over the past few weeks as leaked images started to surface that appeared to show two rear facing cameras. This lead to a lot of theories. Was one ‘camera’ actually a fingerprint sensor? Could it take 3D photos? Would there be a 4MP ultrapixel camera and a 13/16MP ‘normal’ camera?

Finally we have the answer, HTC call them Duo Camera. Two rear facing cameras, one being the same 4.1 Ultrapixel unit that we see on the other HTC one devices but the other is of undisclosed resolution. The second camera is there purely to capture depth and spacial information when a photo is taken. The second camera cannot be used in its own right and there’s no option to switch.

The purpose of the Duo Camera feature is that every photo taken will have depth information recorded along with it. This them alows for some very cool after effects duting editing photos in the gallery. Photos can be re-forcused allowing you to focus on just one ‘layer’ of the photo. This might be a person in the foreground for a portrait picture with great bokeh or maybe you defocus the foreground objects to show of the scenery in a landscape to better effect.

There are many more effects available including desaturating the background, turning backgrounds in to sketches or cartoons and many more. There’s also a very cool 3D paralax effect called Dimension Plus that alows you to mode the phone and see different perspective in the images.

The depth information is recorded on every image and, unlike other cameras and phones that have attempted this, only one photo is taken rather than 5 or so at different focal lengths. Images are captured really quickly.

Some of the features we’ve previously seen in Zoe will be available in an HTC Zoe application that will be available from the Google Play Store later this year. This will allow users of older HTC phones and even non-htc phones to use some of the Zoe features or to collaborate with friends to create some awesome Zoe moments.

We probably shouldn’t forget that front facing camera though. HTC have included a 5.0MP f2.0 front facing camera on the HTC One (M8) and it’s probably the best front-facing camera we’ve ever come across. Not only is it a very fast lens and sensor but it’s also wide-angle which is great for the ubiquitous ‘selfie’.

Both cameras benefit from Qualcomms Digital Image Processor which greatly improves and enhances the captured images without ruining them!

Dot View cases

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest and when you see the HTC’s Dot View cases for the HTC One (M8) for the first time there’s definitely a “why didn’t anyone think of this before?” moment.

HTC are lauching a range of accessories at the same time as the HTC One (M8) goes on sale and one of these accessories is the Dot View case. Not only doe the Dot View case protect both the back and the front of the M8, it also has magnets to turn on and off the display as the cover is opened. BUT, where the Dot View case is truly unique is in the front cover, there are thousands of tiny holes. These holes allow light through from the HTC One (M8) display and allow you to see just just enough in terms of notifications and alerts.

Futhermore, the phone will also react to touch input with the case closed. A double-tap will wake the phone and it’ll display the time and weather or any missed call alerts for example

Boomsound

Boomsound was a feature that HTC introduced with the first HTC One and it really was groundbreaking in terms of the impact. Two large, forward-facing stereo speakers coupled with a large audio amplifier made a dramatic difference. Not only were the speakers loud but the dynamic range was also amazing, the speakers sounding much larger than their physical size would otherwise suggest.

HTC have made enhancements to the Boomsound experience with the HTC One (M8). The accounstic chambers have been redesigned and there’s a new amplifier which has better control over the sound. The result is a 25% increase in the volume level and also a marked improvement in the audio range.

HTC Sense 6.0

With the HTC One (M8) comes the new version of HTC Sense. There are lost of changes here so we’re going to be covering this in a video shortly.

: HTC One (M7) vs HTC One (M8)

: HTC One (M8) top view

: HTC One (M8) bottom view

: HTC One (M8) SIM card

: HTC One (M8) SD card

: HTC One (M8) Duo Camera

: Dot View Case

: Dot View Cases

: Dot View Case

: HTC One (M8) metal chassis

: HTC One (M8) metal chassis

: HTC One (M8) metal grey back

: HTC One (M8) 3 colours