Author Archive: Gareth

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.

By Gareth October 24, 2013 Read More →

Samsung rapped on the knuckles

It seems Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has fined Samsung $340,000 (£210,000) for paying a company to post fake online reviews and comments praising its own products whilst criticising its competitors. The company, OpenTide, employed “a large number of hired writers and designated employees”, to post on Taiwanese forums about several rival companies. HTC is rumoured to have been one of the victims of Samsung’s tactic to “highlight the shortcomings of competing products”

Samsung is also said to have taken part in the “disinfection of negative news about Samsung products” and posting positive evaluations of their own products. The investigation began in April and has recently concluded with Samsung admitting: “The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles.” They continued “We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused. We will continue to reinforce education and training for our employees to prevent any future recurrence.”

This on top of recent allegations that Samsung have been ‘cheating’ with their device benchmarks, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for them!

Posted in: News
Tags: fined, naughty, Samsung

By Gareth October 24, 2013 Read More →

Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive review

The Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive is a super small storage device. Featuring a High speed transfer connection via the USB 3.0 port, backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and ready to use with Microsoft Windows could this be the perfect potable device of you media on the go?

In this video review we’ll take a look at the physical hardware and then go on to benchmark the drive to see how well it performs.

Quickly transfer files with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and store up to 1 TB of data on STOR.E BASICS external drives. Easy to use and backward compatible with USB 2.0, STOR.E BASICS external drives are ready to use with Microsoft Windows with no software installation required.

Posted in: Reviews, Storage Devices, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: portable hard drive, stor.e basics, Toshiba

By Gareth October 23, 2013 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 212: Everything you can think of

Gareth, Matt and Dan are here with another UK update on the mobile front. This week it’s a packed show with lots to talk about from the HTC One Max and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to the series of announcements from Apple’s event a few days ago.

It’s a marathon show and one of our longest! 🙂

Featuring Gareth and Matt

Direct Download

iTunes

Download the iPhone App

Download the Android App

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Posted in: Podcast
Tags: mobile tech addicts

By Gareth October 23, 2013 Read More →

HTC doing a Smartwatch too?

HTC is planning to launch their own smartwatch competitor to the Galaxy Gear. They are also apparently coming out with a new tablet which they claim will be “disruptive” to the market. Today, more details were released by Bloomberg on HTC’s plans. As business has continued to deteriorate for HTC, they are grasping at straws for any opportunity to get a product to gain headway in the market.

Here’s a quote with a bit more:

Dwindling market share for HTC smartphones led to the company’s first quarterly loss and a 54 percent slump in its share price this year as it loses ground to Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world’s biggest producer. The smartwatch will join a growing segment of wearable technology that already includes devices from Samsung and Sony Corp.

Here’s another quote from CEO Peter Chou in a BGR article:

“It has to meet a need, otherwise if it’s just a gimmick or concept, it’s not for people’s day-to-day lives. That is an opportunity for us,” Chou said of smartwatches. “People laughed at us when we came out with the first smartphone… Now everyone has a smartphone. I’m pretty sure wearables will be the same, but don’t judge from what is in the market [now].”

Posted in: News, Phones
Tags: galaxy gear, HTC, Smartwatch

By Gareth October 21, 2013 Read More →

Tegra 5 and Kepler to be more powerful than PS3

Although we have seen the above tech demo before, there is some new info regarding NVIDIA’s development of the technology. As a refresher, the above tech demo is being rendered in real-time using the Tegra 5 (Logan) Core architecture married with their mobile Kepler based GPU chips. Mobile Kepler is a variation of the same GPU technology NVIDIA currently employs in their GTX 600 and 700 series graphics cards for the PC. Since the video above (titled “Digital Ira”) was first presented back in July of this year, NVIDIA has made some refinements to the technology pushing it closer to mainstream production in future tablet devices.

Not only has NVIDIA been able to shrink SOC down to smaller than a dime, they have also reduced the power requirements down to 2-3 Watts. This is still to much for a smartphone, but is in a good range for tablets. That’s not all, NVIDIA has also been able to improve the graphics performance on top of these other refinements of the hardware. Here’s a quote with some additional detail,

As the Tegra 5 SoC continues to develop, Nvidia has been able to boost Ira’s shader passes to render more realistic textures (as seen below). Much of this is thanks to Nvidia’s GameWorks developer tools. Many of the top Tegra-optimized Android titles have been built with this software in recent years, and it has now been updated for Tegra 5 (and to show off Ira). Still, the Logan dev kit only pulls 2-3W of power to do all this — the final Tegra 5 for phones should run at about 1W whereas a Titan needs at least 250W.

In a tablet, Nvidia believes the beefier 2W version of Logan will be more powerful than the PS3 or the GeForce 8800 GTX — in the neighborhood of 400 GFLOPS. Granted, these are both a few years out of date, but we’re clearly into the realm of desktop-level graphics. These raw numbers put the mobile Kepler GPU at around 5.2x the power of the PowerVR SGX 554MP4 in the most recent iPad. At this level there is the potential for memory bandwidth to bottleneck performance, but the company has not yet commented on this.

It’s almost frightening how quickly the technology continues to evolve. Versions of Tegra 5 are expected to hit retail mobile devices sometime next year.

Posted in: News, Phones
Tags: Kepler, Tegra

By Gareth October 20, 2013 Read More →

Google Chromecast Unboxing and Setup

Google have yet to officially announce a date for the UK launch of the Google Chromecast however there has been the odd occasion Amazon have been able to deliver the Chromecast around the world if only for short periods of time. I managed to pick one up and here is the unboxing and basic operations. I must have spent about an hour trying to get this to work, the unboxing video is more of a highlights video if anything.

Google’s Chromecast is a simple way of streaming web video to the big screen thanks to being easier to use and slicker than your existing smart TV, set-top box or games console.

The HDMI dongle has already launched in the US, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Google has promised it will launch in ‘other countries’ soon, but as of yet, there’s no news on its exact price in the UK or when it will actually launch.

Update: I have tried the Chromecast on various televsions around the house and on both main wireless networks and the problem is still evident. I will have to do some reading and maybe one day it will work…

Posted in: Reviews, TV & Home Cinema, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: Chromecast, google, streaming, TV

By Gareth October 18, 2013 Read More →

Kindle Fire HD Now Available in the UK

In addition to their announcement of the Kindle Fire HDX Amazon have launched a refresh of the Kindle HD. At a wallet friendly £119 this looks set to take on the Tesco Hudl in a battle to the death. that £119 will get you the 8gb model, whilst the 16gb will run you £139. The Kindle Fire HD has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter, with an HD display, dual speakers boasting Dolby Digital Plus technology and the latest version of the Fire OS, Mojito!

Here’s what you get for £119:

High-definition display with 1280×800 resolution and 216 pixels per inch, making films, TV shows, books and games vivid and detailed. 66% more pixels than the previous generation

Kindle Fire HD features:

Powerful, dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, 60% faster than the previous generation Kindle Fire.
Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio — the standard in high-end audio.
All-new slim design that matches the look and feel of the new Kindle Fire HDX.
Fast downloads and web browsing with built-in dual-band Wi-Fi.
Powered by the latest version of Fire OS — Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito”— with hundreds of new and upgraded features, platform updates and Amazon-exclusive services. New features include expanded X-Ray for films and TV, Quiet Time, Quick Switch, and more.
Kindle FreeTime extends parental controls to give parents a simple, engaging way to manage
the way children use Kindle Fire — parents select content and set time limits by content type.

Coming later this year.

Stay connected and productive with all-new e-mail, calendar and Silk web browser.
Free, unlimited Cloud storage of all of your Amazon content, for downloading anytime, anywhere.
Vast selection of content, including millions of films, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines.

Posted in: News, Tablets
Tags: Amazon, Fire OS, kindle HD, mojito

By Gareth October 18, 2013 Read More →

Kindle Fire HDX Available in UK

Recently Amazon announced it would be launching the Kindle Fire HDX in the UK. Available in a couple of different flavours, 16/32/64GB and either WiFi or 4G at different price points Amazon hope to capture the market with low cost and high specs. Check out the Press Release below:

Powerhouse Tablets Built for Work and Play All-new Kindle Fire HDX — stunning new 7” or 8.9” HDX display, quad-core 2.2 GHz processor with 3x the processing power, 2x more memory, 11 hours of battery life, and dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio.

New HDX display goes beyond HD — exceptional pixel density, perfect 100% sRGB colour accuracy, reduced glare, dynamic image contrast and improved brightness for the best viewing experience, indoors or out Powerful quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2 GHz delivers over 3x the processing power for fast and fluid performance — the only tablets with a processor over 2 GHz. Both HDX 7” and 8.9” available with 3G and 4G LTE connectivity from Vodafone

Lightest large-screen tablet — Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” is astonishingly light at 374 grams.

Introducing the Mayday button — revolutionary on-device tech support — free, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Stay connected and productive with updated e-mail, calendar and Silk browser, plus seamless integration with Facebook and Twitter; enterprise-ready with support for encryption, Kerberos Intranet, secure Wi-Fi connections and VPN integration

Kindle FreeTime gives parents a simple, engaging way to manage the way children use Kindle Fire — parents select content and set time limits by content type — coming soon.

Luxembourg—16 October 2013—Today, Amazon announced that the all-new Kindle Fire HDX is now available for customers in the UK. The Kindle Fire HDX tablets combine groundbreaking hardware, the latest version of Fire OS and new features and services such as Kindle FreeTime, expanded X-Ray for films and TV, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. Learn more about the new Kindle Fire HDX family at www.amazon.co.uk/hdx.

The new Kindle Fire HDX family features:

Stunning exclusive HDX display — beyond HD with exceptional pixel density (323 ppi for 7”, 339 ppi for 8.9”), perfect 100% sRGB colour accuracy, reduced glare, dynamic image contrast and improved brightness for better viewing under any lighting conditions.
Powerful quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2 GHz provides over 3x the processing power compared with the previous generation, plus the latest graphics engine and 2x more memory for fast and fluid performance. These are the only tablets with a processor over 2 GHz.
Astonishingly light design — at just 374 grams, the 8.9” Kindle Fire HDX is the lightest large-
screen tablet, 34% lighter than the previous generation.
Powered by the latest version of Fire OS — Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito” — with hundreds of new and upgraded features, platform updates and Amazon-exclusive services.
New Mayday button delivers revolutionary, live tech support — one tap connects you to an Amazon expert who can guide you remotely through any feature — 24/7, 365 days a year, and free of charge. 15 seconds or less is the Mayday response time goal.
Kindle FreeTime extends parental controls to give parents a simple, engaging way to manage the way children use Kindle Fire — parents select content and set time limits by content type.
Watch thousands of films and TV shows with LOVEFiLM, Europe’s leading film subscription service. Expanded X-Ray for films and TV, adding trivia, character backstories and soundtrack information.
All-day battery life — up to 11 hours of mixed use and 17 hours of reading.
Updated e-mail, calendar and Silk browser to stay connected and productive.
New enterprise features including hardware and software encryption, Kerberos Intranet, secure
Wi-Fi connections, VPN integration and wireless printing.
Both HDX 7” and 8.9” are available with 3G and ultra-fast 4G LTE, available from Vodafone. Kindle Fire HDX offers you an optional promotional bundle for just £25. This includes 5 GB of data, 20 GB of Amazon Cloud storage and £5 credit for the Amazon Appstore.
Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio and virtual 5.1 multi-channel surround sound — the standard in high-end audio.
Front-facing HD camera makes it easy to stay in touch with Skype, plus a new 8 megapixel wide-aperture rear-facing camera on the 8.9” Fire HDX offers crisp photos and 1080p HD video.
Full integration with the world’s best content ecosystem — over 27 million films, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines.
New Origami covers feature an innovative design that allows you to position Fire HDX in both portrait and landscape mode.

Posted in: News, Tablets
Tags: amazone, kindle fire hdx, uk

By Gareth October 17, 2013 Read More →

Android on your helmet

There is a new device on the block and it’s called the “Skully P1” and it’s actually an Android-powered motorcycle helmet which can let you see what’s behind you with an Augmented Reality overlay. This innovative device actually has a rear-camera built-in and displays a 180-degree AR view of what’s behind the rider.

That’s not the only cool thing about this high-tech armour. It also includes a Skully Synapse HUD integrated into the helmet visor. This makes it appear the HUD is floating about 20 feet in front of the riders vision. This HUD includes two different views. One incorporates the rear view display as previously mentioned, but the other offers detailed turn-by-turn navigation. This HUD uses a lithium-ion battery which will hold a charge for nine hours of use

As mentioned, the helm uses Android for its OS, and will integrate with other smartphones from Androids to iPhones. The OS also includes voice controls for playing music, getting directions, and more. The manufacturer will launch an SDK for app developers later in 2013. No details on pricing have been shared just yet.