What’s new on streaming media 10 October- 16 October 2016
Gareth takes a look at what’s new and renewed on Netflix and Amazon Prime in the UK for the week of 10th October to the 16th October.
Tag: Featured
Kodak PIXPRO SP360-4K Review
The Kodak SP360-4K is a 360 degree camera offering 4K video at 30fps. the SP360-4K doesn’t use any revolutionary methods to capture 360, instead of a simple twinning of two cameras back-to-back and some editing software to stitch the images together.
The camera has a 12 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, and takes 8 megapixel still images using a 360×235 degrees ultra-wide f/2.8 lens. In addition to Video and still images the SP360 as manages time lapse, high speed, loop and continuous recording functions.
Utilising Wi-Fi there is no need for a large LCD screen on the camera, therefore they allowing the size to be significantly reduced. Instead the user controls the recordings with a mobile app and playback the recordings from the MicroSD card inside the camera. NFC is onboard to help with pairing the two cameras and the mobile phone. However, it took me quite some time to get them all working and even then I wasn’t quite convinced I was in control of both cameras.
In addition to the mobile app there is also a remote watch. This does not have a screen and could lead to some blind photography. However, one has to remember that this is a 360 degree camera setup so you are going to have to worry so much about framing.
The cameras construction is quite durable, whilst plastic there is a metallic feel from the paint and, whilst you certainly wouldn’t want to you, this would take a knock or two. The cameras do feel vulnerable as there is so much glass around the lens, fingerprints are likely. There are a couple of lens caps included however I felt they popped off far too easily. There are sealed compartments for the ports and the device is both freezeproof alongside splash resistant.
This particular pack has a load of accessories, including rubber lens caps, a protective lens cover, a number of mounts and the remote control watch. Looking around the camera on one side there is a 1 inch LCD screen, this is a low powered screen used for changing the modes and settings on the fly.
There’s an on/off button that doubles as a Mode button and the up button for navigating the menus. Under that is down button. There’s a large record, again a double function button, that is the OK button for selecting items in the menu. Finally, there is a Wi-Fi button next to this.
On the other side is the standard tripod screw hole, however this is plastic. Under this is a cover hiding the MicroUSB, HDMI port and the MicroSD slot.
On the bottom is the battery compartment. The battery is charged externally and there is only one charger, a little bit of an inconvenience if you purchase the dual pack. The battery is 1250 mAh. According to Kodak the battery is good for 160 shots or 55 minutes at the highest resolution (4K, at 30fps) video, with Wi-Fi on (required for the app to connect.) This was a little disappointing however I can’t say I actually ran out of battery at any point.
There are no MicroSD cards included and given that camera records in 4K, fast cards will be required. When recording 4K videos, the camera records a maximum of a 4GB file. Without interruption another file is created. In 4K this will see around 10 minutes of footage, lower resolutions work out around 30 minutes.
Kodak’s PIXPRO 360 Stitch software is free to download from Kodak’s website, and lets you manipulate your footage a little. You can change the direction and rotation the video. The rotation was a god send as I had mounted a camera upside-down. There are options for calibration and few effect settings, and finally you can export the video to YouTube. It would seem that Youtube is really the only viable option.
In saying that, I found nothing but problems importing the video footage into the Stitch software. Output directly imported from the camera was apparently not compatible with the software. I obviously made a mistake with one of the settings when capturing, I can view the video in a localised media player however that loose some of the 360 degree aspect.
From what I managed to capture the camera, I have posted some highlights below. They work quite well in a Google Cardboard. Certainly there are fragments and the whole image isn’t dazzlingly high quality, however I would say that this might be a result of the software having very little to adjust in the editing process.
The biggest problem with the Kodak system itself is the mounts. Once in you will have trouble accessing the functions, battery, and SD card. You will be removing the camera from the mounts frequently and it’s just a bit of a pain.
The Kodak PixPro SP360-4K is a good looking piece of kit. It’s hardly an action camera you can attach to your helmet and jump off something. It will likely appeal more to the landscape photographer who wants a camera they can leave outside in the evening without concern. The resulting images are acceptable if a little plain and flat.
Google Home in a nutshell
Tuesday the 4th of October saw Google enter into a new domain, launching an item of hardware that intertwines all of the smart technology brands they have been purchasing for the last number of years and packaging them up into a neat solution to become a central feature of your home, Google Home. What this boils down it is that Home is a voice-controlled speaker. As highlighted by the Google Pixel, launched the same day, Google Home is that it will be powered by Google Assistant. This app is Google’s updated smart digital assistant, much like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Amazon’s Alexa, and will help you get things done. Current Android users will know saying “Ok Google” to their phone provides much functionality, this does that and much more.
The hardware on display is a small, minimalist cylinder with an angled top. The bottom part of the casing is modular and can be replaced with bases of varying colours. Above this is white with four LED lights built into the slanted touch sensitive surface. Google mentioned the design is based on wine glasses and candles. No hardware specs have been confirmed for the innards.
Google Home works a speaker, it will streams audio over Wi-Fi, using your voice or smartphone as a control mechanism. Imagine the Chromecast functionality for music. So far only Google Play Music, Spotify, Youtube Music, TuneIn. iHeartRadio and Pandora have been mentioned as compatible. We would expect other sources to work when the Home ships worldwide. You’ll also be able to connect to multiple Home speakers at the same time too, so you should be able to create a Sonos-style multi-room system with relative ease.
You’ll also get some home automation features, which means you’ll be able to control various connected products around the house. Much like the Audio side, only a few brands have been mentioned, Nest Thermostat, Samsung SmartThings and Philips Hue lightbulbs. IFTTT is listed so the potential is almost limitless!
Will the Google Home be a hit or the new Nexus Q? The price of $129 seems welcome and if you have Nest or Hue Lightbulbs it might be a no-brainer. However, I feel for many it might be an impulse purchase and will probably will only really benefit the family with the most hectic of schedules or perhaps Google Employee themselves.
Panasonic RP-HXS200 Review
I recently had the opportunity to try out the RP-HXS200 headphones by Panasonic. These are budget headphones (retailing for around £18 on Amazon), something immediately evident from the rather basic clamshell packaging which claims “Clear & powerful sound”. The set I tried were a funky black, blue and light grey combination and I must admit, I did like the look of them. Once you get them out of the packaging and in hand, they do feel very plasticky and I’m not sure how much daily abuse they’ll take, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the flat, tangle-free type cables do seem reassuringly robust. A rarity at this end of the market.
One of the main gripes I have with on-ear headphones has always been a question of where you put them when they aren’t in use. I am nowhere near hipster enough to dander around with them around my neck like a big plastic fashion accessory and they are usually too big or fragile to be just chucked in a bag. The Panasonic party piece is that they fold up Transformer style into a neat little form factor that can be easily tucked into a bag or jacket pocket. This is a great feature, but sadly these headphones are not the clunky, rugged Transformers of old, they are the flimsy plastic modern ones and I was more than a little wary of putting too much strain on the various joints, hinges, and rotating pieces.
Once they were transformed and ready to roll out, I plugged them into my iPhone to see what kind of sound they were capable of. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was actually rather impressed. For under £20, the sound quality was really rather good. Well, initially it was. The Panasonics seem to handle intros and simple pieces very well indeed, punching well above their weight. I was listening to S.O.B. by Nathaniel Rateliff and was getting some great separation and a nice tone during the opening of the song. The acapella vocals, humming and clapping were all coming through extremely well. Sadly this ended swiftly when the rest of the band kicked in and price point of the Panasonics showed through. Unable to handle all the layers and detailing, the sound appeared compressed as they struggled to funnel the high, mid and bass levels through the drivers. I tried several pieces across a number of musical genres and found this to be consistent.
They did very well with the stripped back sounds of Lorde, but sounded terrible with Metallica’s layered detail and depth. I initially spent about 25-30mins testing out these headphones before I had to take them off. The plastic covering of the earpieces had slowly roasted my ears almost to the point of combustion and I had to take a break. The Panasonics are very light and have a great range of adjustment and I suspect if you are the sort that can put up with the plastic against your skin for extended periods of time, you’ll probably have no trouble with them. But if you are the sort that finds headphones make your ears start to get warm after a while, I’d maybe pass on these. In truth, I personally have never found on ear headphones particularly comfortable and these are certainly no exception, but your mileage may vary.
Overall I’d say these headphones are aimed at the younger user and at the price point there is always going to be a compromise with the quality of sound and construction. If you like on ear headphones and simple pop music, then they are a pretty good buy and certainly worthy of consideration. For those looking for a quality sound however, I would suggest leaving these for the kid in the skinny jeans and slouch hat behind you.
The Panasonic RP-HXS200’s are available at www.reichelt.co.uk the online electronics retailer where many products up to 20% cheaper than elsewhere in the UK.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL in a nutshell
Most are saying farewell to the Nexus brand however I’m not committed to that mindset, as with Indiana Jones and Red Dwarf, never say never. The Pixel phone is the new phone on the block. A pair of super high-end offerings with price tags at one particular end of the spectrum. There was a lot of speculation and excitement right up until the announcement itself and then the controversy started.
On the one hand, there was nothing along the lines of the recent Apple controversy. Google are not reinventing the wheel with the Pixel, it’s just another phone line with specs you would expect from any other high-end phone. There is a distinctive look that some, including myself, are not 100% on. There is a camera with some bold statements and, given the demonstration material, impressive results. However, many of the features of the Pixel’s announcement were down to the apps themselves, Google Assistant, Duo and Drive.
Under the polished glass, the Pixel has a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED display, not a Quad HD. Unlike the Pixel XL’s larger 5.5-inch AMOLED Quad HD display. A quad-core Snapdragon 821 chipsets (2x 2.15Ghz / 2x 1.6 GHz,) the first of its type in the US and the UK. Backed by 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM keeps things lightening fast. The Pixel has a 2,770mAh whilst the Pixel XL’s sits at 3,450mAh.
On the back is a little imprint fingerprint sensor, nothing particularly special by today’s standards. However, above this is the 12.3MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus sensor with a 1.55µm pixel size, at the same number of pixels, bigger pixels in a camera sensor means more area for light to strike the sensor, larger pixel sensors meaning you will have more accurate color and luminance in each pixel. Helping Google outline this are independent researchers at DxOMark judging this as the best you’ll find in a smartphone. The front sees a 8 MP, f/2.0, 1/3.2″ sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size.
There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and every “ahem” and wink Google peppered into the presentation was accompanied by a little groan from myself.
Three colours are to be made available and the naming system is quite cute. Quite Black, Really Blue and Very Silver.
Much of the Pixels launch was taken up by the Google Assistant demonstration. This can’t be considered a backbone of the Pixel as most Android users will be able to take advantage of the service once rocking Nougat. Assistant is a complex app, integrated with most of Google’s services to provide you with itineraries, news, search results and suggestions through a casual conversation. Assistant keeps track of your searches and preferences to cater better results as you use it.
The pricing is the same as the iPhone, a 32GB Pixel is £599 and a 128GB is £699. Whereas the Pixel XL is £719 for the 32GB, and £819 for the 128GB.
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_phone
Griffin Elevator Unboxing
Griffin has sent their Elevator for out appraisal. This is a simple stand that raises your laptop on the desk to make it more comfortable to use.
Elevator’s sturdy brushed aluminum and minimal design goes great with any desk decor.
Elevator conforms to health and safety standards, making your laptop safer and more comfortable to use all day long. Healthycomputing.com, the premier source for office ergonomics, recommends positioning the top of your screen level with your eyes and sitting at least an arm’s length from the screen. Both of these key ergonomic standards are made possible using Elevator with an external keyboard.
BenQ EW2775ZH Eye-care monitor Review
This Benq EW2775 is a very standard looking full HD monitor, not 4k, a standard 1920 x 1080, a refresh rate of 60hz and a response time of 12ms. However, to separate if from the rest there is Brightness Intelligence Technology. This technology brightens certain areas of the screen to reduce strain on the user’s eyes when the areas are darkened.
In addition, there is Low Blue Light Plus. Some will have come to this review looking for this exclusively as it can be something of a Godsend. Working in the evenings in a darkened room, at the screen, blue-light causes can cause eye strain. There are various solutions out there, however, none are as effective as having the technology built into the hardware. But it’s always better to be wearing acuvue oasys 1 day while watching it.
Round the back are two HDMI inputs and a D-Sub connector (some might know this as a VGA connector.) There is a 3.5mm line-in audio jack so that you can connect audio to it when using the D-Sub connector, HDMI includes an audio line in the architecture. There are speakers on the back of the unit also, to make worse the weakest part of the screen.
How does the AMVA panel square up against the more popular TN/IPS approach these days at 1080p/60Hz? IPS is generally recommended for better colour accuracy, etc, but with a 3000:1 contrast the picture looks great. One of the main concerns about VA or AMVA is that there can be a problem of direct viewing issues. On the one hand, this is a screen that you would have facing you so the likelihood of having problems with view angle are limited. In reality, I found it had to really notice any reports of weird colour shifting when changing positions. The picture and colours remained steady.
TUV Rheinland Certification for Flicker-free boasting on the packaging means Technischer Überwachungsverein or Technical Inspection Association is a German organisation who specialises in validating the safety of products.
So how does the Low Blue Light Plus work in reality? This isn’t entirely new technology, or particularly groundbreaking. Samsung has ‘Warm2’, Dell has ‘Paper’ mode and other manufacturer have ‘Warm’ or ‘Reading’ settings built into their settings. However, it’s predictable that Benq has their own variant. Then of course, if your monitor does not have it you could manually reduce the blue colour channel manually. Not the easiest thing to do and who could be bothered fiddling with setting when you want to achieve this. There are software options however in reality nothing beats a button on the front of the screen that does it.
In reality, it does put a lot less strain on the user’s eyes and can be combined with software efforts like f.lux to make your computer perfectly fine to use at night. When using it I realised just how much of a difference it makes. Sitting up late at night typing reviews or editing videos the screen I have always felt the screen cutting my eyes to pieces. The Benq simply eased the discomfort and I hardly noticed.
The stand does not allow you to turn the screen to a portrait mode, a missed opportunity as this would make a great second screen at the price, and there is no mounting interface to make use of other solutions.
Another gripe is with the bezel. Certainly, it looks minimal when first out of the box. However, once up and running the screen does not reach all the way to the corner. Instead, there is a 3 mm black gap between the edge of the display and the bezel.
This Is a fine monitor in every sense of the word. Looking elegant on a desk, certain design flourishes extend a higher quality and the panel provides a crystal clear and acceptably bright picture. And that’s what counts at the end of the day.
Certainly the limitations of the mount will affect some, however, I wouldn’t imagine the vast majority would dismiss the quality of the panel and competitive price tag on this alone.
The Benq EW2775 opened my eyes to the world of blue light reduction and eye strain. From myths growing up about TVs turning your eyes square to the reality of eye strain disturbing sleep and headaches there this really is a perfect example of something that works better as a built-in feature. Certainly, you can download one of the software solutions and work that way, however, it when shopping for a screen it makes sense to just have it built in and this Benq is a decent screen, with some stand drawbacks, with an acceptable price tag.
Projector Room Episode 2: Close To The Edge
Listen using the player here:
Download Projector Room #2 (“Gareth Myles”,29/09/2016) manually (Size: 33MB, 46 minutes duration).
Projector Room
Show Notes – Show 2
Ted Salmon and Steve Litchfield with Gareth Myles
The Cutting Room Floor
Projector Room Google+ Community
Ted’s Top Ton – Ted’s 100 Favourite films, in no particular order!
Rob Anderson posted his Top 10 Films
John Campion posted his Top 10 Films
Which Remakes are better than Originals Discussion
Magic in the Moonlight, Ted’s Written Review
Community Members Suggest
The Shallows
– on Amazon UK
The Thing (1982) – on Amazon UK
Starring Role
Getting to know…Gareth Myles
Worth Watching
Reservoir Dogs – on Amazon UK
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – on Amazon UK
Curb Your Enthusiasm – on Amazon UK
Fargo (Film) – on Amazon UK – Fargo (TV)
Dial M for Murder – on Amazon UK
To Live and Die in L.A. – on Amazon UK
Film Picks
A Simple Plan – on Amazon UK
The Magnificent Seven – on Amazon UK
Links of Interest
PodHubUK – Chewing Gum for the Ears – Phones Show Chat – Whatever Works – AAWP
Tech Addicts UK Podcast – 28th September 2016 – Pixel, Oppo and Bluedio
Gareth Myles, Jay Garrett and Gavin Fabiani-Laymond
RSS Link: http://mobiletechaddicts.libsyn.com/rss
Show Notes
What have you been playing with?
Gareth:
- Archos Diamond Selfie
- Box of Box goodies. Smart Surge, Car adapter, Powerbank
- Griffin “Survivor” Power Bank
Gavin:
- BlackBerry DTEK50 smartphone review
- Apple iPhone 7 Plus 256gb Black & Apple Watch Series 2 First Impressions
- Apple iPhone 7 Plus – Camera Review Part 1
- Beats Solo 3 Wireless Headphones – First Impressions
- Honor 8 sapphire blue just arrived
Jay:
Discussion: Pixel and Pixel XL
Discussion: Amazon Echo finally reaches UK
Discussion: Non-explosive Note 7 coming to UK
http://stevelitchfield.com/podhubuk/
Main Show URL: www.techaddicts.uk
Join the Discussion: https://goo.gl/spaces/6FF6jraF9KHiPUyA6
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @garethmyles ; @gavinfabiani ; @GadgetyNewsCom ; @JayGarrett
Web: http://gavinsgadgets.com ; http://GadgetyNews.com
Google Plus: +garethmyles ; +gavinfabiani-laymond ; +JayGarrett
Griffin Survivor Power Pack Review
Never in the history of everything have we been more reliant, more dependent on electronic devices. Separation anxiety caused by being without your mobile phone is now a recognised stress condition! So, you left the house this morning, but you forgot to charge your phone – how will you ever know what your Instagram friends had for lunch or what the latest viral cat video is?
You need a mobile power pack!
Thankfully there are roughly a bazillion models available in every imaginable shape, size and capacity. But what happens if you run up mountains for fun, or a much more likely situation; you find yourself miles from home during the inevitable zombie apocalypse? Then you need the Griffin “Survivor” Power Bank. The secrets in the name folks!
Griffin touts this as the Chuck Norris of battery packs due to its super rugged features. It’s drop proof from a height of 2m (we’ll see about that), as well as being water, dust and zombie blood resistant thanks to being fully encased in a textured rubber exterior and port cover. The corners have a good bit of give in them to cushion impacts, so it’ll be useless as a bludgeon, but at least you’ll always be able to upload those skillful headshot videos for “Zombie kill of the week” contention.
On closer inspection, I noticed that the rubber isn’t actually bonded to the unit, but more like a form fitting case. Where the opening is for the ports, the rubber can easily be pulled away from the unit, so water could get in and get trapped in there. The port cover does fit snugly, but as pointed out in the unboxing video, the lifting tab does make it easily removable and I imagine it could be easily snagged, although, after a fortnight of bouncing around in the bottom of my bag, this only happened once. Mercifully I was not wading through a swamp or anything at the time and my office has only the usual type of pre-coffee zombies. I did try the drop test 3 times from around the 6-foot mark and the Survivor did indeed survive with only minor scuffing to the rubber housing. Really the only area of potential wear and tear vulnerability I see is the port cover and its little rubber retention piece.
The 10,050mAh Griffin is obviously larger than its peers because of the additional layers of protection, but it is still easily portable at 265g and the ability to just throw it into a bag and forget about it is a big bonus. Griffin makes several claims on the packaging – 2 hour charge time, 5 phone charges etc. In my (zombie-free) testing, I found that when using standard USB ports on my work PC or an iPhone plug, the charging took a lot longer. You’ll need to up the power supply if you want to get anywhere close to the 2-hour claim. Charging a two-year-old 1,810mAh iPhone 6 with a bog standard apple cable took around 90mins to get it from 15% to full, which was a little underwhelming. This is definitely a workhorse rather than a thoroughbred. I managed to get 4 full charges and it ran out of juice at 60% on the 5th. Depending on the size of your phone, your mileage may vary. It has the, now obligatory, tiny LED light for illuminating the 2 feet directly in front of you. These lights have become standard on battery packs now and are handy for when you are digging through a bag at night trying to find something, but really, little else.
Compared to its rivals, the performance is distinctly average. The equivalent capacity Anker will charge your device noticeably quicker and cost a heck of a lot less at £15. The Survivor is priced at £56 although it can be found for £47.50 on Amazon (mainland delivery only – sorry Northern Ireland) but it’s somewhat hard to justify such a massive price difference just for the additional ruggedisation. But, and it’s a big but – the Griffin comes with a lifetime warranty! A modern electronic device, one that is designed to take some abuse and it comes with a lifetime warranty!! Unheard of!!! From their site, Griffin state that if you can provide proof of purchase and are the original purchaser, they “will repair or replace the product if due to defective parts or workmanship; it does not perform as specified.” It does not cover “misuse” however. But rubber can perish and batteries will die, so it’s a bold, yet confidence inducing guarantee by Griffin and I suppose this has to be factored into the price. Unless of course, Griffin means the lifetime of the owner and they know something we don’t………which brings us back to zombies…….
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