Archive for May, 2009

By May 23, 2009 Read More →

PictTweet for iPhone released – tweet your doodles !

This app is rudimentary and annoyingly primitive, but it works! You can doodle stuff and tweet it immediately to Twitter (with doodles being uploaded to Twitpic service). It is however free so nobody should complain…

Here is how it looks like:

Posted in: Phones
By May 23, 2009 Read More →

SanDisk Sansa Express Review

Sound quality, ease of use, capacity and size are all attributes that you would consider when buying an MP3 player. It seems from previous posts from my fellow reviewers that SanDisk’s Sansa range have been a hit and match up to these attributes.

Sansa_front The SanDisk Sansa Express

Through this review we will see if Sandisk have done it again and brought out yet another impressive MP3 player with the Sansa Express – or have they dropped their standards?

 

What’s in the Box:

  • SanDisk Sansa Express MP3 player
  • Headphones (3.5mm plug)
  • Quickstart guide
  • CD (with PDF guide and other software)
  • Sansa stickers
  • Music downloads leaflet
  • Important info leaflet
  • USB extension cable
  • Lanyard

For more info check out Matt’s unboxing video 

 

SanDisk Sansa Express specification:

  • 1GB internal memory (2GB model available)
  • Dimensions (W x D x H) 1 in x 0.7 in x 3.1 in
  • microSD slot to expand your capacity and provide portability of music
  • Direct USB connector-No cable needed 
  • New sleek, compact design      
  • With this MP3 player you can enjoy music & FM radio
  • Built-in Mic for Voice Recording
  • Four-line, bright OLED screen
  • Digital FM tuner, with FM recording
  • Simple to use controls for fast device interface navigation
  • Supports MP3, WMA, protected WMA, WAV, and Audible files
  • 15-hour, rechargeable lithium polymer battery life

 

General:

Front – The four line OLEB display can bee seen in this picture. There is also the playback controls which act as a navigation D-pad when in the menus

sansa-express-main SanDisk Sansa Express – front view

 

Bottom – the volume buttons are located here.

Sansa_side_a SanDisk Sansa Express – bottom view

 

Top – The power button and hold/lock switch can be seen here.

Sansa_side_bSanDisk Sansa Express – top view

 

Left – The USB connection is located on this side and it covered by the cap shown here. The lanyard attaches to the cap.

Sansa_connector SanDisk Sansa Express – left view

 

Right – The microphone, 3.5mm headphone socket, space for MicroSD card (up to 8GB)

Sansa_end_viewSanDisk Sansa Express – right view

 

Highlights:

  • Looks stylish
  • Lightweight
  • Long battery life
  • FM recorder
  • Inbuilt USB – no USB cable required

Lowlights:

  • Unable to delete files/track via the player itself

 

Review:

SanDisk’s Sansa Express is a very affordable MP3 player. Now, normally you can following the saying, “You get what you pay for”, but not in this case. The Sansa Express looks like it would be more expensive – a great looking gadget!

The OLED display is completely flush to front of the MP3 player which really adds to the look and the minimalist buttons make it quite stylish.

Matt mentioned on the unboxing video that the lanyard is made of wire (like earphone wire) and with the way it is packaged its all creased up. It’s actually not a problem though as although the player is very lightweight it is still heavy enough that the lanyard straightens out no problem. The earphones on the other hand. the wire on these don’t straighten out as easily. But I wasn’t bothered as I didn’t really use them that much. I’ll explain why later.

This model is only 1GB but it’s actually enough space to fit up to 250 songs (based on 4mb files). You can also expand the memory by using a MicroSD card. It will take up to an 8GB card which will give you loads of space.

The functions on the Sansa Express are pretty basic and you can’t expect fancy graphics such as album art as the OLED screen is only dual colour and has 4 lines for text. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The details on the display are clear and tell you what you need to know.

Transferring music from a pc to the Sansa Express is extremely easy and the menu on the player is simple to navigate through.

It offers an FM radio which you can actually record. I found this a really good idea and quite handy. You can also preset up to 20 stations. There is also an inbuilt microphone which you can use for voice recording. I played about with the FM recorder and voice recorder which worked nicely. The only thing is that you can only delete the files by connecting it to a pc.

You can create an on-the-go playlist so you can sort out the songs you really want to hear. You can create the playlist on the player itself or plug it into a pc and sort the files that way.

The Sansa Express offers a variety of EQ settings (normal, pop, rock, jazz, classical, and custom). The sound quality of the earphones sounded ok to me at first, but then I tried my own ones. This made me realise that the Sansa earphones’ quality actually wasn’t that great. It wasn’t terrible and I could live with them, but using higher quality earphones shows the high sound quality that the Sansa Express offers.

The battery life on this player is brilliant! This is probably due to the fact that the Sansa Express doesn’t offer a very fancy graphics heavy display to I guess it’s a nice compromise.

 

Conclusion:

This is a great MP3 player, and the price of it makes it that bit better. It’s stylish, lightweight, easy to use and you can have up to a total of 9GB of space (8GB MicroSD card + 1GB internal memory).

You may want to use your own set of earphones as the bundled ones don’t really do the player justice.

In general, the Sansa Express is another hit for SanDisk.

 

 

Reviewed by: Emma

Posted in: Reviews
By May 23, 2009 Read More →

Review U2O iUP 13200 High-Capacity Laptop External Battery Pack

imageWe love guest reviews here at Mobile Tech Addicts, especially when they come as good as this one. If your in the market for an external battery power source that can handle just about every device you throw at it you must check out this review. Thanks Ian for sharing this:-

If you’re reading this, chances are you own at least one bit of kit that relies on battery power (and we’re not talking Duracells either!). Whether it’s your mobile phone, your MP3 player, digital camera, video camera, laptop or netbook, everything we use regularly needs the juice, and with devices like netbooks and the iPhone being used on an ever increasing basis, more and more of us are having to organise our daily routines with our technology over one thing: where can I get power?

Posted in: Phones
By May 22, 2009 Read More →

OffMaps for iPhone released – offline map app

image We are traversing, every single day, the latest additions to app store so that you don’t have to. Some of the new apps are simply vomit inducing, some others are so trivial that one wonders why would anybody even consider doing something so primitive. One of the recently released apps that stands out in functionality is OffMaps. Since most travellers who own an iPhone clearly own one of the flat rate data plans (tariffs), so data connection fees are not an issue…. as long as you don’t travel abroad where huge international roaming fees are being incurred. Particularly in Europe where a flight across the continent costs less than a ride by taxi to another city district, this issue is important. And here comes the OffMaps to the rescue that allows you to download maps before travelling! What a brill idea, innit!?

The holy grail of mapping applications has arrived to iPhone! It’s cheap, it’s offline, it works.

Here is how this app looks like:

Posted in: Phones
By May 22, 2009 Read More →

eXpansys Friday deals 22nd May

These offers are only available through the links below which are active between 11am and 4pm UK time on Friday the 22nd of May*. Normal pricing will precede this time and resume at 4pm on Friday.

image Glofiish X800 Smartphone
Normally £214.99 Now £189.99 Save £25
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=182784&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image TomTom XL IQ In-Car SatNav UK and Ireland Maps
Normally £204.99 Now £189.99 Save £15
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=182790&partner=tracyadndmatt

 

 

 

image TriSpecs Stereo Fashion Eyewear Bluetooth Technology
Normally £149.99 Now £129.99 Save £20
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=182786&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image Samsung B2100 Xplore Tough Phone
Normally £119.99 Now £104.99 Save £15
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=182788&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image BenQ E72 Windows Mobile Smartphone
Normally £99.99 Now £84.99 Save £15
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=173343&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

image 3 Pay As You Go Sim Card 2-Pack £30 Starter Top-Up
Normally £40.00 Now £25.00 Save £15
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=182005&partner=tracyandmatt

 

 

 

These deals are available on Friday the 22nd of May 2009 between 11am and 4pm by following the links above only. Normal pricing will apply outside of these hours*.

*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 May 21, 2009 Read More →

Another Microsoft Job ad confirms Zune Mobile services for Windows Phones

image Another job posting from Microsoft has been posted today  which specifically mentions Windows Phone and Zune Services. Windows Mobile 7 cannot come soon enough, now all Microsoft have to do is unravel the international release of Zune services as up until this point it is a US only service. Thanks to Tom for the tip off.

The full advert is after the break.

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

Video look at the Samsung Jack

image No Ozzy Ozbourne in sight this time, but the guys at Mobile Tech Review have put together a video showing us around the just announced Samsung Jack. Key features of the Jack include 256 MB RAM, a 3.2 megapixel camera with video-capture capabilities, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) to connect with home or office networks, and builtin aGPS for use with AT&T Navigator, AT&T Navigator Global Edition and other GPS-based applications for personal and business use.

Take a look at the video after the break.

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

O2 XDA Guide unboxing video

XDA Guide is the name O2 have given to the HTC Touch Cruise 09. O2 released the handset a while ago in Europe and have just now released it here in the UK. The O2 XDA Guide or Touch Cruise 09 is a nice looking handset with a decent amount of RAM/ROM and is the first handset to have HTC’s ‘Footprints’ feature.

The new HTC Touch Cruise is the first mobile phone to offer HTC Footprints, an application experience that enables people to permanently chronicle their special moments by capturing a digital postcard on their phone. Once captured, Footprints provides the ability to take notes and an audio clip of that favourite restaurant or special place while identifying its specific geographical location. In addition to identifying each postcard with its specific GPS co-ordinates, Footprints also auto-names each postcard with its general location or area.

The O2 XDA Guide (HTC Touch Cruise 09)

The O2 XDA Guide (HTC Touch Cruise 09)

 

The nice thing about buying an XDA device with GPS from O2 is that they always provide you with a car mount and in-car charger for the handset so that you can use it as an effective in-car Cat Nav.

The HTC Touch Cruise 09 is exclusive to O2 as the XDA Guide – you can’t even buy it in a SIM-free guise in Europe which is a bit of a shame for non-O2 customers.

Steve is putting together the review of the O2 XDA Guide for us at the moment and he’ll have more to say about the Footprints feature. Have a look at the unboxing video below to get a taste of what the handset has to offer.

 

O2 XDA Guide (HTC Touch Cruise 09) unboxing video

 

O2 XDA Guide (HTC Touch Cruise 09) Specification:

  • Processor – Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz
  • Operating System – Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
  • Memory – ROM: 512 MB/RAM: 256 MB
  • Dimensions – 102 X 53.5 X 14.5 mm (4.02 X 2.11 X 0.57 inches)
  • Weight – 103 grams (3.63 ounces) with battery
  • Display – 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  • HTC TouchFLO™
  • 4-Way Navigation Wheel with Enter button
  • HTC Footprints™ button
  • Internal GPS antenna
  • A-GPS capable (service provided by Google)
  • Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for stereo wireless headsets
  • Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
  • HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one), full-speed USB 2.0
  • 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
  • Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery Capacity: 1100 mAh
  • Talk time – Up to 400 minutes for GSM
  • Standby time – Up to 330 hours for GSM
  • microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
  • Includes proprietary in-car holder
  • Photo geotagging

 

Note that in the video I mentioned that the camera was auto-focus where in fact it is fixed-focus.

 

Posted by: Matt

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

Only 200,000 Palm Pre’s born

 

palm-pre-sold-out If you’re planning to be among the first owners of the Palm Pre, you better be an early riser because it seems that there will only be a limited amount of stock available when it goes on sale next month. Here’s a quote from Reuters of Sprint CEO Dan Hesse discussing the Palm Pre:

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

iDcrm for iPhone released – Microsoft Dynamics CRM client

Who says that iPhone is no good for enterprise mobility? While it is true that Apple stores still are using handheld devices powered by Microsoft Windows, and while it is true that in many enterprises Windows-powered handhelds with integrated bar code scanners are widely used, with iPhone OS 3.0 which offers an interface to hardware accessories – this all might change. Furthermore purely software-based solutions or just apps, are also bringing enterprise mobility to iPhone.

iDcrm costs 200 bucks so it is not an app for everybody, but if your company is using Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Microsoft’s enterprise software for customer relationship management, then this app might come in handy. Here is how it looks like:

Posted in: Phones
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