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Archive for 2014

By Gareth January 24, 2014 Read More →

Fancy, new stands docks for the Nexus 7

Asus recently put some cool Google Nexus 7 2013 Edition accessories up on their site. For now it looks like its for information/future purposes only because they didn’t share a purchase date or pricing. Both of the devices are charging docks/stands for the Nexus 7 2013 Edition. One is wired and the other is wireless. Here’s a breakdown of info on each device straight from Asus’ website.

Wired Charging Dock: ASUS Dock for Nexus 7 (2013)

Charge the Nexus 7 (2013) while in use, making it perfect for use on a desktop or counter.
Slide-in design props up the Nexus 7 (2013) in either landscape or portrait orientation.
HDMI output to view HD 1080p content on an HDTV or LCD display (HDMI cable not included)
*Only compatible with Nexus 7 (2013)
Positions the Nexus 7 (2013) perfectly for you to watch movies, play games, or surf the web, or even type notes using a wireless Bluetooth keyboard.

Wireless Charging Dock: ASUS PW100 Wireless Charging Stand for Nexus 7 (2013)

Elegant Pyramid design with delicate texture and compact outlook
With Qi standard, compatible with most tablets or cellphones which also support Qi.
Wireless makes charging easy, built-in the status LED design

Even though they haven’t shared any pricing or availability details just yet, overseas the wireless dock has been selling for approximately $50 USD equivalent. We will keep an eye out for more details, but feel free to chime in on this thread if you see something before we do.

Posted in: News, Tablets

By Gareth January 23, 2014 Read More →

The Nexus 8 this summer?

The latest Android tablet rumour is that Google is planning to release a Nexus 8 tablet in the middle of this year. Supposedly, the success of the Apple iPad Mini has forced Google to take notice and offer a compelling alternative in that size range. Some also say that the Nexus 7 (2013) is loosing ground to the wave of cheaper 7″ tablets hitting the market over Christmas.

An interesting side note about this rumoured Nexus 8 tablet is that Google is mulling over using Intel’s Bay Trail architecture instead of NVIDIA or Qualcomm this time. Whilst Samsung seem to be top pick for a refresh of the Nexus 10 later this year, LG covering things phone-side, Asustek is the likely favourite to produce this. The LG G Pad 8.3 was a killer upon release, even having a Play Store variant. Lenovo will also be a strong contender as their contribution to the Android hardware world has be fairly impressive. Google will have a tough decision of who to go with.

Posted in: News, Tablets
Tags: Nexus 8

By Gareth January 23, 2014 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 218: Best In Class, honestly!

Gareth and Matt are here with another UK update on the mobile front.

This week we discuss the Motorola Moto G and Gareth rants about the malware he found in Google Chrome.

Featuring Gareth, Matt and Phil

Direct Download

iTunes

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Posted in: News, Podcast

By Chris Vesey January 23, 2014 Read More →

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Review

First we had the Nokia 808 Pureview Symbian smartphone with a beastly 41 megapixel camera, then Nokia came out, all guns blazing, with the Nokia Lumia 1020. This time toting Windows Phone 8 which you either love or hate…and Samsung clearly saw the relative success of the 1020 in particular and thought ‘ooh let’s have a go ourselves’ and you know what…they did have a go with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and its 16 megapixel 10X optical zoom camera slapped on the back.

So, you may be wondering, why? And do we really need such a device, or better yet why would anyone want a device such as the S4 Zoom?

Well to find out the surprising results of my testing and to have all of your questions answered I suggest you read on but I warn you…it’s going to be a long ride…

Posted in: Phones, Reviews
Tags: galaxy, S4 Zoom, Samsung

By Matt January 22, 2014 Read More →

5 Tips for Getting Your Road Warriors the Best Equipment

In 2009, the average American drove 2,078 miles for work-related business, according to the National Household Travel Survey. If your employees are constantly on the go, equipping them with the right tools ensures the pace of business goes as smoothly as possible. Start with these five tips to cover your bases.

1. Pick light, portable work computers.

Your office may have clunky desktops and oversized monitors. Your on-the-road employees need something much lighter for travel; making them carry six-pound laptops simply won’t do. Consider a tablet for your on-the-road employees if they’re likely to be using the computer to consume (but not create) content. If your employees need to create or edit documents, try an ultrabook or a Mac Air, super lightweight laptops that will get the job done. Ensure that any device you choose has a lengthy battery life, since road warriors may not always have access to a charger. Also provide employees with cloud storage, so they can easily access any needed office materials while they are traveling for work.

Posted in: Editorial

By Matt January 21, 2014 Read More →

LogMeIn discontinues free version

Users of LogMeIn Free will be getting emails today letting them know that the free version of the remote access product is to be discontinued. If you already have the email, no it’s not a hoax or phishing scam, the free service really is going away from today!

Users are being told that they must now sign up for the paid-for Pro account in order to keep using LogMeIn.

I’m sure that most of us can understand why the free service would be withdrawn, after all, it’s a very good product that was not drastically different from the Pro version, which will be staying. However, the worrying and irritating thing here is that there’s very little notice being given, it’s not from from TODAY and there’s only a 7-day grace period to get yourself sorted out!

After ten years, LogMeIn’s free remote access product, LogMeIn Free, is going away. We will be unifying our portfolio of free and premium remote access products into a single offering. This product will be a paid-only offering, and it will offer what we believe to be the best premium desktop, cloud and mobile access experience available on the market today. We will be notifying those impacted by the change in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, we wanted to take a minute to explain the change and help users of LogMeIn’s access products better understand what this means for them.

Notification period

Impacted users will be notified via email and in-product messages. While messaging started today, users will be given 7 days to make a purchase decision about LogMeIn Pro. To be clear, the 7-day grace period starts when you next login to the LogMeIn service.

Posted in: Apps & Games, News

By Gareth January 21, 2014 Read More →

Just how safe is Chrome?

A big selling point of Chrome and more importantly Chrome OS is that Chrome extensions are meant to be clean and simple. A bragging community will tell you that you are safer than any other browser or Operating System. A bold statement that will surely have the sceptics investigating. What have they turned up? Problematic extensions!

Google is making a move to ban obtrusive extensions, because sometimes these can harm your Chrome experience. There is another recent threat Google is dealing with, though. Companies have been acquiring extensions from developers in order to turn them into adware clients. Google has banned a couple of these extensions: Add to Feedly and Tweet this Page. These were once popular extensions that helped users simplify some of the more routine online tasks.

Who is to blame? Are we seeing coders pushing extensions into the Google Store clean only to turn around a harvest vital information for the highest bidder? Not quite. In Add to Feedly’s case, the original developer, Amit Agarwal, was offered “a four digit” amount for his extension, which only took about an hour to code. Of course, he accepted and the transaction went smoothly. He regretted his decision when the new owner pushed an update to the extension. The new owner turned his helpful extension into an ad-serving machine. These were not regular ads either, they worked in the background and replaced links on every website! Original links were replaced by affiliate links without anyone’s knowledge.

How safe is Chrome?

Google’s new policies will help make this all better, though. If we have learned one thing, over and over again, it is that there is always a way for an OS to be corrupted by nefarious source. Google have been quick to act, have learned a lot from the experience and we can only hope that the whole Chrome architecture will return to the safe and reliable service we have grown so accustomed to.

Posted in: Apps & Games, Desktop Computing, Editorial, Laptops, News
Tags: Google Chrome

By Matt January 20, 2014 Read More →

Motorola Moto G hands-on video

The Motorola Moto G has been making the news quite a lot lately and its popularity seems to be surging. There’s now the Google Play Edition available for $179 for the 8GB model so it’s perhaps easy to see why this Android smartphone is being snapped up so quickly.

It may not have the best specification on offer but with a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and a 720 x 1280 display, the Motorola Moto G is beginning to redefine entry-level.

As you know, we love to start out by unboxing a new products but our Motorola Moto G review unit is a beta device so arrived in a simple envelope. So our unboxing becomes an un-enveloping and I go hands-on with the Moto G, take a look at the hardware and then dig at the OS a little.

Full review up soon too.

Posted in: News, Phones, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: Moto G, Motorola

By Gareth January 19, 2014 Read More →

The ZTE Blade Q Mini

ZTE and Virgin Media announce the arrival of the hotly anticipated ZTE Blade Q series in the UK. The 4’’ ZTE Blade Q Mini, which is available exclusively with Virgin Media, has been snapped up by leading retailers Sainsbury’s and Argos and will be available to purchase initially from Argos for £59.99.

ZTE have been quite busy releasing new devices recently and this new Blade Q Mini promises to deliver better specs for a bargain price. Howerver, with just 4GB of internal memory you’ll definitely want to invest in a MicroSD memory card.

You can see the full press release below and we hope to have some hands-on time with the ZTE Blade Q Mini soon.

Posted in: News, Phones
Tags: ZTE

By Gareth January 18, 2014 Read More →

Moto Maker Motorola Android Tablet

How does a Moto Maker customized Motorola Android tablet sound to you? That’s the idea that Motorola is supposedly mulling over right now. Here’s a quote with the details,

Motorola Android Tablet Quote:

CEO Dennis Woodside unveiled in a recent interview that not only Motorola is considering a tablet, but that Moto Maker, the service used to customize the Moto X, might branch out: we are looking at tablets. A lot of people have asked us to build a tablet using Moto Maker, to customize their tablet. There might be a day we do that, but the bigger opportunity for us is the five billion people without smartphones, the CEO added. Of course, Motorolas top priority, aside from the five billion people without smartphones, is, as Woodside puts it, mobile internet: We have to decide and convince consumers we stand for something and what we are focused on is the mobile internet.

It doesn’t sound like he is too committed to the tablet plan, but that could obviously change at a moment’s notice. What do you guys think of this? If they had the same competitive pricing and innovative features found in the Moto X and/or Moto G could Motorola surge back into a strong Android tablet position?

Posted in: News, Rumours, Tablets
Tags: Moto Maker, Motorola