More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.
Chinese company, ZTE, have been around for a really long time (in technology terms) but only rather more recently have they been a name that the average consumer would recognise.
Yesterday ZTE reached their 15th Anniversary and also the 500 millionth handset sold milestone.
Full press release below.
I’ve spoken about the HTC One quite a lot lately and wanted to turn to the camera now.
I have been using the HTC One as my main device for around a month. I knocked my iPhone 5 off the top spot and that has now been relegated to being the backup phone that I carry.
As we’ve discussed here in the past, HTC decided not to go the route that many other manufacturers have, and cram in more and more megapixels in to their camera sensors. Instead HTC used a sensor with ‘only’ 4 megapixels, way below almost everything else on the market.
However, HTC have then used a sensor where each individual pixel is considerably larger. Larger pixels mean that each one can capture more light. More light means better pictures. HTC call this an UltraPixel sensor.
So what does this actually work in practice?
While there has been plenty of promise surrounding the launch of the new HTC One, the new smartphone’s camera has left quite a few people puzzled.
This is because whereas the typical flagship smartphone on the market today comes complete with a 13 megapixel camera, the HTC One is instead packed with a 4 megapixel camera.
Such a large drop has naturally led to people querying whether they will be missing out if they opt for this device over one of its many rivals. After all, while owners will be able to improve the aesthetic appeal of their new phone by getting their hands on a range of excellent HTC One accessories – Mobile Madhouse already has a great selection on hand to celebrate the new smartphone’s launch, highlighted by its wide variety of quirky cases – there will still be the issue of the standard equipment not quite being up to par.
Symon Whitehorn, a former Kodak executive who is now the director of special projects at HTC, has attempted to quell such arguments in an interview with Computerworld.
He acknowledged: “We think of it as a forward-looking step. It’s allowed us to do a lot more things with the camera than we’d otherwise have been able to do – the first one being the low-light performance, which really is quite special. You get this absolutely natural tone. The camera takes pictures the way you see them, the way you see your moments.”
Mr Whitehorn also stressed that there is a time and a place for cramming lots of megapixels into one device, with larger gadgets usually perfect for utilising this strategy with great results.
However, he believes that trying to get more megapixels into a smartphone’s camera while reducing the size of its sensor, as well as the entire size of the device, is having a detrimental effect on the quality of a phone’s photos.
“For 99 percent of what people do with their images, they actually don’t need the high megapixel count. We’d rather give them the sort of performance that is real-world usable,” Mr Whitehorn added to underline that more does not necessarily equal better.
Posted by: Matt
Just a few hours ago you may have seen news that Star Trek legend and actor William Shatner will appear with a role in the new Star Wars Episode VII. This is something of a turn around after Shatner went on record calling director JJ Abrams a ‘pig’ for hogging both Star Wars and Star Trek.
I am finally pleased to announce that I too will have a role in the up coming Star Wars movie playing the part of a Astromech Droid called UR-DooDoo.
Sadly it wont be the first time that a Star Wars movie was full of Shat.
Posted by: Matt
Ok so the title of this post might be a bit extreme but HTC has been a company that I have followed for the past 12 years.
I’ve been using HTC devices even before HTC were selling devices with their own brand name on them. My ‘smartphone’ obsession began long before the term smartphone was in common use. I first got my hands on the HTC Canary, being sold as the Orange SPV here in the UK, in November of 2002. By today’s standard it was an extremely basic phone but at the time it was groundbreaking with its 176×220 colour screen, 132MHz CPU, SD Card reader, 16MB RAM and running Windows Smartphone 2002. It could run some of the existing Windows CE apps but there was suddenly a raft of apps that began to flood the scene soon after. You could even use MSN Messenger!
This was all at a time when many other phones were still using mono LCD screens.
There have been many other iterations of the SPV range and some of these began to spill over to other mobile networks here in the UK and beyond.
It wasn’t until June 2007 with the launch of the HTC Touch, powered by Windows Mobile 6.0, that HTC really began to drive forward with the use of their own brand name and have now, just under 6 years later, really established themselves as a global player in the smartphone market.
Over the past 11 years I’ve been lucky enough to be able to use and/or own almost every device that HTC made. Some have been amazing, those that stick in my mind most include the HTC Touch Diamond, TyTN and TyTN 2 and the Desire. At the moment I am super-impressed with the HTC One and really enjoy using it as my main daily phone, easily knocking the iPhone 5 off that spot.
Over the next few weeks I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the HTC phones that I still own. Feel free to fire over your requests and of course share your own experiences!
Posted by: Matt
HTC has just appointed a new head of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Phil Blair. Philip was previously product director for Europe Previous roles as Head of Handset Commercialisation at Orange, and as a consultant with PA Consulting.
HTC, a global leader in smartphone innovation, has today announced the appointment of Phil Blair as its new Head of EMEA. Previously Vice President of Product and Operations for the region, Phil has been with the company since it launched in EMEA in 2005 and has worked closely with Florian Seiche as co-founder during that time to grow the business to where it is today. Replacing Florian, who has made the decision to leave the company, Phil will be responsible for leading HTC’s strategic growth across EMEA, in addition to heading up the UK arm of the business. Phil’s depth of experience in the smartphone market, intrinsic understanding of mobile products and long-standing relationships with key industry partners put him in a strong position to create new opportunities for the business, taking HTC into its next phase of growth. We would like to thank Florian for his commitment to the company and to wish him well in his future endeavours.
Posted by: Matt
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Fancy a bigger phone? Read our extensive review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Just a few days ago Apple released an update for its iOS devices taking them to 6.1.3 and many users have been notified of the available update on their devices.
This recent update was intended to fix a security hole that came to light in the previous version of the OS and that could allow someone to bypass the passcode and access the iPhone app and the photos stored upon the device.
Since applying the update to their phones, many users are complaining that the battery life has been dramatically reduced and Apply has, apparently, been inundated with complaints to that effect. There have also been countless tweets also in criticism of this issue.
Furthermore it has since come to light that there is a new bug within iOS 6.1.3 which, although different to the one in previous versions, still allows someone to bypass the passcode and access the iPhone app.
For anyone wishing to Jailbreak their device the most recent update puts a stop to that also.
So, overall, the advice is not to update!!
Posted by: Matt
After something of a delay the LG Optimus G has landed today and is now in stock with the guys over at eXpansys for just £469.99 SIM Free (inc delivery).
EXpansys have the EU version but comes with a UK adapter and valid EU-wide warranty.
There has been a lot of activity surrounding Sony’s latest smartphone, the Sony Xperia Z, with Posters, TV and magazine commercials all over the place. Much is being made of the IP57 water and dust resistant features and this seems to be the main focus of the adverts we’re seeing at the moment.
There is a trend for phones with larger and higher resolution screens and the Xperia Z is perpetuating this with its 5 inch full HD screen. There are only a few other phones on the market at the moment with such high resolution displays, this one crams in 441 pixels per inch.
Design-wise the Xperia Z may be one of those love-it-or-hate-it phones. It has very square and straight sides that starkly contrast what the likes of HTC and Samsung are doing with their more curvy offerings. The Xperia Z certainly puts the slab in to the slab format.
In the video below you can see my looking at the hardware, checking out the OS and performing a quick benchmark. Have a look to find out how well that 1.5Ghz quad-core CPU performs!
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