Gareth
Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
Two days ago I ordered a Chromecast as Amazon was offering some limited international shipping of the Google Chromecast even though Google is not currently selling the device outside of the US. Shortly afterward users began to find that ordering had dried up. It now seems that Amazon has shut down the ability to get the Chromecast shipped anywhere outside the United States.
Those who did manage to order will see their orders fulfilled, hopefully. I have notification that my unit has shipped. I now wish I had order several, one for me and one for you.
A Chromebook is something many have not heard of, although many will have in the homes in the coming years. PC World have been selling them, quite quietly, for the last year or so and now they have listed the new HP variant of the low priced laptop running Chrome OS.
The Chromebook the hardly in the race for the best specc’d device on the market, more focused on providing the richest internet experience for the lowest price. Historically Chromebooks are somewhat hit or miss with users. Combining cheaper materials with an entirely online and cloud based service that put most off, a difficult adjustment for even the most hardened techie.
However, speak to any Chromebook user and they will easily big up their little back pack friendly tool. A Chromebook user has to be prepared to fully embrace Cloud computing, a constant search for a wireless connection and an OS still in it’s infancy but with a massive blank canvas on which to paint.
The improvements in the Chromebook 11 are all about design and fine-tuning. Google says this new Chromebook has a sturdier magnesium frame, so it won’t flex when you hold it up from one corner, and it manages to be a tenth of a pound lighter than the Samsung Chromebook, weighing in at just 2.3 pounds.
Google and HP are addressing some of the major weak points of the Samsung Chromebook, which was flimsy and had limited viewing angles with a robust build quality and a superior screen. In a nice touch, the new Chromebook charges via micro-USB, so Android phone or tablet users can use the same charger.
While those are nice improvements, the tech specs are unfortunately unchanged from last year’s model. The Samsung Chromebook was reported to struggle open a lot of browser tabs, lengthy online documents or playback higher quality Youtube videos. As with other Chromebooks, Google throws in 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
The HP runs on the same ARM-based Exynos 5250 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and two USB ports. Both the old and new laptops have 11-inch displays, each with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. The HP looses the SD card slot, a particularly mean decision.
PC World are selling the Chromebook for £229 and only list one of the four colour’s available.
Amazon.com is now offering the Chromecast for £35, with international availability including UK, Germany, and other European countries, as well as Australia. Amazon appears to be shipping Google’s streaming stick without restrictions around the world. Shipping costs and local taxes apply.
I have ordered mine this morning, Import duty was added into the price and the shipping was cheap, totalling $52 or £35. The media streaming device is due to arrive between the 22nd and 30th of October.
Chromecast Features
- Stream online video, music and more to your TV using your smartphone, tablet, or laptop
- Supports Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, and Google Play Movies and Music mobile apps as well as select content through Chrome browser
- Works with Android, iOS, Chrome for Mac, and Chrome for Windows
- Easy setup: Plug into any HDTV and connect to your home WiFi network
- Box includes Chromecast, HDMI extender, USB power cable, and power adapter
Supported Operating Systems
- Android 2.3 and higher
- iOS 6 and higher
- Windows 7 and higher
- Mac OS 10.7 and higher
- Chrome OS (Chromebook Pixel, additional Chromebooks coming soon).
UPDATE: Looks like Amazon have just closed this loophole – I cant place an order for a second one, however you can order from Amazon UK for £59.99
Phone 
Arena has apparently scooped a rumour of the price and release for the Nexus 5. The name Nexus 5 seems to be used exclusively and nothing else suggested which might be hints to it being rubbish of true depending on your stand point. The name Nexus 5 indicates either the fifth incarnation of the Nexus phone line or a 5” screen. At any rate the next Nexus will present problems if called the Nexus 6 and especially a Nexus 7.
As suspected there would be two variants, a 16GB LG Nexus 5 featuring a 2300mAh battery and will be priced at $299. The 32GB LG Nexus 5 will be powered by a 3000mAh cell and will be priced at $399. The Google Nexus 4 was $299 for the 8GB unlocked model when first launched, while the 16GB model was $349. Both of those units carried a 2100mAh cell.
What say ye? Nonsense, an educated guess or on the money?
It’s been a long time coming however Samsung’s bad boy is back on the block. This an updated display, refreshed specifications and a much needed redesign the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a winning combination. Here we take a look at the contents of the Note 3’s box and have a quick play around with one of the most feature packed phones of the year.
This is a long video so go grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy! 🙂
The official LG service manual for the new LG Nexus 5 has been posted online. It’s a 281 page document, filled with troubleshooting materials, circuit schematics and pin-outs, but it does include some of the all important specifications.
First of all, we have a line drawing giving us a better idea of the overall device design. Its the G2 with a little bit of design manipulation. There look is in keeping with the design aspects of thd Nexus 7 and also of the leaked shots we have been questioning for the last couple of months.
Here are those LG Nexus 5 specs we have been waiting for:
- 4.95-inch 1080p IPS LCD
- Snapdragon 800 quad-core CPU (MSM8947) at 2.3GHz
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB storage
- Wireless charging
- 8MP rear camera with OIS
- 1.3MP front camera
- 2300mAh battery
- Accelerometer; ambient light sensor; Compass; Gyroscope; Proximity; Pressure sensors
- HDMI out via Slimport
- Notification LED
- NFC
- Bluetooth 3
- A-GPS
- 802.11 b/g/n wifi
There is a lot the be excited about here and if Google includes their typically low price point we will be seeing the bargain of the year!
Gareth takes you on a brief tour of the classic 80’s 8-bit computer in this new series of videos featuring a loving tribute to tech from the past in a bite sized format.
The Amstrad CPC 464 was Gareth’s first home computer that started a passion for the cheap but somewhat reliable computer company, Gareth has put together a fairly modest collection over the years and hopes to give you a guided tour of each piece.
The CPC series was pitched against other home computers primarily used to play video games and enjoyed a strong supply of game software. The comparatively low price for a complete computer system with dedicated monitor, its high resolution monochrome text and graphic capabilities and the possibility to run CP/M software also rendered the system attractive for business users, which was reflected by a wide selection of application software.
The CPC models’ hardware is based on the Zilog Z80A CPU, complemented with either 64 or 128 kB of memory. Their computer-in-a-keyboard design prominently features an integrated storage device, either a compact cassette deck or 3″ floppy disk drive. The main units were only sold bundled with a colour or monochrome monitor that doubles as the main unit’s power supply. Additionally, a wide range of first and third party hardware extensions such as external disk drives, printers, and memory extensions, was available.
Gareth and Matt enjoy a warm and fuzzy recollection of days gone by in this the latest installment of the Retro Tech Addicts podcast. On this weeks show we talk about the first CD player launched this day in 1982, the T-Mobile G1 and our experiences with the early internet…
It has been several weeks since iOS 7 was finally released for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices but that launch hasn’t been without it’s problems and many new users have a complaint or two about the update.
Ignoring the fact that some users just don’t like the new visual styling or are finding it a little more difficult to use a locate things since the update, and ignoring too the fact that some users are complaining that the new parallax and zooming effects of the OS are making them sea sick… I’m talking about two specific problems that are being heavily reported; Battery Life and iMessage issues.
So taking the first, I support a number of users across a couple of business accounts and it seems that they all decided to update to iOS 7 the day it became available. The response to the update seems to have polarised opinion with some loving and some really hating the changes. After just a few days the complaints began rolling in to me, “My Battery isn’t lasting the day” or “I’m having to charge my phone a lot more often”.
Initially I took the complaints with a pinch of salt, wondering if it could be caused, in part, by the users playing with the new features of iOS 7 and therefor using their phones a bit more. Turns out though that they were not alone and reports of poor battery life post-update started to fill Twitter, Facebook and online forums.
There’s no real answer to this at the moment aside from being sure to turn of WiFi and Bluetooth when you don’t need them it’s a case of waiting for a further update from Apple to, hopefully, address this.
The second of the iOS 7 issues is with messages. Some users are reporting that they are unable to send messages while others seem unable to receive. My own experience of this is with my iPhone 5 sending several messages to one person and seeing the notification at the top state ‘sending 3 of 3…’ to then see a message failed warning followed by replies to those messages from the recipient.
The messaging issue seems to be affecting some carriers more than others, Vodafone from what I can see being one of the most affected while my Everything Everywhere colleagues seem to be oblivious to such issues.
Apple have already released an update to iOS 7.0.2 but this primarily addresses a security issue rather than solving the issues above. iOS 7.0.3 is due out next week so the hope is that we’ll see some improvement with messaging and battery life in that update.
What are your experiences? Please share with us below!
In a Samsung high end update roadmap, Android 4.3 should soon be coming to the Galaxy S4, S3 and Note 2 according to French carrier SFR who released a roadmap table with information about their devices’ upcoming OTA updates. According to SFR, the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3 should be getting Android 4.3 Jelly Bean sometime in November or December, while the Galaxy S4 is set to receive it in October.
We would like to think other carriers would be looking at updates in and around the same time scale.
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