Author Archive: Gareth

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.

rss feed

By October 28, 2013 Read More →

Which budget Tablet is for you?

Christmas is coming and everyone and their mother is launching a tablet it appears and it’s a race to the bottom. As much as the big names like to push their top end tablets, filling them full of every technical goodie known to man, the other end of the market is just as big a battle. Finding the right mix of tech for the lowest price tag is arguably more of a challenge.

This year sees a few new names entering the ring. However, rebranding does seem to be in play this year. Tesco are pushing an Archos tablet and Argos a Bush. Where is your money best spent? We have taken to time to put as many of the plausible candidates into a table for your convenience.

Screen Size

Res

RAM

CPU

Battery

Camera

Storage

Expandable

Connections

Weight

Price
CC-KS._V354990838_Amazon Kindle Fire HD

7″

1280 x 800 (216 ppi)

1GB

Dual-Core 1.5 GHz

10 hours

None

8 or 16GB

GPS,microUSB

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

345 grams

£119
CC-KT._V353539374_Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7

7″

1920 x 1200 (323 ppi)

2GB

Quad-Core 2.2 GHz

11 hours

Front-facing HD camera

16, 32 or 64GB

GPS, microUSB

Bluetooth,

Wi-Fi, optional 4G

303 grams

£199
main_letsWatch
Tesco Hudl

7″

1440×900 (242ppi)

1GB

1.5GHz A9 Quad-Core

9 hours

3Mp rear camera + front-facing 2Mp

16GB

microSD, HDMI out, microUSB,

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

370 grams

£119.99
(something about Club Card points also)
xl_avoca-7-624 Carphone Warehouse Avoca

7″

800 x 480 (133ppi)

512MB

Dual-Core 1GHz

8 hours

0.3Mp front facing

8GB

microSD
Mini USB

Wi-Fi

Unknown

£99.99 (currently discounted to £49)
Argos-MyTablet
Argos MyTablet

7″

1024×600 (169ppi)

1GB

Dual-Core 1.6GHz

5 hours

2MP + front-facing 0.3MP

8GB

microSD, HDMI out, microUSB,

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Unknown

£99.99
lenovo-tablet-ideatab-a3000-front
Lenovo Ideapad

7”

1024×600

1 GB

Quad-Core 1.2GHz

7 hours

5.0 MP + 0.3mp front-facing

16GB

A-GPS, microUSB, microSD

Bluetooth, WiFi

399 grams

 £130

GalaxyTab3-Press-04-580-100
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0

 

7”

 1024 x 600 (169ppi) 1GB dual-core 1.2GHz 10 hours 3.2MP + 8GB or 16GB microSD Wi-Fi,

Bluetooth,
optional 4G

300 grams

 £160
329835-google-nexus-7-2013 Google Nexus 7

7″

1920 x 1200 (323ppi)

2GB

Quad-Core 15GHz

6 hours

5MP rear, 1.2 MP front

16GB or 32GB

GPS

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optional 4G

340 grams

from £199

ipad-mini-retina-1

iPad mini 2

7.9”

2048 x 1536 (324ppi)

1GB

Dual core A7 1.3GHz

10 hours

5MP rear,1.2 MP front

16GB

HDMI out, A-GPS

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optional 4G

331 grams

from £269

There are many, many more to choose from. If you are purchasing for  a child, the Archos Childpad seems a logical choice for parental control at a great price from Toys R Us. For those not in the know when it comes to tablets and merely looking for a quick thrill the Hudl seems to check all boxes at a low price. Someone with more experience would see the Kindle HDX or the Nexus 7 as the most viable options. Of course the iPad Mini with Retina display enters there as the money not quite so limited token choice.

Posted in: Tablets
By October 27, 2013 Read More →

Google Nexus 7 (2013) unboxing video

Google nexus 7As described as the tablet bargain of the year on our Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast Google’s ground-breaking 7” tablet is back with a refresh. What was already a pretty tidy package for the money now has even more under the hood for casual user alongside the hardcore Android devotee.

Whilst the Nexus 7 2013 version has been around since July of this year we figured you would be best having a look at it before the new Retina iPad Mini debuts in that all important run up to Christmas. With a price tag ranging from £199 for the 16GB, to £299 for the 32GB LTE variant the Nexus 7 packs some serious horsepower and offers great value for money when you consider the specification you get.

Here we are with Matt’s Nexus 7 unboxing video to start us off and then I’ll be doing a full review, and a comparison to other 7″ tablets, shortly after.

Posted in: Tablets, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: , , ,
By October 25, 2013 Read More →

Amazon.co.uk Appstore gives away free app bundle worth over £15

wpid-2013-10-25-12-37-24.pngFor today only, Amazon Appstore is giving away six free apps worth over £15 for free!

Including everything from popular game Angry Birds, to interactive puzzles and an app that turns your tablet into an interactive whiteboard; the bundle is part of the ‘Free App of the Day’ initiative, which enables customers to download a paid app or game for free every day.

All ‘Free Apps of the Day’ and bundles are specially selected and customers can discover these directly from the Amazon Appstore on Kindle Fire tablet devices.

A full list of the free apps including in the bundle include…

  • Splashtop Whiteboard (RRP £6.16)
  • Fishdom Premium (RRP £3.19)
  • Angry Birds Star Wars Premium HD (RRP £1.99)
  • Toca Builders (RRP £1.93)
  • The Room (RRP £1.49)
  • Diner Dash Deluxe (RRP £0.63)
Posted in: Apps & Games, News
Tags: , ,
By October 25, 2013 Read More →

Could KitKat be Android TV?

Could KitKat be Android TVWe have a new report suggesting that Google’s next OS, Android 4.4/KitKat could be designed as a bridge to facilitate Android TV and that will be its primary new focus. There have been rumours that Google plans to close down Google TV and reinvent it as Android TV. This new report seems to confirm that and also shines a light on how Google plans to introduce it.
According to these rumours, the main enhancements we will see in KitKat will be geared toward Android TV. Here’s a quote with more of the details,

Quote:

According to the industry on October 23, Google will greatly increase compatibility with TV in the next Android OS. In particular, it will improve the interface with smart devices. It seems that Google has greatly improved the user interface (UI)/user experience (UX), which have been regarded as the limitations of the existing smart TV, and the app development environment for TV. ‘Android 4.4 KitKat,’ soon to be disclosed, is most likely to be the next OS.
A number of industry insiders said “I heard Google say ‘the next OS has greatly improved its utilization in TV. In particular, there will be many changes in the interface between smart devices and the TV.”

In effect, Android 4.4 KitKat is a bridge between Android smartphones and Android TV, just like Honeycomb was the bridge between Android smartphones and Android tablets

Posted in: News, Phones, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: , , ,
By October 24, 2013 Read More →

Samsung rapped on the knuckles

wpid-Samsung_Logo.svg_.pngIt seems Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has fined Samsung $340,000 (£210,000) for paying a company to post fake online reviews and comments praising its own products whilst criticising its competitors. The company, OpenTide, employed “a large number of hired writers and designated employees”, to post on Taiwanese forums about several rival companies. HTC is rumoured to have been one of the victims of Samsung’s tactic to “highlight the shortcomings of competing products”

Samsung is also said to have taken part in the “disinfection of negative news about Samsung products” and posting positive evaluations of their own products. The investigation began in April and has recently concluded with Samsung admitting: “The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles.” They continued “We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused. We will continue to reinforce education and training for our employees to prevent any future recurrence.”

This on top of recent allegations that Samsung have been ‘cheating’ with their device benchmarks, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for them!

 

Posted in: News
Tags: , ,
By October 24, 2013 Read More →

Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive review

Tosh.jpgThe Toshiba STOR.E BASICS 2.5 Inch 1TB external hard drive is a super small storage device. Featuring a High speed transfer connection via the USB 3.0 port, backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and ready to use with Microsoft Windows could this be the perfect potable device of you media on the go?

In this video review we’ll take a look at the physical hardware and then go on to benchmark the drive to see how well it performs.

Quickly transfer files with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and store up to 1 TB of data on STOR.E BASICS external drives. Easy to use and backward compatible with USB 2.0, STOR.E BASICS external drives are ready to use with Microsoft Windows with no software installation required.

Posted in: Reviews, Storage Devices, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: , ,
By October 23, 2013 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 212: Everything you can think of

Podcast-Logo_thumb.jpgGareth, Matt and Dan are here with another UK update on the mobile front. This week it’s a packed show with lots to talk about from the HTC One Max and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to the series of announcements from Apple’s event a few days ago.

It’s a marathon show and one of our longest! 🙂

Featuring Gareth and Matt

Direct Download

iTunes

Download the iPhone App

Download the Android App

RSS Feed

Posted in: Podcast
Tags:
By October 23, 2013 Read More →

HTC doing a Smartwatch too?

HTC_one_watchHTC is planning to launch their own smartwatch competitor to the Galaxy Gear. They are also apparently coming out with a new tablet which they claim will be “disruptive” to the market. Today, more details were released by Bloomberg on HTC’s plans. As business has continued to deteriorate for HTC, they are grasping at straws for any opportunity to get a product to gain headway in the market.

Here’s a quote with a bit more:

Dwindling market share for HTC smartphones led to the company’s first quarterly loss and a 54 percent slump in its share price this year as it loses ground to Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world’s biggest producer. The smartwatch will join a growing segment of wearable technology that already includes devices from Samsung and Sony Corp.

Here’s another quote from CEO Peter Chou in a BGR article:

“It has to meet a need, otherwise if it’s just a gimmick or concept, it’s not for people’s day-to-day lives. That is an opportunity for us,” Chou said of smartwatches. “People laughed at us when we came out with the first smartphone… Now everyone has a smartphone. I’m pretty sure wearables will be the same, but don’t judge from what is in the market [now].”

Posted in: News, Phones
Tags: , ,
By October 21, 2013 Read More →

Tegra 5 and Kepler to be more powerful than PS3

wpid-IMG_20131021_133113.JPGAlthough we have seen the above tech demo before, there is some new info regarding NVIDIA’s development of the technology. As a refresher, the above tech demo is being rendered in real-time using the Tegra 5 (Logan) Core architecture married with their mobile Kepler based GPU chips. Mobile Kepler is a variation of the same GPU technology NVIDIA currently employs in their GTX 600 and 700 series graphics cards for the PC. Since the video above (titled “Digital Ira”) was first presented back in July of this year, NVIDIA has made some refinements to the technology pushing it closer to mainstream production in future tablet devices.

Not only has NVIDIA been able to shrink SOC down to smaller than a dime, they have also reduced the power requirements down to 2-3 Watts. This is still to much for a smartphone, but is in a good range for tablets. That’s not all, NVIDIA has also been able to improve the graphics performance on top of these other refinements of the hardware. Here’s a quote with some additional detail,

As the Tegra 5 SoC continues to develop, Nvidia has been able to boost Ira’s shader passes to render more realistic textures (as seen below). Much of this is thanks to Nvidia’s GameWorks developer tools. Many of the top Tegra-optimized Android titles have been built with this software in recent years, and it has now been updated for Tegra 5 (and to show off Ira). Still, the Logan dev kit only pulls 2-3W of power to do all this — the final Tegra 5 for phones should run at about 1W whereas a Titan needs at least 250W.

In a tablet, Nvidia believes the beefier 2W version of Logan will be more powerful than the PS3 or the GeForce 8800 GTX — in the neighborhood of 400 GFLOPS. Granted, these are both a few years out of date, but we’re clearly into the realm of desktop-level graphics. These raw numbers put the mobile Kepler GPU at around 5.2x the power of the PowerVR SGX 554MP4 in the most recent iPad. At this level there is the potential for memory bandwidth to bottleneck performance, but the company has not yet commented on this.

It’s almost frightening how quickly the technology continues to evolve. Versions of Tegra 5 are expected to hit retail mobile devices sometime next year.

Posted in: News, Phones
Tags: ,
By October 20, 2013 Read More →

Google Chromecast Unboxing and Setup

google chromecastGoogle have yet to officially announce a date for the UK launch of the Google Chromecast however there has been the odd occasion Amazon have been able to deliver the Chromecast around the world if only for short periods of time. I managed to pick one up and here is the unboxing and basic operations. I must have spent about an hour trying to get this to work, the unboxing video is more of a highlights video if anything.

Google’s Chromecast is a simple way of streaming web video to the big screen thanks to being easier to use and slicker than your existing smart TV, set-top box or games console.

The HDMI dongle has already launched in the US, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Google has promised it will launch in ‘other countries’ soon, but as of yet, there’s no news on its exact price in the UK or when it will actually launch.

Update: I have tried the Chromecast on various televsions around the house and on both main wireless networks and the problem is still evident. I will have to do some reading and maybe one day it will work…

Posted in: Reviews, TV & Home Cinema, Videos/Unboxings
Tags: , , ,
https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/surgical-face-masks