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By November 10, 2013 Read More →

HP Chromebook 11 price drop

hp_chromebook_11Just over a month after launch, HP’s newest Chromebook is already available to buy for less than £200 in the UK. The colourful, ARM-based notebook has had £30 slashed off its recommended retail price of £229 at a number of leading online retailers.

Powered by a Samsung Exynos chipset, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage, the device is also notable for using an IPS display to provide better colour reproduction and viewing angles – resolving the main issue that previous low-end devices have been criticised for.

Launched barely one month ago it’s a little surprising to see the device discounted already. Amazon have the device listed for just £199 – a saving of £30. Currys/PC World are matching this price indirectly, offering between £30 cash back on the purchase of this Chromebook, (and between £20-30 on all other Chromebooks) purchased between now and December 4th, 2013.

Using a Chromebook for the past two weeks I am certainly seeing the benefits of the low cost computers. Certainly some will scoff that they are not real computers however I am struggling to find something that I can not do on it.

Posted in: Laptops, News
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By November 9, 2013 Read More →

iPad Air Explodes in Australian Vodafone Shop

iPad Air ExplodesNot a good headline for Apple. In a Vodafone store in the city of Canberra, Australia, one of Apple’s new flagship iPad Air’s explodes during shopping hours leading to a full scale evacuation of the store and requiring the fire brigade to be be called to extinguish the fire.

According to several reports the store filled with smoke and sparks flew as the iPad literally exploded while on charge.

No official word from Apple as yet but it is believed that a faulty charging circuit was the culprit as the lithium polymer batteries used in the iPad, and common in a variety of other electronic products, are predisposed to exploded when over charged.

Worrying perhaps but considering the 100’s of thousand iPad devices sold each year having just one recorded explosion isn’t a huge cause for concern just yet as this is the first such recorded incident.

Posted in: News, Tablets
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By November 9, 2013 Read More →

Nexus 5 WiFi bug

Nexus 5 wifi bugI’ve had my Google Nexus 5 for just over a week and one of the questions I’ve been frequently asked via twitter and Google+ 1 was whether or not I had experienced any issued with the WiFi in the Nexus 5.

Up until yesterday the answer I gave was no. Despite using a large number of WiFi networks almost daily, from the few WiFi access points I have at home to the WiFi on the train I commute on to the WiFi at work and in coffee shops in London, none had given me any WiFi issues with my Nexus 5.

That’s until yesterday. Suddenly my Nexus 5 dropped off one if my home WiFi points, it connected to the other but then despite showing as connected would not transfer any data. Initially I thought this was a problem with my internet connection but soon realised that my Mac and iPhone were still working fine over the same WiFi.

I switched to a different access point but the problem persisted. I rebooted the phone… the problem remained. I’ve tried removing the WiFi networks and re-adding them but that also had no effect.

WiFi access points I have tried using are a D-Link DSL-3680, TP-Link, Airport Extreme, Airport Express and a Vodafone Mifi. All have the same issue: The WiFi shows as connected but there’s no internet connectivity. Furthermore, the WiFi disconnects and reconnects frequently.

Reading other posts on the internet it would see that many other Nexus 5 owners also have the same issues and this seems to be related to an existing Nexus 7 problem too.

Possible Nexus 5 WiFi bug solution

After literally hours of playing around with settings on the Nexus 5, a hard reset, and pulling out old WiFi access points to try I have managed to get my Nexus 5 working again and this is the solution that works for me…

Connect to the WiFi network and then go and ‘Modify Network’. Under the IP Settings I’ve switched to static and have specified an IP address and DNS server addresses. In both instances I’m using the same addresses that were being assigned through DHCP anyway.

Having done that my WiFi comes back to life. The only drawback so far is that I’ve had to do this with each WiFi network that I use. Switching back to DHCP breaks the connection again.

Give it a try and let me know if it solves your problem!

Posted in: Editorial, News, Phones
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By November 8, 2013 Read More →

Google’s Android looks to be spreading faster than believed

mobile-makeover-android-dominanceAndroid fans already know that Google’s operating system quickly spread across the world, conquering everything in its path; however, this latest analysis suggests it spread even more quickly than we could have imagined as PhoneArena has recently pointed out. According to Horace Dediu, an Asymco analyst, it turns out that Android is the fastest growing technology product in history! The metric he used to determine this was a comparison of total adoption numbers across specific time-frames after an initial launch. Here are a few mobile stats to put it in perspective:

  • Symbian hit 450 million users in 44 quarters (11 years)
  • BlackBerry hit 225 million users in 43 quarters (about 11 years)
  • Windows Mobile hit 72 million in 30 quarters
  • Apple’s iOS hit 700 Million users in only 23 Quarters (almost 6 years)
  • Android hit 1 Billion users in only 20 quarters (5 years)

The pic above charts some other devices throughout the history of tech. It’s interesting to take a glance at the Android & iOS versus PC Sales. The huge spike is something the PC industry never had. Of course, it’s not a perfect apples to apples comparison, but it’s still worth noting. There’s one other thing worth noting in the infographic. Despite the massive acceleration of adoption, there are still quite a few people left in the world who still don’t have smartphones. In China we are only 34% into their total market, and even in the United States we are only a little over half way there.

Posted in: News, Phones, Tablets
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By November 7, 2013 Read More →

BlackBerry readying PlayBook 2?

playbook 2Earlier this year, following the official launch of BlackBerry 10, there was a lot of speculation that BlackBerry would release another version of their relatively unpopular and many news stories of the coming PlayBook 2 were in circulation. Many of these were very definite with the news and stated that Q2 2013 would see BlackBerry release their second tablet.

Obviously a lot has happened to BlackBerry since February this year including a name change from RIM, numerous possible sales, a less than smooth launch of BBM on iOS and Android, and now another interim CEO.

However, in the last 48 hours, rumours that the PlayBook 2 project has been brought back to life have started to hit the headlines again.

Following a $1bn investment agreement with Fairfax Financial, John Chen was appointed new interim CEO of BlackBerry. Chen insists that it’s not over yet for BlackBerry’s hardware division. A statement that has led many to jump to the PlayBook 2 conclusion.

At this point in time there’s really nothing at all to substantiate the rumours and until we start to see anything more concrete than a ‘maybe they will’ I for one will certainly consider this to be nothing more than vapour-ware or maybe hope-ware.

Posted in: News, Phones, Rumours, Tablets
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By November 7, 2013 Read More →

GiffGaff to sell phones

Screenshot 2013-11-06 23.39.20GiffGaff, a low cost virtual network working off O2 masts, has announced they will start selling mobile phones alongside their sim only pay as you go deals. GiffGaff are offering a rather nice, varied selection of devices comprising of:

  • Samsung Galaxy Young
  • Samsung Galaxy Fame
  • Samsung Galaxy S3
  • Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
  • Samsung Galaxy S4
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  • Nokia 301
  • Nokia Lumia 520
  • Nokia Lumia 625
  • Nokia Lumia 925
  • Nokia Lumia 1020
  • Sony Xperia E
  • Sony Xperia M
  • Sony Xperia SP
  • Sony Xperia Z
  • Sony Xperia Z1
  • HTC One
  • BlackBerry Q10
  • LG G2
  • iPhone 4 refurb
  • iPhone 4S refurb

Interesting the selection of devices available was chosen by 5,300 customers who participated in a survey. Instead of offering a standard contract GiffGaff have shaken things up to offer the following purchase options:

  1. Members don’t need to buy a goodybag with their phone.
  2. You can pay for your phone upfront or monthly.
  3. You can split your monthly payments from 6 to 24 months.
  4. You can change or cancel your goodybag at anytime (as usual)
  5. You can change your monthly phone payments at anytime.
  6. Your phone will not be locked to giffgaff.

Working on a Peer to Peer lending option,  the practice of lending money to unrelated individuals, or “peers”, without going through a traditional financial intermediary such as a bank or other traditional financial institution GiffGaff hope to make the selection a good deal more enticing than the typical network set ups. Full pricing has not been released yet however they promise more information soon.

Posted in: News, Phones
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By November 7, 2013 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 213: Just hangin’ out!

Podcast-Logo_thumb.jpgGareth and Matt are here with another UK update on the mobile front, this week with Phil Lain. On this week’s show there’s another first, we’re recording in front of a live audience and have some Q&A along the way. We’ll be using Hangouts On Air more in future too.

There’s a whole lot of KitKat going on with a lot of attention being focused on the Google Nexus 5 and some worrying news for Google Nexus owners. Matt goes on a day trip to Heathrow Airport and doesn’t go anywhere and young Phil becomes the new kid on the block.

Featuring Gareth, Matt, and Phil

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Posted in: News, Podcast
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By November 6, 2013 Read More →

Google Nexus 5 vs HTC One: Camera

Google Nexus 5 vs HTC OneThere has been a lot of questions and discussion about the camera on the Google Nexus 5 and opinions seem to be polarised.

Questions such as “How bad can the Nexus 5 camera be?” and asking us to rate it against the HTC one have been common on our YouTube channel.

What we have here is a series of photos taken with both the HTC One and the Google Nexus 5 so that you can make up your own mind. Looking at them myself, I think there are images that are good and bad in both sets.

Just to recap, the HTC One has a 4MP Ultrapixel camera with F/2.0 Aperture and optical image stabilizer (OIS). whereas the Nexus 5 has an 8MP camera with F/2.5 Aperture and optical image stabilizer (OIS).  The HTC also has a dedicated image processing chip whereas the Nexus 5 does not.

The shots you see below are straight from the device with no manipulation or editing on either the phone or PC.

As much as possible I have taken the photos standing in exactly the same location so where you see a difference in the framing this is largely down to the field of view of each camera being different. I’ve set the scene modes to normal on both phones and used auto modes.

In the two columns below you can find the Nexus 5 on the left and the HTC One on the right. Click each for a larger version.

Posted in: News, Phones
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By November 6, 2013 Read More →

Google Hangouts expanded to Helpouts

helpouts_large_verge_medium_landscapeTonight, Matt and I will attempt out first Mobile Tech Addicts hangout, a chance to engage with you, the loyal reader and listener. Hangouts have really opened up a new age in VOIP / Video calling / conferencing. In addition to Hangouts there is also a new service Google are offering, Google Helpouts.

Google Helpouts it is already live and available on the desktop or Android platforms. Google Helpouts basically allows you to use Google Hangouts in a new way. The goal is to offer people a place to get help on a vast variety of topics using Google Hangouts. This could include topics from DIY repairs, to computer tech support, to cooking and much more. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Google Helpouts basically allows folks to help each other either for free or for a fee. What’s truly unique about this is that instead of getting a random person, you actually have the power to choose from whom you get help based upon a variety of factors like availability, qualifications, ratings, price, and reviews. Here’s a full quote below from Google’s blog on their new Helpouts service. You can also find out more in the video below.

Quote:

What if getting help for a computer glitch, a leaky pipe, or a homework problem was as easy as clicking a button? What if you could connect via real-time video to a music teacher or a yoga instructor from the comfort of your home? What if you could get someone knowledgeable to get you “unstuck” when you really need it?Today, we’re announcing Helpouts—a new way to get and give help over live video. Our goal is simple: help people help each other. We want to use the convenience and efficiency of the web to enable everyone, no matter where they are or what time it is, to easily connect with someone who can help.

Help might be a quick answer to a problem you’re having right now, like how to fix your garage door, or how to remove a computer virus; or it might be guidance completing a project, like building a deck. It might be learning a new skill, like how to speak conversational French or how to draw cartoons; or it might be general advice on how to improve your fitness or your writing (I could use this right now).

With Helpouts, you can choose who you get help from based on their qualifications, their availability, their price, their ratings and reviews. You can connect instantly or book in advance. You can get help from individuals or from brands you already know and trust, like Sephora, One Medical, Weight Watchers, Redbeacon (a Home Depot company), and Rosetta Stone. Once you’re in a Helpout, you can do more than just talk—you can share your computer screen, collaboratively edit a presentation, or record your Helpout. And if the experience doesn’t meet your expectations, we offer a full money back guarantee.

Today is just the beginning. We’re starting small and in a few categories. The number of people giving help on Helpouts and the type of help available will grow over time. Helpouts may not be suitable for every occasion, and it will take time to get used to interactions via real time video. We hope that the efficiency, convenience and global reach of Helpouts will make people’s lives easier in the long term.

We hope you’ll give Helpouts a try and give us your feedback through ratings and reviews, or talk to us on Google+, Twitter or Facebook. And if you’re interested in giving help on Helpouts yourself, let us know.

Posted in: Apps & Games, News
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By November 5, 2013 Read More →

Will we see the Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2?

Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2Rumours are surfacing on the net that Samsung is currently working on a Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2″ tablet which will launch in early 2014. The source of these rumours are that the device has already passed through the FCC. Here’s what we know about the specs…

Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2 specs:

  • 12.2-inch 2560 x 1600 display
  • 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
  • 8-megapixel camera
  • 2-megapixel front-facing camera
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 32GB of storage
  • Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and LTE support for the cellular version
  • S Pen Stylus

As the sizes of devices continue to trend upward, it makes you wonder at what point will a tablet become too big to be useful? On the other hand could it be that this is an edge to edge screen, loosing the bezel almost entirely?

bluetooth-sig-sm-p901

Posted in: News, Rumours, Tablets
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