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By October 29, 2013 Read More →

Android 4.4 KitKat launch date set

Android 4.4 KitKat launch dateGoogle’s latest Android OS, aka KitKat, could be launched as soon as November 5th. That’s if the event invitation several gadget sites are receiving is anything to go by.

The invites have been sent out for a Google press conference that is being held on November 5th in Israel and it id thought that the main thrust of the press conference will be to officially introduce Android 4.4 KitKat and, most likely show it off on some of the latest Nexus hardware.

The invite seems to also indicate that LG are going to be taking part which makes sense as LG are the manufacturer of the Nexus 5, and could even be producing a 4G LTE version of the Nexus 4 as well. The image of the invite shows a smartphone that has a KitKat running through it so this is probably hinting at what we can expect from the event.

This invite has been provided by a company called Ronlight Digital that is a distributor of LG products in the country, so we could get to see another Google press event in the US before this one taking place in Israel.

Source: Gadgety.co.il

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By October 29, 2013 Read More →

Sony Xperia Z1 unboxing and demo video

sony-xperia-z1The Sony Xperia Z1 is receiving a great deal of media coverage at the moment and you’ll probably have seen the lengthy TV commercials and billboards advertising the Z1.

The Xperia Z1 ins one of a few smartphones hitting the market with a full HD screen but one of the features that makes the Z1 stand out from the crowd is that it has an IP58 rating, meaning that not only is it dust-proof but it’s water resistant up to a depth of 1 metre. This means that you can take the Xperia Z1 with you to the local pool and take photos underwater.

Recently there have been a number of innovations in the camera phone arena. At one end of the spectrum Nokia are cramming in as many pixels as they can with the sensor on the Lumia 1020 hitting a massive 41 megapixels. At the other end of the range HTC have opted for a lower pixel count and have made the individual pixel size larger for better light gathering. Sony, of course, have their own take on the camera and the Z1 features a 20.7 megapixel shooter with Sony Exmor RS and Sony’s award-winning G Lens.

Sony have also added a wide array of image processing tools, including and AR Effect mode to add some fun animations to your pictures. Ranging from dinosaurs to ocean-life, these fully customisable themes can be easily edited.

The Sony Xperia Z1 has plenty to offer in terms of specification so in our unboxing and demo video that you can see below, we just touch on a few.

 Sony Xperia Z1 specification:

  • 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – all versions
  • 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 – all versions
  • 4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 – C6903
  • LTE 700 / 850 / 900/ 1700 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 – C6906
  • Micro-SIM
  • Dimensions: 144 x 74 x 8.5 mm (5.67 x 2.91 x 0.33 in)
  • Weight: 170 g (6.00 oz)
  • IP58 certified – dust proof and water resistant over 1 metre and 30 minutes
  • Display: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours, 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches
  • Protection Shatter proof and scratch-resistant glass
    • Triluminos display
    • X-Reality Engine
  • 3.5mm jack
  • Memory Card slot: microSD, up to 64 GB
  • Internal Memory:16 GB, 2 GB RAM
  • WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
  • Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP
  • NFC
  • microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go
  • Primary Camera: 20.7 MP, autofocus, LED flash
  • Secondary Camera: 2 MP, 1080p@30fps
  • OS: Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean)
  • CPU: Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400
  • Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
  • Radio: Stereo FM radio with RDS
  • GPS  with A-GPS support and GLONASS
  • TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
  • Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
Posted in: News, Phones, Videos/Unboxings
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By October 28, 2013 Read More →

LG Announces the LG G Flex

LG G Flex 003We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that LG were gearing up to launch a new device with a flexible display. There were rumours that Samsung too would have curved or flexible screen versions of the Note 3 on the market soon too.

LG have beaten the competition to it though and have today announced the LG G Flex, which they say is the first smartphone on the market to offer such a design.

Full spec and details form LG follow:

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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)
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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
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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!

 

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By October 24, 2013 Read More →

HTC One gets Sense 5.5 and Android 4.3 Now

android-43-jelly-beanA little over a week since the HTC One Max debuted with Android 4.3 and Sense 5.5 we’ve just learned that the HTC One will be getting the update to 4.3 and HTC Sense 5.5 starting now.

HTC Sense 5.5 brings along some nice changes to with notable improvements to Blinkfeed, Google+ integration, Gallery and Video Highlights and a new Scribble app for note taking and writing directly on to the screen.

To see a little more of Sense 5.5 on the HTC One Max check out my unboxing video.

I have the update downloading to my HTC One as I type. The 675MB update lists the following enhancements:

System Improvements

  • Android 4.3 and HTC Sense 5.5 update

Video Highlights Improvements

  • Updated Interface
  • Add Soundtrack to videos

Blinkfeed Improvements

  • Access recommended news from social networks
  • Additional Global News Sources
  • Save articles to read later or offline
  • Create custom feeds from news media and YouTube

Music Improvements

  • Updated Interface
  • Embedded music channel with new scenes

Sense TV Improvements

  • Updated interface
  • Add My Picks Page to improve program management

Screenshot_2013-10-24-12-57-44Screenshot_2013-10-24-13-05-59

The update itself seems pretty painless and has taken no more than about 10 minutes to download and apply but as with any update, I’d recommend doing a full backup first.

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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].”

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By October 23, 2013 Read More →

BBM hits 10 million downloads

BBM hits 10 million downloadsBBM was finally made available, after a delay of a month, to Android and iOS devices on Monday. Since then and in just 24 hours BBM hits 10 million downloads by Android and iPhone users, one of the best single-day openings for a mobile app ever.

We’ve experienced a few issues with BBM on iPhone and Android but we’re not sure how widespread those issues might be. Please let us know in the comments selection below what your experience has been and if you want to get in touch with our team you can reach us at 7C5063A9

BlackBerry’s press release follows:

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By October 23, 2013 Read More →

iOS 7.0.3 released – reduces sickness, solves iMessage issues

iOS 7.0.3 releasedFollowing yesterday’s press event, Apple have rather quietly released the latest update for ios, 7.0.3, which is now available as an over the air update for all iOS devices.
This update does look to be the one that many ios 7 users have been waiting for and promises to address the iMessage issues that have plagued so many from the outset.
And for those of you suffering with motion sickness because of all the zoom and parallax effects added to iOS 7 you’ll be pleased to know that this update also brings with it the ability to turn these affects off.
There are quite a number of other fixes and changes in this update, many of which focus on improved security. The full list can be found below.

iOS 7.0.3 changes:

  • Adds iCloud Keychain to keep track of your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers across all your approved devices
  • Adds Password Generator so Safari can suggest unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts
  • Updates lock screen to delay display of “slide to unlock” when Touch ID is in use
  • Adds back the ability to search the web and Wikipedia from Spotlight search
  • Fixes an issue where iMessage failed to send for some users
  • Fixes a bug that could prevent iMessage from activating
  • Improves system stability when using iWork apps
  • Fixes an accelerometer calibration issue
  • Addresses an issue that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower quality voice
  • Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode
  • Enhances the Reduce Motion setting to minimize both motion and animation
  • Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver input to be too sensitive
  • Updates the Bold Text setting to also change dial pad text
  • Fixes an issue that could cause supervised devices to become un-supervised when updating software
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