News

Blinkbox Music offers free online radio in the UK

@paulobrien — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:39:28 +0000

Blinkbox Music - formerly known as WE7 and now owned by Tesco - is a stealth entrant to the free online radio market in the UK - and it's pretty excellent!

I'm a big fan of the Blinkbox streaming movie service and while reinstalling it on my tablet today I happened to come across the music service.

Available to download now from the Play Store, Blinkbox Music pulls content from a library of over 15 million tracks, offers thousands of stations based on artists, genre or theme and even includes the ability to download tracks for offline listening! You can fine tune your stations with the usual 'like / dislike' buttons.

I'm generally pretty sceptical of online radio services and how good they are at actually finding content I like, but my daughter and I have been giving the service a proper workout this morning and it's fantastic. Even better, it's completely ad free too!

Ready to give it a go? Download from the Play Store and let us know what you think! You can use it in your browser too at http://www.blinkboxmusic.com/.

PadFone Infinity Initial impressions

@nortools — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:39:32 +0000

I am a big fan of what Asus are doing with their Android device line up right now.  They are offering decent value in a range of interesting form factors.  But the one device I have been waiting to try above all others is the PadFone Infinity.  For some background on the PadFone concept, it is worth taking a look at my PadFone 2 review posted here on MoDaCo a few months ago.

The PadFone Infinity takes things up a notch with a serious hardware upgrade and a shift in their materials and visual designs.  The Infinity is quite simply a gorgeous phone.  The first thing I noticed when removing it from its plastic sheath was how the glass on the front of the phone seems to stand proud of the rest of the device, like a glass top resting on a table.  Looked at from a slight angle, this, combined with the metal band running round the edges of the device, does lend it a bit of an iPhone 4/4S appearance, but really it is nothing like that.  It is a unique and very minimalist design that looks great from all angles.

Turning the phone over in my hand, I was quite surprised to find that the brushed aluminium back actually feels extremely smooth to the touch, I was expecting to be able to feel the brushes.  The phone is very cool to the touch, with an unexpected lightness to it, but it is quite large, noticeably larger than an HTC One or a Samsung Galaxy S4.  The buttons are all on the right side of the phone and protrude nicely whilst having good feedback and being very responsive - I approve!

So what about the PadFone Station - the dock into which you put the phone to turn it into a tablet?  I was quite critical of the station for the PadFone 2, and at first glance, the Infinity station is very similar.  But there are some very important differences, the primary of which is that the whole package feels a lot slimmer.  I am not sure it actually IS slimmer, but it feels it.  This feeling is no doubt helped by the edges of the station screen which are slightly rounded and make it a lot easier to hold.  The back of the dock is still covered in plastic and does not have a premium feel at all, but it is an improvement on the PadFone 2 station, so I can only thank Asus for that.  The buttons feel solid and much more responsive this time round as well.  The docking mechanism itself appears to work in exactly the same way as the PadFone 2 and certainly works well.

Perhaps the most gratifying change from the PadFone 2 I have noticed so far is that the Infinity is supplied with a standard Micro USB charging cable and this time round the cable sits firmly and normally in the device.  This is the case for the phone and the station and is another really positive improvement that Asus have made.

What of the experience of using the PadFone Infinity then?  Well, I have had it for less than 24 hours, but so far, I am finding it extremely responsive.  The screen on the phone is stunning and the screen on the station is also very good, both a vast improvement on the PadFone 2.  The software is typically Asus - very close to stock with a few subtle but useful enhancements.  I have not used the device long enough to comment on battery life or the camera as yet.

One thing I noticed immediately was that it seems to have a very strong WiFi radio with strong reception in places where even my Galaxy S4 struggled to maintain decent signal strength.  The cellular reception appears to be equally strong but only time will tell if that is the case.

Keep an eye out for my full review of the PadFone Infinity which I expect to have up in a few weeks, once I have given the device a serious workout and feel free to ask any questions of me in the mean time using the comments below!

Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

@nortools — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:41:24 +0000

It is likely that the Samsung Galaxy S4 in its various guises will be the best selling Android handset of all time by the end of this year.  But does that make it the best Android handset that has ever been made?

With the recent announcement of the Google Edition of the S4, the fact there are two distinct hardware revisions of the S4 and given that TouchWiz - Samsung's software layer on top of Android - can be run in two quite different modes, I should qualify what is being reviewed here.  The device I am using is a full UK retail device, the i9505 model with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor as opposed to the i9500 model which has Samsung's own Exynos 5 Octa 5410 processor.  The firmware version used for this review was build JDQ39.I9505XXUAMDM.  This is not the Google Edition and I used TouchWiz in its standard mode almost all of the time, but more on that later.  The fact this needs qualifying at all prepares us nicely for an overriding theme of the S4 - this is a complex device and there is almost always more than one option available for each feature.

Just as it is perfectly possible to ignore the model variation complexities, it is possible to ignore almost all other complexities too, but that does not change the fact that they exist.

Samsung are riding a massive wave in the Android device market, easily hoovering up the vast majority of sales and profits available to the various manufacturers and this success is only helped by Samsung also being a major component supplier for many of their competitors.  The Galaxy S3 was the best selling Android device of the last 12 months and the S4 looks more than likely to simply pick up where the S3 left off.

The design of the Galaxy S4 certainly does this, looking remarkably similar to the S3.  But despite that, the design of the S4 is in my view far superior, being slightly narrower, slimmer and lighter than the S3 despite having a larger screen and a larger battery.  The S4 does not taper in the way its predecessor did and is quite squared off in fact, but I find this makes the device just feel slightly more solid.

Let's take a look at the amazing array of hardware Samsung has managed to squeeze into the S4's slight frame:

Dimensions: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm
Weight: 130 grams
5" Super AMOLED, 1080x1920 Full HD display
Scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 3 display
2600 mAh battery
13 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
2 megapixel front facing camera
1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU, Adreno 320 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8064T chipset
2Gb of RAM
16Gb storage with MicroSD card expansion up to 64Gb
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
GPS receiver with A-GPS
NFC
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port with MHL2 and on the go support
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
Barometer
NFC
Infrared port

Hardware Overview

The S4 does not have a premium feel to its materials or construction. Now I have got that out of the way, I can be totally frank. I love the form factor of this phone and can forgive the cheap plastics, a sentiment that is helped by the device not exhibiting any creaks or weakness in its shell at all. This is a new level of quality that Samsung have achieved in their phone construction but it still falls well short of many of its competitors in overall feel.

The front of the device is completely dominated by its 5" screen. The proportion of space taken up by the screen here is extremely impressive and helps make the S4 feel smaller than it actually is. Above the screen is a small speaker grille which protrudes from the fascia a little bit helping you to place it next to your ear by feel alone. This is surrounded by various sensors and the front facing camera. Beneath the screen is the hardware home button and beside that, two capacitive buttons - menu on the left and back on the right. I would prefer the back button on the left, but I got used to this layout very quickly as I switch devices often anyway.

The home button can also wake the phone from sleep and I very quickly forgot about the power button altogether and used this front button to switch the screen on exclusively. It is a great feature but I wish it was also capacitive when the screen was on so a simple tap with the finger would take you home.

The left side of the phone houses just a volume rocker whilst the power button is on the right along with a little cut out in the back allowing you to pull the back cover off. The bottom is where you find the primary microphone and the Micro USB port for charging the device. This port supports MHL and USB Host mode too.

The top of the S4 is notable because as well as locating the standard headphone jack and noise cancelling microphone here, Samsung have included an infrared port. This can be used to control your TV as well as many other devices that use infrared.

The back has the usual camera and flash - an LED flash in this case - but it is also the location for the single mono speaker. It is a very loud and fairly clear speaker and is helped by a little notch in the plastic back which lifts the body of the phone slightly away from the speaker itself, allowing it to be heard even when the phone is placed on its back.

Overall, I am extremely impressed with the ergonomics of the Galaxy S4. It feels like quite a lot of thought has gone into the position of the various buttons and other features. The hardware home button, the position of the power button and the volume keys are all spot on for me. The protruding speaker for use on calls and the little bump on the back that lifts the rear of the phone away from the surface it is on so as not to block the speaker there... these are all well thought out and I applaud Samsung for that.

The Screen

If you have been following my reviews here on MoDaCo, you will know that the screen is very important to me.  The Galaxy S4 screen leaves me with mixed feelings.  On the one hand, it is absolutely stunning, with the normal unbeatable AMOLED black levels and a super high resolution that leaves individual pixels impossible to discern, even with its pentile sub pixel matrix which is not as sharp as some screen technologies.  Colours simply pop out of the screen and it has fantastic viewing angles while icons and text appear to float on top of the screen.

But there are some issues.  Chief among this is that whites are never white, they always have a blue-ish tinge.  The contrast and colour reproduction on my S4 is not consistent across the screen with lighter colours appearing almost muddy on the bottom of the screen while being fairly accurate on the top half.  This is not just a problem with this device but also an issue with the AMOLED technology.  Many people have a preference between LCD and AMOLED screens, but in my view, the HTC One still has the finest phone screen on the market today with the iPhone 5 a close second.  The Galaxy S4 is stunning, and if you have never used other top end phone screens, you will love the S4's screen, but it is not the best screen according to my eyes.

Software

The Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2,  but at times you would hardly know it.  As usual, Samsung have supplied their TouchWiz skin on top of Android and it reaches into the deepest, darkest corners of the stock Android experience, altering it almost beyond recognition.

The initial setup process is straight forwards but quite lengthy, being about 6 screens before you are even asked to sign in to your Google account.  You are invited to setup a Dropbox account with 50Gb of free storage which is nice and eventually you are taken to a screen asking you to learn about key features.  These are Samsung added features such as Air View and Voice Controls.  There are nine of these key features, all proprietary to Samsung and for each there is a toggle to enable or disable them.  This is all before landing at the default home screen!

Samsung's launcher is actually reasonably simple and quite easy to like, if a little sluggish. There is the usual dock at the bottom and the apps drawer is similar to stock Android's. The whole presentation is attractive and welcoming to new users and is something that Samsung has obviously thought about. A major distraction to this good first impression is that Samsung have touch sounds enabled by default which makes the phone quite noisy to use... so, I decided to go into the settings and switch them off.

Pulling down the notification drawer, I was presented with some quick toggles at the top, a list that scrolls horizontally and brightness adjustments. Auto brightness can be tweaked to be slightly brighter or dimmer, a definite positive. On the subject of quick toggles, I went to see what Samsung had done with the stock Android 4.2 quick toggles. They were there - skinned of course - and boy, there are a lot of them. 20 in total!

Going into the settings sees more Samsung customisations with a tabbed view.  I am pleased they did this as the number of settings is simply overwhelming.  Whilst the device does have decent default settings for most things, altering these is time consuming and confusing at first.  But at least the tabs help compartmentalise this.

The next area I looked into was the lock screen.  There are the usual options for Android unlock styles including face unlock and widgets are present too.  You can also have app shortcuts on the lock screen which I do like.  Worse is the unlock effect which defaults to a light effect simply slowing things down.  The lock screen is actually quite good, especially when setup as you like it, but it is not fast to unlock in any circumstances and is far too complex to setup.

Samsung provide lots of features that use the front facing camera with eye tracking, such as Smart Stay which keeps the screen on while you are looking at it and Smart Pause which will pause a video when you look away.  There is also Air View which responds to your finger hovering over the screen and shows additional information when it detects your finger.  I could not get any of these to work reliably except for Smart Stay which I found genuinely useful.  Everything else just felt gimmicky.   This is system centred design rather than user centred design and it feels clumsy and totally unnecessary.  The S4 would be a better device without unreliable (but highly advertised!) features.

If all this is too much for you, there is an Easy Mode which greatly simplifies the home screen. You can see some screenshots of this mode above and it is extremely basic. In fact, it is totally pointless in my opinion as the home screen is not especially complicated, it is everything else that is, but Easy Mode leaves all else alone. In case this isn't enough, Samsung also include hubs for movies, music and books. These hubs have a feel of Windows Phone to them and are attractive but all their features can be found in other apps too.

The Galaxy S4 comes with a very nice browser based on the stock Android browser which works well and is fast.  The messaging app is fully featured and of course, highly customisable with different backgrounds and message bubble styles.  The phone dialler works well enough with proper T9 based search for contact names.  The contacts app is also functional and for once not overly complex.  The calendar - or S-Planner - is an app I really did not like.  It looks dated and is slow and clunky to use.  Thankfully the stock Android calendar is available in the Play Store.

The keyboard is particularly loathsome despite its number row, with small buttons and auto correct that does not replace what you have entered with the matched word.  It is another clunky design and just doesn't work.  It does have a Swype style continuous input mode which works far better as it does actually choose the right word most of the time, but unless you are a fan of this form of typing, you will want to download one of the many third party keyboard options available in the Play Store.

There is an awful lot of propriety software on the S4, a lot more than I have detailed above.  It is generally OK with a few exceptions, but I wish Samsung would be more selective on the features they provide.

Camera

The camera on the S4 is fantastic.  It is really easy to take high quality shots, particularly in the day.  It is fast to focus and in auto mode seemed to get the picture just about right every time.  There are a plethora of options but for once, I didn't see the need to use any of them.  In decent light, I think it is the best smartphone camera I have used.  In low light, the HTC One and the Nokia Lumia 920 are still a long way ahead.  As a casual users camera though, it is absolutely great.  I have included a couple of sample shots below.

The camera interface is fairly busy but quite simple to use.  There are various different modes allowing you to make better use of the camera features such as best photo which selects the best image from a burst set, a mode for taking multiple exposures of a moving subject and stitching them together into one shot, the normal HDR mode, panorama mode and more.  There is a wide range of features here.  In addition, separate settings are available to control whether the flash is used, the recording mode for videos, auto night mode (which I found didn't really work) and more.  In general, I just left it in auto mode for everything and all my pictures seemed good to me.  It is without a doubt the most consistent phone camera I have used.

The S4 is also capable of shooting full HD 1080p video and includes slow motion and fast motion modes.  Videos worked quite well, but due to the lack of optical image stabilisation, they can be a bit shaky.  I also felt the HTC One did a better job capturing fine details in videos and definitely captured audio with much greater success.  That is not to say the S4 did badly, but it is one area where it is not on top.

Some negatives about the camera are that you cannot disable the camera lens sound in the UK and it is also quite slow to capture.  Sometimes it could be very slow, so despite the good results, I did miss the odd shot I would like to have got and would have got with an HTC One or many other, faster, phones.

Phone calls and signal strength

The Galaxy S4 has excellent signal strength in my experience particularly for WiFi connections.  I can get on my home WiFi network from the back of my garden using the S4 - the first device I have ever used to be able to hook into the signal from there.  Phone calls are loud, clear and of very high quality with the noise cancelling features working well for the other party on the call.  The phone is also really fast to reconnect to a cellular network when for instance you are on a train and go through a tunnel.  Overall, a great performance.

Battery

Everyone's battery experiences vary but overall I have been really impressed with the S4.  With my standard setup and usage, I can get 2 days of usage out of a single charge.  For reference, the only other device I have used that can do this is the RAZR i.  I have had one weird issue though when connecting to an Exchange server using the in built Email app.  I have found that even with syncing set to an hourly schedule the battery drains quite a bit faster with the battery lasting me only a day and a half or so.  I am not sure if this is an issue with the app or with the Exchange server I was using as I have not been able to connect to another server on the same protocol to test it.

With a user replaceable battery, if you are a very heavy user, this could be the device for you.  When you run out of juice, just swap in another, fully charged battery.

Performance

Given the specs on offer here, you would expect the S4 to sizzle.  In fact, it falls rather flat.  There is no other way of saying it, this is a laggy phone.  Scrolling through lists, returning to the home screen, loading apps and unlocking the device all lag.  Animations are jerky and it feels cumbersome.  This is simply unacceptable these days and especially with the hardware inside this phone.  Compared to the HTC One, the S4 performance feels at least a whole generation behind.  I have no idea how Samsung have managed it, but they have made the most powerful Android device on the market today feel decidedly mid-range.  The silver lining here is that these issues are more than likely to be software related and will hopefully be fixed at some point in the future, but it is sad that this is not the phone it should be out of the box today.

Conclusion

So this is the big one.  Should you buy this device?  If you believe Samsung can sort out their performance jitters, if you can live with TouchWiz and the material qualities, this is one of the best phones ever made and is a great buy.  But I believe that for most people, the HTC One is simply better and quite possibly the best phone ever made - even if I do hate the position of the power button.  The camera on the Galaxy S4 is fantastic and very flexible, but the experience of using the HTC One as a camera is far superior no matter what you think about the Ultrapixel.  HTC have nailed what casual users want from their camera phone.  The HTC One also has superior performance with similar battery life and Sense 5 is fantastic.

I would be more than happy to use the S4 as my own phone, but I am not sure I could recommend it to others.  The old adage that less is more seems truer than ever with today's mobile devices but Samsung have gone with the more is more approach, packing the S4 with every piece of technology and every feature they could think of and the only surprise is that they don't supply it with the proverbial kitchen sink.

My experience of the Galaxy S4 has in some ways been very mixed but almost every time I used the device, I fell for its charms.  It isn't perfect, and in some ways it is truly awful, but it is still an amazing piece of technology and a great phone.

Giff Gaff doubles the minutes to 500 on its £10 Goody Bag

@Zarch1972 — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:45:01 +0000

Great news for Giff Gaff users as they are doubling the minutes on their cheap £10 goodybag.

The £10 tarrif now reads 500 mins (was 250), unlimited texts, 1GB data and Free Giff Gaff to Giff Gaff calls.

For those not familiar with Giff Gaff, they are one of the main MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) and they piggy back off the O2 infrastructure.

Here's the content of their latest blog highlighting this change

Quote

Summer has finally arrived and we've decided to celebrate - so we’re happy to announce that as of next week - 12th of June – we will be doubling the minutes on our £10 goodybag. From this date onwards, you will get 500 minutes (instead of the usual 250) plus unlimited texts and 1GB of data for £10.

This is a limited offer for new joiners ending on 31st of October 2013, however the great news is that all existing members will also benefit AND be able to continue using this offer past that date.

We’re letting you know a week early so you can time the purchase of your new goodybag. If you have set your goodybag to recur or you've queued one up to start on or after 12th of June we’ll include the extra 250 minutes automatically.

There does appear to be one caveat though:

Quote

The offer is open to everyone up until 31st October. After that date all existing members will continue to be able to select the goodybag with extra minutes, however members joining after this date will not.

So all in all, a cracking deal now with 500 mins for £10/month and a rolling PAYG style 30 day commitment. This change certainly appears to fill a hole in their range for people wanting more minutes without having to pay for the expense of unlimited data too.

Sign up here: Giff Gaff Sign-Up and you'll get £5 extra credit for free when you activate your SIM.

[ Via: Giff Gaff Blog ]

Today Only: Grab a free Cerberus anti theft lifetime licence

@paulobrien — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 09:26:04 +0000

AppGratis, the free-app-a-day application, is today offering a free lifetime licence for Cerberus, the excellent anti theft application.

Cerberus - normally provided with a one week free trial and a €2.99 lifetime upgrade - allows you to remote control your lost / stolen phone through the www.cerberusapp.com website or via text messages and also can be configured to send automatic alerts if someone uses your phone with an unauthorized SIM card.

The remote control feature provides a whole host of functions on your device, allowing you to:

Locate and track it
Start a loud alarm, even if the device is set to silent mode
Wipe the internal memory and the SD card
Hide Cerberus from the app drawer
Lock the device with a code
Record audio from the microphone
Get a list of last calls sent and received
Get information about network and operator the device is connected to
And much more!

Cerberus automatically enables GPS if it is off when you try to locate your device (only on Android < 2.3.3) and you can protect it from unauthorised uninstallation.

The app works even if the device does not have an internet connection thanks to remote control by SMS messages. Texts received and sent for Cerberus remote control will start show as a notification and will not appear in the Messages application.

Cerberus does not drain the battery because there is no background service running - it will activate only if there is a remote control request and will stop afterwards.

If your device is rooted, you can enablecomplete uninstall protection (a thief will be able to delete Cerberus only by flashing another ROM) and configure GPS auto-enabling on Android > 2.3.3.

To get your free licence, install AppGratis from the Play Store, install Cerberus and when you sign up / activate you will receive an e-mail notifying you that your free lifetime licence has been activated.

Very nice!

Google Keyboard comes to the Play Store

@paulobrien — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:19:45 +0000

Google Keyboard, aka the 'stock Android keyboard', has become the latest core Android component to hit the Play Store.

Available for installation on all devices running Android 4.0 and above, the release serves a number of purposes. First of all it gives a way for Google to easily update the keyboard component of devices without needing a full ROM as was required previously, secondly it allows Google to offer the stock keyboard experience to devices that wouldn't normally include it (such as the HTC One or Galaxy S4) and most importantly it continues to expand the number of core Android experiences that are now on the Play Store. Oh and it provides another good reason to have the Google suite on your device rather than, say Amazon's offering...

Now that keyboard is available for download, the component i'd really love to see online is People. There's plenty more still to offer besides that though - launcher, calculator, desk clock, news and weather... any bets on what's coming next? Heck, maybe we'll even see Google Car Home make a comeback.

Hit the Play Store to download the Google Keyboard.

AutoLocation leaves Beta

@paulobrien — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:03:12 +0000

At Google I/O, Google demoed updated location functionality in Google Play Services that allows applications to perform activity recognition and set up geofences using an efficient, low power API. AutoLocation brings that functionality to Tasker and has now left Beta!

Available free of charge for 7 days after which an 84p unlock key must be purchased, AutoLocation allows you to fire Tasker tasks when you start or stop a specific activity (walking, in a vehicle, cycling, standing still or tilting the device) or when you enter / leave one of up to 100 custom geofences. The application also returns a 'degree of confidence' value for you to fine tune your tasks and you can prevent one activity firing when another is active (e.g. tilting while walking).

It's a pretty cool app, even if you don't use the activity functions the geofence functionality should be more accurate and efficient than Tasker's existing location based tasks.

AutoLocation is one of a number of really useful plugins from joaomgcd, I also regularly use AutoRemote, AutoNotification and FSIntents!

Head on over to the Play Store to download and get started!

Bargain Watch: Huawei Y300 from £59.95

@flibblesan — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:02:36 +0000

We like our bargains and we like our Huawei devices here at MoDaCo so when we found out that Carphone Warehouse are going to be selling the Huawei Y300 for under £70 we had to tell you all about it!

For those that don't know what this device is, the Y300 is similar to the G510 recently released by Vodafone for £130 plus top-up. The differences between the two devices are minimal - The Y300 has a 1GHz Dual-Core processor and a 4" screen whereas the G510 has a 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor and a 4.5" screen.

Is it worth paying double for an extra 200MHz and the slightly larger screen? We don't think so!

The device runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, has 512MB RAM, a 4" 480x800 screen, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and 4GB storage expandable to 32GB with a microSD card. A 5MP camera can be found on the back with a VGA camera on the front. Not bad specs for the price, although we would had preferred 1GB RAM with Jelly Bean.

Carphone Warehouse will allow you to buy the device on pay as you go for as low as £59.95 if you have an existing pay as you go SIM active on the major networks. If you don't currently have an active SIM or you wish to buy one for a friend or relative then it will cost you £69.95. And for those of you that like contracts then the phone will be available on contracts for a low price of £7.50 per month.

Currently there are no details to be found on the Carphone Warehouse website apart from a 'Register your Interest' page but we have it on good authority (well, the shinyshiny.tv newsletter) that this price is correct and will be available in-store from Thursday 6th June 2013.

Samsung introduces the Galaxy S4 Active

@paulobrien — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:21:50 +0000

After numerous leaks, Samsung have officially announced the Galaxy S4 Active, a harder wearing, IP-rated variant of the Galaxy S4.

The device itself features broadly similar specifications to the 'regular' S4 - a 1.9GHz Quad Core CPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM + microSD, LTE connectivity, a 5" 1920x1080 LCD (no AMOLED in this model!) with 'glove touch', Android 4.2.2, an 8 megapixel camera with LED Flash light (more details below), a 2 megapixel front camera - all powered by a 2600mAh battery.

As well as the 8 megapixel rather than 13 megapixel camera - which offers a unique 'Aqua Mode' to increase visual quality and clarity for enhanced underwater images and video - the device is IP67 rated for dust and water ingress. This means that it has a '6' rating for solid particle protection - 'Dust tight - No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact' and a 7 rating for liquid ingress protection - 'Immersion up to 1m - Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion). Tested for 30 minutes'. Pretty good!

The device measures 139.7 x 71.3 x 9.1 mm and tips the scales at 151g, compared to 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm and 130g for the 'regular' S4 - not too much of an increase.

I quite like the design myself (particularly as it's expected to be available in some interesting colours - Urban Grey, Dive Blue and Orange Flare!) although the front buttons look a bit 'budget'. Hats off to Samsung for getting microSD and a removable battery in there while still retaining the IP rating!

Availability and price are TBC, however Phones4U have already been in touch with the obligatory 'we'll be stocking it!' mail.

Any takers?

Vine now available for Android

@paulobrien — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:50:39 +0000

Vine, the previously-iOS exclusive mini-looping-video phenomenon from Twitter, is now available for Android.

The application is rolling out to the Play Store now, or you can directly download the APK - DOWNLOAD (ROMraid).

Let us know what you think!

Samsung makes Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and 10.1 (with Intel) official

@paulobrien — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:31:16 +0000

Samsung has official announced the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and 10.1 (inch) models which join their 7 inch sibling... but interestingly the 10.1 model uses an Intel Atom processor.

The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, which will be available in WiFi and 3G / LTE models, packs a 1.5GHZ processor (details TBC!), 1.5GB RAM (yes, that's not a typo!), a 8" 1280x800 display (up from the disappointing 1024x600 on the 7), Android 4.2, a 5 megapixel rear camera, a 1.3 megapixel front camera, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz / 5GHz), all the usual array of sensors and 16GB / 32GB onboard storage backed, of course, by microSD expansion. The device is 209.8 x 123.8 x 7.4mm, weighs 314g (Wi-Fi version) and is powered by a 4,450 mAh battery.

The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, also available in WiFi and 3G / LTE models, has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1GB RAM, a 10.1" 1280x800 display, Android 4.2, a 3 megapixel rear camera, a 1.3 megapixel front camera, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz / 5GHz), again the usual array of sensors including GPS and 16 / 32GB storage + microSD. The device is 243.1 x 176.1 x 7.95mm, weighs 510g (Wi-Fi version) and is powered by a 6,800 mAh battery.

Exact details on the CPUs in either device are rather conspicuous by their absence in the press release, but it is very interesting to see Samsung going to Intel when they have both their own Exynos CPUs and a wide variety of other partners at their disposal.

The devices looks nice enough without being overly exciting - the extra inch on the 8.0 will make for a nice experience. I'm not sure about the phone-style back / home / menu keys though. What do you think?

Looking at the specs it seems to me like the Tab 3 range is a low-cost play so it'll be interesting to see pricing when it's announced. We'll keep you posted with any further developments!

Cygnett Soundwave Bluetooth Speaker and Dock reduced to £39.99

@paulobrien — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:56:10 +0000

The Cygnett Soundwave Bluetooth Speaker and Dock is currently reduced to £39.99 at LoveCases... big sound at a small price!

As the name suggests, the stereo speaker uses Bluetooth to allow you to stream music from any Bluetooth enabled device, or alternatively using a 3.5mm input. The speaker can be powered from the mains using the supplied adaptor or using 8 x AA batteries for rocking out in the park.

Pairing / setup and control is a piece of cake using the buttons on the top of the unit and the package usefully includes a stand / dock for placing your device on. It is adjustable to fit your device and includes cable routing to allow you to pop your charging cable up from underneath, quite cool!

The Cygnett Soundwave uses 'dynamic drivers with passive radiators' but forget that... what does it actually sound like? Surprisingly good for sub-£40. While it can't quite compete with more expensive speakers such as the Big Jambox, it does crank up impressively loud without distortion and the sounds is full and rich, no doubt helped by the fact it's not a tiny little thing.

It's obviously not targetting audiophiles but for a kids bedroom (where mine is likely to end up!) it's ideal. Interested? Head on over to GearZap to learn more.

GearZap offer products for a wide range of devices, including Samsung Galaxy S4 accessories.

Asus announce new Android products at Computex 2013

@paulobrien — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:23:48 +0000

Asus have announced a number of new Android products at Computex 2013 in Taiwan, including a 3 in one device featuring both Windows 8 and Android, an updated Transformer Pad, a low cost Nexus-7-alike tablet and a 6" FonePad.

The ASUS Transformer Book Trio is a three-in-one device in that it is designed to function as a Windows 8 notebook, an Android tablet and a Windows 7 desktop PC. It includes a 11.6-inch detachable display and despite the very different operating systems, "the Transformer Book Trio has been designed to smoothly transition between modes, allowing users to sync data or continue to surf the webpage they’re on even when moving from notebook to tablet mode."

The desktop PC part of the equation - the 'PC Station dock' - has its own i7 processor, keyboard and 750GB hard drive and can be hooked up to an external display for use as a desktop PC. The PC Station also serves as a charger for the tablet for extended battery life. The tablet itself features a 2GHz Intel Atom CPU, a 1920x1080 IPS display and up to 64GB storage.

The Transformer Pad Infinity is the first device in ASUS' range to feature a Tegra 4 mobile processor clocked at 1.9GHz. The chip features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU and a 72-core (!) GeForce GPU. The device has a Nexus 10 matching 10.1" 2560 x 1600 IPS screen with 10-point multi-touch. ASUS SonicMaster-enhanced audio completes the tablet experience. The upgraded keyboard dock now features a multi-touch touchpad, USB 3.0 and an SDXC card reader, again giving longer battery life when the tablet is docked.

The ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7 is a rock-bottom priced 7" tablet with an RRP of only $129 (8GB) and $149 (16GB) - non US pricing / avability TBC. The device weighs 302g and has a quad-core processor plus a 10-point multi-touch 1280 x 800 IPS display. Unlike the Nexus 7, the MeMO Pad HD 7 packs a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and is available in dark blue, white, pink and green colors.

Personifying 'phablet', the ASUS Fonepad Note FHD 6 comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 dual-core processor and a 1920 x 1080 Full HD Super IPS+ display which, at 450 nits, is ideal for outdoor use. Front-facing stereo speakers with ASUS SonicMaster technology provide high-quality high-definition audio. Like it's Galaxy Note 2 competitor, the ASUS Fonepad Note FHD 6 also includes a stylus for quick and accurate handwritten input.

All the devices look pretty interesting but i'm particularly keen to see the pricing details for the 6" Fonepad. The 7" model is extremely aggressively priced and if Asus do the same with the smaller model it really could shake things up a bit.

Thoughts?

Get O2 Priority Moments FREE with a Pay & Go SIM

@Zarch1972 — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 18:03:07 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I've always been a little jealous when @PaulOBrien tells us about another great deal on O2 Priority Moments.

I'm on a T-Mobile contract, but I’d heard a little rumour you could get to O2 Priority Moments without permanently moving to over O2, so I thought i'd give it a go. Here's how I got on and what you need to do.

Before we start, I will just state that the only prerequisite of this guide is that you have a network unlocked phone.

Grab your FREE PAY SIM

So first things first, head over to O2 and order yourself a FREE prepay SIM by choosing Pay & Go Go Go

The screen that follows says you can choose between standard or nano SIMs, when mine arrived it was a combo SIM that could be popped out as either standard or micro (see below). I ordered the SIM on the Tuesday and it arrived on the Friday. In fact, they sent me two.

As you probably know if you've already tried, you can’t actually download the O2 Priority Moments app from the Play Store unless your device is SIM connected onto the O2 network.

Here’s me trying with my T-Mobile SIM inserted (this item isn't available on your carrier).

But after powering off the phone and swapping over to the O2 PAYG SIM the Play Store presented me with this screen when trying to install the app again (INSTALL - WOOHOO)!

Note: You will need to be on Wi-Fi to download the app as you won't have any credit on your free PAYG O2 SIM. But having zero credit on the SIM doesn't affect any of the whole process, which is a bonus.

Upon opening the app for the first time it will ask for your new O2 phone number and will send you a code via text message to confirm you're actually in possession of that valid O2 number, so keep your O2 SIM in your phone.

Now that you've installed the app and all is well, you can power off and swap back to your normal SIM as it appears that the only checks in place are:

You're connected to the O2 network when you initially install the app
The text message confirmation code sent upon opening and registering the app

After that, there are no more network checks. You can be back on your original SIM network or even Wi-Fi, it doesn't matter. The app doesn't appear to care once you're past the two initial checks.

They say proof of the pudding is in the eating, well here’s my FREE Thorton’s bag of chocolates I picked up from WH Smith via the app.

A word of warning though when redeeming offers. Once you hit redeem on the app and it displays the code you'll need to show the cashier, that's it, you get one shot at it. If you come out of the app and go back in, the deal will be shown as 'redeemed' and you can't get the code up again regardless of whether you've actually used the code or not. A good tip is to take a screenshot at the point where the code is displayed, 'just in case'.

Priority Moments on the Web

Another advantage of having an O2 phone number and signing up for Priority Moments is that you can now log onto the O2 Priority Moments website and access deals from there.

You’ll first need to register onto the site using your new O2 mobile number.  Again, they’ll send a confirmation code to your O2 number (a different code to the check sent for the app confirmation).  They also ask for your email address, date of birth and age.  So if you aren't comfortable handing that over, you will have to swerve this.

If you are a music lover, the big bonus of O2 Priority Moments is being able to get pre-sale links to gig tickets at all of O2’s venues, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday before general sale on the Friday.  Pre-sale can save you real headaches trying to get tickets on general sale day when its like a jumble sale and all ticket sites start crashing.

Giving some love back to O2

Right, so I know i've shown you how to get this deal for free, but I think you should really consider supporting O2 and we've found a nice little deal for you to so this.  With this £6.99 PAYG SIM from Amazon you get £10 of credit on it, so you can properly try the network out - actually see how O2 works for you, check out the network coverage and data speeds in your area.  Maybe you'll consider switching?  Whilst at the same time getting the Priority Moments bonus.

Personally, I think when my contract is up I will seriously consider moving to O2 so I won’t have to access Priority Moments in an arguably slightly underhand way. I will certainly use the gig ticket offers and some of the other freebies are also well worth being on their network for.

I don’t think there is much between the major networks these days, maybe its bonuses like this that can be that little incentive required to join O2 ahead of the competition?

So over to you, let us know how you get on.

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of you scoffing all those Thorton’s Chocolates.

Huawei Vision now only £49.95 PAYG

@hecatae — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 09:35:13 +0000

We previously covered the price of the Huawei Vision dropping to £89 SIM free... and now it's slipped further to £49.95.

The Huawei Vision is an aluminium unibody Smartphone weighing 121g and measuring only 9.9mm thin.

More detailed specs:

Operating System Android 2.3.4
Band UMTS 900/2100MHz; GSM 900/1800/1900MHz
Transfer Rate DL 14.4Mbps / UL 5.76Mbps
CPU 1GHz MSM8255
Screen: Size 3.7 inch, Resolution WVGA (800x480 pixels)
512M RAM, 2GB ROM
Battery 1400mAh
Cameras: 5.0 Mega-pixel Rear Camera & 0.3 Mega-pixel Front Camera with Auto Focus

All that for under 50 quid, not bad at all! The Vision also has SPB Shell 3D as the stock launcher, which is also £9.45 on Google Play.

I don't know where Phones4U found this stock of devices but it's worth picking up. TopCashBack also offer £6.56 possible cashback, bringing the cost down further.

We do have a forum for the Huawei Vision and CM10 and AOKP builds exist for the device.

Head on over to Phones4U to buy.

Bargain Watch: Motorola RAZR i now £149.99 + topup

@paulobrien — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:53:17 +0000

The RAZR i is a fantastic little phone (I say little - it's relative... it has a 4.3" screen and is nice and slim) and now it's a fantastic bargain too... at only £149.99 + £10 topup... or if you top up £20 you'll get a free Bluetooth speaker too!

The device features Android 4.1, a 2GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM (with microSD expansion), an 8 Megapixel camera and that qHD AMOLED screen - all powered by a 2000mAh battery which provides impressive stamina paired with the Intel CPU.

James reviewed the device and was, quote, 'smitten' - his primary concern being that it's 'slightly overpriced' at £349. At this price, I wouldn't be surprised to see him pick up another one.

If you do pay for the £20 topup when you order you'll bag yourself a Philips SBT300 Bluetooth speaker, which doesn't look bad either.

Head on over to the Motorola site to learn more about the device or the T-Mobile site to order!

Oppo Find 5 now available from the European Oppo Style store

@paulobrien — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:44:43 +0000

The Oppo Find 5 - the world's first 1080P screened phone when it was released in China - is now available in white (16GB/32GB) and black (32GB) versions directly from Oppo's European warehouse, starting at €399 (£340).

I have a Find 5 (review to follow!) and it's a really nice device. The specifications are impressive, particularly given the price - Android 4.1 (with 4.2 coming soon) is onboard with a Qualcomm APQ8064 (S4 Pro) Quad-Core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, a glorious 5" 1920x1080 screen, 13 Megapixel camera, UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA+/HSPA+42 connectivity on the 850, 1700, 1900 and 2100MHz bands, GSM/EDGE on the 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz bands and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz). All the other stuff you'd expect in a top end handset is there too including NFC and it's all powered by a 2500mAh (non removable) battery. There's no microSD slot.

What the specs don't tell you is that it's a seriously solid, well made device. It might be predominantly plastic, but it feels plastic in the HTC One X / Nokia way, not in the Samsung way. It's certainly a cut above most Chinese devices.

The software has a custom UI layer from Oppo on it, but pure AOSP, Paranoid Android and of course CyanogenMod ROMs are available!

As I say, our review will be online soon but if you have any questions about the device in the mean time - ask away!

If you'd like to purchase, head on over to the European Oppo Style store.

Bargain Watch: Grab a Motorola Bluetooth keyboard (RRP £60) for £13.49

@paulobrien — Fri, 31 May 2013 11:07:52 +0000

Looking for a decent Bluetooth keyboard to use with your phone / tablet (or indeed any other Bluetooth device)? This Motorola item might be just what you need!

The keyboard's RRP is apparently £60, but by purchasing at iwoot and using the '10ELECS' code for a 10% discount, you can get it for £13.49 DELIVERED!

The keyboard is powered by 2 AA batteries and includes Android specific keys and shortcuts together with a UK key layout. If you want to learn more you can download the manual in PDF form.

Ready to buy? Head on over to iwoot!

[Edit: Even cheaper from the hut - £11.69 with coupon 'tech'!]

[Via: HotUKDeals]

http://www.iwantoneo...gn=AffiliateWin

EA and Gameloft go social with 'Scrabble' and 'UNO & Friends'

@paulobrien — Fri, 31 May 2013 10:02:20 +0000

Zynga's stranglehold on the 'with friends' gaming market looks set to be further eroded with the release of multiplayer online 'Scrabble' by EA and 'UNO ~~with~~ & Friends' from Gameloft.

Scrabble is available free from the Play Store with support French, Italian, German, Spanish, or Brazilian Portuguese languages. Multiplayer is facilitated via either Facebook or Origin and you can play up to 50 games at once. It's good to see that the game is optimised for both phones AND tablets.

The Collins Official Scrabble wordlist is included so you can check your words right in the game. A 'teacher feature' lets you see what your best word could have been after every turn. As you'd expect, an in-game chat feature is included.

The game looks pretty great but, being a free release, ads and in app purchases are pretty evident. Sadly no ad free option is available to purchase.

UNO & Friends is also available free from the Play Store. Again, multiplayer gaming is facilitated via Facebook and again the application is optimised for both pohones and tablets.

Games can be played against friends and family or against random players worldwide. Games can be customised with fun backgrounds, themed card deck designs & special effects. Boosts and Super Boosts are available to spice things up and weekly and all-time leaderboards let you see how you stack up against your friends and other players.

As with Scrabble, freemium is the order of the day!

I quite like the ceoncept of online multiplayer Uno as you can have games not just against a single player, but up to 3 other players, which is a little bit different.

I'm quite a fan of turned based multiplayer online gaming. Let us know what you think of the new releases!

Hands on: Pebble rocks!

@paulobrien — Thu, 30 May 2013 18:29:04 +0000

I have to confess that I didn't back the Pebble smart watch in the original kickstarter offering, however I've been given a 'second chance' via someone selling their effectively brand new watch a few miles away from me, which I duly bought. I'm seriously impressed.

I've always had something of a love affair with Smartwatches. I think i've owned or considered buying just about all of them at some point, I still have a MotoACTV (good but huge) and I so nearly bought a G-Shock until I realised it probably wouldn't work with my device.

On the whole, they've been disappointments all round. Too ugly. Too big. Awful battery. Too limited. Poor user experience. While some have got pretty close to being worth having, they've all failed to keep me using them for more than a couple of weeks - but I think the Pebble is different.

First of all - design. The Pebble isn't huge and it isn't ugly. It comes in a variety of colours, although only black and red have shipped in significant volume due to manufacturing issues - mine is a black model. It has an 'e-paper' screen (really a regular LCD) with a pretty big bezel, but it has a good curve on it, is glossy and smart and has chunky buttons on the sides to operate. It ships with a rubber strap which itself isn't bad, but it takes standard 22mm watch bands too. I've swapped mine out for a nice black leather item with orange stitching from Amazon. It's a smart watch that doesn't look too much like a smart watch (unlike, say, the MotoACTV) which is definitely a good thing!

Secondly, specs. As mentioned, the screen is backlit monochrome e-paper and runs at a a decidedly low 144 x 168 resolution. It has a scratch and shatter resistant lens with an anti-glare optical coating. Actually, the screen is arguably the weakest point of the device, but it's not so bad as to cause a big problem. Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 LE are both on board, however to date only Bluetooth 2.1 is used. When 4.0 LE becomes ubiquitous on Android (with Android 4.3) I'm hopeful that Pebble will turn on the functionality to save battery. There are 4 buttons, a vibrating motor, a 3 axis accelerometer with gesture detection and the whole thing is rated to 5 ATM, "tested for both fresh and saltwater. You can swim, go for a run in the rain or wash dishes with your Pebble". The battery should give you 7+ days runtime. The waterproofing means that a regular microUSB charging port is not really viable and so the Pebble has a power connector that's reminiscent of an Apple Magsafe connector. It lines up and snaps on easily.

Thirdly, software. The Pebble software is officially supported on iOS and Android and the provided app is pretty decent. BUT.. it's extensible with watchfaces and apps from third party developers via the Pebble SDK, which gives the device huge potential.

So what has my experience been like with the device? How am I using it?

Hardware wise, as mentioned above I replaced the strap. Although the watch is said to be scratch resistant, I got a bit paranoid about it getting damaged (after seeing some posts online) so I ordered a GadgetWrap for the Pebble, which arrived a few days ago. It's a wet install... i'm usually the WORST at applying screen protectors, but this one went on fine and it's virtually invisible (as you can see in the image right at the top of this article). Highly recommended.

Even if you install additional apps for the Pebble, you need to keep the main Pebble app installed. One of the biggest complaints i've had about previous smart watches is reliability of the connection. I'm amazed to say that I haven't had the watch lose it's connection with the phone even once... it's rock solid, which is really excellent.

I started by adding a couple of watch faces from MyPebbleFaces. My 2 favourites are Revolution and Noms. Installing the watchfaces is easy - you click on the link to a .pbw file on your phone, which is then downloaded and automatically opened by the Pebble app, which installs the watch face on your Pebble. Installing apps works the same way.

The next app I installed was on my phone, in the form of Pebble Notifier. When installed and activated via the accessibility settings of your device, Pebble Notifier can intercept and forward ANY notification to your Pebble (even 'toast' notifications)! Notifications can be configured on an 'opt in' basis (only selected apps are included) or an 'opt out' basis (only selected apps are excluded). It's very powerful and works very well. Oh, and the icing on the cake? The application also works as a Tasker plugin to let you send notifications directly to your watch using that application if you wish.

Talking of Tasker... I also installed PebbleTasker. Whereas Pebble Notifier handles phone to watch Tasker communications, PebbleTasker works the other way. It installs an application on your watch that when launched presents 3 buttons. These buttons can launch Tasker tasks of your choice. For example, you could configure a button to take a picture on your phone. You could configure a button to download something from a website and then send it to your watch as a notification. It's incredibly versatile and the possibilities are endless!

The latest application i've discovered (and the third one i'm using at the moment) is Pebble Glance. Pebble Glance works like a watch face (i.e. it shows the time), but it's actually a Pebble app. The main view shows the time and date as well as weather for your current location pulled from your phone. The 3 buttons on the watch can be configured to run a Tasker task, send a predefined SMS to a contact, show more detailed weather or show upcoming calendar entries. The application is in Beta but it already works very well.

In my current real-world use scenario (with a ton of notifications and a lot of use!) i'm getting battery life of about 5 days, which is prefectly acceptable to me. If you're not hammering it quite so much then you'll probaby get quite a lot more. I use the backlight a fair bit too, which is activated by flicking your wrist.

I'm finding that the Pebble allows me to get my device out of my pocket a lot less. I don't need to check it for notifications so often and when notifications do come in, I get a vibration on my wrist and I can check to see if it's something I want to deal with straight away or not. It's really cool to screen incoming calls too. I find myself using this a lot when i'm sitting at my PC strangely! Interestingly the change in the way i'm using my device probably means that i'm offsetting the extra phone battery used by the Bluetooth connection.

I still feel like i'm discovering how to get the most from the Pebble, but I love it already. In fact, I think everyone is discovering how to get the most from it - new apps and ideas are appearing all the time and it will just go from strength to strength.

HTC announces 'HTC One with Nexus User Experience'

@paulobrien — Thu, 30 May 2013 15:57:55 +0000

HTC have just announced the 'HTC One with Nexus User Experience' - the much rumoured HTC One with the stock Android experience.

To be available in the US only initially (important point - INITIALLY!), the 'special edition' device is priced at $599 and out of the box will run Android 4.2.2 with subsequent software updates provided by Google.

The device will be available via Google Play from June 26th and includes 32GB storage (unlike the 64GB equipped developer edition).

More details can be found on the HTC blog.

It's pretty likely that flashing the software onto 'regular' HTC One devices won't be too tricky with an unlocked bootloader, so this is good news for everyone. But... are you sure you want to give up all the HTC niceties (camera etc.) to get that stock experience?

Edit: HTC state that 'The HTC One special edition bootloader can be unlocked by standard method for “Nexus experience” devices'. fastboot oem unlock ahoy!

How big is too big? HTC to launch 5.9" T6

@paulobrien — Thu, 30 May 2013 15:12:24 +0000

I know phone sizes are trending upwards... but how big is too big? Forget 4.7", forget 5" and 5.5" is so last year... HTC's new 'T6' handset is said to pack a 5.9" screen.

A report posted on Focus Taiwan highlights a research note from the Taiwan arm of BNP Paribas Securities discussing their take on HTC's current and future financial position. Generally speaking, the assessment from analyst Laura Chen is good - "While some investors are worried about HTC's execution ability and the uptake of its planned product launches, we believe there is now a better chance of HTC regaining its momentum". "We believe HTC's earnings growth will recover in the second half of 2013 on its improved economic scale, better product mix and operating leverage". She rounds off the research note with a 'buy' rating on the stock and a NT$325 (US$10.86) target price - for reference, HTC's stock is currently sitting at NT$280.

More good news comes in the assessment of likely sales figures - Chen believes that HTC will beat previously issued guidance, helped by the anticipated Verizon release of the HTC One in June.

The real interesting content comes with the discussion of future products however. First up is the M4, a device that we already know to be a smaller, cheaper version of the HTC One. Along with an upgraded Butterfly device which surprisingly is touted for European release rather than just Asia markets, 'a new flagship product with a larger screen size of up to 5.9 inches and an upgraded processor' is discussed. I'd expect to see a Snapdragon 800 in the next round of devices, so it makes sense... but a 5.9" screen? That thing is going to be a beast unless HTC can do something really special with the design.

What do you think? It makes sense (pun intended) for HTC to capitalise on the success of the One by filling out the range with devices offering the same mix of great software, unique features and outstanding design... but will the T6 be a worthy flagship? Will people buy it? Everyone thought the Note / Note 2 would be too big and it turned out to be a runaway success... Let us know what you think!

[Via: CoolSmartphone]

iBlason Power Glider for HTC One brings 'juice pack' functionality on a budget

@paulobrien — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:42:21 +0000

The Mophie Juice Pack for the HTC One looks great, but it's not cheap at $99. The Power Glider from iBlason might be better value and with an additional feature too!

Priced at $59.95 from Amazon US (international availability TBC), the Power Glider is available in black or white and like the Mophie, packs a 2,500mAh battery which can apparently provide 80% of a full charge to your HTC One. A LED indicator on the pack itself indicates the internal battery level.

Like it's competitor the pack is pretty chunky and will largely ruin the lines of your gorgeous device, but it at least has an extra little trick up it's sleeve - it has a kickstand built into the back which might be useful for watching videos etc.

We'll update you with a review as the device becomes available (and we've inquired about international availability) - it'll be intersting to see if the quality is up to scratch.

Duolingo free language learning now available for Android

@paulobrien — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:06:03 +0000

Duolingo - the FREE language learning application with $15m of backing from investors including Ashton Kutcher - is now available for Android.

The application, currently available for phones with a tablet release coming soon, allows you to learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English. The learning is broken down into small, fun lessons with graphical, audio and text based exercises to keep things interesting. You can track your progress with achievements too both on device and on the Duolingo website (where you can complete the lessons too).

Not only is the app free - the publishers promise no fees, no ads, no gimmicks - ever and 'a college-quality education without the price tag.'

I gave the application a go last night and it's really nice! I still remember most of what I learnt last night today (which is no mean feat for me!), so I suspect this might become a regular end-of-day activity!

Give it a go and let us know what you think!

Head on over to the Play Store to download, or the Duolingo website to learn more.

So who needs a Phablet anyway?

@nortools — Tue, 28 May 2013 19:58:28 +0000

I still fondly remember that snowy January morning a few years ago when my Nexus One arrived.  I was so excited for what was going to be my first ever truly high end smartphone, but what I couldn't believe when I opened that box was how massive the screen was. A full 3.7 inches of gorgeous AMOLED joy! I marvelled at that screen before I even bothered to insert the battery and switch the device on.

Less than a year after my Nexus One moment I was at a family tea when someone pulled out an HTC Desire HD.  I think my jaw literally dropped as that step towards an even larger screen had been taken.  I knew then that I had to have one and indeed I did.  I was bowled over by the expanse of beautiful glass that I held in my hand!

Fast forward a few years and having gone through various devices and various screen sizes up to the full 4.7 inch goodness of the HTC One, I decided it was time to find out - what are these Phablets all about?  After a brief dalliance with the Asus Fonepad as a phone (read Paul's review to find out more) and discovering it is a tablet which makes calls and not a Phablet, I managed to get my hands on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - surely the ultimate Phablet at the moment.  Would I now be able to answer my own question of how big is too big?

For some reason I was expecting the Note 2 to arrive in a massive and unwieldy box, but all was rather normal until that moment when I lifted the lid and there it was in all its glory.  And wow, it is a seriously big phone.  Even for someone used to 4.7 inch screens, the Note 2 is almost overwhelmingly large at first.  As I fumbled trying to work out how to hold this large slab of a device, something unusual happened.  For the first time in about two years I dropped a phone!  I am very careful with my devices, but the Note 2 almost immediately got the better of me.  Having borrowed it from Paul, I am sure his heart skipped a beat reading the last few sentences, but fear not Paul, it had a soft landing!

Once I managed to clumsily remove the back of the phone, insert my SIM card, reattach the typically Samsung flimsy cover and switch the device on, I could feel the excitement of trying a new device flooding through my nervous system.  The blue flash that is the Samsung logo animating on startup only heightened that feeling and once I was logged in to my Google account I could not wait for my first test.  I had dozens of unread emails that needed dealing with and I had thought this would be a good first task with this phone.  And how right I was!  Yes, I couldn't use the phone single handed, but triaging my email was a rapid and painless affair.

As that first day progressed and I spent more time reading on the Note 2 and interacting with it, I came to realise that the Phablet is certainly not going to be a passing fad even though there are far fewer devices that fall into that category than the popular tech media would have you believe.  Reading anything on the Note 2 is simply fantastic.  I had the joy of taking the phone on holiday with me and I chose not to take any other devices when normally at least one tablet and perhaps a Chromebook and a backup phone would also have made the trip.  What a great device for reading a book, watching a film and entertaining my daughter.  Having such a relatively compact - compared to a tablet - all in one media device was a pleasure.  And as a function of its size, the battery is large and comes with great endurance as standard.  Taking the usual array of terrible beach photos allowed me to play around with the included stylus to touch up the pictures and add trite annotations to boot.  What a joy.

On my return I tried to continue using the Note 2, but like with many holiday dalliances, it was not to be.  Such a large device is simply not necessary when I have a good tablet and laptop at home, rendering the expanse of the Phablet unneeded.  Even commuting over my short - thirty minute - train commute does not require such a large screen when I leave my home with its array of devices and head for work where I have another pleasurable large screened computer to use.  The pocket-ability of a more normal sized phone has won the day, but this is only my experience.

I now understand precisely why the Galaxy Note 2 is so popular and next time I go on holiday I will be asking Paul if I can have another loan of the phone.  I don't hold much hope though, he already told me not to get too fond of it!  Phablets are here to stay and the only argument left is trying to define which devices fall into this category.  On second thoughts perhaps there is another argument - can we get rid of the ridiculous term "Phablet"?

Bargain Watch: Refurbished Nexus 7 16GB available for £119

@paulobrien — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:45:48 +0000

The Argos Outlet eBay store is currently offering refurbished Nexus 7 16GB devices for only £119.99. 32GB models are £144.99 and if you buy 2 devices you get a 10% discount! Delivery will cost you £3.95.

The units are refurbished to 'like new' standard and include a full 12 month warranty. BARGAIN!

No discounts on the 3G model sadly...

Update: The 16GB is out of stock with stock of the 32GB running low. If you are thinking of getting one then hurry!

[Via: HotUKDeals]

Cut the Rope: Experiments free on improved Amazon Appstore today

@paulobrien — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:29:29 +0000

'Cut the Rope: Experiments' is free in all supported territories on the improved Amazon Appstore today only.

If you use the Amazon Appstore in the UK you'll have noticed that up to now you've only been able to browse the applications on your device. You'll be pleased to hear that you can now use the Amazon UK website too!

The Appstore itself (complete with the free app of the day) has now expanded to over 200 countries around the world, so if you were excluded before, there's a good chance you can get your freebies now!

The Appstore APK can be downloaded directly on this link and if you'd like to be informed of the day's deal via Twitter, follow @aafaotduk for the UK offers or @aafaotdus for the US offers.

HTC One 'Google Edition' for the US imminent

@paulobrien — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:44:48 +0000

HTC has said on many, many occasions that it'll never happen... but we're hearing from multiple reliable sources that, barring a sudden change of heart, a 'Google Edition' of the HTC One is set to be announced next week.

Set to be available in the US Only - like its S4 equivalent - the device is said to use use identical hardware to the 'regular' HTC One Developer Edition. It remains to be seen whether this will impact the ability for enthusiasts to run the software on regular HTC One devices due to radio band support - once again T-Mo HSPA+ users could be out of luck. It does mean the device should pack 64GB of storage out of the box... do you still want that microSD support so bad?

It seems as though the very existence of the Google Edition device has created considerable internal turmoil at HTC. There is a deep seated belief within HTC that Sense provides the best possible Android experience and there's no reason to offer anything different - unifying behind a consistent message. HTC has always been a company however that is driven from the top and it appears as though the new device has been sanctioned by none other than Peter Chou himself, no doubt influenced by arch-rival Samsung's recent announcement. While many inside HTC don't agree that the Google Edition is the way to go - it's really happening.

A 'stock Android' version of the One is particularly interesting for a number of reasons, not least because it gives the ability to really understand what you give up when you lose Sense vs what you gain with stock Android. Of course, you'll forfeit the HTC Camera application with it's Zoe and Highlights features, you'll bid goodbye to Blinkfeed and a number of HTC apps... but in theory you should get faster updates and a 'lighter' device.

Many people have complained about the button layout on the One - a move to stock Android means the hardware buttons can easily be disabled and replaced by 'Nexus style' on screen buttons should you wish.

If Samsung and HTC in conjunction with Google can create these AOSP editions, where does this leave the Nexus program? Will Sony join the party with an official Google Edition Xperia Z?

How do you feel about a nonSense / Senseless HTC One? Share your thoughts!

Zarch1972 also contributed to this item.

HTC announces the Desire 600 for Russia, Ukraine and MEA

@paulobrien — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:17:18 +0000

HTC have just announced the Desire 600, a dual SIM, quad core, Sense 5 equipped mid-range handset featuring Blinkfeed and BoomSound (but no Ultrapixels), to be released in Russia, Ukraine and MEA (Middle East / Asia).

Forfeiting the HTC One's Ultrapixel camera for a 8MP conventional snapper, the device has a 4.5" qHD SLCD 2 screen and a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 quad core processor. An 1860mAH battery (removable) powers the device, which features 8GB onboard storage and a microSD slot. Given that the device doesn't include LTE, battery life should be pretty good!

The device will be available in the markets above from June 2013.

I think it looks pretty good myself... it'll be interested to see the price. I assume it's not coming to Europe as it would encroach on the forthcoming 'HTC One Mini', aka the M4.

Port your PhoneGap app to Windows Phone and win prizes

@hecatae — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:43:46 +0000

Today, Microsoft are launching a porting challenge and inviting developers who have used PhoneGap to publish applications in other stores to port their apps to Windows Phone 8... and potentially win prizes!

Members of a panel selected from Microsoft, the Adobe PhoneGap team and industry experts will choose 20 winners, based on apps that are:

Original
Innovative
Easy to use
Engaging and visually appealing to the user

The panel will pick 3 grand prize winners who each will receive a Windows Phone 8 and a Surface Pro device and 17 first prize winners who each will receive a Windows Phone 8 device. Potentially more valuably, all winning apps will be evaluated for featured slots in the Windows Phone Store.

So that's 20 winners in total.

The challenge starts today, May 20th 2013 and you have until June 30th 2013 to submit your app for the porting challenge. Winners will be announced on July 19th 2013 at the PhoneGap Day event in Portland, Oregon. The challenge is open to developers in all countries/regions where Windows Phone Dev Center registration is available.

If you're looking to compete, please read the rules and you can follow this link to sign up - http://www.phonegapwpchallenge.com/

[Via: Windows Phone Developer Blog]