Category: Android

Acer Iconia A510 – Initial Impressions

The 10″ Android tablet market just got dumped on its head recently. As with the other current Nexus devices Google are offering them direct to customers rather cheaply. This move makes selling a tablet difficult as the other OEMs have to cut corners to keep the prices low. …

Samsung Reveal new Android flip format handset

A little while ago we showed a new Android powered Samsung flip phone that was destined for the Chinese market. Well, Samsung have quite strongly upped the ante with the launch of a brand new quad core flip phone powered by Android – again destined for the Chinese …

Don’t like Android 4.2 lock screen widgets? Turn them off then!

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean came with a bucket load of new features, most noticeable was the ability to add widgets to, and access the camera from the lock screen. Whilst some people (me included) thought that was a great idea, others weren’t too impressed and headed to settings …

Google TV on offer in UK

You might have seen a small black box from Apple called Apple TV. This connects via HDMI to your HD TV and then streams your media purchases on a nice large screen via WiFi. Now there’s also a version available from Google…. and you guessed it, it’s called …

Google indoor maps now live for UK

If you’re a fan of Google Maps and use it for getting around, the great news is that Google have now turned on the new indoor mapping feature. There’s dozens of locations now indoor enabled here in the UK. The indoor mapping project is being updated all the …

Huawei G300 ICS update next week

Anyone with a Huawei G300 on Vodafone (and at the price it is selling for I would expect there are LOTS), a new software version is due to be rolled out over the air next week which will address a few issues found in the existing version. Costing …

Huawei announce G330 and Y201

Huawei have today announced two new models for its line up of Android handsets. Firstly the Ascend G330, the follow up to the G300, runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, has a 4″ screen, is powered by a 1Ghz dual core processor and  incorporates Huawei’s own HAP 5.1 …

Nexus 4 coming to Three

Seekers of the mythical Nexus 4 now have another opportunity to not get one… at least not yet. 🙂 Three have announced that they will be selling Google & LG’s latest and greatest handset. Unfortunately it’s not available straight away, so if you’re not the patient type your …

ZTE become the first Chinese vendor to offer a Jelly Bean device

ZTE today announced that its N880E Android smartphone is now available on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. This makes ZTE is the first Chinese vendor to launch an Android 4.2 smartphone. Shame they seem to have forgotten us here in the UK. Recently ZTE announced a load of phones …

LTE activated in a Nexus 4.

A few days ago iFixit got their hands on a Nexus 4 and took it to pieces. To their surprise they found an LTE chip inside, unused of course. What is it’s purpose? A lot of people speculate that it’s simple a cost cutting measure from LG and …

HTC Deluxe DLX images “leak” out online

As is usual with any new upcoming device images appear leading up to its release. The HTC Deluxe DLX is no different. We have already seen this device a few times as the Droid DNA is the US and the J Butterfly in Japan. Deluxe DLX is going to …

Galaxy Note II 4.1.2 update leaks

James Pearce once again told us of his love for the excellent Samsung Galaxy Note II yesterday and I must say that after my review here I pretty much share his views. Well, it would seem that there is yet another reason to like Samsung’s monster handset as a new …

Do I need a Samsung Galaxy Note II?

Some of the more eagle eyed amongst you may be aware that I’m one of those people who swear by the original Samsung Galaxy Note. I’ve had it for about six or seven months now but I’ve started to become envious of the new Galaxy Note II. I’ve …

Battery Stats Plus – Recommended Android App

One major complaint around almost every smartphone currently available is battery life. Unless you have a Motorola Razr Maxx or the Galaxy Note 2 with their giant batteries or have every data service turned off then battery life is almost certain to raise its head as an issue …

Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini in blue now in stock

For some the Samsung Galaxy SIII might be a little bit too big. That’s why Samsung introduced the lower spec’d smaller SIII Mini and today Expansys have just got them into stock in blue. Spec wise it is trimmed down quite a bit compared to the SIII but …

Skype for Android updated with a nice tablet UI

It’s always nice when a large name app developer like Skype actually update their app to have a decent tablet UI. This mornings update to Skype has added exactly that. Here are a few screenshots showing what to expect. The what’s new section of the Play Store details …

Android 4.2 “December bug” to be fixed shortly

Well, they’ve only got a few days left in November, so here’s hoping it’ll roll out pretty soon. If you’re one of the lucky / unlucky ones to have Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and you’re missing out on December anniversaries and birthdays in the “People” app, Google are …

Telmap M8 for iOS and Android gets a festive update

Telmap are an Intel owned mapping company and they have a rather decent free mapping and Sat Nav app for iOS and Android. You may remember this as I went to the launch event in London and we also reviewed their app as well. Well Telmap have released …

Android 5.0 briefly puts in an appearance.

We have only just seen the release of Android 4.2 and the new Nexus 4 (even if not many have actually seen one!!) but already Android 5.0 seems to have put in an appearance in benchmarks spotted on NenaMark benchmark charts. The OS, generally thought to be know as …

LG Optimus 4X going cheap today at Expansys

The LG Optimus 4X is one of those underrated devices. Retailers are now in that period where LG’s newer devices are appearing and these older devices are in danger of getting overlooked. Expansys are selling them today for £284.99 here. Features you’ll love: Flagship phone from LG bursting …

What version of Android is the most popular?

Ever wondered how many people are using Ice Cream Sandwich, or Honeycomb, or Gingerbread? Well, Google (as usual, with most things) has the answer. Data from the number of Android devices accessing Google Play within a 14-day period shows that nearly 26% are using Ice Cream Sandwich and …

Get your Samsung Galaxy Tab a little bit cheaper

Seen this? It’s a £50 cashback offer on selected Samsung Galaxy Tab devices. Those “selected” devices are the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Galaxy Note 10.1 and for some reasons there’s £30 cashback on the Galaxy Tab 7.0, but you get an 8GB microSD card. Anyways, Simon Algar popped …

Google cancels December for Android 4.2 users

Don’t tell the kids, but Google has done what the Grinch couldn’t – stolen Christmas! OK, they haven’t actually stolen it, but if you’re an Android 4.2 Jelly Bean user you better not have been born in December, because Google have dropped (another) almighty clanger by omitting the …

Nexus 4 DOES have an LTE chip after all!

This is a dramatic twist. One of the biggest sore points of the Nexus 4 launch was its lack of LTE but an iFixit teardown has revealed that the Nexus 4 actually has a “Qualcomm WTR1605L Seven-Band 4G LTE chip” inside, the turquoise highlighted chip in the picture above. Quite …

Android 4.2 – Review (updated)

A mere four months after the release of Android 4.1, we now have 4.2. It’s still called Jellybean, but despite the lack of a name change there are still some nice additions, more so than the last time we had two versions of Android with the same name …

Google Play Music – Review

As discussed on our latest podcast, Google Music has finally arrived here on the shores of the UK and finally for all of those who didn’t know about or care to use the workaround can get a taste of what those on the other side of the pond …

Vodafone Smart Tab II now available

The Lenova made Smart Tab II is now available from Vodafone. Vodafone have even made a nice little video showing off the Smart Tab II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jViiAN3yA2o The 7 inch Vodafone Smart Tab II, powered by Lenovo, is the new 3G and WiFi Android tablet from Vodafone – giving …

YouTube app for Android update – Screen sharing added

If you’ve got one of those clever Smart TV’s then check out the new YouTube app. It includes YouTube TV. To get it working you’ll have to do some jiggery-pokery with your TV and pair it up, so it doesn’t look to be straight DLNA as far as …

Nexus chaos

So today is the day that those of us that were lucky enough to order a Nexus 4 will receive their shiny new bundles of shiny from the TNT delivery man. There have been sporadic reports of people getting their devices without prior notice from Google from TNT. …

Samsung Galaxy Beam going cheap today at Expansys

The rather clever Samsung Galaxy Beam that we reviewed a while back here is now even cheaper. Expansys are having one of their one day special sales. Today only the Beam will cost £249.99. When we reviewed it our main problem with it was the price. This problem …

The 1st Cloud synced pillbox app prevents medical emergencies

An American dies every 19 minutes from skipping medication or taking meds incorrectly; the problem costs U.S. hospitals $100 billion every year. So that’s why the team from the MediSafe Project launched today the first-ever cloud-synced mobile app that not only reminds users when it’s time to take …

Ballmer calls Android “Uncontrolled” and Apple “Highly Priced”

He may be the top dog at Microsoft, but Steve Ballmer has never held back when asked about the competition. Today he must’ve been feeling even more relaxed, shooting bullets at both iPhone and Android. Ballmer firmly believes that Windows Phone can sit somewhere in between the “highly …

CyanogenMod community rises to resolve extortion demands

Earlier we reported that the CyanogenMod team were being held to ransom over their domain by an unscrupulous member of their team. Spurred by the news, the wider community have come to the rescue, and the situation is now under control. Cyanogen himself took to the blog in …

CyanogenMod team held to ransom over their own domain name

For the uninitiated, CyanogenMod is probably the most widely used custom ROM suite in the Android community. The team work as a non-profit group of programmers that provide fully open source, freely available ROMs for dozens of devices for nothing. Nice people, doing great things for the common …

Google confirms Nexus S and Xoom will not get Android 4.2

In amongst all the excitement about new Nexus devices going on sale and promptly selling out,  Android 4.2 is being made available to Galaxy Nexus devices. Conspicuous by their absence however were updates for the Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom. Googles Jean-Baptiste M. Queru has now confirmed …

Introducing the Samsung Galaxy Camera – again

The seemingly expensive Samsung Galaxy Camera has recently arrived into stock across the land. It is an interesting device, I’d like to try one out just to see how it compares to my £200 compact digital camera. It certainly is feature packed though and Samsung have posted this …

Nexus 4 – Photo special

The Nexus 4 sold out in less than 30 minutes yesterday. The 16GB version vanished in just 20 minutes, so it’s not like we can just lay our hands on one to show you guys.. is it? Made by LG we’ve managed to unbox one today, and there’s …