Category: Android
The Carphone Warehouse Summer Sale started today and it looks rather good – much better than the O2 “secret” sale earlier this week! Highlights of the sale include the HTC Desire C for £99, the Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition from £199 and various contract deals (Galaxy S3 …
Take an Android phone or tablet with a powerful Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a HDMI outout. Now, take out the expensive high-resolution capacitive screen, the camera, the Bluetooth, GSM radio kit and battery. You’re left with something which costs a lot less to build. Put …
This is Robin, a personal driving assistant which offers help and advice. It’s free and a rather porky 23MB download which is designed to come up with answers while you concentrate on driving. It’s in Beta, so the results might not be perfect just yet, but seemed to …
Something strange seems to have happened in our house recently. My wife has the HTC Desire S. She loves it, and she’s broken it more times than I can remember (insurance is a must). A few months ago she came to the end of her contract, but she’s …
Over the last year or so I have gone through quite a few phones, I’ve dabbled with Windows Phone, I’ve had Samsung, HTC and even Motorola devices. Whatever phone I have the grass always seems greener on the other side. When I upgraded from my aging HTC Desire …
Another ultra-cheap Android device is about to hit the market, this time from ZTE. The ZTE Kis will sell for less than £50 on Virgin Media from today and has a 3.5″ HVGA 480×320 screen. Powered by an 800MHz CPU, the phone runs Android 2.3 and has Bluetooth …
If you are one of those lucky enough to already have your hands on the Nexus 7 then expect an update to be heading your way rather soon. Google has started to roll out Android 4.1.1, build JRO03C which includes Google Wallet. The update is also rolling out to …
Earlier in the week I received a mobile phone to review. This isn’t unusual, but what I found on it was. There was a definite “pre-owned” feel to it. No, it wasn’t scratched. It wasn’t damaged in any way. Instead it had stacks of data on it. Someone …
Motorola announced today a new budget Android device coming in the next few weeks, they say that the device will be available by the end of July on T-Mobile, here in the UK at a very respectful £99.99. Are you looking for your first Android device and have …
Ever wanted to look awesome, professional and geeky all in one? CamCard is the app for you! Scan business cards that you’re given and store them directly as new contacts, or share that information with colleagues. In essence it’s a platform that allows the scanning of Business Cards …
This might only target a fairly small subset of people, but they’re no less important than anyone else. If you, dear reader, have gone out and bought yourself one of those whizzy Samsung Smart TV’s and then bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII, listen up. On the …
In what could be seen as a surprise move the ban on the sales of Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus handset has been overturned by the appeals court. No reason has been given for the overturning however Apple have until Thursday to appeal. The full trial is due to …
Over the last few years I have been looking for a solution to my music storage problem. Recently whilst playing about with Windows Phone I have come close to finding my ideal solution. That solution was 7Digital. First of all I should let you know what the problem …
A couple of weeks ago we reported on a possible case of an exploding Samsung Galaxy SIII. It had been claimed by a user in Ireland that his S3 exploded whilst on his in-car charger. Appearing on Samsung’s global blog are details of how they contracted an independent investigator (Fire …
The LG L7 forms part of the “L Style” range. When we saw the L3, L5 and this at Mobile World Congress. This is at the very top of that range but it’s still not one of the most powerful devices we’ve seen from LG. First impressions are …
Okay, it’s not cool, it’s not smart, but the Doro PhoneEasy 610 is a phone at least! A phone which deserves a mention because of what it achieves by not being cool or smart. Why am I reviewing a feature phone? Despite his age, my elderly father has …
Reports coming from Bloomberg indicate that Amazon could be about to enter the mobile handset market and are said to be in the process of acquiring patents to protect themselves from possible litigation. The Chinese mobile manufacturer Foxconn is reported to be working with Amazon on the device. There is …
With the Sony Xperia S only just getting Ice Cream Sandwich around the world, looks like Sony are busy making it’s replacement with an improved 13 megapixel lens capable of 1080p HD video. The ‘LT30p’ as it is known at the moment should also have a metal back …
When you listen to Episode 4 of our podcast later, you’ll hear me rant solidly for about 5 minutes on patents and how they are reported. Today brings a perfect example to illustrate my point. On Tuesday Apple was granted a patent for “wearable displays” and many people …
Just a short while ago we reported on claims that some Android devices were spamming via a botnet of rogue handsets. The news came via a Microsoft blog post, which showed how spam emails had “Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android” in the text and “androidMobile” in the …
In the last few days retailers have started to get the eagerly awaited LG Optimus 4X HD into stock. Expansys are one of these retailers and they have recorded a quick unboxing of the device which you can see below. LG’s First Quad-Core Processor Smartphone: LG’s next milestone …
We had a quick play with the Samsung Galaxy Beam during Mobile World Congress. We tried to hold back on asking “is that a projector in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me”, but slightly embarrassed ourselves by asking, “do things work better in the …
If you’re using an Android phone it could, according to researchers, be used as part of a botnet. The research, which was performed by Microsoft, shows that Android devices can send mail out through Yahoo! mail servers, spamming people with adverts. The Microsoft blog states that.. All of …
So this week we got sent one of the new Hannspree HANNSpads by the kind people from Hannspree. When I initially heard that a new HANNSpad was going to be released I was quite excited. The original was quite a hit with the development community and we haven’t …
So, if we’re looking at budget Android handsets we have to look at this – the Vodafone Smart II. It’s going on sale for just £70 and is powered by Android 2.3. Inside it’s actually an Alcatel device – the charger and battery gives it all away …
The high court has ruled that HTC have not infringed four Apple patents after a dispute between the two companies. The judge rules that the Apple “slide to unlock” feature, which has been used as ammo against other firms, was an “obvious” development and had actually been seen …
While Blackberry devices may be struggling to gain some market share right now, thankfully not every company on the planet is avoiding qwerty devices with a barge pole. Now this definitely isn’t going to be rivaling your best friends new Galaxy S3 on the spec front, but if …
Google have declared that they are joining forces with Samsung in the patent wars. Within hours of their appeal against the sales ban of the Galaxy Nexus handset in the US being turned down, Google have said that they, together with Samsung, are ready to release an OTA patch …
Madfinger the developer behind great games Samurai Vengeance and Shadowgun have released their latest which is a zombie shooting type game. There is a brief back story to it, but I quickly jumped past that and started shooting zombies. As with all of Madfinger games they are Tegra …
The battle between Apple and Samsung is heating up. A few days ago Apple managed to get sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus blocked in the US. It was all down to a patent regarding the persistent search box on the screen of the Nexus. This ban was …
In recent years we’ve seen a shift in the way that mobile devices are used in the workplace. Previously you may have had a Blackberry or Microsoft Pocket PC dropped on your desk. Things were locked down, secure and managed. Now, with the advent of “Bring Your Own …
Whilst reviewing the Alcatel-built Vodafone Smart II we noticed something very familiar with the recovery mode. If you’ve ever used CWM, aka ClockwordMod, you’ll probably be more than familiar with this screen. It was developed by Koushik Dutta (@Koush). CWM is pretty much open and is licensed under …
Fancy a Xoom 2 for £269.99? Well, you’ve got to act quick because eXpansys only have it at this price until 11PM (UK time) tonight. The Motorola Xoom 2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU running Android Honeycomb and has a light aluminium body. There’s also 1GB …
Gameloft are well known for their great games that really push the boundaries of what a mobile device can do. There latest game is a little bit different to the norm. It is a turn based social card game, whereby you either play against your friends or your …
Since Sony took over the headset business of Sony Ericsson recently, it is easy to say they had an uphill struggle getting consumers to part with their money in an industry full of competition from the likes of HTC and Samsung. Announced back at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the …
We reported a few days ago that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been banned from sale in the US pending the outcome of a patent trial bought by Apple. Well, it would seem that Judge Lucy Koh is a bit of an Apple fan as she has now …
At 5.30pm on Wednesday night I settled myself down to watch the keynote speech at Google I/o – Google’s developers conference (their very own version of WWDC.) There had been plenty of rumours about an upcoming OS release, a new tablet and Google TV. I watched as Android …
So you fancy a bit of jelly bean action, eh? Funny how that sentance would have got you sectioned last week.. Anyhow the lovely people at Expansys have the “flagship” Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus at a rather impressive £319-99 with free shipping. Jelly bean will be officially …
Yes, you read that right. The new Google Nexus 7 has been rooted, only two days after it was given to Google I/O attendees and around two weeks before the tablet is released to the general public. A user called ‘birdman’ on RootzWiki has posted a guide on …
Google has given the security of its Face Unlock feature a bit of careful consideration in the upcoming Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release of Android. The feature was introduced with the dawn of ICS as a way to unlock your phone through face recognition, but shortly after it’s …
