Category: General

New Vodafone Freebee Rewardz are go

It’s that time of year again. We’ve just lost the weight we added on over Christmas and somehow I’ve finished off that box of broken biscuits. Now it’s Easter, and (with my utter weakness for anything Cadbury) there’s going to be quite a few eggs eaten over the …

Google update their Translate app to include offline translation

It only seemed like a few weeks ago and we were discussing Samsung’s new S Translate app during our podcast. I was hoping it had some sort of offline mode as the Google offering didn’t. Well Google were obviously listening the other week and they’ve gone and updated …

Try superfast 4GEE for free

Sometimes thing seem to good to be true and no doubt I’ve missed something here but if you’ve been wanting to try out the supposedly “superfast” 4G now might be your chance. Basically EE are offering a free 4G MiFi for a month to try out. DON’T JUST …

Smartphone Glasses – See quicker

This took me a good few seconds to “get” but it’s a pretty nifty idea which is cheap too. For those that have trouble viewing the screen and require reading glasses, things can become a bit of a faff when you want to use your smartphone. First you’ve …

Three announce yearly earnings

UK network Three who are well known for their data offerings have announced their yearly results today Full year earnings were up 237% from 2011 to £101m and the company added over 900,000 customers taking them over the 9 million mark for the first time Total revenue also …

Pebble – the watch that connects to your phone

I think I’ve had my Pebble for at least a week now and I can say I really do like it. It’s not massive on the wrist, which was my initial concern, my wife tried hers and said it was just acceptable for her to wear too. I …

Are Motorola going to be the next Nexus manufacturer?

Motorola have had a few tough years and if they continue making devices like their current generation devices thing might just improve for them. Rumours about their next device dubbed the “Motorola X” keep surfacing and the latest info has been anonymously emailed to Phonearena. The latest rumoured …

How long will Google Keep be kept around?

Perhaps for the first time, Google released a new service which I didn’t immediately rush to try out. In the wake of the Reader spring clean, I now have to think about whether or not I can rely on a new Google service being around for the long …

iHome Wireless Speaker Review

Cables. Bleugh. We don’t like them. Bluetooth has stopped us needing cables in our ears when we’re making or receiving calls, and now we’re seeing more and more of these – Bluetooth speakers. This particular one is for iHome Wireless Speaker. First I’ll hit you with the details. …

Huawei E589 unboxing

After arriving in London for a 4 day break I knew I was going to be enjoying 4G speeds thanks to my existing EE account and having both a HTC One and Sony Xperia Z with me. However using internet on these drains the battery and these mobile …

Times are hard, how do you buy your next smartphone?

Money. It’s increasingly hard to come by. The recent Budget yet again showed that the country is really stretched. But, in the middle of it all, we’re still finding ways of affording phones that cost around £500. It is, if we’re honest, a lot of cash. If you …

EE are bringing 4G to rural Cumbria

EE have today announced they are rolling out there fast 4G network to rural Cumbria, woohoo. Parts of the northern fells have barely any voice signal never mind a fast data connection so this is going to be good news for those data starved northerners. Rory Stewart, MP …

Google Keep is here

The much fabled Google Keep has today finally appeared in the Google Play Store. It is a note-taking application that facilitates the quick capture of thoughts and ideas via a variety of means – voice recordings, pictures or simply text. With these features, it promises to let you …

Swappa is now available in the UK

Many years ago eBay used to be fun, you could buy and sell goods confident that things wouldn’t go wrong. These days it is a minefield riddled with crooks exploiting loopholes in the returns process, if you do manage to secure a legitimate sale your then stung for …

Three and O2 customers spammed by 0088213300744 phone number

It’s emerging that huge amounts of Three and O2 customers are getting calls from a strange phone number: 0088213300744 Details are sketchy at the moment, but it seems that the number originates from Bangladesh, and some people are claiming it’s a call back scam that will charge you …

Logic3 Ferrari Scuderia R300 headphones – Review

I’ve become a bit of a over ear headphone convert recently, having used the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T350 headphones a few weeks ago. In the past my experience of over ear headphones had been cheap plasticy cheap headphones, that had awful sound quality as you’d expect. When I got the …

Gmail for Android update brings notification actions (updated)

Google have (finally!) updated Gmail for Android to take advantage of the the notification actions that were introduced in Jellybean last summer. Users can now reply, archive or delete directly from the notification curtain if they’re running Android 4.1 or higher. It’s a really useful feature which Google …

Kidigi car kit for Samsung Galaxy Note II – Review

Most generic car kits just aren’t man enough for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, so Kidigi have addressed this with a nice, meaty dedicated kit. Kidigi are a specialist third party mobile technology accessories company from Hong Kong that caters for most popular handsets (they even do Blackberry …

Will 4G break your TV? The testing begins

Dudley. Deep in the Black Country it’s home of the delightful Merry Hill and people who “spake loik may”. Soon though people in Dudley will be bathed in 4G at 800MHz. Great news, you’d think, but it’s actually part of a test. Digital Spectrum Limited will be spending …

Foursquare for BlackBerry 10 updated: brings feature parity

About time that Blackberry is getting some love from Foursquare – it’s been a staple of blackberry users from its announcement on the original platform, now BB10 devices are getting the same love that Foursquare has splashed on iOS owners. Along with the usual smattering of bug fixes …

Create your own micro SIM. Just hack it with scissors.

I’m old school. I’ve got a standard sized SIM card. A card of this size has been around for quite some time and over the years my Orange SIM has prostituted itself with so many handsets I’ve lost count. It’s only when I actually call Orange and they …

10 inch playbook – and 6 more devices on the way

It isn’t a leak when it’s announced by your director of product management at BlackBerry Middle East, who announced the existence and likely shipping date of the 10 inch BlackBerry PlayBook. Mike Al Mefleh made the comments during the BlackBerry users forum in Dubai, stating “We have a …

Where is this week’s Podcast

Last night in New York City something rather large happened. You may have noticed. The Galaxy S4 was announced and to mark that occasion we’re going to have a special edition of the podcast. We’ve pushed it back one day and tonight we’ll record it and get it …

Take card payments with iZettle

iZettle is a really handy and affordable way of taking card payments using your mobile phone.  No longer do you have to be a big business or shop to be able to receive card payments, perfect if you are always buying lunch at work or for friends who …

O2 Confirm – The S4 is approaching

Just yesterday we looked at the UK networks and checked to see who was going to carry the Samsung Galaxy S4. The only network who hadn’t confirmed were O2, but they’ve just uypdated their Twitter feed with confirmation that they too will be carrying the handset. You can …

AdBlock Plus removed from Play Store by Google

AdBlock Plus, the app that blocks those pesky mobile ads has been removed from the Play Store by Google. In a move that could be seen to be protecting their own revenues, Google are running the risk of upsetting the many users that only want the content of …

Why I think Andy Rubin left Android [Opinion]

By now the news is everywhere. Andy Rubin is leaving Android, the project he brought with him to Google in 2004, to work in their famous Project X department (responsible for Google Glass). There are many theories as to why Andy Rubin has left the effort – some …

Reviewed – Innergie Magic Cable Trio

Cabling is always a bit of a nightmare. I can’t be the only one who’s got a knotted mess of cabling behind sofas, under beds and in the foot-well of my car. The microUSB charging standard should be just that – a standard. For most of the time …

Pebble unboxing and first impressions

Ok, it’s finally here! The last post I made about the Pebble was back in January where I roughly estimated that we’d have our Pebbles with us by the end of March, so my estimate seemed pretty realistic. Those that backed the Kickstarter project are more than familiar …

Samsung Galaxy S4 – Which networks are taking it?

Time for a quick round-up on which networks will be picking up the Samsung Galaxy S4. Now, if I’m a betting man, I’d put £10 on all of the networks picking it up, but here’s how things stand currently.. T-Mobile T-Mobile have stated that they will carry the …

Google Reader to be removed in July

In a move that I can only describe as baffling, Google have announced that their free online news reader app, Google Reader, will be shut down on July 1st. The system alllows you to read and process RSS news feeds (like our very own one here) in a …

Perhaps I’m a little too inquisitive

Trains. I love them. If you want to be nosey and have a look at what people are up to, they’re brilliant. Over the course of the last few weeks I’ve been on quite a few, including a few trips to London and my own local city – …

Another price increase from Orange

Last week news of tariff increases for pay monthly customers came from both Orange and T-Mobile. Well, it seems that Orange are at it again as letters have been sent to customers that elect to cover their prized handsets with Orange Care informing them of another price hike …

Galaxy S4 heading to Three?

Samsung are set to announce their new flagship phone in a few days time over in New York. We are all expecting this to be the Samsung Galaxy S IV which might be dropping the Roman Numeral system and be called the Samsung Galaxy S4. We have just …

Virgin Media disable speed caps

The recent speed caps on Virgin Media appear to have now been lifted but don’t get too excited, they look to be coming back soon enough. The “teething troubles” have led to some customers getting pretty useless speeds on the network, which is hosted on the back of …

Win an iPhone 5 plus Bang & Olufsen speakers

So, if you’ve not already entered our HTC One V competition you can now also enter another one over at Expansys. To enter you just need to write a review of one of their products and then you could win a Bang & Olufsen BeoSound8 and an iPhone …

Are smartphones too smart? – Editorial

With recent rumours suggesting that the new Samsung Galaxy S4 may contain ‘eye scroll’ technology, it got me questioning whether smartphones are simply too smart? Do we really get the full use out of our phones? Plus, are all these features worth the loss of battery life? Personally, I hardly …

Birthday present from Three

Recently… well on 3/3/13, the UK network Three celebrated their 10th birthday as the all 3G network opened it’s doors for business on 3/3/03 in a select few locations with some rather large NEC phones and a plan to sell content such as ringtones and video clips. Here …