Author: Mike

Where did VR come from, and what does the future hold?

What is VR? Although its name is well-known to everyone, we note that virtual reality is a simulation of reality in a computer environment that it realizes through our senses, such as: seeing, hearing, touching, and even smelling. Its predecessor is practically considered to be the 3D film. …

Top iOS/Android cross platform games

Mutiplayer game downloads are on the rise. While multiplayer once meant that you were competing with other players on a game’s leader board, many mobile games now support both real time player versus player and cooperative gaming modes. Playing multiplayer games is a great way to blow off …

Importance of Artificial Intelligence in gaming

Many online games – whether they’re racing car games, first-person shooters, or strategy games – have various parts controlled by AI. As an example, the enemy bots, enemy characters or vehicles that move around your game. The main reason for using AI in gaming is to deliver a …

Traditional brick and mortar stores struggle as times change

The coronavirus lockdown has forced even the most smartphone illiterate customers to begin doing more of their shopping online. Shops that were already geared up for delivery and “click and collect” have performed really well, including stores like Screwfix, which I’ve visited many times during lockdown for DIY …

Tricks for staying safe when using dating apps

A quarter of people in the UK use dating apps to find someone to connect with. They may be looking for love, for companionship, for a serious relationship, or just a bit of fun. No matter what your reasons for using dating apps, it is important that you use them with …

How mobile gaming is taking over

It’s 2020 and today our mobile modern  technology plays a massive part in our day to day lives. However, what many don’t realise is that there’s been a huge amount of attention in this area. Not just the hardware, not just the operating system or the networks, but …

Getting a career in games 

Like gaming ? Well yes, so do I. But how do you fancy earning some money out of it? If you want to learn more, there’s a set of interactive workshops and sessions coming up on February 1st. The industry is looking to recruit more women in, as …

Apple releases new battery cases for the XR, XS an XS Max

Apple news is often few and far between so the release of several new battery cases is moderately noteworthy!  Older iPhones already have these, but Apple has now released battery cases for its latest handsets, the XR, XS and XS Max.  Each case comes with wireless charging built-in …

New Withings and Garmin watches announced at CES

There haven’t been many new smartwatches announced lately so the arrival of a few new devices at CES come as something of a relief. First up are two new watches from Withings.  If you recall, Withings arrived on the scene a few years ago with its hybrid fitness …

New Smartwatch anyone?

The smartwatch march continues!  While the Apple Watch is the most popular smartwatch around, for those who don’t use iOS or who fancy something a little different look no further: the last few weeks have seen a number of devices leaked.  Here is a round-up of the main …

Smartwatch roundup

The world of the smartwatch moves far slower than that of the mobile phone, but over the last fortnight we’ve had a number of announcements, so here is a roundup of the main ones: New Qualcomm chip announced No yawning at the back please; this is actually far …

Smartwatches galore!

The pace of new mobile phone announcements and releases is quite bewildering at the moment, but lest we forget about other IFA and related announcements here is a round-up of the most recent smartwatch developments: Casio WSD-F30 There are smartwatches that look rugged, such as the Gear S3 …

Are gaming smartphones becoming a trend?

Last year, the gaming hardware and accessories maker Razer surprised the world by announcing its plans to release a smartphone aimed especially at mobile gamers. The Razer Phone has the hardware to match the year’s flagship phones – an octa-core CPU, tons of RAM, and a massive battery …

Garmin watches to get smarter

The line between smartwatches that track your fitness, and fitness trackers that provide smartwatch functionality is getting ever more blurred.  Garmin has long been the mainstay for runners and other fitness fanatics.  Many of these devices have smartwatch elements to them, and via Connect IQ there has been …

Huawei P20 camera review

You’ll be forgiven if you had not realised that in addition to the 3-camera behemoth (the P20 PRO) Huawei had also released a slightly smaller handset.  All the attention has so been on the P20 Pro, the bigger device with extra RAM, better water-proofing, an Amoled (rather than …

Using the Smartphone as a PC? Yes, you can!

Smartphones are becoming increasingly powerful computers that you carry around in your pockets. Let’s face it, the PC I’m using right now is an Intel i5 with 4 x 3GHz cores, but the new Samsung Galaxy S9 has 8 cores – 4 x 2.7GHz and 4 x 1.8GHz. …

Android Wear is becoming Wear OS

If sales are anything to go by then the Apple Watch is the king of the wearable world.  Android Wear has often seemed a poor relation, and this is despite the greater variety of watches available.  In the last few days Google has announced that Android Wear is …

The advent of the folding smartphone

Those of us old enough to remember the pre-smartphone mobile phones will remember the old clamshell handsets.  I still have extremely fond memories of phones like the Motorola V66i (above), or the (then) very advanced Motorola A780 (below), which included GPS (very rare in those days).  Fast forward …

Android Wear updated for Oreo 8.0

Android Wear 2.0 is getting a bit old now and while there have been a few minor updates, none have introduced anything particularly novel or exciting.  A few days ago Google announced the Oreo 8.0 update for Android Wear.  While this isn’t a major update, it does provide …

OnePlus 5T launch today!

Later today OnePlus will take the wraps off the much-rumoured 5T.  A modest upgrade to the 5, which was launched just 6 months ago, the new device is expected to be the first OnePlus device to feature a bevel-less screen.  The screen will grow to 6″ as will …

New Fossil Q Control smartwatch launched

I’m a self-declared smartwatch fan, even if my main interaction with them is to view notifications rather than anything fancy using apps.  I’m always excited and pleased to see new smartwatches, though it increasingly seems that the design and functionality doesn’t differ much between them.  Case in point: …

Updates to Android Wear to be made available via the Play Store

One of the changes brought in by Android Wear 2.0 earlier this year was the addition of a Play Store app on the watch itself.  This operates independently of a phone, but it’s fair to say that it can be a chore to browse through apps, particularly on …

Android Wear Beta Announced

It’s probably fair to say that Android Wear is yet to capture the popular mood in the same way that the Apple Watch has. Although there are a fairly wide variety of watches out there, there is little to differentiate them apart from aesthetics, with manufacturers hardly changing …

New Garmin smartwatches announced

There are two types of smartwatch that exist: those that are primarily fitness trackers with smartwatch capabilities added on; and those that are primarily smartwatches with fitness tracking capabilities added on.  Trying to pick and choose between the Apple Watch, Android Wear or Tizen on the one hand, …

Amazon Prime Day upon us with lots of price reductions

For Amazon Prime subscribers a day of online retail therapy has now begun.  Lasting until midnight to are a variety of deals only available to those with a Prime subscription.  As a reminder, Prime costs £79.99 a year, or £7.99 a month, and includes free shipping, TV instant …

New LG and Windows 10 Mobile handsets on their way

Perhaps not the most obvious connection, but new phones are new phones right? It has been rumoured for a few weeks that a ‘mini’ LG G6 is in the works, I put this in inverted commas because the device is hardly ‘mini’: it is thought to have a …

Honor 9 and Nokia phones now available to order in the UK

Some exciting news today for anyone awaiting the latest Honor and Nokia handsets as both companies have announced UK availability for their phones. The Honor 9 was announced in China recently and is due to be ‘revealed’ in Berlin next week. Honor is the online subsidiary of Huawei, and …

Moto Z2 Play and new Mods announced

We recently brought you the review of the Moto Z Play, a mid-range device that stood out from the competition thanks to its fantastic battery life.  Moto have since announced the 2017 iteration of the device, the Moto Z2 Play.  The new phone is an updated version of …

Amazon TV Channels service launches in the UK

I have both Amazon Prime and Netflix at home and one of the things that drives me mad with the former is that you need to filter its content to see what is and is not included with your Amazon Prime subscription.  Almost without fail the film that …

Amazon Prime Reading launched

In addition to the new Amazon Channels service that has recently been launched in the UK comes ‘Prime Reading’.  Subsciribing to Amazon Prime already includes something called Kindle Unlimited, which provides access to a vast library of e-books but restricts the number of downloads per user to one …

Details of HTC U emerge

HTC have already released two top-end handsets this year – HTC U Play and U Ultra (see the MWC hands-on here) – but neither were exactly a replacement for last year’s HTC 10.  Rumours of this year’s iteration of their flagship have long abounded under the codename ‘Ocean’. …

Android Wear 2.0 update postponed

Just last week I wrote about how the wait for the long anticipated update to Android Wear was, for many watch users, finally over.  Well stop the press, we have a problem! Google has discovered the presence of an as-yet-unidentified bug in the latest release of Android Wear …

Android Wear 2.0 updates start rolling out

One of the most frustrating things in the tech world, as far as I’m concerned, is the announcement of a device, and then a massive lull before it is actually available to buy or download.  This is particularly annoying for OTA updates.  Android Wear 2.0 is the classic …

More LG G6 details emerge – focus on audio

We already know that one of the big announcements that will be made at MWC in a few weeks’ time will be the LG G6.  The G5, launched a year ago, was initially lauded for its novel module design, but that praise was short-lived and the phone sold …

Dodocool wireless sports headphones – review

It is the New Year, when the fitness fad is at its strongest, so excuse us for a review of another set of wireless sports headphones.  Up today is the Dodocool DA104 ‘Wireless Sport Stereo Headset’.  Dodocool is yet another newish Chinese company that specialises in relatively affordable products. …

Android Wear 2.0 and new LG watches to launch on 9 February

Amidst all the fuss about the death of the smartwatch, Google is preparing to attempt to breathe new life into its watch OS.  Android Wear 2.0 is set to launch on 9 February, bringing a slew of new features.  It has been available in various beta releases for …

CES 2017 – Smartwatch announcements

Amidst the smart fridges, smart televisions, smart glasses, smart bike locks and other smart things announced at CES in Las Vegas over the last few days, have been a swathe of smartwatches.  Smartwatches are having a hard time of things of late: if recent figures are anything to …

5-Port USB charging station – Review

There are some products, much like a well known paint manufacturer, that simply do ‘what it says on the tin’.  This charging station is one such device.  It has no bells or whistles, no flashing lights or additional bumpf, it simply charges multiple devices! It comes in a …

Aukey SK-M12 Wireless Speaker – Review

Christmas might be a long distant memory already but there’s still time to treat yourself to some shiny new tech products! This is the second Aukey wireless speaker I’ve reviewed.  Unlike the first model, which I rather liked, this speaker has a more rugged look.  Like most Aukey products …

Review – Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge cases from 32nd Shop

I often find it hard to review cases – most people have their own preferences, whether they’re flip cases (either sideways or up/down), shell cases, rubber cases, no cases etc.  Most cases tend to do what you expect of them, and often the cheaper they are the poorer …