Category: Android

Android 5.0.1 being pushed to AOSP

It looks like Google are pushing out a point release to the latest version of their operating system Android 5 Lollipop, up to 5.0.1. Google has also released the factory images for the Nexus 7 (2013, Wi-Fi), Nexus 9 and the Nexus 10. Google has not provided any …

Deal – Reconditioned Google Nexus 4

My kitchen ceiling is falling in because the bath is leaking. It’s a mess I can tell you and I’m well narked off because it’s about the fourth thing to go wrong this week. But no, I’m not leaving you my friends. I’m hear to tell you about …

Medion Lifetab S10346 going cheap in Aldi

If you’re an Aldi shopper then, from Thursday next week, you might well spot a rather cheap Medion 10.1″ tablet. It’s powered by a quad-core Atom CPU and has 32GB of on-board storage. Other specs include a 5 megapixel (rear) and 2 megapixel (front) camera, GPS, WiFi and …

Yotaphone 2 – Close up

We’ve been all over this phone since an early model appeared in Barcelona. Short version, this is a phone with an always-on rear display. The idea is pretty clever – you use the low-power rear panel for reading text and interacting with your Twitter, your texts, web pages …

Podcast 119 – Listen in live

Hello there, welcome to the “listen in live” page for our podcast. Joining me this week should be Garry, topics this week will be about the Nexus 6 almost being available, our thoughts on the Yotaphone 2, the HT Desire 816 and HTC One M8 GPE combo I’m …

Nexus 6 available with several networks

Fancy yourself a Nexus 6 dear reader? It seems to be popping up all over the place. Made by Motorola it runs Android Lollipop, has a 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 quad-core CPU (with an Adreno 420 GPU) 3GB RAM, 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front, 6″ 1440×2560 AMOLED …

Samsung Galaxy S5 getting Android 5.0 Lollipop

In an unusually speedy move for Samsung, it has been reported that they’ve started rolling out the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the G900F variant of the Galaxy S5 in Poland. Although not confirmed by Samsung itself, the rumour has been released by the folks over at Sam-mobile. …

Sony Smartband Talk available from O2

The latest wearable to come out of the Sony machine has now launched in O2 stores up and down the country. The price is £129.99, however if you get it with a new Android phone then it will cost you just £99.99. The Smartband Talk is the evolution …

Blow the dust off your old box and insert a tiny Android stick

It’s a few weeks before Christmas, which means I’ve got precisely 15 million emails in my inbox from various people wanting me to pimp things. Send me BEER people. I need BEER. My message doesn’t seem to be getting through, but either way this little gadget looks pretty …

Yotaphone 2 goes official

Earlier we posted news on the new Yotaphone 2. It’s just been formally unveiled and we can clarify the price – a whacking £555. You can buy it from yotaphone.com and there’s going to be a pop-up store just off Brick Lane in Shoreditch tonight at 6.30PM. Inside …

YotaPhone 2 Launched. On sale in London today.

During Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we saw a totally new type of handset.  Up front, the usual bright and vivid screen we see on most handsets. On the back though, what you can mistake to be a cover design is actually a fully interactive e-ink screen. We …

Bought the Linx tablet and had trouble browsing?

If you managed to get the Linx 8 Windows 8.1 tablet from Sainsburys recently then you’ll know just how cheap it was. The 32GB 8″ tablet has an Intel quad core CPU, 1GB RAM and WiFi, Bluetooth, two cameras etc. Trouble is, if you unboxed it and tried …

Sony behind the FES watch

The FES (Fashion Entertainments) watch was a crowd-funding project on Makuake, a Japanese crowd-funding site, that ran in September this tear. The project shows a watch made almost entirely of e-ink, the same technology used in Kindle screens and Pebble smartwatches. The difference here is that it’s not …

It seems there might be a Lumia 1020 successor after all

Cast your mind back a few months, I wrote this article here where I basically questioned what was going on with the Microsoft and the successor to the Lumia 1020. Well over the weekend things have changed, some leaked images show what looks like a metallic new version. …

Acer Liquid Jade – Mini review

There’s a wide variety of handsets around but , as you’ll no doubt know yourself, they all have a very similar design – one big screen up front, a couple of cameras and that’s about your lot. Yes, I’m generalising a little, but my first impressions from the …

Black Friday – LG G2 just £150 on Voda

OK, I’ll be quick with this one as Aran is going to update you on all the Vodafone Black Friday / weekend deals in a moment, but you can bag yourself the rather nice LG G2 (which we lovingly reviewed here) for a mere £150. That’s not an …

Kabbee introduces a London superhero

Well OK then, I’ll give these guys some airtime as they’ve been bugging me to heck about their app. Kabbee is a licensed minicab price comparison and booking website for Londoners. There’s an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone too. You just whack in your pick-up …

Xperia Z3 proves to be a photo pro

Don’t ask me quite how I do it, but I can easily make any low-light photograph look like a hideous mess. The resulting images are either pasty white faces or blurry dark ones, so to see such stunning photos from a phone is always a strange thing for …

Xiaomi Mi Band – Review

Xiaomi are a big name, a big name across the world, they are the third largest phone manufacturer at the moment, behind only Apple and Samsung. They are from China and along with companies like Oppo, OnePlus and Huawei they are starting to show people you don’t have …

Samsung Galaxy Alpha – Review

For so long Samsung fans have hoped to see a new phone with metal design instead of the traditional plastic material used on so many high value devices. And as if by magic we now have two – the Galaxy Alpha and the much larger Galaxy Note 4 …

Can you really get something for nothing?

Free stuff. At this time of year it’s in short supply. If you, like me, are looking to get something for nothing then, via your smartphone, you can get exactly that. This, at least, is what my good friend told me after a few beers in the pub …

OnePlus Two anyone?

It’s hardly a surprise that OnePlus are thinking about a making a second device, as the demand for their first phone has been rather high. Demand that was partially created by a ludicrous invite system and also by the fact they were offering a phone with great specs …

Inateck TPB-IM iPad mini Sleeve Case Review

Do you use your iPad naked (ooooo missus, the iPad, not you) or do hide all of the Apple design inside a case ? I recently took my iPad mini out of its case and instantly remembered how thin and light the device was. I decided that’s how …

LG G3 unlocked for less than £300

I do rather like the LG G3. It’s the first LG device I’ve owned in a long, long time and overall I’m very impressed. It packs a 1440×2560 5.5″ inch screen at 534ppi WiFi, Bluetooth 4, 4G and a 13 megapixel camera at the back with laser focus. …

Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact review. Greatness delivered

Here we are folks, the long awaited Xperia Z3 Tablet Review. First things first, why has it taken so long to get this review done? It’s simple really. The first tablet developed a dead pixel line from top to bottom and needed to be replaced. I also decided …

Jolla crowd-sourced tablet smashes funding target

  Well that was fast! In less than 24 hours Jolla have smashed their target for the first crowd-sourced tablet that we originally reported on yesterday here. The initial target of the kickerstarter-like funding campaign was $380,000 and Jolla has (as of 12 oclock noon uk time today) …

Cortana puts this guy in a spin.

Well this guy just takes the biscuit. There was me, pedalling on a mountain bike from London to Paris a few months ago for charity. I was pretty impressed with myself, but no – this guy has done a loop-the-loop on his bike. Pah… not fair. Microsoft, as …

HTC Desire Eye – Three Live Special

The HTC Desire Eye is a new phone that will be of interest to many of us. It’s not just because of that 13 megapixel front facing camera with dual-LED flash, but because it is a stunning piece of hardware put together at a very affordable price. Oh …

Jolla announce the Jolla Tablet

Crowd funding is a great concept, from projects that can include a tub of potato salad right through to a flying bicycle there are some grand ideas out there that range from the sublime to the ridiculous. One project that could certainly be viewed as promising is the Jolla …

Nexus 6 preorder from Vodafone now open

Vodafone have just announced preorders of the brand new Nexus 6 made by Motorola for their UK network. The Nexus 6 is available in 32GB version in Midnight Blue and is free from £44.50 a month based on a 24 month deal. If you do not like long …

Nokia reveal a new Android tablet – The N1

Nokia, yes, Nokia – not Microsoft or Lumia or anything in-between, have just announced an Android tablet. It’s only a matter of months since the phone unit got sold off to Microsoft, but here’s there N1 Android tablet now that the company have regained control of the Nokia …

Nokia Z Launcher beta is now available on the Google Play Store

A while back Nokia shocked people by making an Android Launcher, around about the same time as they released a few Android phones. At that stage they were only available by signing up and downloading the apk file and manually installing it. Well now they’ve gone and published …

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 Review

It’s all the fault of Samsung.  We had a tablet market and a phone market with a rather clear distinction between the two.  Phones were small, tablets were large and in between we had the Dell Streak with its immense 5” screen that everyone looked at and said …

Ceramic and metal body rumoured for the Huawei Ascend P8

The mid-range Ascend P7 launched six months ago and our very own Gary reviewed it here. Now it’s rumoured that the next phone in the Ascend series, the P8, is currently undergoing internal testing at Huawei HQ. Rumours are that the new device could make a appearance as …

Hey, what’s your thoughts on the new Android ads?

You’ve seen the iPhone and iPod adverts. They’ve been copied quite heavily by other manufacturers. You’ve seen the Windows Phone ads too, which are currently pushing Cortana quite heavily and showing how it performs up against Siri.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYZ5gAQMJg8 But, at the moment for me at least, the raft …

How did your relationship start?

I hate to admit it, but I’m old enough to remember a time before mobile phones were available. When I was a teenager we then started getting mobile phones, but apart from the odd text and a play with the ringtones there wasn’t a great deal you could …

That whole cartridge-buying nightmare. Sorted.

Watch out everyone, because I’ve had a few days off. This usually means that I have a number of articles where I need to get something off my chest. This is the sort of blog post that usually ends up on my personal blog but I guess, as …

Want a cheap PAYG handset? Three have just cut some prices

This, my fine friends, is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. I reviewed it about a year ago. There’s me sitting in my car with the phone, which was about £300 at the time (and indeed you’ll still find it for £299 from Samsung direct) however…. Today Three are …

Google wallet to cease third party digital purchases.

Google have announced that they will shut down the Google Wallet API for third-party digital goods purchases from March 2nd 2015. Google Wallet will continue to function, however, for Google Play purchases. Google Wallet will still exist and consumers will be able to make purchases for goods in …