Apple's iWatch could lead to time behind bars...

Apple's smart-watch isn't even available for purchase yet but there have already been warnings issued regarding drivers who will have smart-watches in use. Anyone driving while using a smart-watch will be issued the same fine as using their phone their phone whilst driving. This could lead up to over a fine of £100 or $162 and 3 penalty points for being distracted by a gadget behind the wheel. Noooooooo! Of course it would be up to the officer to decide what you were doing on the gadget. Apple has also declined the telegraph's request for a comment. You decide what that means...

$2.5 BILLION!?

Microsoft has recently confirmed that Mojang (the company that created Minecraft) will be joining them as they have just bought them for 2.5 Billion dollars, but will still continue to make the game available to iOS, Android, Playstation, Xbox and PC. I'm not much of a Minecraft fan myself though.

The Founders Markus 'Notch' Persson, Carl Manneh and Jabok Porser are leaving the company. Mojang says that Notch shied away from controlling such an influential company and would rather work on smaller projects. 

Mojang says for now, it should be business a usual and Microsoft will continue to respect the country.

Events like Minecon and things like that will carry on.

How much would you pay for memory?

SanDisk has just unleashed a massive  512 GB SD card! They call it the 512 GB SanDisk extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card. Yes, I do admit that, it is a bit of mouthful so we'll just call it the extreme for now. Secure Digital eXtended-Capacity (SDXC) cards have a theoretical capacity of two terabytes (2000 GB) and today the company took one step closer to that limit. It has been announced the highest capacity sd card for videographers and photographers.

In only just the past decade, sd card memory has rocketed to an increase of 1,000 times larger than it used to be. The first SD card announced was in 2003 and was (what seems like a feeble amount today) 512 MB. Just think about this - photographers can store roughly around 200,000 8MP photos on this card.

This new card is designed to be somewhat rugged as it has been tested for temeperature, water, shock and X-rays. Thesell be selling in the stores shortly for roughly £491.75 or $800. You better make sure that you are really into photography to get one of these things for that price.

Hopefully you weren't confused by all these numbers today!

What's so amazing about the new iPhones?

As you've probably heard about, the iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus has recently been unveiled. The iPhone6 being the smaller of the lot. Apple are really trying to raise the bar this year -  the phone shapes have been curved all the way around the phone this time, much like the original iPhone to the iPhone3GS, anyone remember that?. 

Whats New?

Firstly we have iOS8 coming out with the new release. This will include the use of your wallet on your phone. When you go into the close apps centre your favourites and recents on your call history will be shown and available to call from there. Apparently apps will be a lot easier to make and monitor as a developer. So if anyone reading this is an app developer, maybe you want to think of some ideas? ;) 
 Messages will be more intuitive, like having the ability to share something via video to the other person while your seeing it, (although Skype and face-time already do that) You can also now send voice messages!(like Whatsapp) If you don't like that idea then there's always the idea of actually just calling them.
There are also a lot more Whatsapp features included in messages now like group names, leaving chats when you feel like, group admins and also kicking people when you feel like it. Not physically though, then you'll lose all your friends ;(
I think apple have realised that Samsungs choice of the word choice auto-correct is actually quite good because that's what they're using now. 

Although Samsungs recent move to adding predictive auto-correct is a little bit of a pain.











Fleksy is a type of keyboard...
The Camera has been physically updated...




Phone difference

The main difference between the two new phones are the  screen size and the price that's basically it.

Release date

Pre-orders start on the 12th of October and you can find them in your store on the 19th 

HTC One M8 Review

HTC, the company who made the best looking phone of last year, has  a phone crammed full of power and amazing features while improving the design that won it so many 
awards.
Substandard naming aside, the One (M8) is a phone that takes the superb ideas and design of last year's device, improves it in nearly every area and then packs it full of all the latest technology...and still finds space to pack in a microSD card slot.
On top of that the chassis has been retooled to now be made of 90% metal, up from around 70% last year, and the result is a brushed aluminium design that seems compelling the second you lay eyes on it.
The brand took great pains to point out that the One (M8) is a phone that builds on the heritage of last year's One, but improves in just about every arena. The metal chassis is still there, and the aluminium casing now makes up 90% of the frame, up from about 70% previously.


This is probably the most significant change, along with the fact the back and sides are now more curved, as it brings a really impressive feel in the hand. 
Holding it in the hand is a really pleasant experience, one that makes you feel like you're holding something you should spend a lot of money on.

Quite rightly some will baulk at the larger chassis, mostly down to the decision to include the Boomsound speakers above and below the screen, but once you've heard them in action you'll struggle not to agree that they're not a worthy trade-off.
The headphone jack has been moved to the bottom of the phone, which will anger some users. Arguments that it makes it easier to slip in and out of the pocket don't hold water, and it makes the phone hard to hold in portrait when listening to music.

The HTC One (M8) is running an all-new version Android for the Taiwanese brand, and thankfully this means it's Android 4.4.2, or KitKat for the more confectionery-minded among you.
This has the effect of, once again, making things speedier under the finger, but also brings in transparent menu bars and a greater prevalence of full screen windows for some     apps.    









The brand is claiming that it's managed to pull 40% longer battery life with the One (M8) compared with last year's model, and that claim seems to hold water.

The pixels on the screen are the same as last year, the processor is faster but backed up by a more powerful GPU, and Sense 6 is apparently a little kinder on the juice than previously.

The camera on the HTC One (M8) is arguably the most important part of this phone.

An explanation as to why there are two cameras on the back. The main camera is roughly the same as the sensor found on the back of the HTC One last year, meaning it's an 'Ultrapixel' sensor that can capture a lot more light than other devices on the market.

Google Chromecast

At £30, Google's Chromecast is definitely the cheapest way to turn your TV into a smart TV but if you pick one up at Amazon you'll also get £4.99 of free Google Play credit to spend on apps. Meaning you won't be limited to Google's pre-installed apps

Chromecast is able to mirror video and picture content from your smartphone or tablet, you can also put nearly any web page through Google's Chrome web browser on a laptop or desktop - great for accessing web-based streaming services.

There are a quite few apps which come pre-installed, including iPlayer, Netflix, Plex, Vevo and Youtube - but unlike many other streaming boxes or dongles that are locked down, Google has opened up the Chromecast software to developers to experiment with, meaning there will lots more apps are becoming available all the time.
All this for £30? Seems like a bit of a no brainer. Just slot it into your TV!

My new Nexus 7: First Impressions(review)

Yesterday I received a new Google Nexus 7 (2012). I toyed around with it for a while personalising it, and adding functions to it.

Camera

I was surprised to find that Google had not given the Nexus 7 a camera shortcut. They obviously thought it wasn't that important. There a re several apps on the play store that can access the camera, so it was okay. The Nexus holds a 1.2 megapixel camera (the same front facing camera as an iPad). It's not a Nokia Lumia 1020, which has a very impressive 41 megapixel camera, but it gets the job done - the pictures weren't actually that bad.

Another thing I was surprised about, is that there is no rear facing camera, - perfect for taking selfies;) but you wouldn't be able to take great pictures of something in front of you. (Unless you wanted a picture with it, of course.)

Screen and Size

   This image belongs to Google.                               

The Nexus 7 has a 7" screen and the whole device is 12cm wide - it would easily fit in adults hand. The thickness of it equates to 1.45cm and is roughly 20cm tall. It weighs 340g which is less than an iPad air which weighs in at 478g.

The display comes out as 323ppi(pixels per image). That's less than a Galaxy S5's ppi (432ppi). This doesn't mean it has a bad screen, it actually looks quite nice.

Software

The Nexus comes installed with Android Jelly Bean 4.2 but I updated it to Android Jelly Bean 4.3.2. The software runs clean and smoothly and I haven't had any freezes(yet)and nothing takes ages to load.

Hardware

As I said before, It only has a 1.2mp front facing camera. There is quite a bit of space between the actual screen and the end of the device(bezel). The was actually a good call by Google and Asus because if the screen were to reach out to the edge, it would have to be taller, taking away the hand friendliness of it. 

Battery Life

The nexus possesses a 4,325 mAH battery which can provide over 10 hours of battery life. If your not getting the most out of your battery life, then you should go into settings>battery and check what's using up all your battery.

Storage

The nexus is fixed with a storage limit of 32gb so cannot extend the storage with a micro SD card.

Overall Conclusion

If you are looking for a tablet, I would have to say this is one of the best. From £199 it's more than half the price of an iPad and less than an iPad mini. If you don't like the look of android or the keyboard or anything like that, there are plenty of overlays on the play store that can make it look like other software systems.

Google Nexus 7

I have just acquired a new Google Nexus 7. I will test it out and review for all you people and tell you my thoughts on the nexus and spill the beans on all the tips and tricks. If anyone wants to know any thing specific just tell me in the comments. Depending on how much I discover about it, I may or may not review it tomorrow.

Talk to all of you tomorrow!

Bye!

Facebook planning to share the nearby friends feature with advertisers!

Photo from "thenextweb.com"

Facebook is pitching the tool as a valuable new feature for users. It sends occasional notifications informing them how often friends, who've also agreed to be seen, are in the locale.

It will also follow users on their travels, allowing friends to pitch in with suggestions or recommendations wherever they roam around the world.

Knowing the end goal may be (or always was?) geared towards targeted advertisements may see some users change their views on the feature.

Will you be switching on Nearby Friends when it hits your smartphone?


P.S
Sorry for the white highlight - I wrote this on word first and it won't go away 

Samasung Galaxy S5

Samsung is known for piling on the features, but for the Galaxy S5 the company has taken a more measured approach. Yes, the built-in heart rate sensor and fingerprint reader are a bit gimmicky. But what wins evryone over are the S5's awesome display, enhanced camera and water-resistant chassis. Add it all up, and it's easy to see why Samsung's latest smartphone is also its greatest.

Once again, Samsung's flagship smartphone comes wrapped in a plastic chassis rather than metal, but that doesn't mean the Galaxy S5 is unattractive. In fact, the S5 looks and feels better than its predecessor, thanks to its textured rear panel. Sporting a soft-touch dimpled pattern, the S5's removable back is a significant improvement over the Galaxy S4's glossy rear. The S5's new backing pairs nicely with the subtle dot matrix-like styling found on the phone's face.




While Samsung needed to make a special active version of the Galaxy S4 to offer resistance to water, the S5 has that goodness baked in. With its IP rating of 67, this device can withstand a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes. While you can't go swimming with the S5 like the Sony Xperia Z1s, which lets you take pictures underwater, Samsung's handset can survive accidental splashes.Following the lead of the iPhone 5s, the Galaxy S5 integrates a fingerprint reader into its home button for unlocking the device and signing into our Samsung account. However, unlike Apple's implementation, you can also use the sensor for making payments via PayPal. (You can't use your fingerprint to log in to websites.)

In order to make its smartphones feel more intuitive to operate, Samsung applied a makeover to its TouchWiz interface, which runs atop Android 4.4.2 on the Galaxy S5. For example, the Settings menu has a flat look with colorful circles representing the options. The notification drawer also sports circular buttons, with 10 available quick-setting shortcuts, and 10 more if you enter grid view.


The S5's lock screen makes the camera shortcut larger to make it easier to launch the camera. However, Samsung took away the ability to use shortcuts to other apps from the lock screen.


I hope you enjoyed this or found it useful.

Stick around because I'm going to be posting more. 

If you want to you can leave a comment or like this post!You can also comment on anything you want me to have a look at or review or talk about in detail or in general and I'll do my best to do whatever you wanted me to do.



Bye!


P.S
Can you read the colour I write in? If not which colour should I start writing in? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below! ;)

Apple's "transparent" phone

First off, yes this is real(not that picture, the iPhone 6), Apple are producing a new "transparent" phone. It's been said that this will help while texting while walking or when you're on the move while on facebook or twitter or instagram!;) 

There no need to be a rocket scientist to understand how this works. The back facing camera will give a video feed as to what's in front of you and display in the background of the screen. This doesn't mean you won't be bumping into strangers while on the move:). If you have an android device I have heard that there a certain apps already that allow the same feature of the iPhone 6, so you won't be missing out :D

Even though it’s far away, there are still gentle trickles of information coming through every couple of days. It’s building up a pretty interesting picture and means there will be a good prediction of what Apple will be launching later in the year. One thing that we definitely know of is that it will have a bigger screen as the Samsung S4 mini and the S4 and S5 are alot bigger that Apple's current 5S. 

Kuo has published a product roadmap and note to investors based on reasearch into the Asian supply network, revealing the Apple iPhone 6 will be launched late in the third quarter of 2014 as a 4.7-inch model with an "all-new" design. This means bigger screens! This handset will have a 1334x750 pixel resolution at 326 pixels-per-inch (ppi), according to the report. Meanwhile, a larger 5.5-inch variant will arrive in late Q4 with a full HD 1080p resolution at 401ppi. Both devices will feature Apple's A8 processor with 1GB of RAM meaning the phone will be fast and the display tech will give better pictures coulour and faster operations (LTPS LCD). Touch ID Home keys will also be installed so they will be keeping the finger scanner on the new phone along with optical image stabilisation (OIS) for the camera hardware.

So far this can give a good prediction of what can be expected of the iPhone 6, or one of its rumoured names, the iPhone air. 


I hope you enjoyed this or found it useful.

Stick around because I'm going to be posting more. 

If you want to you can leave a comment or like this post!You can also comment on anything you want me to have a look at or review or talk about in detail or in general and I'll do my best to do whatever you wanted me to do.



Bye!

Smartwig?

Electronics company Sony says it could make SmartWigs, a fashion statement which would include helpful technology.

They have applied for a patent, which would protect their invention in law so that no-one else can copy it.

The wig would have sensors and cameras in it and could help navigate roads and even collect health information.

Google and Samsung are among the tech giants who've recently launched wearable technology products, which some see as potentially big business.

Wigs of the future

Although the product doesn't exist yet the company has big plans for its potential uses.

The wig would go over the person's own hair and would hide all the technology, looking just like a normal wig.

It could help monitor the wearer's health by taking their temperature, pulse and blood pressure.

The company says the wigs would be fashionable as well as intelligent and help in all sorts of high tech ways.

A Sony spokesperson said the device could also be used during presentations where a wearer can "move to the next presentation slide or back to the preceding presentation slide by simply raising his/her eyebrows".

What's so special about a curved phone?

First off, really sorry for not posting much, I haven't really been into it, and when I'm not into it I don't make posts because then they're not very good!Now to what you came for...

Electronics giant LG has launched its first curved smartphone called the G-Flex.

Despite its name the G-Flex does not bend, but has a display which is curved from top to bottom.

LG says the curve helps the phone follow the shape of your face, putting the microphone closer to your mouth.

Why would anybody want a curved smartphone?

"Curved smartphones are a bit of a gimmick at the moment," said Newsbeat technology reporter Jonathan Blake.

He said: "They could be more comfortable to hold and companies claim the curved screen makes watching video more impressive."

"But apart from that the phones are very similar to other smartphones."

Smartphone rivalry

Tech rival Samsung revealed its own curved smartphone on 9 October. It wakes up from sleep mode when you rock it forwards.

But both smartphones are only going on sale in South Korea for the time being.

Jonathan said: "Technology companies need to keep up interest in their products and curved smartphones attract a lot of attention."

"But the fact they're only available in one country at the moment suggests the companies making them are not convinced they will take off."