February 4, 2013 By 5 Comments

Buffalo Mini Station Air: wireless storage and streaming

Buffalo Technology are quite well known for their storage offerings; they offer high quality enterprise solutions and chances are, if you’ve found yourself browsing around in store or online for a portable hard drive recently, you will have come across their consumer options as well.

Buffalo products are available in all sorts of ranges, with varying sizes of HDD / SSD to choose from and connections including USB 2.0 & 3.0 and Thunderbolt. Part of their newest range of products is the Mini Station Air: on the outside a standard looking 500GB portable hard drive that is in fact hiding the ability to create its own WiFi network.

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Networked storage devices, and those that can connect to a wireless network, are nothing new, but in being able to produce its own WiFi network, the Mini Station Air allows you to connect your portable devices such as smartphones and tablets to it on the move. Included is a USB 3.0 cable (backwards compatible at slower speeds with USB 2.0) so you can load up the Mini Station Air with content from your home computer – just like a standard portable drive.

Buffalo have produced a Mini Station Air app (currently for Android and iPhone) that will let you browse the files stored on your hard drive – good folder structure and file organisation appears to be key, some reviews have noted that long file names get truncated when viewed on the apps, so dumping thousands of files into the root folder isn’t the best idea if you want to find something quickly later! Images and music files are played within the app, video files get handed to the native video player on the device.

The standard SSID and passkey details are printed on the bottom of the Mini Station Air, which can be changed in the settings later, as to be expected. Another great feature is that you can change the WAN settings to allow the Mini Station Air to connect to another, Internet connected wireless network. This allows for pass through Internet access, so you don’t need to keep switching between two Wi-Fi connections on your smartphone / tablet for Internet / stored files.

Battery life clocks in at about 4 hours of continuous use, which seems reasonable for a device producing its own WiFi network and should last for a few journeys – the unit recharges through USB as well so it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep the power topped up. Mini Station Air also supports up to 8 simultaneous streams (3 in HD), so multiple users can connect and enjoy content at the same time.

As an alternative to cloud based storage, which may not be accessible or stable, especially when travelling in a vehicle, the Mini Station Air is a great solution

January 29, 2013 By 4 Comments

How many devices do you use daily?

Technology is king our ever increasingly connected lifestyles; Facebook, email, Skype, online shopping, the pervasiveness of technology in our devices has been documented and commented on countless times. Thinking about the ways we communicate, there are countless devices we can use both at home, at work and on the move. So just how many do we utilise?

I use a few devices on a daily basis, although my list might be quite small compared to others. Personally I use:

  • Smartphone (Nexus 4) for mobile communication – texts, calls, emails, social media, news, music and gaming
  • Toshiba laptop for personal use – social networking, news, work and gaming
  • A desktop PC at work
  • PlayStation 3 – gaming, video streaming, DVD & Blu-ray
  • HDTV & Virgin Media package – On demand & live television

Other bits of technology hang around my flat, portable games consoles (Nintendo DS), digital camera, hi-fi system etc. but none of these are used on a real daily basis and are now nowhere near the peak of current technology.

Others may have a more extensive list; perhaps a Smart TV with Internet access, tablet computers, iPods and mp3 players, Internet ready audio systems and cameras, multiple games consoles, standalone GPS etc.

Interconnectivity is also the next big step with technology. Some protocols and technologies are designed to allow devices to be able to communicate with each other to share information – NFC has been adopted in many high-end smartphones recently and DLNA has existed for a long time, although some manufacturers have a bad habit of putting proprietary software on top so only their devices can speak to each other. My laptop and PlayStation communicate directly using DLNA and my Nexus 4 has Wi-Fi direct capabilities – an updated future Smart TV or dongle will mean I could use Miracast to mirror the screen to another display.

So the question is how much technology do you own and how much of that is on a daily or very regular basis? On top of that, how much of your technology would you consider to be mobile and/or portable? Finally how much of it is interconnected – are you well on your way to creating the digital home of the future?

January 28, 2013 By 4 Comments

Rise of the screen size

Phones, tablets and phablets: where will it end?

About 2 and a half years ago, only a few weeks after I started working at Clove, HTC launched the Desire HD in the UK. The original Desire was arguably one of HTC’s best ever devices and at the time seemed to have the perfect mix of price, usability and style. So the Desire HD did it all again, only bigger, and the office was a hive of activity with boxes everywhere and phone calls coming in every other minute.

This was despite many reviews of the Desire HD mentioning its monstrous size, or saying that it would have been the best around if it weren’t so unwieldy. In this case, bigger was clearly better and people were voting with their wallets. About the same time, Dell released the Streak, a behemoth of a phone that disappeared into almost complete obscurity, due in part to the popular opinion that it was just far too big (a complete lack of updates and support didn’t help matters either…). The Desire HD had a 4.3 inch screen. The Streak weighed in with 5 inches.

Looking back at these events with today’s flagship devices in mind, 4.3 inches seems a decent size for a screen, but perhaps a touch too small to be considered up there with the best. HTC’s One range features a 4.7 inch screen on the X and X+. Sony’s newest Xperia Z hits 5 inches and the Xperia T before it sports a 4.5 inch display. Who can forget Samsung either, the Galaxy S3 rocking a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED over the previous generation’s 4.3, and arguably being the genesis of the current phablet generation spawned by the Note and Note 2 sitting at 5.3 and 5.5 inches respectively.

This appears to only be the start; Huawei’s Ascend Mate has a 6.1 inch screen. Rumours persist that Samsung will announce a Galaxy S4 and Note 3 with 5 and 6.3 inch screens, and that LG’s newest update to their Optimus range will be at 5 inches or more.

Now I’m all for choice and if there’s enough demand then sure, why shouldn’t there be a device at pretty much every increment up to what we consider the ‘standard’ small tablet size of about 7 inches. The only thing I find disappointing about this trend is that while the flagship devices get bigger and more powerful, it seems to be creating a divide with the ‘lesser’ devices from the same manufacturer. Whilst a current mid-range device might still knock seven bells out of even the flagships of years gone by, what annoys me slightly is that just because the device is smaller, it suffers a hit in power and performance.

I understand the need for manufacturers to differentiate the devices in their range to justify price points, and screen size and quality is a great visual cue for this. I don’t agree though that it should always hamper the internals of the device to the degree it does. For instance if I was to decide I want the the most possible power from this year’s range, it looks like I would be forced into a 5 inch screen, something I personally consider too big, with the 4.7” on my Nexus 4 already being a bit of a stretch. Dropping to a 4.3 would be perfectly usable and comfortable, but without even knowing everything that will be released this year, I could confidently predict having to compromise a fair bit on power and performance regardless of the manufacturer.

So on the one side I can see the appeal of ever increasing screen size; more real estate for games, high definition video etc. and the choice is fantastic. What I don’t like though is forcing the best technology only on the devices with the largest screens and compromising the smaller devices which could be more comfortable for many users. What are your thoughts on the subject? Let us know below

January 28, 2013 By 3 Comments

Awesome dash mounted Nexus 7 project by @mr_bridger

One of the best things about Android devices, especially those running vanilla versions of the OS straight out of the box, is the ability to thoroughly customise the look and feel of the interface to suit yourself. Ross McClardy, AKA @mr_bridger, has taken this to the next level with his Nexus 7 tablet. Not only has he created a custom Knight Rider inspired interface for the tablet when used in his car, a 1995 Toyota Celica, with a little electronics know-how has fully integrated the device into the dash.

In his own words, something bugging Ross has been “the lack of Android based in car entertainment systems”. Holding up his Nexus 7 to the dash showed that it would be just about the perfect size, so armed with a quick sketch done on his Galaxy Note tablet, the project was born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first step involved obtaining a spare dash panel from eBay and doing the various trimming and sanding required to fit the Nexus 7 behind and also moving the head unit up to where the 2 vents normally sit.

Second was the problem that with the Nexus 7 flush inside the dash, the power and audio connectors would be inaccessible. Another trip to eBay and Ross was the proud owner of a second hand Nexus 7 with a broken screen – perfect for cannibalising the required parts. With a spare ribbon cable, a few extra wires, some careful soldering and a fair bit of strong masking tape, Ross was able to run audio cables out of the tablet, create a new external power switch and move the USB connector outside of the tablet allowing for power to be connected behind the dash.

With some more use of tape and a glue gun, all that was left was to attach the Nexus 7 to the modified dash and wire everything in behind. A 12V USB car adapter was wired in and an AUX+ to 3.5mm cable was used to connect the tablet to Ross’ existing head unit for audio.

And here is the final result:

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If you don’t mind opening up devices and aren’t a stranger to electronics, the steps taken are actually quite simple compared to other similar projects, although of course I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is a complete novice. Ross does mention a bit of luck in how the Nexus 7 components were arranged and his particular dash layout made things easier, however none of this detracts from a very impressive final result. For a full run down of the project and a step by step with more pictures of everything Ross did to achieve this, head over to landoftechnology for the complete post. You can also watch this video of the final installation:

For tips on creating the custom Knight Rider style interface, you can also read Ross’ follow up post. Various apps such as Nova Launcher, Tasker, UCCW and Simple Text are required to get everything working in the same way. Of course, part of the beauty of Android is in how you can use all sorts of combinations of apps to create a UI and system that suits you.

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January 28, 2013 By 2 Comments

HTC to provide companion HTC Mini with the Butterfly

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If you haven’t heard, the Butterfly is HTC’s recent entrant to the newest craze of phablets – 5-inch plus, super-sized phones which seem to be the next big thing (pun thoroughly intended). Since Samsung popularised this direction with the Galaxy Note range, other manufacturers have been keen to join in with their flagships and even more ‘standard’ devices are becoming much larger, causing a lot of debate over whether this race to provide bigger devices is actually beneficial and speculation over when it might end.

imageNow the Butterfly looks like a great piece of kit; HTC build quality is generally fantastic and all the top range specs are on show from a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon to a Gorilla Glass 2 coated 1080p display. HTC have it seems though, listened to some of the detractors about large screens and big devices being unwieldy for some users. Their solution – to provide a small, dumb, handset called the Mini (pictured right) which pairs to the Butterfly using NFC and then shares data over Bluetooth. The Mini can then be used to review text messages, calendar entries and even make voice calls, as long as it keeps within range of the Butterfly.

Initial reports suggest that this will be a bundle for the Chinese market and whether it will be available elsewhere remains to be seen. At first glance the idea seems, at least to me, to be a bit ridiculous. If somebody buys the biggest and best handset available, then why would they want to use a comparably tiny piece of out-dated technology for their day to day communication? Probing a little further into the concept though raises a few interesting points.

imageSmartphones aren’t really just phones anymore. The idea of calling them phones is a remnant of when 2G was king and thinking about accessing the Internet on a pocket sized mobile device was only just coming down from the realms of science-fiction for the average consumer. Network contracts and subsidised devices have kept us in the cycle of upgrading our handsets far more often than many of us would our home computers or laptops, with the result being that many of us now carry a personal computer in our jeans that can outperform the one we likely do much of our day to day work on.

The HTC Mini is born out of this – rather than simply being an over-engineered solution to the phone being too big (to which the correct solution would be to design a smaller phone), it is a companion accessory to your mobile computer. Just like Bluetooth keyboards and mice are normal accessories for a tablet, the Mini should be seen as an accessory for the Butterfly (or any other device that can utilise it) rather than a second phone. The Butterfly does not need the Mini to operate and one could get by without ever pairing the two together, just like you might never use a physical keyboard with a tablet. What is good is that the choice is there and after some thought I think HTC might be on to something.

There are of course some downsides, the first of which that springs to mind is having to have both devices with you. Bluetooth is a short range PAN technology and so the Butterfly is going to have to be on you at all times to make use of it – this stops the Mini from being the kind of ‘second phone’ that you would take out with you instead of the main phone (for instance if you were going out to a club for the evening). Without adding more technology to ‘smarten’ up the dumb Mini for Internet access though, that solution is not feasible. The second has to be the design. Looks aren’t everything and I understand the need to keep costs down with an accessory that is going to be, at least to begin with, given away for free. However I think the shiny front and numerical push buttons make the Mini look extremely dated, almost comical when it is put next to the sleek and modern Butterfly it is designed to support.

So, well engineered modern accessory for a high-powered, mobile computer, or silly solution to a non existent problem? Only time will tell.

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January 21, 2013 By 1 Comment

Ubuntu for Phones image available “late February”

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, arguably the most popular Linux based OS for desktops, have stated that a download for the mobile version and the source code behind it will be available by late February.

Ubuntu for Phones was shown in depth at CES a couple of weeks ago and has created mutterings in the industry since. It’s no secret that modern smartphones are massively overpowered for the kind of use many consumers enjoy and Canonical want to make people aware of this and promote Ubuntu as a way of utilising that power. The idea being that this mobile Ubuntu could work as a replacement for your personal computer or laptop; mobile Ubuntu will in fact have all the functionality of standard desktop Ubuntu with support for touch displays, mobile hardware and telephone features.

image_thumb3The released image and code is reported to be optimised for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and once it’s in the open source community, expect some modifications to be happening quickly. If Canonical get their way, the possibility of OEM devices running Ubuntu out of the box is definitely on the cards for the future, although in these early stages it appears that development is going to focus on optimising the code for existing devices running Android.

It should also be noted that this first release is almost certainly not going to be complete, although the core features should be solid.

Ubuntu is now a relatively mature OS and the interface has come on a long way in the last few years and the idea of having a full desktop OS on my phone is certainly appealing. I would however want this mobile update to have matured somewhat before taking the plunge myself. I might be a confident tech user and I’ve spent some time with a variety of Linux distros but I wouldn’t want to be spending too long faffing with Linux settings on my phone or figuring out which patches and packages to be installing for a stable experience.

Personally I run an LG Nexus 4 so I’m going to stick my neck out and say if Canonical don’t focus on that next, then a developer out there somewhere will probably get modifying the source code soon after release.

The (quite long) video below is presented by Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu and outlines pretty much everything you might want to know about Ubuntu for Phones:

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Interestingly there is also a section on the Ubuntu website for “Ubuntu for Android”. Details are scarce but this looks like it will be an Android app that will launch a Ubuntu desktop when your device is docked whilst still having standard Android as the core OS when mobile. This pretty cheesy video on the Ubuntu website lays out the very basics of Ubuntu for Android:

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January 21, 2013 By 6 Comments

What devices do Clove use?

It’s been a long time since we posted one of these on the blog and post Christmas we decided it was high time to put out an update. Team members have come and gone since the last update in 2009 and I found it quite interesting to have a quick read over what we considered to be top of the range (for some of us at least) devices about 2 and a half years ago!

Choosing a new phone is quite a personal decision, especially considering that you may be using it for quite some time and we are often asked what we personally use. The Clove team use a variety of devices both personally and as part of day to day testing, so sharing our experiences of all of them is one way of making sure we keep up to date and can give informed opinions.

Working for a company with all of the newest devices available on the shelf can be a great bonus if you’re a technophile, the ability to take a demo of a new unit or operating system is something most consumers don’t really have. The other side of that coin though is in becoming very critical, making a final decision all that much harder to make with all sorts of extra information and mixed reviews pouring in from various sources.

The ages and requirements of the team vary quite a bit and so it is no surprise that there is still quite a wide array of devices being used by all of us when comparing to 2009. So read on to have a look at what’s in some of our hands right now…

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January 16, 2013 By 6 Comments

4G in the UK: LTE networks, frequencies and auctions FAQ

4G is big business for network providers worldwide. BIG business. So it is somewhat strange that the UK, one of the strongest commercial markets in the world, has arrived to the party late. So late in fact that everyone else has already collapsed on the sofa and fallen asleep watching a movie while a pizza burns in the oven. The reasons for the delays in getting 4G services to market in the UK have been documented many times, stretch back many years and are tied up in old regulations, competition rules, the lengthy switch off of analogue TV, the need for an auction to sell spectrum and what seems to be general stubbornness from some of the big players in the UK mobile industry.

By being allowed to reuse unused spectrum last year, EE jumped the gun on everyone else – something which was not met gladly by their competitors. Regardless, it has got the ball rolling and hopefully, after auctions that begin on the 23rd of January, the UK will see 4G LTE services from all of the major networks starting around May.

If talk of 4G, LTE, auctions, spectrum and networks interests you but leaves you confused then read on for our FAQ on the subject. If you have other questions afterwards then use the comments to let us know!

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December 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Online Shopping: How do you do it?

Home tablet, work computer, smartphone, the choices are vast!

“A blog post from an online shop asking about online shopping habits? What’s that all about” I hear you cry! Well for one it’s interesting to see how people are using the products we sell and also a talking point in general about the changing nature of shopping, online and otherwise. Clove’s recent 20th birthday celebrations and website history show how we have been able to keep up with trends and provide a service that acquiesces to both expectations of how an online store should operate and customer demand, staying relevant and continuing to grow over 2 decades.

As an experiment this year, I decided to complete all of my Christmas shopping in physical retail stores rather than online, in opposition to last year where everything was purchased online; mostly from Amazon. I have to say as a technophile the experience proved very difficult and a few friends didn’t receive what I would have normally bought them as I simply couldn’t find everything in my local shops. I now also appreciate more the removal of stress and ease of the whole shopping experience when ordering online.

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For those of us working long hours, online shopping is a fantastic way to maximise the amount of free time we can have. I once worked in a company that actively encouraged the use of the Internet for shopping during lunch breaks rather than try to block shopping websites. The result was a lot more free time at the weekends not trawling around the shops, even time at the supermarket reduced by having groceries ordered online and set to be delivered at a time when I would be back from work. The company also found that people were less inclined to ‘waste’ time shopping or browsing during work hours when they were ‘allowed’ to on breaks.

Whether at home or work though, nothing has changed computing more recently than mobile technology; the power and continuous connectivity of today’s devices is the science fiction dream of not too long ago. Many shopping websites offer dedicated mobile counterparts to render better on smaller mobile screens, although the quality of the most recent screens and updates to mobile browsers allows many full desktop sites to render perfectly.

imageOnline shopping doesn’t have to end at physical items either. Probably every movie I went to see this year was booked online, some through a smartphone application. Also one of my local bus services now also offers an NFC payment system; I can top up through the application with a linked debit card and pay either with a tap of an NFC enabled handset or the provided key card.

We want to hear your recent online shopping stories, anything from pizza delivery to 60 inch LED TVs, and how often you find yourself using different ways to order online whether at home, work or on the move.

December 30, 2012 By 3 Comments

Smartphone reviews: your preferences

We want your opinions on what makes a good review

Reviews are always important, helping customers make informed decisions and letting those be aware of how well a product is being or possibly going to be received. In the fast-paced technology industry and especially in the mobile sector, getting information into the public domain first is crucial. Also with the media used to present information changing; reviewer techniques, personality and hands-on information can be delivered in a variety of methods.

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Personally I am a fan of text heavy, exhaustive reviews with each facet of the device scrutinised. This probably stems from being a big videogame fan growing up and as a teenager only having printed magazines to provide information to influence my decisions. Now it seems my preference is one that is being swept aside for more ‘bitty’ reviews that provide necessary technical specifications, but little in the way of exposition regarding the reviewer’s personal experience with the device. A quick search on a device name and the word review will likely pull up a fair amount of short, hastily written pieces by someone with little experience of the device and seemingly there simply to draw some web traffic rather than truly inform the reader. This of course isn’t to say that there aren’t some sites publishing quality reviews that suit my taste, just that personally I find many lacking.

Video reviewing has changed the scene, engaging the viewer with the product instantly and able to show the device in action in a way that words alone never could. Video reviews can also lead to a reduction (or complete removal) of text and can be more personally revealing. Hearing a sigh of frustration when something goes wrong (again!) can far more delicately convey just how annoying a scenario is than any number of printed words trying to explain it.

It is perhaps inevitable that in the Internet environment, saturated with multimedia and with a prevalent culture of instantaneous gratification, we are finding more short-form information dumps. This isn’t necessarily a Bad Thing™; learning to provide concise overviews is an important and necessary skill, however we should be able to differentiate between this and the type of ‘nothing’ writing that adds little to a discussion or fails to inform the reader.

Clove provide short reviews, unboxings and links to others’ work so we would like to know what our regular readers like to see and if you want more (or less) from us. Are you fans of videos, or large image galleries? Do you think certain topics get discussed too much or not enough? Does a wall of text leave you cold or a funny introduction draw you in to read it all? Let us know!

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