May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Auto upload photos to Flickr–Android app

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The big news this morning is the flickr is now offering everyone 1 terabyte of FREE photo storage.

With a whopping 1 terabyte you can store an incredible 873,813 4 megapixel photos or 218,453 16 megapixel images. You can not deny that this is impressive.

So with so much storage how to make best use of it?

No doubt you use your Android phone for taking pictures. You may store the photos on the phone memory or an SD card, but do you back them up?

If you do not back them up, or do so at irregular intervals then why not take advantage of auto uploading.

Auto-uploading can backup your pictures to the cloud within minutes of taking picture or video on your phone. Meaning should you loose the phone, delete the image off your phone, there is always a copy online to access at any time.

Such auto-upload services can work over WiFi only or over a mobile data connection too, the choice is yours.

You may have heard that Dropbox offers such a feature, it works well (I use it all the time) but there is limited free storage. This means occasionally you need to go in and delete content.

Naturally flickr now seems the ideal option with so much storage. You will  probably only have to go in and delete or edit photos every year or less!

Flickr offer an Android app but that allows upload but you have to initiate the upload which is frustrating. It works well but you would have to keep doing uploads every so often.

The solution? A £1.99 app from Google Play Store called FlickrFolio.

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I have got to be honest I have been using it for only a imageshort period of time at the time of writing, but have tested it thoroughly in that time and all is working well.

You can set whether it uploads over WIFi or data connection or whether it uploads when the phone is charging or not.

It automatically uploads images as private so the whole world doesn’t see pictures unless you specifically ask it to.

You can too force it to upload older images you may have on your phone too as well as video.

We have all lost photos or data at some point and realise only after the event how important it was.  With this service there is no excuse and for just £1.99 this is a fantastic price.

I strongly encourage you to try this app and backup your valuable photos and videos now.

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May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Clove Vlog #55 – Custom Smartphones

 

In the 55th vlog from Clove we discuss the potential for custom smartphones.

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

How Sony’s STAMINA Mode works

How does STAMINA mode work?

Sony Xperia ZBattery life is one of the aspects of smartphone design that still requires significant improvement. One way to facilitate this will be through hardware technology breakthroughs, one of which we recently covered here. The other approach to improving battery life, however, is by optimising the software used on handsets. With handsets such as the Xperia Z, Sony has tried to do just that with STAMINA mode.

An easy assumption to make when it comes to smartphone battery life is that placing your handset on standby will stop apps from running and therefore stop power consumption. This is incorrect – apps still run in the background and there are constant synchronisation requests for things such as message updates and notifications.

Using STAMINA mode, Sony does its best to address the problem of apps running in the background. It achieves this by blocking data traffic a minute after the handset is placed on standby. Whilst doing this the phone automatically logs your IP address, meaning you are instantly connected once the phone is powered on again.

When STAMINA mode is activated, you will still receive phone calls, text messages and picture messages. However, you should be aware that notifications that require an internet connection will stop.

So, if I have STAMINA mode on, I won’t get alerts such as Whatsapp, Email, Facebook, etc?

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May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Nokia Lumia 925 low light comparison photos

Nokia Lumia 925 tested in low light

We always need to take photo samples released by manufacturers with a small pinch of salt – naturally they will always always show their own device in its best light – but the following should give a fairly good indication of what we can expect from the Lumia 925.

Nokia tells us that ‘low-light photos never looked this good’ and while the video below (bottom of post) doesn’t reveal an awful lot in terms of the 925′s low-light capabilities, the comparison photos with rival devices offer some pretty substantial proof.

Most notably we’re interested in how the 925 matches up against the HTC One, with low-light photography having been touted as one of the latter’s specialties thanks to its UltraPixel sensor. In the photos below, which comes from Nokia Conversations, the 925 certainly comes out top of the pile in poorly lit environments.

We’ll be interested however to see a more diverse range of samples once the 925 has made its way to the Clove office.

Nokia Lumia 925 (low-light photo)

Nokia Lumia 925 low light photo

Nokia Lumia 925 vs HTC One (low-light test)

Nokia Lumia 925 vs HTC One 
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May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

HTC One is the first smartphone to make a video call from Everest

The HTC One has become the first ever smartphone to make a live video call from the peak of mount Everest. The call was made by British explorer Daniel Hughes, who is making the climb as a fundraiser for Comic Relief.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first ever phone call to be made from Everest’s summit, but it is the first ever video call. Hughes was able to make the call using Immarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network service which, taking into account his rather remote location, isn’t of bad quality at all.

You can view the call itself in the video below – no doubt HTC will be proud to have been a part of it. Currently Hughes has raised just £40,673 of the targeted £1million for the Everest Million campaign. If you would like to contribute to his effort, you can visit the website here and donate.

Source BBC

Via The Verge

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May 17, 2013 By 11 Comments

Samsung may improve user-accessible internal storage of S4

Samsung Galaxy S4

After coming under criticism on BBC Watchdog for its lack of user-accessible internal storage on the Galaxy S4, Samsung has said that it is “reviewing the possibility to secure more memory space through further software optimisation.”

Speaking to CNET, Samsung said it is “committed to listening to our customers and responding to their needs as part of our innovation process.”

Previously Samsung has defended the amount of internal storage that is taken up by the system install and preloaded apps, which equates to around 7GB out of an advertised 16GB, leaving 9GB available to the user. Samsung’s custom Android skin, TouchWiz, comes with a host of new features and this is the reason that so much of the internal storage is already in use out of the box.

It sounds as though Samsung may push an update out at some point that condenses the system files and therefore frees up more space for the user. How much this will equate to is as yet unclear, but needless to say even a small improvement will be welcome.

Via CNET

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May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

BlackBerry Q10 now in stock

We can confirm after a few delays, we now have the BlackBerry Q10 in Black in stock.

If you are an avid BlackBerry fan but didn’t like the idea of not having a keyboard on the Z10, then the Q10 is the answer.

Find out more or order yours HERE.

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May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Bargain smartphones

imageSome of the latest smartphones can be really expensive, we know that, so if there is an opportunity to save money on one of the latest phones, surely you will be interested?!

We have just reduced the prices on a range of phones we have in stock here at Clove.

Many are ex-demonstration handsets where they have simply been used for a short period and are ‘as new’ but are not in sealed boxes.

Check out some of the savings that can be made by CLICKING HERE to see what is on offer.

A couple of ones that stand out are the original Motorola RAZR at just £250 including VAT and a HTC 8X for just £239

May 16, 2013 By 3 Comments

Samsung Galaxy S4 featured on BBC Watchdog last night (VIDEO)

Last week we posted to say that the Samsung Galaxy S4 would be featured on BBC Watchdog regarding its lack of user-accessible internal storage. The show was broadcast last night, a clip of which you can watch in the video below. 

Interestingly Google and Samsung have just announced a Nexus version of the S4. This will run stock Android, meaning it will not have TouchWiz and therefore more user-accessible internal storage. 

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May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Google I/O Roundup

Google Overload

Only one day of Google I/O has passed and already there is a plethora of updates to talk about. Here you can find a brief overview of all the news that has emerged so far and we’ll keep this article updated with any further news.

Google IO logo

Android

First things first, a new version of Android has not yet been announced. This doesn’t mean it isn’t coming though, with Google Engineer Dan Morrill confirming on his Google+ feed that the update is a ‘topic for another day’. Its version number, 4.3, also seems to have been confirmed by its premature listing on the Google Developer website, although the page has since been removed.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Nexus edition

Rather than creating a whole new device, Google and Samsung will be releasing a Nexus version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, which will therefore run stock Android and will not include TouchWiz. The S4 will differ from previous Nexus devices not only in that it doesn’t have an official Nexus name, but also that it has a microSD card slot. Previous Nexus devices have not had expandable storage and have been confined to 16GB internal storage.

The fact that the Nexus edition of the S4 runs stock and not TouchWiz will also mean that more of the 16GB internal storage is user-accessible. Samsung has recently come under fire for the amount of storage that it’s system install takes up on the S4, with some versions of the handset having less than 9GB of the 16 accessible to users. Taking the Nexus 4 as an example, there is close to 13GB available to the user of an advertised 16GB. The Nexus edition of the S4 will also have an unlocked boot loader and will be sold directly through the Play Store. UK pricing and availability is yet to be confirmed, although it’s set to retail at $649 in the US.

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