January 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Facebook adds free calling feature for US iPhones

Facebook has added a feature in its mobile phone app that allows free calling for US iPhone users.

Facebook users can now make calls to each other via the Facebook messenger app. This new feature will please a lot of you as it means that you will avoid any call charges.

Facebook have announced that they are working on adding the feature to its messenger app for Android and BlackBerry users.

To make a free call to another Facebook user; you simply tap the ‘i’ icon at the top right hand corner of the screen and select ‘Free Call’. The calls can only be made to another user who has messenger installed on their iPhone.

This latest development is completely independent to the video calling software Skype; which has already been integrated into Facebook’s website.

On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled a smart search engine – called Graph Search – that allows users to make “natural” searches of content shared by their friends.

SOURCE: BBC

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October 26, 2012 By

If I could design my own phone…

I wonder how far away we are from having the ability to build our own smartphone? I am willing to stake a claim that the first company to have the resources to support an online smartphone building facility will make it BIG! 

We all have features on our Smartphones that we wouldn’t substitute for anything, but I can guarantee that most smartphone users would get rid of a few things given the chance. Could you imagine having the option to take your favourite features from all the very latest phones on the market? Lets pretend we don’t live in a world where patenting is an issue, this will allow us to dream a little longer!

Whilst we are probably several years away from having this luxury I will try to create my very own Smartphone from the specifications on our range of devices.

Name  Super Apex Worrier +

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August 10, 2012 By

dockBoss+–Audio Cable

It is all to easy nowadays to say oh that would be a handy accessory, or that would be useful and we either buy them and use them a lot, or quite possibly not as much as we thought we would!

When it comes to audio, iPod/iPhone docks are everywhere and you often find it harder to find a decent dock that isn’t tailored to just these products.

dockBoss+ is an interesting cable accessory that converts an Apple inspired sound dock into one that provides power to and takes audio from any microUSB powered device.

It is not the simplest of setups, and you could argue use a dock with an audio in port in them, but not all do.

What are your thoughts on this accessory, do you see a use for it? Please leave comments below.

CableJive dockBoss+: Smart adapter for connecting micro USB devices to an iPod/iPhone dock

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June 29, 2012 By

Voice Search (Jelly Bean) vs. Siri (iOS)

Android Jelly Bean vs the iPhone

This video come courtesy of the guys over at TechnoBuffalo and shows a hands-on comparison of Google’s new voice search on Android Jelly Bean and Siri, which would be viewed by many as the market leader in current voice recognition technology.

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June 12, 2012 By

Samsung Galaxy S III Thoughts

Simple yet effective features of the Samsung Galaxy S III

I have been using iPhones for the past 3 years with only the occasional break to test Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices. For all of the greatness in each of the devices, the iPhone has called me back and stood by my side every single day.

No matter what features have been presented and how great the screens are, I haven’t been able to break free. I felt exactly the same on the first day I tried the Galaxy SIII. A few minor frustrations crept in that made me wonder if I would ever leave iOS.

And then day two happened.

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May 8, 2012 By

SayHi Translate: How far we have come

SayHi Translate has become something of an overnight success and is currently riding high in the iTunes app store. Nothing special in that you may say because this kind of thing happens all of the time, but a quick look at the app highlights something that is indeed quite special.

The app supports English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia), Spanish (United States, Mexico, Spain), French (Canada, France), German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin (China, Taiwan), Cantonese, Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil), Danish, Dutch, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish with new languages and dialects coming soon and as soon as you pick it up and say something into it, the translation will be spoken back to you.hisay

To date it has been working perfectly for me and is incredibly quick, and most of all deadly accurate. I can see a point where this app will prove itself useful time and time again when travelling and is an example of what can be done with a smartphone in 2012. It needs a back end, however, and so an internet connection is required to use it. You won’t be able to say to someone in a foreign country “Where is the nearest hotspot?” until you are at the hotspot or if you have a mobile data connection abroad. This is not a barrier to usage because this facility alone could be important enough to some people to force them to seek out appropriate connectivity when travelling and it will help any business trip or holiday pass much more smoothly.

This isn’t a review of the app per say because all I can say is that it works exactly as you would dream it should and is surprising in so many ways. From the ease of use to the simple interface to the magical features it offers, it highlights the sheer power of modern-day smartphones and is genuinely one of the best mobile apps I have ever seen.

More information at http://www.sayhitranslate.com/

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May 1, 2012 By

The first truly mobile Olympics

Mobile technology has reached a level in the past 4 years which means that London 2012 will be the first truly mobile Olympics. We will be able to watch the events, tweet about them, share photos and videos over social networks and use our phones and tablets to plan out our entire visits. Or will we?

Read the following from The Guardian- “Fans in the crowd won’t be allowed to upload snippets of the day’s action to YouTube – or even, potentially, to post their snaps from inside the Olympic Village on Facebook. And a crack team of branding “police”, the Games organisers Locog have acknowledged, will be checking every bathroom in every Olympic venue – with the power to remove or tape over manufacturers’ logos even on soap dispensers, wash basins and toilets.

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March 30, 2012 By

Branded Phones

There are many phones available that carry the brands of well-known companies. Look at the latest Porsche inspired BlackBerry phone and the selection of phones with Ferrari and other prestige car maker branding. They are often horrific to look at, incredibly expensive and have the same internals or worse that their standard counterparts.

The Vertu brand is the most well-known and somehow the company (Nokia I believe) can sell £50 phones for £1,000’s just because. Just because they have diamonds and other stuff stuck on the front and because owners want people to know they can afford a Vertu.

If you need to dress up your phone in another brand, you have failed. Look at the iPhone, the Galaxy S II and the Lumia 800. They don’t need branding from another company because people already recognise how good they are.

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March 29, 2012 By

Some apps are better on a desktop

The current trend of bringing ever more complex software solutions to mobile devices is great to see, but there are times when bringing them to a smartphone makes little sense in the real world.

I think of this because Apple released iPhoto for the iPhone and iPad. On the iPad it works quite well, but on the iPhone it is tricky to say the least. It is there simply because it can be and offers little worth to people who are serious about enhancing their photos in a professional way. As much as I love my smartphone, I recognise that there are times when complex software is better off on a tablet or desktop computer.

There are complex apps available for smartphones including those that deal with finances and databases, but when it comes to design and anything that requires a keen eye and a delicate touch, they often work better on a bigger screen. For fun, sketching and photography apps are valuable and hugely popular, but for those who complain that smartphones are not computers, this is the reason they will always have an argument.

Even Office document apps are tricky on a phone; they work in emergencies and have a place, but for real work, I personally have never managed to create anything longer than a few sentences on a phone. I can dictate sentences, but I am always at my best when with a full-sized keyboard and a big screen. For many years, smartphone manufacturers have talked up claims of a ‘phone replacing a laptop’ and for many tasks it can, but the reality is that it will never do everything because of the size alone. Am I wrong? You decide…

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March 27, 2012 By

Ups and downs–Android vs iPhone

The differences between iOS and Android have been discussed for years on the web and often these discussions get rather heated, to say the least.

I have owned every iPhone model and also reviewed and tested many, many Android smartphones. I feel that this puts me in a good position to judge the differences between the two platforms. As it happens the differences are far outweighed by the similarities, but you would not believe that if you were to read many of the discussions, actually most are arguments, on the web.

The plain fact is that iOS and Android are similar in all of the important ways. They both have many thousands of apps available to them, they can both multitask and even the default interfaces look quite similar. There are obviously advantages and disadvantages to each platform, but neither comes close to being better than the other.

For example, there are multiple phone designs available on the Android platform and only one iPhone design. This is great if you want choice and, for example, want a hardware keyboard, but it may mean that you have to wait a small amount of time for the latest software updates. As I said, the advantages and disadvantages give with one hand and take away with another.

The plain fact of the matter is that both platforms offer a mobile experience the like of which we have never seen before. They are incredibly clever, at times complex, but most of all they can help us get through the busiest of days. So forget the differences because they really are not important. A smartphone will do the same job as any other smartphone, just in a slightly different way.

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