January 11, 2012 By

Compare the best Windows Phone handsets

This handy comparison chart of the best Windows Phone 7 handsets has been put together by the guys at Tech In 5. It includes the newly released Samsung Omnia W and Nokia Lumia 800, the forthcoming ZTE Tania and Lumia 710, as well as other handsets that are already available such as the HTC Radar and HTC Titan. Simply click the image below to enlarge it and view it in full. The strongest feature in each category is highlighted in Blue. For a detailed comparison of phone looks, portability, customisation choices and more, head over to the article on Tech In 5.  You may also be interested in this hands-on comparison that we have filmed of the Samsung Omnia W and Nokia Lumia 800.

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September 2, 2011 By

HTC TITAN videos

See the HTC TITAN, the new Windows Phone 7 device from HTC in all its glory in the following videos.

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August 10, 2011 By

[REVIEW] Extending your battery life – Proporta USB TurboCharger 5000 review

The Proporta USB TurboCharger 5000

In the second on this small series looking at ways to extend your battery life with hardware solutions its time to look at portable external chargers, in this case Proporta’s USB TurboCharger 5000. Could this be the solution for you? Read on to find out…

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July 28, 2011 By

Smartphone Photography–Edit Images on a smartphone

Below are a few examples of apps that can be used to edit photos on various smartphone platforms. I have not used all of them myself, so please feel free to comment if you have experience with any of the apps below, or any that are missing and you feel should be mentioned.

Android

As you would expect there are a variety of photo editing apps available for Android, below are a couple that are popular and rated highly on the Android market.

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Adobe Photoshop Express is an app that offers some basic editing functions, including touch to crop, rotate, adjust colour and add artistic effects. The app is free to download and use and can share photos with your photoshop.com account. Average rating on the Android market place is 4/5 stars.

 

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PicSay Pro is rated 5/5 on the Android market, offering more features than the Photoshop app, such as the ability to add stickers, speech bubbles and more editing options. PicSay Pro does come at a price of £2.70, although there is a free version with a few less features that is rated 4.5/5.

 

Windows Phone 7

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In addition to being fully integrated with Pictures Hub, the Thumba Photo Editor comes with more than 60 high-quality adjustments and effects, all very easy to use and can be applied many times you want in photos of any size. Zoom and comparison with the original photo tools are easily accessible. Additionally, you can view the photo information and count on the analyser that, depending on the photo, can make it spectacular with just one touch.

BlackBerry

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Photo Editor for BlackBerry offers a range of editing features, compatible with handsets with either a trackball or touchscreen. Features include the ability to crop, rotate, resize images, or add various effects. The app costs $1.99, rated 4.5/5 on BlackBerry App World.

iOS/iPhone/iPad

As with Android, there is an extensive range of editing apps available for the iPhone. I’ve listed a couple from this TechRadar top 10 list.

imageAs you would expect, the best apps for editing photos on iOS, including Filterstorm, are paid for apps. However, you do get what you pay for. Filterstorm has an easy to use interface, a great range of editing features and it can import and process images from a raw format. Not bad for £2.39.

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iDarkroom is more basic than Filterstorm, but does come with the lower price tag of £0.59. However, it’s rated pretty highly by customers with 4/5 stars from over 100 users. iDarkroom enables you to easily apply various effects to your own photos or the apps stock photos. Good fun at a reasonable price.

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July 27, 2011 By

Windows Phone Mango–Signed Off

Microsoft has officially signed off the final build of ‘Mango’ the latest Windows Phone update.

The software has now been released to manufacturers for them to test and install on devices which would suggest in the next couple of months we will see more Windows Phone 7 devices coming to market.

The update is said to bring 500 new features which should be of major benefit to everyone and help push Windows Phone to compete with the dominating iOS and Android.

Source: Slashgear

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July 22, 2011 By

Smartphone Photography–Best Windows Phone 7 Apps

The following is a list of some of the best photography apps that are available for Windows Phone 7. The list was originally compiled by KnowYourMobile

image1. Thumba Photo Editor – Thumba is fully integrated with the pictures hub for Windows Phone 7. It provides a range of editing features, including resize, crop, rotate, flip, instant camera, add colour border, remove red eye, pinch, bloat and mirror. The apps priced reasonably at under £1 and there is also a trial available so that you can try before you buy (although you will not be able to save any edits). Various sources seem to suggest that this is the best app around for Windows Phone

image2. Pictures Lab offers a range of image manipulation features. It’s not priced quite as reasonably as Thumba, costing just under £2, but unlike Thumba it has a preview option so that you can see how an effect will look before applying it. Pictures Lab also has plenty of sharing options for SNS and can output edited images in their original resolution. Click here to go to the developers blog and see examples of Pictures Lab in action.

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3. Ztitch only has one feature, but it’s a useful one and doesn’t come at too high a price (99p). Using Ztitch you are able to create panoramic photos. This does require you to take photos from the same spot at several different angles, and you then use Ztitch to patch them together and create a ‘semi-3D’ feeling photo.

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July 13, 2011 By

New Samsung WP7 handset to be based on SGS2?

It looks like Samsung may be planning to apply the success it has experienced with its Galaxy S Android range to a new Windows Phone 7 handset. Samsung’s been doing a lot of work over the last year on its Android portfolio, but not so much on Windows Phone 7. The Omnia 7 was an OK handset, but it doesn’t come close to the blockbuster handset that is the Samsung Galaxy S II.

The handset seen in the images below was recently shown off by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President Steve Guggenheimer. Not much is given away as the photos have been taken at a distance, but GSMArena speculates that it could be the rumoured Samsung i937, based on the design of the Galaxy S II.

We can expect a range of new Windows Phone 7 devices to be available towards the end of the year with HTC, LG, Acer, ZTE and Fujitsu all tipped to have handsets in the making.

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May 25, 2011 By

Windows Phone 7 (7.5/Mango) Update

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Microsoft have disclosed details/ a preview of an update to Windows Phone 7. 

Named Mango or Windows Phone 7.5, this new update is set to have 500 new features which will massively improve the user experience for current and future Windows Phone 7 users.

The update is due to be free to all Windows Phone 7 users, but no exact date has been set for when it will roll out, but expectations are later this year.

So what are the improvements?

The update is focused on 3 main areas, communication, apps and internet with the intention to make the user experience better and richer for the smartphone user.

Communication:

  • Twitter and LinkedIn support
  • Group creation.  Categorise contacts all in one place, see and track updates from each.  Support for live tiles will be included.
  • Contact pages will be added to cover pictures of that particular contact, call history for that particular contact and visual voice mail.
  • One message thread for communication mediums with a particular contact.  Whether the conversation be on Facebook, text, email or Messenger, one screen will show the whole conversation string.
  • Voice to text and text to voice for a hands free user experience. Speak to the phone or let it speak to you!  Perfect when driving.
  • Link email accounts in a unified inbox. 
  • Threaded email conversation views and calendar integration for appointments – Perfect for business!

Internet:

  • Internet Explorer 9 debuts on Windows Phone and is designed to give an experience like you would get on your desktop PC.
  • Bing improvement with further, deeper integration.
  • Quick cards, pulls a summary of results rather than taking you to a particular page and brings as much back as possible to maximise the search.
  • Local Scout will pulls together information on the locale of your search. If you’re looking for a restaurant, Local Scout will pull together information not only about that establishment but the area around the location such as alternative establishments, additional attractions, etc.
  • BingVision – a glorified barcode reader that will scan a barcode or take an actual picture and search for it on the web – great for finding a better price!

Apps:

  • More, smarter and richer is the key here.
  • Updates to the hubs:
    • Photo hub – Facial detection for photos.  Designed for making it easier to tag when uploading to social networks.
    • Office hub – Support for Office 365 and Skydrive.  This will give you access to documents stored in the cloud from your Windows Phone.
    • Xbox live: Improved consistency, improved avatar appearance and animations, the ability to connect with Xbox Live friends from the hub and check/compare achievements and scores.
    • There is also multi-tasking improvements which will improve resume speeds.  Press and hold the back button and you will have access to a task manager type screen to flick between applications (Common in Android and even Symbian)

These are just a few of the apparent 500 improvements.  You can see the list (which will grow) HERE.

We will bring you more information as and when we hear about it.

SOURCE: WPCentral

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May 10, 2011 By

Fixing broken “Live Tiles” in WP7

How to Fix Your Live Tiles in Windows Phone 7The Windows Phone 7 UI is undoubtedly very, very nice to look at. The Live Tiles fade in and out across the screen with updated information based on recent events such as messages, emails, missed calls etc.

Annoyingly though, according to xda-developers.com, there are some applications that break this feature in their attempt to utilise it themselves. A forum member has developed a fix for this and you can link yourself to the xda article referencing it HERE

Be aware of course that to complete this action does require access to the device registry an as such should only be performed if you are competent and confident in such a procedure.

Clove always recommend a full system backup for attempting procedures such as this and cannot be held responsible if your warranty is voided or damage is caused to your device as a result

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May 5, 2011 By

Dell Venue Pro Unboxed

The first UK spec Dell Venue Pro’s came into stock a few weeks ago.  To date we have not brought you an unboxing video.  However thanks to our friends over at Tracy and Matt’s blog you can see exactly what you get with the Dell Venue Pro, by watching the video below.

The first Windows Phone 7 device to have a portrait sliding keyboard….what is their verdict?

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