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iphone

Nexus One – Google Phone Announced!

Google held a press conference today in Mountain View, California at 10AM PST (6PM British Time) to announce their very own Android Smartphone: the Google Nexus One, which was developed “in very close partnership with HTC”. Erick Tseng, Senior Product Manager, went as far to say that the Nexus One “belongs in a new category of devices we call Superphones”. Owning a Superphone may sound impressive, but does it live up to all the hype we’ve seen over the past few weeks about Google’s Nexus One mobile phone?

As previously reported, the announcement confirmed that the Google Phone, the Nexus One comes packed with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Processor and 512MB RAM and ROM to match. Also packed in to the sleek design is a 3.7” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (480×800), a MicroSD slot which is expandable to 32GB, not forgetting the trackball, which also acts as a multi-colour notification LED.

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iTunes 9 Review

It isn’t that long ago that iTunes was simply Apple’s audio player. Somewhere to stash and organise your MP3 files and sync them with your iPod. That was pretty much it. Nowadays however, it manages your video files organising movies and tv shows, as well as podcasts, apps for your iPod/iPhone. You get the picture. The name iTunes really doesn’t do it justice anymore.

Many of you may have updated to iTunes 9 already, in fact you probably will have done after being prompted by the software update at the time of release. But in case you haven’t, or in case you’ve missed something, this is what’s new in iTunes number 9.

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Apple Tablet Update: To Be Named The iSlate?

A week’s a long time in technology, and it’s one hell of a long time when it comes to Apple rumours… Naturally, since 28th December 2009 when we posed the question of the Apple Tablet appearing in 2010?, more rumours have been making their way across the net and a January 26th release looks very likely, even if we still have no idea what the damn thing will be called! There’s quite a few suggestions going around…iTablet, iSlate, iGuide?

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Looking Forward To 2010: The Year Of The Smartbook?

Netbooks have really taken off in the past few years, sporting Intel’s Atom processor and Windows XP or Linux and being sold cheaply to consumers. At the same time, smartphones are getting faster, being seen with processors capable of speeds up to 1GHz and running very capable operating systems. But what if a netbook’s too big for you? Is a smartphone too small for your needs? Then worry no more; 2010 is going to be the year of the smartbook!

So what exactly is a smartbook? To put it simply, it’s a smartphone in the body of a small netbook, running a smartphone OS such as Android or Windows Mobile. If you cast your mind back to the original Asus Eee netbook, it consisted of a 7” screen and the Atom processor was still on the drawing board.

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Technology Of The Noughties: Cloud Computing

Cast your minds back to the beginning of the decade… Broadband was making its first appearance in the technology world and all our applications were installed locally on a hard drive in our computer. Fast forward nine years, and we still have a lot of local applications, but with fast internet connections, having your local applications with you all the time is no longer a necessity, in fact the vast majority of applications on your hard drive right now probably have some sort of cloud equivalent…

In my opinion Google has, and continues to, make major breakthroughs in cloud computing. If you were working on a presentation or important document on your computer ten years ago but forgot to take it with you to work on the crucial day, there wouldn’t be a lot you could do about it…

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Technology Of The Noughties: Apple’s iPod (MP3 Players)

Remember this? The incredibly thin, high capacity MP3 player from Apple, otherwise known as the iPod was most definitely one of the biggest impacts we saw this decade.

Taking the market for digital music players by storm, Apple revolutionised digital music and continue to innovate and update their line of iPod’s.

Before the iPod, the market was screaming out for someone to create an easy to use, functional device. The original iPod, released in October 2001, did just that with its huge capacity of 5GB or 10GB. Consumers went from being able to store maybe a few hundred songs to their entire CD collection on one device and take it with them wherever they went.

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Has Microsoft Turned Into The New IBM?

Surfing the web today, I came across a very interesting interview on SeattlePi with Don Dodge, who was Microsoft’s Director of Business Development for the Emerging Business Team until getting laid off last month. During the interview, he revealed his opinions on Microsoft, their current situation and where they’re heading. He also revealed that he thinks “Microsoft is a lot like IBM was in 1985”, going on to say that “after 20 years they are losing the innovation edge.” This got me thinking; has Microsoft lost the ability to innovate after being the most dominative force in computing since the late 1980’s? And if so, why?

I think a key to the solution is the sheer amount of things Microsoft does. When you think of the number of markets Microsoft compete in, you can understand that it’s extremely difficult, maybe impossible, to dominate every market. Not only do Microsoft develop and maintain the Windows OS, they also compete in the market for smart phones with Windows Mobile; the gaming market with the Xbox 360 and internet search with Bing.

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Will The Apple Tablet Arrive In 2010?

Of all the rumours we’ve seen in the past decade, the Apple Tablet is without a doubt the most consistently frequent and annoying… When you’ve been hearing about a product since August 2004, (yeah, really) you just want to get your hands on the damn thing! No-one outside of Apple, to our knowledge, has managed to do that, but surely we’d have gathered some solid evidence of the tablet’s existence after 5 and a half years? Here’s what we know so far…well perhaps…

More recently, only 2 months ago actually, we heard that Apple’s tablet will consist of a 10.6” panel, which puts it in between the iPhone and the 13.3” Macbook in terms of size. One thing’s for sure, Apple won’t be wanting this device to be known as the ‘Apple Netbook’ – not if recent price estimates are well founded anyway…

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LG Pop (GD510) Review

If there’s something that’s going to take over the market next year, it’s the invention and use of the touchscreen as a UI. And, a company that like to use it quite a bit are LG. More specifically, with their new LG Pop (GD510) mobile phone. The phone is sleek, it looks sexy and fits in the palm of your hand – even if you’re a lady with small hands. So, is this affordable phone going to take off and do well next year?

The screen is a nifty 3-incher, making it the world’s smallest touchscreen phone. It weighs next to nothing, even with the battery inside it, and although it’s on the bottom range of LG’s touchscreen phones, if you’re after something fairly easy to use and can’t afford an iPhone, then this may be for you. The UI is probably the most simple of the touchscreen UIs out there, although a little slow at times. You really do have to force your finger on the screen to make it know you’ve pressed a button.

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Dropbox iPhone App Review

You may have caught our look at the Dropbox online file sync service for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux a few months back, where I mentioned its availability on the iPhone platform. If you’re a user of Dropbox and have an iPhone or iPod Touch then you should definitely check out the free Dropbox app on the iTunes App Store.

When you’ve downloaded Dropbox, you’ll need to enter your email address and password to sync it to your account, and everything on your personal storage will be available to download and view. The interface is extremely simple to navigate, with 3 options at the bottom of the screen allowing you to switch between “Favorites”, “My Dropbox” and “Settings”.

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The Google Phone, ‘Nexus One’ Coming Soon In 2010!

Without a doubt, the Google Phone, or the ‘Nexus One’ was one of the biggest news stories of December. From the original tweets from Google employees worldwide to pictures and possible release dates, this phone is one you don’t want to miss. The phone was given to Google employees on December 10th and right now, most of what we know is rumour-based, although we’re looking at some pretty nice specs, including a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.7” AMOLED display and a 5 megapixel camera.

The main question that remains is when are we going to get our hands on this thing? From what we know, it’s thought that North America is going to be able to purchase the Google Phone in January, and us folks in Europe are going to have to wait until April for the pleasure, although that may not be a bad thing, as it will give Google a chance to issue a few updates and iron out some inevitable release bugs!

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Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D Review (iPhone App)

Fancy a bit of racing action on that iPhone or iPod Touch of yours? Look no further than Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, available on the AppStore for an incredibly cheap £1.79!

It’s an old schooler in AppStore terms, having been released over a year ago and racing to the top of the App charts. A year on, I’m still playing it, and loving it just as much as the first time I played it.

You can choose from a number of different game modes when playing Crash, including story mode, quick race and tournament modes. As you win each race and complete parts of the story you’ll unlock a new level, which total 12 in all.

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Super Monkey Ball Review (iPhone App)

You may have seen that Super Monkey Ball 2 was released at the start of this month on the iPhone AppStore, but what about the original? Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone was one of the first major games that were available on the AppStore, and although it has its flaws, it’s thoroughly enjoyable and well worth the £2.39 price tag – when I purchased it I recall it costing me £5, which in itself is a bargain.

It isn’t all fun at first with Super Monkey Ball though, a lot of people complained about the extreme sensitivity of the accelerometer on the iPhone when playing and it proved rather hard to keep my chosen monkey on course for the goal! Once you get used to the controls, you’re left with one of the most entertaining games I’ve played; the concept is extremely simple yet rather challenging, especially in the latter stages where the courses become more challenging.

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Pocket Cinema Projector – Play Big Screen Movies!

Do you need a Pocket Cinema Projector? Well if you’re like me then you love movies and would love to watch them when you’re out as well as when at home. However, I can’t stand squinting into movies on a small screen such as on your iPhone or other mobile device.

So if you are like me, then you will love the idea of a Pocket Cinema Projector which can extract all of the video files out of your pocket sized devices and display them in high quality onto any plain, flat surface up to 50” in size whilst keeping its quality.

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GorillaPod – Flexible Camera Tripod

I need a what? A Gorillapod???

Yes indeed, you know when you’re out and you want to take a photo or video, but there is no where to put the camera when you use the self timer and dash into your favourite pose?

The Gorillapod flexible camera tripod allows you to tie your camera down onto any surface and use the flexible, but strong tripod legs to wrap around the metal bars on fences or the thicker tree branches.

Not only is it capable of attaching to your camera for photo’s anywhere, you can also use it as a clamp for your GPS in your car or iPhone. Professional photographers told Firebox.com that it’s a must have accessory for any potential photographers or even those amateurs who just want decent family snaps including the whole family.

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iPhone Battery Charger – Plug-In Portable Backup

This Portable Plug-In iPhone Charger is an extremely lightweight and compact way of charging your iPhone or even your iPod on the move. As I mentioned in a previous articles about the MiLi iPhone battery power pack dock, one of the most irritating things about the iPhone and all its apps is the battery life when you’re using them.

So when you’re out and it dies right in the middle of updating your Twitter or whatever app you are using, you can pop this tiny device into the usual connection and charge it on the move.

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CopyTrans Photo Review (Transfer Photos To iPod / iPhone)

CopyTrans Photo is a utility from WindSolutions that allows you to manage the photos on your iPod or iPhone by dragging and dropping them to and from your PC. The interface is extremely easy and simple to grasp with the window split into 3 sections – the first showing the photos on your iPod or iPhone, the second showing the photos in the currently selected folder and the third offering an explorer view of all the folders on your hard drive.

When testing with both an iPod and iPhone I found managing photos on the devices very straight forward and intuitive. It was a great utility when wanting to transfer photos taken on an iPhone to my PC and vice-versa, with easy to view thumbnails.

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CopyTrans 4 Review (Backup/Transfer Your iPod/iPhone To iTunes)

You may have seen our recent reviews of CopyTrans Manager and CopyTrans Photo, which are an easy to use, free iTunes alternatives that allow you to get music/photos on and off your iPod.

CopyTrans 4, the latest version of this impressive iPod/iPhone backup utility is iTunes 9 compatible and available for Windows XP, Vista and 7. When I used CopyTrans the first time round, I loved the easy to navigate interface and simplicity of the application, and CopyTrans 4 has made great strides in maintaining that usability while packing in some great additional features.

The most notable feature is the “Smart Backup” function which is new to CopyTrans 4, and backs up the entire contents of your iPod to iTunes. When first using the Smart Backup, I was amazed at the speed at which CopyTrans backs up all your songs and imports them to iTunes.

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SteelSeries Headset Mobile Phone Adapter (inc iPhone)

Quite possibly the most annoying things about phones is when manufacturers decide not to use standard 3.5mm headphone jacks, but running it a close second is when you buy an expensive set of headphones with a good quality microphone and then you can’t use it for listening to music on the move as you can’t receive/make calls on it.

Fortuitously for those owning a SteelSeries headset, they’ve just released a mobile phone headset adapter which promises to work with the iPhone, the iPod Touch (2nd Generation) as well as most other mobile devices with a 3.5mm jack.

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LG GW620 Preview – LG’s First Android Mobile Phone Handset

I recently attended an LG Mobile event in London in which LG showcased a number of their current and upcoming mobile phones, the main focus of my interest that evening was certainly the chance to get my hands on LG’s first Android-based mobile phone, the LG GW620.

First of all, the main mobile phone I currently use is an iPhone 3GS, but I’ve been interested in Google’s Android platform for mobile phones ever since it launched with the T-Mobile G1 late last year, but now we’re starting to see some real potential with it as Google continue to development it further as a platform that could truly rival Apple’s iPhone platform.

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