Archive for the ‘android’ Category

Google Glass

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

The Reg is reporting that Google Glass is on the way http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/google_project_glass_api_developers/ but it looks like its going to be like the early androd protypes first, the tech specks are listed here http://support.google.com/glass/answer/3064128?hl=en&ref_topic=3063354, and if you want to go programming it and see how it works have a look here https://developers.google.com/glass/about

Ease of Repair

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Ifix it, has done a “ease of repair” analysis on the various tablets out there, it makes for some interesting reading, especially if you enjoy cracking a screen, it looks like, the ages of throw away computers could be upon us!

Details below

http://www.ifixit.com/Tablet_Repairability

Making a Nest

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

I’ve been researching thermostats, and the market was starting to make me get annoyed, the thermostats on the market seem to be very basic, and then they are expensive, for what appears to be a clock with a relay attached, which is very analogue technology, Some of them have a magic BOOST button, which sounds like its been taken off a “hot rod car” but from what I understand its actually a bypass on the timer for 30 minutes or so.

Then I was have a little read on the web and along comes nest. This company was set up a group of apple engineers, so hence the shininess of the device, but basically is a device that has, wireless, proximity sensor and it usises this to understand how hot and how often you need heat, and also when you are in. So it actually turns on the heat when you actually need heat, when you are in the house, so we shall be doing a little more investigation and I can see a Nest being bought.

 

Using old phone booths

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

In New York they are doing something with the old phone booths, there seems to be a good idea taking shape, This is transforming all the phone booths in to Tablet notice boards, that can give you information on what, where and where to get etc. Maybe now that some of our phone companies could talk a idea from new york and put this in motion in Ireland. so rather then ringing some one, your could look something up But that brings up the question do we need phone booths at all, if we all have mobiles! Or could we use the phone booths as a sensor technology to get an better understanding of street traffic, noise levels, after all they are a hardwired link to a exchange, in almost every street and city in the world.

You can read the link here

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_new_phone_booths_VFGNinvlcNX30nlD7ibKDK#.T4GweFOovlY.link

 

up comming phones of 2012

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Before buying this new shiny phone, read this! All those industry execs have been in Barcelona at theMobile World Congress 2012 where they have been chatting about new phones, some of those industry execs have even been launching new phones, so before you go rushing off to buy a phone have a look at whats coming, before you shift your hard cash to one of those industry exec types!

So whats coming

well Samsung have a projector phone coming out.

Huawei have a tablet called a MediaPad 10 coming out, so it going the tablet market very cheap.

Huawei have also addressed the elephant in the room with Androids having poor battery life with a phone that may give 3 days of a charge

Sony’s has divorce’s its self from Ericsson and is looking to show its new branded models

 

It seems to be all android OS phones at the moment that are showing up …. at the moment

 

Tablets, and deal hunting

Monday, December 5th, 2011

I’m looking at Android devices, as there seems to be too much “lock in” on apple and amazon devices.

Talking to Harvey Norman today Monday 5th of December I’ve came across the following:
€449
Toshiba at100 (sold as the Toshiba Thrive in the US)
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/toshiba-at100-1003950/review
The Toshiba, Has got a SDXC card, memory card and has mini USB and replaceable battery, Its also got proper USB ports and a proper HDMI port.

€399
Acer icona
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/acer-iconia-tab-a500-review/
3.5mm headphone jack, a mini-HDMI port.dedicated power jack (Means having to have another charger!) and a pair of USB slots: one micro-USB to transfer data to the tablet, and one full-size USB port which connects with both your storage drives and keyboards, just connect this to a usb hub and you be grand.

More reviews are here:

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/266915/the-best-android-tablets/

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/13-best-android-tablets-in-the-world-905504

Kindle fire a users tale

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Before you rush out and buy a kindle this xmas have a read of this http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/19/kindle_fire_google_apps/ it tells of a user discovering how locked in to the amazon ecosystem he was after buying a kindle fire. you have been warned!

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Amazon are getting in to the tablet game with the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, and it looks like it will be a disruptive product, that will disrupt the market at under $200 or in under €150 Euros aprox. I hope that they will have a strong UI over android. its going to have a 7-inch screen with a Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and will weigh 14.6 ounces. So the Speck is ok, its not going to set the world on fire, but for the person that wants a tablet, it should do the job. The worry will be how android or Amazon will it be, I dont see any mention of a USB connector, or sound out, I am prsuming that this will be as standard. It also will default to the Amazon market place, so that your app experience will be limited, This means that you can get access to the Android market. So it looks like we are seen a product with a open OS, but it will have a closed data portal. The 8GB of data will be tight if your watching video, but amazon have Amazon Cloud Storage, where the product could kill the market, is in the realm of video, where with whispernet, you can walk from watching the movie on the subway, and have it pick up where you stopped the movie on the subway to your TV in your front room, with out having to fast forward again to the point. IF it works, then it should be very cool. This could be the IPad killer!

My First Android Phone

Friday, August 26th, 2011

I’m after getting my first android phone, its the vodafone smart or its a huawei 858 in real money. So why did I buy it,  well it’s €60 so it’s cheap as chips. So I wouldn’t be an issue if I decided to drop it on a sink or worse. So far it works it dose a job, I’m even using it to write this post. So is android able to run on this phone, well it can stall the odd time so it isn’t the greatest. but it works and the applications work. The GPS works, I’ve had issues with the blue-tooth. (more…)

HP getting out of the Tablet game

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

Looks like HP dipped their to in the water and didn’t like what they saw, going up against Apple and Android (Google) is not a good starting point even if you did buy Palm. It’s a pitty it would have been good for the industry. It’s a bit like OS2 an old operating system on the PC. It tried and failed, it seems the smart phone business is all to similar to the PC business 30 years ago. We’re going to have two main players, One dominant and one not so dominant, and the one will the open architecture will win, Android has the open architecture, so my money is on this at the moment, but I think the patent wars that are stating could put a stop to Androids development.