Why Apple no longer innovates
The more I ponder Apple's Beats acquisition, the less sense it makes. Buying big well-known brands that compete with yours is usually a bad idea -- worse when the acquirer owns no foreign brands. Extinguishing the big name, as Microsoft does with Nokia, is marketing murder. There's no place for the Beats brand in the Apple lexicon. The gun is drawn and ready to fire.
What I do see is another sign that Apple has lost its way. Tim Cook is a very able CEO, but as stated previously he is Star Trek's Spock without Captain Kirk (Steve Jobs). Cook's approach to business logistics, while brilliant, unmakes Apple. Beats is an acquisition that is off-key -- out of tune with the culture that made the fruit-logo company great. As such, on this Thursday in May, comes my confession. I was wrong five years ago in post "Why Apple succeeds, and always will". That company is gone.
HTC One mini 2: Good design, solidly built, but overpriced [Review]
It's quite a trend now for handset makers to produce a big phone, then produce a smaller version of it and call it 'mini' or, in Sony's case, 'compact'. The idea is to piggy-back on the features that a flagship, top of the range phone offers, and bring down the overall size for smaller hands, and the overall price for smaller budgets. So, the new HTC One M8 has been joined by the HTC One mini 2, just as the original HTC One was joined by the original, er, HTC One mini.
You will have spotted an obvious difference in naming between the new flagship and the new mini. HTC isn't helping itself here, but it clearly wants us to view the two handsets as close relations, so let's forgive, forget and move on.
Misconfigured apps will account for the majority of mobile security breaches
Security incidents originating from mobile devices are currently pretty rare. But with 2.2 billion smartphones and tablets set to be sold in 2014 and PC sales in decline, the focus of security breaches is likely to shift towards mobiles in future years.
According to research specialists Gartner by 2017 misconfiguration of applications will account for 75 percent of mobile security breaches.
LG G3 goes up for pre-order
Yesterday, South Korean maker LG unveiled its much-awaited and much-leaked G3 Android flagship. My colleague Brian Fagioli, who was in New York at the press event, is impressed by the new smartphone, saying "the experience is greater than the sum of its (awesome) parts".
Less than a day after its unveiling, the G3 is already available to pre-order at UK retailer Clove. And, if you want to get your hands on the smartphone as soon as it is available on the market, you have to shell out £499. That is about €615 for those who live in other countries on the old continent. Those who live outside of Europe can forgo paying VAT, and get the G3 for £415.83, that equates to roughly $698.
Sony Xperia Z2 officially gets wireless charging
Wireless charging is a convenient alternative to the old-fashioned way of topping up the battery in a mobile device, the latter of which entails a cable connection to a PC or wall charger. Lay the device on a compatible charging plate, that is plugged in obviously, and it will start charging. It is not as fast as some would like it to be, as the amperage is not as high as what wall adapters deliver, but is considerably faster than what a USB connection outputs. And have I mentioned it is extremely convenient?
With a Nokia-branded wireless charging plate -- which is based on the popular Qi standard -- I can charge both my Lumia 920 and Google Nexus 7, without having to deal with wires laying around, worrying that I might trip over one at night. Even though the benefits are obvious, not many smartphone manufacturers have fully embraced the technology, only offering the feature through optional (read: expensive) accessories. Take Sony, for instance, which just now offers a way for Xperia Z2 owners to get their wireless charging fix.
LG G3 vs HTC One M8 -- How do they compare?
LG is shouting about its new G3 smartphone in a pretty big way. With events across the globe to ring in the new handset, expectations were running high for the Korean company's new flagship phone, since its predecessor the G2 was awarded the ITPP "Best Buy" accolade.
Read on to see how the G3 compares to the HTC One M8.
Watch the LG G3 launch here live
One of the most highly anticipated phones of 2014, the LG G3, is to launch today at simultaneous events in London, New York, and San Francisco. There’s not much we don’t know about the device, thanks to a stream of leaks.
The 5.5 inch handset is expected to have a brushed-metal finish and offer a Quad HD screen with a resolution of 2560x1440. Leaked product information says it will have a Snapdragon 801 processor and 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera with image stabilization, 2.1MP front camera, and be water and dust repellent.
How to get the best out of your Huawei Ascend P7
Huawei is not such a well-known smartphone maker as the likes of Samsung, Sony or HTC. But it has recently launched a relatively low cost, relatively high spec phone in the Ascend P7, and despite some quibbles about battery life I gave it a thumbs up in my recent review.
The Ascend P7 runs Android 4.4 (KitKat), and like all higher-end handset makers Huawei has its own skin which it calls Emotion UI. You'll notice this immediately because all the app icons have been given a makeover. The "flat" design is clean and neat looking, and it makes a good first impression. More importantly, perhaps, Emotion UI adds a range of features to the Android staples. Let's take a look at how best to use those features to our advantage.
Emerging smartphone vendors put on their fighting gloves
According to a new Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report, smartphone "fragmentation" is on the rise in Europe. Locally-emerging brands, like Huawei and Wiko, are giving established players, like Apple and Samsung, a run for their money, delivering comparable offerings at much lower prices. As the average selling price drops even further, the former are set to erode more of the latter's market share.
The report also suggests that some established brands, that have lost their way, are "showing resurgence" on the old continent. Dominic Sunnebo, the firm's strategic insight director, gives Motorola and Sony as example. The former has crawled its way back on Europe's radar with attractive smartphones like the low-cost Moto G and dirt-cheap Moto E, the latter of which is among the least expensive Android smartphones from a well-known vendor at £89 ($130 in US).
Sad news for springers -- Springpad shuts up shop June 25
Data organization wars have claimed a victim. Springpad, the notebook service designed to help users "get inspired, get organized, get more done" is to close. After six years of helping people store notes, recipes, project ideas and more, Springpad will close in just over a month. The world of note taking tools, managers and general information organizers has become crowded. The likes of Evernote, OneNote and even Google Keep have all been vying for attention in recent years, and there are only so many users to go around.
The closure rumors started last night with the Verge citing the oft-mentioned "person familiar with the company's plans", but now it has been confirmed. In a blog post the Springpad team confirms what hundreds of thousands of users hoped and prayed would turn out to be untrue -- as of June 25, the service will cease to function. At this stage no reasons are being given for the closure, but it will leave users scrabbling to find a new home for their data.
Using your smartphone behind the wheel is more dangerous than driving drunk
Police in the UK are expressing increased concern about motorists using social media at the wheel. According to the head of roads policing, drivers using mobile phones to take photos, update their profile and make video-calls are becoming more and more of an issue.
In 2012, UK roads provided the site for more than 6,000 deaths or serious injuries for people between the ages of 16 and 24. This same age group was recently surveyed by RAC, where around 10 percent of drivers admitted to using sites such as Twitter or Facebook whilst driving.
Warning to Android users -- Outlook.com app stores emails unencrypted
Reverse engineering apps is an interesting field of work. On one hand, it can be used by software engineers to determine how an app works so they can copy it. On the other, the method can be used by those with malicious intent to track down weaknesses that can then be exploited. But there's also a third hand. Reverse engineering can also be used to highlight security problems with a view to not only alerting those affected, but also addressing the problem.
Researchers at Include Security, whilst practicing their reverse engineering skills, turned their attention to the Outlook.com app for Android and discovered a potentially worrisome security issue.
Finally! Task and todo list manager Any.Do gains a web app
Today is a day of celebration for fans of Any.Do -- the todo list and task manager for iOS, Android and Chrome. Some four years after its inception -- and after many, many demands from the service's user base -- Any.Do has, at long, long last, gained a web app. Founders Omer Perchik, Yoni Lindenfeld, and Itay Kahana have successfully avoided a brouhaha from users by finally delivering what they describe as "the number one most requested feature by our users".
Any.Do has proved incredibly successful on mobile platforms -- as well as in Google's web browser -- amassing more than 10 million users. Perchik says: "Web is a huge market we haven't even touched yet. There's a world of people who haven't considered us because they need a full web experience, right on their computer screens" of the launch. "We're conquering mobile, now it's time to break out in a broader market".
Business travelers want access to reliable Wi-Fi
Accessing data on the move has become essential for business travelers. The days of being unable to do something because you were out of the office are long gone.
Demand for reliable, cost effective data access means that more business people are looking for ways to access Wi-Fi on the move rather than use expensive mobile data services.
Hanns G HT231HPB: an entry-level touchscreen monitor let down by Windows 8.1 and itself
I have no problems with touchscreens in general, no problem at all. I can't imagine using a non-touchscreen phone any more, and I have tablets of all shapes and sizes coming out of my ears. Touchscreens make sense, they are intuitive, they are fun to use. In the right situation, at least. I bang on about being a very happy Surface Pro owner (not as yet a Surface Pro 3), but how often do I take advantage of the fact that it has a touchscreen? Very rarely. I might jab the screen every now and then to switch apps, I may even mess about with handwriting recognition from time to time, but despite my love of the device, a keyboard/trackpad/mouse combo is my preferred choice.
I use my Surface Pro as a laptop, and perhaps this is where my issues stem from. To me it makes little sense to reach over the keyboard to interact with the screen when a far more energy and time efficient trackpad flick does the job just as well. Used as a tablet, it would be a different story, but to me the Surface Pro range is not about amalgamating the best of laptops and tablets, it's about having a fancy laptop. But I digress. My point is that I have yet to be convinced of the value of touchscreen laptops (when used as laptops), and the idea of touchscreen monitors for desktop computers just seems like a step too far.
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