Apple's iPhone 5C may turn out to have been a short-lived experiment
The iPhone 5C is Apple's most affordable, colorful and adorable iPhone, but it's reportedly going to be discontinued by the middle of 2015.
Apple's suppliers will cease production on the iPhone 5C next year, possibly after some final promotions on the company's part, reports Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial Times.
The iPhone 5C is currently available only in a tiny 8GB size, and it's notably lacking the TouchID sensor present on the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus and even the older iPhone 5S.
TouchID is critical to the company's Apple Pay plans, which may be why the iPhone 5C has to go.
But that leaves one enormous, colorful question: will a TouchID-equipped iPhone 6C replace it?
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Seven new Android apps are now compatible with Chrome OS
Google has ported seven new Android apps over to Chrome OS, expanding their reach beyond phones and tablets without altering the apps much at all.
The search company highlighted three of the new additions for the holidays in a Google+ post: Cookpad Recipes, Couchsurfing and OverDrive.
These apps and four others join Evernote, Duolingo, Vine, Sight Words, and more in the Chrome OS web store's Android apps section.
However this section also contains web apps, making it not the easiest list to parse through - leaving us clueless as to what the other four new apps are.
Taking advantage
Google launched Chrome OS to be a lightweight cloud-run laptop operating system, but a lack of quality apps has forced it to look toward Android.The first of what Google promised will be many Chrome OS-compatible Android apps arrived in September.
Android's app ecosystem is booming, of course, though Google's rollout of Chrome OS-compatible Android apps is so slow you wouldn't know it.
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OnePlus is opening a brick-and-mortar shop to sell the One
The inexpensive but impressive OnePlus One has been notoriously difficult to get, but that might soon change - at least in China.
It's there that the startup is opening a single brick-and-mortar retail location, the OnePlus Store.
The Beijing shop will open on December 20, just in time for you to grab one and hop on a flight back to wherever you hang your stockings for the holidays.
Stuff it
The OnePlus one has been available by invitation and in limited wider sales, but currently there's nowhere you can just click a button - or walk into a store - to buy one.China's OnePlus Store will reportedly carry the smartphone, but it will also focus on accessories and the "experience," with fan events and a "water bar."
More stores are expected to roll elsewhere in China eventually, while the rest of us are left with either waiting or blowing our vacation money to get the OnePlus One.
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Developer leaks Samsung Galaxy S5's Android Lollipop software
First Google's Nexus devices, then the LG G3 - and is the Samsung Galaxy S5 the next handset that will be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop?
We can't answer that, but we can tell you this: a developer on the XDA forums has leaked a version of Lollipop for the Galaxy S5 that adventurous users can install right now.
This isn't recommended, but for an unfinished version of the Galaxy S5's Lollipop to be released may indicate that the official version is about to arrive.
Just can't wait
The developer warns that the software is for the Sprint version of the Galaxy S5, and that it's likely unfinished.Installing it in this form will wipe all the data from your phone, though the dev says calling, texting and other core features will remain functional.
Nevertheless it's probably best to wait for the official over-the-air update from your carrier - whenever it may arrive.
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Twitter looks to the apps on your phone for better ad targeting
Twitter is has announced that it's about to start paying very close attention to the apps you have installed on your phone.
Why would it care? To serve you more target advertisements, of course. Why else?
"To help build a more personal Twitter experience for you, we are collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your mobile device so we can deliver tailored content that you might be interested in," reads Twitter's support site.
It notes that Twitter won't collect any data from within other apps, though - just lists of what those apps are.
Don't worry, you can turn it off
The data Twitter collects on your installed apps might affect the "who to follow" suggestions, promoted tweets and more unsolicited items your feed shows you.Thankfully you can turn Twitter's "app graph" off in your Twitter app's settings menu, and it's off by default if you previously told the app to "limit ad tracking" or opted out of internet-based ads, depending what OS you're on.
A prompt within the app will let you know if Twitter switches it on for your account, and until then the company says you have nothing to worry about.
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buying guide: Speaker deals: save big on speakers this holiday season
What's the first thing you do right after a Thanksgiving feast? If you answered "sleep", you've answered incorrectly. You've got to make sure all your Black Friday deal ducks are in a row.
You could get lucky and score the speaker of your dreams for cheap, but if you're unprepared, the best chance to get tech on sale could quickly slip through your fingers. We want to help you. Welcome to our collection of the best deals on speakers this holiday season.
- Check out the very best Black Friday deals
Allow us to give you the edge as the holiday season kicks off this Black Friday. Follow this page leading up to Black Friday for the best speaker deals and stay as we update it in time for Cyber Monday.
Also, check out our Black Friday Deals page to get full access to our hub of leaked retail ads and price announcements for all the tech on your must-buy list.
- We've always been tracking the best Cyber Monday deals
Speaker deals
Black Friday marks the day that Best Buy offers the Beats Beatbox for just $249.99.If you want a highly acclaimed 2.1 system, check out Amazon's Black Friday offering of the Cyber Acoustics subwoofer satellite system for $38.99.
Interested in a mini Bluetooth speaker on Black Friday? Best Buy is offering the Jam Classic for $19.99.
On Black Friday, hhgregg has the Sony Ultra Portable speaker on sale for $69.99.
If you're looking for a highly-rated online item, Amazon has the JBL Micro Wireless speaker for $49.95.
Looking for a waterproof Bluetooth speaker on Black Friday? hhgregg has the Altec Life Jacket speaker for $99.99.
On Black Friday, hhgregg has the attractive Bose SoundLink Color speakers on sale for $129.99 each.
Check out this deal: On Black Friday, Best Buy is offering the JBL Charge for $89.99.
For a Bluetooth speaker under $50 on Black Friday, Staples has the JLab Crasher for $44.99.
Need an affordable 2.1 speaker system on Black Friday? Best Buy has the Logitech Z313 for $24.99.
Looking for a basic set of computer speakers on Black Friday? Staples has the Logitech Z130 for $9.99.
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buying guide: Headphone deals: save big on headphones this holiday season
Black Friday, the biggest shopping holiday of the year, is quickly approaching. And what better way to work off the Thanksgiving feast than by trekking out to your local shopping center at the break of dawn.
Those brave enough to fend off large crowds will find the hottest headphones for cheap, but you'll need a plan of attack. Without one, it's all too easy to get lost in the thick of the madness and lose out on the sales. We don't want that to happen to you, so we've gathered all the best Black Friday deals on headphones.
- Check out the best Black Friday deals
For the rest of your tech needs, keep an eye out on TechRadar for deals covering all the essential tech. Also, check out our Black Friday Deals page to get full access to our hub of leaked retail ads and price announcements for all the tech on your holiday must-buy list.
- Be sure to track out Cyber Monday deals
On-ear headphone deals
For the music lover in your life who needs a set of travel-friendly headphones that are rest comfortably on the ear. These are great on-the-go, at the gym or on the computer.Check out this sweet Black Friday deal, Micro Center has the Audio-Technica SonicFuel headphones for $29.99.
On Black Friday, hhgregg has the Beats Solo 2 for $149.99.
For an affordable option on Black Friday, Microsoft is offering the Coloud Boom Nokia headphones online for just $14.99.
For a stylish set of headphones on Black Friday, RadioShack has the Sol Republic Tracks for just $59.99.
Looking for a stellar deal on some hot headphones? Best Buy's Black Friday deal has the Beats Solo HD - only $79.99.
On Black Friday, Microsoft is also selling the Beats Solo HD online for $79.99.
On Black Friday, Best Buy has the Samsung Level slashed down to $99.99.
For a cheaper option on Black Friday, RadioShack will have the JBL J55a headphones for $29.99.
If portability is key, check out this Black Friday deal. Micro Center has the Koss Porta Pro KTC for $69.99.
Over-the-ear headphone deals
If noise-isolation and deep sound and bass performance appeal to you, you'll want to check these out.Check out this killer Black Friday deal, Best Buy has the iconic Beats Studio for $199.99.
Need a cozy, cheap set of headphones? On Black Friday, hhgregg has the Sony Noise Canceling Headphones for $24.99.
On Black Friday, Micro Center has the Audio-Technica ATH-T200 headphones for $19.99.
In-ear headphone deals
If the music lover in your life likes to wrap up headphones and stick them right into a pocket, or if headphones that are perfect for working out and for a private listening experience interest them, these are the ones to get.For Black Friday, Best Buy has the urBeats slashed down to $59.99.
Looking for a high-quality, but cheap set of earbuds on Black Friday? Micro Center has the Koss KEB6iK for $9.99.
Need stocking-stuffers on Black Friday? Best Buy has the Skullcandy Jib earbuds for $4.99.
Looking for a cheap, fashionable pair of earbuds on Black Friday? hhgregg has Sony Fashion earbuds for $4.99.
Shopping for a pair of earbuds perfect for the gym on Black Friday? Best Buy has the Yurbuds - Ironman Inspire Duro for $19.99.
Black Friday deals at Best Buy include the LG Tone+ wireless earbuds for $39.99.
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The UK is taking YouTubers to task for their shady sponsorship deals
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has unleashed a new set of guidelines for YouTubers and other video blogger who are paid to promote certain products.
These tastemakers, whose videos often have millions of plays, are more or less totally unregulated, with no rules whatsoever governing whether they disclose exactly who is paying them for what.
But the UK authority says as of now video makers must make it clear when they're being paid to promote certain products.
This is a big problem in the tech world, but - funny enough - the BBC says a BBC Newsround report on video bloggers who didn't disclose they were paid to promote Oreo cookies is what sparked the ASA's investigation in the first place.
'Built on authenticity'
Sponsored videos need to be identified in their titles by the inclusion of words like "ad" or "promo," or with a symbol on the video thumbnail that clearly delineates them as ads, the ASA says."Vloggers often have huge followings built on authenticity, built on them providing interesting, funny, natural content," said ASA Director of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs Lynsay Taffe.
"We think it's only fair that when they start promoting stuff on behalf of a brand - which is absolutely fine for them to do - that they do so in a way that's clear and upfront with their audience."
Of course this is going to be a bit difficult to enforce, given exactly how many videos there are on YouTube, but the ASA has reportedly promised to monitor online videos more closely in the future.
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Updated: Black Friday Deals: how to save big on tech at retail this holiday season
The latest Black Friday deals in one place
Update: We've added even more Black Friday deals for specific products and product categories. Check out all the latest deals for audio products, keyboards mice and more below.The biggest shopping day of the year is almost upon us: November 28, Black Friday. You know, the day – or rather the day(s) – when turkey-stuffed parents, friends, sons and daughters scramble through those automatic doors nationwide with bleary eyes for the best deals on holiday gifts.
Chances are that you're eying up some of the priciest of presents: TVs, game consoles, phones, tablets and all other things tech. That's where we come in. Welcome to your number one source for Black Friday deals on tech products.
Our team of expert editors will update this page frequently ahead of the biggest shopping day of the year with the latest retailer ad leaks, online store announcements and more. Across the site and linked below, you'll find articles dedicated to Black Friday deals centered around just the types of devices you're looking for.
So, let us take the panic out of your Black Friday plans with the only site you need to visit all Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend long to save big on the tech your loved ones – or your own grubby self – want. And speaking of the Monday following Black Friday, follow our Cyber Monday deals page leading up to the biggest online shopping day of the year and all throughout – we'll be there too.
If you want to find the Black Friday ads or pages for a specific retailer, check out the second page of this feature. Otherwise, just follow this space below for the latest deals leading up to and during Black Friday.
Phone deals
iPhone 6 is less than two months old and yet Best Buy sales are already halving the price ... sort of. It's going to be just $99 for the iPhone 6 at Best Buy 16GB model (with a two-year AT&T, Verizon or Sprint contract) if you turn in an old iPhone.Amazon doesn't sell Apple's phone directly, but the online retailer is hosting a variety of deals from third-party sellers, all fighting to sell you an unlocked iPhone 6 through Amazon. Be sure to read the fine print as the condition can vary from seller to seller.
iPhone 6 deals at Walmart are simply an excellent value for your dollar. The retailer is offering the entry-level 16GB model iPhone 6 for $179 with a $75 Walmart gift card. That's what we call a solid stocking stuffer.
Tablet deals
The cost of Apple's latest tablet has been chopped down to $400 for the iPad Air 2 at Best Buy for the 16GB model. The discount applies to the 64GB and 128GB models, for $500 and $600, respectively. That's not bad for having just launched.You may have noticed that Amazon doesn't sell iPad tablets. Instead, it fulfills the orders from third-party retailers. Monitoring Amazon for iPad deals isn't such a bad idea over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These non-official Apple sellers are going to be competing for your business.
Apple's 9.7-inch flagship model costs the normal $500, yet it'll feel more like the iPad Air 2 costs just $360 at Target, thanks to a $140 gift card. Put that towards the rest of your shopping.
TV deals
If you're really looking for an amazing get, how about a 4K TV priced to move at $900? This deal on a 55-inch Samsung 4K LED Smart TV at Best Buy goes live at 6 p.m. Thursday evening and should persist through the day on Friday.If 4K is a bit out of your price range – or just not there yet for you in terms of content options, there's an equally-impressive deal on an LG panel (for its size) at Amazon. Starting now, you can score a 39-inch TV from LG for $339 on Amazon.
And for those that just want 4K now and want it cheap, Tiger Direct has a deal for you. You can score a less recommend (but still decent) 50-inch Seiki 4K UHD LED TV for just $399 at TigerDirect after rebate.
Home entertainment deals
How does a PS4, three games and a controller sound? How about paying just $499 for this PS4 bundle at TigerDirect? That gets you the 500GB Sony console, the new Killzone, Knack and the new Infamous game. Not too shabby.If Xbox One is more your fancy, check out this deal. Score an Xbox One with Halo Master Chief Collection for $349 at Walmart. A 500GB gaming console and a game for the price of just the console? Now that's tough to beat.
Perhaps even better is this Amazon PS4 deal. If you can't wait until Black Friday, Amazon's PS4 Bundle with GTA V and The Last of Us Remastered is just $439 as of this writing. Two of the best games around and a console for under $500 – better act fast.
Wearable deals
If you were into the square design of LG's first crack at the smartwatch, check it. Amazon has the LG G Watch for just $164 as of this writing. Not too shabby for a perfectly capable wrist computer.So, fitness is more your loved one's bag. Then spring for the medium-sized Jawbone Up 24 for just $107 on Amazon. It doesn't get easier than that to slap a gift on someone's wrist.
For the most affordable, longest lasting smartwatch around, try the Pebble and Pebble Steel. The former of which, the Pebble, is just $99 on Amazon and countless other retailers.
Headphone and speaker deals
Looking for a stellar deal on some sweet on-ear headphones? Best Buy's Black Friday deal has the Beats Solo HD for only $79.And for over-ear headphone fans, check out this killer Black Friday deal, Best Buy has the iconic Beats Studio for $199.
Looking to follow the leaders of audio to a great speaker? On Black Friday, hhgregg has the attractive Bose SoundLink Color speakers on sale for $129 each.
Keyboard and mouse deals
Gamers, check out this Black Friday deal. Micro Center has the Cooler Master Devastator LED gaming mouse and keyboard for $29.99. Score this deal now, score a higher KD ratio later.Check out this incredible deal: On Black Friday, Best Buy is bundling a free $50 Steam gift card with purchase of the $79.99 Logitech G502 Proteus Core. Which game to buy with your shiny new mouse?
For a killer Black Friday deal on a gaming keyboard, Micro Center has the ROCCAT Arvo Compact for just $29.99. Nothing like a cheap way to raise your actions per minute, Starcraft junkies.
Monitor deals
All about those LEDs? Score this sick ViewSonic VA2212M-LED 22-Inch LED-Lit Monitor for just $119 on Amazon, down from its original price of $220.On the Samsung website, you can buy the Samsung 27-inch curved LED monitor for $329.99. This monitor will go back $429 on December 2.
If you're still into 1080p monitors, the AOC 27" Class LED Backlit Monitor is available on TigerDirect for $199. That's a sizable cost-savings of $80.
Printer deals
For heavy-duty printing enthusiasts, this deal might entice you. For a limited time, this Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II Inkjet Photo Printer is just $387 on Amazon in time for the big day. That's down from its original price of $499 for over $100 in savings.Another excellent inkjet sale coming right up. Score this Brother MFC-J450DW Wireless Color Multifunction Inkjet Printer on NewEgg for a low $87. A sub-$100 inkjet for the holidays might be music to your ears.
A monster deal can be had on a Samsung printer, too. This Samsung Xpress C410W Wireless Color Laser printer will hit TigerDirect for $114 on Cyber Monday for $114.99 – a cost savings of $115!
Black Friday ads, webpages and product deals
Looking for deals on specific products or types of products? Then check out these up-to-date pages for all the latest sales on just that:iPhone 6 deals
iPad deals
Xbox One deals
TV deals
Monitor deals
Fitness tracker deals
PS4 deals
Smartwatch deals
Printer deals
Headphone deals
Speaker deals
Keyboard and mouse deals
Retailers' Black Friday ads
Here are all the major retailers' Black Friday ads. The list may look short now, but we'll be updating this space on the regular, so stay tuned:Best Buy Black Friday ad
Costco Black Friday ad
GameStop Black Friday ad
Hhgregg Black Friday ad
Kmart Black Friday ad
Micro Center Black Friday ad
Office Depot Black Friday ad
RadioShack Black Friday ad
Sears Black Friday ad
Target Black Friday ad
WalMart Black Friday ad
Retailers' Black Friday pages
And here are all the major retailers' Black Friday web pages. Again, keep it locked here to see this list grow rapidly ahead of the big day:Amazon Black Friday page
Best Buy Black Friday page
Dell Black Friday page
Gamestop Black Friday page
Microsoft Black Friday page
NewEgg Black Friday page
Samsung Black Friday page
Staples Black Friday page
Target Black Friday page
TigerDirect Black Friday page
Walmart Black Friday page
Have you found some Black Friday deals that we might have missed? Shout out in the comments below and, if they check out, we'll add them to these lists.
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Review: Amazon Fire TV Stick
Intro, design and setup
The set-top box landscape is changing. It used to be a full-size battle royale where three titans – the Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV – duked it out for control of your television. Then, in July of last year, Google released Chromecast, a set-top box built into a thumb drive form factor and fits entirely behind a TV.In many ways the Amazon Fire TV Stick, the successor to the full-size Fire TV, looks similar to Google's impulse buy offering from last year. But whatever it may look like, its arrival onto the set-top scene can only mean one thing: The time of the titans is over, and a new age of streaming sticks is here.
The Fire TV Stick is petite and powerful. It fits flush with most TV's HDMI ports and, unlike its main competitor Chromecast, comes with a fairly decent remote. In terms of content, you'll find just about everything here. Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Showtime Anytime and more have already joined the party, while Amazon's Prime Instant Video basically sits at the head of the proverbial table. The only player missing is HBO Go, and that, Amazon has said, will be coming in the next few months.
Almost everything feels right about the Amazon Fire TV Stick, but most of all is its $40 price tag. It's $10 more than Chromecast, but $10 less than the Roku Streaming Stick; it feels like a supremely good value for what you get in the box.
Where Amazon Fire TV Stick stumbles, however, is its deep-rooted attachment to its mother service, Amazon Prime. Without Prime, the set-top stick feels devoid of personality.
Yes, you can still get those great aforementioned apps, yes you'll zip around from one section of the interface to the next thanks to its powerful components, and yes you'll even get a 30-day trial for free just for buying the streaming stick – but, after the trial runs out or you choose not to commit to Amazon's service, the whole experience feels sterile without Prime.
Design, setup and performance
At this point in the game, a streaming stick is nothing new. It's a plastic, thumb drive-sized device that plugs into any HDMI port (not just MHL-equipped ports) and draws power from a USB port on the TV or from a wall outlet via the included converter. The exterior itself isn't all that exciting – it's 3.3 x 1.0 x 0.5 inches (84.9 x 25.0 x 11.5 mm) and has the Amazon logo on one side – but it's the lack of any distinct features that help the Fire TV Stick blend into the back of any TV. It even comes with an HDMI extender cable in case you've got a wall-mounted setup and no additional space to spare in the back.
While these extras are something the $30 Chromecast comes standard with, the more expensive, $50 Roku Streaming Stick does not. Sometimes, it's the simple things in life that really count, and Amazon scores major points for putting the consumer first.
After you've got the stick firmly seated in an HDMI port you've got to provide a power solution. You'll need to connect the micro-USB powered stick to either a USB port on the TV or, attach the adapter and plug it into the wall. If you choose the former, you'll get a warning when you boot the system up for the first time. It'll tell you that it can't draw enough power from the USB port to provide the ideal experience.
The TV I used for testing, a TCL Roku TV (ironic, I know), had more than enough power for the job and never once did the streaming stick fail due to lack of juice. If you're in a similar situation, just ignore the warning and move on.But, besides the one micro-USB port on the exterior, you won't find any other ports on the sides of the Fire TV Jr., which means there's no way to hardwire the device to your router.
In practice, this lead to a few hiccups here and there, but because it's equipped with dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi (MIMO) and supports 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks, the Stick can handle some the diciest of connections with ease, though, without a hard-line in this is certainly a YMMV situation.
Specifications, apps and navigation
It's impressive that the Amazon Fire TV Stick requires so little energy, especially once you find out what the Fire TV Stick has going on inside the box – namely, a Broadcom dual-core processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage. Comparing that to the Chromecast, which sports a single-core processor, 512MB of memory and 2GB of memory, Amazon's miniature stick comes out the clear winner.Apps and games
Where the full-size set-top boxes like the Nexus Player and Apple TV struggle with too little content to choose from on their platforms, Amazon Fire TV has an abundance of apps at your disposal. All of the primary suspects are here and accounted for: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, Showtime, NFL Network, Pandora, Spotify, Crackle and more. The only service that's nowhere to be seen is HBO Go, which seems to be a trend in most modern boxes.While the Roku 3 sports over 1,000 channels (read: apps), the Fire TV Stick has a number closer to several hundred with multi-function apps and games mixed in with the entertainment channels.
Perusing the store, I discovered some new interesting apps like TripSmart – a travel channel that provides videos on exotic locales – and an old favorite, 2048, optimized for the big screen. Like Roku, there's a lot of shovelware mixed in with the good stuff, which means you'll have to root around the mud to find the two or three real gems in a given list.
Games are also present and accounted for on Amazon's smaller system, and for the most part the less-intensive titles play incredibly well. Disappointingly though, you won't find many graphically demanding games here like The Walking Dead Season 1 or 2.
Nor are you likely to spot Grand Theft Auto here anytime soon. That doesn't seem to be due to any fault of the hardware – the system boasts the right specs for those higher-end games – the content simply isn't there.
The lack of games doesn't necessarily hurt the system, however. If you want to have a streaming system that's jam-packed with gaming goodness, consider the full-size Amazon Fire TV or Nexus Player. Both have a dedicated gamepad sold separately and have a great selection of titles.
Speaking of separate controllers, the full-size Amazon Fire controller can also be paired with the Fire TV Stick. But many of the 200-plus games available on the console don't necessarily need – or work better – with a controller instead of the standard remote. Home entertainment enthusiasts, on the other hand, will be glad to see Plex here, as it has been MIA on a few of the other systems I've tested recently. PlayStation TV: I'm looking at you.
The launch line-up of apps is as strong as it's going to be outside of a Roku product, and though I wish it were a little more AAA game-oriented and much more platform-agnostic (searches only return Amazon content. Also, a shared Google Play library would more than make up for any shortcomings in selection). That said, this is still a fairly balanced ecosystem.
Remote
One of the biggest advantages of buying the Amazon Fire TV Stick over the other guys is the remote. It weighs next to nothing and errs on the cheap side, but on it you'll find a few sparse, but powerful, buttons: back, home, menu, rewind, play/pause and fast forward. At the top you'll find a circular directional pad and a central button that does just about everything else.If you're a Fire TV owner you'll notice that this remote doesn't come with the built-in mic and voice-search button. The functionality still exists if you use the accompanying Fire TV app, but it doesn't exist on the pack-in peripheral. If you really need it, though, Amazon sells the full-size remote separately for $40 or allows you to sync your old Fire TV remote to the Stick without much of a problem.
The remote also works over Bluetooth, which means it won't need direct line of sight to the Stick itself – a handy feature considering 95% of users will want to keep the Fire TV out of sight behind the television. It may not win the award for "most durable remote," but the remote is exactly like the Stick: simple and efficient.
Interface and navigation
The interface is a direct replica of the full-size Amazon Fire TV's menu. It's crowded and content-rich, making it a bustling, ever-evolving free-for-all for something to watch. It's may not be as clean-cut or aesthetically pleasing as some of the other menus we've seen on rival boxes, but Amazon chose to leave well enough alone and it's hard to argue against that reasoning.The users who'll see the most benefit here are compulsive Amazon media shoppers. Anytime you buy or rent a show or movie from Amazon, it will populate automatically in the "video library" sub-menu on the home screen. By doing this, Amazon builds a positive reinforcement cycle of buying new content on its storefront then showcasing everything you own in one centralized location.
And, thankfully, zipping around from one section of the interface to the next takes no time at all. The hardware delivers responsive results in tenths of a second and, when you finally decide on what to watch, Amazon's predictive technology takes things one step further by pre-loading the first few seconds of the Amazon Instant movies you are most likely to watch.
Verdict
Chromecast is still the all-around winner when it comes to streaming sticks. It's not as fast as Amazon's Fire TV Stick, nor is it as feature-packed as the Roku Streaming Stick, but it's reliable, plays nicely with Android devices (as does the Fire Stick) and costs less than a night on the town.The Roku Streaming Stick is the agnostic brother to the other two. If you can't decide which e-tailer to give your money to, and would rather give it to the services themselves, this is the streamer for you. It also has the most content than any other platform. However just be prepared to wait a bit longer for it to load, speed really isn't Roku's strong suit.
Regarding the contender at hand, the Fire TV Stick is best suited for those people who have really sunk their teeth into the Amazon ecosphere. When you strip everything else away, it feels like a device specifically engineered for Amazon Prime subscribers and generally compulsive Amazon shoppers.
If you're using Amazon's Cloud Drive to store photos, you'll be able to display them with two clicks on the remote. And if your watchlists get longer than your shopping list, you'll have a great time going through the store and finally catching that 2006 Martin Scorsese film with Leo Dicaprio. (It's called The Departed and it's fantastic.)
We liked
The Amazon Fire Stick is dead simple to setup and, once it's going, you'll be impressed with just how much there is to see and do with the system. Menu screens populate in a fraction of a second and some smart on-board technology gets videos started faster than the competition.If you've bought into Amazon's tablet and media ecosystem, you'll almost definitely want the low-cost addition to add to your collection. It'll sync up seamlessly with these devices but, unlike Chromecast, doesn't require them in lieu of a remote.
If you haven't already ponied up the $99 a year for Prime you'll find less here than on other systems but, at worst, you'll still have access to services like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Showtime Anytime and a few other key players.
We disliked
Admittedly, launching out of the gate without HBO Go may have been a foolish decision for the Fire TV Stick. There's plenty to watch without it – even Amazon's interim solution, the HBO Collection – but having it there on day one wouldn't have hurt.You also won't find the same kind of niche content on Amazon's storefront as you would on the Roku 3 or Roku Streaming Stick. There may not be a major clamor for that one Korean channel you've never heard of, but someone, somewhere will be slightly broken-hearted when they can't find it here.
Content, as a whole, is also largely dependent on the Amazon Store. It makes sense why search results only display Amazon Video links, but there's nothing worse than paying $3.99 for a movie only to find out it was available on Netflix for free.
Lastly, there just isn't a great selection of triple-A games. There's enough casual games for a lifetime, but if you're looking to play the highest-end games that Android has to offer, you'll need to upgrade to a full-size box.
Final verdict
It's easy to dismiss the Fire TV Stick as a cash-in on the streaming stick fad, but doing so would be a real disservice to the work and innovation Amazon packed into its pint-sized product. It's a step forward for streaming sticks and sets a new standard of what is and is not acceptable from here on out. Namely, it provides a remote, a good interface and 99% of the key services for a very reasonable price tag.The only real faux-pas here is intentional, and that's the stick's almost unreasonable dependence on Amazon Prime to function in full. It's by far the least impartial of the three major streaming sticks – the other two being Chromecast and Roku – and around every corner is trying to sell you on a movie, game or TV show you didn't necessarily know you wanted until right then.
It's not the best game console hybrid either. Though that's to be forgiven as its full-size sibling, the Amazon Fire TV and optional accompanying controller, are there to pick up the slack.
The Fire TV Stick is a present from the ecommerce giant to media lovers everywhere. While it has its flaws, by and large the final product is one any TV or movie enthusiast will be happy with – as long as they have an Amazon Prime account.
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Sponsored: Create better everything with LG's new UltraWide QHD curved monitor
Technology can be a wonderful boon for creative professionals, but it can also get in the way of creativity, when the interface between you and the tools of your trade pales compared with real life.
LG's new UltraWide curved monitor neatly puts a bow on that problem by providing an immersive experience you can get lost in, breaking down the barriers between you and what you create, no matter what that may be.
LG's 34UC97 monitor rocks a 34-inch QHD-resolution display – that's an incredibly dense 3440 x 1440 pixels – with a beautifully wide 21:9 aspect ratio.
It provides the most screen real estate for editing videos, designing graphics and other creative tasks, while it's curved frame subtly mimics the shape of your vision. (Did we mention that it's great for QHD gaming, too?)
So what are you going to do with this beautiful machine?
The best monitor for creative professionals
Graphic designers are using the LG 34UC97 to run entire Adobe editing suites at once, chaining four of them together to fill their peripheral vision and multiply their creative juices.Meanwhile digital composers, whose workspace is cluttered with gear and cables, and photographers, who constantly juggle multiple types of tech, can use a single 34UC97 to replace two or more lesser monitors, saving physical space while improving their digital real estate.
The 34UC97's dual Thunderbolt 2 connectors, two HDMI jacks, twin USB 3.0 inputs, and single DisplayPort let video editors daisy-chain as many monitors, computers, storage devices, cameras, printers, and scanners together as they need, while the LG monitor provides the best possible screen for detailed and professional-grade editing.
Or you can always go totally nuts and chain 20 together like the filmmakers in the above video.
LG engineered its IPS display technology specifically to avoid the viewing angle and color shift issues that can plague other wide-screen monitors, making it perfect for anyone who works in a visual medium. With vivid colors, a crystal-clear image and a curve that recreates exactly how you see the world, this monitor is the perfect choice for creative professionals in any medium.
The LG 34UC97 can round out your creative process, doing away with hard edges and flat spaces so you can do what you do best with technology that helps instead of hindering. If only everything in life could be so easy.
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Updated: Black Friday Deals UK: 2014's biggest bargains listed
Black Friday week is now under way and the UK is bracing itself for seven days of hot deals.
The deals themselves are coming through on a regular basis so do keep checking back with us if you don't want to miss out on excellent deals on tech, games and more!
We won't be spamming this page with every deal under the sun, we'll be choosing the very best Black Friday deals on the very best products, from all over the web and always from reputable retailers, so you should find plenty that you're interested in.
Look out, in particular, for some incredible deals on Xbox One and PS4 consoles - this could be your chance to pick up a new-gen console for a bargain price and in time for Christmas.
Wednesday's Black Friday Deals
EXPIRED: Sony HT-GT1 260W 2-way party soundbar. Normal price £189, just £109.99 on Amazon until 2pm!48-inch TV: Sony KDL48W585BBU 48-inch TV - was £710, now £439.99 at Amazon. Ends midnight.
Kindle Paperwhite: Save £20.Normally £109, currently £89 at Argos.
Google Chromecast currently £25 on Amazon - comes with 90 days free Google Play Music All Access streaming!
EXPIRED: AOC 27-inch IPS LED full HD monitor - was £248.49, now £150 at Amazon. Ends midnight.
EXPIRED: AKG K452 headphones. Was £79.99, now just £24.99 at Amazon for the rest of the day.
Mobile phone toolkit: Xenta Premium 30 piece precision mobile phone tool kit, now just £7.98 at eBuyer
Portable phone charger: Omaker Brilliant 10000mAh Battery Pack - on Amazon for £13.99 with exclusive voucher code TRADAR55
Sony PS4: Get a white Sony PS4 for £299 at ShopTo
5-port USB charger: Anker Astro 40W 5-Port USB wall charger. Normally £19.99, get it for £15.99 with our exclusive discount code which is BFDEALS1.
Portable USB charger: Anker 2nd Gen Astro E5 16000mAh External Battery charger, normally £29.99, get it for £23.99 with our exclusive discount code which is BFDEALS1.
Get more Wednesday deals on our Daily Deals page!
Black Friday PS4 deals
We're kicking off Black Friday week with some excellent deals on the Sony PS4. You can currently pick one up on its own for just £299.99. But what you really want is a mega deal on a PS4 and three AAA games and a PS Plus subscription, right?Here we go: PlayStation 4 console, PLUS Grand Theft Auto V AND The Last of Us Remastered AND Destiny + Vanguard AND a 12 month subscription to PlayStation Plus... all for just £399.99 at Game.
Game also has a short term deal on the DualShock 4 control pad which you can currently pick up for £39.79.
Get more Black Friday UK deals early!
Amazon will be adding new hot deals all week next week, but it's already gotten the ball rolling with some pretty enticing deals. They don't last long though so you need to be quick. You can keep track of what's going by going here: Amazon Black Friday dealsYou can check out the early Black Friday deals from other retailers here:
- Amazon Black Friday page
- Argos Black Friday page
- Very Black Friday Page
- Currys Black Friday page
- John Lewis Black Friday page
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the first Friday after Thanksgiving, and it represents a perfect storm for retailers: many people in the US have the day off, and as a result it's been the busiest shopping day of the year for nearly a decade.To make things even busier, many retailers now offer some of their best sale bargains on Black Friday. Even Apple joins in.
When is Black Friday?
That depends on when you're reading this. If it's 2014, Black Friday is Friday 28 November. If it's 2015, it's Friday 27 November. And if it's 2013, you've been asleep for a year. The things you've missed!How did Black Friday get its name?
Take your pick: some say it's the day that retailers' profits finally move into the black, although Wikipedia reckons that the true origin of the term comes from Philadelphia where it referred to the disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that occurred during the holiday.Is Black Friday as big a deal as it seems?
Yes it is. Every year there are reports of fisticuffs as bargain-crazed shoppers beat each other up, partly because of the practice of using "doorbusters" - amazing and excruciatingly limited deals to attract as many customers as possible. US-based retailers such as Amazon are now keen to make it a tradition here in the UK.Is Black Friday connected to Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately after Black Friday, and it was invented in 2005 in an attempt to create an online equivalent of Black Friday. What this has resulted in now, is an entire 4-day weekend of hot deals both in store and online.What's TechRadar doing for Black Friday?
No one likes a tech bargain more than TechRadar! And we don't want to keep them all to ourselves.So we'll be beavering away tirelessly all weekend to constantly bring you the hottest deals as they go live online. You'll need to keep your wits about you though, because many deals only last for an hour or until stocks run out. So you need to be quick off the mark - and we'll be on hand to make it as easy for you as possible.
Tune in to TechRadar on November 28th, 29th, 30th and December 1st to get at the hot deals first!
Where do retailers put their best Black Friday deals?
Don't you know that patience is a virtue?! It's not Black Friday yet, but okay - we've put together a list of retailer's Black Friday pages so that you can take a look now and see what it's all about. We'll be adding more soon, and of course, this page on TechRadar will be the place to be with a curated list of all the best deals!Amazon Black Friday page
Argos Black Friday page
Very Black Friday Page
Currys Black Friday page
John Lewis Black Friday page
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Industry voice: Consider cloud-based disaster recovery and business continuity before building colocation sites
In today’s business world, companies must operate 24/7 and wholly trust their backup and recovery processes in order to connect employees around the globe with partners and customers and achieve optimal productivity. When a server or application fails, it spurs a domino effect that leaves companies hanging without access to the critical data they need to perform daily tasks, and IT teams scrambling to fix the issues. IT managers live in daily fear of these issues, which are caused by hardware failures, software bugs, natural events or human errors. Unfortunately, businesses often fail to adopt robust data protection due to the exorbitant costs and complexity that come with traditional disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) solutions.
We all know the obstacles associated with traditional DR services. The expense of creating and maintaining a redundant backup site is too steep for most organizations to bear, and so they settle for partial solutions that leave them open to risk. A data backup system, for example, is hardly the same as a business continuity solution. Unfortunately, most IT managers only realize how unacceptable the difference is after a disaster leaves their companies in the lurch. By contrast, those who do find the funds for adequate DR and BC often suffer, as well. Their teams need extensive training merely to manage the complicated solutions.
Fear no more. New technologies make leveraging the public cloud as a secondary data center a real possibility for companies of all sizes. IT teams can benefit from both the scale and economics of public cloud offerings, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), to protect all their on-premise workloads from inevitable disasters, whether large or small. With a comprehensive data protection solution that encompasses backup, data replication, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) – at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional, physical DR/BC sites – comprehensive data protection is now an option for everyone.
When paired with the right management solution to bridge on- and off-premise computing resources, the public cloud offers a solution to both cost and complexity challenges of traditional solutions. Data centers that leverage the public cloud for disaster recovery and business continuity can manage all critical workloads while eradicating the need for (and the exorbitant price tag of) an off-premise backup site or colocation facility. The pay-as-you-go infrastructure of the public cloud offers economic advantages, while the built-in redundancy across different zones ensures that business continues without interruption, regardless of a failure anywhere in the infrastructure.
Keep in mind though that not all cloud-based DR/BC offerings are created equally, so companies need to make sure they evaluate the management, recovery and automation capabilities each solution provides. For example, IT teams need automated, seamless recovery in the cloud from an on-premise failure, not just access to replicated virtual machines. Cloud-based DR/BC needs to be completely synchronized with the continuous changes on-premise and have the ability to restore operations very quickly in the cloud. Finally, the ability to use existing on-premise management systems for workloads restored in the cloud ensures efficient operations and leverages existing skills and workflows.
Perhaps most importantly, the right DR/BC solution leveraging the public cloud provides capabilities for data center managers to easily test the recovery on a regular basis. Testing is often the great weakness of any data protection plan, whether it is rooted in the public cloud or not, and IT teams usually don’t realize this until an outage occurs, when it is too late. If there is not a mechanism to easily test early and often, that should be a signal to IT managers that any future recovery scenario will likely be rocky.
The public cloud represents a compelling opportunity for businesses that have, until now, settled for less than complete DR and BC. By offering comprehensive, automated disaster recovery and business continuity in the public cloud, along with seamless testing and management capabilities, data centers can capture all the benefits of a secondary data center site for the same cost as basic backup. So, before embarking on a colocation project to protect IT operations, look to the clouds.
- Lynn LeBlanc is the CEO and founder of HotLink Corporation
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Review: Updated: Tesco Hudl 2
Introduction and design
It doesn't take a huge wad of cash to secure an Android tablet nowadays, but the experience at the budget end of the market can be frustratingly bad. It was only a matter time before someone aside from Google managed to produce a halfway decent, budget tablet, offering the full Android experience, but who knew it would be Tesco?Step aside Google, out of the way Amazon, it takes a British supermarket to show you how to make a jaw-droppingly cheap tablet that's actually desirable. If you're looking for a tablet for the kids, something cheap to use around the house, or an affordable option for the tablet-virgin in your life, the Tesco Hudl 2 is going be downright impossible to ignore.
This is an accessible device with an HD display, solid build quality, and almost unadulterated Android 4.4 KitKat. You won't be shocked to find that the Hudl 2 costs less than half the price of the iPad mini 2, but it's also £70 cheaper than the Nexus 7. Every little helps indeed.
The Kindle Fire HDX, another competitor, has had a price drop down to just £99, giving the Hudl 2 a fierce run for its money.
Building on the success of the original Hudl, which now drops from £119 to £99, Tesco's Hudl 2 is bigger and better in almost every way. There's a larger 8.3-inch HD screen, a quad-core processor that Tesco claims is three times faster, double the RAM at 2GB, and a slightly improved 5MP camera.
I did not expect to be charmed by the Hudl 2. It only costs £129, it has a stupid name, and it's part of Tesco's bizarre plan to make and do everything. It was with some reluctance, reticence, and even regret that I put my Google Nexus 7 (2013) aside and took up my new tablet. Hudl round and allow me to explain how Tesco's tablet won me over.
Google's first Nexus 7 tablet made the smaller tablet form factor fashionable, but just as smartphone displays are growing consistently larger, so are tablets.
When Apple decided to enter the smaller tablet market it chose to make the first iPad mini's display 7.9 inches. Tesco takes the trend slightly further with an 8.3-inch display in the Hudl 2.
That display is the first thing you're going to notice taking the Hudl 2 out of the box and it makes a great first impression. The resolution has been significantly boosted to 1920 x 1200 pixels. That's a full high definition screen that matches the Nexus 7 (2013) resolution.
Colours are rich and vibrant, text is sharp and easy to read, and you can happily watch movies, game, or read on it for hours.
It feels like quite a big tablet if you're coming from the older Hudl or a Nexus 7. The Hudl 2 measures 224 x 128 x 9 mm (8.8 x 5 x 0.35 inches). If you hold it in landscape then it's much wider and slightly slimmer than its predecessor, but exactly the same height. It's also pretty heavy at around 410g, compared to 370g for the original Hudl, and just 290g for the Nexus 7 (2013).
I can hold the tablet one-handed for short periods, but if you're reading or watching a movie you'll want to prop it or your arm is going to get tired. Two hands are obviously a necessity for navigation.
It does feel nicely balanced and it's satisfyingly slim. The soft touch coating on the back wraps around the sides adding grip and making it very comfortable to hold.
It feels most natural to hold it in landscape and the larger bezels at either end make this easy to do without obscuring the screen.
Flip around to the back and you'll find a metallic embossed Hudl logo in the centre. Two fairly large speaker grills dominate either end and the camera lens sits above the right speaker grill at the top corner.
Still holding it in landscape, the left edge of the Hudl 2 plays host to a standard 3.5mm headphone port. The right has the micro USB port for file transfer and charging.
Up top there's a volume rocker with a power button just beneath it. The buttons are plastic and they have a decent amount of travel. It's not hard to find and use them in the dark.
The bottom edge includes an open microSD card slot for storage expansion with cards up to 32GB in size. It looks a little odd that the port is open and you can expect a bit of dust collection if you don't use it, but it's fairly unobtrusive.
Further along towards the middle of the bottom edge there's a surprise micro-HDMI out connection so that you can plug your Hudl 2 directly into your TV. This is a rarity on tablets nowadays and it's one that some people will appreciate because it makes it very easy to play content from your tablet on the big screen.
The Hudl 2 feels surprisingly premium and it looks good too. I had the black model for review, but you can add some colour if you prefer as it's available in blue, turquoise, orange, pink, purple, red, or white.
Based on the design alone I would never have guessed that this tablet was so cheap.
Key features
There's little doubt that Tesco will shift truckloads of these over the holiday season and the key reason for that is the price.The Hudl 2 costs £129. You can also use Clubcard points to get money off. In fact Tesco's Clubcard boost can turn every £5 of Clubcard vouchers you have into £10 towards the Hudl 2. For regular shoppers looking for something to spend their vouchers on, this is a seriously tempting tablet.
As an extra incentive you'll find some freebies in the box to help you explore Tesco's ecosystem. There are vouchers for £10 off movies, £10 off ebooks, and another £10 voucher for a month's free music trial, all through Blinkbox.
There are rumblings about the future of Blinkbox amid Tesco's financial difficulties, but they are just rumours. What I do know right now is it's a decent library of content and it's very easy to use.
You'll find a large selection of the latest movies and TV shows on offer. I think £3.49 for a rental or £9.99 to buy a movie like 300: Rise of an Empire is too expensive, and so is £1.79 per episode or £16.99 for a series of Game of Thrones. But you can rent older movies for as little as 99p and there are some discounted TV shows as well.
While they can't match Blinkbox's newer content, it's worth remembering that you can get access to unlimited streaming from Netflix or Amazon Instant Video starting at £5.99 per month.
On the music front, Blinkbox offers more than 12 million tracks, which puts it in contention with Spotify, Deezer, and the rest of the music streaming gang. There's a free ad-supported version of Blinkbox Music, but there's also a £1 a week option that gets rid of ads and allows you to create playlists (up to 100 songs). It looks very competitive for the budget conscious.
You'll also find a smattering of Tesco apps with money off Tesco Direct, the F&F clothing range, and Tesco Photo when you spend a certain amount.
Put all of this together and the Hudl 2 is a really great prospect for Tesco shoppers.
Another key feature that sets the Hudl 2 apart from the crowd is the deliberate family feel. This is a mass market device that could be used by anyone.
There's a Get Started app that explains how to use the tablet in terms that your Luddite grandfather will understand. There's also a Top Apps selection highlighting Tesco's suggested picks. Naturally Blinkbox is front and centre, but refreshingly they do actually suggest some other competing services that are worth a look.
Best of all there's a Child safety app that allows you to set up profiles for your youngsters and manage exactly which apps and websites they can access.
It automatically configures based on your child's age, but they can request access to certain websites and you can tweak categories or make exceptions. Whenever you install a new app it will ask you which profiles should have access to it.
It also enables you to set time limits for usage. You can choose specific times or allocate a number of minutes. There are other apps out there that handle this kind of thing, but Tesco's offering is really nicely laid out and extremely simple. It compares well.
If you're feeling a bit of Tesco overload by now, it's important to remember that none of this precludes you from using whatever you want from the wonderful world of Android.
All of Google's apps are present and correct on the Hudl 2 and you can snag whatever you like from the Play Store.
Interface and performance
The Tesco Hudl 2 runs Android 4.4.2 and it's basically stock Android, just like Google's Nexus tablets. All Tesco has done is load its own smattering of apps and the My Tesco launcher. The launcher has some Tesco widgets pointing you at Tesco content and a basic app drawer.
You can't uninstall the apps, but you can disable them. You can also download a new launcher, such as the Nova Launcher and make it the default instead of My Tesco launcher.
For many people the Hudl 2 will be their first Android tablet and it is clear that Tesco has acknowledged this with a bright and welcoming interface that greets Hudl 2 owners when it is first turned on.
The bright and cheery welcome you get promises to help take you through the process of setting up the Hudl 2, including connecting to Wi-Fi and setting up a Tesco account.
It's a nice touch for people who have never set up an Android device before, although it's a shame that some of the steps you're taken through revert back to the standard Android interface, leading to a bit of inconsistent experience.
Once set up you're brought back to the bright and cheery Hudl interface, and a short animated introduction to the features of the Hudl 2 are shown.
The main interface is essentially stock Android. You have three home screens to begin with, but you can add a couple of extras by dragging app icons or widgets to the edge for a total of five home screens.
The app drawer is bottom centre in the permanent dock where you can configure three app shortcuts either side. The app drawer is slightly different in that it's just a big list of your apps, there's no widget tab in there.
You long press on the screen to add widgets, or to change your wallpaper. Tesco includes a large selection of wallpapers featuring happy people huddling together.
Pull down from the top left of the screen and you'll get your notifications. Pull down from the top right and you can access settings. Stock Android is a breeze to use and it's very easy to get to grips with.
I found the My Tesco launcher a little bit laggy. The animation when you swipe isn't always very smooth and the widget can take a while to populate. When I switched to the Nova launcher navigation felt that little bit snappier.
Taking a look inside the Hudl 2 you'll find an Intel Atom quad-core processor clocked at 1.83GHz. It's backed up by 2GB of RAM. That's a major boost over the original Tesco Hudl and it does feel fast and responsive. For the most part apps and games are quick to load and you can skip back to the home screen with a tap.
Geekbench 3 gave the Hudl 2 a single-core score of 792, but we're really interested in the 2147 multi-core score. I ran Geekbench 3 on my Nexus 7 (2013) and it scored 576 and 1896 respectively. When we tested the, much more expensive, Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 earlier this summer it scored 2722.
What we can conclude from all this is that the Hudl 2 is fast and performs well. I ran some high-end games like Asphalt 8 and there was nary a stutter. It gets pretty hot around the back near the camera when you play graphically intensive games for any length of time, but so does my Xperia Z2 and my Nexus 7.
It hasn't all been rosy, there were a couple of moments when the Hudl 2 seemed to freeze coming out of an app. I suspect that the My Tesco launcher is the culprit there.
It also completely refused to turn on at one point. I was watching Netflix, using the Hudl 2 to select content and streaming it to my Chromecast. I watched a couple of episodes of Suits and when I went to stop it, the Hudl 2 simply didn't respond to the power button.
I tried holding it down for ten seconds, nothing. I tried holding down the power button and the volume down button for ten seconds, still nothing. The battery hadn't been low, but I tried plugging the Hudl 2 into the charger for a while anyway and the screen seemed to come on, but it was blank and dull.
I read the booklet, but it has no information and the current technical support on Tesco's website still refers to the original Hudl.
After half an hour of charging I unplugged it and tried again, but it still wouldn't turn on. Finally I just sat holding down the power button and the volume down button and eventually the Hudl 2 vibrated and powered completely off.
When it started up again it went through the boot cycle and worked as normal. I used the Hudl 2 with Netflix and the Chromecast again several times, but it never happened again.
For the most part the Hudl 2 performed well during our time together. There's no telling how often it will get updates. My Nexus 7 already has Android 4.4.4, while the Hudl 2 is on 4.4.2 and I did check for updates with no results.
We contacted Tesco about the possibility of the Hudl 2 getting updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop, but we've yet to hear back.
Battery life and the essentials
Battery life
Tesco prefers to state "up to 8 hours battery life" rather than provide us with a capacity in mAh. I suspect that the battery isn't all that big, and that's a shame, because the Hudl 2 really needs a big battery.
I found that the battery drained very quickly out of the box, but it's not unusual for batteries to take a while to bed in and you tend to use new devices more than you realize in the first few days. There's also an additional drain from downloading and installing all your regular apps.
After fully charging the Hudl 2, I gave it a lazy Sunday test. I surfed the web for a couple of hours, played Clash of Clans for ten minutes, watched two movies, and then the kids watched an episode of Spongebob. By the end of that it was dropping down to the 10 percent mark. Not too impressive.
In an average week day with light usage you probably aren't going to have any problems, and you might squeeze a couple of days of use out of it between charges. Medium and heavy users are going to have to get used to charging it daily at least.
Playing a relatively simple game like Duet for ten minutes drained the battery by 4%. Playing Asphalt 8 for ten minutes drained it by 6%.
Running our 90 minute battery test video at full brightness on a fully charged Hudl 2 reduced the battery to just 63%. That's a worryingly large drain of 37 percent.
The original Hudl only lost 21%, the Nexus 7 dropped 20%, and even the relatively poor LG G Pad 8.3 only dropped 30% during the same test.
The drop was so large I ran the same test again a month later. Sure enough, the battery dropped to just 64%, proving that our initial tests were no fluke; the Hudl 2 really is that bad at losing battery.
If you want a tablet to take out and about on your travels, then you had better look elsewhere. The Hudl 2's weak battery shouldn't be such a big issue when you're at home with a plug socket at hand, but I'm still disappointed at its lack of stamina.
The essentials
Since the Hudl 2 is essentially using stock Android the basic essentials are solid. The keyboard is accurate and easy to type on. The stock Android calendar, email, contacts, and camera apps are straightforward.You'll find the same redundancy you get on many Android devices with Google's Gmail app and an email app, as well as a Gallery app and Google's Photos app. It's not an especially big deal, but it's going to confuse some people.
In addition to Tesco's Blinkbox content offerings you'll find apps for ordering food, banking, clothes, managing your Clubcard, and Tesco's photo store. Some of them aren't apps at all; they're just shortcuts to the website. All are useless and eminently ignorable if you don't use Tesco.
All of Google's content apps are there and you'll also find Google Maps. I tested it a couple of times and the Hudl 2 GPS was quick to get an accurate fix. You're not likely to use it for navigating, especially with the limited battery, but you could if you wanted to.
You'll find Google's Chrome browser as the default web browser on the Hudl 2, but there is a slight oddity related to the parental controls for your children's profiles.
If you set up a child's profile and limit web access then they use a special browser labelled Internet which keeps them from browsing anywhere you don't want them to. It works, but it's not as slick or fast as Chrome.
Camera
Why do they put cameras on tablets? The Tesco Hudl 2 has no answer.Tesco has beefed up the main camera to 5MP, compared to the 3.2MP in the original Hudl, but the front-facing camera has gone the other way from 2MP down to 1.2MP. Megapixels aren't everything, but it would be challenging to argue that there's anything impressive about either camera in the Hudl 2.
It's a little strange that the front-facing camera has been hobbled when it's probably the more likely to get used, whether for apps or for making Internet calls on apps like Hangouts and Skype.
The app is the stock Android camera app and it's very basic. You can switch on grid lines to help you line up shots, or you can swivel to the front-facing camera.
There's also a timer option. If you swipe in from the left side of the screen you'll reveal the menu where you can switch to video or try out the Lens Blur, Panorama, or Photo Sphere effects.
You can tap on screen to tell the camera to focus on a specific area or subject. It's pretty slow to actually take a shot and the quality is generally poor. Google's camera effects are a bit gimmicky and can be very frustrating to actually pull off, with repeated errors about moving too fast when you try to pan.
The photos I took with the Hudl 2 were all bad. They lack detail, contrast is bad, and the camera can't deal with low light at all. There's no flash, so this is strictly a camera for well-lit situations.
The video camera is equally terrible, struggling to adjust to changing light, blurring if you move it, and introducing loads of noise unless you're in a very well lit area.
Camera samples
Click here for the full-res image
Click here for the full-res image
Click here for the full-res image
Click here for the full-res image
Click here for the full-res image
Media
Thankfully when it comes to the important things the Tesco Hudl 2 does the business. This is a tablet that's well-suited to watching movies and it's a pleasure to game on.The 8.3-inch display looks good and high definition content is available in all its glory. It is quite reflective and I found it was much more pleasant to watch movies or play games when I cranked the brightness up (which no doubt contributed to the battery running out fast).
I have to mention that the Hudl 2 has an Intel processor and apparently there could be some incompatibility problems with certain Android games.
Intel is trying to break into mobile hardware and catch up with ARM and the two have been arguing about how big an issue the compatibility is in recent months. Every game I tested on the tablet worked fine, but it might be something to consider.
The Hudl 2 also has stereo speakers featuring "Dolby optimised sound". If you're sitting holding it in the landscape position, as you will for the majority of movies or games, the speakers work great and you get a real stereo effect.
The problem is that they are both on the back, so if you rest the Hudl 2 on anything then it's going to muffle the speakers. It actually works best of all if you have it in your lap and cup your hands round the speaker grills to redirect the sound towards you.
If they were front-facing that would be really ideal, but they are still better than you can reasonably expect to find in a tablet this price.
The Hudl 2 can also serve up music in a pinch. I found that the speakers distorted quite easily when I was listening to music, so headphones or an external speaker are advised for music.
If you're a big reader you'll be glad to know that the Hudl 2 can definitely double up as a device for ebooks. The Blinkbox app seems to have a very big collection.
It had everything I searched for from Bulgakov's Master and Margarita to The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. You can always install the Kindle app or another reader if you prefer.
As I mentioned before, the Hudl 2 is quite heavy so you'll probably want to prop it up if you're reading for a long time, but it's a comfortable tablet to hold.
Storage is definitely an issue. This is a 16GB tablet, but you only get 9.12GB free out of the box. It will fill up fast, so you'll need to invest in a microSD card. The Hudl 2 will take microSD cards up to 32GB in size, so you can boost the storage up to around 40GB, which should be enough for most people.
If you use streaming services like Netflix and Blinkbox Music then you possibly won't need a great deal of space on the tablet. However, if you like to play games you could run out of space fast. Asphalt 8 is 1.6GB on its own.
You can also boost your storage with a wide variety of cloud storage options including 15GB with Google Drive, which is installed out of the box.
Competition
Google Nexus 7 (2013)
Google has had the smaller Android tablet market sewn up for a long time now, perhaps that's why we're still awaiting a new Nexus 7, or possibly a Nexus 9.
The Nexus 7 (2013) has been on the market for well over a year. Despite a tidal wave of budget competitors and a serious challenge from Amazon, ask any tech writer "what's the best small Android tablet?" and they'll still tell you to buy the Nexus 7.
Tesco's Hudl 2 is serious competition. It has a larger screen, stereo speakers, and it is significantly cheaper. Given the option between a £129 Hudl 2 right now and a Nexus 7 from Google at £199 I would definitely advise you to buy the Hudl 2. If you want something for the whole family to use around the house then the Nexus 7 is not worth the extra £70. Even at Tesco's price for the Nexus 7 which is £169, the Hudl 2 is a better bargain.
The two tablets have exactly the same 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution. Look at them side by side, and because the Nexus 7 is smaller, it looks a bit sharper. Its screen is also a bit more vibrant, and if you angle yourself to the side it has slightly better viewing angles, but it's not enough to make a major difference, the Hudl 2 screen still looks great.
Get rid of the My Tesco launcher and you've essentially got a stock Android tablet with newer hardware and an 8.3-inch screen at a lower price. The biggest compromise you have to make with the Hudl 2 is battery life.
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX
The basic Kindle Fire HDX is now only £99 and it has a smaller 7-inch display with the same 1920 x 1200 resolution. The processor is clocked at 2.2GHz compared to 1.83GHz for the Hudl 2. The Kindle Fire HDX also has better battery life.
Both are aimed at the family market. The Kindle Fire HDX has a range of user-friendly features like Mayday for instant technical help and easy screen mirroring.
The big difference is that the Kindle Fire HDX locks you into Amazon's eco-system. You don't get Google's great range of apps and services. You don't get full access to the Play Store. Not only is there a smaller subset of apps available in the Amazon App Store, but some of them are older versions.
Amazon provides its own set of apps, but they aren't as good. The Hudl 2 is more attractive because Tesco doesn't lock you down at all. The Hudl 2 also had a price advantage, but now that the Kindle Fire HDX has dropped in price by a huge £100, the Hudl 2 is now slightly more expensive than Amazon's tablet.
iPad mini 2
At the premium end of the small tablet market we have Apple's offering. The iPad mini 2 with Retina display starts at £319. It's not really fair to compare the Hudl 2 at £129. As you would expect, the iPad mini 2 is faster, slicker, and all-round better, but at well over double the price it had better be.
It has a 7.9-inch display at 2048 x 1536 pixels. It also has 16GB of storage, a 5MP main camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. I'm not going to argue the merits of Android vs iOS here, but on paper Apple's diminutive tablet does not look particularly special next to the Hudl 2's specs. In reality Apple optimizes its hardware and software to run harmoniously together and gets real world results that exceed expectations for the specs.
A fairer comparison might be the original iPad mini, but you're still looking at paying £249. If you're invested in the Apple eco-system and addicted to that premium design maybe you'll see that added value, but is it £120 better than the Hudl 2?
Hands on gallery
Verdict
We're fast approaching the end of 2014 and the Tesco Hudl 2 could be the budget tablet of the year.The basic asking price of £129 is a real bargain and if you have Clubcard vouchers the boost could make it irresistibly cheap. For Tesco shoppers and Blinkbox users the vouchers in the box with the Hudl 2 are another added incentive.
We liked
The 8.3-inch HD display is excellent. The 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution is enough to ensure that reading is pleasurable and the Hudl 2 is a really nice size for kicking back with a movie or a blast of gaming.It's great to see stereo speakers and they really enhance movie watching and gaming. If they were front-facing I'd be even happier, but they're still a definite plus point.
The introductory Tesco apps are good and I can see them being genuinely helpful for tablet newbies, but the parental controls are the star of the pre-installed show. They're simple, effective, and well-thought out.
The Hudl 2 is amazing value for money and Tesco's additional voucher incentives really make it a steal.
We disliked
The battery life is undoubtedly the Tesco Hudl 2's Achilles heel. Graphically intensive games and streaming HD movies drain that battery far too quickly. It's going to be a definite sore point for some people.That slight laggy feel at times is a concern, but ditch the My Tesco launcher and you should find it's much less noticeable.
Hopefully the incident when it failed to turn on is a one-off freak occurrence. There's always an element of pot luck with electronics and bugs. It hasn't happened again, but I had to mention it, and it's the sort of thing that could really distress a tablet novice.
Storage is not adequate at just 9GB free out of the box, so you'll have to invest in a microSD card. You'll pay around £10-£15 for a 32GB card, but that will give you a decent storage limit of over 40GB.
Verdict
If you're shopping for a family tablet that you can share with the kids, this is it. If you want to gift a tablet to someone who has never tried one before, this is it. If you want a cheap tablet for casual use around the house, this is it.The Tesco Hudl 2 is not the best tablet on the market. It's not the fastest or the prettiest. It doesn't have cutting edge specs. What it does offer is a solid all-round experience at an unbeatable price.
Pound for pound you will not be able to find anything better, at least until Google refreshes the Nexus line. If you want the best value stock Android tablet on the market, this is it.
First reviewed: October 2014
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