TechRadar Deals: The best HTC One M9 deals in September 2015
Best HTC One M9 deals
The
HTC One M9 is an interesting phone. Some say it's not a huge advancement on the
HTC One M8
which preceded it but the company has switched the camera to a new,
higher resolution version that aims to produce much better pictures than
the M8 did.
HTC
is a leader in design though, and its handsets are always solid,
well-built and reliable. And let's be honest, if you're someone that
works phones hard during their lifetime then you'll appreciate the tough
metal body of the One M9 - and now it's even cheaper as autumn rolls
closer.
See the best HTC One M9 deals with a free phone
Compare the market: use TechRadar's HTC One M9 comparison charts
The
camera is, as we said, sharper by far than the dual snapper found in
the M8. HTC also made the sensible decision to keep the microSD slot,
something Samsung has removed from its recent Galaxy S6 phones.
It
does have to be said that, while this phone is ideal for most people,
you may want to consider the M8 which is now a great deal cheaper and
offers a virtually identical design with many of the features that make
HTC's handsets so attractive.
The UK's best HTC One M9 deal:
Free phone | 1000 minutes | unlimited texts | 1GB data - £29pmCongrats
to Vodafone which has the best deal on offer this month. For a modest
£29 per month (with £72 cashback) you get a 1GB data plan, 1000 minutes
and unlimited texts. You get the phone in the awesome gunmetal grey and
there's no upfront cost - Bonza!
Total cost over 24 months is £624.
See more deals: all HTC One M9 deals
Now let's break down the best HTC One M9 deals by network…
Best HTC One M9 deals on Vodafone
Vodafone
prides itself in coverage and quality, it's often a bit mean with data,
but there are extras like Spotify and Sky Sports Mobile thrown in.
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 2GB data | £34pmNot
much change here from last month, but this is still a pretty great
deal. What's more, for just a few quid more than the star deal you can
get an extra gigabyte of data. While we say 1GB is the bare minimum,
we're big fans of high allowances!
Total cost over 24 months is £816.
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 6GB data | £39pmJumping
up another five quid from the deal above gets you a massive 6GB of data
on Vodafone, and it still won't cost you a penny up front - and we
challenge you to break that much data in one month.
Total cost over 24 months is £840.
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 10GB data | £40pmHere's
a nice little deal that was hiding away, and has dropped in price from
last month. For £40 per month (plus £40 cashback) you can get 10GB of
data with a free phone along with unlimited calls and texts. This is a
pretty modest increase in price over the 6GB deal above but offers 4GB
more data - amazing.
Total cost over 24 months is £920.
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
See more deals: all HTC One M9 deals
Best HTC One M9 deals on EE
EE is the network to go to if you want high-speed 4G
Free phone | unlimited minutes | unlimited texts | 2GB data | £31.99pmEE
goes straight in with the 2GB deals - no messing around with the
pointless 1GB option. Really this is ideal if you plan to just generally
browse the web on your commute and EE's 4G network remains one of the
quickest out there, so it's a fantastic choice and it comes in gold or
silver.
Total cost over 24 months is £767.76.
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 5GB | £31.99pmLet's
go all out - you can pretty much ignore that last deal unless you were
desperate for gold or silver (this one comes in gun metal grey). It's
unlimited calls and texts too, with no upfront cost... a really cracking
deal when you do the sums.
Total cost over 24 months is £767.76
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 20GB data | £49.99pmTWENTY
GIGABYTES OF DATA! Seriously, if you're someone who is always
downloading something then this tariff is absolutely the best possible
for data. Three might offer unlimited data and free 4G but EE has far
better speeds and broader coverage. This isn't all that cheap - although
£120 cashback helps...
Total cost over 24 months is £959
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
See more deals: all HTC One M9 deals
Best HTC One M9 deals on O2
O2 is the network with extras, including the popular O2 Priority service
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 1GB of data | £32.50This
deal hasn't really improved since last month. It's a reasonable price
though, and one of the cheaper ways to get hold on the HTC One M9. We do
urge caution, as always, on 1GB plans though as modern smartphones can
eat a lot more than you think.
Total cost over 24 months is £780
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 3GB data | £36pmThree
gigabytes of data is a pretty good compromise, and here it's only a few
pounds more than the 1GB tariff above. Obviously for some reducing
monthly outgoings is more important than data, but for those who need a
bit more, this is the deal for you.
Total cost over 24 months: £864
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 5GB data | £39pmO2
does have some 10GB data deals but the prices are way to high for our
liking. If you need a lot of data, head over to EE where the prices are a
little more sane. Here though is a 5GB deal that offers good value for
money.
Total cost over 24 months is £936
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
See more deals: all HTC One M9 deals
Best HTC One M9 deals on Three
Three is one of few providers that offers unlimited data, and Feel at Home is amazing for regular travellers.
Free phone, unlimited calls, unlimited texts, 1GB data, £35pmThree
might not always be the cheapest, but it is one of the quickest to
adjust its prices. This tariff has come down by a pound over the last
month, and you do get some decent perks too if you like the numerical
network.
Total cost over 24 months is £840.
Free phone | Unlimited minutes | unlimited texts | 2GB of data | £38pm2GB
is a decent slug of data, although it's quite a pricey deal. That said,
you do get unlimited everything else, which is more than can be said
for the 8GB plan - and it's for the gun metal grey version, which we
think is the best thanks to slightly more rounded edges.
Total cost over 24 months is £672.
Free phone | Unlimited minutes | unlimited texts | 8GB of data | £40pmHere's
a decent amount of data for you, and while it comes somewhat at the
cost of the included minutes, this is still a great tariff for those who
want to watch a lot of YouTube or listen to streaming music - and it's
dropped by £1 this month. Not a lot, but that £24 could buy you a
half-decent t-shirt. You're welcome.
Total cost over 24 months is £960.
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
See more deals: all HTC One M9 deals
Read More ...
Amazon may release a super cheap 6-inch tablet before the end of the year
A new report suggests that Amazon may launch a new 6-inch tablet with a super low price tag of only $50.
The
Wall Street Journal
is reporting the super-cheap tablet will be released before the end of
the year, according to "people familiar with the matter", and will be
launched alongside 8- and 10-inch variations.
The sources told the
publication that the specs and features will take a hit due to the low
cost, adding that it will likely only have mono speakers instead of
stereo, but not much else was revealed.
A new line, or old?
With a $50 price tag, the new tablet will be the cheapest in Amazon's current line up, costing about half the price of the
6-inch Fire HD and even less than the cheapest
Kindle, which costs $79.
We're
not really sure what to expect in a $50 tablet, but with the new Kindle
Voyager and updated Kindle Paperwhite already out this year, we assume
it likely won't be another e-reader.
Still, it's also currently unclear if the slates mentioned will be updated versions of Amazon's
Fire HD tablets, but Amazon is expected to announce updated Fire HD tablets sometime later this year.
We'll
be reaching out to Amazon for more information, but we'll likely have
to wait until it makes its announcement before we know more.
- Here's what we think of the Amazon Echo personal assistant/Bluetooth speaker
Read More ...
TechRadar Deals: The best LG G4 deals in September 2015
LG G4 deals
On
this page you'll find a run down of all the best LG G4 deals, network
by network. It's one of the top phones around right now, with myriad new
features, one of the best screens on the market, and a genuinely
different design that both sits nicely in the hand and, should you go
for the leather variant, offers something really alternative from all
the boring blocky designs on offer.
First
up is the camera. Seriously, this thing is top of the line. One of the
great features is the amount of control you can have, and the resulting
pictures are so good that it's often hard to believe that they come from
a phone. It uses lasers to autofocus in a ridiculously short 0.6
seconds, and with the ability to alter every single element of the
phone, from ISO to focus, there's little to hate here.
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
We're
also fans of the fact that the phone offers a removable battery and the
option to increase storage with a microSD slot. These aren't features
everyone needs, but given many phones aren't offering it any more, it's a
real winner for many.
The UK's best LG G4 deal:
Free phone | 1000 minutes | unlimited texts | 1GB data | £25pmIt's
Vodafone again offering the UK's best LG G4 deal, with a stunning £25
per month for a phone that's free upfront and comes with all these
lovely bells and whistles. It's only got 1GB of data (although unlimited
for the first three months), where we'd recommend two for this
large-screen wonder at least, and you'll need to make sure you're not
SUPER chatty - but at this price, worth it.
Total cost over 24 months: £600
Now let's break down the best LG G4 deals by network...
Best LG G4 deals on Vodafone
Vodafone
prides itself in coverage and quality. It's often a bit mean with data,
but there are extras like Spotify and Sky Sports Mobile thrown in to
many of its contracts.
Deal 1: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 2GB of Data | £30.00pmA
little more data here, a lot more calls but an extra five pounds per
month. It's worth it when you boil down the costs, especially with £72
cashback thrown into the mix, but it's a tiny bit more expensive than
the best deal out .
Total cost over 24 months is £648.
Deal 2: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 4GB of data, £31pm An
extra pound getting you 2GB of lovely 4G data per month, and the same
cashback deal? Probably the one you should be going for if you like a
little extra safety with your data.
Total cost over 24 months is £672.
Deal 3: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 8GB data | £36pmMost
people won't need 8GB of data, but do remember that streaming and
downloading music, YouTube and any apps you download can soon add up.
Podcast streaming is another way to blow through your data allowance
too. If you need more, then this is the deal for you.
Total cost over 24 months is £792.
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
Best LG G4 deals on O2
O2 is the network with extras, including the popular O2 Priority service.
Deal 1: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 1GB of data | £27.50pmHere
you get the LG G4 in the striking titan grey. A modest 1GB of data is
supported by unlimited calls and texts and the phone is, of course, free
- plus comes in super cheap too.
Total cost over 24 months is £660
Deal 2: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 3GB of data | £31pmNo
real change in price here, but 3GB is a much more realistic amount of
data for a normal user. This particular offer also comes in the same
grey and the nice drop in price makes this an attractive choice for new
users.
Total cost over 24 months is £864
Deal 3: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 10GB data, £39pmLet's
ramp this party up and throw you in a deal that gives you a whopping
10GB of data and adds in the more premium black leather cover as well.
Unlimited calls and texts plus oodles of data? Yeah, that's the stuff.
Total cost over 24 months is £936
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
Best LG G4 deals on EE
EE is the place to go if you want high-speed 4G
Deal 1: Free phone | unlimited minutes | unlimited texts | 2GB data | £29.99pm2GB
is a much more realistic amount of capacity for most users in a month
than the cheaper one GB, and you've got unlimited calls and texts to
play with. It's a great price for the much-vaunted brown leather version
of the phone.
Total cost over 24 months is £719.76
Deal 2: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 5GB of data | £31.99pmFor
those who want a little more downloading on EE's ultra-fast network
then this deal is great. You get a massive 5GB allowance along with
unlimited calls and texts at a great price... and it's gold too, with
£50 cashback.
Total cost over 24 months is £767.76
Deal 3: Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 10GB of data | £44.99pmIf
you want the top whack of 4G data, this is the phone deal for you. It
will give you lots of flexibility about how you use the phone, and EE's
network is still one of the best places to get high speed downloads on
4G.
Total cost over 24 months is £934.76
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
Best LG G4 deals on Three
Three is one of few providers that offers unlimited data, and Feel at Home is amazing for regular travellers.
Deal 1: free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts, 1GB data | £33pmWhile
it's great you can get a free phone, this is still one of the pricier
deals. At least it's come down by £3 this month, and offers unlimited
texts and calling.
Total cost over 24 months is £792
Deal 2: free phone | 600 minutes | unlimited texts | 8GB | £38pmHere
you're taking a cut to free minutes in order to get 8GB of data. For
some people this is great, others might not agree, but it too has had a
£3 price cut this month.
Total cost of 24 months: £912
Deal 3: free phone | unlimited call | unlimited texts | unlimited data | £46pmHere
we get Three's flagship unlimited package and the G4 in delightful red
leather. Everything else is unlimited too, including calls. The next
tariff down is only £1 cheaper - this is the best option for heavy
users.
Total cost over 24 months is £1,104
See the best PRODUCT NAME deals
Read More ...
iPhone 6S display touted to get a pretty big resolution upgrade
With only two days left until Apple's big iPhone event on
September 9, the rumor mill is still spitting out leaks about the expected
iPhone 6S and
iPhone 6S Plus.
This time, a leak posted by @KJuma on the Chinese site
Weibo
suggests the iPhone 6S is set to sport a 4.7-inch screen with a 1125 x
2000 resolution, which works out to be 488 pixels-per-inch.
That's a massive increase, with last year's iPhone 6 carrying a 750 x 1334 resolution screen, with 326ppi.
According
to the leak, the iPhone 6S Plus will also be getting a resolution bump
up to 1242 x 2208, with a 466ppi count. The iPhone 6 Plus had a screen
resolution of 1080 x 1920, with a pixel count of 401ppi.
But wait, there's more
The
Chinese site also included alleged benchmark scores from Geekbench that
had the iPhone 6S running a 1.8GHz A9 SoC chipset with 2GB of RAM.
Besides these specs, however, this isn't the first time we've heard of a resolution increase for the new iPhones, with a
2K display for the iPhone 6S Plus previously rumored.
And with rumors of
Force Touch
to be a new addition on both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, an
upgraded display for both handsets doesn't seem too much of an
assumption.
Of course, with only two days until the launch of the
new iPhones, we suggest taking all of this with a grain of salt - we'll
find out all the details soon enough.
Read More ...
TechRadar Deals: Best Samsung Galaxy Note 4 deals in September 2015
It's
hard not to love Samsung's amazing Note 4. This is, after all, a device
that no-one thought would ever work but now four generations in the
phone is selling brilliantly and it has invented a new category of
mobile phones.
Plus it's even more important now as the Galaxy
Note 5 hasn't launched here in the UK - we've only got the Galaxy S6
Edge+ on this side of the pond. That means if you want a large phone
with an S Pen inside you'll have to get a Galaxy Note 4 this year.
That's
not a problem though - the Note 4 adds bundles of amazing features that
makes this handset a legitimate flagship. There's a removable battery
and a microSD card, both of which have now vanished from the Galaxy S
range.
Even more important though is the stunning camera on the
Note 4. If you're using your phone for photography then you won't be
disappointed by what you get out of the Note. The S-Pen enables you to
write notes and translate them from handwriting to text and while it's a
niche feature, it can be very handy.
What's
more the larger size means you get amazing battery life, a screen that
just screams quality and makes you want to watch Netflix constantly.
This phone won't suit everyone, but if you're a big phone lover, this is
where it's at.
Best Galaxy Note 4 deals on EE:
Free phone | unlimited calls | Unlimited texts | 5GB data | £31.99pmThe
best deal in the UK right now is from EE and it's not been beaten in a
while. It's £31.99 a month but it comes with a huge 5GB of data,
unlimited calls and texts as well as a free phone. It's pretty difficult
to get through 5GB unless you're a real heavy user so we'd recommend
this deal over everything else.
Total cost over 24 months is £767.76
Compare and filter: all Galaxy Note 4 deals
Best Galaxy Note 4 deals on Vodafone:
Free phone | 1000 mins | unlimited texts | 6GB of data | £35pmWhen
we say "best" deal here, we don't mean cheapest. This costs a little
more money than EE's amazing deal, but here you get an extra GB to play
with and you'll get unlimited data for the first three months of the
contract. Perfect for downloading all those apps to set your phone up.
Total cost over 24 months is £840.
Compare and filter: all Galaxy Note 4 deals
Best Galaxy Note 4 deals on O2:
Free phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 1GB data | £27.50pmIf
you're not in it for the internet, this is the deal we'd recommend. You
can save a few pennies over EE's deal with this but you will only have
1GB of data to use every month. If you're always on Wi-Fi though, maybe
this will suit you fine.
Total cost over 24 months is £660
Compare and filter: all Galaxy Note 4 deals
Best Galaxy Note 4 deals on Three:
Free phone | unlimited minutes and texts | 500MB data | £31pmThree
is particularly bad this month - the unlimited internet deal from last
month seems to have ended so we've had to choose a much worse deal.
Honestly, don't choose this unless you 100% have to be on Three.
Anything else on this list is better.
Total cost over 24 months is £744.
Read our Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review
Compare and filter: all Galaxy Note 4 deals
Read More ...
TechRadar Deals: The best Samsung Galaxy S5 deals in September 2015
Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Samsung's
Galaxy S5 is not the newest smartphone you can pick up right now, but
don't let that put you off considering it. This phone was a superstar
when it launched, and it remains a brilliant little phone now. It has a
few little annoyances that were addressed with the Galaxy S6 but in the
long run those aren't particularly worth the extra money it'll cost you.
As
it's an older phone, there are some great deals to be had. That might
be extra data, very low monthly fees or some accessories thrown in but
it all adds up to a better buy than a new phone.
See the best Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
There
are some big advantages of having the S5 including a removable battery,
meaning you can keep a spare one around for when your main one runs
out. It's only available in a 16GB model now so there's also microSD
support to add loads of extra space to the phone for music, videos and
photos.
Speaking of photos the camera on this phone is amazing
too. For all but the most demanding you'll be thrilled with the results,
and while the S6 is even better it's not so pronounced as to make you
sick with jealousy when a friend pulls out the newer model.
The UK's best Galaxy S5 deal:
Free 16GB phone | unlimited minutes | unlimited texts | 2GB data | £22pmVodafone
is still top this month but with a different deal to last month. It's
not the cheapest on the market, but it's certainly the best deal as it
comes with 2GB of data and unlimited everything else. With cashback it's
quite a bit cheaper and you've even got unlimited data for the first 3
months.
Total cost over 24 months is £528Get this deal from Mobiles Phones Direct
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Now let's break down the best Samsung Galaxy S5 deals by network...
Best Galaxy S5 deals on EE:
£9.99 16GB phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 2GB of Data, £26.99pmYou
now need to part with a little cash at the start to get your Galaxy S5
in gold, but it's worth it in the long run. We think this is the best
deal in the UK right now especially considering you've got unlimited
calls and 2GB of data to play with.
Total cost over 24 months is £647.76
Get this deal from The Carphone Warehouse
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Best Galaxy S5 deals on Three:
Free 16GB phone | 600 mins | unlimited texts | 2GB of data | £28pmThree
was acting weird last month with really high prices, but now it seems
to have sorted itself out. This deal is one of the best in the UK right
now, plus Three offers a lot of benefits such as free 4G and the Feel At
Home package.
Total cost over 24 months is £672
Get this deal from BuyMobiles.net
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Best Galaxy S5 deals on O2:
Free 16GB phone | unlimited calls | unlimited texts | 1GB - £27.50pmO2
is charging quite a bit for its 2GB contracts so we've gone a little
lower here with only 1GB of internet. You can get an even lower price if
you want to use one of its weird 300MB deals, but we wouldn't recommend
unless you're a super light user.
Total cost over 24 months is £660
Get this deal from The Carphone Warehouse
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Best Galaxy S5 deals on Vodafone:
£9.99 16GB phone | 1000 minutes calls | unlimited texts | 1GB data - £25pm Vodafone
provided us with the best deal of the month up the top of this page, so
we've opted for a bit less internet here with a lower price tag. It's
certainly cheaper but if you're a data hungry user we would recommend
going for the deal up above.
Total cost over 24 months is £600
Get this deal from The Carphone Warehouse
Compare and filter: all Samsung Galaxy S5 deals
Read More ...
3 reasons why a smaller iPhone 6S battery shouldn't worry you
Introduction
With
leaks emerging about the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus ahead of next
week's Apple announcement, business users may have nothing to worry
about when it comes to the smartphone's battery life.
Chinese site cnBeta revealed that the successors to the
iPhone 6 and
iPhone 6 Plus will come with smaller batteries, representing a 5% reduction in power.
However,
battery size alone is only part of the problem. Apple isn't selling you
a commodity, in the form of a replaceable battery. Instead, the company
is selling you an experience, and when packaged together with its
software, latest processing technology and other improvements, a smaller
battery may not necessarily result in degraded battery life.
Less juice
The
iPhone 6S is expected to have an 1,715 mAh battery, down from the
1,810mAh pack on the iPhone 6, while the larger smartphone will have a
2,750mAh battery compared to the 2,910mAh battery on the current
generation model.
This represents a 5.3% physical drop in battery capacity for the iPhone 6S and 5.5% for the iPhone 6S Plus.
The
only unfortunate thing about this scenario is that leaked
specifications for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus indicate that these
models will have a larger chassis than the phones that they'll replace,
despite having a smaller battery. With new,
stronger metals and the
Force Touch screen technology rumored, the iPhone models will
grow slightly taller, slightly wider and slightly thicker.
1. Power-sipping iOS 9
Hardware
alone is only part of the iPhone 6S story. Apple has historically
played up its tight integration in creating its own hardware and
software, and the story should be no different on the iPhone 6.
When it debuted
iOS 9
earlier this summer, Apple promised that system-wide improvements
compared to the current generation iOS 8 software should lead to about
an hour of extra battery life.
The new operating system also
comes with a Low Power mode, similar to Android phones from HTC, Samsung
and Sony, that allows owners to squeeze even more battery life on a
single charge by turning off idle processes and radios when they're not
in use. With Low Power mode on, you can get up to three extra hours on
current generation hardware.
These software improvements may go a
long way to helping the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus conserve battery
life, despite having a smaller battery.
2. Better brains
Even
though ARM chips are used on the iPhone and iPad, Apple makes tweaks to
the processor design to help them deliver more power in a more
efficient manner.
In terms of battery life, we can expect Apple's
rumored A-series processor to be even more efficient this year. Apple
released the A8 processor on last year's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, so
we can likely expect an A8x or A9 processor on this year's release.
A
more powerful, but energy efficient processor can help bring faster
performance and longer battery life at the same time. On the desktop,
Intel is proving this with the recent release of Skylake, which brings
better processing, graphics and battery life numbers.
3. Packing power
We'll
still have to wait for the release of these new handsets to compare
battery life against the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but if you're still
concerned, you can buy
external batteries to get you through a long work day.
Even
though Apple doesn't bless the iPhone with a removable battery,
third-party case manufacturers have integrated batteries into the case
design, bringing a compact solution that delivers the protection of a
case and the power of an extended battery.
Incipio creates an offGRID battery case, and rival
Mophie has a line of popular JuicePack cases that are designed for each iPhone model.
Given
the slightly thicker, wider and taller dimensions leaked for the new
Apple smartphone models, you may not be able to re-use your existing
Mophie, Incipio or third-party battery case, but likely new models will
come to accommodate your powerful new phone.
You can also carry a
battery pack, if you want to preserve the handset's slim design and not
have the bulk of an extended battery on your phone at all times, and
plug your phone into the power pack as needed.
Read More ...
Updated: iPhone 7 and iPhone 6S release date, news and rumors
iPhone 6S / 7 release date, concept and design
Wondering
what's going to happen with the iPhone 7 this year? Bad news: it's
going to be the iPhone 6, in all likelihood. Good news: it's going to be
here really soon - so get saving.
We're also expecting a larger model to arrive too, which would take over from the
iPhone 6 Plus, and it'll probably be imaginatively named the
iPhone 6S Plus.
And if that wasn't enough, Apple is also rumoured to be launching the
iPhone 6C alongside the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as well.
Here's
the inside skinny: it looks like the iPhone 6S will look very similar
to the current iPhone 6, but will have fancy new features like Force
Touch (enabling new ways of interacting with the phone) and a longer
lasting battery.
But there's already a whole heap of other rumors
swirling round about the next iPhone, so we've gathered them all
together and split them up into handy bit sized chunks for your
enjoyment. Go on, tuck in.
Latest update: New rumours suggest a new colour, Force Touch and a 12 megapixel camera will be present in the new iPhone 6S.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Apple's next flagship iPhone
- When is it out? Apple has confirmed a September 9 announcement and rumours suggest it'll be on sale September 18
- What will it cost? A lot, at least £539 / $649 / AU$999
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 release date
Apple
has now confirmed the announcement is set for September 9. That's a
Wednesday this time, when traditionally the iPhone is announced on a
Tuesday.
We've been invited to the event and the calling cards
come with a vibrant Apple logo design with the words "Hey Siri, give us a
hint." There's no word on timing or location just yet but we'll keep
our eyes peeled for the latest as it comes out.
The latest leaks from two major German carriers have reported that it will
go on sale on September 18, which makes sense, as the second Friday after the announcement is when Apple tends to start selling its phones.
An earlier
leaked Vodafone email
also claimed the iPhone 6S will be arriving in September. However, it
states that it will be later in the month on September 25.
The new phones are already floating around though
- web traffic at mobile marketing firm Fiksu has shown the 'iPhone 8,1'
and 'iPhone 8,2' are accessing the servers. The iPhone 6 Plus is known
as the iPhone 7,1 and the iPhone 6 as the iPhone 7,2, so it seems
successors do exist and are in heavy testing.
According to
GSM Dome Apple has started ordering camera sensors from Sony for the iPhone 6C, which follows news that Samsung is
reportedly already producing
the A9 processor that is expected to be included in the iPhone 6S, so
all of the iPhone 6S/7 models seem well on target for the September
launch.
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 design
The
front panel
for the iPhone 6S has supposedly been snapped coming off the production
line in China and it looks much the same as that on the iPhone 6. It's
not a big surprise: we never expect big design changes on the S models
of the iPhone.
This follows
the first photos
of what might be the iPhone 6S, or at least of its case, leaked a
little while back which again suggest it will look identical to the
iPhone 6.
Want more leaked shots? Well you've got it, as
further images
have sneaked online claiming to show parts for the iPhone 6S hot off
the production line - and yet again it all looks very familiar.
A
video, allegedly of the same device, has surfaced - which sadly means
the iPhone 6S will, as predicted, look identical to the iPhone 6 but
with fancier innards.
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh6kdFW5_JU
However while it might have the same dimensions,
a patent suggests
there's a possibility that it could lose those plastic strips we know
and hate. A Liquidmetal body is once again a possibility too, as Apple
has
extended its exclusivity deal with the maker.
On the other hand we're also
hearing rumours the iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 might feature the lightweight and strong Series 7000 aluminium alloy it uses on the
Apple Watch Sport.
A recent
bend test video
shows an alleged zinc-infused and anodization coated iPhone 6S shell to
be almost 2.7 times as before. You may be safe to stick the new iPhone
in your back pocket again.
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChUsy8gWwvo
A
set of schematics have also emerged
which again claim that the iPhone 6S is set to be 0.2mm thicker than
the iPhone 6, but will otherwise look pretty much the same as last
year's handset.
The extra depth could be due to
Apple including Force Touch technology behind the screen.
It
could be getting a new colour scheme as well, as the gold version will
apparently be more yellow than it is on the iPhone 6, the space grey
version may be getting darker and a rose gold version is
said to be on the cards, as well as a
pink model.
However
new rumours
suggest that the touted pink and rose gold models will be one and the
same, with the confusion arising from how similar the colours are.
But
enough about what the iPhone 6S will look like on the outside, what
about the inside? If you're keen to take a peek under the bonnet of the
upcoming iPhone, MacRumours has released a video claiming to show an
opened iPhone 6S and its exposed hardware.
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GnOW8z0cyQ
Force Touch
The
biggest change to the new iPhone 6S will be the screen - the same Force
Touch technology that sits inside the Apple Watch and the new Macbook
will very likely be used in the latest version of Apple's handset.
How
will it work? Think how a longpress works now, and you'll get some
idea. One of the big ideas being touted around (originating from
Marc Gurman of 9to5Mac) is that for Apple Maps: press lightly to highlight a place, then press harder to start directions there.
Extend
that out and you'll see how this could be used throughout the phone:
press the screen to scroll through video, press harder to skip through
faster (rather than lifting your finger uncomfortably up the screen).
Other
suggestions include 'hard' pressing a track to offer options to add it
to a playlist, or doing the same on a link in Safari to see a web page
preview.
The 'exciting' thing about this new addition is that the
Force Touch used on the new iPhone (which might not even be called Force
Touch, but a new moniker for the tech) will have more levels of
pressure - three, rather than two.
It could even have more,
depending on the level of sensitivity Apple can grant the iPhone 6S'
screen - but the ways its used are going to be more interesting.
iPhone 7 concept
Here
at TechRadar, we're a pretty giving bunch, so we've done Tim Cook's
crew a favour and shown them how the iPhone 7 should look.
Well,
given it's nailed on to actually be the iPhone 6S this year, we've taken
the view of improving what's already there, rather than giving it the
complete overhaul we're going to see in 2016.
The big changes are
quite simple: there are two cameras on the back, not for 3D pictures,
but to have the ultimate HDR mode with hyper-clear sharpness.
The
sides of the phone have been used to allow for stereo speakers - holding
the phone in landscape mode for watching movies will leave them
unencumbered for brilliant, bass-filled sound. There's also a touch
sensitive panel for the volume, rather than having to mess around
finding buttons - a simple slide up and down the side will save your
ears.
The
home button is the biggest loss, with touchID moving to the screen
rather than a dedicated button. This means more space for screen real
estate, with the much-needed 1080p resolution finally arriving.
Actually,
that's not the biggest change: you'll note there's no headphone jack
any more. This seems likely for all Apple smartphones in the future as
the company aims for thinner phones, shoving the audio out of the
Lightning port or over Bluetooth.
The main problem we can see is
this: all this stuff will munch that battery right down, already a
slight problem for the Cupertino brand. Hey, we can't solve
everything...
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 screen
The iPhone 6S
will very likely remain at 4.7 inches, with a 5.5-inch iPhone 6S Plus
option too and possibly even a 4.0-inch iPhone 6C model.
As well as being available in a smaller size, the screen might get tougher, as rumours suggest that Apple has
teamed with Foxconn to produce sapphire displays for the iPhone 6S.
Such
screens were rumoured for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but production
difficulties seemingly got in the way. Hopefully this time we actually
will get them as it would bring better scratch protection and higher
visibility to the screen.
The iPhone 6S could some cool innovative features if
rumours are to be believed, and the big one is Force Touch. This is something we've seen on the
Apple Watch and it allows the display to differentiate between different strength presses, responding in different ways.
According to Bloomberg a Force Touch iPhone 6S is
already in production, while
sources speaking to Apple Insider and
echoed by The Wall Street Journal and
China Times have previously talked about it, so it seems likely that the feature will make it across to the iPhone 6S (
or possibly just the iPhone 6S Plus).
Meanwhile
recent rumours suggest that while Force Touch will be present in the iPhone 6S, it won't be called Force Touch by Apple.
The
same rumours also claim that Apple won't be using the ultra
scratch-resistant Sapphire Glass for the iPhone 6S' screen, and will
instead stick to standard ionized glass.
Sources spoke to Chinese site Feng and revealed the iPhone 6S is
set to get a 1080p display
whilst the iPhone 6S Plus will jump up to 2K. We'll bet the house that
there won't be a 2K iPhone this year - but 1080p on the iPhone 6S could,
COULD happen.
But be prepared to be disappointed there...
The rivals
As the only flagship
iOS device the iPhone 6S will be in the fortunate position of not having any direct rivals. But look towards
Android and it could have quite a lot of competition. The
HTC One M9,
LG G4,
Sony Xperia Z3+ and
Samsung Galaxy S6 are high end alternatives and are likely to have dropped in price considerably by the time the iPhone 6S launches.
Both also sport a premium design, making them every bit as aesthetically pleasing as the
iPhone 6.
Speaking of the iPhone 6, that too could be a rival, since the iPhone
6S will probably have the same look and may not have many new features.
Samsung is bound to have another Note up its sleeve, with the
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 likely to be a serious iPhone 6S Plus rival.
iPhone 6S / 7 camera, battery, power and OS
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 battery and camera
Someone who claims to work for Foxconn
has revealed that the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will have 12MP rear cameras and support 4K video, as well as 240fps slow-motion footage.
The
front-facing cameras will apparently be 5MP and could also benefit from
a flash, 1080p video, slow motion video and a panorama mode if
hints found in the iOS 9 code are to be believed.
Yet more rumours
have since emerged that also claim the iPhone 6S will have a 12
megapixel camera, an improved image processor and will be capable of
shooting 4K video.
We've
heard rumors of that 12MP boost before too and Apple has
acquired a company
which creates smartphone cameras designed to match DSLR quality, so we
could also see a big jump in image quality on the iPhone 6S.
That lines up with earlier reports from
Daring Fireball's John Gruber,
who said the iPhone 6S will have "the biggest camera jump ever",
featuring a two-lens system which apparently brings it up to DSLR
quality.
There's even an outside chance that the camera might
include a lens swap feature, making it even more like a DSLR, as back in
early 2014
an Apple patent for swappable lenses was uncovered.
But don't hold your breath for these features, as the original two-lens rumour has had doubt cast on it by
a separate source,
claiming that it won't happen as it would apparently require a radical
redesign of the chassis - something we're not likely to see until the
following year.
The battery may be in for a boost though, as Apple is seemingly
going on a hiring spree for battery-related positions.
How powerful will it be?
A
leaked benchmark
purports to show the iPhone 7's A9 chip in action and has it beating
out the A8 by 20%-30% in both single and multi-core performance, as well
as topping the Samsung Exynos 7420 for single-core, but losing out when
all cores are fired.
We're hearing again that
Samsung is in the frame to build the chip,
which will apparently be 15% smaller, 20% more powerful and 35% more
power efficient than the Apple A8 processor found in the iPhone 6 and
iPhone 6 Plus.
It will also be better to flick around,
thanks to the mooted upgrade in the specs - 2GB of RAM would certainly soup up an already zippy phone and it's an upgrade which has now been
rumoured a second time and
a third time,
so it might well happen. That said, the obvious worry is whether
developers hoovering up that extra power will cause Apple to return to
its usual battery woes.
Apparently the iPhone 7 could have
a new Qualcomm made LTE chip,
which would both double its 4G speeds and lead to longer battery life,
as the chip is more efficient than the one found in the iPhone 6.
Recently
China Mobile revealed its plans for a new LTE-Advanced network, which
will allow Cat 6-enabled products to use super-fast LTE-A mobile
internet, and Apple was mentioned as part of the announcement.
Although
Apple has not spoken about its LTE-A Cat 6 ambitions, the inclusion of
its logo by China Mobile could have been an accidental reveal of Apple's
plans for the iPhone 6S.
The iPhone 6S will clearly ship with
iOS 9
and we know all about Apple's upcoming software now too. Expect
improvements to Siri and Apple Maps, a new keyboard and battery life
extending smarts among other things.
Anything else I should care about?
According to patents, we theoretically could see
Apple ditch the home button,
with new technology allowing the Touch ID fingerprint scanner to be
integrated into the screen - but recent leaks (and common sense) says
that's not going to happen.
Then there's the Apple SIM, which first appeared in the
iPad Air 2
and allows users to switch network without changing their SIM card.
Network freedom would be great, but we're not convinced that carriers
will support it.
Apple iPhone 6C
Along with the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus
there's talk that we might see an iPhone 6C. This is expected to be a comparatively budget plastic handset, much like the
iPhone 5C was.
It looks like the
iPhone 6C will be launching at the same event as some sources are citing it'll be available concurrently with the two larger phones.
However
the iPhone 6C could prove more popular as it's expected to have a
4.0-inch screen, making it not just cheaper but also smaller than this
year's other iPhones.
We may already have
caught a glimpse of the iPhone 6C in red and while its existence still isn't confirmed a number of
rumours have pointed to one, so it's looking likely.
If the iPhone 6C does exist it's rumoured to have
curved screen edges, a little like the iPhone 6, but with a design that has more in common with the
iPhone 5S (or the 5C, since it looks to be plastic).
It's unlikely that the iPhone 6C will share many specs with the iPhone 6S and indeed a
report from DigiTimes suggests it will ship with an A8 processor (as found in the iPhone 6) and will also include Touch ID and NFC (for Apple Pay).
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 cost
There
aren't yet any rumours associated with the cost of the iPhone 6S, but
we can take an educated guess that it won't start at less than £539 /
$649 / AU$999, since that's what you're looking at for an iPhone 6.
The
only possible exception to that is the iPhone 6C, which likely will be a
little cheaper if it exists. If anything though the iPhone 6S might be
even more expensive, since it's likely to be jam-packed with high-end
tech.
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7: what we want to see
1. A smaller screen
We
know, we know. Everybody's been going "Apple should totally make bigger
phones", and now we're effectively saying "O noes! Apple your phones
are too big!" But bear with us on this one.
For many people the
iPhone 5S
is the perfect size, big enough for apps but not so big you need a
friend to help you carry it. If you tend to use your phone as a phone,
bigger screens can be counter-productive, especially if you have small
hands or just don't like holding something enormous to the side of your
head.
We think an iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 with the same screen size
as the 5S would be a winner, not instead of the larger models, but
alongside them. The good news is
rumours suggest this is exactly what we're going to get.
2. Wireless charging
Wireless
charging remains one of the most frustrating technologies around,
because while it's here, it works and it feels like living in the
future, it isn't as widely supported as we'd like.
It's rather
like Google Wallet's NFC payments in that respect: the idea's sound but
maybe it needs a fruit-themed firm from Cupertino to get on board before
it'll really take off. An iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 with wireless charging
would be great, especially if the same charger worked for the
Apple Watch too.
3. Lightning cables that don't die
Some
members of the Ephemeroptera family, such as mayflies, have a lifespan
of just one day. That means they last approximately eleventy billion
times longer than Lightning cables.
We know that spontaneously
self-harming cables should be covered by the warranty, but if the iPhone
6S and iPhone 7 Lightning cables could be toughened up to save us those
trips to the Genius Bar we'd be delighted. If Apple won't give us
wireless charging, it could at least eliminate the weakness in its
chargers.
4. No more 16GB models
iOS 8
adoption has stalled, and we reckon it's largely because people with
16GB iPhones don't have enough free space for the 5.7GB over-the-air
update and don't want to use iTunes because, well, iTunes.
When
your software updates are too big for your entry level products, your
entry level products clearly don't come with enough storage. How about
starting at 32GB for the iPhone 6S and 64GB for the iPhone 7? We can't
store everything in iCloud, even when it's working properly.
5. The same camera as the iPhone 6 Plus
The iPhone 6 Plus camera takes better photos than the iPhone 6 camera because it's stabilised.
The
necessary bits and pieces add a whopping 0.2mm to the thickness of the
device, and we can promise Apple that the number of people who wouldn't
buy an iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 because it was 7.1mm instead of 6.9mm is as
insignificant as that 0.2mm difference.
6. More RAM
The
current iPhones are perfectly nippy, but Safari's need to reload web
pages when you've only got a few tabs open is a big clue that iOS would
really like some more RAM to play with. The more stuff your phone does,
such as tracking your health or communicating with your Apple watch, the
more RAM it can use.
64-bit apps need more RAM than 32-bit apps anyway. Thankfully the
iPad Air 2 has 2GB of RAM and there's speculation that the next iPhone will as well.
7. An alternative to super SuperSlipOMinium
The
iPhone 6 and
iPhone 6 Plus
are made from a metal that appears to be SuperSlipOMinium, a substance
so slippery that human hands simply can't grip it. That's great news for
the screen replacement and third party protective case industries, but
it'd be nice if holding our phones was easier than gripping a wet eel.
8. A higher resolution screen
The
screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus deliver 326ppi and 401ppi
respectively. That's pretty good, but the higher density of rival
devices such as the
HTC One M9's 441ppi and the
Samsung Galaxy S6's
577ppi is better still. If you like big phones and tend to hold them
close, you'd want that kind of pixel density in your iPhone 6S or iPhone
7.
9. Better battery life
You could make this point in
the wish list for any smartphone, of course, but while the iPhone 6 Plus
is comfortably ahead of its rivals in the stamina stakes the iPhone 6
isn't. That's because the Plus has more room for a significantly bigger
battery, but once again we'd be willing to trade slimness for power: a
4.7-inch iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 that was slightly thicker but lasted
longer would be an easy sell.
The big problem with battery life,
of course, is that all the other stuff on your wish list tends to affect
it. Higher pixel densities can negatively affect battery life, as can
using more RAM. Such changes don't necessarily have a huge impact
individually, but smartphones are very tricky balancing acts: you can
have extraordinary performance, incredible displays and astonishing
battery life, but you can't have all three at the same time just yet.
10. Flexible displays
Never
mind fighting against accusations of bendy phones. Apple should embrace
them and make the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 the bendiest smartphone the
world has ever seen. We're talking flexible screens printed on plastic
instead of glass, iPhones that you can bend and twist and sit on to your
heart's content without any unpleasant consequences. If nothing else
Apple should do it purely to annoy Samsung, who have been promising
bendable smartphones for years.
iPhone 6S / iPhone 7: Concepts
We're
a long way from the launch of the new iPhone, people. If you can't wait
to find out what it's going to look like, well, the internet never
disappoints.
OK - it does if you're looking for actual accurate
visuals on the next iPhone, but the concept artists have already been
grinding their digital looms into action to start showing us how
they think the next version should look:
The TechRadar edition
Yes,
we've turned our hand to designing our dream iPhone 7 - and we're
pretty chuffed with the outcome. Now all we need is for Apple to pay
attention and make the damn thing!
Bring back the Nano!
A slightly older look to things,
this concept by Jackson Chung uses new technology to bring the size of the iPhone back down.
With
the touch sensitive panels on the side, the phone will enable a low
power display to show message or app notifications without needing to
waste energy firing up the battery-guzzling screen.
Plus the side controls allow for all new gaming abilities for your digits - that's an idea we can get on board with.
Sharpen up
Apparently
Apple's subtle curves got it all wrong. What we need is to drop the
home button (but keep the space as an homage to the logo) and then make
it grippably industrial again.
The always-popular edge to edge display is out in force once more, and
Jan-Willem Reusink's idea is still all about the metal. But what about the radio signal eh? That's one for Apple to work out, apparently.
Read More ...
Ubisoft's theme park: 8 rides we'd love to see
Ubisoft's theme park: 8 rides we'd love to see
Ubisoft has announced plans to open a theme park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2020.
Unlike Nintendo, it's not just a land, this is a full blown theme park based around the franchises at one of the world's biggest game studios.
We
know the company has 10,000 square meters to play with and there'll be
feature rides, shows and "other attractions" based on Ubisoft franchises
– but so far there's no word on the exact game titles themselves.
But they don't need to worry about that – we've come up with all the ideas ourselves.
Here's some of the rides we'd love to see and be riding at Ubisoft's very own theme park at the end of the decade.
Far Cry Blood Dragon shoot 'em up
As
much as we loved Far Cry 4, the ride has to be all about Far Cry 3:
Blood Dragon. You sit down in your Jeep to be thrown forward in time to
the year 2007 as '80s music blares out of the speakers in your cart and
you're thrust a machine gun.
You then enter the world of advanced
humans, robotic T-Rex's and VHS tapes before having to shoot everything
in sight. Prepare to get wet on the way around and whoever gets the top
score of the day manages to walk away with their very own Cyborg Power
arm.
Just Dance: The Ride
One
Direction are looking for a new member after Zayne parted ways with the
group (#NeverForget), and this is your chance to fill the void.
Dance
your way through 1D's hits in your limousine, bust moves in front of
adoring audiences at packed venues and strike poses for the paparazzi
who could be round any corner!
Do you have what it takes to become the fifth member of One Direction? All you need to do is just dance.
Prince of Persia fairground ride
As
it would be difficult and eye-wincing to try and re-create the Parkour
elements of the game in 3D, this is a more back to basics ride.
It
features feats of strength and dexterity akin to Duct Hunt and
Whack-a-Mole in little games areas situated around a larger area. To
traverse to the next game area, players take a walk, run or leap around a
soft play walkway, with wobbly-feel wooden walkway over a cavern,
lantern swing avoidance path and other forms of assault course to get to
the next test of strength.
Winner gets a Jake Gyllenhaal "Look I have Abs" t-shirt and a fake plastic scimitar.
Watch Dogs ctOS controller simulator
Forget
Aiden Pierce, we all know how playing as that miserable git worked out…
the Watch Dogs ride would allow you to play as the real hero of the
story - Stephen.
Stephen, Steve to his mates, works in ctOS HQ and
has to clean up after all Pierce's antics. The ride invites you into
his desk, let's you sit where Stephen once sat and look out over the
city chasing down Pierce and his comrades.
Send your minions to
sort out the traffic light accidents, fix the broken roads and reimburse
all those poor people who have had their bank account hacked. We salute
you, Stephen.
Assassin's Creed Leap of Faith rollercoaster
Welcome
to the world's longest rollercoaster - we're going to need it to make
it all the way from the time of the Crusades to the modern day. You
enter the coaster with Altair's first ever leap of faith before flowing
down through history.
Zoom through Renaissance Italy and the
American Revolution, making it to the crow's nest upon the Jackdaw
before diving off and surfacing in Paris in 1776. You'll then jump
across the pond to Victorian England.
The only problem is keeping
this ride up to date – hopefully we can add in some World War 2 and
Feudal Japan sections before it opens for business.
CSI rollercoaster
Rather
like a spooky hall of mirrors/London Dungeons, this ride takes you
through the franchise's most famous cases. Each breakdown of the case
requires you to vote on the evidence and outcome using keypads built
into the carts. Kinda like a digital 'who wants to be a millionaire'. If
the audience vote outcome is incorrect, another victim dies or your
cart suddenly finds itself in 'jeopardy'.
We can picture it now:
over in one room Grissom stands looking at maggots through a microscope,
talking to Dr Robbins about what he found in the autopsy. Whilst in
another Sara and Warrick argue over their conclusions for the case
files.
All visuals from the game episodes are projected into the
ride area as holographic images, a nod to the high-tech look of the
show.
The ride fuses the story progressions and glossy visuals of
the TV show with the point and click element of the games giving users
interactivity as well as their favourite characters.
Ubiboft Collect-a-thon playground
Enter
a scaled down map filled with hundreds of icons, pointing out
collectables, side quests and more. Feel joy turn to self disgust as you
run to pick up your 400th icon, only to realise that you're not really
having fun, and all these collectables don't really mean anything
anyway.
Watch out for some collectables which are booby trapped
with messages telling you you need to download an app to collect them!
Leave this attraction feeling tired, emotional, and empty inside.
Chessmaster: the world in your hands
The
world is in danger. Aliens are on the brink of attacking and unless
they're beaten in their favourite pastime, our planet will fall under
their control for ever.
The pastime, you ask? It's chess.
Battle
your way through 18 gruelling rounds of chess in a ride critics are
calling "depressingly close to reality", "ball-achingly tedious" and
"the worst thing since sliced bread."
You better know your Pawn from your Rook, the world is depending on you. Start the clock...
Read More ...
Updated: iPhone through the ages: just how much has it changed?
The birth of Apple's superphone
It
was January 2007 when Steve Jobs took to the stage of the Moscone
Center in San Francisco to announce the arrival of the iPhone, which
went on sale worldwide later that year.
If you find it difficult
to remember that far back, Leona Lewis was number one in the UK with A
Moment Like This and people were flocking to the cinema to get
teary-eyed at Will Smith in The Pursuit Of Happyness.
While our
pop music and movie choices may not have improved much, smartphones were
changed forever: from that point on, touchscreens, apps and digital
media were the way forward.
iPhone 1 (first generation)
Launched: June 2007 (US), November 2007 (UK)
Steve
Jobs introduced the iPhone as three devices in one: a touchscreen iPod,
a revolutionary mobile phone, and a truly mobile web browser.
Now
we take touchscreens, digital media playback and web access for
granted, but in 2007 the iPhone was unlike anything that had appeared
before. Its 3.5-inch screen had a 320 x 480 pixel reoslution (one of the
best displays of the time), with a 2MP camera built in, and up to 8GB
of storage.
Third-party apps were not yet allowed on "iPhone OS". In the
TechRadar review,
we noted that despite several shortcomings, the phone had "changed the
mobile device landscape… multitouch will prove to be a model for
interfaces in the future".
iPhone 3G (second generation)
Launched: July 2008
High-speed
connectivity was big news in 2008, which is why the second generation
iPhone included 3G in its moniker (rather confusingly, as this was the
second generation iPhone). It also brought with it a thinner shape, a
plastic back and – crucially – support for the newly launched App Store.
The app store model worked so well you'll now find it replicated in everything from your smart TV to your
Windows 8 laptop, and the change helped Apple's phone really start to gain traction.
We said in our
iPhone 3G review that buyers would be "amazed by the function and feel of this handset". The iPhone era had begun in earnest.
iPhone 3GS (third generation)
Launched: June 2009
The
iPhone 3GS
upgrade was viewed as disappointingly minor at the time, but look at
the detail and a different picture emerges: as well as faster
performance, the new handset offered a better 3.2MP camera (that could
now record video as well as take photos), extra storage options and
voice control (the precursor to Siri).
The display was the same
3.5-inch 320 x 480 screen, and the device's appearance remained largely
unchanged from the 3G model. TechRadar's
take on the unit
praised the multimedia and internet capabilities, while still finding
niggles with the camera, call quality and battery life – this was the
first of the more iterative updates to the iPhone, but did enough to
keep users happy.
iPhone 4 (fourth generation)
Launched: June 2010
If the 3GS was a minor upgrade, the
iPhone 4
was a serious step up – a new, flat design with an integrated antenna
(although questions were raised about how you held the device), a
high-resolution Retina display (640 x 960 pixels) that showed the rest
of the world how it was done and a superior 5MP camera (featuring HD
video recording), on top of internal performance improvements.
The
competition was catching up, and Apple had responded in brilliant
fashion. We were certainly impressed, despite some reservations about
the high price, saying "It's intriguing to see record-breaking numbers
queuing up to pick up this device – but after playing with it for a few
days, you can see why."
iPhone 4S (fifth generation)
Launched: October 2011
Apple pulled out the "S" tag again for the fifth generation handset, indicating a minor upgrade rather than a major overhaul.
The design of the
iPhone 4S
was the same, but inside was Apple's new A5 processor, vastly improved
graphics capabilities and an 8MP camera with 1080p video recording. iOS
was evolving at the same rate as the hardware, of course, and Siri began
life as an iPhone 4S exclusive.
The improvements were enough to
persuade us to describe it as "the best thing Apple has ever created" in
the official TechRadar review.
iPhone 5 (sixth generation)
Launched: September 2012
After six handsets, Apple finally decided it was time to tweak the iPhone's screen size and aspect ratio.
Coming in at 20% lighter than its predecessor, the 2012 iPhone adopted a 4-inch screen, running at 640 x 1136 pixels.
Otherwise,
despite the usual speed bump and a stronger antenna, it was very much
business as usual in terms of the design and capabilities.
Our biggest gripe in our
iPhone 5 review was with the aging iOS, but with
iOS 7
arriving on September 18 that issue is very much negated, which will
please a number of iPhone 5 users who've been holding onto the handset
for nearly a year.
iPhone 5S/5C (seventh generation)
Launched: September 2013
The big step in the seventh stage of the iPhone's evolution was the arrival of the
iPhone 5C,
a slightly cheaper, plastic-backed model to help battle Android in the
busy mobile middle market. The signs were there already – remember Apple
kept the iPhone 4 and 4S on sale during the iPhone 5 era.
Apart
from the plastic shell and larger battery, though, the iPhone 5C was, in
terms of specs, a carbon copy of the iPhone 5 – which was retired to
make way for the two new handsets.
As for the flagship
iPhone 5S,
it was a case of under-the-hood improvements again: more power, a
better camera, and a fancy fingerprint reader hidden under the home
button. The bigger changes arrived with
iOS 7, the most radical revamp of the mobile operating system since the
App Store arrived back in 2008.
iPhone 6/6 Plus (eighth generation)
Launched: September 2014
After
the smaller changes that came with the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, Apple
was back to its revolutionary best with the following generation, as the
iPhone 6 and
iPhone 6 Plus brought the biggest alterations in design and features since the leap from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5.
The
most striking change the eighth generation iPhones ushered in was
undoubtedly the screen size, with the iPhone 6's display leaping from
the iPhone 5's 4 inches to 4.7 inches. Apple also upped the resolution
from the 1136 x 640 of previous iPhones to 1334 x 750. This meant that
the larger screen still had a high pixel density of 326ppi (pixels per
inch), so image quality was incredibly sharp and detailed.
As the
name suggests, the iPhone 6 Plus went even larger, with a whopping
5.5-inch display, marking Apple's first foray into the phablet market.
The iPhone 6 Plus also got a resolution boost to full high definition,
1920 x 1080. With a pixel density of 401ppi, not only does the iPhone 6
Plus have the largest screen of any iPhone ever, but it also has the
clearest.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus also benefit from Apple's
use of "dual-domain pixels", which along with the 1300:1 contrast ratio
makes the screen on the handsets look absolutely fantastic.
Both
the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus also ditched the industrial and
sharp-edged design that had been with the iPhone for four generations,
in favour of a more ergonomically-pleasing chassis with a screen that
curves into a body with rounded edges and corners.
Both handsets feature metal backs, and as we pointed out in our reviews, they take a lot of design language from the
iPad Air, resulting in a product that looks and feels genuinely premium.
Another
big change is that the boosted screen sizes and the corresponding
increase in body dimensions have meant that the power button now resides
on the right-hand side of the devices.
Along with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Apple, released
iOS 8, which kept many of the flat aesthetics of iOS 7 and ushered in some neat new features.
It
wasn't a completely smooth launch, however, and after only a few months
Apple has already patched it to iOS 8.1.3 in a bid to squash bugs and
fix problems.
The rocky launch of iOS 8 was in stark contrast to the assured releases of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with
Apple proudly announcing that the two iPhones broke the company's records for pre-orders in the first night they were available.
iPhone 6S/7 (ninth generation)
Launching: September 2015
This
brings us bang up to date, so what does Apple have in store for its
next iPhone? While we don't know for sure what it's name will be, we're
relatively confident we'll see the incremental
iPhone 6S, rather than the entirely new iPhone 7.
As for what can you expect from Apple's ninth generation smartphone, the latest rumours suggest it'll be
the thinnest iPhone yet, and there's plenty of speculation claiming we'll witness the biggest camera jump ever.
The
new iPhone will almost certainly come with a new processor, most likely
called the A9. Other rumours suggest Samsung will build the chip which
will be 15% smaller, 20% more powerful and 35% more power-efficient than
the Apple A8 processor found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Could the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 follow in the curved screen footsteps of the
Galaxy Note Edge and
S6 Edge? We don't think so, but there have been rumours Apple might try something drastic with the screen.
Rumours
also hint at the upcoming iPhone having a rugged sapphire display,
while others say we'll also see a smaller 4-inch design in a bid to
appease people who weren't too keen on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus'
increased dimensions.
Apple announced
iOS 9
earlier this year, and the software is currently in its public beta
phase. Going on previous iPhone/iOS launches, you can safely assume the
new iPhone will arrive with Apple's latest software onboard.
After all,
iOS 8 is
so 2014.
Read More ...
IFA 2015: Netflix: consumers don't want to download our videos
Netflix seems remarkably, perhaps professionally, unfazed by Amazon's
Prime Instant Video download offering, despite the general air of positivity that's greeted its rival's recent unveiling.
When we spoke to Neil Hunt, Netflix's Chief Product Officer in the environs of
IFA last week, he had a different take on the industry, still championing the streaming model as the way of the future.
"I
feel like what consumers want is not the download model," Hunt told us.
"What they want is the ability to consume anywhere they happen to be.
And that might be on a plane, on a train, in a car or outside."
"I
think the download model is fairly complex. You have to plan ahead; if
you're planning for a long flight you're going to need quite a lot of
storage to hold maybe several titles and a lot of time to prep that
download. And I think that's challenging."
Netflix then is
remaining resolutely focused on streaming over downloading, claiming
there are more interesting directions to take video in rather than just
shifting towards the old download standard.
"One direction we can
take is our open connect servers – which is a small box, essentially a
whole Netflix footprint in a little package that doesn't use much
power," said Hunt. "We built those servers so we could place them
inexpensively in internet exchange points and peer with the broadband
networks."
"The thought experiment is what if we deployed those
boxes on planes alongside or instead of the inflight entertainment
system. Then you'd have Netflix streaming on a plane without requiring
excessive air to ground bandwidth. It's a thought experiment that
actually seems fairly practical."
Practical it may be, but with
most airlines having already established inflight services it might take
a lot to encourage them to add, or switch to, a Netflix system. It may
have more immediacy than a pre-planned Amazon download setup for your
long haul plane journey, but it's unlikely to ever be as pervasive as
what you can take with you.
High-efficiency
The more
interesting proposition though has Netflix signing up to the Open Codec
Alliance to help develop a next-generation, high-efficiency codec for
streaming on the go.
Netflix
is joining forces with Facebook, Microsoft and Google to put together
this royalty-free, or low-royalty, high-efficiency encoder for mobile
streaming.
"What we've seen in the past few years is the energy
has shifted from EVC encoding to HEVC encoding to support 4K imagery,"
said Hunt. "HEVC does very little for a 10cm screen – there's not a lot
of efficiency gain there. We've focused our energy on trying to build
the next generation of encoder that's particularly efficient for small
screens and very low bandwidth."
If the level of data required to
get a good video streaming experience over a mobile network isn't
suddenly going to destroy your data plan, or your wallet, then that
could be a much more intriguing proposition than the download model.
"The
stretch goal I would like to achieve is a decent picture on a 10cm
screen at 250kbps," said Hunt. "That suddenly begins to put a typical
Netflix consumption pattern – 30-40 hours a month – within reach of a
mobile plan."
Read More ...
Review: Runtastic Orbit review
Intro, screen, battery and build quality
The
Runtastic Orbit entered a busy market in July 2014, as a host of brands
from Garmin to Samsung to Huawei put out a tracking band at around the
same time.
The Runtastic Orbit landed at a key time, about a year after the frontrunners like the
Fitbit Flex,
but just before the faster brands spun out second-generation products.
So a year after launch, and a few price drops later - to about £80/$70 -
how does the Runtastic Orbit stack up?
Screen and battery life
The
screen, according to Runtastic, is an OLED number, measuring about 14mm
square. You hit the single silver button to experience the
off-white-on-black OLED dot matrix display.
It's bright enough
indoors, but outdoors it's not only tiny, but so washed out as to be all
but useless. The fact that the company's logo is slapped beneath it
like a sticker that needs removing doesn't add much to the experience,
either.
Battery life is claimed to be 'up to 7 days', which based
on my using but not charging the band for over a week or so, seems
about right.
Build, comfort and strap
Runtastic has
ingeniously created a range of accessory straps and pedometer-style pods
for the Orbit device. Like a Fitbit Flex or a Samsung Gear, the screen
unit pops out to allow your sense of personal style to take over in
choices of strap (as long as it's one of the six mandated colours). I
landed the standard black and blue straps, and they're a little
underwhelming.
The
strap is a slightly hard, rubberised texture that doesn't telegraph
quality to your senses. That said, I've not had any mysterious allergy
rashes from wearing it over a week.
The strap is fastened with a
double stud arrangement that skewers the strap in a way that's identical
to Samsung's Band. It's a simple system that works well in practice,
especially given the super-lightweight mass of this device, a mere 24
grams in band mode and 18 grams in pedometer pod mode.
Run and step tracking, and the Runtastic app
Run and step tracking
The
point of the Runtastic Orbit is to track your movement, and as a
general 'wellness' band it's pretty strong. It logs steps, active
minutes, sleep and ambient lighting (in your room while asleep) fairly
accurately, distance and calories burned not so accurately, and there
are optional inactivity vibration alerts to spur you into action.
There's
enough storage to track these stats for 7 days before syncing with an
app - and as noted, 7 days is also the quoted battery life.
However,
Runtastic is primarily a run-tracking brand (the clue's in the name)
yet it's on the running front that the Orbit is a let-down.
Tracking
arm movements is less useful for monitoring running, and there's no
built-in GPS, so the Orbit calls on the power of the Runtastic running
app, syncing seamlessly over Bluetooth to bring up your in-run stats.
Put
simply, the app is using the device as a second screen. What Runtastic
calls Orbit Connect. It's not a bad idea, but the execution is a
different matter.
I
tested the app on a Samsung S6 - Android, iOS and Windows Phone are all
supported - and using the phones GPS and Exynos processor got handy
distance, time, calories, current/average pace and average speed on the
screen at a press of a button each. There's also the option to display
heart rate if you've synced a compatible pulse monitor.
The good
news is that the screen locks to the item you leave it on, so you don't
have to keep scrolling round in a loop to keep an eye on your distance.
The bad news is that you can barely see it.
The Orbit is simply
mirroring a limited version of the app's data set, which is in turn
using your phone's considerable tracking abilities. The app also has a
load of functionality that the Orbit lacks, including automatic voice
prompts after each kilometer or mile plus a range of voice coaching
options, if you sign up for the Pro package. If you run with headphones
plugged into your phone you'll get pace information audibly, again
meaning you don't have to peer at the Orbit.
And that's just as well.
The
Runtastic Pro's screen is tiny, and in direct sunlight it washes out
almost entirely, making it almost impossible to read on the move. I
found myself stopping mid-run to read the display in testing, which is
far from ideal. It's hard to see why you'd try and use this as a serious
training tool on the move.
In addition, there's no heart rate
tracking involved in this setup, which is pretty essential for anything
like serious training. Runtastic's Bluetooth HR belt is under £40 and
fills this gap, and you can use any other third-party Bluetooth HR chest
strap. The Orbit will then display the pulse stats that are piped into
the app, as mentioned above. But again, you can barely see them on the
watch.
App
You're probably getting the message that this
product is all about the app, and as we've said above, Runtastic's core
running app is an excellent effort, delivering a full-featured running
data experience for free or £5/$6 for Pro.
Another option is an
annual subscription (£42.99), which gives you the Runtastic Pro app, an
enhanced Runtastic Me app and more powerful online tools. These training
plans, which cover a good range, from sub 3.30 marathons down to sub-5k
runs, plus the ever-so-slightly sexist 'bikini body prep' plan.
Also
covered by the annual sub is free access to Runtastic's 'story runs'
(otherwise available as in-app purchases in free/Pro). These are themed
audiobooks around 40 minutes long, designed to make interval training
fun, in a similar way to Zombies, Run!
Backed by the app's
tracking abilities this is a strong offering for enlivening otherwise
dull, winter training trudge-fests. Pro also allows you to challenge
your last time on a specific route, such as your run home, so you can
endlessly compete with yourself.
Even
in the basic free app you get mapping, distance, pace, average and max
speed as well as elevation gain/loss. There's plenty of social sharing
options, as well as a leaderboard to get some friendly rivalry going.
There's also an option to sync a Bluetooth Smart heart rate monitor to
add in the all-important HR stats.
If you're looking to sync a
Runtastic Orbit with the Runtastic main app you'll need another app -
Runtastic ME - to bridge the gap to the hardware, for some reason. With
both apps installed you'll be able to get the stats flowing from one to
t'other. Once you've managed this multiple-app scenario, the experience
is pretty seamless. As I mentioned, the Orbit becomes a second screen
for the Runtastic app, albeit one that's hard to see.
All
controls are with the app, demoting the Orbit's button to a screen
on/off button. The Runtastic Me app meanwhile deals with the step
counting (default target: 8,000), calories burned and sleep metrics.
The
step counting tracker is better than many, but don't expect to be able
to check the display, walk 10 steps and see the figure increase by 10;
it's just not that accurate. Over the course of a day, it gives results
that feel about right, which is in line with most other step counters,
to be honest.
The sleep tracker needs to be manually triggered by a
long press on the Orbit's button, which after the first day is easily
forgotten. It's slim enough to be worn through the night though, unlike
some. The graphs of activity and sleep are pretty enough, but how useful
they are is… Debatable.
Additional features and verdict
Additional features
One
of the big party tricks the Orbit has up its sleeve is an ambient light
sensor, which samples the quality of your light every three minutes.
This info is then piped into the Runtastic Me app to create a little
chart of your light exposure - the idea being that a dark sleeping
environment and bright sunlight during the day is ideal.
It's a
neat trick, but in our case merely confirmed that a day of office work
isn't very good for your light levels. There are no smart notifications
here; the Orbit is a slave device for a specific smartphone app, not
your smartphone as a whole.
We liked
The Runtastic app is
really rather good: download it now, if you haven't already. The
ingenious multi- straps let you switch from pedometer to band, making
the Runtastic Orbit the Optimus Prime of budget tracking bands. The
battery life is excellent, too.
We disliked
The screen is
all but useless, being hard to read outside while stationary, and
impossible while running. The build quality in general is hardly
awe-inspiring, come to that.
Verdict
The Runtastic Orbit
is a fairly ridiculous device. It's supposed to work as a second screen
for your phone when using the Runtastic app. So you can't leave your
phone at home when running. But you can barely SEE said screen, so
what's the point of that, then?
It does serve as a decent 'fitness
band', but for pure running it's just too lightweight in terms of the
data it shows, and the screen means it barely 'shows' anything anyway.
The similarly-priced
Garmin Forerunner 15
is far more capable, and another 20 notes would get you the Polar M400
with a heart rate belt, which is a package that's on a different planet
to the Orbit in terms of ability.
For fans of the Runtastic app
who want a companion device we'd suggest the sub-£40 Runtastic Bluetooth
HR belt, which as well as being cheaper will add in those missing HR
stats.
Read More ...
iPhone 6S camera specs: what megapixels and features are coming?
The
iPhone 6 camera is actually rather good – the 8MP sensor size doesn't
sound like much, but a strong performance coupled with a multi-million
dollar 'Shot on iPhone' campaign have embedded it in public conciousness
as a 'good' camera.
So it might come as a surprise that Apple's
reportedly planning to upgrade the camera sensors in the front and back
of the iPhone 6S.
We're talking a 12MP sensor on the rear, with a
much-upgraded 5MP snapper on the front, a big boost from the 1.2MP
option on there now.
4K-ing great
The selfie camera would
have the ability to fire the display to maximum brightness to provide a
sort of illumination for the photo, something that LG experimented with
on the G3 (although seems to have lost interest in).
It'll be
intriguing to see how Apple works this, as while being able to make the
screen brighter to act as a flash seems like a good idea you won't be
able to see the snap you're taking.
Apple's also going to do
something a bit crazy too, and this perhaps falls lower down on the
rumor scale: adding in 4K video recording to its camera.
This is a
relatively new feature from Sony, Samsung, LG and friends, and really
doesn't really add a lot beyond something to add to the spec sheet –
something Apple's traditionally shied away from.
This
is the same brand that spent time crafting a decent slo-mo and
timelapse mode for its handsets rather than adding in pro modes – but if
it does go down the 4K route (which might make sense if Apple TV can
handle the videos well) then something will have to be done about
storage.
4K video would likely take up about 350MB of space on the
phone per minute of recording, so Apple would need a way to expand that
somehow – talk of a free iCloud service seems plausible, but would need
a heck of a lot of bandwidth to keep it backed up and available when
the user required it.
It seems certain that Apple's about to
upgrade the camera on the iPhone 6S, both front and back and for video,
but whether it's all warranted remains to be seen.
Read More ...
This is the phone Sony's Z5 Compact should have been
Sony'a newly-launched smartphone range included the
Xperia Z5 Compact last week, a smaller version of the the
Xperia Z5 and
Xperia Z5 Premium - but Sony doesn't seem to think it did well enough.
Rumours
suggest an Xperia Z5 Premium Compact is coming to Japan soon, packing
the sort of features we'd rather the current Compact had launched with,
as it only had a 720p screen and smaller battery than its brothers.
The
Premium Compact will feature a 4.6-inch Full HD display, 4GB of RAM and
a slightly larger battery at 2900mAh. That's paired with the same
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, 23MP rear facing camera and 5.1MP front
facing camera as we saw on the Xperia Z5 Compact.
Why the wait?
That's
all spec we'd like to have seen in the original Xperia Z5 Compact
instead of a slightly lacklustre screen resolution and 2GB of RAM.
It's
no wonder Sony is working on a higher spec version of the Xperia Z5
Compact, but this is going to be a more expensive device, and the
Japanese brand needs to hit a certain price point for the it's smaller
handset.
There's no word of an official release this may turn out
to be an elaborate hoax but it wouldn't be a big surprise if Sony put
Japan, a key market for the company, ahead of the rest of the west.
Read More ...
New Nexus 6 set to top predecessor with fancy fingerprint scanner
With the rumoured release of the
Nexus 6 (2015)
on September 29 leaks are coming thick and fast about the upcoming
phablet. A new set of images claiming to be of a protective case for the
device apparently confirms the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner on
the back.
With
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
putting fingerprint scanning front and centre, and Huawei – the
rumoured manufacturer of the Nexus 6 (2015) – putting fingerprint
scanners in its latest smartphones, it wouldn't be much of a surprise to
see the new Nexus 6 do what the previous version didn't and include
biometric security.
While the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner is good news, the images – which were
posted by renowned leaker @OnLeaks on Twitter – also show a bulge where the camera will be located.
Battle of the bulge
This
elevated section of the body, which is rumoured to protrude about
1.9mm, gives the Nexus 6 (2015) a distinctive look, though it's not one
that everybody is fond of.
Although the bulge isn't to everyone's
tastes, we'd like to imagine that the reason Huawei is going for this
unconventional design is because it'll be packing some pretty exciting
camera tech in the new handset, and hopefully we won't have long to find
out if the bulge is worth it.
Read More ...
Hands-on review: IFA 2015: Acer Predator 8
A
dose of gaming comes with any tablet. It's part of the territory, but
few tablets say they're made specifically for games above all else.
That's the Acer Predator 8's bag, as part of the Predator series.
Under
this black and red umbrella you'll find real top-end gaming laptops
like the Predator 17, as well as more accessible devices like this
tablet and the Predator 6 Android phone. Extra gamer abilities here
include vibration feedback and an unusually beefy speaker array.
However, at its heart this is just a good old Android tablet with a
gaming twist.
You'll be able to get hold of the Predator 8 for
around 349 Euro or $400, which equates to around £260 in a currency
conversion.
Love
it or hate the look, there's no mistaking the Acer Predator 8 for a
plain, classy tablet. Even Acer described the design as
"super-aggressive".
Decked out in red, silver and black, and with
pretty striking lines, the Predator 8 is sure to turn as many people
off as it attracts. Have a look yourself, see what you think.
In
more practical terms, the design seems reasonable enough. The shell is
mostly plastic, but there's a plate of brushed metal on the back to give
that touch of a more expensive style.
The Acer Predator 8
element that really hits you when you look at the tablet face-on is the
speaker array. There are four drivers, one at each corner of the
tablet's face. For the sake of the other people around us at IFA 2015,
where the thing was announced, we didn't crank the volume. But Acer says
the Predator Quadio speakers make it the "loudest gaming tablet on the
planet".
In other words, it's louder than the Nvidia Shield Tablet. Or had better be.
The
speakers make the silhouette of the Predator 8 pretty odd, but it
doesn't seem to affect handling. It's a pretty skinny and light tablet
too at 8.6mm thick and around 350g. Neither stat is remarkable, but
you're not going to get arm ache from holding the thing up one-handed
for five minutes.
Acer's other gaming hardware optimisation is
vibration feedback, basically meaning there are similar motors inside to
those that make your phone buzz. While Acer has worked with mobile
gaming maestro Gameloft on this, it still boils down to the odd bit of
vibrate in games like Asphalt 8. It's nothing too special, although we'd
be happy to be converted once we get to play with the tablet a bit
more.
Has Acer put a bit too much of a focus on the flimsy gaming extras? Well, there's some argument for that in the screen.
The Acer Predator 8 has an 8-inch Full HD screen. That may sound fine, but at this price you can get the
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, which gets you a QHD screen. Even its follow-up the Tab S2 is meant to cost roughly the same amount.
into
some elements of the screen's calibration. Acer says the Predator 8 can
deliver 100 per cent of the NTSC colour gamut, meaning it has very deep
shades of any colour you could name.
However, in person it looks a bit oversaturated, lacking some of the natural appearance of an
iPad Air
2, for example. After playing with the Predator 8 we heard that there
are options to tone down the colours a bit too, though. Fingers crossed
they'll tame this beast.
Running
the operation is an Intel Atom x7-8700 CPU, the same used in the
Microsoft Surface 3. It's the fastest tablet CPU out there, and it seems
unlikely that some of the most challenging Android games will have been
as well-optimised for it as for the top Snapdragon GPUs.
get
with top-end rivals: shiny wet pavements galore. With any luck the
Predator 8's gaming chops should be largely the same as those of a
Snapdragon high up the range. It doesn't beat the Shield Tablet's Tegra
K1, though.
There's 2GB RAM on-board, which is generally enough
to get you good experience from the Android 5.1 software used here.
Storage is solid too, with either 32GB or 64GB on-board, plus a microSD
slot to let you load it up even further.
Early Verdict
The
Acer Predator 8 is a strange tablet. It positions itself as a gaming
tablet, but really all tablets are gaming tablets. The quad-speaker
array really needs to impress to lend a bit more weight to its cred.
And
while the design makes it firmly part of the Predator 8 family, we
imagine many of you would prefer a slightly plainer look, one that won't
compound the odd looks you might already get for playing Asphalt 8 on
the bus. That said, despite all reservations it appears to have
everything needed for a good tablet experience.
Read More ...
New Canon sensor records 30 times the quality of 4K
Megapixels
aren't the be all and end all when it comes to photography (the sensor
size and lens quality is more important) but they certainly don't hurt -
and Canon
just set the bar higher than ever with a new 250-megapixel APS-H sensor.
The
APS-H refers to the physical size of the sensor: it's a little bit
larger than the sensors on consumer DSLRs and a little bit smaller than
the sensors in professional top-end models. In other words, Canon has
done a clever job of packing all these megapixels into such a tiny
space.
Open up a 250-megapixel photo on your computer and you can
zoom and zoom and zoom into the tiniest of details. Take a video, and
the frame size would be 30 times that of 4K - a rather impressive
benchmark.
Pixels aplenty
You'd need to pair this with a
seriously advanced (and expensive) lens to take advantage of all those
megapixels but on a technical level it's another notable breakthrough in
the world of digital photography.
With a picture size of 19,580 x
12,600 pixels, Canon says you could distinguish the lettering on the
side of an aeroplane from about 11 miles away. According to the company
the sensor uses "enhanced signal-processing technology" to reduce the
noise you would otherwise see on such a big image.
It's likely to
be a long time before a sensor like this makes it into your prosumer
digital camera, but Canon says the new technology could be used for
"specialised surveillance and crime prevention tools,
ultra-high-resolution measuring instruments and other industrial
equipment, and the field of visual expression."
Read More ...
Apple's iPhone 7 looks set to be ridiculously thin
The
iPhone 6S
is likely coming on Wednesday this week, but we're already hearing news
of the iPhone 7 and it sounds like it may be the thinnest phone from
the company so far.
Ming-Chi Kuo, a KGI Securities analyst has
said in a note to investors that they predict the next iPhone is going
to be between 6.0 and 6.5 millimeters thick.
While analyst stories
are usually based on very little fact, Kuo has a decent track record of
predictions for Apple products, noting the
new 128GB variant of the iPhone 6 and various iPad rumours too.
If
that turns out to be true that'd make the iPhone 7 potentially as thin
as the current iPod Touch and the iPad Air 2 that are currently 6.1
millimeters thick right now.
A whole year to go
That won't
mean an end to force touch technology though as Kuo said, "Apple and
its suppliers have invested heavily in iPhone force touch in 2015 and we
believe 2016 new models will stick with a similar force touch structure
as used in 2015."
It's expected the iPhone 7 is going to be a big
change from the iPhone 6 design but the upcoming iPhone 6S is sure to
have the same design with some major changes to the internals.
We're expecting a new camera and the A9 processor to be introduced alongside the introduction of Force Touch.
Read More ...
Hands-on review: IFA 2015: Acer Predator 17
Unveiled at
IFA 2015,
the Acer Predator 17 is a top-end gaming laptop, one set to sit among
the most expensive and capable portable(ish) systems of 2016. It's a
pretty important machine.
It's going to duke it out with the Asus
ROG G752
as one of the biggest-name machines from the next wave, laptops that
pack-in Intel's sixth-generation 'Skylake' Core processors. For an early
preview of whether it has a chance at the gaming laptop crown, we took a
closer look at the machine during IFA 2015.
Design and Features
The
Acer Predator 17 is an unashamed gaming laptop. Unlike some of the
recent systems we've looked at, it doesn't try to be remotely slim or
light, instead letting its body bloom out with big heat outlets and a
bold design featuring plenty of Predator series's staple red highlights.
One
part that really comes to define the look is the great big heat grille
on the back, pretty similar to what you see on the back of the Asus
G751: one of the top gaming laptops of the moment.
Like
most laptops in this class, the body is made mostly from plastic rather
than the metal you get from a skinny Ultrabook, but from a quick feel
the Acer Predator 17 seems as well-made as you'd hope. After all, with a
top-end spec this laptop will end up eye-wateringly expensive.
Little
extras to note include the three-zone keyboard backlight, letting you
set the side macro buttons and the keypad to light-up with different
colours to the main keys. The Acer Predator 17's macro keys are arranged
in a column to the left of the keyboard. As ever you'll be able to
program them as you like.
Much more unusual, though, is the
hot-swappable drive on the left side of the Acer Predator 17. If you
need an optical drive, that's fine: you can get one. However,
CoolerMaster has also made a special cooling insert that contains
another fan, designed to keep the heat down if you're really going to
push the graphics card for a good long while. Acer calls it the Predator
FrostCore.
The
hardware isn't gamer-centric just in its look. There are also
highlighted W/A/S/D and directional buttons on the keyboard, plus a
dedicated 'trackpad off' button below if you're going to use a 'proper'
mouse. Left with the trackpad? The Acer Predator 17 sensibly uses
clearly defined buttons with a fairly deep action rather than ones
integrated into the pad.
Just
as the Acer Predator 17 will ideally be used with a mouse, you'll
probably want to plug in a headset for the best audio experience.
However, it also has a reasonably impressive, on paper at least, speaker
array too. It has four mid/treble drivers and two subwoofers, which sit
on the underside of the laptop, and are highlighted in Predator-classic
red.
We can't tell you whether it sounds any good, as a
technology show floor is no place for judging audio quality. We'll save
that for the full review.
Aside
from the annual spec upgrades you get with a new wave of laptops, the
most exciting part of the Acer Predator 17 is its screen. As the name
implies, it has a 17.3-inch screen.
What's so interesting is that
Acer says the display's configuration will go up to 4K resolution.
That's not when outputting to a monitor, but the resolution of the panel
itself. Until now pretty much all 17-inch gaming laptops have had 1080p
screens, simply because higher-resolution panels at 17.3 inches are not
available.
It's finally time for true high-res, large screen
gaming on the go. Of course, you shouldn't expect the Acer Predator 17's
battery to last more than an hour or so when actually playing games.
Sadly,
Acer was not actually showing off the 4K version of the Predator 17
when we had a look the machine. It was the plain old 1080p version we
saw, but there is nothing in particular to complain about in quality
terms. The colours are vivid, the display finish super-practical matt
rather than glossy, and contrast seems to be strong. As with sound,
we'll leave the conclusions to our review, though.
The
prospect of a 4K display is what makes this laptop, and indeed other
upcoming laptops in this class, particularly exciting. With the top
specs heading the Acer Predator 17's way, it should not struggle to cope
with games at this resolution.
The top-end model will use a
GeForce GTX 980M CPU, 64GB RAM, a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU
(i7-6700HQ) and 512GB SSD storage. While the performance may not prove a
gigantic improvement over the top 'current' 2015 gaming laptops, this
is by some margin the most serious gaming laptop we've seen from Acer.
The Predator series really turbo charges what the company offers for
gamers, if not those after the cheap deals Acer so often comes up with.
Early verdict
In
the US, the $1499 entry-level price tells you it'll start off with
significantly lower-end specs, for those not ready to spend masses on
their gaming laptop. In Europe the entry-level price is 1799 Euro,
suggesting the spec floor there may be slightly higher. The exact specs
and prices of the Acer Predator 17 remain to be seen, but from an early
look this model has the potential to become one of the most desirable
high-end laptop families out there.
Read More ...
Missing link: New Bose SoundLink around-ear wireless headphones land
While
"around-ear" still sounds strange as an alternative to over-ear to us
(what, is there a hole in the middle of each can for our ears to stick
through?),
Bose
has announced the Australian arrival of its new SoundLink around-ear
wireless headphones II, promising "a whole new kind of wireless
experience."
That's probably overselling what's on offer, but Bose' new wireless cans still appear to be packing some decent audio kit.
The
first thing that catches our eye is the 15-hour battery life. While
it's not as impressive as the 24 hours on offer from the
Plantronics BackBeat Pro, it should still be more than enough to keep that dreaded dead battery from rearing its ugly head – as a comparison the
Parrot Zik 2.0's are much pricier and only offer six hours.
Link and you'll miss it...
The
SoundLinks also come packing NFC tech, so simply tapping your
NFC-enabled device of choice to the right ear-cup should have them
paired without messing around with Bluetooth settings. Of course if NFC
isn't an option for you, Bluetooth is always there as a backup.
The
cans also enable you to switch between music and phone calls without
touching your phone, and they feature voice prompts (in 11 languages for
the multilingual out there) telling you who's calling, which device
you're currently connected to, and how much battery life you have left.
The new SoundLinks will set you back $379, while the first generation of cans will remain available for $349.
Read More ...
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