Xperia Z2 - The best ever smartphone, only from Sony

This is an amazing looking piece of hardware - very tempting indeed given the recording qualities and the fitness hardware links...Sony look back to their best with this...

A right Smart Glass...

As an avid Xbox user, I have been playing about with Smart Glass for a few months. Smart Glass is an app that Microsoft released to allow your smartphone or tablet to act as a companion device to your gaming console. It can act as a remote control complete with swiping the screen control for moving around the Xbox interface, as an adjunct to your gaming experience, as another screen for playing back your Xbox media or a browser controller that is more familiar than using the gaming controller.

It is undoubtedly a very cool move by Microsoft, especially since they took the bold decision to create an app for a number of platforms. Old-thinking Microsoft would have only made it available on Windows Phone, giving it zero traction, but it can thankfully run on pretty much anything, ensuring a broad appeal amongst the Xbox user base.

The current usage options are a great start but I believe the system is only now scratching the surface. Only a few games have integrated in to it in any way but at simplistic levels (e.g. stats whilst playing Halo 4) and once the Smart Glass becomes more integral to the gaming experience it should be an even bigger boost to the platform. I could imagine a scenario where the gamer is fighting his/her way through a level in a first-person shooter and reaches a locked door that requires the lock to be picked. This might take the form of a puzzle that runs on the Smart Glass that needs to be completed before proceeding, bringing a focus to this narrow element of the gameplay that takes the gamer out of the big screen action and down to a macro level. Another example might be to have Halo’s Cortana (if she’s still alive of course!) solely depicted and talking from out of the Smart Glass device in the next game, mirroring many of the interactions Master Chief has with her throughout the various Halo games. It could also easily mimic many of the uses seen in the tablet controller that comes with the rival Wii U but without the heft.

The possibilities for Smart Glass are limitless really, especially as second screen devices such as tablets and phones get more powerful and it will be a platform that is worth watching closely, especially as we near the unveiling of the next Xbox. I also have little doubt that a similar approach will be used in the rumoured Android-based gaming platform Google are working on....

Geeksphone Peak - The First Firefox Phone - Unboxing & Hands-On

Good video showcasing the rather tasty Geeksphone Peak Firefox OS mobile phone....looking forward to getting one of these and switching to it as my main phone....

Firefox OS....beyond the browser and in your pocket

Not content with ruling the mobile operating system space under the guise of Android and the upcoming (and awesome) Ubuntu for Mobile, Linux has another trick up its sleeve with the impending release of Firefox OS, an operating system based on the popular browser.

The approach is not entirely brand new as the failed Palm (then HP) WebOS attempted to deliver web-based mobile services but couldn't get traction in an emerging market but Firefox already has a strong market presence and loyal user base familiar with its HTML5 code base. Cleverly their target market is not mature ones like North America or Europe but rather emerging ones where the web is still taking root and the smartphone is not the norm. By making the OS run well on less than cutting edge spec hardware and giving the software away, they are positioning their ecosystem to take a strong run at global popularity.

The first devices hit the shelves next week via the Spain-based Geeksphone and the hardware looks robust as well as colourful. There are certainly no quad-core processors on show here but do you really need it if the software runs smoothly? In addition the Firefox browser extension gives an attractive look at the UI before the launch and interface for app creators to test their design.

It will be interesting to see how Firefox OS is received by consumers but the Linux community is already embracing it and that can only help....competition in this space is good for us end users and I do hope it proves successful.

Chromebooks in the real world...

This is an excellent article on the real world deployment of Google Apps and Chromebooks by recruitment firm reed.co.uk. It gives great perspective from the corporate IT side of things and illustrates how effective Google's offering  an be...

How Microsoft totally blew it and lost this contract to Google Apps | CITEworld

Full Steam Ahead...

Valve has released Steam for Linux - the open-source version of its increasingly popular gaming platform - no doubt sending shivers and tremors through Microsoft as a result.

The gaming company has previously announced its intention to launch a gaming rig based on Linux - dubbed the Steambox - in to living rooms around the world, challenging the Xbox, Playstation and Wii head-on. However, this early software-led open source play via Linux significantly reduces the barrier to entry for anyone looking to get their gaming freak on...no more need to buy a Windows licence.

The integration of Steam in to the Ubuntu Software Centre is unsurprising given the popularity of both and with it gamers can now download a free, stable operating system that will allow them to get down to business for nothing, outside the cost of your hardware.

I personally cannot wait to see the Steambox and what Valve do next...they clearly have a plan.

Film of The Year 2012

Well it’s that time of the year when I pick my favourite movie of the past 12 months. The qualifying criteria is only that the film is one I have seen in this timeframe and not necessarily related to the date of release. 

It has to be said that 2012 saw some amazing movies released over the course of the year. Big ticket blockbusters were commonplace with films such as The Avengers, The Expendables 2, Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises and Men In Black 3 all heading up the earnings charts. Indeed, there were so many good films I have yet to even see Looper, The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall!

A number notables to me included This Means War, Act of Valor and Iron Sky - all very enjoyable in their own ways, especially Iron Sky given it’s small budget and fan-sourced funding approach to deliver a suitably daft but enjoyable movie about Nazis from the Moon! Also, Jason Statham’s Safe was also a terrific film.

However, my choice for the main awards came down to a difficult decision from five movies. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Battleship, Prometheus, Bourne Legacy and Total Recall all were in the running...

Ghost Protocol was a welcome return to form for the M:I franchise with a great story, terrific pace and booming audio. Battleship was an audio/visual treat despite a nonsense storyline whilst Prometheus was a deep contemplative film that kept me thinking for weeks after watching it despite my feeling that the storyline was ripped off from the Halo videogames. The Bourne Legacy was a very enjoyable movie that has set up the storyline nicely for a run of sequels and quelled my fears that the memories of the original trilogy were set to be ruined by a money-milking side-sequel. Total Recall was the biggest surprise of the year for me. The original was dumb but this remake was a far smarter affair, beautifully shot, amazing audio (with hefty drops of Hybrid goodness mixed in which helps), a better storyline and terrific action.

However, there can be only one and the choice for my 2012 Film of the Year went to Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol with Total Recall and Bourne Legacy coming in very close in the runners-up spots but to be honest, any one of them could have won it - it was that close. 2013 has a high target to achieve the same level of greatness, it really does!!

Focus ST - Virtual Tarmac Meets Actual

You can’t fail to notice the current marketing push for the new Ford Focus ST if you’ve seen it, given that the billboard adverts across many cities are adorned with the very hot and popular hatchback in its famous and highly visible orange paint job screaming across the image.

What is most striking is the logo on the billboard mentioning that the car was seen in the recent Need For Speed:Most Wanted video game - a brilliant bit of mutual advertising with feet in both the virtual and real worlds. What better way to allow large numbers of people to ‘test drive’ a hot new car before its real world launch than to put it in a video game, especially one with a big fan base, clear love of cars and impressive visuals such as the Need For Speed series.

For the video game makers (Criterion) it works as well by allowing them to promote the inclusion of a car that hasn’t even hit the streets yet in their game (a unique selling point if ever there was one) and also sees their game promoted on major billboards across the country alongside a major real-world product launch.

It is really encouraging to see a major brand such as Ford embrace video games as a potential marketing outlet and tool for promoting their product. Hopefully more companies will follow suit as gaming becomes more and more mainstream. Well done Ford...as a former Focus owner this makes me want an ST even more!

Kept Alive by the Drive...

I was rescued recently by the power of the cloud when a presentation I was about to use in front of a large conference audience of industry peers corrupted on my usb stick.

 Thankfully I had chucked the slideshow in to my Google Drive the night before and a quick hooking up of my phone to the venue's local wi-fi network and a share via e-mail saw the powerpoint restored on the organiser's laptop. Phew!

A very real world example of why keeping things in the cloud is such a good idea!

Chromebook tidal wave...

I am a major fan of the Google Chromebook - both the hardware and the wider concept of dirt-cheap, cloud based computing and once again the Mountain View powerhouse has broken another barrier with the unveiling of another new laptop from Acer - the C7 - and it is the first under the magical £200 barrier, albeit £199.00. It's not as good a spec as the Samsung variants but the price point will no doubt broaden the appeal further.

Google Music lands on UK shores...

At long last Google's Music service (or Play Music to give it its proper title) has landed in the UK. The service offers an iTunes competitor in terms of music purchasing but of much more interest to me at least is the upload/streaming facility.

The service offers the user the chance to upload up to 20,000 songs for storage in the cloud which can then be streamed anywhere through a variety of linked devices including a browser, Android mobile phone, tablet, pc etc. It's a terrific feature and one that has been long-awaited here in the UK.

The service works smoothly with a small piece of software downloading to your pc to scan your collection and either match a song with Google's own existing library or upload ones that do not. I have over 70 gig of music but am still well below the 20,000 song limit so the potential free storage is massive.

This then enabled me try it out today by hooking up my Nexus S to an external speaker and stream a number of songs over wi-fi from the cloud...brilliant! All my music wherever I am...as long as I have a data connection.

I have little doubt this service will become the principle route for my future music consumption...good job Google!

Nexus: Ask Me Anything

Google have officially taken the wrapper off of the next version of Android although it remains dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich...it looks very cool and the new photo spheres looks terrific (the ability to shot a multitude of shots and it will stich them together in to one enveloping shot...pretty cool.

The big ticket upgrade is to Google Now which was already pretty solid but now looks even better...

Xtreamer Smartphone

The boffins at Xtreamer are at it again...

Having revolutionised the home cinema streamer market with their highly powerful and innovative devices, they are taking aim at the smartphone arena now with their own 5 inch Jellybean-powered Android device. 

The device is rumoured to be low cost yet highly powerful and with all the tweaking access you could desire, just like their home cinema devices. Hopefully it won't take as long to come to market as their amazing Prodigy device but even if it did, the wait will likely be worth it! These guys do gadgets right!

Incredible Nex-Gen Android Phones

I had to blog about two of the most incredible new mobile phones that are available to buy now. The first is the aforementioned HTC One X - an amazing device with a feature set that is pretty much untouchable. It has a 4.7 inch screen, 1.5Ghz processor, 8 meg camera, 1080p video recording, photo shooting whilst video recording, Beats Audio, 32gb of storage, Dropbox included and 1gb of RAM. It is also backed up by a pretty slick advertising campaign...this commercial takes my breath away every time I watch it!

The One X is not the only phone to enter the fray however as the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3 has also hit shelves. The S3 will look to continue the popularity of the S2 and has a similar aspect to the One X. It has a slgihtly larger 4.8 inch screen but also rocks HD resolutions and video recording, a quad core processor, 8 meg camera, 64 gigs of memory and S-Voice, Samsung's own voice control software amongst   numerous other features...many pretty similar to the One X.

With both phones running their own skin on top of Android 4.0 and having strong market presences already, it will be interesting to see which one comes out on top. The Galaxy range is pretty popular but HTC always make awesome phones so it will be a fun fight and a good time to be an Android user! Hopefully both will sell well...

Go Google: Google Drive

At last...Google's Drive platform has arrived!

ZX Spectrum turns 30 today....

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the hallowed ZX Spectrum computer, which for many was their first introduction to programming and, probably more importantly but don’t tell our parents, pc gaming!

After starting with a Commodore VIC20 (!) I moved up to a Spectrum 128+2 and loved it...I still rue the day I sold it and sorely miss playing classics such as Microprose Soccer (360 degree banana kicks!) and Typhoon amongst many many others...emulators do the job but I miss the original hulking keyboard!

Google has even gotten in on the act by featuring the device in their Google Doodle for today (23/4/2012).

The device is set to be relaunched to tap in to the feeling of nostalgia. Albeit it will only be a bluetooth keyboard that will likely link with your mobile to run a Spectrum games emulator but even so, this will appeal to many of a certain age...Manic Miner for the masses!

See the full picture with the Nokia 808 PureView

The battlelines are being drawn in the looming contest to have the best camera/camcorder built in to a mobile phone. The Nokia 808 Pureview offers amazing image sizes and quality as evidenced here by this commercial which was shot using the device...it and the HTC One X look to be ushering in the next generation fusion of camera/mobile phone device...which is very exciting indeed!

Google Glass goes visible...

Google have unveiled the details of their long-rumoured wearable networked glasses technology named Google Glass.

Combining the power of a number of their technologies such as GPS, Google Goggles, Google+, Maps, Search etc. the wearable gear is not as clunky and obvious as many had feared. The thinner design helps address one key barrier to uptake (how they look) but it remains to be seen whether people would use such a thing.

I could see obvious benefits for drivers who would have, in essence, their own personal HUD, overlaying directions, traffic alerts etc. and helping eliminate use of mobile phones. The Bluetooth earpiece has become an accepted piece of wearable technology so why can't this?

The following video from Google's Skunk Works 'X Division' where this and many other cutting-edge developments are underway illustrates how it might look...intriguing if nothing else...

HTC One X - First look

I have long been a fan of HTC hardware and the new One X Android phone looks amazing!

41 megapixel camera in your shirt pocket...

With relatively little fanfare, Nokia (remember them?!) have announced the upcoming launch of the 808 PureView mobile phone, the specs of which are relatively uninspiring compared to some of the top-of-the-line devices on the market already - Symbian-based OS (no Windows?), single 1.3Ghz processor, 4 inch screen, 16gig of memory but....

And it is a big but, maybe even a huge but....but it also comes with a 41 megapixel camera! That is not a typing error! Have a look at some of the sample images below or download the full size 10 meg images from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Nokia 808 PureView sample images

This is very impressive stuff and the line between mobile and dslr camera is further blurred. No doubt the grainy mobile phone image is on life-support after the launch of this product...hopefully other manufacturers will now turn their attention to developing similar powerful imaging hardware in to their phones...Android ones ideally!