Mid-week MWC

So we've reached the mid-week point of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and what a week it's been! Here's a quick roundup of the top 5 highlights so far:

1. Nokia released a new phone, big deal. It runs the traditional Nokia operating system Symbian, so what? It has a 41 megapixel camera. Say what?! Although I can't help but wonder about the usefulness, I mean nobody is going to buy this (expensive) phone that doesn't run Windows/Android/iOS just for a camera when you could buy a more professional camera for the same price. Case closed.  
2. HTC have gone back to their roots as promised with 3 new phones, one for each market level. The behemoth HTC One X has a quad-core processor, 4.7inch screen and ICS. HTC One S has a dual-core processor, 4.3inch screen and ICS, whilst the baby of the family (HTC One V) has a 3.7inch screen, 1ghz processor and ICS. Oh it also resembles the popular HTC Hero. Did I mention all 3 come with 2 years 25gb dropbox storage? Nice. 
3. LG Optimus 4X HD. Try remembering that! Could be a decent phone though with a very nice screen, quad-core processor and 4.7inch screen. Looks like a straighout battle between that and the One X. 
4. Samsung released 2 new tablets, the tab 2 and the Note 10.1. Appears a bit contradictory between the two but hey-ho. The tab 2 is a 7inch screen, 1ghz processor and 1 gb RAM, whilst the Note 10.1 has a (you guessed it) 10inch screen, 1.4ghz chip and 1gb ram. After these (rather disappointing) announcements I really hope the Galaxy S III is something special when it is revealed about June time.  
5. Okay, so not technically released at the MWC but still a big deal. Apple notoriously never release anything at the MWC, but you can bet that won't keep them quiet. They announced this week that a big event will be happening next Wednesday (7th March) referring to 'touch' and 'see'. 5 points for whoever guesses what this is about, bearing in mind the iPad 2 was released about this time last year...

App of the week

This weeks app is called Bump. A handy little app that is available for android and iphone. So what does it do? Pretty much exactly as it says on the tin - open the app on two phones then bump them together to share photos, songs, app recommendations, contacts...files for pretty much anything! A handy new feature has just been added that lets you find out if you have any mutual friends in common (not sure how handy this is!).

Social Media today

What is social media? Anything from Twitter to Facebook, FourSquare to Linkedin; pretty much a way of keeping in touch and broadcasting your life stories! Anyway, found this picture the other day and it really struck home a simple explanation for the various social media options out there.

Mobile World Congress - Predictions

With the Mobile World Congress just around the corner I figured I'd throw up a wee post with predictions for what will be announced:

• Samsung Galaxy S III: This is pretty much a definite, with the latest version of the Galaxy S line being rumoured for months. Expect up-to-date android (ICS), better battery, NFC and a contender for best phone of 2012. EDIT: Apparently the launch of this has been postponed until around July.
• Sleuth of HTC phones: Unfortunately HTC have released so many phones in the past year it's difficult to know what's what! The head of the company did release a statement recently indicating that this will not be the case this year, where they will stick to creating the best phone in each category (budget, mid-range, top-range). To be honest, I can't see that happening yet though, expect at least 3-4 previewed next week!
• Dual core, quad core, hex core?! Phones and tablets are getting more and more powerful cramming an increasing number of cores into the product. This gives it higher processing power, better graphics and hopefully better battery efficiency!
• New 'slimmest' phone: Each phone released is the next 'slimmest' phone in the World, expect to see at least 2 claiming that throne next week. 
• 'HD' resolutions: Phone and Tablet screens have come a long way in 10 years..imagine going from no-colour at all to a phone that has a better display than your tv?
• Samsung tab 2: Ok, technically not a prediction as it has already been announced, but this will be available for a good ole play with. Pretty much the same spec as the Tab10.1 but a smaller device!
• LG 3D Max: Another one that has just been announced but not trialled. Biggest feature is turning 2D pics and videos into 3D retrospectively..will see how it works when put to the test!

What not to expect?

• iphone 5 or ipad 3: Apple usually reserves these for a big event of their own. Rumours are currently thinking on June time but you might see some new Apple-goodness earlier than that!  

Greatest Add-on?

This is pretty much an open-ended post, but I was just thinking about what could win the title as the greatest add-on for a games console. I'll throw some contenders out there and it would be interesting to hear what you think!

Xbox Kinect

1. First off, and most recently, the Kinect. Bringing Minority Report-esque controls to the Xbox 360. A recent update of the Xbox dashboard means you can control just about the entire xbox by flapping your arms about in front of the Kinect camera, which 'watches' your movements. The voice control is also pretty cool, where you can navigate around the Xbox by shouting commands at it, although it does feel pretty weird! All that is available, without even mentioning the gaming capacity! Copying your actions this has brought successful games that really make you sweat it out from skiing and volleyball to playing with a virtual pet!

Sega Saturn Gun. 

2. This could apply to most games consoles, but the Gun addition has to be up there! Right from the Sega Saturn, just plug this in and you are instantly more involved with the game, performing James Bond style rolls around your sitting room whilst blowing up ninjas and pirates. Except maybe not ninjas - everyone knows you can't hit a ninja.

Wii vs Move?

3. Playstation Move/Wii Nun-chucks - These two are very similar, so I'm lumping them in together! Both are hand-held baton type controllers which can be used for a multitude of actions from lightsabers to bow & arrow and of course, regular controllers. The Playstation Move (although never using it myself) is apparently much more accurate than the Wii giving precise tracking on-screen. Within themselves these peripherals both have accessories that turn them into a variety of objects such as golf-clubs, guns, steering-wheels and super cool ninja swords to name a few!

Red Bull Racing Seat. 

4. Racing seats. The ultimate boy-hood dream, acting like a racing driver! The incarnation above comes from Red Bull and has been tested by the likes of Vettel himself..must be alright I guess! Who wouldn't love one of these kicking about their sitting room?!

The classic Les Paul. 

5. Guitar Hero. The inspiration for this blog actually! Yes, I was one of those addicted rockers that would sit in the flat on a Friday night and 'jam' with my friends. To be fair though, it's the perfect solution for myself anyway, bringing gaming and music together. What's better than really feeling like you're making the music of legends with a few beers and your mates? The drums and vocals just added to the real feel! Just a shame that manufacturers have stopped making the games...

6. ??? Who knows what is to come in the future? The kinect has so much potential that I feel this could be the way forward - even TV companies are incorporating similar systems into their TVs these days! Of course, there is also the Wii U (which Phil has discussed in a previous post) where a smaller touchscreen controller is used in combination with the TV. Got a favourite yourself? Anything I've glaringly missed? Hit me up in the comments!

App of the week

It was inevitable that this would turn up - no? Angry Birds has been one of the biggest games to grace the mobile platform World, with over 500 million downloads as of November 2011. Incase you haven't been on the planet for the last year or so, Angry Birds is a simple game created by Rovio where you catapult little birds at little pigs (I think) to try and get your eggs back..or something along those lines! 

It has become iconic with at least 3 themed spin-offs selling on 15 different platforms. Put quite simply, it's a must for any casual gamer that has a tablet/phone/computer and time to kill! 

WARNING: I will not take any liability for work missed, friends disowned, buses not made due to the downloading of this app!

Realistic mock-up of Angry Birds

Your Proxy, My Proxy, Who's Proxy?

Closest thing I could find to getting the Internet when not at home. Is it relevant? Well no, but come on  'Pringles Cantenna', winner!

I was recently passed a question from a friend, “How do I disable my proxy so I can watch Iplayer abroad?”

Well the simple answer is you could but it wouldn't help as its your work station that chooses what server to connect to, irrespective of your country. The more useful answer is to use private proxies or scraped proxies located in various countries. To do this you can either use free ones or subscribe to a relatively cheap service for privately owned and sustained proxy servers in all the main countries. Now be warned, the free proxy servers may seem like an easy win but these are often swamped with users, resulting in very slow performance. Not to mention you run the risk of viruses commonly affecting these servers. If you're lucky with a google search you may come across a dedicated VPN or proxy server set up specifically for watching your video channel, but these will be short lived as they are set up to go down. By that I mean they often get threats from broadcast networks to shut down. There are also web based proxy services where you can put the URL of your desired video stream. Such websites are usually built on Perl of PHP scripts that act to hide your IP address. These aren't always reliable as they have to change the underlying HTML and change website looks. They also won't work if the URL is secure (https://) and a membership is required.

I've had a look around, and been able to find two paid services and one volunteer based service at your disposal. While I don't use these services myself I've read good reviews and feedback from regular users which can vouch for how good they are.

The two paid choices I have for you are these:

1.Identity Cloaker

2.HideMyAss

Both these services require you to subscribe to their service and at a very cheap price of between £6-£10. Both services provide encryption of the data you send and receive across the internet. They act to hide your physical location and IP address. With a range of countries and IP's privately maintained around the world, you can pick and choose your desired proxy to connect through (software provided) and access those sites usually blocked. Using Internet Explorer will work fine, but for Identity Cloaker, Firefox requires a small extra add on. 'HideMyAss' offers a partially free web based service as well as paid, but I can guarantee the paid will offer more security and more bandwidth.

The one volunteer service I have for you is this:

1.TOR

The Tor Project was originally a Naval online operation for secure data communication, but is now a widely public and frequently used online privacy service. It works in a similar way to the above services, hiding your physical address and IP. The clever aspect of TOR is best described by themselves as a twisty. Using their software your normal connection route is bounced around a circuit of encrypted networks until it reaches its destination. Each point only knows where the connection came from and where it goes next, encrypting with a fresh key at each point so the full route is never known. Your route is also reset every ten minutes.

While this is a very secure and robust method, the routes are mainly intended for relatively small amounts of data and rely heavily on volunteers. This can prove unreliable at times and if you don't see yourself as a power user, this service can confuse the average user.

So the whole process of switching proxy services isn't an entirely simple one. There are, as you have seen, multiple options available to you from the free but potentially harmful, the free but potentially slow and the relatively cheap but secure service. It's down to how tech savy you are and how much you are willing to pay against how much you are willing to risk. I personally think that Internet encryption at that level for that price tag is very reasonable and far better then taking a chance with something free. It's your personal data after all, but I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on the matter are.

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Take a peep!

I've been working hard with my great designer Dink Creative (www.dinkcreative.co.uk) to build my new site.

I operate as a freelance copywriter in Edinburgh and offer many services.

Please visit my site www.pipcopywriting.co.uk and have a look!

I'm currently writing an article on how best to approach getting a website built so stay tuned.

Desert Island Tech

Ben decided to start shopping for a new suit. 

Was discussing the age old question of what 3 things would you have with you if you were stuck on a desert island the other day, and figured I'd throw in a tech related version. So here are Phil, Ben and Ally's 3 items we would "save" if stuck on a desert island.

Oh, and the rules are that you're not allowed to have a communicative device as there will be no wifi/phone signal. Feel free to throw in your own 'desert island tech' in the comments!

Ally - Ipod touch 64gb, kindle, either tamagotchi or macbook (with football manager installed of course)

So  my beloved ipod would have to be first on my list. Unfortunately Apple make the 64gb the largest ipod touch, otherwise I'd pick a larger one! Don't think the classic really cuts the mustard either even though it has a larger memory. The gaming apps would help kill some time too, and can double this up to watch some movies on. 

Next up, the kindle. I don't actually have one although it's on my list! Having played about with one they seem pretty incredible though. Full month's usage on one charge and hundreds of books can be stored. Gives me plenty of time to master the Pythagoras theorem. Or y'know get through the entire Mr Men and Little Miss books.

Finally I'm torn between my macbook with footie manager...hours of my life have been spent (read: wasted) on this game. Or, a tamagotchi. Lets face it, this could be my equivalent of Wilson, and I could surely make a record for the length of time keeping one alive. Challenge accepted.

Phil - hmm, this is certainly a tricky one. Having put in some considerable thought, I've gone for:

1. A MP3 player 64GB with all of my favourite tunes and a great docking station.

2. An Alienware laptop with the best specs and massive external hardrive (1TB) for Steam, plus an OnLive subscription.

3. Kindle Fire with access to all of Amazon's online store.

I've got everything covered, music, games, books and films. What else does one need? Well, perhaps a mini bar constantly loaded with gin. Can I please change my choices?

I'd originally began with the usual Ipod, kindle, transformer but I've got something a bit better I think.

1.Xbox 360 with a portable 500gb USB drive. (Store both games, films  and music).

2.A whopping big 50" OLED HD tv, HDMI cable included. (I could push for a bigger tv, sit it back in the shade of the trees.

3.Last one is a toss up between sitting on the sand with a pair of Beats or in the Ultimate of gaming chairs. ( And for arguments sake, there are the necessary cables for the chair. Ally - Kudos.

App of the week

The second instalment of the 'App of the week' post covers something I've mentioned briefly, but deserves more credit - Browser Texting (http://bit.ly/xblXna).

This is an android only app that allows you to have your texts forwarded to your computer. After downloading the app you can link up to your computer through either a Firefox/Chrome addon (which gives a chat window within your browser) or by linking your phone to the Browser Texting website. The Firefox/Chrome addon couldn't be simpler, where you open the app on your phone, then scan a QR code on your browser and you're away!

There are a number of features available from group chats to encryption between the browser and phone, although a subscription is required after the 30 day trial. Subscription costs £6 for a year, which is hardly anything considering how useful it is!

Tablet Roundup

Tablet pcs are coming more and more to the forefront of the technology world. Replacing laptops and challenging ultrabooks, but at a budget price (usually!) there are loads of options out there ranging from the well-known iPad 2 through to the Transformer Prime. Here is a brief roundup of our top 3:

1. Incredibly tough call and probably seems like a cop-out, but joint first would have to be iPad 2 (from £400) or the Transformer Prime (from £500). Starting with the iPad 2, its sheer usability and app market have to be the two main reasons it makes the list. Anyone can pick it up and go with no previous experience, whilst the app market is second to none with over half a million apps..yup, there's an app for that. Cringe. 

The Transformer is the best of the android tablets. A quad core processor makes it just as powerful as a laptop and the additional dock expands battery life to a massive 16 hours! I've always maintained that the difference between Android users and ios users are that Androidians (that's a word) want to customise and tweak every user interaction on the device to make it personal and unique. ios users are much more practical, they look to have a device that just 'works' straight out of the box without the need to change much on it, although I personally feel this leaves the device with a lack of identity; the only things different on my ipod are the background and lock screen pic, otherwise it could be anyones!  

2. Without any bias (yes I have one), this was (up until the start of this year) the best android tablet by a mile, the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 (from £400) - catchy name don't ya think? Amazing screen, great battery life (same as an ipad 2 at around 8-10 hours) slim profile and 2 cameras made sure this tablet rose above the rest last year. 

3. Although not released in the UK yet, the Kindle Fire (roughly £130) will be arriving this year, although guesses as to when on a postcard please [Edit -Phil: I hear mutterings of late Feb through to early April]! Running android but with a complete Amazon redesign skin on top (making the androidness unrecognisable) this should undercut every other tablet on the market by price at least. The specs look decent too though, with a dual core processor, cloud storage through Amazon and the 'silk browser' which is meant to be one of the fastest on a tablet device all onboard, it will be interesting to see how this measures across the pond. 

Honourable mention: RIM Playbook - Blackberry's effort however hardly made a dent in the market with a tiny app store and pretty average spec. Also I'd imagine there will be a sleuth of new Window's tablets to coincide with the launch of Windows 8 this year.