In Depth: Flashback: the past, present and future of the camera phone

13 years ago, phones with cameras inside seemed pointless, heavy bricks that gave you grainy approximations of images. Fast forward to today, and we now have a phone with a 41MP camera sensor, one with 10x optical zoom and phone that's adept at nabbing low light shots sitting sleekly in our collective pocket.

Today, with the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 as the most popular cameras used on photo sharing site Flickr, camera phones are clearly the new medium for taking and sharing photos, with the likes of Samsung and HTC also making the top ten.

And look at Instagram, an application dedicated to people taking photos on their mobile devices - predominantly mobile phones - now boasts over 150 million active users and sees 55 million photos posted from said devices every day.

Tell someone 15 years ago that phones would be the most popular cameras and they'd probably laugh. Today the two are synonymous. But how did this all happen so quickly?

November 2000 saw the first camera phone hit the market, the Sharp J-SH04, but it failed to make much of an impact. In fact the J-SH04 never made it out of Japan - we could go as far as to say the first camera phone was actually a bit of a flop.

Read the specs of the Sharp J-SH04 and you'll understand the reservations people had about camera phones back then.

A 0.11MP snapper adorning the rear and a 256 colour display is enough to make you weep, but at least it was lightweight at just 74g. You won't find a camera phone weighing as little as that nowadays.

Maybe the world wasn't ready for the technology, or perhaps no one cared. Either way the camera phone had arrived and a couple of years later the landscape changed completely.

Released in early 2002, the Nokia 7650 is arguably one of the most important phones ever. Promoted around the film Minority Report, it brought camera phones to the mainstream with the help of endorsement deals and heavy promotion.

Essentially, having a camera on your phone suddenly became rather desirable even if you couldn't do much with the picture.

Nokia Lumia 7650

In terms of specs the 7650 stepped things up over Sharp's original camera phone, with a 0.3MP camera, 2.1-inch display, 104MHz processor and a whopping 4MB (yes MB, not GB) of internal storage.

The Sony Ericsson T68i was the only other camera phone available at the time, although the camera was an entirely separate module. In the US, the T68i was available for $199 (around £120), the camera was another $130 (around £80).

This gave rise to the first MMS services in the UK, from Orange and T-Mobile.

By today's standards, the Nokia 7650 is pretty poor as it has a maximum 4 hours talk time, and the 2.1-inch screen is smashed by the 5-inches we see today, but toting a VGA 640x480 camera inside put it ahead of its camera devoid rivals.

It wasn't until November 2003 that the next big step was made, with introduction of autofocus in the Panasonic P505iS.

By 2005 things, things had improved greatly. The Sony Ericsson K750i was one of a select few phones to be rocking a 2MP camera, and it even had a blindingly bright dual-LED flash. This was next-gen stuff, seriously.

Alongside the Nokia 7650, the Sony Ericsson K750i was a handset that we clamoured for. We remember pulling it out of a pocket, only to find a friend had bought the same phone, but in a different colour.

The K750i also highlights just how far the rest of the mobile world had progressed, with 9 hours talk time and Bluetooth 2.0. It may have only had a 1.9-inch display, but the addition of a memory card slot meant a photo sharing revolution had begun.

A dedicated lens slider showed Sony was serious about camera phones, and this continued with the introduction of its Cyber-shot camera technology in the Sony Ericsson K800i.

Nokia followed up its 2005 Nokia N90 (the first with a Carl Zeiss lens) and the 2006 Nokia N93 (with 3x optical zoom) with the technically gifted Nokia N95 in 2007.

The N95 had much to shout about; 3.5G internet technology, GPS and impressive multimedia capabilities. The camera was also no slouch, it too carried Carl Zeiss optics. The 5MP sensor was aided by an LED flash.

The 330MHz processor took 20 seconds between shots, something that was considered reasonable at the time. Compare that to today where smartphones are able to process many images per second, and 2007 seems an age ago.

The other stand-out camera phone of 2007 was the LG Viewty KU990. It too packed a 5MP camera with lenses made Schneider Kreuznach.

Design-wise, the Viewty resembled a compact camera, coming complete with a movable wheel on the back that allowed for up to 16x digital zoom.

It also rolled up with a Xenon flash, an upgrade over the LED offerings, as well as a 3-inch touch screen to put images front and centre.

There was little to choose between the LG Viewty and the Nokia N95 for cameras, but the Viewty offered far greater image editing, slow motion video capture and the touch screen is something that we have now come to expect from smartphones.

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In Depth: Why the smartphone is about to beat the PS4 at its own game

In the US alone, smartphone gaming has around 126 million players, making it one of the most popular segments. By 2016 that's expected to rise to 144 million, according to a report by MediaBrix, which would equate to more than 8 in 10 smartphone users.

The popularity of smartphone games in the UK isn't quite so high, but according to a report by comScore, 52.4% of UK smartphone users were playing games on them at least once a month in the three months ending February 2012 and if those US figures are anything to go by the numbers are likely to be even higher now.

So why such a sudden surge in popularity? Are games getting better or are we just spending more time at bus stops and doctor's waiting rooms?

One of the main reasons is cost: games are cheaper to buy on smartphones than their PC or console counterparts. They're also a lot cheaper to make in general, meaning that the various app stores, particularly Google Play and the Apple App Store, have become flooded with an enormous selection of titles.

Then there's the fact that, according to eMarketer, 48.4% of the UK population will have a smartphone by the end of the year, essentially meaning that almost 1 in 2 people will already have a device capable of playing portable games, rather than needing to invest in extra hardware.

But graphics, content and control schemes still often hold phone games back. The question is, can the console experience ever be replicated by a smartphone and even if so: can gaming on a smartphone ever be as good as gaming on a console?

For many people the term 'console quality' means high end graphics, which is understandable, since graphics are the most immediately obvious sign of a game's quality.

They don't make or break a game by any means but they are a major factor in how high quality a game is perceived to be.

Ultimately, smartphone games just aren't up to the same graphical standards as console games. That said, there is some crossover between low end console games and high end smartphone games, which demonstrates that the gap between the two may not be that enormous.

Take Asphalt 8: Airborne for example. It obviously doesn't look as good as something like the console version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the PS3 or Xbox 360 as there's far less graphical detail.

But when played on the small screen of a smartphone it does arguably look comparable to Test Drive Unlimited 2 on the PS3 or Xbox 360, which is an impressive feat given that Asphalt 8 is free to play, while Test Drive Unlimited 2 cost around £40 at launch and even now costs over £15.

The difference in screen sizes also means that smartphones don't necessarily need to be as powerful as consoles to deliver high end graphics, as while smartphone games may not look great blown up on a big screen, the small display size of a phone hides many of the rough edges and lets them shine.

Even though smartphone games may not be able to compete graphically with most recent console games, top end smartphones are certainly at least as powerful as older consoles such as the Xbox and the PS2; in fact they're actually quite a bit more powerful on some metrics.

The PS2, for example, had just a 300 MHz processor, a 147 MHz Graphics Synthesizer GPU and 32 MB of RAM. Compare that to the Samsung Galaxy S4, which has a 1.9 GHz quad-core processor, a 400 MHz Adreno 320 GPU and 2 GB of RAM and, on paper, smartphones should be way ahead.

Of course the PS2 was specifically built around gaming, while the Galaxy S4 and other phones aren't, so the difference might not be as pronounced as you'd think.

So how close are they really? We had a chat with Gameloft to find out the real challenges and benefits you get when making a high-end smartphone game.

"Mobile chipsets are very competitive compared with current-gen consoles," a spokesperson told us. "With the exception of the polygon throughput, the latest chipsets already reach most of the shader rendering quality of current-gen consoles." They even went so far as to say that "the latest chipsets are capable of running current generation console games," albeit not referencing the recent PS4 / XBox One line-up, more their predecessors.

And if proof were needed that smartphones can match or exceed the PS2 for gaming performance just look at how easily they cope with ports of last generation games, such as GTA: Vice City.

This runs well on high end handsets and isn't even as good looking as many smartphone games, such as Horn and Dead Trigger 2, so presumably it's not pushing phones to their limits.

Smartphones seem an unlikely new home for old favourites, but if more get ported they could soon be the go-to place for a dose of nostalgia, resurrecting games that were lost when we sold our old consoles or when they finally gave up after years of faithful service.

With new and more powerful smartphones being released all the time the gap between phones and new consoles may close too. Sure, the next generation of consoles has just arrived and initially they're likely to blow away anything a smartphone can do.

But five years down the line people will still be using the Xbox One and PS4, while Samsung will likely be up to the Galaxy S9 and there's no telling how powerful that will be, especially now that 64-bit chips are making their way into handsets.

These will be important, according to our Gameloft spokesperson, who said they will "help to push vector processing speed with less machine cycles, which is the main performance bottle neck in processing polygons."

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In Depth: The tech behind the Queen's Christmas speech

The Queen has been making Christmas Day broadcasts since the death of her father, King George VI, in February 1952

As well as following a religious framework, her address always reflects the events of the past year and her own experiences. And, as well as being part of the British and Commonwealth heritage, how the message is delivered shows the evolution of broadcast technology.

Following her Accession earlier in the year, the Queen broadcasts her first Christmas Message live on the radio from her study at Sandringham, Norfolk, using the same desk and chair as her father, King George VI, and his father, King George V, had done before her.

This first Christmas address paid tribute to the late king and spoke of carrying on the tradition passed to her. "Each Christmas, at this time, my beloved Father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world ... As he used to do, I am speaking to you from my own home, where I am spending Christmas with my family ... My Father [King George VI], and my Grandfather [King George V] before him, worked hard all their lives to unite our peoples ever more closely, and to maintain its ideals which were so near to their hearts. I shall strive to carry on their work."

This wasn't the first time the queen had been on the radio though, as you can hear here:

The advent of television during the Queen's reign gives a new dimension to her Christmas Messages in 1957, which was the first year to have a televised Christmas broadcast.

The Christmas Broadcast, 1957

The broadcast was made live from the Long Library at Sandringham, Norfolk and was the first time viewers were able to see the Queen in her own surroundings, decorated for Christmas. The Queen talks about the new technology in her speech: "That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us ... television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes."

This year the Queen reverted from television back to radio to deliver her Christmas Message as she was pregnant with her fourth child, Prince Edward.

Tradition was broken in 1969 as there was no Christmas Message – this is the only year during her reign that Her Royal Highness has not addressed the nation. The lack of broadcast was down to the fact that a repeat of the documentary, Royal Family, was already scheduled. This break with tradition resulted in a tremendous amount of public concern, so much so that the Queen issued a message reassuring the public that the broadcast would return in 1970.

This year's Christmas Message was broadcast with the addition of the BBC's Ceefax, the world's first teletext information service to provide subtitles for the hard of hearing.

This year saw the Queen's Christmas Speech broadcast online for the first time – an important move considering the growing popularity of the internet. This was also the year that the Queen launched www.royal.gov.uk during a visit to Kingsbury High School in Brent.

The Royal website launched in 1997

Following the 2001 TV broadcast of the Christmas speech, it was released as a free download for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. This was big news, as it allowed people to digest The Queen's speech in a completely new way.

A spokeswoman at Buckingham Palace told the BBC: "We would like The Queen's Speech to be broadcast or read as widely as possible, and allowing Kindle to make the text available is just another example of this."

The arrangement was an e-book exclusive and caused a stir in the book industry, with some describing it as a coup for Amazon, although the text was also available on the Royal Household's official website, the BBC and Facebook.

Moving with the times, in 2006 the Queen made her Christmas Day message available as a podcast for the first time. The message could be ordered in advance, for free, via the British Monarchy website and users then received the podcast on Christmas Day at 3pm – the same time it was shown on television in the UK.

2007 saw another technological advance with the launch of a dedicated Royal YouTube channel. The Christmas message went out on YouTube on Christmas Day at 3pm, when it was simultaneously shown on television.

The Royal Channel has 124,463 subscribers

This was the first year the message was broadcast in High Definition.

Last year's Christmas Message was broadcast to the UK and Commonwealth in 3D for the first time. Viewers needed a 3D television 'side-by-side' mode and 3D glasses and had to watch on Sky or the now defunct BBC HD.

Last year The Queen delivered her Christmas Speech in 3D

This use of new 3D technology came 80 years after George V first broadcast a Christmas speech on the radio and started the December 25th tradition and was the 60th message that the Queen has delivered to the nation and the Commonwealth, in commemoration of her Diamond Jubilee.

How long will it be before we're watching the Queen in 4K?

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In Depth: TechRadar's ultimate Christmas day: our best gifts revealed

Nostalgia, eh? It's that thing that creeps up at you over the festive period. It makes you fondly think back to the days of Christmas past when gifts weren't just iTunes cards and apps, PS4 games and e-readers.

Here the TechRadar team looks back at the tech gifts received at Christmas that they remember the fondest. The ones that made us geeky about gadgets and forget the family squabbling.

Enjoy reading and reminiscing, and thanks for helping to make TechRadar in 2013 one of the most-read technology websites on the planet. Oh, and don't forget to add your tech-mas memories in the comments below so we can all wallow in nostalgia together.

And on that note, let us transport you to the year 1987...

Patrick Goss, editor in chief (UK)

@patrickgoss | +patrickgoss

I remember being so excited when I got a Commodore Amiga 500 one Christmas that I wanted to rush off and plug it in right away, which given that my other pressies were the games was probably a mistake.

I will always have a place in my heart for the Amiga - from Sensible World of Soccer to Cannon Fodder, from Kick Off 2 to Football Manager and from Lemmings to Speedball 2, this was one of the all time great gaming machines. I'll still fight the death with anyone who suggests the Atari ST was better...

Paul Douglas, editor in chief (global)

@pdouglas | +pauldouglas

Aah, the Aiwa tape-to-tape deck I was given in the eighties. Like most ghetto blasters, this hunk of black plastic and metal was too big to comfortably carry around and would have needed about 50 batteries, but plugged into the mains it was perfect for making mixtapes. Of course, there was no Spotify, or even an internet, to stream music to it from but it did a mean job of recording the Top 40 from Radio 1 every Sunday.

Nick Broughall, editor TechRadar Australia

@bruff | +nickbroughall

I remember getting a joint PS One with my brother in the mid nineties. We had two controllers so we could play together like we had with every console before it, but that wasn't enough to stop the arguments. Because the game we both wanted to play was Final Fantasy VII, and the single Playstation just wasn't enough. Nor was the single analogue TV.

Still, we somehow managed to survive, and I still have that copy of FFVII. Although sadly I think my brother has the Playstation to play it on, so I guess we're right back to where we started from...

Desire Athow, editor, TechRadar Pro

@desireathow | +desireathow

Unfortunately, I never got a tech-based gift for Christmas. The closest thing to it was a (paper) Argos catalogue from the late '80s that one relative sent to me from the UK. Flicking through it, I discovered Amstrad, Commodore, Atari, Amiga and so many other tech brands, most of which have now disappeared. It kickstarted my passion (addiction??) for technology, something that lasts till this day and that big, fat bible-like directory of stuff is probably why I am the editor of TechRadar Pro today.

Dan Grabham, associate editor, TechRadar Pro

@dangrabham | +dangrabham

My favourite Christmas tech memory was when my parents bought me an Acorn A5000 computer (which was a next-gen Archimedes with the ahead-of-its-time RISC OS). I'd wanted one for ages and they really pushed the boat out as they were quite expensive, (although they used it as well). I was about 11 or something at the time. My friends used to come around after school and we'd play games like Stunt Racer 2000. And eat Jaffa Cakes.

Marc Chacksfield, deputy editor

@mchax | +marcchacksfield

While my first proper tech memory was inheriting my uncle's Atari 2600, the best tech present I ever received was a small, plastic watch... that turned into a frickin' robot. It was around 1985 and I was really into Transformers, so a watch (which after hours of looking on the web, I think was the Quartz Robot Watch) that 'transformed' blew my tiny mind.

To be honest, the watch probably broke every health and safety regulation going - I remember its legs and arms falling off a lot - but I didn't care. My watch could tell the time AND become a robot - nothing since has excited me as much. Well, not until I saw Sonic blast through Green Hill Zone catching all those rings a few years later.

Gareth Beavis, phones and tablets editor

@superbeav | +garethbeavis

My best ever gadget was the first ever Nintendo console. The NES. The greatest day in my childhood.

It came with the Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt combo, and even had the light gun. I played it all day long, switching between the games, and quickly became adept at puffing air on the cartridge to make it work.

In a way I've never hit those heights again - subsequent games and even consoles never matched up to that joy. I'd liken it the way the first astronauts felt, knowing that the rush could never be repeated, as adulthood has wiped away all vestiges of my childlike wonder.

Kate Solomon, news editor

@katiesol | +katesolomon

There has never been a games console that has smelled as good as the NES. It's pretty much the only thing I remember about Christmas '92 - the almost burnt smell of fresh plastic mingled with woody cardboard and polystyrene, the tang of Christmas tree, the smokey coal of the open fire. I didn't even know I wanted a NES until I ripped the paper off and saw the box because you weren't a hashtag gamer if you had a NES or a Megadrive, you were just a lucky kid who was about to lose a year praying at the altar of Nintendo.

John McCann, phones and tablets writer

@jjmccann | +johnmccann

Let's travel back to 2000. All my friends (and even my dad) have the Nokia 3210 and are rubbing it in my spotty, pubescent face. Since school started in September it's been a constant barrage of abuse, but come December 25 I have my revenge... wait... what's this?

A Motorola T180. Crap. This isn't a Nokia.

That aside, the T180 will always have a special place in my heart. It was my first mobile phone and kick started a love affair which landed me a killer job.

Kane Fulton, staff writer, TechRadar Pro

@kanefulton | +kanefulton

Funnily enough, I've just bought an Xbox One for myself to unwrap on Christmas day. It'll be sure to evoke memories of when I last took the wrappings off a festive console - an unexpected Sega Saturn with Bug!, Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter inside the box. A Commodore Amiga gamer at the time, I was spellbound by the Saturn's polygon-driven graphics and arcade thrills. I hope Microsoft can emulate that magic on December 25.

Hugh Langley, staff writer

@hughlangley | +hughlangley

For me, it was opening my original Game Boy on Christmas morning – it set the bar to unrepeatable high. I don't remember anything else about that Christmas so I can only assume I was too buried in Super Mario Land to eat or speak to anyone for the rest of the week. It wasn't so much the games that excited me but the idea of being able to play them on the move. Sure, opening my Motorola V550 years later was good too, but I couldn't play Pokemon, could I?

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Motorola Skip accessory allows users to ditch smartphone passwords

Motorola has launched a new NFC-based clip that, when worn by the owner, will allow them to use their smartphone without having to unlock the device.

The new Motorola Skip clip, which will ship with the US-only Moto X phone, will pair with the device in order to by-pass the security settings.

The company is encouraging users to place the thumb sized fob on their sleeve or or attach it to another part of their clothing.

The idea is, that if the phone is lost or stolen, the security settings will kick-in again and the device will not be vulnerable to unwanted intrusion.

To make it even easier, each Motorola Clip will come with 3 NFC-aided stickers that users can attach in familiar places to create "trusted zones" where passwords or pins would also be deemed unnecessary.

They could be the bedroom, car dashboard or office (however, the latter might not be a good idea if work colleagues are prone to social networking pranks).

"There are three Skip dots included with each Skip. Skip dots are stickers that, like Skip, provide authentication and also create “trusted zones” for Touchless Control. Try a Skip dot on your dashboard, your nightstand, or your desk at work. Just tap your Moto X to the Skip dot, and your phone is unlocked.

"Place your phone on the bedside Skip dot, “OK, Google Now, set alarm for 7 a.m.,” or place it on a Skip dot in the kitchen, “OK Google Now, what is cardamom?” the company write in a blog post on Friday.

The Skip, which is the first fruit of Motorola's  Advanced Technology & Projects group, aims to maintain a device's security while removing the hassle that comes with that safety. Many users don't bother with pins at all or choose simple, easily-guessable passwords like "0000", Moto says.

The company estimates the average user unlocks their device around 40 times a day, while for power users its closer to 200. Would you like to have the Skip at your disposal for your iOS or Android gadget? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Withings Pulse Review

Compact designEasy to useGreat battery lifeUseful heart rate monitorNo syncing via USBScreen brightness is poorThe Withings Pulse is an activity tracker that joins the Fitbit One, Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband in the quest to get you into shape. This is Withing’s first attempt at a wearable device but this not new territory by any means.

On a larger scale Withings has already launched the Smart Body Analyzer and blood pressure monitors. The Fitbit One is a tracker laden with features we’ve seen before, but has a few more tracking tricks to pack into the small body.

The matte black Pulse is a tiny little thing and looks like the spawn of a Nokia Lumia and an iPod Shuffle. It weighs the same as the Fitbit One at a supremely light 8g and is 8mm thick, making it as slim as a smartphone.

Like the Fitbit One, there’s a variety of ways to wear the Pulse. The easiest way is to simply slip it into your pocket. The most secure method is to use the clip with a clamp-like grip to clip it on a trouser waistband or onto a shirt.

At the heart of the Pulse’s controls is the OLED touch surface that boasts a not so great 128 x 32 pixel resolution. Here you can see the data and swipe right to see activity data from the last 14 days. It also responds to gentle presses to activate sleep tracking and heart rate monitor modes.

Elsewhere, there’s a single on/off button, a micro USB charging port and the heart rate sensor at the back.

Inside the box you’ll find the micro USB charging cable and a Velcro wristband that looks very similar to the one included with the Fitbit One.

The Pulse is extremely light and we’d recommend wearing it with the clip. You’d never notice if it went missing from your pocket.

A pedometer is at the heart of the Withings Pulse. Using a MEMS 3-axis accelerometer, the Pulse can track steps walked, elevation, calories burned and sleep. Additionally it can measure running distance with the run detection mode. This is activated by the Pulse as soon as you begin to pick up the pace.

One thing that the Pulse has over its rivals is the ability to monitor heart rate straight from the device. The importance of that information is that it will tell you whether you are working hard or not hard enough. The Pulse uses an Opotoelectronics sensor that flashes green and red LEDs against the finger to generate the reading.

Getting enough kip is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle so like the Fitbit and the Jawbone Up, the Pulse can monitor sleep quality. Once you swipe down on the crescent moon icon on the touch surface, the timer begins and all you need to do is slip it into the wristband.

When you wake up in the morning, a simple tap on the screen will tell you how much of the recommended eight hours of sleep you’ve managed in a percentage. There’s further analysis you can see which is covered in the smartphone and web apps.

If you need to see more than 14 days of data, you can get a more in depth look via the smartphone and desktop applications.

The Withings smartphone app is free to download on the App Store for iPhone 3GS up to iPhone 5 and on Google Play for Android 2.3.3 smartphones. Setup is straightforward and requires the type of information that most fitness apps. So you’ll need to input weight and height data.

The Pulse supports Bluetooth 4.0 for real-time syncing. It’s also compatible with smartphones that support Bluetooth 2.0 upwards syncing data every six hours. You can’t however, see the current day’s data until the following day.

Inside the Withings app the dashboard includes sections for weight, activity, heart rate and sleep data. A butterfly icon offers a visual representation of the data to show the areas you need to work on most.

There’s also third party app support which includes MyFitnessPal for calorie counting, Runkeeper and Zeo sleep tracker. It also works in conjunction with the Withings Smart Analyzer and blood pressure monitor.

The desktop application offers the same information but offers more detailed data for sleep and activity tracking. Here you can see sleep and activity broken down precisely by the half hour. You can quickly establish how many calories you’ve burnt in the afternoon and see sleep patterns broken down into deep and light sleep.

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Report: Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch won't make calls after all

The Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, expected to launch early next month, will not make phone calls self-sufficiently, despite confusing reports suggesting otherwise last week.

Bloomberg sources had intimated the device would be able to "make phone calls" and would contain cellular tech, making it more of a 'watch phone,' rather than a smart watch.

That information was surprising, because it had been contrary to all speculation to that point, which had suggested the wearable device would be more of a companion device, for Samsung's range of Galaxy smartphones rather than a potential replacement.

However, The Verge has moved to clarify the situation on Monday and have been informed, through its own sources, that the device will work with phones, but won't be a phone.

 "It works with phones," a source told the site, just like smart watches like the Pebble, but  "the watch is not a phone," like the LG Watch Phone effort of a few years back.

The Galaxy Gear is set to be announced at Samsung's Unpacked event on September 4 and will more-than-likely hook up with smartphones through a Bluetooth connection. That will enable calls to be answered using the device.

The Galaxy Gear is also set to allow users to answer emails, read messages, access social networks and more. Are you excited to take a glimpse at what Samsung has in store in a couple of weeks time? Let us know in a couple of weeks time.

Next up: Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch available in October

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Jabra Extreme2 Review

Small and neat designDecent battery lifeClear voice qualityMuting the headset is a tad trickyNoise cancelling technology could be betterRelatively expensive

Like red jeans or a mankini, wearing a Bluetooth headset is a difficult look to pull off without coming across as a total berk. While the design of the Jabra Extreme2 isn’t going to make wearing a Bluetooth headset any more fashionable it at least does promise to be light and comfortable to wear, while also helping to cut down on background noise during calls thanks to its use of Jabra's latest Noise Blackout technology.

In terms of looks the Extreme2 is pretty similar to any number of Bluetooth headsets on the market. It's a mono headset, so there's a single earpiece attached to a short boom. The headset is held in place on your lughole by a plastic earhook that clips around the stub of the earpiece. The boom is fairly short, measuring a tad under 5cm in length, and on the outside there's a sort of stepped, arrow pattern etched into the plastic, which doesn’t go so far as make it look stylish, but does help the design to appear a little less boring. There are just three buttons provided for control. There's a large button with a chrome paint job toward the back of the boom that takes care of most of the call handling duties. On the top you'll find the volume rocker switch, while the bottom has a sliding power switch. The microUSB adaptor that's used for charging the headset, as well as downloading software updates, is positioned at the rear.

Jabra includes a second, larger earhook in the box, which may be a bit more comfortable if Big Ears is a close relation. There are also two extra ear gels for left and right handed users. The orientation is important because these ear gels, unlike the standard one, have small rubber hooks that jam toward the back of the inner part of your ear to hold the headset in place. This allows you to use the Extreme2 without an over-the-ear hook, though we've seldom found this method to be as secure.

Comfort levels with both the ear hook and ear gels was very good, so even if you tend to wear your headset for many hours at a time - say on longer car journeys – you shouldn't have a problem with it.

Also in the box you'll find a standard wall power adaptor for charging the headset. However, the cable on this is ridiculously short, measuring just 27cm in length, so you can’t really sit the headset on a desk while you're charging it. Instead it just hangs down from the charger when it's plugged into a normal height wall socket. Thankfully Jabra supplies a car charger that actually has two USB ports, so you can use it to charge another device while also topping up the Extreme2. There's a micro to normal sized USB adaptor to fit the headset into this charger or for when you want to charge it from a PC's USB port. This has a pivoting section in the middle, so even if there's limited room around your car's power plug you should still be able to angle it in place.

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SwissVoice ePure CH01 Review

Stylish and well builtGenuinely improves call comfort and qualityWhat features it does have work wellLacks a keypad for dialling in numbersBase doesn't hangup/answer a callSuffers from constant beeps and whistles from phone signal

Introduction
Mobile phones are great. The sheer number of things you can do with them these days is quite staggering. But, one thing they aren't so good for is actually using them to make calls. They're small and thin so can be difficult to keep a firm grip on, and are next to impossible to wedge inbetween head and shoulder. Then there's the health risks of holding a phone next to your head. The research may largely be pointing towards there being little risk to humans but there's still an argument for saying we should avoid exposing ourselves to the microwaves that are your phone's signal.

All of which has lead to the situation we're in today where you can buy a wealth of accessories that turn your sleek, slender, pocket friendly mobile phone back into a large, desk-bound device that's actually nice for calling. And, just such an accessory is the SwissVoice CH01.

Design and Features
This stylish plastic phone shaped device plugs into your mobile's headphone jack and takes over voice-in-and-out duties. It can also be used to control volume, skip/play/pause tracks if you're listening to music or answer/start a call.

Available as either just the handset (CH05) or with a plastic base/cradle (CH01), SwissVoice has certainly got the first part of the phone accessory equation right – it’s stylish!

It's available in TR orange? Well then it must be good!

Following the same design ethos as the company’s standard Dect phones, the handset is angular and hollow, with a range of colour options – blue, green, orange, pink and white – available for the middle. The effect is really charming, marrying a retro vibe with a suitably modern feel. It’s pretty compact too, with the whole assembly having a footprint little bigger than the handset itself.

Build quality is pretty good too. The glossy plastic looks and feels great while the various buttons and other features are all well seated and tough. For instance the attachments for the cable are strong yet flexible, suggesting they’ll last a good while before inevitably giving way. Meanwhile the buttons have a good, solid, discernible click so you’re sure when you’ve pressed them.

The base of the CH01 also ticks all the right boxes in terms of design. It’s nicely finished with a matching style, has four grippy rubber feet to prevent slippage and it’s weighted to stop itself being pulled off the desk when yanked by the phone’s cord. We found that if planted on a not-too-slippy desk the phone cable could extend from its standard slack 45cm or so to around 1.5m before starting to pull the base with it.

You can use the base as a completely dumb rest and plug the handset straight into your mobile, giving you the option of walking around completely untethered, or you can plug both phone and handset into the base so that the base acts as an anchor for both.

What the base doesn’t do, though, is interact with the handset in anyway. Pick up the handset when your phone’s ringing and it doesn’t connect the call. Put it down and it doesn’t end the call either. Both were features we missed having.

View the original article here

Humax Tivizen Dongle for iPad Review

Easy to use application.Relatively low price tag.Compact loop aerial.Can’t schedule recordingsNeeds a very strong TV signalDoesn't support HD channels

Humax currently offers you two ways to watch live TV on your iOS device. There's the Tizi, which it has rebranded as the Tivizen, and is selling for around £100. It's an external, battery powered TV tuner that sets itself up as a Wi-Fi hotspot which you can then use to steam TV to your iOS device via an app. However, if you've got an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 or 3 you can instead opt for the Tivizen Dongle for iPad that we're looking at here. This is a simpler and cheaper device that plugs into the dock connector on you iOS device to turn it into a portable TV.

Thankfully the Tivizen Dongle for iPad (it's also being sold as the Tizi Go with different software by some other manufacturers) is actually quite small and compact. Finished in gloss white with a small Tivizen logo stamped on the front, it measures just 30mm wide and sticks out by around 50mm from the bottom of your iPad when it's attached to the dock connector. Unlike the Tizi, it doesn’t have a telescopic aerial, but instead just uses a loop aerial. This is simply a flexible piece of wire that loops from one side of the bottom edge of the dongle to the other.

The dongle doesn’t draw power from your iPad when it's being used as it has its own Lithium Ion 250mAh battery built-in. You charge this using the supplied USB adaptor cable that plugs into the micro USB port hidden between the two points where the loop aerial connects to the dongle.

There's also a small LED light on the top of the dongle that glows red while it's charging and turns green once the battery is fully topped up with juice. Charging it via a normal USB port on a computer (there's no USB charger included in the box) will take around two hours and once it's fully charged you'll get around nine hours of TV watching from it.

Free app
Of course, to use the dongle you first need to download the Tivizen app. This is free and once it's installed on your iPad it automatically starts up every time you plug the dongle into the bottom of your tablet.

When you first run the app you're asked to choose your country and after you've made your selection it scans all the available channels. This only takes a couple of minutes.

On the Humax website there's a warning that this product is only suitable for use in strong signal areas. We used it in East London near the Olympic site. This is around 17km away from the Crystal Palace transmission tower, so we reckon it falls within a strong signal area, especially as you can get pretty good reception using an indoor aerial with a normal TV.

The first two times we performed the scan indoors, it failed to pick up the Freeview multiplex with the BBC channels. After this we took it outside to try scanning again and this time it did pick up the Beeb's multiplex, but lost one of the other multiplexes. In fact during our testing we never got it to store all of the multiplexes at one time, so as a result there were always some channels missing, although these tended to be the minor ones.

What was strange was that once it found the BBC multiplex outdoors, it actually got good reception for the BBC channels indoors. In fact, the reception quality for all the channels it managed to pick up was impressive, especially given it uses such a small aerial.

View the original article here

Apple announces third party iOS charger trade-in initiative

Apple has revealed a new offer whereby owners of third party iOS power chargers can trade them in for an official equivalent.

The move has been made in the wake of the tragic death of a Chinese woman last month due to a dodgy unofficial iPhone charger. Ma Ailun, a 23-year-old flight attendant, was electrocuted when she attempted to answer a call whilst here iPhone 5 was charging.

Though Apple has not been held responsible for the accident, it has now taken steps to lessen the threat of counterfeit or poorly designed third party chargers.

"Recent reports have suggested that some counterfeit and third party adapters may not be designed properly and could result in safety issues," begins a statement over on the official Apple website.

The company then acknowledges that "not all third party adapters have an issue," but goes on to outline the new USB Power Adapter Takeback Program, which goes into effect in China (where there is a rampant market for counterfeit Apple goods) from August 9 and the rest of the world from August 16.

From that date, if you have concerns about your non-Apple iOS power charger, you can take it to an Apple store and exchange it for an official Apple solution for just $10 - which works out at around £6.50 with a direct conversion, but will probably cost UK customers a little more in reality.

In order to qualify you have to bring your iPhone, iPad or iPod to the retail store - as well as the dodgy lead itself - for serial number validation.

This unofficial charger amnesty is only good for one charger per iDevice, and the offer ends on October 18 this year.

Read More: iPhone 6 release date, new, rumours and price

View the original article here

TomTom Hands-free Car Kit for iPhone Review

Key Features: Suction screen mount; iPhone charging dock; Bluetooth connectivity with HFP and A2DP; External microphone with mountings; 2W speaker

Manufacturer: TomTom

Introduction
Signs are beginning to appear that the sat-nav is about to go full circle. What started out as a peripheral and software add-on package for the PDA then became a standalone device in itself. But this hugely successful gadget could be supplanted by the evolution of what it replaced - the smartphone - as the power of the mobile increases.

TomTom has clearly seen this one coming, and launched a range of car mounting kits including this, the new TomTom Hands-free Car Kit for iPhone. Not all of them are for Apple devices, either, in anticipation of the TomTom for Android app version due in October. However, the one we are reviewing here is still focused on the iPhone, and replaces the original TomTom for iPhone Car Kit, although it's not quite a direct replacement.

Design
The Hands-free Car Kit is of noticeably sturdier build than the original Car Kit. Not that the latter was flimsy - far from it - but this goes even further to house your beloved Apple smartphone in the manner it deserves. The new kit is designed to accommodate every iPhone from the original version up to the latest iPhone 4S. However, the new kit does lack something important from the original - the GPS receiver. So any remaining users of the original iPhone will be better off getting the first Car Kit, if they want to use a satellite navigation app, although this point is a bit moot as the lack of recent iOS updates will probably be more of a hindrance.

You can still get the original Car Kit, although now it is being marketed for the iPod Touch only, as it's not designed for the iPhone 4 body. It's worth noting that, physically at least, the TomTom Hands-free Car Kit will only fit future iPhones so long as the use the same docking connector, as such this might rule out the iPhone 5 onwards with Apple seemingly set to do away with its 30-pin dock standard for a new 9-pin option. The flexibility of the securing mechanism means that the Hands-free Car Kit will fit a phone even if it's inside an unusual cover.

Attachments
The phone attaches via its 30-pin dock connector at one end, and a rubberised bracket at the other, which secures with friction. The Kit has a regular windscreen suction mount, with an adhesive disk so you can make a permanent placement for it on your dashboard. We found the suction mount provided a more secure attachment than the previous kit. It rotates, too, so you can have your phone in portrait or landscape orientation, the latter being preferable for satellite navigation.

What the TomTom Hand-free Car Kit for iPhone loses with the GPS it gains in other areas, primarily revolving around the facility to use your phone safely whilst driving, as implied by the device’s name. There’s a microphone connected to the mount, but it can be detached, with a number of accessories to help you reposition it. There’s an extension cable, so you can reposition the microphone where you want. A sun visor clip, so you can attach the microphone there, and another clip to attach it to an A pillar. There are also three adhesive clips you can use to route the cable neatly to the microphone location. A 2 Watt speaker is located at the rear of the mount to assist with the hands-free capabilities.

View the original article here

Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M Review

Excellent noise cancelling capabilitiesComfortable to wearLong battery lifeEasy to set up and use.Design is visually unappealingNo microUSB port for charging

When you put 'Legend' in the name of your product, you need to be pretty confident that it's going to live up to its billing. To be fair, Plantronics has a pretty good track record when it comes to producing quality headsets and its previous high-end models, such as the Voyager Pro, have impressed when we've reviewed them. The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M adds in some extras, including improved noise reduction circulatory and longer batter life.

The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M isn't really aimed at the mainstream headset market. Instead it's primarily targeted at those who need a headset that they can comfortably wear for longer periods of time during the working day. As a result it's not exactly a thing of beauty to look at, although we can let that pass if it turns out to be ultra comfortable to wear.

This model is much larger than your average headset and looks quite different too. It's more of a cross between a normal mobile Bluetooth headset and the type of wireless headset that call-centre workers use. It has a long, curved boom that houses the mic and connects back to the earpiece, which is in turn is attached to a thick earpiece that houses the battery.

The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC ear hook and boom both swivel through 180 degrees to allow the headset to be worn on either ear. Despite its size, the whole thing weights just 18g, so it doesn't actually feel all that heavy when its sitting on your ear.

It comes with three different sized ear gels, so no matter whether you've got petite or jumbo-sized lug holes, you should be able to get a reasonably comfortable fit. Changing an ear gel is very straightforward – you just push in on it, rotate it anticlockwise and it pops off.

There are just four buttons provided for controlling the headset. On the rear of the boom you'll find the call handling button, and further along on the bottom of the boom there's a multifunction button for activating the voice controls, muting the mike, or starting and pausing streaming audio from your phone. The other two controls are mounted on the rear of the ear hook. At the top there's a slider switch for turning the volume up and down, and below this there's another switch for turning it on and off.

What we don't like, however, is that Plantronics has done away with the standard microUSB charging port found on the Voyager Pro. replacing it with a proprietary magnetic port instead. The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC comes with both a simple charging lead and a desktop charging dock that work with this port.

Although the magnetic charging port is undoubtedly clever, as the headset almost magically snaps into it when you bring it near the charging peripherals, it's also annoying. Mainly, when you're out and about or away on business, it's one more adaptor you'll need to remember to take with you - and which they're unlikely to have a spare of at the other end of your journey if you forget.

View the original article here

Withings Pulse Review

Compact designEasy to useGreat battery lifeUseful heart rate monitorNo syncing via USBScreen brightness is poorThe Withings Pulse is an activity tracker that joins the Fitbit One, Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband in the quest to get you into shape. This is Withing’s first attempt at a wearable device but this not new territory by any means.

On a larger scale Withings has already launched the Smart Body Analyzer and blood pressure monitors. The Fitbit One is a tracker laden with features we’ve seen before, but has a few more tracking tricks to pack into the small body.

The matte black Pulse is a tiny little thing and looks like the spawn of a Nokia Lumia and an iPod Shuffle. It weighs the same as the Fitbit One at a supremely light 8g and is 8mm thick, making it as slim as a smartphone.

Like the Fitbit One, there’s a variety of ways to wear the Pulse. The easiest way is to simply slip it into your pocket. The most secure method is to use the clip with a clamp-like grip to clip it on a trouser waistband or onto a shirt.

At the heart of the Pulse’s controls is the OLED touch surface that boasts a not so great 128 x 32 pixel resolution. Here you can see the data and swipe right to see activity data from the last 14 days. It also responds to gentle presses to activate sleep tracking and heart rate monitor modes.

Elsewhere, there’s a single on/off button, a micro USB charging port and the heart rate sensor at the back.

Inside the box you’ll find the micro USB charging cable and a Velcro wristband that looks very similar to the one included with the Fitbit One.

The Pulse is extremely light and we’d recommend wearing it with the clip. You’d never notice if it went missing from your pocket.

A pedometer is at the heart of the Withings Pulse. Using a MEMS 3-axis accelerometer, the Pulse can track steps walked, elevation, calories burned and sleep. Additionally it can measure running distance with the run detection mode. This is activated by the Pulse as soon as you begin to pick up the pace.

One thing that the Pulse has over its rivals is the ability to monitor heart rate straight from the device. The importance of that information is that it will tell you whether you are working hard or not hard enough. The Pulse uses an Opotoelectronics sensor that flashes green and red LEDs against the finger to generate the reading.

Getting enough kip is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle so like the Fitbit and the Jawbone Up, the Pulse can monitor sleep quality. Once you swipe down on the crescent moon icon on the touch surface, the timer begins and all you need to do is slip it into the wristband.

When you wake up in the morning, a simple tap on the screen will tell you how much of the recommended eight hours of sleep you’ve managed in a percentage. There’s further analysis you can see which is covered in the smartphone and web apps.

If you need to see more than 14 days of data, you can get a more in depth look via the smartphone and desktop applications.

The Withings smartphone app is free to download on the App Store for iPhone 3GS up to iPhone 5 and on Google Play for Android 2.3.3 smartphones. Setup is straightforward and requires the type of information that most fitness apps. So you’ll need to input weight and height data.

The Pulse supports Bluetooth 4.0 for real-time syncing. It’s also compatible with smartphones that support Bluetooth 2.0 upwards syncing data every six hours. You can’t however, see the current day’s data until the following day.

Inside the Withings app the dashboard includes sections for weight, activity, heart rate and sleep data. A butterfly icon offers a visual representation of the data to show the areas you need to work on most.

There’s also third party app support which includes MyFitnessPal for calorie counting, Runkeeper and Zeo sleep tracker. It also works in conjunction with the Withings Smart Analyzer and blood pressure monitor.

The desktop application offers the same information but offers more detailed data for sleep and activity tracking. Here you can see sleep and activity broken down precisely by the half hour. You can quickly establish how many calories you’ve burnt in the afternoon and see sleep patterns broken down into deep and light sleep.

View the original article here

Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M Review

Excellent noise cancelling capabilitiesComfortable to wearLong battery lifeEasy to set up and use.Design is visually unappealingNo microUSB port for charging

When you put 'Legend' in the name of your product, you need to be pretty confident that it's going to live up to its billing. To be fair, Plantronics has a pretty good track record when it comes to producing quality headsets and its previous high-end models, such as the Voyager Pro, have impressed when we've reviewed them. The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M adds in some extras, including improved noise reduction circulatory and longer batter life.

The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC B235-M isn't really aimed at the mainstream headset market. Instead it's primarily targeted at those who need a headset that they can comfortably wear for longer periods of time during the working day. As a result it's not exactly a thing of beauty to look at, although we can let that pass if it turns out to be ultra comfortable to wear.

This model is much larger than your average headset and looks quite different too. It's more of a cross between a normal mobile Bluetooth headset and the type of wireless headset that call-centre workers use. It has a long, curved boom that houses the mic and connects back to the earpiece, which is in turn is attached to a thick earpiece that houses the battery.

The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC ear hook and boom both swivel through 180 degrees to allow the headset to be worn on either ear. Despite its size, the whole thing weights just 18g, so it doesn't actually feel all that heavy when its sitting on your ear.

It comes with three different sized ear gels, so no matter whether you've got petite or jumbo-sized lug holes, you should be able to get a reasonably comfortable fit. Changing an ear gel is very straightforward – you just push in on it, rotate it anticlockwise and it pops off.

There are just four buttons provided for controlling the headset. On the rear of the boom you'll find the call handling button, and further along on the bottom of the boom there's a multifunction button for activating the voice controls, muting the mike, or starting and pausing streaming audio from your phone. The other two controls are mounted on the rear of the ear hook. At the top there's a slider switch for turning the volume up and down, and below this there's another switch for turning it on and off.

What we don't like, however, is that Plantronics has done away with the standard microUSB charging port found on the Voyager Pro. replacing it with a proprietary magnetic port instead. The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC comes with both a simple charging lead and a desktop charging dock that work with this port.

Although the magnetic charging port is undoubtedly clever, as the headset almost magically snaps into it when you bring it near the charging peripherals, it's also annoying. Mainly, when you're out and about or away on business, it's one more adaptor you'll need to remember to take with you - and which they're unlikely to have a spare of at the other end of your journey if you forget.

View the original article here

Humax Tivizen Dongle for iPad Review

Easy to use application.Relatively low price tag.Compact loop aerial.Can’t schedule recordingsNeeds a very strong TV signalDoesn't support HD channels

Humax currently offers you two ways to watch live TV on your iOS device. There's the Tizi, which it has rebranded as the Tivizen, and is selling for around £100. It's an external, battery powered TV tuner that sets itself up as a Wi-Fi hotspot which you can then use to steam TV to your iOS device via an app. However, if you've got an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 or 3 you can instead opt for the Tivizen Dongle for iPad that we're looking at here. This is a simpler and cheaper device that plugs into the dock connector on you iOS device to turn it into a portable TV.

Thankfully the Tivizen Dongle for iPad (it's also being sold as the Tizi Go with different software by some other manufacturers) is actually quite small and compact. Finished in gloss white with a small Tivizen logo stamped on the front, it measures just 30mm wide and sticks out by around 50mm from the bottom of your iPad when it's attached to the dock connector. Unlike the Tizi, it doesn’t have a telescopic aerial, but instead just uses a loop aerial. This is simply a flexible piece of wire that loops from one side of the bottom edge of the dongle to the other.

The dongle doesn’t draw power from your iPad when it's being used as it has its own Lithium Ion 250mAh battery built-in. You charge this using the supplied USB adaptor cable that plugs into the micro USB port hidden between the two points where the loop aerial connects to the dongle.

There's also a small LED light on the top of the dongle that glows red while it's charging and turns green once the battery is fully topped up with juice. Charging it via a normal USB port on a computer (there's no USB charger included in the box) will take around two hours and once it's fully charged you'll get around nine hours of TV watching from it.

Free app
Of course, to use the dongle you first need to download the Tivizen app. This is free and once it's installed on your iPad it automatically starts up every time you plug the dongle into the bottom of your tablet.

When you first run the app you're asked to choose your country and after you've made your selection it scans all the available channels. This only takes a couple of minutes.

On the Humax website there's a warning that this product is only suitable for use in strong signal areas. We used it in East London near the Olympic site. This is around 17km away from the Crystal Palace transmission tower, so we reckon it falls within a strong signal area, especially as you can get pretty good reception using an indoor aerial with a normal TV.

The first two times we performed the scan indoors, it failed to pick up the Freeview multiplex with the BBC channels. After this we took it outside to try scanning again and this time it did pick up the Beeb's multiplex, but lost one of the other multiplexes. In fact during our testing we never got it to store all of the multiplexes at one time, so as a result there were always some channels missing, although these tended to be the minor ones.

What was strange was that once it found the BBC multiplex outdoors, it actually got good reception for the BBC channels indoors. In fact, the reception quality for all the channels it managed to pick up was impressive, especially given it uses such a small aerial.

View the original article here

Jabra Extreme2 Review

Small and neat designDecent battery lifeClear voice qualityMuting the headset is a tad trickyNoise cancelling technology could be betterRelatively expensive

Like red jeans or a mankini, wearing a Bluetooth headset is a difficult look to pull off without coming across as a total berk. While the design of the Jabra Extreme2 isn’t going to make wearing a Bluetooth headset any more fashionable it at least does promise to be light and comfortable to wear, while also helping to cut down on background noise during calls thanks to its use of Jabra's latest Noise Blackout technology.

In terms of looks the Extreme2 is pretty similar to any number of Bluetooth headsets on the market. It's a mono headset, so there's a single earpiece attached to a short boom. The headset is held in place on your lughole by a plastic earhook that clips around the stub of the earpiece. The boom is fairly short, measuring a tad under 5cm in length, and on the outside there's a sort of stepped, arrow pattern etched into the plastic, which doesn’t go so far as make it look stylish, but does help the design to appear a little less boring. There are just three buttons provided for control. There's a large button with a chrome paint job toward the back of the boom that takes care of most of the call handling duties. On the top you'll find the volume rocker switch, while the bottom has a sliding power switch. The microUSB adaptor that's used for charging the headset, as well as downloading software updates, is positioned at the rear.

Jabra includes a second, larger earhook in the box, which may be a bit more comfortable if Big Ears is a close relation. There are also two extra ear gels for left and right handed users. The orientation is important because these ear gels, unlike the standard one, have small rubber hooks that jam toward the back of the inner part of your ear to hold the headset in place. This allows you to use the Extreme2 without an over-the-ear hook, though we've seldom found this method to be as secure.

Comfort levels with both the ear hook and ear gels was very good, so even if you tend to wear your headset for many hours at a time - say on longer car journeys – you shouldn't have a problem with it.

Also in the box you'll find a standard wall power adaptor for charging the headset. However, the cable on this is ridiculously short, measuring just 27cm in length, so you can’t really sit the headset on a desk while you're charging it. Instead it just hangs down from the charger when it's plugged into a normal height wall socket. Thankfully Jabra supplies a car charger that actually has two USB ports, so you can use it to charge another device while also topping up the Extreme2. There's a micro to normal sized USB adaptor to fit the headset into this charger or for when you want to charge it from a PC's USB port. This has a pivoting section in the middle, so even if there's limited room around your car's power plug you should still be able to angle it in place.

View the original article here

Apple announces third party iOS charger trade-in initiative

Apple has revealed a new offer whereby owners of third party iOS power chargers can trade them in for an official equivalent.

The move has been made in the wake of the tragic death of a Chinese woman last month due to a dodgy unofficial iPhone charger. Ma Ailun, a 23-year-old flight attendant, was electrocuted when she attempted to answer a call whilst here iPhone 5 was charging.

Though Apple has not been held responsible for the accident, it has now taken steps to lessen the threat of counterfeit or poorly designed third party chargers.

"Recent reports have suggested that some counterfeit and third party adapters may not be designed properly and could result in safety issues," begins a statement over on the official Apple website.

The company then acknowledges that "not all third party adapters have an issue," but goes on to outline the new USB Power Adapter Takeback Program, which goes into effect in China (where there is a rampant market for counterfeit Apple goods) from August 9 and the rest of the world from August 16.

From that date, if you have concerns about your non-Apple iOS power charger, you can take it to an Apple store and exchange it for an official Apple solution for just $10 - which works out at around £6.50 with a direct conversion, but will probably cost UK customers a little more in reality.

In order to qualify you have to bring your iPhone, iPad or iPod to the retail store - as well as the dodgy lead itself - for serial number validation.

This unofficial charger amnesty is only good for one charger per iDevice, and the offer ends on October 18 this year.

Read More: iPhone 6 release date, new, rumours and price

View the original article here

Motorola Skip accessory allows users to ditch smartphone passwords

Motorola has launched a new NFC-based clip that, when worn by the owner, will allow them to use their smartphone without having to unlock the device.

The new Motorola Skip clip, which will ship with the US-only Moto X phone, will pair with the device in order to by-pass the security settings.

The company is encouraging users to place the thumb sized fob on their sleeve or or attach it to another part of their clothing.

The idea is, that if the phone is lost or stolen, the security settings will kick-in again and the device will not be vulnerable to unwanted intrusion.

To make it even easier, each Motorola Clip will come with 3 NFC-aided stickers that users can attach in familiar places to create "trusted zones" where passwords or pins would also be deemed unnecessary.

They could be the bedroom, car dashboard or office (however, the latter might not be a good idea if work colleagues are prone to social networking pranks).

"There are three Skip dots included with each Skip. Skip dots are stickers that, like Skip, provide authentication and also create “trusted zones” for Touchless Control. Try a Skip dot on your dashboard, your nightstand, or your desk at work. Just tap your Moto X to the Skip dot, and your phone is unlocked.

"Place your phone on the bedside Skip dot, “OK, Google Now, set alarm for 7 a.m.,” or place it on a Skip dot in the kitchen, “OK Google Now, what is cardamom?” the company write in a blog post on Friday.

The Skip, which is the first fruit of Motorola's  Advanced Technology & Projects group, aims to maintain a device's security while removing the hassle that comes with that safety. Many users don't bother with pins at all or choose simple, easily-guessable passwords like "0000", Moto says.

The company estimates the average user unlocks their device around 40 times a day, while for power users its closer to 200. Would you like to have the Skip at your disposal for your iOS or Android gadget? Let us know in the comments section below.

View the original article here

Apple iWatch Features: What do you want to see?

Along with 4K TVs, next generation consoles and Google Glass, 2013 is set to be the year of the smart watch.

The Pebble kicked off proceedings earlier this year with efforts from Casio and the I’m Watch following shortly after. Now Sony has entered the fray once again with its updated SmartWatch 2, an Android-friendly timepiece that is water-resistant just like the Sony Xperia Z and works via NFC and Bluetooth 3.0.

The best, however, could be yet to come. Samsung has previously confirmed it’s working on a smart watch, while the rumour mill continues to fill with talk that Apple is planning a smart watch dubbed the ‘iWatch’.

Current smart watches have received a mixed response largely down to the lack of captivating features to convince users to check the wrist over reaching for their smartphone.

Apple, like it did with the iPad, has a proven track record of creating products we never thought we needed desirable, and could do the same with a smart watch. The question is, what will it have to do to make an 'iWatch' a worthwhile purchase?

So, we want to ask you the TrustedReviews readers, what features would convince you to buy an Apple smart watch or a rival Samsung smart watch?

Have your say in the comments section below.

(Picture credit: Brett Jordan)

View the original article here

TomTom Hands-free Car Kit for iPhone Review

Key Features: Suction screen mount; iPhone charging dock; Bluetooth connectivity with HFP and A2DP; External microphone with mountings; 2W speaker

Manufacturer: TomTom

Introduction
Signs are beginning to appear that the sat-nav is about to go full circle. What started out as a peripheral and software add-on package for the PDA then became a standalone device in itself. But this hugely successful gadget could be supplanted by the evolution of what it replaced - the smartphone - as the power of the mobile increases.

TomTom has clearly seen this one coming, and launched a range of car mounting kits including this, the new TomTom Hands-free Car Kit for iPhone. Not all of them are for Apple devices, either, in anticipation of the TomTom for Android app version due in October. However, the one we are reviewing here is still focused on the iPhone, and replaces the original TomTom for iPhone Car Kit, although it's not quite a direct replacement.

Design
The Hands-free Car Kit is of noticeably sturdier build than the original Car Kit. Not that the latter was flimsy - far from it - but this goes even further to house your beloved Apple smartphone in the manner it deserves. The new kit is designed to accommodate every iPhone from the original version up to the latest iPhone 4S. However, the new kit does lack something important from the original - the GPS receiver. So any remaining users of the original iPhone will be better off getting the first Car Kit, if they want to use a satellite navigation app, although this point is a bit moot as the lack of recent iOS updates will probably be more of a hindrance.

You can still get the original Car Kit, although now it is being marketed for the iPod Touch only, as it's not designed for the iPhone 4 body. It's worth noting that, physically at least, the TomTom Hands-free Car Kit will only fit future iPhones so long as the use the same docking connector, as such this might rule out the iPhone 5 onwards with Apple seemingly set to do away with its 30-pin dock standard for a new 9-pin option. The flexibility of the securing mechanism means that the Hands-free Car Kit will fit a phone even if it's inside an unusual cover.

Attachments
The phone attaches via its 30-pin dock connector at one end, and a rubberised bracket at the other, which secures with friction. The Kit has a regular windscreen suction mount, with an adhesive disk so you can make a permanent placement for it on your dashboard. We found the suction mount provided a more secure attachment than the previous kit. It rotates, too, so you can have your phone in portrait or landscape orientation, the latter being preferable for satellite navigation.

What the TomTom Hand-free Car Kit for iPhone loses with the GPS it gains in other areas, primarily revolving around the facility to use your phone safely whilst driving, as implied by the device’s name. There’s a microphone connected to the mount, but it can be detached, with a number of accessories to help you reposition it. There’s an extension cable, so you can reposition the microphone where you want. A sun visor clip, so you can attach the microphone there, and another clip to attach it to an A pillar. There are also three adhesive clips you can use to route the cable neatly to the microphone location. A 2 Watt speaker is located at the rear of the mount to assist with the hands-free capabilities.

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