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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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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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

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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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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)

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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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Sony smartphone lens camera specs leak

Specs for the Sony smartphone lens camera have leaked online, revealing the sensor sizes for the accessory.

There have been several rumours surrounding Sony’s attachable camera accessory for iOS devices, but the latest leak provides diagrams of the mooted lens options.

The manual for the Sony DSC-Qx10 and DSC-QX100 come via SonyAlphaRumours, and suggest both will have a basic display for monitoring the battery level and SD card capacity.

They will have dedicated shutter buttons, so users won’t have to rely solely on the iOS device and zoom levels. The more powerful Sony DSC-QX100 will also have a ring control.

There’s a tripod mount, power button, an access port to a variety of functions and a microphone built-in for both models.

The Sony DSC-QX100 will have the same 20.2-megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor and Zeiss lens as the Sony RX100 II, while the QX10 will have the same 1/2.3-inch, 18-megapixel CMOS sensor and f/3.3-5.9 lens as the Sony WX150.

With the Sony DSC-QX100 weighing 179g and the QX10 105g, both options will add a considerable weight to the average iOS device, especially as the iPhone 5 is only 112g itself.

It seems that both Sony smartphone lens cameras will be launched at a Sony event on Wednesday September 4.

Sony is holding a press event in New York on that day, but is also hosting another event at IFA 2013 the same day.

At this IFA event in Berlin, Sony could also launch the camera-centric Sony Xperia i1 ‘Honami’ smartphone, which purportedly packs a 20.7-megapixel 1/2.3 sensor and Sony G lens.

Camera specs aside the Xperia i1 should also have a Full HD display larger than the 5-inch offering included in the Sony Xperia Z.

This can be seen in the new images where the Sony Xperia i1 is shown next to the Xperia Z.

TrustedReviews will be attending the IFA press conference and will bring you all the official announcements.

Next, read our pick of the best cameras of 2013.

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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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