Cyanogenmod Installer app removed from Play Store

Some things never go smoothly, do they? Cyanogenmod posted on their blog last night that their Installer had been voluntarily removed from the Play Store after a Google request citing the fact that as it encouraged people to void their warranties which is against the Play Store policy. You can see the full blog post here.

The Windows installer basically helped you root you phone and prepare it so you can replace Google’s Android operating system with a modified version called Cyanogenmod. The Installer is still available to download from the Cyanogenmod site but there is no word on if or when it will be back on the Play Store. Whilst Google are happy to promote their good attitude to open source software they have apparently drawn the line here and it will be interesting to see what happens next as Cyanogenmod have a lot going on at the moment.

When it was announced that Cyanogenmod, one of the most highly respected group of Android rom creators on the web, had become a company and had plans to put their ROM on the immanently released Oppo N1 there was an unannounced hurdle to overcome; gaining Google’s approval so their Play Store, Gmail and the usual group of Google apps could be installed. Cyanogenmod (and the many other talented ROM makers such as Paranoid Android and Pacman) usually avoid any problems with Google’s legal team by using the open source code for Android to create their roms and leaving it up to the users to install the Google Apps themselves. However on a phone supported by a hardware manufacturer this software is more or less a prerequisite and as such they Cyan team have had to work long and hard to comply to all of Google’s terms and conditions so to ready the software for a December release sate but there was a promising looking tweet posted on Twitter this morning:

So it seems things are on track for the December Cyan-flavoured N1 then.

Is this a brave new step to challenge the status quo? Or a seemingly benevolent giant toying with a fly before swatting it? I am personally very eager to see / hear about the Cyanongemod N1, what do you think? Feel free to post any comments below.

What’s new in Android 4.4.1

The new version of KitKat brings lots of smaller changes

Following the first maintenance release of Android KitKat, the big news is that there are many camera fixes and enhancements for the Nexus 5, but it turns out there are also a lot of smaller changes and improvements in the new OS.

Including

Fixes for the Nexus 5 speaker bug (making it louder)
The bug that occasionally made the notification bar partly opaque.
More, haptic feedback
“Photos” is now the default photo-viewing app when you swipe out of the Camera app.

Let us know if the O.T.A update has got your device yet and whether you’ve seen any other changes or bugs.

Get an over-expensive Kindle with the Daily Mail

Want to get an Amazon Kindle this Christmas? Well, you could get the Kindle Fire HD for free. Sure, it’s not quite the new HDX, but the 7? Kindle Fire HD comes with 16GB storage, WiFi and Dolby Digital sound. Plus, of course, you can download a stack of books to it.

The Daily Fail Mail are giving them away for free if you subscribe to the to their Mail Plus, an interactive app for tablets. The newspaper states that the tablet is worth £119 and “all you have to do” is pay for their Mail Plus app (which delivers some “extra puzzles” and “more articles and pictures”) in a 12-month block. At £9.99 per month that works out at £119.88.

So, if you want to pay £119.88 for a £119 tablet (and get a Daily Mail app with some crosswords), go ahead. Personally it might be worth your while heading to Argos, where you can get the very same device for £100. Oh, and if you do that you’ll get a £10 voucher for your next Argos purchase, which is a bit better than reading the constant tirade of hate and bile in the Daily Mail

Nokia Lumia 1020 wireless charging case and camera grip case – Review

With every good phone there should exist a decent selection of official accessories. You know the sort, well made, nice colours and with features not found in third party accessories. The official Nokia Lumia 1020 cases are just that. I’ve got them both and here is my review showing you how they work and hopefully helping you make a purchasing decision. Starting with the slightly less interesting of the two the wireless charging shell.

Nokia Lumia 1020 wireless charging shell

I’m a recent convert to wireless charging, I now prefer my new devices to have it built in and if not at least to have a wireless charging accessory. Luckily for me the Lumia 1020 has a shell that you can clip on and joy of joys it comes in yellow.

Good Points

Available in the same nice coloursQi compatibleFill outs the camera hump a bitAll ports accessible

Bad Points

Not much protection offeredBit flimsy and creakyA bit costly

Design

The wireless charging case follows a similar design to the previous shells for devices like the Lumia 720 or the Lumia 925. It basically just clips over each one of the corners and to remove it’s just the reverse, it is really easy to fit and remove. The case feels just as nice at the Lumia 1020 itself and if anything it makes the whole package feel better as the protruding lense is evened out by the thickness of the wireless charging part.

It’s not all good though, the shell doesn’t really offer any protection at all, it protects the back from scratches and a section of each corner, face down or sideways drops and your asking for trouble. At the end of the day it’s just really for enabling wireless charging and a little bit of protection.

In Use

In use the wireless charging shell is pretty easy to use, slip the shell on and place your phone onto one of the nice Nokia charging pads I’ve got. That’s it really, the shell does easily come off and it doesn’t obscure any of the ports or sockets.

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera grip

The Lumia 1020 Camera grip created some varying emotions within me when it was announced, varying from, “whoa that’s cool” right through to “whoa that’s stupid”. I knew I’d eventually have to buy one to see how it would fair in real life. So here it is, my review starting of course with my good and bad points.

Good Points

Really great ideaExtra battery powerExtra grip helps with one handed modeTwo stage shutter button helps with focusing

Bad Points

Makes using the Lumia as a phone feel oddTripod screw placement oddSlightly fiddling to removeSlightly overpricedSpeaker obscured when in use

Design

The Lumia 1020 camera grip is an odd looking piece of kit for a phone case, for a piece of plastic that makes your Lumia 1020 feel even more like a camera then it’s perfectly normal. Once you’ve figured out how to fit it is a really damn good idea and it feels really good in the hand, as long as you don’t try to use it as a phone.

The hump houses a 1020 mAh battery pack, a new shutter button, a tripod mount, a battery gauge and the charging socket.

In Use

In use the Lumia Camera grip is pretty good, there are three things that it’s good at. The first is the battery pack, it’s only 1020 mAh so don’t expect huge battery life, but it’s still quite handy to have on hand. The second good thing about the case is the fact that it allows you to easily take shots with one hand, the camera grip really lets you get a good grip. The third thing is how the shutter button makes it easy to do a half press to focus and then fully press to snap the shot. When I have the grip attached I’m always on the look out for something to capture.

Of course there are bad points to the camera grip, such as trying to remove is quite fiddly, the speaker on the bottom of the Lumia is obscured, using it as a phone with the grip on just feels odd and when you connect it to a tripod it’s all a little lopsided.

Conclusion

Overall the cases both have a purpose and they both do it well, although both do have niggling design quirks, like the speaker being obscured on the camera grip and the lack of screen protection on the charging shell. However the facts that they are official accessories that fit perfectly, they are the correct colour and they are extremely well made, all override and slight niggles over the design.

I got the Camera Grip from Amazon who seemed cheapest at the time, the wireless charging shell has now also dropped below £20 on Amazon as well.

Facebook beta for Windows Phone update – tiles and notifications

Facebook Beta for Windows Phone has received one of its regular updates, and this one is a bit bigger than usual.

Notifications and Messages have received big updates, with improved Toast notifications as well as Toast notifications for Messages/Chat. Tiles have also been redesigned, with a variety available, including a Messages Tile.

Toast notifications have often been a bit hit and miss on previous versions of the app, but so far so good, with notifications so far arriving  in parallel with iOS for me, which is a big improvement.

So although the version number has only incrementally change, it’s a bigger update than that suggests, so go get it now using the link below.

Source – WP Central

Link – Facebook Beta in Windows Phone Marketplace

Vectone Mobile offering 1GB of data for.. £1!

No, I’ve not heard of them either but, if you pop along to Poundland or buy one of these online, you can get 1GB of days over 30 days worth for just a quid.

If you go into the high-class Poundland stores you can pick a Vectone Mobile SIM up for just £1 (yes, a pound. who’da thought it eh?), and that’ll include £10 worth of credit for calls, texts and internet. However, the inclusive credit won’t give you the deal mentioned below, so you will need to top up on the Vectone website where, right now, a £5 “Data Pocket” 1GB bundle is only £1. Deal. If you’re buying a tablet as a present with mobile data, put your hood up and slip into Poundland and grab one of these SIMs so that the person receiving the gift can browse anywhere.

If Poundland is beneath you, try buying a SIM card from the Vectone website, and then top up from this page for your super-cheap data.

Android Flashlight app ‘deceives’ millions

Federal Trade Commission stated GoldenShores Technologies took ID and location data from the millions using its Brightest Flashlight app.

The developer shared the data with ad networks but did not tell users about this practice.

To settle the charges, GoldenShores has agreed to give users more control over what happens to their data.

The FTC criticised GoldenShores for its poor privacy policy, which did not let people know that the app was logging their precise location and a unique identifier for their phone and was then sharing that information with advertisers.

The free app offered people an opt-out clause, the FTC said this was “meaningless” because data from all users of the Brightest Flashlight app was shared whether they agreed or not.

“When consumers are given a real, informed choice, they can decide for themselves whether the benefit of a service is worth the information they must share to use it,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection, in a statement.

“But this Flashlight app left them in the dark about how their information was going to be used,” she added.

A settlement deal signed by GoldenShores tightens up its privacy policy and demands that the company change how it handles data. In particular, it must no longer misrepresent how it gathers data and whom it is shared with, and must give consumers meaningful control over what is done with the information.

In addition, it must delete all the data it previously gathered from those who downloaded the Flashlight app.

Source BBC News

Lenovo Ideatab S5000 review

Why haven’t Lenovo cracked the tablet market? After all, we all know that Lenovo make great laptops, so they know about portable computing. We also know that the likes of Acer and HP haven’t had much success either, so perhaps it’s not surprising.

The Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 is an attempt to muscle in on the massive market of sub £200 7 inch Android tablets, currently dominated by the second incarnation of the Nexus 7. Could this be their ticket to the big time? I spent two weeks with one to find out.

Good

LooksFeels good in the handPower managerBundled appsCamera app

Bad

PriceSlippery at the baseCreaky plasticNo app drawerNo mute on camera shutter

What’s in the box?
The S5000 comes nicely packaged in a sturdy box containing the charger, a USB cable, instructions, a very odd stand that looks like it’s made from recycled cardboard, as well as the tablet itself.

Design
Having never seen an S5000 before I was taken aback at quite how good looking it is.

The back of the tablet is almost entirely grey-ish silver plastic, save a chrome plate effect strip along the bottom, which extends to the front and all around the edge. There’s also a Lenovo logo, the rear facing camera and a cut-out for the headphone socket at the top.

The screen is surrounded by a reasonably large bezel, by today’s standards, which houses a speaker and front facing camera, and another Lenovo logo.

The positioning of the speaker, and the mic in the base means this tablet looks like a massive phone. In fact, it would probably make a reasonable VOIP handset, apart from one thing: it’s a tablet, and unless you have a head that looks like it should be on Easter Island you’ll look ridiculous!

Although the looks are premium, the build quality isn’t quite there. The backplate creaks around the edges, and there is some very minor light bleed around the screen. Having said that, whilst these are minor annoyances, they don’t spoil the overall experience.

The one thing that did spoil it though was that chrome bezel wrapping around the back. Because it so smooth it caused the tablet to slip down my hands whilst I was typing in portrait orientation. Luckily the screen rotates a full 360 degrees, which enabled me to use it upside down and eliminate the issue. However, this caused problems in itself as I would then inadvertently hit the power or volume buttons with my palm. Rather annoying when trying to type up a long review of a Lenovo tablet!

Hardware

Processor: 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTekRAM: 1GBStorage: 16GBBluetooth 4.0GPSCamera: 5-megapixel rear, 1.6-megapixel frontBattery: 3,200MAh

There are two hardware points that matter to me most on a tablet, after build quality: the processor and display. The camera and internal storage are now secondary.

Processor

The processor is a perfectly capable MediaTek Cortex-A7 that doesn’t set the world alight, but certainly doesn’t cause the horrible lag that a lot of budget tablets exhibit.

The processor does have a helping hand from a gig of RAM, although it would have been good to see that doubled.

Lenovo use MediaTek processors in a lot of their Android tablets, which means very little to the average user but, historically, they’ve been notoriously difficult to root, and therefore there aren’t a great deal of custom ROMs or hacks for them. If you like to tinker you will probably be better off elsewhere.

Display

The 720p HD display is adequate, but outdated at this price point. Don’t get me wrong; it’s bright and clear, with good contrast and no dead pixels. However, whites are a little grey and colours slightly wishy-washy.

If you’re use case is reading books and watching funny cats on YouTube then you won’t have any complaints, but if you’re going to be streaming movies or enjoy high quality photos you’re going to feel let down in comparison to the excellent Nexus 7 (2013).

The GPU is equally adequate – Angry Birds and Candy Crush look great, but more demanding games and videos suffer from slight lag and maybe even dropping some frames.

Cameras

I see more and more people taking photos with tablets. Every time I wonder why. I don’t know of a tablet that takes as good a photo as a modern low-end smartphone, and most people carrying a tablet around with them will have a phone that’s even better than low-end which is easier to hold, with a better lens and higher pixel count.

I have taken some photos that are included below. I’ve seen worse, but they are decidedly average. Seeing as the Lenovo is without flash the only way to get an image in the dark is though drastic post-processing, and that gives a horrible grainy appearance.

It’s a shame, because the camera software is packed with the sort of features normally only on phones. An excellent choice of modes and effects are totally wasted.

Oh, and even in silent mode the choice of two shutter sounds are still audible. A minor thing, but very annoying when I was trying to take photos for this review whilst in the office (in my lunch break, of course!).

For what it’s worth, here’s a gallery of sample photos I took:

Other

Storage splits opinion nowadays – some people are frustrated by the lack of expandable storage, whereas others are happy that cloud services will fulfill their needs. I’ve swapped sides of this divide recently and I’m no longer fussed by the lack of a microSD card slot. However, if you are then cross the Lenovo off your list. Out of the 16GB on board I was left with around 12GB of usable space after the operating system, etc. is accounted for.

What we have here is the wi-fi only version of the S5000, there is also a 3G option available at a premium. The wi-fi range was good, but it doesn’t support 802.11ac. I’m sure this is of little consequence to most people, but it would have made a nice stand-out feature to laud over the Nexus 7 (2013).

Oh, and the sound quality out of that single front facing speaker is atrocious. It makes listening to music sound like you’re on-hold and you’ve turned on the speakerphone of your home phone. Mercifully, earphone and bluetooth listening is far better!

Software

Android 4.2.2 Jellybean is installed out of the box, but Lenovo have promised a jump to 4.4 KitKat “soon”.

There is an unfortunate amount of skinning applied throughout the operating system, some of it is very much a matter of taste cosmetically, but the most conspicuous ‘feature’ is the lack of an app drawer. Yes, Lenovo have actually applied a skin that removes core functionality of Android. We’ve seen this before in Huawei’s EmotionUI. I don’t like it there, and I don’t like it here.

Click the thumbnails to see the home screens:

It’s not all bad though; the built-in file manager is excellent, as is the power management app that gives a huge number of options for getting the best life out of the tablet. I have to say that even with my heavy usage scenario I only had to charge it three times in the two weeks I’ve had it.

There are some nice bits of software bundled with the tablet. If you don’t like the Lenovo file manager you’ve got the option of ES File Manager as well. There’s also Kingsoft Office, Accuweather and Norton Mobile Antivirus. None of the above are difficult to find in the Play store, but will be useful to the first time buyer who may initially struggle with the idiosyncrasies of Android app downloading.

Accessories

OK, this one made me chuckle, but it is quite a good idea. The advertising literature states that this tablet comes with a stand. I don’t know about you, but when I see something like that I assume there’s a metal or plastic plinth or clip that allows for multi-angle viewing. Instead I got this:

It’s actually made of molded reinforced recycled paper. It reminds me of something you might find eggs in at the supermarket. It does, however, do an excellent job of holding the tablet in both portrait and landscape orientations, and is very light. It just looks, errr… well, cheap. Certainly not in keeping with the classy looks of the tablet. Bonus marks for tree hugging though.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Ideatab S5000 certainly turns heads. It looks great and has prompted comments whenever anyone has seen me with it. It has one major flaw, however – the Nexus 7 (2013). I’ve tried to keep clear of this comparison as far as possible, but when it comes down to it a punter is going to use the Nexus as a benchmark to which others will have to compete.

If the Nexus 7 (2013) didn’t exist I’d be giving the Lenovo a reasonably good write-up, but it does, so I’m not. To be fair, this would be a really good little tablet for £130, but it’s not, it’s £179 and it just can’t compete.

Why haven't Lenovo cracked the tablet market? After all, we all know that Lenovo make great laptops, so they know about portable computing. We also know that the likes of Acer and HP haven't had much success either, so perhaps it's not surprising. The Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 is an attempt to muscle in on the massive market of sub £200 7 inch Android tablets, currently dominated by the second incarnation of the Nexus 7. Could this be their ticket to the big time? I spent two weeks with one to find out. Good Looks Feels good in the hand Power manager Bundled apps Camera app Bad Price Slippery at the base Creaky plastic No app drawer No mute on camera shutter What's in the box? The S5000 comes nicely packaged in a sturdy box containing the charger, a USB cable, instructions, a very odd stand that looks like it's made from recycled cardboard, as well as the tablet itself. Design Having never seen an S5000 before I was taken aback at quite how good looking it is. The back of the tablet is almost entirely grey-ish silver plastic, save a chrome plate effect strip along the bottom, which extends to the front and all around the edge. There's also a Lenovo logo, the rear facing camera and a cut-out for the headphone socket at the top. The screen is surrounded by a reasonably large bezel, by today's standards, which houses a speaker and front facing camera, and another Lenovo logo. The positioning of the speaker, and the mic in the base means this tablet looks like a massive phone. In fact, it would probably make a reasonable VOIP handset, apart from one thing: it's a tablet, and unless you have a head that looks like it should be on Easter Island you'll look ridiculous! Although the looks are premium, the build quality isn't quite there. The backplate creaks around the edges, and there is some very minor light bleed around the screen. Having said that, whilst these are minor annoyances, they don't spoil the overall experience. The one thing that did spoil it though was that chrome bezel wrapping around the back. Because it so smooth it caused the tablet to slip down my hands whilst I was typing in portrait orientation. Luckily the screen rotates a full 360 degrees, which enabled me to use it upside down and eliminate the issue. However, this caused problems in itself as I would then inadvertently hit the power or volume buttons with my palm. Rather annoying when trying to type up a long review of a Lenovo tablet! Hardware Processor: 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek RAM: 1GB Storage: 16GB Bluetooth 4.0 GPS Camera: 5-megapixel rear, 1.6-megapixel front Battery: 3,200MAh There are two hardware points that matter to me most on a tablet, after build quality: the processor and display. The camera and internal storage are now secondary. Processor The processor is a perfectly capable MediaTek Cortex-A7 that doesn't set the world alight, but certainly…68

Capable device, but only buy if looks are more important to you than function.

7

Tesco Mobile offering the Moto G for £99

It’s sadly showing as unavailable when we click on the listing but, if you can find it, the Moto G is now just £99 at Tesco.

If you’ve got 99 Clubcard points you can buy it that way but, for 99 quid, this is a steal. It comes from a name you know and has a 5 megapixel camera (plus a 1.3 megapixel front shooter), 4.5? 1280×720 pixel screen (329 ppi), 8GB of internal storage, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and it runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

So next time you’re in Tesco getting a loaf of bread, have a looksie in the Tesco Mobile section and pick yourself up a Moto G for less than £100. You can double the Tesco points if you’re a loyalty card user, and get it unlocked fairly cheaply too, so it seems like a winner to us.

Android, sailing across a chocolate sea

Are you wanting to get a mention on Coolsmartphone? Today is definitely a good day to email us, because things are a little quiet on the news front. This new KitKat advert shows the tie-in with Android and is a sign of things to come.

How weird.

This whole item has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve just had a mid-afternoon chocolate break, oh no.

HTC One – Dual SIM version available, now with microSD card slot too!

Hello you lovely lot. Back in May we mentioned the Chinese version of the HTC One which, unlike the version available everywhere else, has a microSD card slot. HTC stated at the time that there was additional space available in the Chinese version due to the radio bands used there, so they could fit a microSD card slot in

Fast-forward 6 months and yes, finally, we have an official announcement – the microSD-equipped HTC One is to be available in the UK. Not only that, but this new version has two SIM-slots too, so you can keep your work and personal SIM in the very same handset.

HTC state that they’re targeting the business market, which has massive potential because BlackBerry is pretty screwed is becoming increasingly competitive.

If you want one, it’s available for pre-order from http://www.officialhtcstore.com/ and, by the looks of it, it’ll cost exactly the same amount as the normal version.

It’s all the good stuff (HTC BoomSound, UltraPixel camera, IR blaster etc) plus an additional SIM and a microSD card slot to add a further 64GB of storage. If you bought one recently and are now screaming at the screen, I feel for you.

What? You’ve not seen much about the HTC One? Watch our full HTC One overview for details, and check out the press release below. Note, there’s NO 4G in this version.

HTC One dual SIM brings style and function to business and enterprise market

London, November 28th, 2013 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, is to start selling its HTC One with a dual SIM option in the UK for the first time.

The HTC One dual SIM has a removable back casing so customers can insert two different SIM cards, meaning they can use a single phone to run on two different phone numbers or networks simultaneously. The handset has also been enhanced so users can take advantage of a microSD slot, enabling them to add up to 64GB of additional storage.

The launch marks the first time HTC has released a dual SIM version of its top-end smartphone in the UK.
Dual Sim

HTC has launched the phone to specifically target a business and enterprise market that is becoming increasingly competitive. At the same time, HTC has seen in research in other markets showing that business people would prefer to use just a single handset – but want to avoid spending their own money on company usage.

The HTC One dual SIM will also appeal to those who want to be able to separate their work from their personal lives, but don’t want to have to carry two handsets – often a premium smartphone for personal use and a lower-end product for work calls and email.

The handset will also suit those who make international calls for work – either while travelling or because they are seconded overseas. The handset enables customers to have a local-network SIM card for in-country calls and data, while they use an international SIM when travelling or living away from home, delivering potential cost savings to businesses and consumers alike.

Peter Frolund, HTC’s General Manager UK said: “HTC is changing the premium mobile market, this is the first time we have released a dual SIM version of one of our premium handsets in the UK. By bringing business and pleasure together in the best designed handset in the market, we’re creating a new approach and one that we believe will appeal to businesses and their employees alike.”

The HTC One dual SIM features high-quality audio for media and a clarity of sound that is perfect for conference calling with HTC BoomSound™ and dual-frontal speakers. It also features leading camera functionality with HTC UltraPixel™ technology and a robust aluminium uni-body which handles the most challenging business conditions comfortably. A big battery, power saving mode and the familiar design aesthetic are all reasons why the HTC One has become the most-awarded handset in the UK this year.

The addition of a microSD slot has been designed to appeal to business travellers who tend to need to carry larger numbers of files for work, while they also want to carry more personal entertainment content while on the road.

For the corporate user, the HTC One dual SIM also offers HTC Sense®-enabled productivity including built-in support for Microsoft Exchange and Office and provisions for other Microsoft applications including Office 365 and Lync. It also supports enterprise-grade features including on-board encryption, secure connectivity, secure password polices, remote data wiping and flexible Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions.

Peter Frolund concludes: “Companies are offering greater choice to employees to choose their own phone or are happy for staff to use a personal handset for both work and pleasure. With HTC One dual SIM, employees can get the handset they want while not having to pay for company usage out of their own pockets and employers can lower the sums they spend on handsets, so it delivers the best of both worlds.”

The HTC One dual SIM is available now for pre-order via the Official HTC Store (www.officialhtcstore.com ). HTC is in advanced talks with a number of networks and retailers to offer the handset direct to consumer and business customers.

Nexus 5 update to 4.4.1 now live

I’m really impressed with my Nexus 5, apart from one thing, the camera, don’t get me wrong the camera can take some quality photo’s, but it takes thought due to slow or sometimes two lots of focusing. I’m not the only one point out these gripes and it appears that Google have been listening too, for the last month or so it appears that they have been working on a update to address these very issues.

Google has officially announced that an update to Nexus devices ( Android 4.4.1 )  that supposedly fixes many of the issues with the Nexus 5's camera, including poor autofocus and slow capture speeds.

Now is the time to repeatedly keep tapping “check for updates” or if you have no patience waiting for the update to hit your device, you can grab a download of the official file from Google.

Picture this: your whole family, reunited for the holidays, in front of a crackling fire. A great image…except if you’re a photographer (in which case, you’d be saying “challenging low light, high contrast…argh!!”). Well, not with HDR+ on Nexus 5, alongside a fresh update to the camera rolling out today with Android 4.4.1.

HDR+ lets you to take great shots in challenging environments, say where there’s a large contrast of bright and dark portions of the scene and also in low light situations. When you press the shutter button, instead of taking just one picture, we take a burst of shots in about 1/3 of a second, and apply computational photography to intelligently fuse images together.

All of this gets a boost with an update to Android 4.4.1 rolling out today to Nexus 5. It improves the camera with faster focusing, especially in low light, faster white balancing, for truer colors, the ability to pinch-zoom the viewfinder in HDR+ mode and less shutter lag.

Medion Lifetab E7613 Android tablet flash sale [bargain]

Are you looking for a tablet for Christmas, but don’t have the funds for a Nexus 7 or iPad Mini? Well this bobby bargain may be up your street… Well, if you have an Aldi up your street that is.

This Sunday, for one day only, Aldi are offering the Medion Lifetab E7613 for a measly £79.99.

Granted, it’s not going to blow your socks off with its processing power, but it’s going to have enough to cause a breeze around your toes. It’s certainly one to consider if you’re looking at a Hudl or one of the no-name imports.

This deal is only availbable in store, but you can see further details here – Medion Lifetab E7613.

And here are the specs, courtesy of Aldi.

Multitouch display (1,024 x 600 pixels) for a fantastic multimedia experienceHigh performance Quad Core processor (1.6GHz)Android™ 4.2.2 Jelly Bean2 integrated cameras – 0.3MP front webcam with integrated microphone and a 2.0MP camera on the rear802.11n wi-fiUSB host function and numerous connection options including Bluetooth 2.1Range of pre-installed apps and Kaspersky Tablet Security (test version for 30 days)Dimensions: approx. 192 x 122 x 10.8mm (W x H x D)Weight: approx. 310g

Google Play Music updated. Offline music storage added

The Google Play Music app has received a bit of a refresh this morning. Download it and you’ll get KitKat SD card support, which gives offline music capability.

Not only that, but there’s the ability to shuffle songs in the “All Access” feature and Google have made it easy to share links of songs, artists and albums to those special online friends.

Grab it here or dive into your Google Play link now.

USB to go topsy-turvy at last

Just a short while ago we had various handsets and roughly four thousand different types of charger. Some of you might still have an old Nokia, and you may be familiar with the, “charger hunt” as you search drawers and desks for “one of those with a small round pointy bit” to charge your aging brick.

Lucikly the EU sort-of put a stop to all this, and we all started to use the microUSB charger…apart from Apple, who decided to do their own thing.

However, there’s a problem isn’t there folks? It’s that moment, just after you’ve put your “special cream” on and you’re getting ready for bed … You try to plug the microUSB plug in and find that, whatever direction you initially try, it’s the wrong way. Some phones have it one way up, others have it the other way around and you’re guaranteed to be jamming it in the wrong way round.

So the good news is that the next version will – like the Apple lightning connector – work any way up. According to reports, the new USB plugs will be designed to work no matter which way you insert them.

The new spec, which is agreed by the Promotor Group, is due around mid-2014, so the first new USB devices will arrive in 2016. The new full-size USB plug will be similar in dimensions to the current microUSB plug and will offer charging of up to 100 watts. Data speeds will also ramp up, with up to 10 Gbps on offer.

This is great news, and means that you can stick it in anyway up before you fall asleep.

The Coolsmartphone Podcast – Episode 73

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Another precisely produced piece of pristine podcast pie this week, and it’s Ronnie, myself and Dan discussing the last few days of mobile news.

This week…

- Three Feel at Home Roaming, now expanded and really rather good.

- Three launch 4G, but there’s a backlash.

- EE to hit 160 cities 4G by Christmas, but should we concentrate on getting 3G everywhere first?

- Nokia 1520 on sale! Do you want it?

- HTC getting kicked in the teeth as the One Mini is banned in the UK

- Two more Galaxy Note 3 colours

- The rumoured Samsung Galaxy Note Lite

- The HTC Desire 500 Review. Is it a suitable One Mini replacement?

Three offer to unlock phones for NOTHING

Having a locked phone can be rather annoying, not only do you often have bloatware to contend with, it can also be tricky if you want to swap to a different network at the end of your contract. You’ll also have problems if you want to sell the phone on.

Previously Three used to charge you £15.32 for the privilege of unlocking your device but no more – it is now free, nothing, nada, zilch. Note it needs to be the original account holder who gets the device unlocked.

This brings them in line with O2 who have offered free unlocking for some time for contract phones and means they are considerably cheaper than the £20 charged by Orange and T-Mobile. Vodafone charge £19.99 in first year of contract but nothing after.

Whilst they haven’t publicised this yet, it has been confirmed by their Twitter team and the Three site no longer mentions a fee, although the summary text in a Google search does.

If you’re on Three and want to unlock your device then call 333 – option 3,3,1 or head over to the Three website here

Sources: Hotukdeals and Twitter

Lumia 2520 announced by Nokia

The Lumia 2520, the first Windows tablet from Nokia, has today been announced. Here in the UK there’s only one place to get it, and that’s through John Lewis from December 4th. The tablet includes 4G connectivity, a full HD 1920×1080 10.1? screen, 2.2GHz quad-core CPU, 11 hours of battery life and 4 colours – a glossy white or red plus a matt-finished black or cyan.

Nokia have added some exclusive apps, including Nokia Video Director to edit video and “Dragons Adventure” – a DreamWorks game ideal for the family.

Powered by Windows RT 8.1, there’s a 6.7 megapixel auto-focus Zeiss-optics camera at the back (with a f1.9 apeture) plus a 2 megapixel wide-angle front camera. It has 2GB RAM, 32GB of internal memory, a microSD card and SkyDrive cloud storage with free global Nokia HERE Maps. Price? Well, from Wednesday John Lewis will be off-loading these for £399.99 and you can add a Nokia Power Keyboard case (adding another 5 hours of battery life plus 2 full-size USB ports) for another £149.95.

More details below. What do you guys reckon? Will you be buying one?

The Nokia Lumia 2520 – exclusively available from John Lewis

Nokia Lumia 2520 – keeping you connected and letting you do more on the go

Thursday 28th November 2013 - London, UK – Nokia today announced that the Nokia Lumia 2520, the company’s first Windows tablet, will be available exclusively through The John Lewis Partnership from December 4th. Priced at only £399.99, the Lumia 2520 features 4G connectivity, a stunning 10.1” full HD display, quad core chipset, multiple colour choices, 11 hours of battery life and super-fast-charging capabilities.

“In a market of me-too products, the Nokia Lumia 2520 stands out from the crowd with its unique Lumia design, great hardware and exclusive software experiences,” said Conor Pierce, Nokia’s General Manager for the UK & Ireland. “The Nokia Lumia 2520 is the first truly connected tablet and we look forward to working with John Lewis to bring this amazing connected experience to their customers.”

Premium Design Meets Maximum Function

The Lumia 2520 builds on the beautiful Lumia design and comes in a number of stunning colours, including a gloss finished red and a beautiful black silk finish. The Lumia 2520 is designed to work anywhere as it sports a bright 10.1-inch full HD display giving the best outdoor and indoor readability possible. Also, for the first time, ZEISS optics appears on a tablet alongside Nokia’s highly praised camera applications. The Lumia 2520 has a 6.7 megapixel rear camera with f1.9 aperture, providing great low-light images, and also features a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for high quality video calls. Concerns about power are a thing of the past, as the Lumia 2520 provides up to 11 hours of battery life during video playback and has support for fast-charging; giving you up to 80% charge in just one hour.

Harry Boughton, junior buyer for tablets and telecoms says, “We’re very excited to announce the launch of the Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet exclusive to John Lewis. We have seen a continuing demand for tablets, selling one every 15 seconds, and we think the addition of this tablet to our range will appeal to customers looking to do more than surf the web. It comes with the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system and Microsoft Office is pre-installed, making it ideal for customers who use Excel, Word, PowerPoint or Outlook. It is also 4G enabled so customers can use super-fast mobile broadband to always stay connected.”

Unique and Connected Lumia Tablet Experiences

The Lumia 2520 also comes with a number of unique software experiences that are exclusive to the Lumia family, including the excellent “Dragons Adventure” application, developed in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Working together with the HERE Maps and LiveSight applications it offers a unique augmented reality experience, Dragons Adventure simply turns every journey into a “How to Train Your Dragon” themed experience.

Nokia Storyteller reinvents the way you relive your stories. Built into the Lumia 2520, it automatically compiles your pictures into a single timeline with great HERE maps integration – including images from Facebook, SkyDrive, Picasa, Flickr and even your Lumia smartphone. The Lumia Share application also allows your Lumia smartphone to interact with your Lumia 2520 and view all your images within Storyteller, simply connecting via inbuilt NFC.

The Lumia 2520 also sees the introduction of Nokia Video Director, a new video editing software that lets you get even more creative with videos captured on both the Nokia Lumia 2520 and companion Lumia smartphones. Shoot a video on your Lumia smartphone, share with the Lumia 2520 and edit it with predefined templates on your tablet.

With industry-leading HERE Maps, the Lumia 2520 is the only tablet with true offline map support for a fast and reliable maps experience. The Lumia 2520 also includes an exclusive version of Nokia Mix Radio preinstalled, providing a super-rich music discovery experience.

Stay Connected, Getting More Done On the Go

With the Lumia 2520 not only do you get great battery life, you also have the full Microsoft Outlook experience, making it easy to finish off your pending mails no matter where you are. With Microsoft Office built in, you can view and edit your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the move, while keeping the original formatting. Back up documents to free and secure cloud storage via SkyDrive to pick up where you left off, using any device.

Nokia Lumia 2520 will go on sale at The John Lewis Partnership on Wednesday 4th December and will be priced at £399.99. In addition, the Nokia Power Keyboard Case, giving you an additional 5hrs of battery life and two full size USB 2.0 ports, will be available from John Lewis in the coming weeks and will be priced at £149.95.

10.1” 1080p full HD (1920×1080) AH-IPS Capacitive? Multi-Touch Display, High Brightness with Low Reflectance for the best outdoor readability, Gorilla Glass 28000mAh battery with up to 11 hours of video playback (up to 16 hours with Nokia Power Keyboard)2.2GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 800 by Qualcomm6.7MP Auto Focus ZEISS optics with f1.9 aperture2GB RAM, 32 GB internal user memory, micro SD card support up to 32GB, SkyDrive cloud storage

Gionee Eliffe E7 hits China with a 16 megapixel cam

OK, you may not have heard of them, but they’re making a pretty bold claim. The Gionee Elife E7 is, according to Gionee, the best Android cameraphone on the market. Now, when I say “Android”, it’s a heavily tweaked version of Android called “Amigo 2.0? and the Chinese manufacturer has added a 16 megapixel shooter at the back with an 8 megapixel camera up front.

Other specs includes a 5.5? 1920×1080 pixel screen with a 401 ppi resolution. The handset is no slouch, with a 2.2GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU, 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. There’s also a 32GB version with 3GB of RAM and a 2500mAh battery.

This particular phone is going to be available from December 5th in various colours (white, black, pink, green, blue, yellow and orange) but you’ll need to wait until next year to see it available outside of China. We’ve done some rough sums and the 16GB version is working out at around £272 with the 32GB version coming in at £323.

It looks rather good though, I must say.

The Coolsmartphone Podcast – Episode 72

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s Friday, and you know what happens on Friday – we publish the single greatest podcast on the internet. This week James is sunning himself on holiday, so I’m in the hot seat. Yes, me. If you’ve followed the podcast over the years you may remember the very first iteration of our podcast, which I recorded in the car. This is better than this. I’ve even spent time adding a new intro. Believe me, you need this in your live. It’s the best thing since bread was sliced.

This week it’s me and Dan Carter talking about…

– The new Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet

– Smartwatches. How successful will they be?

– The Nokia Lumia 525, is it helping Windows Phone turn a corner?

– The super-cheap Moto G

– Huawei Acend W2 pricing

– The 1960s phone and the Brick phone

– The arrival of the HTC One dual sim version

– 4G – Have people warmed to it?

– What’s coming to Coolsmartphone next week? An exclusive sneak-peak for podcast listeners.

Subscribe to the RSS feed here, listen via iTunes here, download it here or just listen above.