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.
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.
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?
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
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 LewisNokia Lumia 2520 – keeping you connected and letting you do more on the goThursday 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
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.
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.
