Apparently Apple has already decided that their current iPhone is the de facto size for a mobile. They never really consulted us, but for them 3.5-inches is more than enough for a mobile. Well, their closest smartphone competitor Samsung has other ideas, in fact, they think you should be able to choose whatever screen size you want. Anything from 3-inches to 5.6-inches. Sammy has launched a new smartphone with a gigantic 5.6-inch screen. Called the Galaxy Note it’s a smartphone that looks to combine the best of a tablet (screen size) with the portability of a mobile to create something genuinely different. Samsung is clearly hoping that the Note is a convergence device; marrying two devices into one. Has it worked? Almost.

The Screen of all screens

When you unbox the Note the first thing you’ll probably do is compare it against an iPhone and when you do you’ll come to the conclusion that it’ll never fit in anyone’s pockets (unless you own some hammer pants) – it’s massive. The extra size is obvious; a large 5.3-inch screen.

The Note uses Samsung AMOLED technology which is found the current S2. All of their current screens which use this tech are famed for incredible brightness, deep, bold colours and the Note is no exception. The 1280×800 resolution is a quite an achievement, but would have been a real man on the moon moment if they had managed to get this resolution onto a phone that wasn’t quite so big.

Power and Battery Life

With such a big screen and plenty more pixels to push around you’d think Samsung might want to add a new CPU. But, the have decided to run a clocked version of the same chip found in its smaller cousin the S2. With the increased power demands of the screen Samsung has decided to up the battery – to a 2500 Mah, meaning you can rely on the Note to last a full day without having to do a pit stop.

Software and Internal Storage

Google’s attempt to cure the fragmenting of the Android OS has seen the search giant release Ice Cream Sandwich, unfortunately if you pick a Note you’ll be waiting until March before Samsung can update the current Gingerbread OS to Ice Cream Sandwich.

From the face of it you’d probably struggle to tell the two OS’s apart, but it would have been nice to see the latest OS on the latest Android handsets. It would seem that in a cruel twist of fate Ice Cream may well fragment Android even further. The Note comes in two storage flavours – 16 and 32GB.

The Stylus is back

One of the main party pieces of the Note is the return of an old friend: the Stylus pen. Samsung hopes that the Note and S Pen will eventually replace the humble pen and paper. We’re not sure they’re quite there yet. While the stylus on the HTC Flyer was a disaster, the Note’s is actually rather good on the face of it. It comes free with the handset and has a holster on the bottom of the device. Using the S Pen, you can doodle images, write notes and interact with all elements of the Android operating system. But, upon closer inspection it begins to unravel: handwriting recognition software is onboard, but hasn’t really moved on from the early 90’s – it’s still terrible at recognising handwriting – therefore you’ll probably only use it for games and the odd doodle.

Gaming Credentials

Where the stylus does succeed is gaming. Playing any number of games with the stylus makes the Note more like a fancy Nintendo DS than a boring business phone. Games like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds are a joy to play with the pen. If you’re playing games which require you to use your fingers you’ll find them much more engrossing than on a normal sized phone. The extra screen real-estate really comes into play when playing games like GTA 3. The Note’s large display goes some way to curing the traditional headache of touch-screen virtual controls, enriching the experience more than you might naturally assume.

Camera and Video Capture

Samsung’s Galaxy S2 has been a by-word for an amazing digital camera, and we’re glad to report that the Note also comes with the same 8-megapixel camera and the same set of slick image-capture tools. If you liked the camera on the S2 – then you’ll love the Note’s.

Samsung Galaxy Note Review: The World’s First Tablet/Phone Hybrid ? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Web-based CRM Systems are becoming an essential feature of all business marketing plans as a way of keeping your myriads of client data up-to-date, and by keeping track of which marketing campaigns work well and which ones bomb.

While implementing a CRM is all well and good to discuss, getting into a meeting room with a CRM company, hearing their exciting pitch and fainting when they tell you the cost of personalising their software to your company is something most businesses, particularly small businesses, prefer to avoid.

An alternative to buying your own CRM System is to go to the cloud. Online CRMs work well for small businesses because they’re easy to implement, cost-effective and you don’t need your own massive servers to store all of your growing data- they keep it all for you via the inter-webs.

It will still take a bit of time to get all your data uploaded, but once that’s done you’re ready to send flyers to all your contacts over the age of 60, email all your contacts over the age of 25 and Facebook all of your contacts over the age of 9.

Payment-wise there are usually various amounts you can pay per month or per year, depending on how in-depth you’d like your cloud-based service.

Usually online CRM companies will charge you per user, so it’s important you initially figure out who in your team is likely to hang around for the next few years. If someone in your company who is a nominated subscriber does leave, it’s usually no drama to change over the name on your account, or simply pretend to be them Facebook-hack style.

So if you’re sold on a software as a service (SaaS) solution, what are the best online CRM companies out there?

5. WiredContact.co.uk

WiredContact is a UK-based hosted CRM company that prides itself on UK-based support whenever you need to get in touch with them.

Its service offers the usual CRM tools such as managing and reporting on leads, sales opportunities, the activities of all of your sales reps and reports on your won / lost / pending ratios.

A nice touch to WiredConnect’s service is that you can easily tailor your interface to suit your business. By providing standard HTML-based templates you can alter the look and feel of your platform and choose from a range of custom views to suit your eccentric tastes.

Unlike some other CRM providers, WiredConnect will let you use your own servers to host data if you prefer which is one way to keep your fees down.

The more licences your company buys, the lower the cost for each licence, so 1-4 licences will set you back around £278 per user, per year, but 10+ licences will cost a noticeably less £174 per user, per year.

4. Lunar CRM

Lunar CRM may not be the biggest online CRM name in the business, but it’s local based in Coventry rather than California, and it’s small enough to still provide quite a personalised service as opposed to bigger US online CRM providers like ZohoCRM (which on a side note, I’ve not included in this list due to its ridiculous extra storage costs)

While it’s small, Lunar CRM offers a product to rival the big boys with the ability to compare suppliers and their product performance, breakdown your relationship with different customers and see which staff are doing a cracking job at selling ice to the Eskimos.

If something off the shelf isn’t exactly what your business needs, Lunar CRM can also design and build a bespoke system to fit your difficult needs, and also offers technical support 24/7.

Because they’re so boutique, you will have to contact them directly for a quote but we hear they’re priced in a similar vein to Salesforce.

3. SugarCRM

SugarCRM is one of those Californian-based companies, but has a UK branch Sugar UK supporting its service across the Atlantic. Sugar UK has engineers based in picturesque Surrey so support time differences won’t be a problem.

If you’re looking at a bit of a combo package, SugarCRM is an online CRM system that can bundle a VoIP phone system to integrate your company’s communication with customers directly into SugarCRM.

This means you can access features including click-to-dial and recorded-call logging. It also saves you money on an expensive PBX with everything hosted and managed on the network.

There are three different editions you can subscribe to, starting with the “Community” plan which is at the very reasonable cost of free. You do get what you pay for though and for a CRM system comparable to others on the market, you will probably want the next cheapest “Professional” plan at £235 per user per month.

For the extra cash you will get features like manual Outlook integration, sales forecasting, market analysis and field-level security. If you pay around double that amount for the “Enterprise” plan, you get some cool Android, iPhone and Blackberry apps at your fingertips plus a few other nifty features.

2. Open CRM

Open CRM is another online system option for your business, and what makes this company interesting is that regardless of your subscription level, all customers have access to all of Open CRM’s available features.

There is no disabled functionality so you’re never compelled to upgrade your account, or change your business strategy to fit within a set of limiting features so often associated with a cheap-option plan.

What Open CRM has going for it is incredibly competitive pricing. Ten users each with 10GB data storage and a ridiculous 2TB file storage will set you back £125 per month or £1500 per annum. Compared to big guns Salesforce.com, 10 users with 1GB data storage and 6GB file storage starts at £450 a month or £5400 per year.

While that may seem like an unnecessary amount of storage, the guys over at Open CRM take the view that as a business your storage needs will only ever grow, so any additional storage costs should be considered from the start.

If you somehow find your terabytes a bit too limiting, you can increase your data storage allocation with an additional 500GB for £15 per month, or 1TB for £25.00 per month, or if you’ve got high-res videos of every single person in your database, an extra 1.5TB will set you back £32.00.

1. Salesforce.com

One company that has done a very good job getting itself known in the market is Salesforce. The fact that its targeted marketing works so well is indicative of how good their systems are.

Apart from its standard CRM offerings, Salesforce.com has a number of cloud apps and platforms to help businesses keep on top of the game when it comes to interacting with potential customers.

It provides a private social network for your business called “Chatter”, a means to monitor your social media engagement called “Radian6”, as well as the world’s first enterprise cloud database, creatively called “Database.com”.

Salesforce.com has a swag of impressive clients making use of its services including O2, Boots, Confused.com and even the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

For an entry-level very basic system, you only need to fork out £10.20 per user, per month, but the £45 per user per month offers a wealth more of the standard CRM options your business will most likely benefit from.

Top Five Web-Based CRM Systems for UK Business is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Thanks, in part, to BeatsAudio over-ear headphones have seen quite a resurgence in recent years – a few years ago it was all about having an iPod and those the famous white earphones. Well, everyone still wants an iPod or iPhone, but now those white earphones are not cool anymore – NoiseHush has recognised this sea change – as consumers realised that in-ear technology just can’t compete with the sound quality and comfort of over-ear technology and the coolest headphones you can buy are the big, chunky and over-ear variety.

NoiseHush like many others are looking to seduce you with their new line of HD Stereo headphones. Which offer maximum comfort, a stylish design and ear-pounding sound quality. We gave the NoiseHush NX26’s a thorough testing on range of mediums and devices to see how they stack up against the competition.

First of all, we started with some noisy dance music, a perfect start to test the headphones punch and sound range. We’re glad to report that they performed admirably. They did begin to distort right at the top of the volume range, but for many you’ll never take the NX26’s up to that level.

Next up, we tried the headphones on some movies to see how they handled a wider spectrum of sounds, which is where in-ear headphones usually tend to fail miserably. NoiseHush’s NX26’s performed very well with deep low-ends and crystal clear highs.

The final test we devised was to play some videogames and see how they performed. Again is was the same story of impressive range of sound delivered with crystal clarity. We do own a pair of BeatAudio heaphones and for the money of the Nexus pair they do stand-up against them well. There are certainly on par with the cheaper Solo’s, but can’t really compete with some of the more expensive versions Beats offer.

Where the headphones start show off the cheaper price point is the build quality and comfort. They’re not poorly made, but they’re far from having a high-end premium feel to them, but for the price we can live that. They’re quite comfortable with a padded headband, which is adjustable to fit your head, but we found they only really became comfortable when they were worn-in and had loosened up a bit. The ear cushions are well padded and do isolate a lot of the outside noise without having to use noise-cancelling technology – which tends to mean you have to have some batteries for the system to work, which is one of the major downsides of some of Beats’ high-end range.

The NoiseHush NX26′s do come with a very handy microphone and controller on the headphone wire. You can make phone calls via voice commands and there’s a button to control music playback, volume and you can also answer phone calls with a touch of the button. The tangle-free cable is impressively long compared to the competition meaning they’re ideal for gaming, listening to music or watching movies.

For the price we were pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the NX26′s, for a price of around £60 – they are certainly worth considering, and will some clever design decisions with the length of the cable and on-board controls they’re a great pair versatile headphones for phones, mp3 players, laptops or just about any device.

NoiseHush NX26 HD Stereo Headphones Specifications
• Driver Unit: 40 mm
• Output Power: 30mw RMS
• Speaker Frequency Response: 20HZ-20kHz
• Sensitivity: -42 ± 3dB
• Mic Frequency Response: 100-20kHz
• Cable Length: 5.7 feet
• Audio Connection: 3.5mm Stereo Jack Socket
• Weight: 175g

NoiseHush NX26 Headphones Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Overview

We all know that Christmas is just around the corner.  Almost a week away to be more exact!  Apart from partying, eating lots of Turkey and spending time with the family. There will be no doubt that if you’re a gaming fan then Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if you didn’t have a few rounds on your Xbox 360 or PS3.

Well, if you’re looking to boast about your latest gameplay to all you gaming friends then you might want to invest or get one of your loved ones to buy you Roxio Game Capture to capture all those gaming moments.  Roxio Game Capture includes everything you need to capture your Xbox 360 and PS3 gameplay in realtime while playing in HD. Then easily edit your footage, to keep just the action you want, and share on YouTube and other sharing sites – direct from your PC. Roxio Game Capture is an all-in-one product, including Roxio video-editing software, and a powerful Roxio capture device.

Fortunately for us we managed to get hold of one to review to let all you gaming fans know whether it is one to invest or something which is better left on shop shelves.

Review

Set Up: 3/5

Let’s not beat around the bush, there’s a bit of a split in the gaming community when it comes to this device. Some praise it for its extremely easy set-up whilst others are so frustrated by it that they send it back to the shop. The two main complaints are poor video quality and the PC software making laptops crash. When it comes to video quality it seems that many people struggle to find the correct settings to suit their gaming set-up. This is, for some users, a major flaw in the product. Actually hooking up the wires is very easy, as is installing the software which took a few minutes for and worked first time with no signs of lagging or crashing. The problem is altering the display settings on Xbox/PS3 system and televisions. Ultimately if you have a good quality (preferably HD) TV and you know your composites from your SCARTS and your PALS from your HD then you should be fine. If you’re not so knowledgeable when it comes to picture quality then stay away. This device is designed for serious gamers. The reason it scores low is on set-up is that it is marketed as something gloriously easy to install which is not always the case. The instructions aren’t terrible but neither are they the most illuminating in the  world.

Value for Money: 3/5

The price of the Xbox/PS3 capture device tends to be around the £65-75 region. If you’re serious about capturing your gaming, whether you’re simply a nerd that likes to show off or your headshots or a blogger/reviewer then you’re going to get a lot of use out of the device for under £100 which is quite a reasonable price. Another popular capture device is Dazzle which is slightly more expensive at around £90-£95. So in context £65 is good value for money. If you’re paid for your footage you’ll get the money back in a few reviews time. You can go down the DIY route but this is notoriously difficult and will probably involve ordering a tonne of cables and spending hours digging around forums. One minus for Roxio’s device is that some users may need to buy a composite cable to use the capture function and  this isn’t included.

Features and Design: 5/5

The quality of the box is fantastic. It’s light, strong and actually looks pretty cool. It’s not going to look ugly stacked up next to your game console. The wires on the other hand may, but they are unavoidable and with some careful planning you could set the box up nicely with the wires tucked out of sight. You will of course have to find somewhere for your laptop/computer to sit as you will have the device hooked up to your computer via USB. What’s more, the wires are gold-plated which is a nice touch for a cheap(ish) device. The software ran great for me, even on my bog-standard Windows 7 laptop. There’s enough editing software to suit any capture needs and it is very easy to use. One word of warning though -memory- make sure you have enough to save the files you plan to save.

Gaj-it Verdict: 4/5

A good device but it requires a top-end TV and reasonable knowledge of gaming to truly shine. Some users will find it frustrating and  it may not be quite good enough for professional game reviews/bloggers who need super-high end capture quality.

Roxio Game Capture

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Roxio Game Capture Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Rayman: Origins is a nostalgic trip down memory to many gamer’s cherished 16-bit youth; a time where Super Mario and Sonic were king. Origins is special, rare and precious – full of vibrant worlds, which looks to recapture the innocence of gaming.  Rayman Origins sits at a polar opposite to the war torn landscapes and dystopian apocalypses that many games companies are trying to force upon an already saturated consumer.

The current generation will of course be remembered for the Call Of Duty’s and Battlefield’s of this generation, but it will also be remembered for the rebirth of long forgotten 2D generation. If you’ve explored Xbox Live or the Playstation Store recently it’s clear that 2D is making a comeback. Well, now it’s time for an old favourite Rayman to return and instead of being a downloadable affair – Ubisoft – have decided to make Rayman: Origins a full physical retail game, a brave move.

The first thing that you will notice is Rayman: Origins is it is bite the back of your hand beautiful, this is thanks to, in part, the current crop of high-def consoles which means Michel Ancel can finally realise his whimsical vision. Origins is easily one the most an eye-catching, visual indulgences of 2011. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that you could pause the game any point take a picture of it and then hang it on your wall – it’s that stunning. Michel Ancel and his team have created something so stunning in both style and vision that Pixar, and the like, would be happy to put their names to it. It’s jam-packed full of exquisite colours, goofy characters and never deviates from Ancel’s original vision.

During your colourful adventure you’ll come across a magnitude of stages to explore, epic bosses to take down, collectable character skins and plently of hidden gems and treasures. Rayman and his sidekicks Globox and Teensies will help you along the way, and as you enter a new world they will be provided with new abilities or attacks to learn – meaning you can even revisit older levels and complete them again in different ways.

One of the best features of Rayman is the multiplayer: you’ll struggle to find a game this year that can compete with Origins when it comes to local multiplayer action. Unfortunatley there isn’t any online multiplayer, but,  replaying all the levels again in Co-Op becomes a completely different experience. The game uses a simple drop in and drop out system, making it easy for others to join or leave the game any time they want. It’s your choice how you want to play the game, alone or with 3 of your friends. The lack of online multiplayer  is at odds with the current broadband multiplayer world we live in now, but we see this more as not compromising on the original concept, than a major downside.

Alongside the visual delights of this remarkable world there is an incredibly accomplished audio score to accompany your adventures. The music manages to capture the varieties of settings from shadowy, dark forests to demonic caves – it’s never too invasive, or overbearing, but adds more magic in a inspired fashion.

Rayman Origins might look like a child games, but in actual fact it’s devilishly difficult with a solid learning curve throughout the game. It won’t take you to the point of controller-throwing, but will require you to concentrate – especially when you’re trying to get final level bonuses. With intelligent checkpoints and no limits on the number times you can repeat a section, Rayman, sails close to alienating players with it’s difficulty curve, but, thankfully, never strays over this ill-fated line.

The strength of Origins is the way Ubisoft, Ancel and his team have brought his whimsical world together with a incredibly strong platforming foundation to make one of the best games of 2011. It’s entertaining and joy to play with plenty of moments of brilliance and ultimately shows that the developers understood the franchise and concept. Ubisoft have made a 2D platformer every bit as good as Sonic or Super Mario and you shouldn’t hesitate to pick up Rayman: Origins. If you are looking for something with bags of wholesome family fun you can’t go wrong with Rayman: it’s fun, entertaining and jam-packed full of the joys of the 16-bit generation with a stunning 21st century lick of colourful paint.

Rayman: Origins Playstation 3 Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sony Ericsson has just released the first pair of headphones that have been specifically designed for Sony Ericsson’s range of Android Smartphones.  The LiveSound headphones stick the tried and tested in-ear technology. Now we’ll concede that in-ear technology does have place in today’s market. We love over-ear headphones, personally – they produce studio quality sound and are the closest thing you’ll get to Hi-Fi music on the go, but, over-ear headphone just aren’t that practical, if you’re on the move and don’t want to be weighed down by big and clunky headphones you’re only other choice is in-ear.

With the LiveSound Sony Ericsson have tried to make them incredibly comfortable, if you’ve ever used a pair of Apple headphones then you’ll know that they can be really uncomfortable, mainly because everyone’s ears are slightly different, and this is were the LiveSound have tried to improve upon. Their headphones come with a tube of moulds that has a range of sizes, so you’ll be able to find a rubber mould that suits you. The mould is designed to be place in your ear canal so the headphones don’t fall out when you’re walking or even running, and you get a nice snug fit, meaning they’ll be louder and you won’t disturb other people around you when you’re listening to music loud on a train or bus.

Other notable design features for the LiveSound headphones is the use of flat wires, rather than circular ones, this really helps with headphone tangling, which as you’ll probably know is the most annoying things about headphones. When you put them in your pocket or bag most in-ear headphone get frustratingly tangled requiring you to untangle them before you can listen you’re music. LiveSounds new flat wires system pretty much makes this annoyance a thing of the past. As well as a comfortable fitting and clever flat wires, the LiveSound headphones also come with LiveKey, a button that can be programmed to work with you phone so can answer the phone using the handy remote and you can even control certain Android Apps that are LiveKey compatible.

We found the sound quality of the headphones to quite good, with decent clarity and respectable low-ends – they can’t compete with Beats By Dre, but for the fraction of the price they are more than good enough, the sound quality of voice calls was especially impressive, and we’d even go as far stating they produce better voice call than using the traditional method of holding the phone to your head. The headphones will only work with Xperia phones, but, interestingly not on any other devices. We tried them on a laptop and they were incredibly quiet with some form of interference. You can press a button on the remote to get the full sound, but requires it to be held down which is hardly ideal, they also didn’t work on our iPhone, resulting in the same tinny sound, which we couldn’t remedy. For us, this is just a crazy design choice, if you buy a pair of headphones you don’t want them to only work with one type of phone or device.

The build quality is good and we really liked the idea of flat wires and metallic finish to the ear buds. Overall LiveSound are a good pair of headphones, but the decision not let them work with other devices is unforgivable, whether we’re missing something were not sure, but they do seem to work once you hold down one of the buttons on the remote, so were not sure whether they’re faulty or this was a decision to make them work only on Xperia Phones. We did have two pairs to test and them same issue happened on both. If you have an Xperia phone, then they’re a good purhcase, but as a pair of headphone to work with a myriad of devices they fail miserably.

We’ll contact the manufacturer to whether this is a design features or a mistake.

Gaj-it Rating 3/5

Sony Ericsson LiveSound Headphones Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich, no they’re not planning to take on Ben & Jerry’s, is the biggest update to Android Google has ever undertaken. It adds hundreds of improvements, changes and features, making it work for both phones and tablets in equal measure. Google hopes the new version of Android will go some way to solving the fragmentation of the operating system and will be the simplest, most user friendly version to date.

The new UI

The sandwich part of the name is Google’s attempt to the intergrate elements from both the phone version of Android Gingerbread, and the tablet version Honeycomb, into one harmonious system which will work equally well on phones or tablets. Perhaps the most striking shift with Ice Cream Sandwich is its move away from the four physical buttons that have long been Android phones’ most identifiable feature. In fact, the Galaxy Nexus – the flagship Android 4.0 phone – has no front facing buttons at all.

Instead, you get a trio of virtual buttons at the bottom of the display –  to go back a step, to return to your home screen, and to multitask, or toggle among recently used applications. Those of your with a Android tablet will know this how the current crop of tablets handle navigation, but, can it work for a device with half the screen size? Well, we can report that they do work well, and it won’t be too much of hassle to get used to for Gingerbread users. There are, of course, some little niggles – sometimes the menu button can move from app to app meaning you’ll have to search for it, which gets old, fast.

Google has gone for a minimal look for Ice Cream Sandwich, with subtle colours, detailed shades, and added depth using multiple layers – it more functional than showy, but for us it’s the best Andriod UI so far. The new lock screen has everything you’d want; date, time and your wallpaper. Unlock the phone and you can jump directly to the camera or to one of five home screens. Here you’ll be able to place widgets and icons as you see fit and now you can create folders by stacking apps, your four favourite icons will now stay at the bottom of every home screen.

What we liked

Alongside the greatly improved UI, you’ll notice a vastly improved Web Browser which has seen a major increase in performance. Compared to 2.3 Gingerbread it’s twice as fast, with new pop-down menus to switch between mobile and desktop viewing and a new options for storing pages for offline reading.

There are also improvements for your contacts book; it’s borrows a lot of cool features found in Window Phone 7 by integrating Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, you’ll also see friends most recent status updates, and the ability to block calls from any one in your contacts list.

Gmail has had a decent lick of paint too, with new fonts, increased size of preview text, and you can now create a new message without having to press the menu botton – the whole experience has been refined to make it much more user friendly and quicker to use. The Camera app has also been dramatically overhauled too, making it incredibly faster to take pictures than any of its predecessors. The new music player integrates with Google Music, so it has a built-in store and lets you stream from your cloud music library.

Widgets have always of the most unique features of Android and they take centre stage once again with Ice Cream Sandwich, for example, the Gmail widget, lets you scroll through messages from your home screen. Similarly, the Photo Gallery widget, lets you flip through thumbnails of images on your phone. Widgets can now also be resized to take up more or less space on your home screen.

What we didn’t like

There’s are plently of improvements to be found in Ice Cream Sandwich, but, as with any software update there are some things that will annoy you. For example, Face Unlock, is complete gimmick and a bit of a waste of time, and the Live Effects function is also a bit of a waste of time. Other annoyances come with Flash compatability, ICS’s Web browser shows less of the web than current Gingerbread phone, this is due to the fact that the Adobe Flash plug-in doesn’t work yet. Adobe has said that a work version will be with us by the end of the year, and this will solve any and all issues – but for a new OS, looking to take iOS 5 – it’s rather disappointing.

Those of you who are looking for a deeper intergration with Facebook will be left sorely disappointed. You can’t absorb you Facebook contacts into your contacts books and can’t intergrate Facebook into the message apps. Finally, and probably most disappointing is the fact that not all apps are working on Ice Creeam Sandwich. Google’s ambition for a seamless experience across all phones and tablets isn’t quite there yet - it isn’t directly Google’s fault – but users will still suffer. Ironically Google wanted to solve the fragmenting of its OS, but in the process has probably made it worse; it’s going to take a good couple of years, before all tablets and phones have the same Android software.

Conclusion

Any OS should do the simple things well, and then over the course of a few weeks should reveal cool little touches and tricks that surprise you and utimatley create a emotional bond with its users. Ice Cream Sandwich does the first part incredibly well, almost all the important features and functions are easily available, requiring far less button presses than every before, but we’re still struggling to fall in love with Android like you do with Apple’s iOS.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich Review: Everything You Need To Know is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Style: 4.5/5

Constructed from steel they have the edge over plastic in both strength and style. Simple, understated steel is often a great look for gadgets especially ones like headphones which you will wear, and simplicity is certainly the approach Urbanista have taken with these headphones. That’s not a bad thing either. If you want to show people you’re wacky you can get a pair of Skull Candy headphones. The Copenhagens are modern and stylish for people who don’t want to draw attention to their headphones but don’t want to by wearing something clumpy, awkward and ugly. We’re rocking the white version but there are six different colours available. As far as headphones go they are very smart (at least from a distance) the trapezoid shaped leather speakers are futuristic and edgy, much nicer looking than big round speakers. Unfortunately up close they look a tad cheap because of the flimsy plastic hinges and the horrible foam squares which are bound to discolour over a short space of time. Ultimately they are very nice, just not as nice as they think they are.

Function: 3/5

The headphones fold up easily much like a pair of sunglasses and they come with a lovely box for transportation. Function is where these guys come into their own as an urban tool. They are lightweight and when they are folded they are small enough to be chucked into a bag without taking up too much room. You would need a big pocket to carry them in your jacket, but it wouldn’t be impossible especially if you dig your big winter coat out.

They also come with a built-in mic for your smartphone which is a convenient little feature and the shoe lace style wire is feels much stronger than the traditionally shaped wire plus it tangles a lot less. Going back to style, it looks cool too. One big tick in the box is that apart from the plastic hinges, the rest of the design feels fairly sturdy and they seem like they will prove to be very reliable in the long-term.

Sound Quality: 3/5

I have to be honest, I think the sound quality is quite poor. They have managed to get a nice level of bass in there which is the hardest thing to do with headphones so well done to Urbanista for not neglecting the lower frequencies like a Hell of a lot of headphones do. But one of the most basic and most irritating flaws of these headphones is their oddly shaped speakers. Sure they look very cool, but they are far from snug and there is a lot of leakage.

The lack of volume control is also annoying. They seem designed to simply blast music into  you at high volumes with no real thought in the actual quality of the sound. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t crackle or fizzle or buzz, but they don’t bring out the best in music either.

Gaj-it Verdict: 3/5

They are stylish, portable and urban. They’ll be a great addition to a teen’s wardrobe but not so much for an avid music fan or audiophile.

Urbanista Copenhagen Headphones: Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc is their most accomplished smartphone to date. It’s light, thin, and well thought out coming with an impressive selection specs and features. There are loads of different Android phones on the market, but there are few that manage to tick all the right boxes – the Xperia Arc is beautiful to look at, a joy to use, comes with a impressive camera and is one of the best Android handsets around.

Design

Sony Ericsson has always been a by-word for stunning design and the Xperia is their finest work of design to date, from the offset you’ll be taken aback at just how thin it is. Not only is it super slim, but it’s incredibly light – weighing only 117 grams. But, there are disadvantages. For us,  there’s nothing more disappointing when you unbox your new phone and you have to build it. Like most Android phones you have to attach the battery, sim and rear cover. Having said that, it’s not a particularly flimsy phone, although the battery cover is a bit cheap, but compared to an iPhone it’s just not as premium as it looks.

The Xperia arc comes with a stunning 4.2-inch Reality display, the display is one the most accomplished you’ll find on almost any phone. When the phone is off the screen is so dark you’ll struggle to see where the screen ends and the bezel begins. More importantly Sony must be applauded for squeezing in a screen of this size into a phone that is only 1 cm bigger than the iPhone 4. The screen replicates deep, rich, vibrant colours and the quality of image is second to none.

The Arc is finished with a stainless steel trim that surrounds the edge of the handset. You’ll find volume controls on the side, a dedicated camera button on the side, a top-mounted microHDMI port, 3.5mm headphone port, microUSB and a 8GB memory card. A nice touch is that Sony actually provides you with the HDMI cable something very few phone manufacturers bother with.

Features

One of the most impressive features about the the Xperia Arc is the way Sony Ericsson has approached Android. Sony’s last Android Phone the Xperia X10 came with 1.6 while other phones of that time were already on Android 2.1. But the company has made sure it hasn’t made the same mistake and the Arc ships with the latest version of Gingerbread 2.3.

The reason why the X10 didn’t have the latest version of Android was Sony’s decision to use a custom skin that couldn’t be updated as quickly as other phones. But, for the Xperia Arc they have separated the UI and operating system, meaning updates should be handled much quicker than with the X10. Overall the UI is simple, user-friendly and effective.

Camera

The Xperia Arc come with one of the best cameras available on any smartphone – consisting of 8.1-megapixels, an incredibly bright LED photo light and a Exmor R CMOS sensor. The sensor is so impressive that it is only just being used in many compact cameras making this camera phone is on the best around. It also includes a host of clever options including face-detection and image stabilisation.

The Arc comes with both the ability to take photos by tapping the screen or using a traditional double-click photo button. When taking a photo with the button, you press it once the camera then works out how much light is needed then on the second press the photo is taken. It’s easily the best way to take pictures on any smartphone we’ve used.

The Arc also shoots stunning 720p high definition video, sure it’s not going to compete with phones that are capable of 1080p, but the results when viewed on a TV through the HDMI are stunning. There are plenty of ways to share you videos and photos and our favourite was to show them off on a TV. With the Arc you get the HDMI cable and allows you to mirror the phone on the screen. Meaning you can watch films, show-off photos, play games or use your TV remote to control control the phone via some Sony televisions.

Performance

You might think that a phone that is running on a single core processor would be a bit of a slouch, but having lived with the Arc for over a week now, we glad to report that the 1GHz processor is more than adequate. We did notice that the Arc does sometimes struggle to reconnect to a Wi-Fi network after you wake it up from standby, but perhaps this is one of the reasons why our battery life tests with the Arc matched Sony Ericsson’s generous 7-hour talk-time estimations. All in all, we easily made it through a work day with the Arc, and only burned through the battery before nightfall when we played several hours of games on the handset.

Internet

The Arc’s high-res 480 x 854 screen is superb for web surfing, it might not be as smooth as iOS, but this more a gripe with Android than the Arc. Multi-touch zooming around pages is usually good, although it can get a little rough if you try to move around pages before they’ve fully loaded. One annoyance was the limitation of having eight browser windows open at once. The combination of Android 2.3 and Adobe Flash Player means Flash sites are supported, while the phone’s 1GHz processor does a good job of handling complex, content-rich sites. It’s not perfect, though – pages with embedded videos can grind to a near halt at times.

Verdict

The Xperia Arc is not only the best smartphone Sony Ericsson has made, but it’s the best phone they have made in the last 5 years. It’s one of the best Android phones around for design, features and media capability.  Sure, it would have been nice to see some Playstation compatibility, but it you’re looking for an impressively Android phone that has a big screen, great camera, and a full-set of media functionality you can’t go wrong with the Arc.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is finally out today in the US and for the price you’ll get a tablet that’s incredibly easy to use and won’t cost a fortune. With a price tag of only $199 and with the inclusion of Amazon’s Prime subscription the online retailer really has come up with a compelling alternative that can compete with Apple’s iPad and any other Android tablets available.

Specs & content

Part of the success of tablets is their ability to do almost anything.  Amazon, in its wisdom, has decided to limit these possibilities. If you’re looking for a tablet that can match the current crop of Android tablets which can be used in a similar way to a laptop then the Fire is probably not for you. You can’t output videos to a TV, you won’t be able to make video calls, take pictures or record video and it won’t replace your laptop. But, if you’re looking for something to keep you entertained with a smorgasbord of entertainment for a flat fee, then this is the tablet for you. For the price you get a dual-core processor, 512 Mb of ram, and a very good 7-inch touchscreen. Other than that you won’t get a miniHDMI port, MicroSD slot, Camera, Microphone or many other features which are expected for most tablet users. What you do get is a very accomplished media tablet able to consumer almost all types of traditional digital content, which Amazon will supply you with.

The Kindle Fire provides up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless turned off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content. One of the unique selling points of the Kindle Fire is Amazon’s Prime. It’s an annual membership program that offers customers unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, instant streaming of more than 10,000 movies and TV shows and access to borrow a Kindle book every month, including New York Times Bestsellers, with no due dates — all for just $79 a year. Those of you who purchase a Kindle Fire will be given a free month of Amazon Prime. At the moment the Kindle Fire is only available in the US and Amazon will need to get the Prime program to the UK and Europe to make the Fire a viable iPad alternative. When this will happen remains to be seen, but if they manage it, it could be model that can really compete with Apple’s iTunes model.

What we like

When you fire it up you’re not greeted with a bewildering amount of apps or settings, but a blank shelf to fill it full of apps, books, music, tv shows and films. Everything you’d want on a tablet. There aren’t hundreds of complex widgets, options or settings. It’s simple, effective and incredibly intuitive.

The UI is a simple shelf, which you populate with entertainment. But it’s more than just a shelf. You’ll find a search bar at the top which allows you to search everything you own, and small tabs along the top of the screen for newspaper, magazine, books, music, video, docs, apps and of course the web browser. Need more content to consume? The Store is always at most two clicks away. Tap Books. Tap Store and there’s the entire Amazon catalog, neatly organised and easily downloadable.

One of the main differences between the Kindle Fire and any other Android tablet is Amazon’s controversial decision to have their own app store. Meaning you won’t be able to access the normal Android app store. But, it does have pretty much everything you’d expect from an app store, social networking apps, games, books, tv shows and so on. From the start you’ll realise that Amazon has made app usage secondary to media consumption. It’s a far cry from Apple’s model, which is designed for you to have access to all 500,000 apps. It’s a different set of principles and gives equal weight to apps as Doc or Music. But, the decision to combine traditional media and apps on one shelf isn’t the greatest implementation by Amazon and they might need to look at this with future versions of the Android Fire OS.

Where the Kindle Fire really starts to make sense is when you start reading, watching, browsing or listening; it’s easy, intuitive and fun. Page turning is swift and snappy most of the time. You’ll be able to tweak typefaces to the way you like, whether you like to use your tab landscape or portrait. Books and magazines look stunning on the 1024 x 600 screen. It’s not a Retina display, but considering the price you’ll pay it looks great.

When you want to dip into a book or your favourite TV episode you can do this with a couple of simple taps. With Amazon Prime your tablet turns into a portable version of Sky TV or Virgin Media. You can start watching a film, if you get bored. Then watch a TV show. It’ll remember where you left off, as it’s all stored in Amazon’s cloud. And if you’re going to be out of Wi-Fi signal then you could just download them before hand. There is only 8GB of onboard storage, which is a bit disappointing, but we expect Amazon to bring out a premium version next year which will remedy some of its missing features and functions.

Web browser

As well Amazon’s decision to have their own version of Android they have also decided to ditch the traditional Android browser for their own one, Silk. It works just as well as Amazon said it would. It’s renders pages incredibly quickly thanks to the cloud caching, which makes your browsing quicker and quicker once its worked out your surfing habits. It’s full-on browser with bookmarks (which can be emailed), you’ll find Facebook share capability and there’s the usual suite of touch gestures like pinch to zoom – overall is easily on par with mobile version of Internet Explorer or Safari.

We don’t like

While on the whole the Kindle Fire is super snappy when changing from book to film or music to internet – there are moments when it gets a little confused and it lags a little. It’s not a deal breaker, but when a tablet struggles to turn a page sometimes you are left wondering why. It’s certainly one of the better Android tablets around and they all suffer from slight lag from time to time. But, it just ruins the experience a little. But our main gripe is within the UI design and the lack of storage. There is no home button, so to return to your content shelf you have to tap the centre of the screen, now this doesn’t sound like a problem, but when you turn a page or are surfing a web page and press it by accident it takes you to the shelf when you didn’t want to. It needs to be remedied as it gets old, fast. The only other disappointment is the reliance of the cloud which does work very well, but when you’ve not got any Wi-Fi and there isn’t any 3G support more memory would have been welcomed.

Conclusion

If you took away Amazon’s Prime program the Fire would be a run-of-the-mill tablet that wouldn’t be worth your time or attention. But what Amazon has done is similar to what Apple has done: made content king. The way Prime makes you feel you’re getting a lot more for you money is a stroke of genius. The on-demand, all-you-can-eat, model works like a dream and will be the unique selling point when comparing tablets. Content-wise its the best Android tablet around and if they can replicate the same media deals in the Europe then Amazon’s Fire could easily overshadow the Kindle and give Apple a run for its money. It’s affordable, intuitive and simple to use; everything a tablet should be. If you’re looking for a tablet that offers million of possibilities with hundred of thousands of apps then this is not that tablet for you, but if you looking for tablet where traditional digital media content is king then this is the tablet for you. 

Amazon Kindle Fire Review: A Recession-Proof Tablet For The Masses is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com