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Letter from the editor
Welcome
EDITOR’S LETTER
The Nexus range is a fantastic concept. As someone who likes to rend his tech asunder – and particularly as someone who reacts to any bundled software gimmick with disgust and fury – that clean, open, stock Android environment is incredibly appealing. There’s no need to go to the effort of removing, say, the obnoxious Sense features of the HTC One, to coin one relevant example from my own life. Now, the Nexus philosophy isn’t for everyone. I’m sure there are people out there who need the bells and whistles of a Samsung Galaxy S4, but I feel those toys should be something
you choose to add. The Nexus range, particularly the lovely Nexus 5, which we’ve only just had the pleasure of getting our hands on, is the right base for whatever you want your device to be. If you want your device to be a security powerhouse, keeping your personal details personal and not shoving unwanted adware into your face – and, let’s be honest, we all want that – we’ve got the guides for you. If you want your older phone to run some of the brand new features introduced by the latest OS but you’re stuck in Jelly Bean limbo, we can help you there too. And if you’re hyped about the new Nexus handset, we’ve got that completely covered with guides to the N5, KitKat, the Nexus range, and more besides. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this edition of Android User, and I hope our advice will help make your Nexus device even better than it was before. And if you haven’t yet picked up a Nexus device, what are you waiting for? Just to give you a nudge in the right direction we’ve included a stack of expert reviews to help you decide on the best one for you, from the 5 all the way up to the ten-inch tablet. Cheers! Alex Cox, Editor
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Contents
Welcome
C O N T E N TS Editor’s letter
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Inside the Nexus Nexus phones: a history The evolution of Google’s smartphone Android KitKat Introducing Google’s brand new OS
Top 25 free-to-play games 48 We run through our favourite free games
8 25 essential Android apps Our guide to what to download first
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Antivirus round-up Protect your Nexus with these apps
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Inside the Nexus 5 22 A look at the hardware inside the Nexus 5
Rated Nexus 5 64 Our first look at the new Google phone
Do more with your Nexus Get KitKat features Don’t have KitKat? You don’t need to...
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Nexus 7 2013 68 A brilliant bargain buy like the original?
Protect yourself for free Locate, lock and wipe lost devices
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Nexus 10 Does it still have what it takes?
Track stolen devices 36 Keep tabs on a lost device with Cerberus Google’s 2-Step Verification 38 Keep your files safe with this new feature Back up your smartphone 40 Automate your backups to avoid disaster Install free antivirus Comprehensively protect your device
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Stop ads invading your phone 44 Discover how to banish AirPush adverts
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Apped
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Welcome
Contents
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Inside the Nexus
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Welcome
Welcome
Inside the Nexus
Inside the Nexus Nexus phones: a history 8 A look back at the evolution of Google’s stunning smartphone Android KitKat 16 Introducing Google’s brand new OS – could this be the sweetest iteration yet? Inside the Nexus 5 An in-depth look at the hardware powering the newest Nexus
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Inside the Nexus
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Nexus phones: a history
Nexus phones: a history
Inside the Nexus
Nexus phones: a history Android wouldn’t be Android without the Nexus – and it changed the phone landscape he Nexus range is a result of heavy collaboration. Google has never actually made a piece of Android hardware, but through the Open Handset Alliance – which joins together worldwide mobile operators, handset manufacturers, software companies and semiconductor creators – a number of important partnerships have been formed in pursuit of making Android the best OS it can be. In the Nexus line, Google has partnered with HTC, Samsung and LG to produce five generations of Nexus phones, all of which serve as a showcase for the latest and greatest version of Android, receive updates before other handsets that are tied to particular mobile operators, and which usually showcase improvements to hardware as well as software. What’s more, Nexus devices share the Android ethos of freedom. They are always sold SIM-unlocked and standalone, so anyone with a SIM can pick one up and get experimenting. There also seems to be a drive to produce Nexus phones at the lowest possible price, and you’ll usually find the Nexus line to be the best value handsets on the open market. So join us as we roll back the years all the way to murky 2008, and see how the Nexus story began…
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Inside the Nexus
Nexus phones: a history
The specs Released October 2008 Manufacturer HTC Release OS Android 1.0 CPU 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A GPU Qualcomm Adreno 130 RAM 192MB Storage 256MB (with micro SD slot) Battery 1,150mAh lithium-ion Display 3.2-inch 320 x 480 TFT Camera 3.15MP rear
HTC Dream The first Android handset isn’t strictly Nexus… y today’s standards, the HTC Dream – also known as the T-Mobile G1 and Era G1 – is something of a phone dinosaur, rocking a tiny HVGA screen, a minuscule battery, and a slide-out form factor with a full QWERTY keyboard. And although it isn’t by rights a Nexus, it is still very important in the evolution of Android phones. It’s a relic of the earliest days of Android, when Google and the Open Handset Alliance had only just taken charge of the mobile OS, and it reflects its Linux operating system roots, right down to the trackball. The Dream was pitched as the ultimate mobile web solution, and it coincided with
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the 3G mobile signal becoming more widespread in the United States. Yes, it wasn’t the first Nexus device proper, but we feel it belongs in the family, because it enabled Google and HTC to trial a number of the technologies which would later make their way into the Nexus line, and it was the first Android handset released. In an odd bit of trivia, the capacitive screen on the Dream supported multi-touch on a hardware level, although its drivers were actually disabled in software for reasons that even now we’re still not sure about – in contrast to the screen of the Nexus One (opposite), which had to have multi-touch simulated via software.
Nexus phones: a history
Inside the Nexus
The specs Released January 2010 Manufacturer HTC Release OS Android 2.1 Eclair CPU 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion GPU Qualcomm Adreno 200 RAM 512MB Storage 512MB (with micro SDHC slot) Battery 1,400mAh lithium-ion Display 3.7-inch 480 x 800 AMOLED/SuperLCD Camera 5MP rear
Nexus One One small step for a phone. One giant leap for phonekind TC’s Nexus One launched the Nexus series in style, with a tight package containing the sort of features you’d expect on a high-end smartphone of the time: a multi-touch capacitive screen, a three-axis accelerometer, and a… Trackball? More a carry over from HTC’s days producing own-brand Windows Phone handsets, this is the last time a trackball appeared on a Nexus device. Earlier Nexus models like this one sported capacitive touch buttons rather than the software buttons in evidence on today’s range. The Nexus One, initially known by its HTC Passion codename, is also the only Nexus
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phone to support external storage via a micro SDHC card, although this can cause a problem or two with apps that aren’t optimised to support external storage, particularly as the SD interface on the One is rather slow. The screen also had minor issues because its multi-touch facility was software rather than hardware driven. HTC went on to take the technology developed for the One into its own line of phones, releasing the HTC Desire which, apart from switching out the trackball for a trackpad, and the capacitive buttons for physical clickers, was a nigh-on identical device running HTC’s Sense skew of Android rather than stock.
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Inside the Nexus
Nexus phones: a history
The specs Released October 2010 Manufacturer Samsung Release OS Android 2.3 Gingerbread CPU 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 GPU PowerVR SGX 540 200MHz RAM 512MB Storage 16GB Battery 1,500mAh lithium-ion Display 4-inch 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Cameras 5MP rear, 0.3MP front
Nexus S S for Samsung? More like S for ‘this is a Galaxy S, isn’t it?’ amsung’s first foray into the Nexus smartphone realm saw it make some big changes in hardware, not least of which was dropping the Qualcomm chipsets, which had powered previous phones, in favour of an ARM cortex CPU of its own manufacture and a PowerVR GPU – the same hardware it had used on its Galaxy S handset. In fact, this phone doesn’t stray far from the Galaxy S model, bar the omission of external SD card support and the addition of NFC technology. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Nexus S is its screen, an innovative, slightly curved, Super AMOLED panel dubbed by
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Google the ‘contour display’. Super AMOLED deserves its superlative, given that it’s one of the brightest and richest screen technologies out there, and while we haven’t seen much of the contour display recently, it was a worthy gimmick of the Nexus range. GPS signal issues that were present in the Galaxy S were also corrected, making this one of the best smartphones of its era. Lucky Samsung Nexus S owners have actually received the most distant operating system upgrade support of any Android device – while it started out on 2.3 Gingerbread, updates were pushed over the air all the way up to Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 in November 2012.
Nexus phones: a history
Inside the Nexus
The specs Released November 2011 Manufacturer Samsung Release OS Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich CPU 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 GPU PowerVR SGX 540 384MHz RAM 1GB Storage 16/32GB Battery 1,750-1,850mAh lithium-ion Display 4.65-inch 720 x 1,280 HD Super AMOLED PenTile Cameras 5MP rear, 1.3MP front
Galaxy Nexus While Google and Apple squabbled, a leader emerged arly press for the Galaxy Nexus, which was Samsung’s second Nexus handset, dubbed it the Nexus Prime, and that name certainly seems fitting when looking at its soft-edged form factor, which has all but defined the overall look and feel of the two Nexus models since. It’s almost a relaunch for the Nexus line; while the Galaxy Nexus carries over the curved glass of its predecessor and once again plumps for the Cortex/PowerVR CPU/GPU combo, it also cements features such as the on-screen buttons, active noise cancellation through dual microphones, and an internal barometer and three-axis compass. That’s
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quite the suite of features. If you can find it, there’s even a US version of the Galaxy Nexus that comes with an LTE module ready for early 4G connectivity. One of the coolest features in this first Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone is the camera, which is a vast upgrade over the previous model, not in terms of resolution but speed – with zero shutter lag, auto focus, and good low light sensitivity, it’s still considered one of the best mobile cameras around. It also makes good use of its front camera, because it’s the first Android handset with face unlock – if you can ignore the security implications of someone having a photograph of you, that’s a neat feature.
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Inside the Nexus
Nexus phones: a history
The specs Released November 2012 Manufacturer LG Release OS Android 4.2 Jellybean CPU 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait GPU Qualcomm Adreno 320 RAM 2GB Storage 8/16GB Battery 2,100mAh lithium polymer Display 4.7-inch 768 x 1280 IPS Cameras 8MP rear, 1.3MP front
Nexus 4 LG’s first entry into Nexus: fantastic but quickly eclipsed TC has had its time. Samsung has made a pair of awesome handsets in the Nexus name. The Nexus 4 – designed primarily by Google’s engineers rather than being a new version of an existing smartphone – was LG’s chance to step up to the plate. Given the public’s interest in Google’s flagship phones by this point, the fact that the entire launch stock of the Nexus 4 sold out within 30 minutes was not really a great surprise. Praised for both its build quality and affordable price (launching at £239/$299 for the 8GB model), the Nexus 4 was not, however, without its criticisms, including a
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smooth glass back that caused the phone to slide off many surfaces, and which proved rather brittle on its subsequent impact with the floor. The Nexus 4 also shipped without LTE support, which was a downgrade from the previous model – although it actually transpired that it simply had its Band 4 LTE radio switched off, ostensibly to reduce the phone’s battery consumption. If your carrier supports Band 4 – most in the United States, Canada and Central America do – and you want to toggle this function on your own Nexus 4, just input *#*#4636#*#* into the phone function, and use the appropriate drop-down menu.
Nexus phones: a history
Inside the Nexus
The specs Released November 2013 Manufacturer LG Release OS Android 4.4 KitKat CPU 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 400 GPU Qualcomm Adreno 330 RAM 2GB Storage 16/32GB Battery 2,300mAh lithium polymer Display 4.96-inch 1,080 x 1,920 IPS Cameras 8MP rear, 1.2MP front
Nexus 5 It might not herald a new generation but it’s the best today he latest Nexus smartphone apes its tablet cousin, the Nexus 7, in terms of looks. It also apes LG’s G2 in terms of many of its specs. And, realistically, it’s simply a step change from the older Nexus 4 (opposite) rather than a whole new horizon of smartphone technology. However, the Nexus 5 has brought the Nexus line into the present with a whole selection of top-notch components, meaning that the latest handset isn’t just an Android operating system showcase – it’s an Android technology showcase. For example, it’s packed with sensors and the latest radio modules, it ups the RAM, and
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yet it still keeps the price in the most affordable of brackets. The big question now is where the series will go in the future. If we follow the pattern, the next Nexus handset will probably be made by a different manufacturer from the Open Handset Alliance, following two each from HTC, Samsung and LG. Does Asus get a shot at transitioning from tablets to the pocket? Or is it growing Chinese manufacturer Huawei’s time to shine? Might Google even use its recently acquired Motorola to knock out the Nexus in-house? Whatever happens, keep your eye on the Android handset market in general and you’ll be able to predict where the Nexus will end up…
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Inside the Nexus
Android 4.4 KitKat
Taking a break
All you’ll need to know about Android 4.4 KitKat
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Android 4.4 KitKat
sound like a big deal, but this really helps Android phones make more use of the screen estate without needing to reserve space for key system tools. And when you’re locked in a competition for users with a company of Apple’s design powers, elements like this can really help phones and tablets look more attractive. And Google hasn’t stopped there when it comes to making more use of the screen, because now you can get rid of the buttons and notification bar completely when you want to use the whole of the screen. This is particularly useful when watching movies or reading books; it has been offered sporadically on other handsets in the past,
ur goal was to build one version of the operating system that runs across all Android smartphones in 2014,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google, when announcing Android 4.4, or KitKat (thanks to a tie-in with Nestlé). Google’s strategy isn’t going to surprise many people – by getting itself on more devices, it can get more eyeballs on its adverts, as well as nab that all-important user data that it craves. With the launch of KitKat, the search giant thinks it’s made a big step forward in making sure as many people as possible can have the latest version of its mobile OS. But is it really a big jump ahead? There’s a number of features offered with the new update, so let’s find out what they entail and how they can supercharge your smartphone over the next 12 months – and further into the future.
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“In KitKat, Google has souped up the speed with which you can jump from one app to another”
Speak up Google’s been tinkering with voice control for a couple of years on its Android phones – but with the launch of the Motorola X phone earlier this year, it took things a step further, offering always-on voice recognition. The trick has partly been repeated in the Android 4.4 OS, in so far as when you’re on the homescreen or in the Google Now app, you merely have to say “OK Google” to do anything from sending a message to starting the music player – all without even pressing a button. Of course, this feature is going to be pretty dependent on which phones will be ‘listening’ on the homescreen (it’s currently only the Nexus 5) but always-on voice recognition will come to many high-end handsets in 2014 and probably a number of the devices already launched this year, too. The HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 are
Inside the Nexus
Google really wants you to talk to it, and the feature works brilliantly well leading contenders, thanks to the brands’ close ties with Google. But there’s more to the Android update than just being able to listen in on you; one of the big issues that’s been irritating people has been negated, too. Google’s plan is to do away with physical navigation buttons on phones and tablets, moving to a more unified approach that means developers will be able to rely on hardware specs a little better and thus create more polished and streamlined apps. With KitKat, things are much improved visually, because the notification bar at the top of the screen and the pervasive buttons at the bottom are now transparent, meaning wallpapers are now full-screen. This may not
but this move from Google makes it a lot simpler for developers to use it in their apps going forward, which in turn will make things easier for users. Multi-tasking might have been a phrase many have associated with smartphones for years, but it’s never been particularly speedy or slick on Android devices. Google thinks it’s sorted that in KitKat, souping up the speed with which you can jump from one app to another. This is pivotal, because many people like to check their email while whizzing about the internet, and having to wait a second to do so can irk. This new trick has also extended to touchscreen performance, enabling
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Inside the Nexus
Android 4.4 KitKat
All locked up: KitKat’s lock screen improvements Most of us look at one display on our smartphone more than any other – with some people checking it almost obsessively, as much as one hundred times a day – and that’s the lock screen. Most smartphone manufacturers have made efforts to improve this area, but Google believes that it’s managed to crack this important part of your phone better than most. Google wants your smartphone or tablet to be more than just a device with which you can consume media – it wants to see your Android device become the hub of the connected home, and enable you to control other
devices right from your pocket. To this end, Google has been hard at work improving the lock screen and making it all about the content. The first move is to draw information from any music that’s being played and movies being streamed from the smartphone and present it as highresolution artwork whenever you unlock your phone. And you don’t even need to open the handset to skip through tracks or shuttle through the movie you’re watching, because a long-press on the play button will enable you to do just that with a single tap.
To add widgets to your lock screen, turn on the option in ‘Settings > Security’.
goal, it’s finally enabled Emoji use in its keyboards. If you’re unfamiliar with Emoji, it’s a Japanese system that enables you to send pictures instead of letters within text, in a similar way to emoticons. However, Emoji is quickly taking on a language of its own, with some teens communicating almost exclusively in this method, eschewing letters altogether as parents realise there’s a new impenetrable code on the block. Apple has had Emoji support since last year, and if Google wants to capture the younger market, this is a key element for Android to include.
Head in the clouds
Google Hangouts is the new messaging centre and it works well
Create and edit complex documents with the included QuickOffice package
handsets running KitKat to respond to touches even more swiftly, and executing commands with blistering speed. Giving this option to manufacturers is really going to help improve Android handsets in 2014, and with physical touchscreen hardware advancing massively, thinner and more responsive smartphones are going to be coming soon.
on a mobile phone than spending on each SMS, but the text message is just too entrenched into daily life to die. Apple and BlackBerry both realised this early on, with the likes of iMessage and BBM (along with the popular WhatsApp) skipping text charges altogether. Google wants a slice of the pie, and with its similar Hangouts app, it’s trying to do just that. With KitKat, messages and Hangout chats are all clumped together in one app, meaning a seamless transition between both methods of communication for users. And with Hangouts available on other platforms, too, Google is making a play for becoming the ubiquitous form of mobile text communication. To help it with that
Get the message The days of paying 12p to send a text message are over, and should have died when the Millennium Bug failed to throw planes out of the sky. Small nuggets of information containing letters can be very easily cast over data, which is a lot cheaper 18
Another big play for Google is getting us all away from local storage, instead keeping all our data on its servers. That’s the reason it won’t put expandable memory card slots on its Nexus phones, and why it’s pushing hard with its Google Drive integration, offering acres of online storage. With KitKat, Google has opened up the cloud to developers, so you can now interact with files from Google Drive, Box or Dropbox (where a number of people are storing important files and photos), which has big ramifications for future handsets. It means the proliferation of 64GB handsets is unlikely to continue – but more importantly, those phones that ‘only’ come with 16GB of space won’t be as much of a problem as they are now if you can get access to your photos and more through your apps. The cloud support is extended to QuickOffice, too, which gets a redesign as part of the Android experience and comes pre-installed on the Nexus 5. It’s the go-to app for Android document reading and editing, and with both Microsoft and Apple talking up their ability to offer collaborative files through phones and tablets, this is a key area Google needed to tighten up. Many
Android 4.4 KitKat
Now lock your phone by pressing the power button twice.
businesses are moving towards complete document management on the cloud, meaning everyone can see instant changes rather than having to email things around, and by refining that process, Google is making the Android phone and tablet a more integrated part of it – which means more sales for the search brand. And even better for people who like to take things offline – cloud printing is now more fully integrated. HP’s ePrint system was the first one named that can take advantage of the system, but any printers connected to Google Cloud Print in the future, as well as other printers that gain compatible apps from their manufacturers, will be accessible from your phone wherever you are. This is great news for grandparents; imagine taking a picture of your newborn baby and pressing a button to have it appear on the other side of the world. Nan will love that.
Witness the fitness If you saw the recent launch of the iPhone 5S, you’ll have noticed that Apple has popped an extra chip in there to monitor your movement on the go without draining the battery. Add to that the explosion in wearable fitness devices – Nike’s Fuelband, the Jawbone Up and Fitbit to name a few – and modern smartphones need to be able to be
“A lot of the areas that are important to you are going to be made simpler to use and more functional”
Swipe from left to right and you’ll see a plus symbol in a box – just give it a tap.
part of the revolution. Google’s placed a built-in step counter app in Android 4.4 KitKat, allowing data on day-to-day movement to be collected – and what’s more, without hurting the battery. You need dedicated hardware, though, and this means that many new Android phones over the next couple of years are going to have an even greater focus on fitness. Samsung has been pushing this with its S Fitness app in the S4, so it’s likely to play more strongly in the fitness game in 2014. It’s not just in the fitness space that Google’s been busy improving the look and feel of Android, though – with KitKat, a lot of the areas that are important to you are going to be made simpler to use as well as more functional. One of the big changes is making it easier to switch your home launcher. The ability to alter the look and feel of Android has been around for a while, but adding it into your handset hasn’t always been the most simple task, meaning some people simply stay away for fear of ruining their new smartphone or tablet. Now the ability to jump between launchers is only a couple of clicks away in the settings menu, meaning we’re going to see some clever skins on top of Android appearing soon to supercharge handsets, as well as making you feel more comfortable experimenting with new overlays. Email, a key part of the user experience, has been given a coat of paint to include better folder management (anyone who’s needed to find an invite to a party that they’ve stuffed in a random folder will attest to the fact this is a vital function), as well as better contact photo integration to make it feel as though your emails are more part of the whole Android experience. We’re also likely to see more infrared blasters attached to phones and tablets in the future, too – the likes of the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2 all allow you
Inside the Nexus
You can now pick from all the widgets eligible to be shown on the lock screen.
Feeding fitness Despite needing an additional sensor, (which manufacturers will be happy to add into their hardware to improve functionality), Google is supporting the fitness fad – and without cost to your battery. Essentially, it does this by storing all the information from internal sensors to track your movement and then ships it to the CPU in bulk, meaning the main engine of the phone isn’t running all the time. This will be critical for manufacturers looking to take advantage of the trend towards opening up daily movement data, as well as helping Google Now improve massively, with additional information on your movements and location available with the new process.
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Inside the Nexus
Android 4.4 KitKat
You can get a detailed look at running apps and the memory they’re sucking
KitKat is imbued with Google this and Google that but you’re not tied into it
to control your TV or set-top box directly from the phone, which is a nifty trick. However, you can only do it through their apps, meaning if you’re not a fan of the way this works (or your DVD player isn’t supported), there’s not a lot you can do. Now, though, Google has opened up this feature to developers, meaning that if you’ve got a problem that you can’t fix, pretty soon it’s going to be available from the app store, making your phone a true all-in-one remote
control. And even the camera is learning some new tricks, with the addition of HDR+ photography mode on the Nexus 5 highlighting the power Google is looking to imbue future Android handsets with. This option takes a number of photos at different resolution settings and combines them together to make one perfect image of your memory – it’s a similar system found on many other smartphone cameras at the moment, but this takes things on a little further to improve snaps through a variety of scenarios.
“KitKat doesn’t require a lot of power, hence the ability to launch on every handset in 2014”
The trickle down There’s clearly a number of enhancements that will make Android smartphones that much better than before, but the key question on many people’s minds is: ‘Will this be coming to my phone?’ Well, if you’re running a Google Nexus 4, things are going to be fine for you, because the update will be landing very soon on your handset. If you’re also one of the very few
who managed to get their hands on an HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition, shipping with stock software, then it won’t be long before you’re running Android 4.4 either. However, after that things get a little trickier. If you’re running anything other than the HTC One, or variants thereof, information is scarce on whether the update will appear on your handset. The good news is that Android KitKat, by its very nature, doesn’t require a lot of power to run, hence the ability to launch on every handset in 2014, helping Google reduce the issue of fragmentation in the future, taking the fight to iOS. The problem is that while it might be able to run on older smartphones, these manufacturers still need to test the update on their handsets, which takes a large amount of time. HTC seems to have done this faster than anyone else, because it’s promised to bring out the Android 4.4 update to its phone within 90 days of launch, which is incredibly fast. The One Mini and One Max will follow soon after, although no timeframe has been given there. And all the Google Nexus tablets are also set to run KitKat, thanks to the optimised hardware contained within. If you’re using a top-end smartphone from this year, you needn’t worry too much, because Android 4.4 is highly likely to land on phones from Samsung, Sony and LG. Sony, in particular, has been hard at work improving its Android upgrade process, and LG made the Nexus 5, meaning it has good access to the software, so we expect the LG G2 to be KitKat enabled in the future. If you’re using anything older, well, things aren’t completely grim. There will be a number of custom ROMs available for the slightly braver user – these are already appearing for the sadly unloved Galaxy Nexus, and will continue to emerge for other older, but still popular, handsets. So while Google has set its stall out firmly to improve Android going forward and bring an end to the fragmentation that’s plagued phones running its software for years, if you’re using a slightly older phone, you’re unlikely to miss out on the next-gen operating system. Q
Look who’s talking Android’s phone app has gone from a meagre list of names at inception to integration with a number of major social networks and photo repositories, which has escalated it into a veritable cornucopia of information about your friends. Visually, it’s been enhanced, too, with the addition of high-resolution photos from Google+ and dedicating a
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larger space to the photos of your buddies. Google has taken a slightly radical approach with Android KitKat, by promoting the people you speak to most to the head of the field when you open the contacts app. It will take a while for the phone to be able to work out who your most-contacted people will be, but there’s an option to remove them from the list,
too. However, this feature may not come to other Android handsets, because the likes of HTC and Samsung have their own methods of managing favourite people on the go. The new phone app will have more powers to search locally as well, meaning you’ll be able to find numbers of local businesses, and people in your Google+ circles will appear when you want them
to, making it a more dynamic and useful tool rather than a glorified scrap of paper with some key contacts on. The location-based trick will appear when you receive a call from an unknown number, too, because Android 4.4 will be able to search from local nearby businesses to furnish you with the right info before you take the call from your local takeaway emporium.
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Inside the Nexus
Inside the Nexus 5
Inside the Nexus 5 Everything you need to know about the guts of the latest flagship phone
imply looking at a smartphone doesn’t really tell you very much. The Nexus 5, for all its smart, sleek curves, is just a black rounded rectangle – it’s pretty, but it doesn’t reveal anything to you directly. Even a cursory glance through the spec list won’t tell you the whole story. Our full review of the Nexus 5 on page 122 will give you an objective run-down of the package as a whole, but we’ve decided that it was also worth
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highlighting all the bits that make the new phone what it is, and explain why they’re so important. Before you read on, know this: it’s not just the hardware (as hefty as it is) that makes the Nexus range rock. That clean, unfettered Android operating system on top does as much heavy lifting as the chips that it’s driving. Check out our in-depth guide to Android KitKat 4.4 on page 16 of this issue to find out about the new features that will shape the way you use your smartphone over the next year or two.
Inside the Nexus 5
Inside the Nexus
Price Many people won’t care about the internals. If it’s a phone, and it works, they’ll be happy. Many people, conversely, care only about the power inside the case. Both parties will be happy here. When the Nexus 4 touched down, its price tag really made waves, offering up a surprisingly well featured smartphone for the cost of a lowto mid-end handset. The Nexus 5,
which could be the most powerful phone on the market, continues in the same vein: the 16GB model has rocked up at £299/$349 SIM-free. If you fancy getting hold of the 32GB Nexus 5, then you’ll need to stump up a still reasonable £339/$399 – a much slimmer leap than many phone manufacturers (cough, Apple) charge for the same bump in storage.
The large aperture of the camera casts an imposing shape but it also gives it amazing sensitivity in low light Rear camera You might feel a little disappointed with the camera on the back of the Nexus 5. It’s an 8MP sensor, and while it’s equipped with a large aperture for extra sensitivity in low light, it’s not as pixel-packed at some cameras on the market; the Moto X (10MP), Galaxy S (13MP), and Nokia Lumia 1020 (41MP) can all take pictures at a higher resolutions. Our tests, though, show that the quality of the Nexus 5’s snaps are up there with the best of them. This is probably down to the optical image stabilisation technology, which uses a small gyro and motor to move the lens inside the camera housing, counteracting shaky hands with engineering ingenuity. The shutter is fast enough to take true HDR shots, too – KitKat’s photo engine stitches together three shots of differing exposure, taken in sequence, to give you a truly stunning shot.
Front camera Selfies are catered for with a reasonable 1.3MP front camera of decent quality. You wouldn’t want to take anything serious with it, but it’s fine for video chat and the bathroom mirror. The rear camera can competently take 1080p videos at 30fps, while the front camera can only manage 720p. It’s a case of balance – do you want a more expensive phone running an inferior OS, which has a few more pixels in its camera, or are you happy with the best overall package on the market, and pictures that won’t disappoint?
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Inside the Nexus
Inside the Nexus 5
Other radios
Screen LG’s technical wizards have chosen a heck of a panel for the new Nexus 5, coming in at a smidgen under 5 inches, running a full 1080p resolution at 445ppi, a density that surpasses even the Samsung Galaxy S4 (at 441ppi) and the iPhone 5S (at a positively archaic 326ppi). It uses IPS technology for the display, which is comparable to many high-end desktop monitors. IPS stands for in-plane switching, and uses LCD crystals aligned in several coloured layers, all but removing the viewing angle problems of panels from previous generations. It’s not really surprising that IPS was used rather than, say, Samsung’s fancy and similar PLS technology, given that LG is the world’s biggest manufacturer of IPS panels.
Of course, there’s a full complement of other connectivity on board beside cellular. The Bluetooth 4.0 LE radio is right up to date; there’s the still little-used but packed-withpotential NFC functionality; and a dual-band a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi module. Oh, and GPS. Amazing how we take these once-fanciful technologies for granted now, isn’t it?
LG is constantly working on thinner, brighter panels, which help phones such as the Nexus 5 retain a slim profile Cellular radio The Nexus 4 had an LTE radio in it, but it only supported Band 4 – and, at least officially, it didn’t even support that, being locked down by default and requiring some insider knowledge to fire up. The Nexus 5 comes LTE-enabled so you’ll be able to get next-gen cellular data access wherever you are in the world. There are slight differences between international versions – buy it in the States, and you’ll get CDMA support, seven-band WCDMA and coverage over the nine LTE bands used in the USA, while the version sold elsewhere in the world has six-band WCDMA and six-band LTE. The international version isn’t hobbled – it’s just that the extra connectivity isn’t required.
Screen power There’s a slight power disadvantage with IPS, given that it draws from the battery slightly more than other competing technologies, but the Nexus 5 has a huge lithium polymer cell, which helps to compensate for this. 24
Inside the Nexus 5
Inside the Nexus
Battery
Lithium bursts into flames when exposed to air, so there’s some serious science involved in keeping your battery in one piece
The inclusion of the Snapdragon 800 processor means power efficiency will be pretty good on the Nexus 5, and with a 2,300mAh battery, it should last a decent length of time on a single charge. That’s a slight upgrade from the 2,100mAh power pack in the Nexus 4, and Google reckons it’s good for up to 17 hours of talk time, 8.5 hours of Wi-Fi internet browsing, and seven hours of high-speed 4G surfing. This is, of course, at its initial state, but the lithium polymer technology inside should mean it maintains its muscle over many hundreds of charges.
Processing package Let’s not beat around the bush – the Qualcomm chipset in this handset is pretty much the best processing package going. It’s the same as LG put in its G2 – this is about as far removed from that phone as you’re going to get, although a bit of internal cross pollination is only to be expected.
Essential chips The main processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, which breaks down into several critical components. The Krait 400 CPU module is a quad-core beast running at 2.26GHz, manufactured with a 28nm process to ensure it stays reasonably cool even under pressure. There’s an Adreno 330 GPU, which supports all the latest mobile graphics technologies. But there are little, considered components in there, too – for example, a dedicated DSP, the Hexagon, runs at 600MHz and offloads tasks with low power requirements, such as music playback, to ensure your battery lasts as long as it can. Finally, the processing package is backed up by 2GB of RAM, a large amount for a smartphone, which should ensure that buttery smooth OS interface stays greasy even once you’ve installed a bunch of apps.
Charging Of course, the really exciting development is Qi wireless charging, previously seen on Windows Phone handsets, which uses a system of electromagnetic induction to charge your phone without needing to plug it in. This is significant for several reasons, not least of which is that the charging port of your Nexus 5 will take a lot less wear and tear than it would without using a charge pad. It’s slower than wired charging, and you’ll need to buy a charge pad to take advantage of it, and you can’t really use your phone while it’s juicing up in this way, but hey – this is properly cool tech.
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Inside the Nexus
Inside the Nexus 5
Positioning
Dimensions Thanks to its larger display, the Nexus 5 is longer and wider than its predecessor, but it has managed to shave off some depth. Its vital statistics run at 137.84mm tall, 69.17mm wide, and a teeny 8.59mm thick. There’s good news as well in terms of the weight, with the Nexus 5 shedding 9g from the fourth generation, tipping the scales at 130g (4.59 oz) – making it lighter than the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1 and Nokia Lumia 925.
Materials The Nexus 5 echoes the new Nexus 7 tablet in terms of looks – and that’s not a bad thing at all. Yes, we know there’s no fancy premium metal case, and the mesmerising glass back of the Nexus 4 has fallen by the wayside, but the soft-touch finish of the white or black rear of the Nexus 5 doesn’t exactly feel cheap – we’d put it a notch above the Samsung Galaxy S4 in terms of the pleasure it gives us in the hand.
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Everything is nicely tucked away and inconspicuous, particularly on the front of the phone – the dinky circular ear speaker grille and front camera don’t jump out from the Gorilla Glass 3 panel unless you look for them. The camera and LED flash make an impact on the back, however. There’s a single mono speaker mounted on the bottomleft of the phone, the microphone sits bottom-right, and the micro USB port sits in between. The power button is on the right-hand side of the case, while the single-button volume keys are on the left. Each uses a piece of ceramic material that seems as though it will be particularly hard wearing.
The Nexus 5 doesn’t exactly feel cheap – we’d put it a notch above the Galaxy S4 in terms of the pleasure it gives us in the hand
Inside the Nexus 5
Edges The sides of the phone are different depending on the colour scheme you go for. The white version has shiny sides, which follow on nicely from the screen, while the black one has matte edges, mirroring the finish on the back. The white version also feels slightly less rubbery on the back, because the rear of the case is made from moderately different material.
Inside the Nexus
It also includes a hall effect sensor, which we presume will be used for smart covers and fancy docks
Sensors Given that the Nexus is the Android showcase phone, it’s no surprise that LG has managed to throw in a few decent sensors. We expected the gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity/ ambient light sensor, and pressure sensor, because all have been carried over from the previous models and, in the case of the pressure sensor, from the Samsung Galaxy range. It also includes a hall effect sensor – this analyses local magnetic fields, so we presume it will be able to be used for smart covers and fancy docks.
What’s missing? A phone at this price point won’t have absolutely every top feature going. It would be a little unfair to judge its audio capabilities against the HTC One, for instance, or its stock Android performance against the gimmick-heavy skills of the Samsung Galaxy S4. So whatever we say here is a little moot, but we’ll say it anyway: there’s no IR blaster, which for some would be a completely irrelevant feature, but utterly crucial for others. The battery is not as beefy as the 3,000mAh initially rumoured, which is simply us being greedy and nothing more – the equipped battery is more than capable. Really, the Nexus 5 is a fantastic phone. It doesn’t push as many boundaries as it might, particularly as it seems more like a step change from the Nexus 4 than a brand new killer phone, but there’s little that’s missing here. Q 27
Do more with your Nexus
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Welcome
Welcome
Do more with your Nexus
Do more with your Nexus Get KitKat features 30 Don’t have KitKat? You don’t need to... Protect yourself for free Locate, lock and wipe lost devices
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Track stolen devices 36 Keep tabs on a lost device with Cerberus Google’s 2-Step Verification 38 Keep your files safe with this new feature Back up your smartphone 40 Automate your backups to avoid disaster Install free antivirus 42 Comprehensively protect your device Stop ads invading your phone 44 Discover how to banish AirPush adverts
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GET KITKAT FEATURES If your Android device is still stuck on Jelly Bean, these apps can replicate some of KitKat’s best features
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 15 minutes SUITABLE FOR All Android phones and tablets
he Nexus 5 and Android KitKat go together like, well, two fingers of a KitKat. However, if you’re using an older device running Android Jelly Bean, you could be waiting weeks or even months for a compatible version of KitKat. But don’t despair, because many of KitKat’s features can already be simulated by existing apps. Google’s phone app, for instance, may have been treated to a substantial redesign, as has the Android media player, yet apps such as Contacts+ and PlayerPro come close to offering the same experience. Fancy the benefits of KitKat’s efficient power management, or mimicking the Nexus 5’s HDR+ photography feature on your current Android device? No problem. Then when it’s time for some work, you don’t even need KitKat to run Google’s Quickoffice app. So what are you waiting for? Here’s how to give Jelly Bean a more chocolatey flavour.
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TUTORIAL 1: CONTROL CONTACTS AND CALLS
1 Communicate with Contacts+ Contacts+ is an all-in-one phone, contacts and messaging app, which gives you a taste of what’s on offer in KitKat. For instance, Google’s new phone app can sort your contacts according to how often you talk to each of them, and Google Keyboard enables you to express yourself visually in messages using colourful icons called Emoji.
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your contacts 2 Sort Sorting your contacts by who you talk to most is easy with Contacts+. Switch to the central contacts tab, expand the basic menu options using the button at the right of the top bar, and select ‘Display options’. Plump for the ‘Frequency’ setting and, while you’re here, it makes sense to customise things such as icon style and layout.
Get KitKat features
Do more with your Nexus
TUTORIAL 2: GET ALBUM ART ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN
1 Download PlayerPro With KitKat, you can play music and still enjoy full-screen album art and playback controls on your lock screen. Pretty nifty, though the PlayerPro music player app can give you almost identical results on Jelly Bean. Not only that, but it’s also one of the most comprehensive music apps available in the Play Store
your style 3 Set Unfortunately, PlayerPro’s album artwork doesn’t fill the whole lock screen, but you can set the background to feature a full-screen image of the artist currently playing. Set this by selecting ‘Background’ from the ‘Lock screen’ settings and opt for ‘Artist picture’. The ‘Greyscale’ option is nice if you’d like the background in black and white.
the new 3 Emoji: emoticons Spicing up your texts with some emoji icons requires the free ‘Emoji for Contacts+’ add-on app. Once installed, start composing a text message in Contacts+ and you’ll notice a smiley face next to the text input box. Tap this to reveal hundreds of new emoji, from your average smiley and sad faces to objects and even flags.
a lock 2 Choose screen widget To set up your lock screen to emulate that of KitKat, click on an album and then open PlayerPro’s main menu using the button in the top-right of the screen. Select ‘Settings > Lock screen > Widget’ and go for the ‘PlayerPro Large (4x4)’ option – this gets you closest to the KitKat look. Next, scroll down and ensure that ‘Full screen’ is ticked.
missing 4 Find album art If an album is missing artwork, PlayerPro can download it. Just go back to the app’s main Albums tab, press and hold on an album and then select ‘Manage artwork’. The ‘Get it for me’ option usually does the trick. You can use the same method on the Artists tab to download an artist image, but this time pick ‘Manage picture’ from the menu.
who’s calling 4 Know Receiving a call from a number you don’t recognise can catch you off-guard, so KitKat’s phone app automatically attempts to match an unsaved number with a Google-listed business. Truecaller does much the same thing, but has a huge crowd-sourced database of over a billion numbers, and it also enables you to block spam callers.
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Do more with your Nexus
Get KitKat features
TUTORIAL 3: TAKE BETTER PHOTOS IN ANY LIGHT
dynamic 1 Highly HDR – or High Dynamic Range – technology gives your photos great highlight and shadow detail, even under harsh lighting. The Nexus 5’s HDR+ mode snaps a series of shots and combines the best bits into a single photograph, but it’s a trick many current Android phones and tablets can also pull, without the need for KitKat.
your shot 3 Take Activating the app’s HDR capability is as simple as tapping the mode button located alongside the main shutter icon, and selecting ‘HDR’ from the menu. The app now snaps several consecutive photos to capture as much highlight and shadow detail as possible. It even cleverly re-aligns each image to compensate for any camera movement.
app? 2 Which Your standard camera app may already be packing an HDR mode. Samsung hides it in the ‘Shooting Mode’ menu, HTC’s version comes under the ‘Camera Scenes’ heading, while Sony often includes something similar in the app’s main settings. Alternatively, the excellent A Better Camera app gives you this HDR tech on any Jelly Bean device.
and tune 4 Tweak Once you’ve got your HDR image, four editing options control the overall exposure, contrast, colour saturation and detail intensity. If you fancy a bit more control, drag down the top bar, select ‘More settings > Shooting modes settings > HDR’ and you’ll discover extensive options to fine-tune the image capture sequence and HDR processing.
TUTORIAL 4: MAKE JELLY BEAN RUN SWEETER
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resources 1 Restore Google is keen to emphasise
optimisation 2 Auto Satisfy your need for speed by
the speed and efficiency of KitKat, which is certainly welcome news for those of us with Android devices starting to feel the strain. It’s not difficult to give Jelly Bean a boost, though, because apps such as Super Optimize help free up system resources, delete unnecessary clutter and extend battery life.
first clicking the big ‘Optimize’ button at the bottom of the app’s ‘System management’ homescreen. This automatically terminates memory and battery-hogging apps and claws back some storage space by deleting temporary files. Switch to the Process or Cache tabs to terminate apps on an individual basis.
Get KitKat features
Do more with your Nexus
TUTORIAL 5: STAY PRODUCTIVE WITH QUICKOFFICE
powerful 1 A office app OK, so although Quickoffice has been available for Jelly Bean for several months, KitKat is the first version of Android to include it as standard. If you haven’t encountered Quickoffice, it’s certainly worth trying because it enables you to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files with no converting required.
Word 3 Editing documents Open a Word document for editing and you’re met with basic but useful options for altering text and paragraph structure, font size and colour. It’s also possible to insert a table or image, though you can’t choose how text wraps around these objects. Otherwise, it’s an easy-to-use app, with intuitive menus and a handy spellchecker.
3 Comprehensive control See the menu icon in the top-left of the ‘System management’ screen? This displays extra tabs, where you can control other speed-sapping features, such as screen brightness, as well as setting the volume for calls, media and notifications. There’s also integrated areas for uninstalling apps, or moving them to an SD card.
file manager 2 The Quickoffice includes its own file manager, where you can browse files stored on your Android device and Google Drive account. You’re able to create and delete folders, while files can be renamed, cut and pasted. The interface is even more userfriendly on a tablet, because in landscape format there are three browser panes rather than one.
a slideshow 4 Create for PowerPoint Tapping the ‘+’ icon at the top of the file manager is all it takes to open a new PowerPoint presentation template. Don’t expect the sexy transition and animation effects from the full-blown desktop version to be in this 14MB app, but simple layout and content controls are great for tweaking an existing presentation. Q
your 4 Preserve battery Now your apps are under control, Jelly Bean should have got some of its mojo back. But when you also need to get the most from your battery, check out Super Optimize’s ‘Battery Management’ section. Here you’ll find the app’s eco mode, which automatically disables Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as reducing data synchronisation frequency.
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PROTECT YOURSELF FOR FREE Discover how to use a free service from Google to locate, lock and wipe stolen or lost smartphones and tablets
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 5 minutes SUITABLE FOR Android 2.3 and later
ou’re in a coffee shop. Someone bumps into you. A few minutes later, you realise your smartphone has gone. It would be great to be able to whip your tablet from your bag, log into a remote control service and wipe the missing device of all your personal data. And if it’s just lost at home, it would also be really helpful to make it ring so that you can find it again. Your smartphone or tablet is linked with your Google account more deeply than many people suppose. This close bond affords a unique opportunity to harness the power of other Google products to quickly manage your mobile devices in case they are ever stolen. Called Android Device Manager, this handy tool is free, and makes it easy to track, find or wipe a stolen or lost smartphone or tablet.
Y
USE ANDROID DEVICE MANAGER
ADM 2 Activate Click the little-used ‘Google Settings’ icon in your device’s apps list. Among other things to do with apps and connected games, this enables you to activate Android Device Manager. Click this and tick the ‘Remote wipe and reset button’. Grant administrator rights to Android Device Manager by clicking ‘Activate’.
devices visible 1 Make Only devices that are visible to Google Play can be protected using Android Device Manager, so open a browser on your mobile device or PC, surf to http://play.google.com/settings and log in with your Google username and password. Ensure that the devices to protect have a tick in their entry in the Visibility column.
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Protect yourself for free
into ADM 3 Log From a PC or other connected device, open a browser and surf to www.google.com/android/devicemanager. For speed in an emergency, you can bookmark this page. Log in if necessary using your Google account name and password, and a map appears. If your device has its GPS receiver switched off, the location is unavailable.
it ring 5 Make If you happen to mislay your smartphone, hearing it ring can help you locate it. As long as the device is switched on, you can make it ring at full volume for five minutes by clicking the ‘Ring’ button in Android Device Manager. It uses a default ringtone and can be silenced by hitting the smartphone’s power key.
Do more with your Nexus
up non-GPS devices 4 Set You can still use Android Device Manager to help protect devices that do not have a built-in GPS receiver, such as many cheaper models of tablet computer. Simply go into your settings and select the ‘Location services’ section. Ensure that ‘Google’s location services’ is selected and then use the tablet to surf.
your device 6 Lock If your smartphone or tablet is stolen, you might worry that the current password isn’t strong enough. To strengthen it, click the ‘Lock’ button in ADM. Now enter a seriously long temporary password and confirm it to upload it to your device. Remember to write it down because you’ll need it if the phone or tablet is recovered.
your device 8 Protect Finally, set up a password that needs to be entered to unlock your Android device. You don’t have to keep it password-protected in safe locations such as your home, but when out and about, you need to protect it. If you don’t, and your device becomes lost or stolen, all your secrets are accessible until you can get to a web browser to wipe the device. Q
the device 7 Wipe For complete peace of mind, it’s a good idea to reset a stolen phone or tablet to its factory condition before it becomes cracked, by removing all of your pictures, videos, messages and settings. This is the job of the ‘Erase’ button in Android Device Manager. If the device is switched off, it will be erased when it next boots up. 35
TRACK STOLEN DEVICES Keep tabs on your lost Android device and its wrongful owner with the Cerberus app
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 10 minutes SUITABLE FOR Android 2.2 and above
erberus is the next best thing to Gollum-like doggedness for protecting your precious Android device. Named after the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the Underworld in Greek and Roman mythology, this nifty little app is chock-full of features that can help you track and recover your stolen device. Like other anti-theft apps, Cerberus tracks your device using the on-board GPS. It can also stealthily take pictures, audio and video of the wrongful owner. The app sits peacefully on your phone, until you call upon its services from its online control centre. If the perp isn’t online, you can control the device by sending instructions to Cerberus by SMS, which isn’t logged in the Android SMS app. And don’t sweat if the thief inserts a new SIM card – if he does, the app sends you an SMS alert on a preset number. You can also stop the app showing up in the app drawer, and if you use a rooted phone, you can install Cerberus as a system app to prevent it being uninstalled.
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USE CERBERUS
1 Install The Cerberus app is available on the Play Store and can be tried for free for a week, after which it requires a one-time licence fee of €2.99. You can also download a hidden version of the app, which masks Cerberus as ‘System Framework’, from www. cerberusapp.com/download.php.
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device admin 2 Make When you launch the app, you’re asked to create a user account on the app’s servers. After logging in, you’re prompted to give admin rights to the app. If you don’t do so, some of the features, such as remote wipe and password lock, won’t be available.
Track stolen devices
SIM checker 3 Enable To enable the app to notify you when it detects a new SIM card, you can provide it with up to three phone numbers, where it will send the alerts. You can also ask the app to optionally send you other details about the new SIM card and the location of the device.
your device 5 Track To control a stolen device, head to www.cerberusapp.com. From the dashboard, you can select the missing device using a pull-down list. Cerberus then connects to your device, enables the GPS and points out its current location in Google Maps.
Do more with your Nexus
configuration 4 More After the initial setup, launch the app to configure its features. You can use the remote wipe feature to zap particular directories on the SD card that hold sensitive data, for instance. The app also enables you to tweak the options for stealthily capturing a photo of the user.
tabs 6 Keep Use the Command pull-down menu to run an action on the device. You can find more details about the perp by using the device’s camera and microphone to take his picture and record audio and video clips. You can also see his recent call and SMS logs.
control 7 Remote If you want to embarrass the perp and make him suffer, you can sound a siren or read aloud a custom message. You can also lock the device with a password and even reboot it. You can also make it dial a number with the speaker turned on.
wipe 8 Remote If the data on the device is more valuable to you than the device itself, you can ask Cerberus to remotely wipe your tablet or smartphone’s memory as well as the data on the SD card. But remember to enable these features first, before losing the device. Q
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PROTECT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH 2-STEP VERIFICATION Keep all your files safe with this clever new feature from Google’s brainiest security boffins
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 5 minutes SUITABLE FOR Any device
ith so much data stored on your Google account, it’s a big risk to have just one password keeping it all safe. Unlikely as it seems, if a web criminal were to get your password, they could lock you out of your account in seconds, with potentially devastating consequences for your private information. Google knows that its cloud services are becoming indispensable, and millions of people are storing their digital lives on its servers, so it has developed 2-Step Verification to add another element to securing entry to your account. It’s like adding Chip & PIN to your Google account, and it involves your smartphone as well as your computer. The walkthrough below shows you how to enable it.
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ADD AN EXTRA LAYER OF SECURITY
started 1 Get Google’s 2-Step Verification has to be enabled on the web. Go to www. google.com/landing/2step and click on the ‘Get Started’ button (which you’ll see in a couple of spots on the page). It can be set up using many different browsers, and from a variety of devices.
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in again 2 Sign On the next screen, click the ‘Start setup’ button. You’re asked to log in with your Google account. You’re still asked for it even if you think you are logged in already – for example, if your browser stores your account details on a personalised homepage.
2-Step Verification
Do more with your Nexus
a verification code 3 Send You’re asked to provide a phone number, which Google will use to send
your phone 4 Verify On the next screen, you’re asked to enter the number that should have
you a verification code. The box should already be populated with your phone number if that information is stored in your Google account. Otherwise, type in your number and press ‘Send code’.
come through to your phone as a text message containing six digits. Type the code into the box and click ‘Verify’. If you didn’t get the text message, click ‘Didn’t get the code?’ and follow the instructions.
this computer 5 Trust If you lose your phone, you might be able to access your account from a trusted computer without needing a code. On this page, you can make the machine you’re using a trusted computer by keeping the box ticked. Only do so if you trust everyone who can access it. Click the ‘Next’ button.
back-up phone 7 Add Because you’ve opted for higher security, Google recommends that you add a back-up phone to avoid being locked out of your account. Click ‘Add a phone number’, then type in a new number on the next screen – remember to choose a country code from the drop-down list – then press the ‘Save’ button.
and create passwords 6 Confirm You’re only asked for a code whenever you sign in using your email account from an untrusted computer or device. If you lose your phone, you can always change it to a new one in your Google account settings, under ‘Security > 2-step verification’. For now, click ‘Confirm’.
verified 8 You’re You can now access your account on untrusted devices. To rescind trust of a computer, perhaps because you’re replacing it, go to http://security. google.com/settings/security. Click ‘Edit’ next to ‘2-step verification’, and choose ‘Remove it from your list of trusted computers’ under ‘Advanced’. Q
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BACK UP YOUR SMARTPHONE Backups are a dull but necessary part of life. Here’s how to automate them to avoid disaster
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 15 minutes SUITABLE FOR Android 2.3 and later
ack when the smartest phones around could still only make calls and send texts, you couldn’t lose much to hardware failure. But we’re increasingly carrying our entire lives on today’s smartphones and tablets. They’ve become as important to us as PCs, but in a far shorter time, and the impact of a suddenly ‘bricked’ device has also exploded. Making manual backups is dull work, which most of us neglect. Automatic cloud back-up services are great, but they can only be used where there’s a secure path to the internet. If you’re not using it, however, a spare SD card slot can serve as a back-up location to protect your data from most catastrophes. Here’s how to use the free version of MyBackup to automate the process.
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SAVE YOUR DATA WITH MYBACKUP
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MyBackup 1 Install Search for MyBackup in
in root mode 2 Run If MyBackup discovers that it
Google’s Play Store, click the app’s ‘Install’ button, and accept the permissions. When you open the app, you are given the option to enter a password to protect the program and its backups, or cancel the dialog box.
can run in root mode on your device, click ‘Yes’ to allow this to happen. Root mode gives MyBackup elevated privileges to read data for backing up that it wouldn’t normally have access to, thereby increasing the completeness of the backup it can make of system data.
Back up your smartphone
a local 3 Make backup
Do more with your Nexus
a backup 4 Restore Click ‘MyBackups’. Select the
To create a local backup, ensure that an SD card is inserted in your device, then click ‘New Backup’. Select ‘Data’ as the type, and ‘Local’. Now select all the data types you want to add to the archive and click ‘OK’. Enter a name for the archive and click ‘OK’ again. That’s it – your data is backed up.
type of backup to restore and the local option. Select the archive from the list of names and click ‘Restore’. Select the types of data you want to restore and click ‘OK’. Confirm the action and the restoration begins. Then reboot your device to complete the action.
backups 5 Manage You can examine the content
a backup 6 Schedule To automate backups, click
of archives to ensure you are restoring the right one. In ‘MyBackups’, select an archive and then click ‘View’. The list of backed-up categories now appears. Click one and, if it can be displayed, the data within enables you to make sure that you’re about to use the correct archive.
‘Schedule’, and select a local backup. Select all the types of data you wish to save and click ‘OK’. Enter a name and time for the backup to occur, and how many previous archives to keep (the default of ‘5’ is fine). Click ‘Schedule’ to activate.
backups 7 Disable You can disable the current
apps 8 Manage You can clear the data stored
back-up schedule or even delete it altogether by going back into ‘Schedule’. Select the back-up schedule you want to edit and click either ‘Disable’ or ‘Remove’ to carry out each operation. Unfortunately, to edit the time, you have to delete your current schedule and set a new one.
by apps and even freeze them (prevent them from running, in other words) in ‘MyToolbox’. Select the type of app (system or non-system) and select the apps you want to manage. Freezing stops them from running until they’re unfrozen. You can also clear their cached and stored data, or uninstall them. Q
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INSTALL FREE ANTIVIRUS Comprehensively protect your smartphone or tablet using the bundled features of a free antivirus package
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 15 minutes SUITABLE FOR All Android phones and tablets
ack in the early days of smartphones and tablets, antivirus was heavy on power and light on protection. Times quickly changed, however. With the range of electronic and physical threats to mobile devices growing and changing almost daily, antivirus companies have branched out into other areas of protection. The free versions of most mobile security suites available today shield you against malware, of course. But they also protect you against a range of other threats, and possibly even the problem of identity theft caused by selling a mobile device that hasn’t been properly wiped. In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to increase your security using some of the wider facilities provided by AVG’s Antivirus Security, but other free packages contain broadly similar functions.
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PROTECT YOUR DEVICE FOR FREE
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the app 1 Install Open Google’s Play Store and
2 Activation Click the ‘Open’ button and the
then click the magnifying glass at the top of the screen to open the search bar. Enter the word AVG. Click ‘AVG Antivirus Security – Free’ in the search results, and click ‘Install’ on the product screen. Finally, click to accept the program’s permissions and it downloads itself.
app opens on your device. The first thing you need to do is activate AVG. The screen shows some default settings, along with links to the terms of service and privacy policy. Click the ‘Activate’ button to continue and open the main user interface.
Install free antivirus
malware 3 Update scanner Before running an initial scan of the device, you need to make sure you update its virus definitions and scanning engine. To do so, click ‘Protection’ and then click ‘Update Now’. This action downloads any new data and program updates that may be available from AVG, and ensures that you have the latest versions of everything you need.
5 Investigate any threats
Do more with your Nexus
the device 4 Scan At the bottom of the main menu, click ‘Scan Now’. The scan takes a couple of minutes to complete. If it finds anything it suspects of being either malware or an insecure system setting, a big red cross appears with the number of threats it has found.
6 Configure Auto-Scan
The button at the bottom of the interface changes to ‘View Scan Results’. Click this to reveal the nature of the discovered threats. It’s highly likely that the threat is merely that you have activated the ability to install software from unknown sources. If you have installed the Amazon Appstore, for instance, you’ll have activated this option.
Because an Android device is a dynamic environment, it’s a really good idea to scan for threats on a regular basis. AVG scans your device once a week by default, but you can increase that to every day by clicking ‘Protection’, then ‘Auto-Scan Frequency’. Select ‘Once a day’ and then click the ‘Back’ button.
data use 7 Monitor If your data bill is high, or you
your data 8 Wipe If you ever decide to sell your
suspect that something is siphoning off data, you need to know which app is sending and receiving the most data. To do so, click ‘Performance’ and ‘Data Usage’. The installed apps appear with their data use since the last reboot. Click one for more details and to uninstall it.
tablet, smartphone or SD cards, you need to wipe them completely of data before you do so, otherwise the buyer could assume your identity. To do so, click ‘Privacy’, then click ‘Wipe Device’. If an SD card is inserted, you can add this to the wipe, and then click the ‘Reset’ button. Q
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STOP ADS INVADING YOUR PHONE Developers need to make money from their apps but the tactics some use are distinctly undesirable
{ AT A GLANCE } SKILL Anyone can do it TIME NEEDED 15 minutes SUITABLE FOR Android 4.1 onwards
here’s no such thing as a free lunch and this old maxim holds as true today as it ever did. Take free apps, for example. Many developers give away their programs and rely on adverts inside their creations to pay for their efforts. In many cases, putting up with the odd invitation to play online bingo or purchase life insurance is a small price to pay for an app that is otherwise excellent. Some Android users have, however, found their smartphones throwing up adverts indiscriminately. You might be taking a picture or checking your mail, when your phone demands, “Do you want to win an iPad?” Random, invasive and unwelcome adverts are a real problem. Their producers promise developers more cash than traditional in-app advertising. For us users, however, the benefits are questionable, to say the least. If your phone has been invaded by pushy ads, read on and we’ll help you banish them.
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BANISH AIRPUSH ADVERTS
your enemy 1 Know AirPush adverts are ads that appear as text-based notifications on your smartphone. Generally, the sales pitch is short and sweet, and they link you to an external website. They’re indiscriminate and are generally welcomed on to your Nexus if you download an app that contains them.
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is 2 Prevention better than cure If you’re being besieged by AirPush apps, you’ll naturally want to get rid of them. The problem is, it isn’t easy working out which app is causing the problem. It could potentially be any one in your collection. As you read on, we’ll explore extermination, but first let’s discuss prevention.
Stop ads invading your phone
Do more with your Nexus
hooky apps 3 Avoid The most unscrupulous app
at reviews 4 Look To help spot apps that might
makers know that we don’t like paying for downloads. As a result, devious app makers often make apps that look like a popular program and give them away for free. In reality, the apps are Trojan horses, packed with unwanted side effects. Avoid apps that appear to be too good to be true.
have unwelcome side effects, always ensure you read the Google Play reviews before downloading. Look at the one- and two-star ratings and take a few moments to search for mentions of unwelcome advertising. Another user may have been bitten and published their experiences in the hope of warning off other users.
at the app’s 5 Look permissions Before you download an app, you’re given a list of permissions the app wants. These are basically phone features that it wants you to let it access when it’s running. It’s good practice to read this list carefully and questioningly. Why does that torch app need access to the internet? Avoid apps that demand any unnecessary permissions.
air 7 Download blocker If you don’t fancy finding and entering all those details, you can nuke ad-pushing apps by downloading either AirPush Detector or New Airpush Detector from Google Play. They’re free sniffer apps that probe your phone for bad apps. Try both, because when one fails the other might sniff out the culprit.
out from 6 Opt AirPush One way to stop AirPush adds is to register on the maker’s opt-out register. To do this, nip off to www. airpush.com/optout. There you can enter your phone’s Electronic Serial Number, International Mobile Equipment Identity, and Mobile Equipment Identifier. You might find it easier to use a PC to do this job.
and delete 8 Scan Both apps pack a similar button labelled ‘Scan’. Tap it and in a few seconds you’re presented with a list of apps which are guilty of drawing in ads. Tap on one and then you’re taken to Android’s own app uninstall option. Tap on the source of your problems, and then on ‘OK’. You’re done! Q
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Welcome
Welcome
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Apped Top 25 free-to-play games 48 We run through our favourite free games 25 essential Android apps Our guide to what to download first
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Antivirus round-up Protect your Nexus with these apps
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Top 25 free games
Top
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Free-to-play games on Android
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Top 25 free games
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From the pleasantly bountiful to the downright money-grabbing, we bring you some of the best free games on Android hen we’re living in such financially trying times, it’s quite nice to be able to download and play a game for the princely sum of nada. But, as the old saying goes, there’s always a catch. Some games sport a series of microtransactions, while others might include banner ads or unskippable videos. Knowing what lies within a certain game can make all the difference, so in this feature we’ll give each of our top 25 picks a quick run down and highlight any pay walls or hidden ads. And after so many years of existence, the Google Play store is packed with hundreds of free games, from cute puzzlers and challenging platformers, to intense shooters and competitive sports titles. In other words, there’s something for everyone. We’ve trawled Google Play to bring you some of the most enjoyable free gaming experiences, as well as the hidden microtransactions within.
W 1Reaper
Easily one of the best games on the store, Reaper combines the visual style of Rayman Origins and the hit point and levelling systems of traditional RPGs. The jump, movement and striking controls can take a little while to get used to, but once you’ve mastered them, you’ll be well and truly hooked.
What’s the catch? As you defeat enemies and destroy chests, you’ll collect gold that can be spent at shops and blacksmiths to buy new swords and stronger armour. Some weapons or armour may need extra cash.
2Fruit Ninja Free
Simply swipe the screen every time a
piece of fruit appears to score points. Hit multiple bunches to score big (but watch out for bombs or any fruit that evades your slicing skills). All the modes from the original version are here, too.
What’s the catch? There’s a new in-game currency (starfruit), which has been added, as well as a new store, Gutsu’s Cart. The power-ups on offer aren’t essential, and are just there for those users with high scores on the brain.
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Cut the Rope Free
The aim of Cut the Rope is to feed a little monster called Om Nom with a candy treat that’s hanging from a piece of rope. Swiping your finger across the screen cuts it free, but with multiple ropes and a series of stars to collect, this is more than a simple puzzler.
What’s the catch?
Reaper’s gorgeous graphics add to the fun
While you can buy new levels early, they can still be unlocked by simply progressing through the game as normal. The real catch is the obtrusive
use of adverts – from on-screen banners to unskippable videos.
Runner: Football Dash 4 NFL
Pick your favourite team from the officially licensed roster and swipe the screen to help your ball carrier pick up the most yardage. Collect coins, leap over linebackers and slide your way into the leaderboards.
What’s the catch? There’s a store that enables you to buy new jerseys, as well as purchasing upgrades and power-ups that are a must when the game gets a little crazier later on. Despite the presence of microtransactions, you can still enjoy it without spending a penny.
5You Must Escape
Each level is represented by a room with a locked door – your job is to investigate and find the clues to escape. From revealing hidden compartments to uncovering safe combinations, each new clue leads to another. 49
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Rebuild Springfield with The Simpsons: Tapped Out
Find the clues to get through the locked door in You Must Escape
What’s the catch? There isn’t one! You Must Escape is simply there to be enjoyed, so if you get stuck, it’s because you’re rubbish at games, rather than there being some special key you need to buy.
6 BBC CBeebies Playtime
Little ones can create their own balloon with a picture of themselves before heading into four mini-games based on some popular CBeebies shows. Everything has been fully voiced-over, and the menus and games are easy enough for any young child to navigate.
have a knife-wielding psycho behind it. It’s all very tongue in cheek but animated in a cartoon style that’s hard not to love.
What’s the catch? There aren’t any microtransactions and there’s no shop, but there are ads that pop up after every game-over screen. So try to avoid failing if you can.
Simpsons: Tapped Out 8The
The Simpsons Tapped Out gives you the
What’s the catch? The catch is: there isn’t one! Being a mixture of fun activities and educational facts, this app is simply there to give your little one another way to interact with their favourite characters.
7Dumb Ways to Die
This selection of silly mini games ranges from moving tourists off a train track to choosing a door that doesn’t
opportunity to rebuild Springfield following a Homer-related nuclear meltdown. You can build almost every shop and building from the television show in this popular city-building title. As you progress, these characters can perform timed tasks that earn you XP and money.
What’s the catch? Unfortunately, those timed tasks can take anything from 30 seconds to 24 hours. Having to wait a whole day for a building to finish can be a little frustrating. You can buy special doughnut tokens to instantly complete any task if you don’t have the patience to wait, but they’re expensive.
9Real Racing 3
Unlike traditional racing games, Real Racing 3 automatically accelerates your car for you – you can brake by touching the screen and steer by tilting your device. With a huge variety of tracks, cars and online leaderboards, there’s plenty on offer here.
What’s the catch?
Even the tiniest kids can get in on the free fun, thanks to BBC CBeebies Playtime
You can use ‘gold’ to increase your rank and you can even purchase the in-game currency to buy faster cars and upgrades. These add-ons aren’t too obtrusive but the game gets tough later on if you don’t have a shop-bought car to hand.
Learning the free-toplay lingo As you’ll no doubt have noticed, there are quite a few odd phrases and words that crop up when it comes to playing some of the many free-to-play games that are available to download from the Google Play store. Some games have an ‘endless runner’ template, or they’re a ‘city builder’. Some games have a distinct ‘Trials’-like quality, and so on. However, not everyone has played all of these games, so to make the references clearer, we’ve compiled a guide to a few of the most common words you’ll come across in free-to-play jargon.
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1 Microtransaction A word you’ll come across quite often. Microtransactions exist to provide extra items and unlock items that are inaccessible or only available further into the game Many games include an in-game currency (dollars, coins, gold and so on), which exists to give you just enough free cash to whet your appetite for further purchases.
runner 2 Endless ‘Endless running’ is a term first attributed to the 2011 iOS game Temple Run. Designed by Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, it became a massive hit on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It’s even spawned many an imitator, including Temple Guns, Temple Jump and Pyramid Run (to name just three).
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Boost yourself over crazy-looking obstacles in Jetpack Joyride board-changing power-up? Go on, it’s only peanuts!
11Jetpack Joyride
From the developers that brought you Fruit Ninja comes another slice of portable gaming goodness. This side-scrolling adventure sees you pressing the screen to power your jetpack, boosting yourself over obstacles and missiles.
What’s the catch? Candy Crush Saga offers the sweet smell of tile-matching success
10 Candy Crush Saga
The Stash store is packed with extra upgrades and power-ups, including some funky little ship boosts that turn your jetpack into a squawking bird or a wave-riding jet ski. These power-ups are fun but easily dispensable, so spending real-world cash is easily done.
Following the classic Bejeweled template, Candy Crush Saga tasks you with reaching a certain score in a limited number of moves. Matching sweets of the same kind scores you points, while special treats and power-ups net you super combos that mean you earn bigger scores in fewer moves.
This fun little take on the city builder template enables you to build a Jurassic Park all of your own. Find amber, research DNA and hatch the eggs of dinosaurs from across the ages.
What’s the catch?
What’s the catch?
Candy Crush Saga will charm you into loving its simple gameplay and easy progression – but then it will start sneaking in the occasional extra upgrade or boost. Fancy a few more moves? They’ll only set you back 69 pence! Need a
Certain tasks have a timer – some tasks take a few minutes, while others can last an entire day. If you want to get a real session out of Jurassic Park Builder in one go, you’ll need to spend in-game currency on speeding them up.
12Jurassic Park Builder
134 Pics 1 Word
It might be a simple concept, but 4 Pics 1 Word has managed to stump many a wordsmith. You’re presented with a set of four pictures that each share a common word. You’re also presented with a set of random letters, some of which form the word in question, while there’s a few random ones in there, too.
What’s the catch? As you progress, you earn coins that can be spent on helpful bonuses. You can either add a letter to the word or you can have a random incorrect letter removed from your word pool. These are fairly pricey, so watch out.
3 Trials-like The popular Trials games were originally a
builder 4 City The city building genre goes way back into
series of Flash-based games, which were all based on a similar set of physics. Players have to control a biker, who is attempting to race from one end of a course to the other – the big difference between this and normal races being that your bike needs to be kept balanced as you go.
the early days of gaming. The one that spawned the whole genre was Will Wright’s Sim City in 1989. The template has been adopted across various platforms over the years, but it’s made a great transition on to the free-to-play market thanks to its easy customisation and resource management.
5 Tile-swapping Tile-swapping or tile-matching is a sub-genre of gaming that’s just as old and wizened as city builders. Games such as Tetris (1984) and Puzznic (1989) were some of the first to build gameplay around a system of swapping coloured tiles or bricks. Later iterations like Bejeweled (2001) paved the way for titles such as Candy Crush Saga.
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How to play FIFA 14
Tile-swapping gets a glittering upgrade in Bejeweled Blitz
Some games use simple gestures to keep you glued to your touchscreen. Others, such as FIFA 14, come from platforms that use physical peripherals like keyboards or controllers. Translating 12 buttons and two joysticks on to a screen can be tricky, but
with the right know-how, you can be racking up goals like any player on a Sony or Microsoft console. Keep in mind that FIFA 14 on Android plays at a slower pace than normal football simulators, but this helps you learn at a more comfortable rate.
to move 1 Drag Once the first whistle is blown and play is
to pass 2 Tap Even at the slower pace of this Android
under way, you need to get your player moving. To control the player in possession of the ball, press down on him and drag your finger in the direction you want him to run. A dotted line then shows you the route of his run.
port, trying to win a game of football with one player is pointless – passing is key to controlling the field. When in control of the ball, tap a nearby player or area to pass the ball. Be careful, though – some defensive players may intercept it.
to shoot 3 Swipe The one gesture everyone wants to know.
defensive! 4 Get This is football, after all, so you won’t have
You can shoot at any point, which can become especially useful when you need to clear the ball in a hurry. When you’re in sight of the goal, line your player with a clear view and swipe in the direction of the net to give the ball a decent boot.
possession of the ball all the time. When the computer is in control of the ball, press down on the opposing player. A series of yellow arrows will appear around him. This signals your surrounding players to apply pressure and strip the ball.
14 Bejeweled Blitz
Here’s the latest iteration of the much-loved tile-swapping Bejeweled franchise. For the most part, the classic gameplay is unchanged – link three or more similar gems to hit the highest score in the allotted time.
What’s the catch? Of course, a puzzle game like this is all about the scores, and to get your name high up on those global leaderboards, you’re going to need boosts. Some are unlocked through play, but the best ones can only be bought with actual cash.
15Pet Rescue Saga
Designed on a similar principle to Bejeweled Blitz or Candy Crush Saga, your job is to rescue a bunch of stranded pets by removing groups of similarly coloured bricks. Gravity rules in this game, so planning where other blocks will fall is the key to winning each round.
What’s the catch? What’s the catch? You get a free rocket power-up that destroys a whole column of blocks, but it takes a while to regenerate. If you want to beat the later rounds and hit the leaderboards, you need better powerups. You also only get a limited number of lives, so you’ll need to buy more.
16Temple Run 2
The sequel to the endless runner that started it all is free to download on Android, and it’s full of new, challenging obstacles. From flying down ziplines to leaping over jets of fire, Temple Run 2 ups the ante with a selection of new characters and power-ups. 52
As with any freemium title, the game has been designed to be extremely challenging later on, and it’s easy to get sucked into buying the occasional power-up here and there to get past a particularly nasty run of obstacles.
17FIFA 14
console versions is tailor-made for microtransactions. While you won’t be playing matches online (due to the slow rate of play), you can interact with other users and trade cards online.
Me: Minion Rush 18Despicable
The Android version of FIFA 14 comes with 33 leagues and 600 licensed teams, so it’s more than just a tie-in. The flow of play is slower than the versions on other platforms, but it’s still great fun.
Minion Rush is another Temple Run clone that sees Dave the minion speeding through locations from the first film, collecting bananas and racking up the best score. Leap over obstacles and collect power-ups to score big.
What’s the catch?
What’s the catch?
Two words: Ultimate Team. The card-trading super team mode from the
You can access the Store from the main menu, and it offers a variety of extra
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Feel the Force as you play as the Old Republic or the Empire in Angry Birds Star Wars II disappear the moment you begin moving the dot. Memorising the perfect route is the key to success.
What’s the catch? Temple Run 2 brings endless running to your Android device once again costumes (which add extra abilities in certain levels), as well as the option to buy extra bananas to buy new upgrades.
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Angry Birds Star Wars II
The latest bird-flinging, franchiseaffiliating entry is just as addictive as every other Angry Birds release. You can play as both the avian Old Republic and the pig-like Empire in a bevy of courses.
What’s the catch?
You get a limited number of lives with each playthrough, so each failed attempt loses you a heart. You can save a heart after each fail, but you have to watch an ad first. You can earn helpful power-ups, but these run out quickly.
22Red Bull Kart Fighter 3
This slick cartoon racer combines the upgrades of a modern racer with the top-down antics of the Micro Machines series. Use the on-screen arrows to guide your kart around the tracks, drifting and boosting your way to a podium finish.
What’s the catch?
What’s the catch?
& Furious 6: The Game 24 Fast
To net the big scores and clear the latter stages, you’re going to need some special birds to lob. Each one comes with a special ability and the best ones are locked into Watto’s Shop. You can buy these characters in special bundles, too.
KF3 has a severe difficulty spike later that makes purchasing pre-race ‘wildcards’ a must. These add extra abilities but cost you coins and only last for a single race. There’s also a cool little quick play mode that randomly generates a kart, racetrack and wildcard for free.
20Downhill Extreme
23Stickman Downhill
Combining the endless runner template with a Tony Hawks-style presentation, Downhill Extreme is packed with content. Tilt the screen to guide your skateboarder through a series of qualifiers and racers around the world.
Stickman Downhill offers Trials-like fun and games with basic-looking bikers
Following the basic rules of Trials and its imitators, you guide a stickman mountain biker as he speeds and leaps through various courses. Accelerating and braking is a simple case of pressing down behind or in front of your biker.
What’s the catch?
Who doesn’t love a movie tie-in? The new Fast & Furious game is less a traditional racer and more a series of racing-related mini games. You need to swipe the screen in time to win drag races, or hold down to drift round corners in special challenges.
What’s the catch? Performing well earns you gold, which you can spend on new cars and more resilient upgrades. You can earn a fair amount of gold from completing events, but to afford the faster cars, you need to purchase more.
25Neon Motocross
Neon Motocross offers a mercilessly challenging Trials-like experience with a Tron-esque design. Guide your biker across jumps and hills, while keeping him steady. The super-sensitive physics are punishingly addictive, so be prepared to restart often.
A lot of the game can be played without spending a penny, but later races are tough without a new coach or board upgrade. These cost in-game coins, but for the best performance and time, you might need to spend some cash.
What’s the catch?
Tricky Training
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This basic but addictive puzzler tasks you with guiding a green dot across a page to a target. Sounds simple? Well, each level is littered with obstacles that
The microtransaction element is basic. All events and bike types are available through good old-fashioned hard work, but you can spend cash to unlock everything if you’re not a patient kind of person.
How’s your memory? Tricky Training tasks you with remembering where obstacles were
The game uses its own in-game currency, which you can purchase to pick up faster and more extravagantly coloured bikes. Again, you can earn them all by simply scoring well on each available course. Q 53
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25 essential apps
GET STARTED: 25 ESSENTIAL ANDROID APPS If you don’t know what to download from the Play Store first, look no further
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25 essential apps
ndroid is a terrific mobile operating system, but it can be a bit confusing to know where to start. And once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll want to install some apps. But there are so many thousands of third-party apps available, it’s hard to know what to download first. So we’ve put together this list of top apps to make it easier to decide what you should be using. They’re not all for everybody, but all 25 have two things in common – they work really well, and are from developers who
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have worked hard to ensure they’re among the very best downloads Android can offer. You download apps using the Google Play store, which is shown as an icon on your homescreen or Apps screen. If you’ve not even seen this before, don’t worry – there’s a quick guide coming up. And we’ve also put together a tutorial on one of the most popular Android apps – WhatsApp – which is a great way to send pictures and texts to people wherever they are in the world, for free. So without further ado, let’s introduce our favourite Android apps.
Facebook
Chrome
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Thankfully, Facebook’s mobile apps now offer most of the functionality of the desktop browser equivalent, and the Android app is fast and stable, with a simplicity that reminds you of the old days when using Facebook used to be bearable – plus, pictures are displayed nearly full-screen. It incorporates a left menu with access to the different sections of Facebook, while swiping right takes you to Messages, which enables you to communicate almost in real time with people. If you use Facebook Messaging a lot, there is a separate Messenger app also available for Android.
Twitter
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The official Twitter app for Android doesn’t disappoint, with a clean and crisp design that enables you to tweet and follow the tweets of others. It’s also simple to search for hashtags or related tweets, as well as see what’s trending at a particular moment. Twitter has also added some neat photo-editing features to its apps now, so you can add filters, crop and smart fix your images. If you want a decent third-party Twitter app, we recommend you check out Seesmic, which also offers multiple account support, a homepage widget showing the latest tweets, along with a slick design.
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Android comes with its own browser, of course, but if you use Google Chrome on your desktop, its mobile equivalent is a worthwhile download – you can sync your bookmarks and other details across browsers. It’s a little limited in scope for users of older devices, as Android 4.0 or higher is required to run it, but if your phone ticks that box, Chrome on Android offers unlimited tabs in a nice pop-up list, desktop bookmark and open tab syncing, offline saving of pages, and an incognito mode.
Winamp
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If you used to use Winamp on your PC, this Android app is derived from the same software you used all those years ago. Winamp has, in fact, been an Android app for some time. It enables you to play, manage and sync music from your Mac or PC to your Android device. PC users can sync from Winamp on their desktop, while Mac fans can rely on support for iTunes, Mac syncing, plus plenty of other music streaming options. There’s also Shoutcast integration so you can listen to radio. A fine, free media player.
Swype Keyboard
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Replacement keyboard apps are surprisingly popular, with the 65p/99c price of this a small outlay. It
Maps
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If Google Maps is not installed on your device already, this app is an absolute must-get. It’s superb for directions by car or by foot, as well as by public transport where available. As long as you have Android 1.6 or above, a recent update to Google Maps introduces turn-by-turn voice navigation (replacing a previous standalone app). If you do use the navigation, route calculations are done in a flash at the outset of your trip, minimising data transfer en route and keeping you on target even when the GPS signal drops. It’s amazing, it works, and it’s free.
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is, however, a love-it or hate-it kind of thing, which takes a little while to get to used to, because you swipe across the keyboard rather than typing letter by letter. There is a significant amount of re-learning required to make the most of it, and while this is off-putting to some users, it is worth the bother. Once you’re familiar with the idea, it’s genius, with advanced prediction options further speeding your line-typing.
Evernote
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Spotify
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Although the Spotify app for Android is free, you also need a Spotify Premium subscription, which costs £9.99 per month in the UK and $9.99 per month in the US. There is a 48-hour free trial, however, if you want to give it a try. Spotify provides you with as much music as you can listen to, and the app enables you to manage it easily with access to playlists, and a Discover tab so you can find new music. You’re also able to browse artists, tracks and albums. And you can download music within the app to enjoy offline.
Evernote keeps all your notes, tasks and memories in one place, with the free version allowing you 60MB of free access per month – a Premium account provides more allowance, but you’ll only need that if you become a serious Evernoter. Indeed, it’s only if you keep feeding the service with bigger files, such as images and voice memos, that you’ll reach the free limit. You can also download apps for your desktop computer and browser, so you can access your stuff on your desktop or tablet as well as screengrab and bookmark key websites.
Dropbox
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The Android version of the insanely popular cloud storage app is here, and it provides a good entry point to all your files and data. If you’re a Dropbox newcomer, you can have 2GB of storage for free, with more space needing a monthly fee. Files have to be downloaded to your phone to be edited or shared, but you can easily share them or send them on via email. It’s also easy to upload photos from your camera roll in a jiffy, and you even can choose to have everything on your camera roll
Online shopping automatically uploaded. The photo is easier than viewing features are excellent, too. ever with Amazon Mobile Amazon Mobile Amazon has official Android apps for mobile and for tablet, replacing its reliance on a mobile web store. The full selection of products is available, while the app’s very simple and fast to use, and even includes full shopping cart features
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WhatsApp Messenger 14
The app that has sparked a communication revolution, WhatsApp is the new Skype for free text and picture messaging to people anywhere in the world, and has had more than one hundred million downloads on Android. WhatsApp has almost singlehandedly removed the need for costly picture messaging on smartphones (as long as your contact has installed the app as well). Cleverly, it uses your existing contacts, so there’s no need to add in extra contact details. Coincidentally, Skype is also available for Android, and offers the full Skype experience, including video calling.
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it 1 Download Once you’ve found WhatsApp in Google Play, touch ‘Install’ to get the app on to your device. Then tap ‘Accept’ to agree to the app’s permissions and start your download. You need to give the app permission to access your contacts, because it’s these that WhatsApp uses – otherwise you can’t use the app to communicate with anybody.
your contacts 2 View Tapping ‘Contacts’ enables you to see who else you know is using WhatsApp. Any new WhatsApp users also appear here, and they can see that you are using WhatsApp, too. You can tap any of them to begin a chat, which looks like the screen here – as you can see, you’re able to send and receive pictures as well.
25 essential apps
With 2GB of free online storage, Dropbox is a must-have app
Manage and share your pics in style and on the move with Flikr
with Amazon’s one-click system, once you’ve signed in. No longer do you have to wait to get back to a computer before making that allimportant purchase, and you can track the status of everything you have ordered. You do need to allow location permissions, though, so the app knows which Amazon store you need to look at.
account and older feeds from Google Reader are imported. Feedly also has a simple design, so you can keep track of favourite sites, RSS feeds, blogs and magazines with no fuss.
Feedly
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One of the best RSS readers around, Feedly has come into its own as a replacement for the now-defunct Google Reader, which Google killed after saying people didn’t use it enough. Feedly is a good alternative, though, syncing across desktop browsers and different apps. You can sign in using your Google
Flickr
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Newly relaunched, Flickr is one of the best Android apps for handling and sharing images that you’ve taken on your handset. As well as supporting Flickr uploading, this app also enables you to capture photos from within the app, and comes with a set of filters, so you can edit your photos the same way that you can with Instagram. The app supports sharing with Twitter and Facebook as well, so your other, non-photo-nerd friends can enjoy the results of your photography.
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Last.fm
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The subscription-based mobile version of Last.fm opens up a world of music streaming on your mobile for £3 or $3 per month in the UK and the US respectively. It’s a great way to create radio stations on the fly if you’re not restricted by bandwidth, but it doesn’t offer the on-demand choice of services such as Spotify and Deezer. The app also scrobbles – or tracks – what you listen to using the built-in music players on most Android phones, with the exception of some Motorola and Samsung handsets; you can install another player to get that functionality, though.
a message 3 Receiving When you receive a WhatsApp message, it
to chats 4 Add You can attach images to your chat using
pops up on your homescreen, as shown above. You can simply start typing to reply, or choose ‘View’ – this takes you to the relevant conversation in WhatsApp itself. Before too long, you’re sure to be chatting to lots of different people using WhatsApp because it’s so easy and intuitive.
the paperclip icon in the top-right, or simply paste text and links in from other apps. You can also add emoticons and symbols, as shown here. It’s similar to texting, but it’s especially useful for communicating with people abroad, where text and picture messaging costs are expensive.
your chats 5 See Finally, you can view your past chats in the Chats screen. The Chats screen shown here has quite a few chats already – yours will have none. Your conversation history appears here any time you chat with someone. To create a group chat, press the ‘Menu’ button and select ‘New Group’, before giving it a subject or title.
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25 essential apps
Kindle
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Amazon’s Kindle app is a great ereader, which seamlessly links with your Amazon account. If you have a Kindle device or you read on another app or platform and then transfer to your Nexus, the app automatically knows where you left off. Support for magazines and newspapers is limited at the moment – but for books, it’s great, with plenty of screen and text display options to make it easy on your eyes. As well as the paid-for ebooks, there’s also a bunch of free classic literature.
A tour of Google Play Google Play is the new name for the old Android Market. It’s an app store, but it’s also so much more, offering games, ebooks, magazines and TV and movie downloads. As well as accessing it on your Nexus, you can visit Google Play on your computer at
https://play.google.com. And because everything is linked up using your Google account, you can choose apps on your computer that will download automatically to your Nexus, with no need to connect your device to your computer via USB.
Play 1 Introducing Open Google Play from your Nexus device’s
apps 2 Choosing This is the main apps screen. Again, there
home or Apps screen. The various categories of apps are at the top of the screen. To install an app on your device, touch ‘Install’, then tap ‘Accept’ to agree to the app’s permissions. For paid-for apps, touch the button displaying the price.
are numerous options at the top, such as ‘Top Paid’ and ‘Top Free’ apps. The store also recommends apps for you, usually based on your previous downloads, while there are also ‘Picks’ – great new apps that the guys at Google recommend.
The Kindle app – the right way to read on your Nexus device
OnLive
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The technically astounding streaming video gaming service is now well established on Android, with an official OnLive app enabling Android users to play console titles on their phones and tablets via Wi-Fi and using on-screen controls. Beware, though, because while it might work on your Android device, OnLive has only tested the app with a set number of devices, which you can check out on the Google Play store. Games are best played on devices with big screens, but it still runs on something modest such as the aged HTC Desire. Should you want to take things up a gear, the app works with OnLive’s Bluetooth wireless controller, too.
Yelp
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Yelp is, essentially, a reviews app, giving you similar options as Google’s wide range of local restaurant, pub and venue reviews. Only with Yelp, you also get an augmented reality screen display on your Android device, so you can point it at the skyline and see what five-star eating establishments are in
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what you want 3 Watch The games and media sections are filled with goodies. You can browse through the latest new releases, as well as see what is popular and new in all the different types of content. The rental costs are bearable, but video-to-buy prices aren’t cheap, and you may prefer to get it on disc.
a magazine 4 Read There are hundreds of magazines to browse through on Google Play, and all are arranged by category as well as popularity. They cost the same or a little less than they do in the shops, but you can subscribe, too, so you’ll never miss an issue of your favourite title.
the vicinity. Places are backed up by user reviews, too, while there’s also a cost and general rating. Opening hours are also provided where possible, so you won’t turn up somewhere hoping for a burrito and have to settle for a kebab.
developed by Google but now open sourced, which enables you to use your phone’s orientation tools to give you an accurate representation of the stars and planets on your screen. Point your phone at the sky, then learn which constellations are visible, and whether that’s a UFO or Venus.
Google Earth and Sky Map
Endomondo
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Google’s renowned and epic app enables you to fly around the planet in an instant and zoom right in with integrated Google Street View. New 3D imagery also enables you to fly through certain cities, including San Francisco and Rome. Sky Map, meanwhile, is an app
Fitness tracking is all the rage, and the free version of Endomondo is essential if you exercise (or walk a lot). There are plenty of compelling reasons to get the app, not least of which is the excellent social integration. You select an activity, initiate GPS mode
25 essential apps
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Blogging made beautiful, with the WordPress Android app
Layar
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The stunning augmented reality app Layar has decided it needs to make some money, adding an online shop that enables you to buy content such as travel guides, local house price apps and more. But you can still use the numerous free Layers to pop data up over real-world locations, delivering a satisfying futuristic experience. If you haven’t used augmented reality before, it’s worth a download, because it makes you appreciate how AR can be used to help people acquaint themselves with new surroundings – as well as the future commercial potential.
WordPress
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WordPress for Android started out as independent creation wpToGo, before WordPress decided it liked it so much it bought it up – hiring the maker to develop it in-house. It’s feature-packed, with the latest version offering full integration with other apps, enabling you to spin content and send it directly to the app for easy updating. Google’s own Blogger also has a fine Android app, which makes the experience of uploading content easy. It supports image uploads and geo-tagging, and works alongside your Google account and existing blogs.
Google Play Music is a good-looking aural treat
to browse its database of well over 1,500 TED talks in video and audio, all free to download and try to get through in one go without having your brain explode.
Google+
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Foursquare
Google likes to think of Google+ as a social layer working alongside your web services, rather than a social network in the Facebook sense, and has become notoriously restrictive in allowing third-party apps access to post to Google+. So it’s just as well that the official Google+ app is terrific, with a magazine-style layout in the tablet version and the ability to automatically back up your fullresolution photos and videos on Google+ (they’re private unless you say otherwise). You can easily see updates from people around you, as well as check out trending topics.
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Google Play Music
and it keeps track of you, times you and even whispers robotic words of encouragement at you, before generating a stylish map charting your achievements. There’s also a Pro edition available with training plans and more for £3.99/$4.99 – it also removes the adverts and enables you to customise the audio coach. Foursquare is represented in fine form on Android, with the app offering easy one-click check-ins, integrated Google Maps for a seamless Google-branded experience, and homepage shortcut options to all your favourite places. As you’d expect from somewhere that collates comments on venues, you can also see where your friends like to go, and where people you know have been that’s near your current location. You can also get recommendations from others, and even make OpenTable reservations within the app. So much more than just another meaningless social tool.
TED
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This app gives you access to the famous series of talks. It’s not all tech-related these days – the talks are by some of the world’s most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus and music legends, who all try to explain high concepts in a way the likes of us can understand. The TED app enables you
TED provides edifying talks from the world’s finest minds
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Another music subscription service, Google’s approach is far more graphical than Spotify’s, and arranges things by albums rather than relying so much on playlists. The design is lovely, and you can also have an account without the £9.99/$9.99 monthly fee that enables you to upload 20,000 of your own songs to play back through the service using the app. A good way to listen to more of your music on your Nexus – though watch your 3G/4G data allowance if you’re listening when out and about. Q 59
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Antivirus round-up
Avast! Mobile Security Premium £2 per month or £12 per year Manufacturer www.avast.com Includes Antivirus scanning, anti-theft, backup, app locking, privacy advisor, SMS and call filtering, firewall, network monitor
s with most antivirus solutions, Avast! Mobile Security is free to download and install. You can then upgrade to the Premium offering, which unlocks extra functions, paying for them through your Google account. That’s not to say that the free version is short on protection. Avast! has a good reputation for bundling plenty in its free products, in the form of so-called shields, covering web access, instant messaging, mail and so on. That’s also the case here. Apart from the usual virus-scanning duties, the full version comes with app locking and management, and a very handy network use monitor, which tells you how much data an app is sending and receiving. Backups are handled by a free app you install. This uses Google Drive for storage, and the Premium service enables you to back up music, videos and apps, as well as all your other data. Unusually for mobile security, there’s a firewall, which needs root or elevated
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privilege access to function. This enables it to properly stop traffic flowing in or out of your device. You block or allow individual apps from communicating with the outside world from an associated control panel. When you go Premium, the Privacy Advisor becomes active and gives you far more insight into what each app can do with your device, position and behaviour. Categories include the ability to collect location data, thereby potentially tracking you. Premium also gives you access to a better anti-theft service, including the ingenious Geofencing facility. Simply switch it on when you go to a location in which you expect to remain for a while, and if the phone leaves the area without you switching Geofencing off again, it reports the phone lost and your anti-theft defences spring into action. Your £2 per month covers all the devices linked to your Google account, making Avast! good value. Simply install it on secondary devices and click ‘Go Premium’. Q
An extensive list of facilities, but the free version also provides very good protection. The full facilities and low monthly cost of the Premium service, however, make it well worthwhile.
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TrendMicro Mobile Security & Antivirus £14.95 Manufacturer www.trendmicro.co.uk Includes Antivirus scanner, data theft scanner, anti-theft, parental controls, SMS and call filtering, 50Gb of cloud back-up space
he thing that bothers us about TrendMicro’s Mobile Security & Antivirus is the unseemly speed at which it completes its scanning duties. Where the other products here all take several minutes to fully scan just a phone’s apps, TrendMicro scanned for about 10 seconds and pronounced 30 installed apps safe from malware. Setting the scanner to examine all files changed little; the number of scanned files leapt to over 400, but the scan time was still only around 15 seconds. TrendMicro’s useful Data Theft Scanner reveals which apps could potentially steal information. It found that a game called Fruit Slice, which came installed on a cheap generic tablet we tried it on, was reading our unique IMEI. Why would it need to do that? No matter, it was uninstalled in a trice. The package enables you to block calls using a white or blacklist, and can also block ‘annoying calls’, which last about three
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seconds before hanging up. Rejected numbers can also be sent an SMS containing one of three customised messages. Oh, the fun you could have by sending abusive messages to cold callers! What is nice to see, given that many kids use tablets, is the Safe Surfing and Parental Control functions. You can block sites at three levels: child, pre-teen and teen. Usefully, TrendMicro includes a handy Facebook privacy settings scanner. Because the social network is notorious for changing its settings, seemingly without widespread notification, this is a very welcome addition, and one that other security providers would do well to include, given that Facebook is used to a huge extent on the move. As with Avast!, backups are handled by an external free app. However, if you need over 50GB of cloud space, you must pay for it. If you use your device to store your video and ebook library, as well as taking pics, you could use this space up quickly. Q
A good set of useful facilities. The ability to send messages to a blocked number is great, but the antivirus scanning speed is a worry. We have to wonder, how deeply does it examine files?
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Antivirus round-up
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AVG Antivirus Security Pro £9.49 Manufacturer www.avg.com Includes Antivirus scanning, anti-theft including camera trap, SMS and call blocking, web filtering, performance monitor, power saving, app passwords
aybe it’s just a local glitch, but on our generic Android 4.1.1 tablet, upgrading AVG to the full edition left us with two versions installed, both identically named. We had to go into each to find the paid one and uninstall the free version by hand. In terms of malware protection, there’s not much to write home about. Web filtering and SMS scanning are both here as standard, but there’s little else beyond file scanning. The performance category of the interface is more interesting. It contains its own task killer, enabling you to kill unused, running apps and services to free up the CPU and increase battery life. Also very useful is the comprehensive set of power saving facilities. You can see how long you have left to perform certain functions at the current battery level, and can set a warning to display at a customisable battery level. There’s also a power saving mode, which you can instantly enter to
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preserve your battery as long as possible. This switches off facilities such as Wi-Fi and GPS until you hit the button again. As with other products, there’s a network use monitor, revealing the heaviest network users. The anti-theft facility enables you to track the location of your tablet or phone over the web using Google Maps. Registering is as simple as confirming your Google account name and checking your inbox. If a thief tries to enter the password to unlock your device incorrectly three times, the phone also takes his photo and emails it to you. Granting AVG device administrator rights makes the anti-theft facilities even better. You can erase all data, change the screen unlock password, monitor unlock activities and snap the screen lock on at any time. We’d also like the ability to pop a message on the locked screen. Password-protecting apps and backing up apps to SD card are included, as is a call and message blocker and the ability to wipe data by category. Q
A very solid set of facilities indeed. Finding your phone on Google Maps is great, and this was the only package tested that warned of installation from unknown sources being enabled.
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Norton Mobile Security £30.74 Manufacturer www.norton.com Includes Antivirus scanning, anti-theft, backup, web protection
his is by far the most expensive package in this group test. It is three times more expensive than AVG and twice the price of TrendMicro, so at first glance, you might expect it to contain far more facilities than cheaper offerings. Let us disabuse you of that idea. The full version of Norton Mobile Security is sparse. It contains the usual virus scanner, anti-theft, backup, call blocking and web protection, but some of the functionality bundled by default with other offerings must be installed separately here. And some of this extra functionality must be paid for, which is a cheek, given that you’ve shelled out £30. There are plenty of extra Norton packages to choose from at the Play Store. However, installing parental control package Norton Family, for example, reveals that you’re only running the lite version. This functionality is bundled free in other vendors’ offerings. The anti-theft facilities carried by Norton Mobile Security are as comprehensive as
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you’d expect from a paid service, and include the ability to take a secret snapshot of the thief. However, if you want your stolen phone to scream in Germany, you’ll be out of luck, because this facility is explicitly unavailable. Also conspicuous by its absence is the ability to password-protect apps. This is a basic protection given the ease with which a smartphone or tablet can be stolen or misused. Norton’s other offerings at the Play Store don’t seem to include this functionality. While other products in this group test contained a useful network use monitor, Norton Mobile Security contains none, and the Play Store doesn’t list one either. This is somewhat of an oversight, given the insight such a utility provides. As an established brand, it’s easy to bash Norton, but on the strength of the facilities provided in this package, it’s clear that the company needs to pick up its game or lose market share to those who bundle more for far less money. Q
Not enough in the basic package to justify the hefty price tag. Despite the trusted name of Norton, you’ll get a lot more protection for your money by looking elsewhere.
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Welcome
Welcome
Rated
Rated Nexus 5 64 Our first look at the new Google phone Nexus 7 2013 68 A brilliant bargain buy like the original? Nexus 10 Does it still have what it takes?
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Nexus 5
Nexus 5 The best Android smartphone on the market today? Well, there’s not a lot against it… Price £299 / $339 Manufacturer www.google.co.uk/nexus/5/ Operating system Android 4.4. KitKat Screen 4.95-inch IPS LCD Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 2.26GHz RAM 2GB Storage 16GB/32GB Cameras 8MP with OIS/1.3MP Battery 2,300mAh Video Full HD 1080p (30fps) Connectivity Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, NFC, 4G Sound 3.5mm headphone DIMENSIONS Height 137.9mm Width 69.2mm Depth 8.6mm Screen 4.95-inch Weight 130g
THE GOOD Low price Fast processor Latest OS THE BAD Suspect battery life No external memory Plastic build
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hen it comes to defining the best Android phone, there’s something of a debate raging – is it the handset with the fanciest features, the cheapest, or the one that’s just the easiest to customise? With the Google Nexus 5, it’s a little of each, so there’s a lot to enamour consumers looking to get their hands on a great value smartphone. Starting at £299 for the 16GB iteration, this is a phone that’s been made to Google’s specification by LG, and then subsidised heavily by the search giant in a bid to get a strong smartphone into the hands of consumers. The strengths are obvious: screen technology from LG brings with it a high-resolution Full HD screen in a 4.95-inch package, so you can browse the web, watch movies and generally look at Google’s all-new icons in a razor sharp 445ppi. The processor under the hood is premium, too. Qualcomm’s lauded Snapdragon 800 CPU offers not only high power and efficient processing, but strong battery performance as well. That’s a claim that’s going to be heavily tested on the Nexus 5, because it only packs a 2,300mAh battery, while other brands offer over 3,000mAh to keep their phones chugging along.
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It’s all about the feel In terms of design, the Google Nexus 5 manages to achieve the odd combination of both feeling premium and solid in the hand, while also living up to its cheaper price tag. The build quality is solid, with no removable parts (bar the locked-in SIM tray), making the Nexus 5 feel well packaged. The camera sensor is verging on the iconic, thanks to the large protruding ring, which seems a little unnecessary given that, while there’s a lot of tech in there, it’s not enough of a raise to really pack more in. More likely is that the ring is there to stop the glass of the lens getting scratched when laid down on a table, which makes sense and doesn’t really detract from the phone’s overall feel. What does irk is the material – it’s a kind of rubberised plastic, and makes the phone feel neither glossy, sophisticated nor premium in ways other polycarbonate-clad devices manage. It’s not terrible, but particularly if you pick up the white version, you’ll really notice that it’s made out of plastic, albeit a fairly robust material. One of the main reasons users will want a Nexus device is the ability to get their hands on the latest version of Android before anyone else, thus getting the new ideas that Google is plugging on its OS. Android 4.4 (or KitKat, thanks to a tie-in with Nestlé) is quite a large step forward for Android users, because it adds elements that really improve the navigation experience. For instance, when reading a book or watching a movie, the navigation and notification bars disappear so you get the most out of that gloriously large screen. On top of that, Google has finally engineered Android to make full use of the display in standby
mode by letting wallpapers extend through the notifications bar at the top and the system buttons at the bottom of the screen. This doesn’t sound like much, but comparing this version of Android with previous iterations makes KitKat feel a lot more complete and visually attractive. Other key tweaks include being able to see your most important people at the top of your contacts list, and the Nexus 5 looks around for local business numbers when you get a call from someone unknown – you can even reverse this trick to essentially give you the Yellow Pages right in your phone dialler.
The need for speed We’d like to give a special mention to the speed with which the Nexus 5 operates – it’s really rather impressive. Thanks to that Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and the enhanced Android OS (which makes scrolling and registering touch that much faster), you can really feel that the Nexus 5 responds to your commands better than many other Android phones. There are some instances where the phone slows a little, be it through really high-power games or when whizzing about the internet, but these are nothing out of the ordinary and can be explained by extraneous factors rather than the processor slowing down. However, it seems that this speed comes at a cost – we were worried about the battery holding up, given the smaller capacity on offer, and it seems those issues have been borne out. We’re not talking ‘breathe and you’ll be at 0%’, but battery life is lower than rivals in similar tests. It seems the Nexus 5 may struggle to last the day in most medium-use scenarios, which is a shame given there’s so much on this phone that we like to play with. The screen, as we’ve mentioned, is really clear and crisp – it’s not quite in the same league as the LG G2, but it’s very easy to read words on the screen and movies look really great, too. The brightness can wash things out a little bit, which is a shame because the auto setting is quite dark to start with, but we really like the combination of colour and clarity that LG has managed with the all-new Google Nexus 5.
Not so snap happy The camera on the Nexus 5 is something of a mixed bag. It’s an 8MP snapper, which might not appeal to some when there’s a number of 13MP-plus handsets out on the market. But there’s more to the phone than just a number – it also has optical image stabilisation (OIS), which automatically helps remove blur from photos and unwanted judder during videos as well. The on-board user interface is pretty useful as well, with a clever floating arc system that allows you to move through the menus from anywhere on the display. Elements such as HDR+ are a nice addition, too, because the Nexus 5 can quickly enhance your photos to get the optimum
Nexus 5
Rated
Three apps for Nexus 5
MX Player A superb video player that can handle all manner of file types, plus it has easy-touse controls.
PlayerPro A more visual music player, offering lock screen widgets and clever album art grabbing.
Real Racing 3 Console-quality graphics on your phone really push the powerful Adreno processor in the new Nexus.
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Nexus 5
balance of brightness and darker scenes to give a really great impression. However, the overall quality of the pictures you take is only middling. As with so many cameraphones, the Nexus 5 works really well in optimum conditions, such as a bright day with distinct colours, but move too far from that scenario and things start to get a little noisier. It’s still a lot better than a number of other cameraphones, and it’s surprisingly good at maintaining detail in digital zoom, so you can get up close to objects even after the picture is taken. The Nexus 5 also has a really fast shutter speed, making it great for grabbing a snap from a moving scene, but it still doesn’t pack the awesome power and mode choices of the Nokia Lumia 1020 or LG G2, for instance.
Sound hound Media is also a key consideration for Google, given that this phone is subsidised mostly to allow users to gain easy access to its Google Play store, buying lots of content to bolster the search giant’s coffers. The music and video apps on the Nexus 5 aren’t the most powerful or easy to glide through to get to your content, because they’re so deeply fused with videos and music gleaned or streamed from Google Play. However, in a way, that’s the beauty of Google’s ‘naked’ Android offering – you can choose to use the basic on-board apps, but
“The Google Nexus 5 should be right at the top of your list when considering buying a top-end smartphone” there are so many better options on Google Play to improve the experience, with almost any functionality you could desire, if you’re prepared for a little trial and error. The good news is the hardware can keep up – the Snapdragon 800 chip is also very accomplished sonically, meaning if you’ve invested in a decent set of earbuds, you’ll be rewarded with clear and pure sound. Even YouTube videos sound rich and bass-filled, as well as being easy to stream through the 4G connection on board, obviously. One of the biggest elements of Google’s Android range is the ability to control the handset using the Google Now app. It’s integrated throughout the phone via an upward swipe from the bottom of the screen, and gives instant access to the search interface. However, there’s another nifty trick with the Nexus 5, one that’s been borrowed from the Motorola suite (which Google also owns) – the ability to simply say “OK Google” when in the Now app or even just on the homescreen, and have the phone listen to your voice. It’s not as clever as the Motorola X handset, which debuted this feature, because the Nexus 5 must be unlocked to use the activation voice command, and by that time you’ll be tempted 66
to just use the far more effective fingers you’ve got to control the handset. But it’s a cool trick and more accurate than you’d imagine for a voice recognition engine – it’s a lot better than Siri, for example, in that respect, and it gives you the instant ability to send a quick message or start the music player. Google Now is a very rich app that sits on the left of all your homescreens, always available to swipe to when you open the phone. From here you can get info on the easiest way to get home, see how your team is doing, or even get a notification when your plane is going to leave, which is achieved through Gmail inbox scanning. Google is improving its Now app with every iteration of Android, and we’re finally at the point where it can be considered the true heart of the Android experience; as the voice processing improves, you’ll easily get to the point where hands-free use will be a natural way to use the phone.
Is it a must-have? The Google Nexus 5 should be right at the top of your list when considering buying a top-end smartphone, and not just because it comes with a really low price – although £299 for a phone that rivals the iPhone or HTC One for power can’t be sniffed at. The latest version of Android is a really good step forward, refining an already polished OS and giving users of HTC and Samsung, with their heavier skins, something to think about. This is a light and refreshing user interface, and while it’s slightly devoid of functionality in a few places (not being able to restart the phone from the power button, for example), it’s slick and easy to navigate. The icons and design updates, including transparent bars at the top and bottom, make the user experience much more holistic, and the improved speed through hardware and software is stunning. We do think some people will struggle with only 16GB of on-board storage and no expandable slot, as apps are getting larger these days and media is more popular than ever. You can stream the latter from the cloud, but users still enjoy tangibility with their digital entertainment. But overall, this is something of a triumph from the LG/Google combination. A superb processor, low price and decent build make for a phone that the more considerate buyer should be thinking about as a strong alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One. Q
There are bits missing, there are bits wrong. But the bits which are there are great bits indeed. This is the best smartphone around at its price, and one of the best on the market today. Buy it.
Nexus 5
Rated
9 reasons to buy the Nexus 5 1 Low price The bargain price makes it a no-brainer if you want a superphone on a budget. 2 Great display The screen makes movies look pin sharp and colours are well reproduced, leading to impressive performance. 3 Audio output quality Often overlooked, the sound is decent here, too, with rich tones and subtle bass. 4 Up to date The Nexus range will always get the latest version of Android first, so the 5 is a futureproofed handset. 5 Online storage Integration with the cloud makes it easy to attach files from Dropbox/Google Drive. 6 Android KitKat The new OS is less obtrusive, enabling you to focus your full attention on whatever you’re doing. 7 Going large Full-screen wallpapers make the most of the large and expansive screen. 8 Power play A strong GPU enables you to play really high-power games with a reduction in the cost to your battery life. 9 Office work Higher integration with QuickOffice makes it a good tool for business users, too.
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Nexus 7 2013
Nexus 7 2013 The original Nexus 7 was a brilliant bargain buy – can the revamped version keep up? Price £199 / $270 Manufacturer Google/Asus Operating system Android 4.3 Screen 1,920 x 1,080 Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon S4Pro 1.5GHz quad-core RAM 2GB Storage 16GB/32GB Cameras 5MP/1.2MP Battery 3,950mAh Video 1080p Connectivity USB, Wi-Fi Sound 3.5mm headphone DIMENSIONS Height 198.5mm Width 120mm Depth 10.5mm Screen 7-inch Weight 340g
THE GOOD Easy to hold in one hand or two Affordably priced Durable build Fast performance Strong battery life High density display excellent for reading THE BAD Comes with 6GB of space already occupied No longer the dirt cheap option Colours are slightly inaccurate No 64GB option
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he original Nexus 7 enchanted and enthralled – and did so despite some slight compromises. The fact that it was so cheap (£159 for a 16GB version) meant it remained outstanding value for ages. The problem is, a year is a long time in the tablet world, and competition is fierce, so the new Nexus 7 is just what the doctor ordered. Of course, Nexus devices are synonymous with pure Google experiences. This is the chance for Mountain View to show off Android in its purest form, away from the meddling fingers of Samsung or HTC, who just love to Sensify and TouchWiz up their devices. The Nexus 7 is still aiming for that sweet spot. The price has been bumped up – it’s now £199 for the 16GB model that would have cost £159 before – but the specs are much better, so it’s still very reasonably priced. It looks a lot better, as well. Where the original Nexus 7 looked like a medium level device, the brand new Nexus 7 looks like a premium slab of black slate – we’ll go into a bit more detail in the next section, but suffice to say, it’s pretty damn gorgeous. It would be foolish to just go into the specs without comparing the Nexus 7 to its predecessor – that’s what most people will be expecting. Suffice to say, this is one beautiful piece of equipment. The front is one sheet of high-gloss Gorilla glass, interrupted only by the minute presence of a front-facing camera for selfies and Skypes.
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Nifty Nexus It’s thinner and lighter than before (200 x 114 x 8.7mm and 290g, compared to 198.5 x 120 x 10.5mm and 340g). Eagle-eyed mathematicians will notice there is a slight height increase, but it’s negligible in practice. On the original Nexus, there was a plastic trim around the bezel, painted to look like metal; here it’s gone. This is an all-black device. The screen just blends into the sides, which curve round to create an uninterrupted back panel. And if we had to find fault, it would be with this bit. Firstly, the bezels have been shrunk right down to make the screen almost extend to the edges. But this fact makes it difficult to hold the Nexus 7, because the natural act of curling your hand around the tablet and resting your thumb on the bezel is now impossible without touching the screen as well, and causing all kinds of annoyances. Instead, you have to rethink how you hold the tablet. Altogether, this is a solid device. Where the original Nexus sometimes felt like a compromise due to the price (issues of light bleed and creakiness on the left-hand side were common complaints), this feels like a premium, well-puttogether piece of kit, which should command more than the measly amount Google is asking. This is definitely most apparent when you see the screen. The only word that really fits here is
‘wow’. The pixel density of the original Nexus 7 represented one of its missed opportunities – at 216ppi and a resolution of 800 x 1,280, it was by no means bad, but it always felt as though it could have been just that little bit better. And now it is. Google and Asus have pushed the density on the Nexus 7 up to the competition’s level and beyond. It’s now a staggering 323ppi across its 1,200 x 1,920 panel. When you consider the iPad Mini’s Retina display is just 264ppi, you should be able to imagine just how razor sharp this is. Text positively pops out and images look almost inexpressibly crisp.
Fly me a river As for the performance, boy does this baby fly. Last time, we got excited by Project Butter – a piece of Android code that would revolutionise our lives by making everything run smoother and quicker. But it wasn’t as great as it sounded. Anyone with a creaking original Nexus 7 will tell you that Project Butter can’t work miracles. The optimisations of Android 4.3 are a different matter altogether. Mixed in with that 1.5GHz quad-core Krait CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and 2GB of RAM, there is little you can do to make the new Nexus 7 stall. Games and apps load in a flash and you can swipe between screens, littered with widgets, and not encounter the slightest stutter. It’s amazing. Multi-tasking is handled with ease – it’s all done via one of the three on-screen soft buttons you’ll find throughout the OS. We had more than 20 apps open at the same time and encountered no problems whatsoever. The Nexus 7 is hard to beat in this respect. We have to hand it to Asus and Google here. It may be sorcery – we won’t pry too much – but they have managed to pull off the impossible here. They have shrunk the battery size, and yet seem to have improved battery life compared to the previous iteration. From 4,325mAh to 3,950mAh, on paper at least, we thought they’d taken leave of their senses. But it just goes to show how much the software influences the energy spend that the Nexus 7 seems to just go. And go. And go. And go. In real-world usage, results will vary – it depends what you’re using your tablet for – but we found that when testing, we were using the Nexus 7 nearly all day.
Storage strife What you might feel disappointed with, however, is the storage issue. You won’t find a Nexus 7 with anything more than 32GB of space – and remember, Google doesn’t do external memory these days. In its efforts to push us all on to the cloud, you’re stuck with what Google deems to be adequate. And as we’ve become used to with mobile devices, that 32GB on the box doesn’t mean you
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Three apps for Nexus 7
Stick Cricket Super Sixes Giving the world’s best bowlers a good tonk to cow corner never looked better than on the Nexus 7.
Sky Sports Mobile TV Watch your favourite sports channels with this top app.
BBC Good Food Recipes Turn your Nexus into a domestic deity with this top app for foodies.
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get 32GB to play with, because the operating system takes up a huge chunk. You’re left with just 26GB. With the size of some high-definition games, plus a couple of movies, you’ll eat that up fairly easily. Obviously, the 16GB model is even more dire in this regard. There are two things Google could have done here: either given the option of a larger device (64GB or 128GB, for instance), or relented and left an SD slot for those who want to be able to expand their memory. Samsung still does that with the Note 8.0, as does Sony with the Xperia Tablet Z, and neither experiences too many problems. But larger memories would mean higher prices, of course, and that would ruin the Nexus 7’s USP. Increasing storage would mean Google losing face. It’s a vicious circle, and it’s the punters who lose out in this case. If you are a media fiend, the paltry allowance might mean the Nexus 7 simply isn’t the tablet for you, despite how great all your content would look on that screen.
Snap happy The camera is obviously an aside rather than a key selling point for the Nexus 7. In fact, there are two cameras here: 1.2MP on the front (for video calls and selfies), and 5MP around the back. Considering the lack of a rear camera was one of the criticisms levelled at the original Nexus 7, the fact that Google and Asus have
“The screen is to die for, and the form factor, while taking some getting used to, is ideal for media consumption” chosen to furnish us with one here is commendable. It’s certainly a lot more convenient than spinning the whole tablet round and guessing where to point it if you’re trying to show somebody something other than yourself when you’re in the middle of a video call. The camera software is the same as that you’ll find on the Nexus 4. That means a few filters, white balance options and geotagging. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Same for the video, although you are also able to snap photos during a movie filming session by simply tapping the screen, which is a feature the HTC One X gave us and one we’ve grown to expect ever since. Colour balance isn’t particularly great here – pictures either tended to look overly cold or overly warm, with very little in between. And as for low light, you’ll just have to forget it. There’s no flash, no light, nor any other help here for dark conditions and so, if you have poor visibility, you’re going to have no real chance of a good snap. Moving the camera during photos leads to blur, so you can forget action shots, too. The same could be said for video. Obviously, the frame refresh rate is higher here, and so 70
moving subjects can be handled more efficiently and effectively. One thing you will notice is two lots of speakers – stereo, if you will. All mod cons here, it appears. They’re on the top and bottom at the rear but the idea is that when you watch stuff in landscape, they’ll be at the sides. Oddly, they’re at the back, facing away from you, which seems silly when you consider that HTC has moved the bar with the HTC One. But we’ll find out how they fare a little later.
Should you buy it? We really like the Nexus 7. We really, really like the Nexus 7. Google has taken what made the original such a belter, corrected almost every niggle with it, bumped the price up ever so slightly (but kept it within the region where you can excuse niggles with a “Well, it is cheap”) yet also made the Nexus 7 feel so much more premium. The mini-tablet market is fiercely competitive now, and Google has released this quickly and effectively, sealing its position in the public’s mind before competitors can get an foot in the door. It’s imperative that this device gains a foothold in the market before the arrival of the inevitable iPad Mini 2, so Google needs to get this on shop shelves and as heavily marketed as possible before it’s too late. The screen is to die for and the form factor, while taking some getting used to, is ideal for media consumption. It’s light, it’s bright, it’s fun and it’s thin. The battery life is really impressive, and the sheer diversity on offer, be it through the uprated CPU, screen or GPU, mean that we struggled to put it down at times. However, perfection is still a little way away. Out of the box, users have noticed issues with the GPS and also some have occasional issues with multi-touch. It seems to be down to the individual, but there have been enough complaints to stop this from being an unalloyed success for Google, with some presses not registering properly. They seem to be software issues rather than hardware, so we’ll not dwell too much because they’re easily fixed, but it does take the sheen off a bit. We’re also slightly annoyed that Google hasn’t given us an LTE model at launch, since we know one exists, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that the Nexus 7 is a highly impressive 7-inch tablet. Q
There is no better 7-inch tablet. For original Nexus 7 owners, it may not be worth an upgrade, but for new tablet buyers, you can’t knock that value for money. This should be a record-breaking Android tablet.
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9 reasons to buy the Nexus 7 1 Improved screen With a whopping pixel density and full HD panel, the Nexus 7 really takes the fight to its 7-inch rivals. 2 Top build Sturdy and strong, the Nexus can handle anything you can throw at it. 3 Better design The all-black finish means the new Nexus 7 looks great. 4 Long battery Even though the new Nexus is smaller, it manages to pack an even bigger battery. 5 Smooth Android Finally, an Android experience that feels perfect. A joy to use. 6 Get 4.3 The Nexus is geared up with the latest Android, and will be among the first to get Android 4.4 as well. 7 Google Play The Nexus 7 brings Google Play’s movies and downloads to the homescreen and is great for movie lovers. 8 Top apps Google Play is really exploding with some great new apps, which work brilliantly on the Nexus 9 Top services Check out the array of apps included with the Nexus 7, and you’ll see it’s a true companion for everyday life
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Nexus 10
Nexus 10 Does the relatively ageing Nexus 10 still have what it takes in the cut-throat tablet world? Price £319 / $399 Manufacturer Google/Samsung Operating system Android 4.2 Screen 2,560 x 1,600 Processor 1.7GHz dual-core RAM 2GB Storage 16GB/32GB Cameras 1.9MP/5MP Battery 9,000mAh Video 1080p Connectivity Micro USB, Micro HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC Sound 3.5mm headphone DIMENSIONS: Height 263.9mm Width 177.6mm Depth 8.9mm Screen 10-inch Weight 603g
THE GOOD Powerful processor High-res screen Android 4.2 THE BAD No 3G/4G option No expandable storage Muted colours for media
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he Google Nexus 10 has been out for a while now – however, long before its launch, it was predicted that Google would take on the iPad. After all, if Google was entering the tablet field directly, how could it resist the lucrative 10-inch market? It’s not going to be an easy fight for Google; the iPad has always been in a league of its own and has a serious headstart, but Google isn’t entering the fray unprepared. At £319 for the 16GB model, the Google Nexus 10 is £80 cheaper than the equivalent iPad 4. In fact, even the 32GB model, with its price tag of £389, comes in at slightly under a 16GB iPad 4, and a whole £90 cheaper than a 32GB one. Don’t think that just because it’s relatively cheap it’s not a premium, powerhouse device either. With a retina-searing 10.05-inch 2,560 x 1,600 Super PLS display, it’s even higher resolution than the latest iPad, with 300 pixels per inch against the iPad 4’s 264ppi. That makes it the highest resolution tablet in existence. With a display that beautiful, it’s reassuring to know that it uses Corning Gorilla Glass 2 to keep it in pristine condition. It’s no slouch under the hood either. With a dual-core 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos processor and 2GB of RAM, it should have no problem keeping pace with the fastest Android devices. It comes with Android 4.2 out of the box and, being a pure Google tablet, it will be one of the first devices to get the next version of Android, too, keeping it up to date and future-proofed for as long as possible.
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High spec, low price It’s the same tactic that’s been used for the Google Nexus 7 – produce top-end hardware at the lowest price possible to get people buying. It’s even learned a few lessons from the original Nexus 7, because this time it isn’t bothering with a cripplingly small 8GB model, and making a 32GB version available from day one. Despite the slightly higher price tag compared to other tablets on the market, the Nexus 10 has sold out on Google’s Play Store on multiple occasions, with buyers entranced by the super high resolution screen and larger dimensions. Right now, the Google Nexus 10 is Wi-Fi only, but if you want 3G or 4G you might not have to wait too long, because the Nexus 7 has just been made available with 3G, so we expect the Google Nexus 10 will follow suit. The Google Nexus 10 feels quite weighty, particularly if your last tablet experience was the Nexus 7, but at 603g it’s pretty average for a tablet of this size, and comes in lighter than the iPad 4. With dimensions of 203.9 x 177.6 x 8.9mm, it’s slightly longer and thinner than a new iPad, too, giving it more of a widescreen experience for watching movies. The slightly curved edges make it comfortable to hold in two hands for long periods (one-
handed holding is pretty much a non-starter). However, if you’re planning to watch movies on it, you might find that your hands start to ache before the credits roll, so it would be worth getting a stand of some kind or just finding something to rest it on. There are rumours of a pogo stand coming soon, which would allow magnetic charging on the dock. It’s also not quite as comfortable to hold as the Nexus 7, not just because of their relative weights, but also because the back of the Nexus 7 is slightly soft and warm, while the Nexus 10 is cold, hard plastic through and through. Though on the plus side, it’s rubbery, which provides grip.
Speeding ahead The Google Nexus 10’s 2GB of RAM is double that of the iPad 4, Asus Transformer Pad Infinity or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. While it’s only a dual-core device, each core is clocked at 1.7GHz, which is just about the fastest we’ve come across on a tablet, trampling all over the poor Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with its mere 1GHz dual-core processor. It also comes with Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC support, although the former spec isn’t the low-power sensor technology we expect to come on most devices these days. The Nexus 10 comes with an enormous 9,000mAh Lithium polymer battery, promising nine hours of video, seven hours of web browsing, or 90 hours of music. In theory, that gives it slightly more juice than a Nexus 7 but possibly slightly less than the iPad 4, with its monstrous 11,666mAh battery. Unfortunately, much like the iPad 4, the battery in the Google Nexus 10 can’t be removed. So you don’t have the option to swap in a spare one when it runs down, while if it ever wears out, you’re out of luck. Following suit from the Nexus 7, the front of the device is a single sheet of glass, with no buttons to spoil the lines. We’ve mentioned how jaw-dropping the display resolution is, but it’s worth noting that it has superb viewing angles, too. We tried looking at it in every conceivable position and from different distances, and the display was always clear and sharp. It even fares well in bright sunlight; well, the brightest we can find in gloomy autumn. It became harder to see but never became totally washed out. Plus you can turn the brightness up high, which helps burn through the glare. It’s not a total victory though, because while the resolution is unparalleled, the contrast between colours is a bit muted – they’re never as bright or deep as they could be, especially if you’ve seen the amazing Super AMOLED HD screen on the Samsung Galaxy S3. There’s a black border around the display that you can rest your thumbs on and a narrow speaker running the length of each shorter side. The 1.9-megapixel front camera lens can be found in the middle of one of the longer sides,
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Three apps for Nexus 10
Stick It! This app enables you to watch videos in a window, while you use other apps on your Nexus tablet.
Antek Explorer As an Android user, you can use file explorers to manage your tablet properly, and this one is the best.
Thumb Keyboard Type while holding your Nexus 10 with this superb keyboard replacement app.
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which suggests that the Nexus 10 is intended to be used primarily as a landscape device. Next to it you will notice an ambient light sensor, which automatically dims the screen in low light. On the right edge there’s a micro HDMI port, sorely lacking from the Google Nexus 7. On the bottom edge there’s a magnetic pogo pin charging port, used to connect it to a dock. Turn the Google Nexus 10 over and you’ll find a big speaker at the top, along with the main 5-megapixel camera, which is also capable of shooting 1080p video at 30fps. Below that the casing is a hard, rubbery plastic shell with the words ‘Nexus’ and ‘Samsung’ stencilled into it. The Google Nexus 10 feels sturdy and well made and it doesn’t look cheap, but it also
“Media is the lifeblood of any tablet, so we’ll say it straight off – the Google Nexus 10 does not disappoint” doesn’t look particularly premium. That’s a bit of a problem, especially when it’s been positioned as an iPad 4 competitor.
Premium potential? It’s not just the plastic shell that lets it down, because the rounded shape makes it look a bit childish – like a ‘my first tablet’. And while we’re on the subject of the plastic shell, the Nexus 7 was plasticky as well, but the mottled, slightly soft back on that was far more aesthetically pleasing than this, and felt nicer to hold as well. That’s not the Google Nexus 10’s only problem either, because with no micro SD card slot, there’s no option for expandable storage. Sure, the iPad 4 doesn’t have that either, but micro SD support has always been one of the key differentiators between Android and iOS – although Google has always been against it on the Nexus brand, so we weren’t hopeful it would pop up here. It’s arguably a bigger problem here than on a phone, too, because tablets are all about media consumption, so it’s expected that you’ll be loading it up with films, music and games. 32GB will still probably be enough for most people, but the 16GB version may quickly start to feel limiting. In any case, it’s a not an unexpected omission, but with such a walletpleasing price tag, it’s far from a deal breaker. The Google Nexus 10 has a 5-megapixel camera, along with a secondary 1.9-megapixel front-facing snapper. As ever, we’re really not sure how useful having a camera on a tablet is. The front-facing camera makes some sense as it could be used for Skype and other webcam stuff, but we have trouble envisaging anyone taking their tablet out to snap pictures. If anything, the front camera should get a boost in quality, even if it meant dropping the megapixel count on the rear. Using the Nexus 10 has done nothing to change our minds about the usefulness of a 74
camera on a tablet. It took some reasonable snaps but nothing particularly eye catching. In fact, it can’t even match the camera performance of most high-end smartphones, which really makes it a bit pointless, since a smartphone is both more portable and, by extension, more likely to be with you when you’re out and about. Plus, taking pictures on a tablet inevitably leaves you looking ridiculous. Still, if you do decide to use your Nexus 10 as a camera, there are a few settings to play with. You can turn flash on or off, and pick between a handful of scene modes, such as action and night. There’s also a panorama mode and the big new feature – Photo Sphere. Media is the lifeblood of any tablet, so we’ll say it straight off – the Google Nexus 10 does not disappoint. Google Play will always be the first stop for media consumption. You can rent and buy movies, and there’s a respectable selection on offer. There are also thousands of books to download.
Play time Movies and books each have their own apps, in the form of Play Movies and Play Books. These are primarily players, but there are also links in them to the relevant parts of Google Play for all your purchasing needs, and they work well. The Play Movies app displays images of all your side-loaded videos, along with information, such as the run time and a synopsis. It also displays suggestions for things to buy or rent –that may or may not be a good thing, depending on your outlook, but it’s not very intrusive. The Google Nexus 10 comes with a pretty hefty 9,000mAh lithium polymer battery. But although it’s a big battery, it’s also got a big screen to power – slightly bigger even than an iPad’s. Google and Samsung are claiming that it will offer nine hours of video, seven hours of web browsing, or 90 hours of music. They’re all pretty solid figures and in general the performance matched them. For general use, the battery performed admirably, seeing out a day or more with a mix of web browsing, reading, listening to music and taking a few photos and videos. That’s with it on all day, and emails and Facebook updates being pushed to it. Just what we want. Q
The Google Nexus 10 is clearly a brilliant tablet. It’s got top-end specs at a mid-range price. Add to that a stunning screen and near faultless performance, and it starts to look like an iPad beater.
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9 reasons to nab a Nexus 10 1 Screen With a pixel density of 300ppi compared with the iPad’s 264ppi, the Nexus 10 is the only tablet so far that has managed to compete with Apple on screen quality. 2 Speed The quad-core processor beating away at the heart of the Nexus 10 is a real powerhouse. 3 Google Play Google’s online app store is thriving, and easily competes with Apple’s rival store. 4 Cost At £80 less than its closest rival, the iPad 4, the Nexus 10 is a real bargain. 5 Android 4.2 The Nexus 10 comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.
Gorilla Glass Corning’s screen glass is extra tough, which makes the Nexus 10 super robust and likely to survive pretty much anything. 6
7 NFC It’s really easy to communicate with other devices, thanks to the Nexus’s near-field communication technology.
Good camera The snapper on the front is a 1.9MP model, which is great for when you want to chat with your friends or far-flung family. 8
9 MicroUSB Top connectivity options mean that you can plug various USB devices into your Nexus tablet to make it even more useful.
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GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR TABLET OR PHONE
VOLUME 13
EDITORIAL
Editor Alex Cox Reviews Editor James Stables Art editor Paul Blachford Production editor Katharine Davies CONTRIBUTORS Gareth Beavis, Martin Cooper, Alan Dexter, Catherine Emma Ellis, Mat Gartside, Dan Grabham, Matthew Hanson, Mike Jennings, Neil Mohr, Fraser McDermott, Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, Mayank Sharma, Jon Thompson
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