Android.Advisor.Issue.07.2014.pdf

LATEST SMARTPHONE, TABLET AND APP REVIEWS

ANDROID

ISSUE

07

ADVISOR

Android L: How it looks, feels and performs GET ANDROID L TODAY REVEALED: SAMSUNG S6, HTC M9, SONY Z3 + GOOGLE GLASS IN THE UK REVIEWED

ROAD TESTED:

BEST UK MOBILE NETWORKS

Welcome... S

ince Android L was announced at Google I/O in June we’ve had a chance to spend some more time with Google’s best mobile OS yet. We’ll show you how it differs from Android KitKat, assess its impact on device performance, and give you a sneak peek at the new Material Design. If you like what you see, we’ll even show you how to install it on your own Nexus device. Read on to become an Android L expert. We’ve also been having fun with Google Glass now that it’s finally available in the UK. Serious fun. Just imagine creeping up behind an unsuspecting Google Glass owner and softly speaking into their ear: “Ok Glass. Listen to Justin Bieber.” Or “Ok Glass. Google [insert something gross here].” They will hate you, but it is oh so much fun. Read more about how to prank people with Glass on page 102. There’s a lot more to Google Glass than fun and games, though. It is unique, original and downright weird, as we note in our in-depth review (see page 75). And in the right situation it can be an invaluable tool. We look at the five best- and five worst places to use Google Glass on page 96, and we’ll leave it to you to decide on whether it is appropriate in our final scenario. As always, we hope you’ve enjoyed this issue of Android Advisor. Feel free to send us your feedback via facebook.com/AndroidAdvisorUK or email [email protected].

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Android L in-depth Android L is Google’s biggest ever mobile OS update, bringing new features, improved performance and more

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he final version of Android L won’t be with us until the autumn, but we’ve been playing around with the developer preview and are impressed with what we’ve seen so far. Over the following pages we’ll not only explain how Android L differs from KitKat, but also how it performs, what we love about it, give you a first look at the new design, and even tell you how to get your own sneak peek at Google’s biggest ever mobile OS update.

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Android L: first screenshots Android L features a number of visual changes as part of its new material design. Check them out...


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or the next version of Android, Google has made a number of visual changes: all part of its new ‘material’ design. If you just want to see what Android L looks like, we’ve taken a bunch of screenshots on our trusty Nexus 5 so you can compare how the new OS looks with KitKat.

Lock screen and home screen The lock screen now shows notifications as cards, and prioritises them according to how important they are. Cards will pop up and disappear as various things happen, such as apps being updated, emails arriving and notifications from other apps. You can swipe left on the camera icon at the bottom to launch the camera app or upwards to unlock the phone. Swiping right on the phone icon takes you to the dialler. The home screen has new icons at the bottom – left to right, back, home and multitasking. ANDROID L


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ANDROID KITKAT

When you tap the apps icon on the home screen (the white circle with dots), you see the screen below, left. It dims the wallpaper unlike KitKat which has a black background. The apps and widgets ANDROID L


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tabs are gone – you just swipe left and right to flip between all your apps. The animation is the same. When you tap the square multitasking button, you’ll see a screen like the one to the bottom right of the previous page. This presents all the running apps as cards and you can swipe left or right to stop them. You can also tap on the X if you like, but swiping is much faster. And here are those same actions shown in Android KitKat: ANDROID KITKAT

Notifications and settings As with previous versions of Android, in Android L you swipe down from the top to show notifications and settings. In Android L on a smartphone, the first swipe displays notification cards. These can be dismissed by swiping left or right. Or, you can tap them to switch to the app to which they relate. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 7

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ANDROID L

ANDROID KITKAT

A second downward swipe on Android L reveals the quick settings, pushing notifications down the screen. As you can see, there’s a brightness slider, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and screen rotation toggles, mobile signal strength, plus shortcuts for Aeroplane mode, notifications, location settings and screen casting. ANDROID L


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ANDROID KITKAT

Back to Android L, you can dive into the main settings menu by tapping the cog at the top, which brings you to the redesigned settings menu. This is much lighter and fresher looking than the old black menus. Below are just a couple of the new settings sub-menus for sounds, including Do not disturb. ANDROID L


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ANDROID KITKAT

Dialler and contacts The dialler continues the new look, and there’s a new animation which is a circle rather than a square as before. It’s subtle but feels more immersive somehow. Matching contacts appear at the top and you can tap on white space (well, off-white) to go to your list of contacts. The dialler icon stays at the bottom right so you can jump right back to it. ANDROID L


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Keyboard The updated Google keyboard has a cleaner look, without separated keys (The KitKat version is on the right). The updated keyboard still has built-in Swype-style word entry and you can turn on or off word prediction.

ANDROID KITKAT

ANDROID L


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5 things we love about Android L Android L is Google’s biggest ever Android update. There’s a lot to love about it, but here’s our top five 12 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 12

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e’re excited about Android L. Very excited. Here are five of the most important and cool features of Android L for which we just can’t wait. The most exciting things about Android L.

Performance enhancements

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In one respect, from day one Android has been fighting a losing battle against first iOS and latterly Windows Phone 8. Something about the underlying Android code made previous versions susceptible to lag at the oddest times. And this in turn gave an overall perception of performance somewhat worse than was the case.

Something about the underlying Android code made previous versions susceptible to lag at the oddest times The proof will be in the testing, but Android L is set up to be the biggest overhaul in Android performance that we’ve seen. Android L will support 64-bit processors and it will also support the ART software library, which Google says will be twice as fast as laggy old Dalvik. It remains to be seen how this pans out in the real-world of smartphones and tablets made by OEMs (with their own take on what Android should look like), but we’re excited to see Google investing in performance.

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Battery saver mode There is, of course, an arms race of performance benchmarks in which smartphone- and tablet makers try to convince us to buy their wares based on miniscule differences in terms of overall computational speed or graphics framerates. But the best phones are already plenty fast enough, and the differences are difficult to notice in the real world. Much more important – crucial even – is battery life. The first smartphone that can last for three days on charge will be a very popular device. Again, we don’t know how this will work, but it’s great to see Google taking up the cudgels and attempting to address battery life. Google promises that Android L will bring it via a new battery saving mode known as ‘Project Volta’. This will allow developers to identify how their apps are using battery so they make improvements. Google said that the new battery saving mode will immediately give a Nexus 5 an extra 90 minutes of power. We like the sound of that. 14 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 14

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Useful notifications Notifications have long been a strong point of Android... up to a point. Sit in the Android Advisor office and you’ll be a treated to orchestral beepings and rumblings as a multitude of smartphones notifies a legion of users of a plethora of things. What you won’t see is many people acting on the notifications. Android L will, Google tells us, make notifications useful. For starters you can get them on the lock screen. And they will be automatically ordered in priority. But here is the key thing: while you will still be able to swipe away notifications, you will now be able to double tap to open the relevant app and respond to a notification. So rather than having to open up your phone and then the app, find the message and type out the response, you can get straight to it. A simple (obvious) change, but an important one.

Material Design

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Google has revealed a new design language for the Android L release which is called ‘Material Design’. It remains to be seen what developers make of

Sit in the Android Advisor office and you’ll be treated to orchestral beepings and rumblings as a multitude of smartphones notifies a legion of users a plethora of things

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Material Design, but overall it’s a cleaner and very Google style which developers can make use of in apps. The Roboto font can also be used anywhere. Elements can be given depth, so shadows and light sources affect UI elements in real time. App interfaces will now feature touches of colour automatically generated based on the content and there are new animations and touch feedback. It’s exciting because it makes Android look modern, slick and cool. But it will also add a feeling of simple pace to the interface.

Meaningful relations between devices Google’s I/O keynote was low on detail and heavy on a grand plan for world domination. But the theme that emerged was: Android shall speak unto Android. So Android Wear smartwatches will work as extensions of smartphones. Android Auto will make your car into a big smartphone, Android TV will do the same for your telly box. It’s a grand vision that could ultimately have amazing consequences for our lives (and for 16 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 16

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It’s a grand vision that could ultimately have amazing consequences for our lives Google’s ability to harvest data on our lives). But as exciting as it is right now there are relatively few practical applications. There are some, though. For instance: in the I/O keynote Google said that security is a key element for Android and its users. A new feature will enable users to unlock their smartphone when physically near enough a device like an Android Wear smartwatch. So your Wear watch would become a kind of token that you are you and allow you to unlock doors and so on. You’d want two-factor indentification before you allowed this method to unlock your Nest-enabled smart home or Android Auto car, but it’s coming. You can see the potential and it is exciting.

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How does Android L perform? Android L offers remarkable battery life, but in our tests we found it no faster than Android KitKat 18 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 18

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A

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ndroid L is Google’s biggest update to its mobile OS yet, and it’s claimed to offer a host of new features and performance enhancements that we just couldn’t wait to get our hands on. So obviously we installed the Android L developer preview on our Nexus 5. But does it really offer those claimed performance enhancements? Project Volta and the new ART runtime built into Android L do indeed make for an impressive boost to battery life – for example, Ars Technica measured an increase from 345- to 471 minutes for the Nexus 5. That’s amazing. But what about other aspects of performance, and is it worth upgrading your phone or tablet to a potentially buggy beta OS to benefit from those

Is it worth upgrading your phone or tablet to a potentially buggy beta OS to benefit from those enhancements now? enhancements now? From our own experience of Android L, we’d say probably not. Particularly given that some popular third-party apps, for instance Dropbox, just don’t play nicely with the OS right now (understandably, of course). But it’s not all about the benchmarks, and as we’ve seen it’s possible for manufacturers to cheat these tests. We’ve also seen on a single device wildly different results from tests run concurrently, which is why we always publish an average figure. The Nexus 5 running KitKat already offers a very smooth user experience. It offers this with Android L

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Android L is still a developer preview, and performance may well change with the final version too, however, and it’s doubtful that the average user would notice a difference in performance. Plus, Android L is still a developer preview, and performance may well change with the final version. In other words benchmarks should all be taken with a pinch of salt. Obviously we ran them anyway – on a Nexus 5 running KitKat and another Nexus 5 running Android L. We ran our tests at exactly the same time and under the same conditions. And we found nothing to get excited over. Graphics performance is the same, for example. We use GFXBench 3.0 to measure a phone’s graphics potential, and the Nexus 5 measured 9fps in Manhattan and 24.1fps in T-Rex with both OSes. Geekbench 3 performance was actually a little lower with the Nexus 5 running Android L than it was running KitKat. For the Android L device the best results we were able to achieve were 759 points in the single-core test and 2,101 in the multi-core test. The Nexus 5 running KitKat put in a better performance, with 927 points single-core, and 2,744 multi-core. Only in SunSpider did the Android L device show an improvement to performance. Here we measured 1178.6ms for Android L, and 1499.8ms for KitKat. However, it’s interesting to note that one day previous we saw 774ms in the same test for Android L, which proves just how reliable are benchmarks.

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How to: Get your own sneak peek at Android L If you own a Nexus device you needn’t wait until the autumn to try out Android L. Here’s how

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oogle has released a beta version of Android L, the as-yet unnamed next release of the mobile operating system. Anyone can install this on their Nexus 5 or Nexus 7, but it’s unwise to do so if it’s your main smartphone or tablet. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 21

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As Google states, “The Android preview system image is not a stable release, and may contain errors and defects that can result in damage to your computer systems, devices, and data. The preview Android system image is not subject to the same testing as the factory OS and can cause your phone and installed services and applications to stop working.” So, you have been warned, but the good news is that you can uninstall the Android L preview and revert to factory settings. Just make sure you have backed up everything that you can’t afford to lose before you install Android L, since the process will wipe your device. We’ll explain step by step how to install the preview on a Nexus 5, using Windows 7 or 8, and also how to go back to the original software that your device shipped with. The process is effectively the same on the 2013 Nexus 7.

Step 1. Download the minimal 2MB installer from XDA (tinyurl.com/Lmstqa4), which includes the Android ADB and fastboot tools. You need these to install the Android L image, and this is the quickest and easiest way to install the 22 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 22

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tools without downloading the entire Android SDK, which is huge and contains stuff you don’t need to get Android L. Follow the instructions (don’t change the installation path when asked where to install it) and you should end up with a command prompt window.

Step 2. Download the appropriate file for your device from tinyurl.com/pqeosys. You will also need a utility such as 7-zip, which can extract the files from the .tgz archive. In fact, you’ll need to unzip the files twice, as there’s a .tar file inside the .tgz file. Extract the files to the same folder as the Minimal ADB and Fastboot, which is c:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot. Once extracted you should have a list of files as per the image above. Step 3. Head to Settings, and scroll down to About phone at the bottom. Scroll down to Build number and tap it 7 times. This unhides the developer options, which aren’t displayed in Android 4.2 and later. In the Developer options menu, enable USB debugging. Step 4. Download the Google USB driver (tinyurl.com/3y32nw9) and extract the zip file. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 23 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 23

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Step 5. With your Nexus connected via USB and powered on, go to the Control Panel and click Devices and Printers. You should see your device in the list. On our Windows 8 machine, it was listed as ‘MTP’ under Multimedia devices. Right-click on it, and choose properties. Click on the Hardware tab, then select the Nexus 5 in the list, and click Properties. Now update the driver, pointing Windows to the folder where you extracted the Google USB driver. Once done, it should report the device as Android Composite ADB interface. Plus, you should get a prompt on your device’s screen asking “Allow USB debugging?” Tick Always allow and tap Ok. 24 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 24

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Step 6. Power off your device, and leave it connected to your computer’s USB port. Now start it using the appropriate key combination to put it in “fastboot” mode. For the Nexus 5, that’s by holding down the volume up, volume down and power buttons simultaneously. You should see a screen like this. Press power and volume down on the Nexus 7.

Alternatively, leave on your device and type adb reboot-bootloader to restart in fastboot mode. Step 7. If the LOCK STATE says locked (which it should) then type ‘fastboot oem unlock’ at the command prompt, without the quotes, and press Enter. You’ll see a screen like the one at the top of the next page. To change from no to yes, use the ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 25 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 25

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volume rocker, and to select the option, press the power button. This WILL erase your device, so make sure you’ve backed everything up first.

Step 8. With the bootloader unlocked, you can now install the Android L firmware. Simply type flash-all and the process will begin. You will see alternating downloading… writing…. erasing… on your screen. Step 9. When the process finished, you should lock the bootloader again for security. Start the device in fastboot mode, then type fastboot oem lock. 26 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 26

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Locking the bootloader won’t wipe any data, but if you unlock it again it will erase the device of all your user data and settings.

How to uninstall Android L Reverting to the version of Android you had before installing Android L is pretty much the same process as you’ve just completed. Step 10. First, download the correct version of Android KitKat for your device from Google’s images page (tinyurl.com/c2efby3). You can choose which version of KitKat you want. Step 11. Then extract it as in Step 2. You’ll need to delete the Android L files from the c:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder before copying the extracted files there. These are the files to remove (in case you forgot which were which). Step 12. Repeat step 6 to 8, and you’ll have a box-fresh Nexus 5 device.

Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2012 Although Google has published the source code for Android L on many Nexus devices, the developer preview is available only for the Nexus 5 and 2013 edition of the Nexus 7. However, if you’re superkeen, you can get Android L for your Nexus 4 and the original Nexus 7 from 2012. If you own a Nexus 4 check out this thread (tinyurl.com/pubvpcc), or this one (tinyurl.com/ pLeth44) if you have the original Nexus 7. A list of issues can be found at tinyurl.com/mcbu5py. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 27 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 27

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First details: Samsung Galaxy S6

Pictured: Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is tipped to launch in early 2015, but what has the firm got in store for its next flagship?

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he flagship Samsung Galaxy S5 has been on sale for a good few months now, so we’ve naturally begun to look forward to the Galaxy S6. Here’s everything we can tell you about Samsung’s next flagship S-series smartphone. Samsung typically launches one flagship smartphone per year. Just as the Galaxy Note 4 is expected to launch in September to tie in with IFA 2014, the Galaxy S6 will almost certainly launch at MWC 2015. The tech tradeshow is scheduled for 2 March 2015, so expect a Samsung Unpacked event at the beginning of March.


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There are plenty of whispers over what Samsung will do with its next S-series superstar. It seems perfectly plausible that the Galaxy S6 will use a Super AMOLED screen, Samsung’s favoured display technology. The current trend is for screens to get ever larger; with the S5 at 5.1in, the S6 could feature a display as large as the LG G3’s 5.5in panel or somewhere in between. On the subject of the LG G3, its very likely that Samsung will ramp up its display resolution to match or even best its rival. A Quad HD (1440x2560) panel sounds more likely than a 4K (2160x3840) version, even if the Note 4 is tipped to feature the latter. There are rumours of a flexible or curved display. This is something Samsung has been working on and has already shown with its Galaxy Round. Not the huge success many expected it to be, we’re not convinced the S6 will get a curved screen. The Samsung Galaxy S5 got slammed in reviews (including ours) for its plastic build quality. Samsung *should* take steps to improve this in the S6, and rumours suggest the firm could use graphene. By the time the S6 launches the final version of Android L will have been released. Expect the S6 to run this with Samsung’s own TouchWiz interface overlaid – probably a new version. Under the bonnet we think the Galaxy S6 will be powered by one of Qualcomm’s 64-bit processors (Android L will support 64-bit), which are scheduled to arrive inside devices in the first half of 2015. The Snapdragon 808 and Snapdragon 810 are two options, and we might see both in different markets. The former supports 1600x2560 displays; the latter allows for 4K. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 29 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 29

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First details: HTC One M9 We love the HTC One M8, but it’s never too early to start thinking about the next great thing

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e love the HTC One M8: a splendid smartphone with a stylish build. But it is never too early to start thinking about the next great thing. Although nothing has been officially confirmed, HTC has settled into a pattern of launching its flagship smartphone in the weeks following the MWC show. In 2015 MWC takes place in the first week of March, so expect the HTC One M9 to launch in the third week of 2015. Generally speaking availability in the UK follows a couple of weeks later.


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The next-gen HTC One will have flagship specs, so expect it to retail for something between £500 and £600 HTC has been pretty consistent in its pricing of its top-end HTC One smartphones. The original HTC One M7 went on sale for around £500 before settling back to £450. Fast-forward to the HTC One M8 and the original SRP was £550, although you can now get it slightly cheaper if you shop around. Components get cheaper over time, but inflation goes up. And HTC needs to make a decent wedge from each handset. The next-gen HTC One will have flagship specs, so expect it to retail for something between £500 and £600. It’s too early to say with confidence what specification to expect when the HTC One M9 launches next year. But expect nothing less than the very best available to the market at the time. Key questions include whether HTC will stay with ARM processors, or if there is any chance of Intel muscling its way into top-level smartphones. Will 4K smartphones be so de rigueur that the HTC One M9 sports an Ultra HD display? We do expect a larger display, in a similarly sized handset. It will be interesting to see how HTC moves with the Ultrapixel camera, too. And expect the HTC One M9 to run the latest version of Android. Some interesting concept images of the HTC One M9 have already surfaced, including that which illustrates this article.

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First details: Sony Xperia Z3

Sony’s not making us wait too long for its next flagship smartphone, expected to launch in September

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e don’t like waiting a year for flagship smartphones to appear, and neither does Sony. While Samsung and HTC will have you waiting until March 2015, we’re betting on a September launch for the next-generation Xperia Z-series flagship. Sony has traditionally delivered two flagship smartphones per year: one at MWC, and another six months later. We saw the Z2 at MWC 2014; in


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September we’ll see the Xperia Z3; and as the One M9 and Galaxy S6 are launching at MWC 2015 in March we’ll be looking for the Xperia Z4. Of course Sony is free to mix things up a bit, and it doesn’t have to continue launching two flagship smartphones per year. But Vodafone Germany is already promising the Z3 as a prize for a competition that ends 30 September. Either it has some inside information or it will be apologising to its customers. The original Z went on sale at £549. Sony marked up the price to £599 for the Z1, but then brought it back down to £559 for the Z2. We reckon the Z3 will cost anywhere between £550 and £575. With the expected launch only a couple of months away, we’ve already seen a leaked photo (illustrating this article) that is claimed to be the Xperia Z3. In earlier leaked photos we were led to believe that the Z3 is equipped with a metal frame, which reportedly has a PVD coating that creates an attractive mirror-like finish akin to that of stainless steel. We suspect the Z3 will follow the square-ish design of earlier Z-series handsets, but this one will be both thinner and stronger than ever, more resilient to damage from bumps and scrapes. The rumour mill suggests the Z3 will be significantly faster and more powerful than its predecessor, packed with a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor that uses the Krait 450 architecture, 3GB of RAM and Adreno 420 graphics. And that, as before, we’ll see a 20.7Mp camera on the rear and a full-HD panel on the front. Launching in September, we don’t know whether the Z3 will be too early to run Android L, but you can be sure that an update will roll out soon after. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 33 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 33

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What to expect from September’s IFA 2014 Hardware makers love showing off their tech just in time for Christmas. We look at what IFA 2014 has in store

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icking off at the beginning of September, IFA presents a perfect opportunity for tech companies to show off the products that will go on sale in time for Christmas. All sorts of new products will be announced, including TVs, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and more. We’ve rounded up the best and most interesting rumoured products.


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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 One of the most highly anticipated smartphones of the year is the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung traditionally refreshes its Galaxy Note line-up in an Unpacked event at IFA. This year looks to be no different and we expect to see the Galaxy Note 4 unveiled on 3 September. It’s tipped to be the first 4K smartphone and to feature a retina scanner.

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Xperia Z-series flagship at IFA 2014. According to the leaked details of a competition that will be conducted by Vodafone Germany, a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is also in the works. (Never mind that we haven’t seen a Z2 Compact yet.) Rather than a complete refresh of its flagship smartphone, Sony will reportedly concentrate primarily on performance, boosting the processor and graphics but retaining the full-HD screen and 20.7Mp camera.

Motorola Moto X+1 (X2) Motorola’s Moto X and Moto G smartphones have been popular and the firm said at MWC that a followup to the former would arrive late summer. It didn’t turn up in time for Google I/O, so in our minds the firm is likely to take the wraps off the smartphone in 36 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 36

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Berlin at IFA. It’s unclear whether it will be called the Moto X+1 or the Moto X2. Rumoured specs include a 5in or larger screen with a full-HD resolution, up to 64GB of storage and a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor. Motorola could also bundle the Moto X2 with the forthcoming Moto 360 Android Wear smartphone.

Samsung Gear VR The Gear VR is Samsung’s answer to the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus. It’s a virtual reality headset that is reportedly already in testing by developers in anticipation of an IFA launch. The Gear VR is expected to be cheaper than its rivals because it uses a docked smartphone (notably, a docked Samsung smartphone). The virtual reality effect is possible through head-tracking using the docked smartphone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and processing power. The Gear VR has an OLED display and runs the Tizen OS. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 37 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 37

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Best new products: Samsung Galaxy S5 mini The long-awaited compact Galaxy S5 is finally official. Here’s everything you need to know about it

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f you like the look of the Samsung Galaxy S5 but want something a bit smaller and more budgetfriendly then the Galaxy S5 mini could be just the smartphone for you. Samsung has finally confirmed the Galaxy S5 mini. As with the Samsung Z, the firm released it first in Russia with a global launch to follow. In the UK Clove is expecting stock at the end of July, and Mobile Fun is offering the S5 mini for pre-ordering at £369.


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The Galaxy S5 mini features a 4.5in Super AMOLED screen with a 720p resolution. That’s a reasonable amount smaller than the 5.1in screen found on the full-size Galaxy S5 and an improvement over the qHD resolution found on the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. It will come with Android 4.4 KitKat and be powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. This is paired with 1.5GB of RAM. Internal storage is set at 16GB and there’s a microSD card slot for adding up to 64GB more. Samsung has gone for an 8Mp rear camera, a 2Mp front camera, an IR blaster and a 2100mAh battery. It’s a similar spec to the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, but the phone comes with a dust- and waterproof design (IP67-certified). Although it was unlikely, the Galaxy S5 mini comes with the same fingerprint scanner and heartrate monitor as the standard Galaxy S5. The 4G LTE model of the Galaxy S5 mini will also come with NFC. The device is 9.1mm thick and weighs 120g. In common with it’s bigger brother, it will be available in black, white, gold and blue.


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Best new products: LG G3 s (Beat) With a 5in screen its no mini G3, but the G3 s is the next best thing

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nstead of making a mini version of its G3, LG has instead launched the LG G3 s (Beat outside of Europe). It is in essence the same thing, however. “Smartphone manufacturers cannot ignore the growing segment of consumers that wants the best balance of looks, features, performance and, of course, price,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president of LG Mobile. “The LG G3 Beat represents our commitment to the mid-tier smartphone market that


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demands mature technology, proven branding, great innovation and attractive price, all in a single device.” The LG G3 s will be released in South Korea on 18 July, with a global launch to follow. It will arrive in Europe and CIS countries in “the weeks that follow”. Mobile Fun is listing the G3 s for pre-order at £299, but no shipping date is provided. Although it’s smaller, the G3 s looks very much like the full-size G3 with the same floating arc design and Rear Key. It comes in black, white and gold. Possibly the reason LG decided not to call the handset the LG G3 mini is that it has a 5in screen. This screen is a 720p IPS display, and the phone has a high 74 percent screen to body ratio. Inside is a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. There’s just 8GB of internal storage, but a microSD card slot lets you add more.

Smartphone manufacturers cannot ignore the growing segment of consumers that wants the best balance of looks, features, performance and price The rear camera has a lower resolution than that of the standard G3 at 8Mp, but it retains the Laser Auto Focus. A 1.3Mp shooter can be found at the front. It has 4G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, but there’s no sign of an IR blaster. The G3 Beat runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat and has some of the same software features of the flagship G3, including the Smart Keyboard and Gesture Shot. Under the cover is a 2540mAh removable battery.

”


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Best new products: Sony Xperia T3 Sony has treated us to the surprise unveiling of the world’s slimmest 5.3in smartphone

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omewhat out of the blue, Sony has announced a new smartphone in the form of the Xperia T3. Smartphone makers like to make big claims with their devices and Sony says that the new 7mm Xperia T3 is the world’s slimmest 5.3in smartphone. And we wouldn’t want to rain on its parade by suggesting it doesn’t have a lot of competition in the 5.3in-screen smartphone category.


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The T3 launched on 24 July exclusively through Carphone Warehouse. It’s available from £22.50 a month with no upfront cost, while customers who pre-ordered also got a free Sony Smartband. “The Xperia T3 has been crafted with attention to detail for those who know how to appreciate distinctive design in their everyday life,” said Calum MacDougall, director of Xperia marketing at Sony Mobile. “The combination of this beautiful technology and the premium design ensures the T3 immediately stands apart from the competition.” As well as a 5.3in screen, which has a 720p HD resolution, the Xperia T3 is specced up with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 8Mp Sony Exmor RS camera and 8GB of internal storage. The size and spec mean the Xperia T3 is like a cut-down version of the flagship Sony Xperia Z2, but it still has support for 4G LTE networks, NFC and a steel-frame design. The device weighs 148g and will come in black, white and purple. The Xperia T3 comes preloaded with Android 4.4 KitKat and Sony’s software features including Social live, AR effect, Timeshift burst, Creative effects and Easy transfer. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 43 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 43

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Coming soon: Tesco smartphone Tesco is soon to unveil its first entry into the smartphone market. Let’s hope it’s just as good as the Hudl tablet

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esco has confirmed that it is working on its own smartphone, which will launch alongside a new version of its budget Android tablet, the Hudl 2, later this year. Tesco’s chief executive Philip Clarke told the BBC in May that the company is working on two new devices, following on from the success of its Hudl tablet that was launched in September last year. The first will be the Hudl 2, and the second will be Tesco’s first entry in to the smartphone market, with a smartphone that’s been dubbed the Hudl phone.


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There’s been no official confirmation of a release date for the Hudl phone yet, but Clarke has said that it will arrive in time for Christmas, so we’re looking at a launch date in September, October or November of this year. Details such as specifications are thin on the ground, but the Tesco smartphone is tipped to run Android as does the Hudl tablet. Clarke has revealed that the smartphone will come preinstalled with some of Tesco’s own software features, on top of the usual Android features. Tesco has said that it plans to launch a smartphone-based banking service at some point, so it’s likely that the Tesco smartphone will feature this new service. He says that the Tesco smartphone will be designed to compete with “the best smartphones available”, so don’t expect a shoddy product. Tesco may decide to launch the Hudl smartphone in several colours, just as it did with the Hudl tablet. Colourful smartphones seem to be a trend at the moment, after all. Just look at the iPhone 5c and Samsung’s Galaxy S5, for example. Tesco’s Hudl was introduced at £119, and can be purchased for half that amount with Clubcard Vouchers. The Tesco smartphone will target the high end of the market with ‘aggressive pricing’. It sounds as though Tesco could be mirroring the way Google offers top-end hardware for a lower price with its Nexus devices. The Nexus 5 has a 5in full-HD screen, an 8Mp camera and Android 4.4 KitKat, but sells for just £299. The question is whether Tesco can match or improve on this deal. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 45 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 45

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(Not) coming soon: Nexus 7 2014 Google has a new family now, and that means the old kids are an inconvenience

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e all expect a Nexus 8 tablet to launch at some stage this summer, and that is likely to mean curtains for the excellent Nexus 7 tablet. Here’s why there won’t be a Nexus 7 2014. The Nexus 8 is the 2014 Google tablet, made by a new manufacturer with new components and design. And that makes the Nexus 7 an unwanted relic of Google’s past. The Nexus 8 is set to be Google’s next new Android tablet and will follow on from the Nexus 7, which is still one of the best tablets around. Unlike the previous generations of Nexus tablets, the new Nexus 8 wasn’t announced at Google I/O 2014. But rumours strongly suggest that we will have a Nexus 8 at some point within the next few months. Which suggests that there won’t be an all-new Nexus 7 for 2014. But that doesn’t mean that the Nexus 7 will become obsolete. The 2013 Nexus 7 remains a great deal tablet: well built, nice to look at, and a top performer for a good price. But the strong rumours we have about the Nexus 8 suggest that it is more than a slightly larger 8in tablet with better specs. For one thing, the word is that HTC rather than Asus will make the next Nexus tablet. It’s also rumoured that Google will ditch Qualcomm and its


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reliable Snapdragon chips for Intel’s Moorefield, which is clocked at 2.33GHz and features a PowerVR G6430 GPU. That makes it even less likely that the Nexus 7 will get a new lick of paint from a spurned Asus and Qualcomm. We’ve heard that the new Nexus 8 will have a new aluminium design and a higher price. Both things that again suggest that Google won’t want to undercut its own new product. Indeed multiple reports cite a Google source from Ireland suggesting that Google will no longer sell a 7in tablet. After all an 8in Nexus 8 will closely rival devices such as the iPad mini, LG G Pad 8.3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. Exciting features rumours for the Nexus 8 include two back cameras, infrared depth sensors and advanced software that can capture precise three-dimensional images of objects.


23/07/2014 17:09

Revealed: The UK’s best mobile networks We have tested every 3G- and 4G network in the UK. So, what’s the UK’s best mobile network in 2014?

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hoosing a smartphone or tablet is just the start. In this world of constant connectivity the quality and speed of your chosen network is critical to your ability to work and play on the hoof. But which mobile network is best? Connectivity can vary from locale to locale, and day to day. Visit the websites of all the major players and they will tell you that they have great coverage, everywhere. So in the interests of providing excellent independent data, each year we team up with Broadband Genie and set out to test mobile


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broadband under real-world conditions over most of the length of the UK. We travelled from London to Edinburgh to discover which 3G and 4G networks are best for speed, best for reliability. We tested 3G- and 4G mobile broadband on the four main networks with a selection of tasks designed to emulate actual usage and push performance to the limit.

UK’s best 3G- and 4G networks of 2014: the contenders, and how we tested The major mobile broadband providers who agreed to take part in our test were 3, EE, O2, Vodafone. EE incorporates Orange and T-Mobile, so we were testing all of the UK’s nationally available mobile networks. We asked each vendor to provide us with a 3G and a 4G dongle, and over the course of two days


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we took a train from London to Edinburgh and back, carrying out 39 tests along the way. Each network was tested by a dedicated individual, so that each test took place at exactly the same time, in exactly the same location. We carried out a variety of tests that fall into three categories: speed tests, video tests, and downloads and uploads. For each test a maximum time was allowed. Speed tests are straightforward: at the appointed time each connection was put through Broadband Genie’s own speed test, and the results recorded. For the video tests we streamed a range of clips from a variety of sources, recording what point in the clip each connection allowed the viewer to reach, if they allowed them to play at all. And for downloads and uploads each network was used to down- or 50 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 50

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upload a specified file to or from the web. In each case we recorded whether the network succeeded or failed, and if the latter how far it got.

UK’s best mobile network of 2014 Three is the UK’s best mobile network of 2014. Both on 3G and 4G Three completed more tests than did any other network. Three was the fastest network with excellent average and peak scores in our speed tests up and down the country. Runner up to Three in the UK’s best mobile network of 2014 category was EE. EE wasn’t quite as reliable as was Three as we traversed the country at high speed, but it completed more tests than did any of the other providers. Moreover, as we shall see, EE is a fast network.


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UK’s fastest 3G & 4G network 2014 Speed isn’t everything, of course. But it is almost everything. Being able to surf, download and upload at speed is the mobile connectivity dream. In total we carried out 17 speed tests run across both legs of the route, at speed and at many various locations. Three is the UK’s fastest mobile network, on 4G and 3G. Its 4G dongle managed an average download of 6.19Mb and an upload speed of 1.54Mb, and gave us the single fastest speed test result of the entire Road Trip with a rapid 19.53Mb. 3G service was also extremely impressive thanks to an average 4.48Mb down and 1.4Mb. That’s not only faster than every other 3G network but quicker than almost all the rival 4G networks, with only Vodafone 4G beating it on average upload speed. Three 3G also recorded the second fastest top speed (for both 3G and 4G) of 15.41Mb. 52 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 52

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EE was once again the runner up, being the second fastest 3G and 4G network in the UK. EE’s tested averages of 3.99Mb/0.62Mb for 4G and 2.62Mb/0.91Mb on 3G were nicely consistent and peaked at 7.64Mb on 3G and 12.34Mb for 4G. O2 isn’t far behind EE. O2 4G averaged 4.13Mb up and 0.89Mb down, while O2 3G got 2.03Mb/1.24Mb. In our tests we found that O2’s peak speeds were slightly lower (11.83Mb was the best on 4G, 4.27Mb for 3G). Unfortunately coverage issues adversely affected O2’s speed scores. We could complete only seven of the 17 speed scores. So although it is possible O2 is faster than our results show, you need to be able to get online in the first place to measure speed. Last but not least of the UK’s best 3G- and 4G networks is Vodafone. Vodafone 4G successfully completed eight speed tests for averages of 3.2/1.49Mb, with a top download of 7.92Mb and


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the overall fastest upload of 7.23Mb. Not bad at all on 4G, then, Vodafone is behind on 3G. Average scores of 1.21Mb download and 0.66Mb upload are disappointing. Just two successful speed tests is poor. The average speed of all networks this year was 3.48Mb download and 1.09Mb upload, that’s a big improvement on the average 1.24/0.72Mb of 2013.

UK’s best 3G & 4G network coverage 2014 We measure coverage and reliability based on how many of the download, upload and video-streaming tests that each network completed as we travelled the country for two days. Three came out on top, completing 90 percent of all tests. A staggering result when you consider that most of the time we were travelling through rural areas at speed. We also found a consistent 90 percent completion across both Three 3G and 4G dongles. 54 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 54

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EE was once again our runner up, completing a decent total of 73 percent of the tests. EE 4G completed 79 percent. EE 3G enjoyed slightly less coverage with a 67 percent success rate. A notable difference between the two is that on tests where both services failed EE 4G almost always came closer to finishing thanks to its faster speed. We then have a big drop to O2 and Vodafone. O2 completed just 18 out of a possible 78 tasks. There were no significant differences between 3G and 4G, both scored 23 percent and experienced long periods with no connectivity at the same time. Down at the bottom is Vodafone with a disappointing 17 percent completion rate. Vodafone 3G was only able to finish four of 38 tasks. Vodafone 4G was marginally more successful with 23 percent. Both O2 and Vodafone struggled outside of heavily populated areas.

UK’s best 3G network 2014

“

Of the four 3G networks on test Three demonstrated the best performance. We recorded an outstanding top download speed of 15.41Mb, and average speeds were 4.48Mb down and 1.4Mb up. Three maintained a connection throughout much of the journey to complete 90 percent of all the tests. A great 3G network.

Of the four 3G networks on test Three demonstrated the best performance

”


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EE was good but not as good, getting an average download speed of 2.62Mb and a less impressive 0.91Mb average upload. EE also had the second fastest 3G result of 7.64Mb. Completing 67 percent of tests on 3G is a decent result too. The 3G O2 dongle gave a strong performance with an average 2.03/1.24Mb and peak download of 4.27Mb. Again reliability was an issue, with only nine out of 39 tests successful. But at least O2 was better than Vodafone 3G. Vodafone managed to complete just 10 percent of all the tasks. The average speed was a meagre 1.21Mb down and 0.66Mb up with a top speed of just 1.95Mb down.

UK’s best 4G network 2014 Guess what: Three was the best 4G network, too. It completed 90 percent of tests, with average speed 56 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 56

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test results of 6.19Mb/1.54Mb. The Three 4G ]top speed of 19.53Mb was also the single fastest result recorded, although its peak upload of 2.89Mb was nothing special. EE was not able to match Three on speed or coverage, but still performed well. A success rate of 79 percent in tests was good, as was an average download time 3.99Mb. The 0.62Mb average upload was disappointing, but it did manage a peak downstream rate of 12.34Mb. O2 4G did beat EE in average speeds as our speed testing recorded 4.13Mb download and 0.89Mb upload. It also came close on top speeds with 11.83Mb download. Unfortunately with only a 23 percent test completion rate it appears O2’s network lacks the reach of EE. Vodafone 4G made up for the weak results of the 3G service by hitting an average 3.2Mb down / 1.49Mb up and peak speeds of 7.92Mb/7.23Mb, which was the fastest upload speed overall. Unfortunately it struggled to hold onto a signal and managed just 23 percent of the 39 tasks.


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How to: Make HD voice calls With many modern phones supporting wideband audio, high quality phone calls are now possible

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or many people using smartphones today, a telephone call will come some way down a list of communication priorities, now that text, emails, IM, Skype, Twitter and assorted social networks fulfil most personal needs. But if you do require that real-time chat, there is still the option to dial out and chat over the GSM mobile network. Shame then, in this ultra-highdefinition video world, that most of the time for most of the people that chat will still be of such low audio quality.


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Have you ever wondered why the sound of a phone call on your mobile is little different to that experienced by your parents, or even grandparents, when they used the GPO landline many decades ago? There is sign of improvement to the situation though, a not-so-new technology that is being slowly rolled out across the UK mobile networks, although to hear the benefits requires several strict conditions to be met. The technology is variously called HD Voice (a proprietary name coined by video-conference specialist Polycom), or generically as ‘wideband audio’. It has been commercially available for five years and even now in 2014 has limited availability within the UK.

HD Voice: Voices on the line

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Capturing and sending the human voice for a phone call in the digital age is like any other sampling of real-world ‘analogue’ data. Here ‘digital quality’ can mean sublime life-like preservation of the original – but so often it is compromised and weakened by commercial or technological requirements. In the case of telephone communications, we now have the capability to conduct phone calls anywhere from 1920s crackly quality up to nearly CD-quality; but wireless connectivity issues and the need to

In this ultra-high-definition video world it’s a shame that most of the time chat will still be of such low audio quality

”


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cram in as many concurrent calls as possible to maximise profit usually means we’re provided with calls at the lower end of that spectrum. When digital mobile phones were first launched with the GSM (Global Systems for Mobile telecommunications) in the early 1990s, the standard voice codec was GSM-FR (full-rate), which required a datarate of 13Kb/s, and then only provided mediocre quality. But it was at least better than its Half Rate alternative running at 6.5Kb/s. These codecs have now been largely replaced by either GSM-EFR (enhanced full-rate) which runs at about the same datarate as GSM-FR but with quality closer to a landline connection; or the later adaptive multi-rate (AMR) narrowband codec, which technically close to today’s HD Voice technology. With both these two latter ‘telephone-quality’ audio


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codecs, the resulting call is quite comprehensible but far from high-fidelity. The audio bandwidth of these systems – that is, the range of frequencies that can be reproduced – is less than 4kHz, and focused on just the midrange frequencies that dominate in the spoken voice. In the case of AMR, the digital sampling frequency is 8kHz, which can only provide theoretical bandwidth to a maximum of half that frequency; in actual application it nominally extends from 200Hz to just 3.4kHz. Compare this with the bandwidth of the spoken voice of between around 80Hz and 14kHz. HD Voice is based on a codec named G.722.2, and also known as AMR-WB – adaptive multi-rate wideband. It’s still far from high-fidelity specification, using 14-bit sampling and 16kHz sampling frequency, but at its best can reproduce sounds from 50Hz ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 61 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 61

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to 7kHz. In other words, the nominal range of frequencies that make up our speech. With the correct setup of modern smartphone and network provider, the result can be clear, crisp and cleanly intelligible speech. Heard in your eyepiece after familiarity with restricted and grainy regular calls, it comes as a sonic revelation. Better voice fidelity helps reduce cognitive load – that is, we need not concentrate so hard to make out the sense and meaning of the speaker’s conversation. This will be enormous benefit when used in a car, for example, when the driver needs to focus on safely driving the car. Wideband audio reduces the confusion between spoken letters and numbers, such as the classic mishearing of ‘f’ and ‘s’ which are rendered almost identically in narrowband transmissions. Regional dialects or foreign accents are more easily understood, and differentiation between multiple speakers on the line is made simpler.

HD Voice: How to make HD phone calls

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In order to experience wideband audio in a mobile phone call, you must have a suitable handset and be using a network that supports the technology. Additionally both these two conditions must be met by the person to whom you’re calling.

Better voice fidelity helps reduce cognitive load – of enormous benefit when used in a car, for example


”

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Supporting networks in the UK The first UK network to offer wideband-audio mobile telephony was Orange, which rolled out its HD Voice service in 2010. Next up was Three in the following year, and then T-Mobile in 2012. EE – the joint venture of Orange and T-Mobile founded by the merger of the two companies in 2010 – supported HD Voice from its inception in summer 2010. Unlike its overseas divisions in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, British operator Vodafone has been slower to support wideband audio in the UK. We asked Vodafone for an update and were told “we are currently rolling out HD voice technology across the UK. The rollout is well under way and will continue until late summer when we plan to have introduced the technology across our entire 3G UK ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 63 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 63

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network. The service is available between Vodafone to Vodafone calls and customers will automatically switch to HD Voice technology when in coverage including those on our 4G service (when their phone connects to 3G to make calls).” This leaves O2 as the only UK network without the facility, and with no official plans to add it either. The absence of AMR-WB technology on the Spanish company’s network also affects associated budget MVNO operators giffgaff and Lycamobile, which piggyback off O2’s network. Smartphones running Google Android with wideband audio support include the Samsung Galaxy, from S2 to S5; many Sony Xperia models; HTC One and its similarly named models such as One M8, One S and One X; and LG models such as G2, G3 and Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. 64 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 64

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Network conflicts

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Besides the right network and the right handset, there is one principle impediment from preventing wideband audio calls from becoming more prevalent. At present, both parties must be subscribed to the same mobile network. So a telephone call between two Three subscribers each using a Samsung Galaxy S5, for example, will benefit from the improved sound quality of HD Voice. But if one caller is with Three and the other EE, the call will be with traditional narrowband quality. We asked all current participating wideband audio-capable UK networks to explain the obstacle that prevents cross-network compatibility. It is unclear if the reason for low-resolution calls between operators is a technical one – such as slightly differing implementations of the 3GPP G.722.2 standard – or a commercial one. As a premium feature, the UK companies may be withholding access to wideband audio calls to encourage subscribers to join or remain with their network. At the time of writing, only Three had replied with an answer to this thorny question. The company has no immediate plans to extend beyond Three customers, it told us, and “to enable this in a practical way networks would need to move to an

Besides the right network and the right handset, both parties must also be subscribed to the same mobile network

”


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IP interconnect. This will come when UK operators introduce VoLTE” (voice over LTE). This suggests that cross-network support of HD Voice will only be viable when 4G LTE becomes the dominant system in mobile communications. A similar problem is presented with wideband audio calls between countries, although the first such breakthrough has already been made by Orange in 2012, with HD Voice calls between 66 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 66

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Moldava (the first territory in the world to introduce the technology) and Romania.

Other ways to experience wideband audio telephone calls Besides the traditional phone call over GSM, there are other ways to enjoy better-than-telephonequality voice chatting. Most ubiquitous must be Skype, which as well as allowing the familiar video conferencing can also be used with an audio-only chat. Android also has apps that allow simple voice chats as well as video and IM. The audio codec used by Skype is a proprietary wideband compression system it calls Silk, in use since 2009. Like the codecs used in HD Voice, it is adaptive to network conditions: with poorer/slower broadband connections it will drop to a lower audio quality to maximise intelligibility and reduce the chance of drop-outs that can remove syllables or entire words from a conversation.

Afterthought Note that despite the popularly used name of HD Voice, the quality is not actually high-definition in the usual sense of better-than-CD quality. It is used only as a relative term compared to the very limited bandwidth of familiar narrowband telephony. But it is a significant step-up from the low-resolution telephone sound we’ve had to endure since Alexander Graham Bell first asked Mr Watson to “Come here – I want to see you” with his first working acoustic telegraph apparatus in 1876; which later gained the altogether snappier name of ‘telephone’. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 67 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 67

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How to: Buy the OnePlus One without an invitation We explain how to get a OnePlus One phone invite, and how to buy a OnePlus One phone without an invite

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he OnePlus One is a great phone. A highquality flagship Android phone with the very best specifications at a staggeringly cheap price. It is the best deal smartphone of 2014. There is only one caveat: it is hard to get hold of. To buy the One from OnePlus you need an invite. Once you have the invite you click a link into the email you are sent, log in to the OnePlus site and make your purchase. Here we explain how to get a OnePlus One phone invite, and how to buy a OnePlus One phone without an invite.


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How to get a OnePlus One phone invite The easiest way is to ask someone who has a OnePlus One to send you an invite. Everyone who purchases a OnePlus One receives a number of invites which they can dole out to friends and family. If you can’t immediately bring to mind anyone with a OnePlus One phone, don’t be shy. Ask around, post a request on Facebook or Twitter: you never know, you may be able to find a friend with an invite. We wouldn’t recommend that you accept an invite from a total stranger, but business is based on connections and you never know your luck. The other way to get a OnePlus One invite is to enter contests and promotional events hosted on the OnePlus Forums or OnePlus’ social media channels, or those hosted by third parties. There’s no guarantee that you will win of course. And you will be giving away your data. But if you can stomach those odds it may be worth a shot.

How to get OnePlus One without an invite

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You don’t actually need an invite to buy the OnePlus One, although there are risks and you won’t get quite as good a bargain. Third-party vendors such as MobiCity.co.uk and AliExpress.com claim to have stock that they are willing to ship to the UK. There are other sites listing OnePlus One phones as being

There’s no guarantee that you will win, of course. And you will be giving away your data

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in stock. Some of them are via Amazon, too. This offers an additional layer of protection. We’re not recommending this route, or any of the sites listed here. But it is an option if you are keen. AliExpress is up front about the fact that it is shipping from China. It charges $495 for the 64GB OnePlus One, and there are additional fees for shipping. You may well be charged import duty by Customs and Excise, too (I had to pay £31 – since refunded – to import my OnePlus One via OnePlus). Be aware also that the spec may not be exactly the same as the UK version of the phone. You won’t have a UK charger, for instance, although any USB charger will work. And you will want to check that the correct LTE bands will work in the UK. Finally, AliExpress is to be credited for being upfront about delivery times. It claims that you may have to wait three weeks or more to get your OnePlus phone. MobiCity quotes a UK price of £367.19 inc VAT for the 64GB OnePlus One. In the specs it states: 70 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 70

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‘Please note that this is the Chinese variant of the mobile, with CyanogenMod and Google Play installed prior to order fulfilment.’ Delivery times are estimated as ‘Dispatched in 7 working days’ with an additional box that states: ‘This item is being restocked or is located in a secondary warehouse. Such items can take up to 3-7 days to be dispatched. Once shipped tracking details will be emailed to you.’ I would expect that you would have to wait a good couple of weeks to get hold of the OnePlus One – at the earliest. With all of these there are a couple of caveats. For one thing, whenever you purchase from an online store with no UK street address you are running a risk. Mitigate these risks by using a credit card – if the purchase goes wrong it is the bank’s money. Also read all the small print to make sure you know exactly what you are getting. Both of the sites mentioned above are clear that they are selling Chinese-spec phone handsets. Be sure that is what you want. (You may also wonder from where they are getting their stock.) You are also overpaying somewhat. The OnePlus One is great, principally because it is a high-calibre smartphone at a bargain price. The 64GB model sold in the examples above retails from OnePlus for £269 inc VAT and delivery. AliExpress’ $495 is £290 before delivery and import tax. MobiCity’s £367 is probably about where you’d end up from AliExpress. There’s nothing wrong with this, per se. The vendors are charging a premium for grey imports of in-demand products. But by overpaying you are reducing the reasons for choosing the OnePlus. Which leads us on to... ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 71 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 71

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5 reasons to consider the OnePlus One phone The OnePlus One is a great deal, if you can get hold of one. Here’s why

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nePlus is a relatively unknown smartphone maker, but its One phone truly is a fantastic deal – if you can get hold of it. Here we list five things that make the OnePlus One an infinitely better deal than any other 2014 flagship smartphone.

1. It’s cheap Buy the OnePlus One and you’ll be getting a £600 smartphone for less than half the price. Available in 16- and 64GB models, the OnePlus One starts at a tiny £229. And that makes it a better deal than even the Nexus 5. 72 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 72

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2. It’s very, very good Consider the spec of the average 2014 flagship: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chip (check); 3GB of RAM (check); Adreno 330 graphics (check); large full-HD display (check); 4K video recording (check); high-capacity battery (check); and the latest connectivity features including dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4G and Bluetooth 4.0 (check). We could go on, but you probably get the point. In fact, the only thing on which the OnePlus One can’t compete is expandable storage – so just get the 64GB version.

3. It’s great for tweakers One of the reasons Android is now the most popular mobile OS in the world is that it allows greater customisation than do iOS and Windows Phone. OnePlus One runs CyanogenMod 11S, which is based on Android KitKat (and will be updated to Android L later this year), but takes things one step further, allowing even more customisation than does standard Android. There are thousands of themes, icons, fonts, wallpapers and more to get your OnePlus One looking exactly the way you want it.

4. Secure messaging and privacy guard

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Our data is incredibly valuable, so another benefit of the CyanogenMod 11S operating system is

The only thing on which the OnePlus One can’t compete is expandable storage – so just get the 64GB version

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Secure Messaging and Privacy Guard. The former admittedly requires your recipient to also be running a CyanogenMod device, but the latter is great for letting you keep a check on app permissions – ideal if you’re keen on running third-party apps not vetted by Google Play.

5. No-one else has one And this is possibly the key reason to buy the OnePlus One. Take a look at the phones owned by your friends or colleagues sitting near to you. Is there a Samsung Galaxy? A cheap one from Tesco? I’ll bet you anything that there’s an iPhone. There’s not a OnePlus One. And there probably never will be, because as far as most people are concerned the OnePlus One can be bought by invitation only, and obtaining an invitation is enough of a hassle to make them look elsewhere.


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Review: Google Glass in the UK Google Glass offers a unique experience, but it comes at a price. Is Google Glass a rip-off ? £1,000 • play.google.com •

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oogle has a good claim to the world’s first fully functioning wearable computer with Glass. Google Glass was made available to selected developers last year as part of a Google Glass Explorer Program. Google has recently released Glass 2.0 and opened up sales to the UK. However, it is charging a heady £1,000 for Glass in the UK, a price that would make even the most ardent tech fanatic think twice. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 75


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Google Glass Explorer Edition 2.0 doubles the amount of RAM available on the original device, but there is no other hardware change. Google has also developed a companion app called MyGlass for Android and iPhone. Meanwhile developers have been busy creating a range of truly original apps for Google Glass. Google has also introduced a range of frames for prescription lenses or to work as sunglasses (the frames cost £120 but a pair is included in the price, don’t forget to add it when you checkout). These frames open up Glass to those who need prescription glasses, but they may also help normalise what is effectively a head-mounted computer. Google Glass is a unique device; there isn’t much to compare it to on the technology market. You wear Glass as you would a pair of glasses, but it features 76 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 76

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an optical heads-up display that projects a display in front of your eyes. Interaction is by means of voice commands, accelerometer and gyroscope and a thin strip known as the ‘Touchpad’ that runs alongside the righthand side of the frame. Glass shares some of its design DNA with smartphones: you can check email, post to social media, record photos and videos, search Google and download apps. But it is a radically different experience and is designed to sit alongside your smartphone, rather than replace it. Our Google Glass review discovers what it is like to own, and use Glass, in the UK on a regular basis.

What it’s like to wear Google Glass and how Glass works

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Google Glass fits snugly on your forehead by means of a thin metal band that wraps around above your eyebrows and tucks in behind your ears; two curved pieces of metal tips with plastic nibs fit this band snugly onto your nose. Along the right-hand side of Glass is a rectangular strip of plastic that curves above your right right-eye. In front of your right-eye is a prism projector that displays a small screen. When you look forward you don’t see the Glass device at all. But activate Glass (either by tapping on the side or tilting your head back) and you can

Glass shares some of its design DNA with smartphones, but it is a radically different device

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see the display by looking upwards. It appears in the centre of your vision, and we found the Glass display to be reasonably clear but seethrough. Despite being in front of the right-eye, we found it appeared to be in front of both eyes (like looking at a television screen displayed on the wall). It took a small amount of time to get used to the weirdness of seeing a virtual screen, but within half an hour we were used to the Google Glass screen. Glass feels impossibly light: the bare device (without the new clip-on frames) weighs in at just 36 grams (about the same weight category as a regular pair of glasses). We found it comfortable to wear to the point of quickly forgetting Glass is on our head. It also feels sturdy: Google introduced Glass with a skydiving stunt, and Glass stays in place during extreme activity.


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The only time we found Glass to be distracting was when using Directions when driving We found it fine to use Google Glass when on foot and cycling. It wasn’t distracting at all, and the bonus of being able to capture photos and videos hands-free allows us to interact with the day’s events, in a way, that wouldn’t be possible with a camera or smartphone. We also love the natural nature of the shots we get, when you remove the physical device you snap people acting naturally, there is no “say cheese” moment with Google Glass photography. Perhaps the only time we found Glass to be distracting was when using Directions when driving. Instead of displaying the route constantly, Glass pings every time you approach a junction, and the display fired up (a battery-saving measure), and we have concerns about using the Touchpad while driving. The status of Glass is somewhat unclear, it is theoretically illegal under the 1988 Road Traffic Act (which bars mobile phone use) but the Department For Transport is having talks with Google at how to make the device safer. For now, we’ll avoid using it while driving.

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Voice and touchpad interaction There are two primary means to interact with Google Glass: voice activated commands and the Touchpad that runs along the right hand side of the frame. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 79 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 79

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Glass is waked by tilting your head backwards or tapping the right side of the frame (the display sleeps after just 15 seconds of inactivity). The Glass screen is not visible when you look straight ahead, instead you need to glance slightly upwards to view the display. This upward placement of enables you to ignore Glass while walking around, but view the display when you need it. The screen appears in a slightly translucent fashion, enabling you to view what is behind the display. It’s blurry and while you can watch videos and browse websites, the Glass display is more for flashing up snippets of information. Saying “Ok Glass” brings up a list of options such as “Google”, “get directions to”, “send a message to”, “take a photo” and “record video”. The list of default Glass menu items grows as you 80 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 80

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install more apps. Tilting your head up and down scans through the list, and saying that option issues a command. Voice commands open the app (or in the case of “take a photo” or “record a video” performs the specific action). It is worth noting that you have to say that specific command to Glass: it has to be “take a photo” not “take a picture” or “record a photo”. You have to say exactly what is listed the screen. Google’s Voice analysis is great, however, and none more so than when you say, “Ok Glass,” “Google” and speak out your search term. The accuracy of Google’s voice recognition is ahead of Siri’s by a considerable margin. Glass returns a lot of information directly from search, so you can ask Google what the weather is going to be like, or to perform a calculation and it will speak out the results. If you don’t want to use voice control, you can access all options by tapping and sliding along the Touchpad. You slide your finger back and forth along the Touchpad to move through the menu, and tap once to select something, and swipe your finger downward (toward your feet) to move back. There is also a two-finger tap-and-hold gesture when viewing a website, this allows you to move up and down the web page by looking up and down

If you don’t want to use voice control you can access all options by tapping and sliding your finger back and forth along the Touchpad

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through Glass. We like this idea of looking around a web page, but the Glass display doesn’t lend itself to reading long piece of text.

Technical specs In terms of pure technical specifications, Google Glass 2.0 isn’t astounding in any way whatsoever. The main System on Chip (SoC) is a TI OMAP4430 Dual 1.2GHz (ARMv7). It is the same SoC used in the Samsung Galaxy S II. The new edition of Glass 2.0 has doubled the amount of RAM to 2GB, but kept the 16GB of storage (12GB available for use). Glass also features an InvenSense MPU-9150 (gyroscope, accelerometer and compass) and a Wolfson WM7231 MEMS microphone; in terms of software it runs a variation of Android 4.4 KitKat (but the interface is so different from the smartphone version that you wouldn’t be able to tell).


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In terms of connection, Glass has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 4 LE but notably lacks a GPS sensor or any 3G/4G SIM card slot. The camera is a key component of Glass, and has a resolution of 5Mp, and it snaps JPEG photos at 2528x1856 pixels. Glass records video at 720p. We found picture quality to be mostly great. The components found inside Glass are all standard fare found on any smartphone. Perhaps the only truly unique specification is the Bone Conduction Speaker next to the battery, that transmits audio by conduction through to the inner ear (a technology normally used by people with hearing impairment). Charging is performed by means of a standard Micro USB port, which can also be used to connect ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 83 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 83

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Glass to your computer. We were intrigued to find that a charger did not ship with Glass, although it comes with a custom Micro USB cable that matches the design of the headset. You also get a free carry bag (an attached note informs us it is weaved of Japanese Micro Fibre). It’s worth noting here that there isn’t anything in the hardware that comes remotely close to warranting the £1,000 price tag. It has been estimated that the total costs for parts of Glass 2.0 comes to around $105 (Google Glass 1.0 was estimated to contain around $80 worth of parts).

It’s worth noting that there isn’t anything in the hardware that comes remotely close to warranting the £1,000 price tag Of course, the parts alone do not take into account the cost of R&D, nor the cost of putting together the manufacturing molds to build the device. But this is true of every device that comes to market. Even taking all this into account, we believe the price of Glass is being kept artificially high. We can only presume that Google wants to limit sales to developers while it improves the design (this also has the benefit of creating a notion of scarcity). Pricing issues aside, the design of Glass is neither simple nor straightforward; it is a unique device that has been solidly designed and expertly put together. In terms of physical construction Google Glass could easily have come from the design table of Apple’s Jony Ive.

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The build quality shows, and Glass is sturdy, and drop-resistant and reasonably sturdy to the elements. Google has stated outright that despite rumours the contrary the device is not waterproof. We have no issues taking Glass out and about to the countryside during a particularly stormy weekend. Still, it is obvious that Glass isn’t worth £1,000 from a pure consumer gadget point of view. Current purchasers are either software developers, looking to create something new with Google Glass, or extremely wealthy (or extremely eager) early adopters. Google, for its part, has stated outright that Glass will cost much less when it officially launches to consumers (although it’s worth noting that anybody can now buy Glass from the Google Play store, so technically it has launched publicly and the amount of slack we can cut Google here is eroding by the day).


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Compatibility with Android & iOS Google Glass 2.0 connects directly to the internet by means of regular Wi-Fi connection. The way Glass enters passwords is pretty smart. First you tap on Settings, Join network and choose the network you want; then you go online using a computer, phone or tablet to the google.com/myglass website and tap on My WiFi networks. You enter the WiFi network name and password into the MyGlass website, and it displays a QR code (containing the information). Glass then scans this QR code and connects to a Wi-Fi router. Thus you never have to manually enter the password, which would be tricky with the Glass Touchpad. The Glass website also enable you to get information on your Glass device, add contacts, check on its location and also add and remove apps from Glass. 86 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 86

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Google has also released a MyGlass companion app for both Android and iOS, but not Windows Phone. The MyGlass app also enables you to view device information, and add contacts and apps to Glass. It also makes it easier to set up Glass and connect to Wi-Fi networks (by generating the QR codes that Glass uses to connect to Wi-Fi networks). The other many uses for the MyGlass app is to share your GPS with the Glass. The Glass device does not feature a GPS unit onboard, so Glass borrows its GPS signal from the connected device. Google Glass sends all the photos and video you record to the Google+ website. This occurs when Glass is connected to a Wi-Fi network and is plugged in to the mains. You pair Glass to your Android phone, or iPhone, using Bluetooth. Once Glass is paired with a smartphone you are able to make and receive


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phone calls on Glass. The phone call quality isn’t great using the built-in Bone Inducing Headphone, but Glass comes with a USB headpiece ( just a single earphone for the right ear). If your phone contract includes data sharing, you can set up your phone as a mobile hotspot and share its data connection with Glass. We were surprised to find Google Glass offer almost identical support for iPhone users as their own Android customers. The only omission for iPhone users is that they can’t send and receive SMS messages with Glass; this feature requires an Android phone.

There may not be many apps for Glass, but the quality is remarkably high Google Glass apps There is a surprisingly good range of apps (known as Glassware) available for Glass. A selection of featured Glassware apps can be found on the Glass website or app in the Glassware Gallery. Glass has its own app store separate to the Google Play store. Installing an app couldn’t be easier. Simply locate the app on the Glass site and tap the switch next to it to On. There is no synching or installation process, the app simply appears in the list of supported apps and opens when you select it. When you install an app, it also adds a new voice command to the default selection (the list that appears when you say “Ok Glass.” Installing

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the Compass app adds the “Show a compass” command, for example. While the selection of apps is much more limited than either Google Play or the Apple App Store, there seems to be no difference between the UK and US in terms of apps. There may not be many apps for Glass, but the quality is remarkably high. Star Chat was a standout experience for us, overlaying a grid of stars above the night sky as we looked around. Word Lens is another ‘augmented reality’ app that translates foreign signs as you look at them (the only downside is that you have to hold still while it works). There are apps for Twitter and Facebook. There are also some early offerings from The Guardian and New York Times (these flash up headline alerts). We were also pleased to see WatchUp on the store, a new service


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that curates video feeds from various news services around the world. There is something frighteningly futurising about hearing a ping, and looking up to watch a video clip of a breaking news event appear right in front of your eyes.

Battery life As you use Glass you quickly realise just what a balancing act Google has had with the product. The space for the battery is much smaller than you’d expect to find in a mobile phone, and you find yourself taking photos and videos more often that you would with a smartphone. Glass is also permanently connected to either an iPhone or Android phone using Bluetooth 4.0 LE (Low Energy). While Bluetooth LE doesn’t drain


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Google claims Glass lasts about a day, but we found it lasts a maximum of eight hours any power when idle, it still drains the battery more quickly when Glass is communicating with the phone (either for data sharing. We found battery life on Glass to be hugely varied depending on how much we used it, and what activity we were doing. We turned off Bluetooth on our smartphone and managed to spend six hours photographing an event; on other days it ran out in just a few hours. Once we took 101 photos and 36 video clips during the course of a day, which is pretty good going. Most of the video clips were the 10-second default, but some lasted around a minute. Recording video drains the battery quickly; you can expect about 45 minutes of battery life with Glass if you just constantly record video. Using Bluetooth also drains the battery quickly (and we found it caused the device to become hot). We found Bluetooth usage also caused Glass to stutter due to overheating if we tried to switch to other apps (we receive the “Glass needs to cool down message” frequently when using Glass with our connected phone). We don’t get on with Directions in a car, and the legality of Glass is questionable at the moment, so Glass is better suited to navigation on foot. Google claims that Glass lasts for about a day, but in truth we find it lasts a maximum of about eight hours if you go easy on video recording.

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Glass was typically done by around 4:30pm in the afternoon. Most of our interactions with apps are fairly brief: you can browse the web and watch YouTube videos, or play Google Play music, but these aren’t the greatest experiences ever. While this would also quickly drain the battery; We quickly tire of trying to look at the Glass display for longer than 30 seconds. It’s clear to us that battery life and the heat caused by the Bluetooth connection are the biggest hurdles Google is facing with Glass development. We also presume that battery life and heat are the reasons Glass does not support its own internal GPS or SIM card housing. Both of which would simply overheat the device or drain its battery so quickly to make it redundant. 92 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 92

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Conclusion

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Should you buy Google Glass? No, probably not is the outright answer. Certainly not for the £1,000 that Google is asking for the Google Glass 2.0 Explorer Edition. It is a waste of time to compare Google Glass with smartphones such as the Google Nexus 5 or tablets such as the Nexus 7. Glass is unique, original… it is outright weird. Glass is not like any other tech product on the market. In terms of features Glass doesn’t offer anything that your smartphone can’t do already. In fact, it does far, far less than the average smartphone. You can’t create calendar events, set alarms, dictate notes, or compose or read documents on Glass, for example. Google Glass is notable for what it gets rid of, rather than what it has. Google Glass is an attempt to get rid of the physical device that you hold up in front of your face during use. Smartphones (or even smartwatches) act as a barrier between you and other people. Sometimes that barrier is helpful, letting people know that you are taking a photo, or talking on the phone or watching a movie; sometimes it isn’t so helpful when all your friends are in a pub checking for phone alerts instead of looking at and talking to each other.

Glass does nothing your smartphone can’t do. In fact, it does far, far less

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For the most part, Glass succeeds in providing a device that enables some of the functions of a smartphone (notably photo and video capture) in a way that is better than any smartphone. Column after column has been written on the social implications of Google Glass. Nobody is talking about the social implications of the smartwatch; that is why Glass strikes us as the more important product in the long run. Google Glass has real implications for society. If Glass is successful, it won’t just disrupt the tech world, but the wider world; perhaps more than any device since the mobile phone. So, if nothing else, Google Glass is interesting. Not since the original iPhone have we had so many people want to talk about it, use it, or know more about it. People who aren’t even normally interested in tech find Glass intriguing. Google Glass in its current state is not designed for consumers, and even putting aside the huge 94 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 94

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price Glass isn’t ready for prime time. The battery drains too quickly, and Glass is prone to overheating when using Bluetooth. Native GPS and a SIM card both slot seem out of the question with the current design and components. Google still has some work to do here. Glass makes sense only if you stop comparing it to smartphones, smartwatches and tablets and see it in the same space as devices such as Oculus Rift or the MakerBot 3D Printer. They are devices that make little sense to consumers, but developers are going nuts for them. Why? Because Glass, Oculus Rift and 3D printers offer a taste of the future. A future where the line between what is real and what is computerised is increasingly eroded. Owning Glass feels like owning a piece of that future. And a taste of it is yours for £1,000. Still, it’s a lot of money for a development kit. Unless you have a vested interest in owning Glass, you are almost certainly better off instead buying an Android Wear watch and waiting for the finished Google Glass product. It may even be out later this year.


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Best- and worst places to wear Google Glass Where should you wear Google Glass? Here are the 5 best- and worst places to wear Google Glass – and one on which we can’t decide Best places: Running, cycling, golfing Pop on your glasses and pop out for a run. Google Glass can navigate your route, and measure your time and speed. It can also give you a hare to chase to improve performance – even allowing you to compete against your previous times on the same route. There are a couple of golf apps that allow you to improve your swing and judge distances – technically cheating but who cares if you are only practising. A hands-free computer, Glass is intended for a sporty, active life. 96 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 96

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Best places: Exploring a new place It’s also the dream for walking around a new country or town. Not only can Google Glass help you navigate, but it offers you the opportunity to capture memories and research the local area. You may have to walk around talking to yourself, but just pretend you are a mad man.

Best places: In the kitchen This may be a personal thing, but when I cook from a recipe I tend to use my smartphone or tablet to view the instructions. This means that my phone is in a constant state of greasy filth as my floury, fatty fingers swipe around. It also means I have to continue to refresh the screen, and I can’t email or message anyone. Wearing Google Glass is perfect for cooking. With the Allthecooks app you can find and share your favourite recipes through Glass, even when your hands are covered in goose fat.


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Best places: On the road If you have to travel for work, or choose to travel for fun, Glass is your friend. Google Now lets you find out flight times or local amenities. The social and messaging apps let you stay in touch. Navigate, convert currencies, or find about interesting local history. Google Glass is your ideal travelling companion.

Best places: In the office Perhaps because you could use Evernote to navigate your to do list. Or maybe so that you can email without breaking off from the task in hand. But mainly because if your office is anything like ours the size and number of your displays is directly related to the sense of importance you can send out. Stick on your Google Glass and you have an infinite display in front of your very eyes. You are instantly the most important person in the office. 98 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 98

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Worst places: A special family event Your daughter’s birthday party, Grannie’s wedding anniversary, a wedding, Christening or Bah Mitzvah. You need to be there, your glass doesn’t. Such events are to be enjoyed in the room, in person. You don’t need Google Glass to capture the odd snap, and no-one else needs to hear you interrupt the vows with ‘Okay Google’. Put them away.

Worst places: At the cinema Some cinemas are banning Google Glass, and although it goes against the grain to support ‘the man’, you can see the point. There’s no good reason to wear your Glass to the flicks. If you are using it to surf mid movie you are breaking the code and distracting others. And really, the only reason to wear your glass is to film the contents of the screen. And as Simon Bates once told me, pirate DVDs are killing the movie industry. Or something. Look, you know what you are doing. Don’t.


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Worst places: To a concert or the theatre Attend any sort of live event these days and you are likely to see people watching not the artists on stage, but the screen of their phone. Google Glass takes this to the nth degree. Yes it is great to take photos and tell the world where you are. But if you are watching through the pane of Google Glass, you’re not actually engaging. Don’t let the experience of being there pass you by because you are so busy capturing it and sharing the fact.

Worst places: Watching sport

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Like being at a concert or the theatre, only with the collective experience being even more important. You won’t give yourself over to the passion of the game if you are surfing the web, taking photos or Tweeting your pithy analysis of the game.

Don’t let the experience of being there pass you by because you are so busy capturing it and sharing the fact


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But much more important: Google Glass and sport do not a good mix. Wear your G-specs at a launch party in Hoxton, they’ll match your beard and tattoos. But no-one will thank you on what remains of the terraces for showing off your digital skills.

Worst places: On the streets near home You have to live near your neighbours, and you don’t need the navigation chops. The only reason to wear your glass through the front door is to make an impression. And if you live on the mean streets the impression you will be making is ‘rob me’. Discretion is the better part of valour here.

We can’t decide: The bedroom ‘I think we should spice things up dear. We could use the Glass to make a home movie in the bedroom.’ In the right hands that could be a good thing. I leave that to you and your conscience. Just make sure you are making a film, and not watching one.


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How to prank people using Google Glass There is so much fun that could be had with Google Glass. We imagine some scenarios

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ne of Google Glass’ features that both delights and aggravates users is voice control, but it could also be used by inventive pranksters for some really cool or annoying effects. And I don’t mean how a wearer of Google Glass could prank someone else, but how someone could target an individual Google Glass user, or every Glass wearer in a particular space.


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The possibilities for this came to me after recent reports that Jesse from Breaking Bad’s Xbox TV ads were turning on Xbox Ones when he spoke the line ‘Xbox on’, activating the Kinect One’s always-on voice control. At which point the user would likely have to switch their TVs back to whatever input they were watching before. To control someone else’s Google Glass you need two things: a loud enough audio source and the ability to get your subject/s to raise their head 30-degrees to activate their voice control. Here are the two main ways in which it could happen – or, if you prefer, the two types of situations in which to be most careful if you’re a Google Glass user.

A single target The simplest way to prank a Google Glass wearer is to get them to look up a bit and then say “Ok Google” in their ear. Saying “Look at that” while pointing slightly upward will work only a few times,


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so you’ll need to be more inventive. Phrases such as “Look at that three-legged pigeon flying past," and questions such as “Is that Dave Gahan from stadium synthpoppers Depeche Mode on the top deck of that 38 bus?” or “Are you coming to the pub?” could catch them as they tilt their head up to begin to nod. Once the prankster has control, there’s a limited set of things he or she can achieve before the victim stops them – but that won’t stop the juvenile from image searching anything from porn to some popular online horror show such as tubgirl (and if you don’t know what that is, don’t look it up.)

Getting a whole audience If Google Glasses do become popular, we could see bands, artists and even – gulp – advertisers taking control of them. This isn’t always a bad thing – it could be kind of cool if done correctly. If you’re watching a gig, likely your head is already at the required 30-degrees as you watch the stage – so your Glass is receptive to instruction – and the need for a loud audio source is also taken care of. The first band to get enough Glass wearers in its audience that a band member can shout “Ok Glass” and everyone to take a photo at the same time will get a lot of press. It’ll also be interesting to see how artists could use 104 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 104

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this. Imagine standing in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern looking up at an installation where a digital part of it is being fed to your Glass by a booming voice. We could see some wonderful things if this was integrated into interactive theatre projects like Secret Cinema – as they did by building an alienfinding body scanner that tracks you using a Kinect. However, we’ll also likely see advertisers get in the action. The band might want you all to take a photo, but their management or record company will want you to buy their records or their merchandise. “Ok Glass. Go to metallica dot com slash merch” will make no-one happy. It could roll out to anywhere you get a lot of people looking up. Everyone crowded around in London’s Victoria station staring up at the boards of train delays times could be captured by advertisers running versions of TV ads on the screen next to it. “Ok Glass. Search Axe body spray.” Cue a lot of people shouting “No. Stop!”

It’ll only grow As more devices become voice controlled, including Android Wear watches and car interfaces, there will be more potential for this kind of verbal device hacking. The easiest way to prevent it would be for Google to allow you to customise your message, but the company’s not going to easily give up the chance to make you speak their brand and reinforce it’s value in your brain. A harder way would be to introduce a level of voice recognition – although you don’t want to be locked out of your devices because you’ve got a cold or your child has just inadvertently head-butted you in the crotch. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 105 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 105

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Why Android Wear makes Google Glass pointless Google Glass is a neat concept, but Android Wear in essence makes it pointless

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ndroid Wear is Google’s mobile operating system tailored to wearable devices such as smartwatches. It brings a familiar Google Now-style interface to your wrist, providing notifications and information when you need it, and covers everything from text messages to turn-byturn navigation. Interaction is easy with simple swipe gestures or even voice commands.


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Android Wear isn’t confined to one device. Although only two are available to buy today, more will launch over time, including the stylish Moto 360. That means you can buy a smartwatch designed to suit your taste. Meanwhile, Google Glass comes in different colours and with optional frames. Glass is still a work in progress, and only serious tech enthusiasts are going to spend a grand on Glass rather than around £150 for an Android Wear watch. And although the price will fall when the final Google Glass product launches, we can’t see it being less expensive than Android Wear. But not only are Android Wear devices considerably cheaper than Google Glass, they can do the same stuff. Both can quickly and efficiently provide the information you need, and can communicate with your paired smartphone to carry out all kinds of tasks. But Glass is compatible with only select apps; Wear works with any app – you don’t even need to install it on the watch. Glass stands out for its camera and ability to capture the moment, but Samsung has previously proved smartwatches can also have cameras. That’s if you want one, of course. Able to capture whatever you’re looking at Glass brings with it privacy and security concerns. You might feel very self-conscious wearing Glass, especially when people start pointing and wondering what on earth that is on your face. But wearing a smartwatch you can go about your daily life as usual. Eat at a restaurant, drive your car and watch a film at the cinema – whatever you like. Wearing Glass isn’t appropriate in every situation – it’s already banned from cinemas. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 107 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 107

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Review: Martian Notifier smartwatch The Martian Notifier will find many fans as a smartwatch that looks like a regular wristwatch £129 • martianwatches.com •

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f you’re looking for a smartwatch but don’t want a huge screen sitting on your wrist then the Martian Notifier might be the one for you.

Design and build Smartwatches are still in their infancy and, as such, are changing and evolving as time goes on. The stereotypical smartwatch has a reasonably big 108 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 108

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screen with which to interact with – but not everyone wants a device like this. Luckily, you don’t have to go down this route to own a smartwatch. Enter the Notifier from American Kickstarter firm, Martian. The Notifier pretty much looks like a regular watch. It’s simple but stylish, and looks more expensive than it really is. It comes in different colours, and features a regular crown and two push buttons. It’s a comfortable watch to wear, but the rubber strap does tend to get clammy and uncomfortable on hot days. Other straps are available, including leather and stainless steel, but you’ll need a special tool to change them.

Notifications As the name of the device suggests, the Notifier is all about giving you notifications. This means you won’t need to get your phone out of a pocket or bag


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to read a text message or see who is calling. It does this via a small oblong OLED screen at the bottom of the watch face. It’s 96x16 pixels, so not exactly highres, but it does the job. You can get all kind of notifications, from pretty much anything which is installed on your companion smartphone or tablet. And you can pick and choose which come through to the Notifier via the dedicated app. It’s not all or nothing. Vibration intensity can be adjusted on scale of 0to 15, and you can pick your own personal patterns for different alerts. Four consecutive vibrations can be long, short or paused (nothing). For example, a text message can be long, pause, long, pause, while a phone call could be long, short, short, long. This way you’ll know which type of notification you’ve received without even looking at the watch.


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Notifications are read out twice and an LED flashes (you can switch off the latter). If you miss a notification you can recall it by double-tapping the glass front. However, you can do this only up to five minutes after it was received.

More than notifications While the Notifier does a great job of providing information to your wrist and looking like a regular watch, it can perform some other tricks – some of which we weren’t expecting. Pushing the top button will activate voice control on your phone. Pressing the bottom button once will give you a scrolling list of the time, battery life with connection status, the date and optionally the weather. We often found it didn’t match the information on our phone. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 111 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 111

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Keep tapping the bottom button and you’ll scroll through a list of options, including a light (switches the LED to white), do not disturb (switch on to prevent notifications) and find phone (forces your phone to play an alert so you can locate it). Furthermore, the watch can be used as a remote control for your smartphone’s camera. Point your phone in the right direction, put the watch into camera mode, tap the button and you’ll trigger a three-second countdown for the shutter.

Setup, compatibility and apps Setting up the Martian Notifier is relatively easy once you learn how to navigate the menu system.


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We had to use the instructions, but you’ll need to do so only once. The device is compatible with any smartphone or tablet running Android 2.3 or later. You use the app to make the initial Bluetooth connection, and thereafter only to tweak settings and alarms.

Battery life Having to charge multiple devices every night is frustrating, so the claimed six-day battery life is welcome. In fact we found it lasted a whole week. Your mileage may vary in relation to your popularity and the number of apps you have installed. The analogue clock runs on a separate battery, so cleverly will keep going even after the smart element of the device runs out of juice. This will last two years, according to Martian. The Notifier charges up pretty quickly and, although it receives power over standard MicroUSB, you’ll need to use the supplied cable. The connection is set sufficiently far into the body of the watch that a regular Micro-USB cable won’t reach.

Verdict The Martian Notifier is a great choice for those who want a smartwatch with the design of a regular wristwatch. It’s affordable and still stylish, although the rubber strap isn’t the most comfortable to wear. Its main skill is in delivering notifications, but additional features such as remote camera control may prove to be handy. We’re hoping for a UK launch soon, although you can ship it from the US. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 113 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 113

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Review: HTC One mini 2 Smaller and cheaper than the One M8, HTC has done a good job of retaining the premium feel £359 • htc.com/uk •

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t’s now the norm for companies to launch smaller and cheaper versions of their flagship smartphones, which is exactly what HTC has done here. If you can’t afford its One M8, then the One mini 2 is more likely to be within your budget. As you would expect, it’s smaller than the flagship M8, though, not by much – HTC has shaved 5mm off the width and 10mm from the height. That’s enough to make it a more manageable phone, though, especially on the one-handed front.


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It’s lighter at 137g compared to 160g, which is a good weight for a smartphone. However, it’s a little thicker at 10.6mm against its sibling’s 9.4mm. It’s a little taller than other phones with the same screen size, but it does have front-facing stereo speakers. Dimensions aside, the One mini 2 retains the design and style of the M8. It importantly has the same premium brushed metal rear cover, which looks and feels great. The cover doesn’t run right round to the front of the phone like the M8, so instead there is a plastic band around the edge. As is customary for a ‘diminutive’ smartphone, the One mini 2 has a smaller screen than the flagship M8. It’s 4.5in compared to 5in which matches that of the freshly announced Galaxy S5 mini. Whether 4.5in is ‘mini’ enough for you is another matter. The trend of bigger screens continues, so we’re now at


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a point where mini versions of flagships are the kind of size that flagship devices used to be. If you want a smaller screen then you better look elsewhere. It’s no surprise the resolution is 720p HD rather than Full HD, and although the screen looks good with a 326ppi pixel density (matching the iPhone 5s), but you can get this on budget phones such as Motorola’s Moto G 4G. Under the hood is a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, with 1GB of RAM. The HTC scored 1153 in GeekBench 3, which tallies with smartphones using the same components, such as the Sony Xperia M2. However, it’s no slouch and in everyday use, Android is buttery smooth. Apps are quick to load 116 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 116

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as are web pages. Scrolling around web pages and maps isn’t a chore: it’s all nice and responsive. Only on one occasion did we see a hesitation when returning to the home screen. There’s enough power for games, as long as you’re not expecting to play the latest and most demanding titles. Games and videos benefit from the front-facing speakers, too. There’s only a 16GB model of the HTC One mini 2, so the only difference between models is the colour. It’s a standard capacity now, but we’re pleased to report that the handset has a microSD card slot which wasn’t on the first HTC One mini. You can add 128GB via the card slot. Remaining hardware includes dual-band Wi-Fi (not 11ac, though), Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, GPS and NFC. There’s also support for 4G.


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The main camera has a 13Mp sensor and is capable of 1080p video recording. Image quality is, however, underwhelming when you zoom in and look at the details, but they’re fine for sharing snaps on Facebook. Videos are also disappointing. Again, there’s a noticeable lack of sharp detail. Heavy handed compression means textures tend to turn into smudgy messes . The front-facing ‘selfie’ camera has a 5Mp resolution and a timer, so you can get ready for the shot without having to press a button at the right moment. There are crazy effects for softening skin tones, brightening eyes and even changing the shape of your face. 118 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 118

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Once again, photos look pretty good until you start zooming in to see the actual pixels. Do this, and you’ll see the same degrading effects of compression with an obvious lack of detail. The One mini 2 comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat and HTC’s Sense version 6.0 – the same as the flagship M8. Sense has always been a decent Android overlay/skin and the latest edition is no exception. It’s clean, stylish and easy to use. It’s a shame that the Motion Launch Gestures found on the M8 are nowhere to be seen. These make life easier, allowing you to switch the phone on with a double-tap or use a swipe gesture to go straight to BlinkFeed. Customisation options do remain, though – namely via different themes, which change elements such as the wallpaper. You can also select or download system fonts and choose which notifications are flagged up by the notification light. Battery life is on a par with most of the latest Android handsets, which is to say that it easily lasts a day. You might even find it carries on well into the next day if you’re not using it too heavily.

Verdict

“

The HTC One mini 2 has the same premium feel as the M8 with only a few downgrades.

There are crazy effects for softening skin tones, brightening eyes and even changing the shape of your face

”


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Review: Asus Memo Pad 7 Costing just £120 the Asus Memo Pad 7 tablet squares up to the Tesco Hudl and Google Nexus 7 £120 • uk.asus.com •

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sus has launched a new generation of Android tablet, taking another stab at the 7in market with the Memo Pad 7, which joins the Memo Pad 8 and 10in Transformer Pad in the latest Asus tablet line-up. At just £120, this budget 7in tablet takes on the likes of the Tesco Hudl, and challenges the £199 Nexus 7. The budget tablet market has been a bit of a risky area for consumers in the past, but since the launch of several impressive but cheap tablets like Tesco’s £120 Hudl, the £120 Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the £159 Barnes & Noble Nook HD, the reputation of the sub-£200 tablet market has improved vastly. So much so, in fact, that the £199 Nexus 7 is actually top of our 2014 tablet chart right now, beating the likes of


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£400 tablets such as the iPad Air and Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. So how does the Asus Memo Pad 7 fare against this tough competition? Read on to find out.

Design & build Like the Tesco Hudl, the Memo Pad 7 (ME176CX) comes in several colours, though we find Asus’s colour choices decidedly more appealing. We tested a rather delightful metallic blue model, but there are also yellow, red, black or white options available. Overall, we found the design and build of the Memo Pad 7 to be surprisingly solid and attractive for a budget tablet. The bezels around the 7in display are small, particularly compared to the Hudl, Nook HD and Kindle Fire HD. Although plastic, the back has a smooth, premium-feel finish, and the ports, speakers, camera and buttons are neat. It’s 9.6mm thick, which is thinner than the Tesco Hudl, but is chunkier than the 8.7mm of the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini’s 7.5mm. It weighs 295g, which is less than the Hudl’s 370g and the iPad mini’s 331g. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 121 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 121

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The weight and thickness of the Asus Memo Pad 7 is ideal for a 7in tablet, with the width of the device in portrait mode perfect for gripping with one hand. You’ll need two hands to use the tablet while holding it, but for reading or watching a video, holding it with one hand won’t get too heavy, and you won’t feel like you’re about to drop it. There’s no flap to cover the microSD slot, though, so we imagine it could get rather dusty in there if you’re not using a card. Also, we found that the tablet’s screen is quite reflective and really shows up fingerprints and smudges.

Hardware & performance The Asus Memo Pad 7’s 7in IPS display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, making a 216ppi pixel density. That’s a bit disappointing when you compare it with the Nexus 7’s 323ppi display, and even the Tesco Hudl’s 243ppi. However, we found the screen to be bright, colourful and crisp enough for most – you’ll only really notice the lower pixel density if you’re already used to using a much higher-resolution display. Inside the Asus Memo Pad 7 is an impressive 64-bit 122 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 122

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1.86GHz Intel Atom Quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. Intel’s Atom processor is powerful enough to be used in netbooks and hybrids, in addition to tablets and smartphones, so is a fantastic selling point for a budget tablet like this one. Although Android isn’t 64-bit just yet, we found the Memo Pad to be responsive and smooth, and it performed most tasks we through with ease. Apps launched quickly on most occasions – even the camera app, which is often found to be the downfall of other tablets and smartphones. There were a few times when we found the tablet a little laggy, but thankfully it was rare enough that we hardly noticed. In our benchmark testing, we found that the Asus Memo Pad 7 scored 2400 in our GeekBench 3 test, 14.4fps in the Manhattan GFXBench graphics test and 608ms in the SunSpider browser test. Those results are higher than the likes of the Tesco Hudl and quite similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. There’s an option of either 8GB or 16GB internal storage, and a microSD slot lets you add an extra 64GB if you need it. This is something that the Nexus 7 lacks, but the Tesco Hudl has a microSD card for adding up to 32GB more. As can be expected, the Asus Memo Pad 7 has Wi-Fi, although not the latest (faster) 802.11ac ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 123 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 123

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standard. It also has Bluetooth 4.0, but there’s no 3G/4G connectivity or NFC.

Software

“

We rather like Asus’s ZenUI interface for Android 4.4 KitKat. It’s not so different that you’ll find it unfamiliar, but it does offer flat, simple and easy-to-understand icons and apps across the board, complete with gentle and pleasant colour schemes. Notably, the What’s Next feature is a neat way of managing your schedule, bringing together events, meetings, birthdays and more from different apps.

ZenUI offers flat, simple and easy-to-understand icons and apps across the board, complete with gentle and pleasant colour schemes It’ll also provide you with reminders if you’ve got an appointment coming up, for example. Do It Later is also handy for helping you remember to read that email you got in the middle of lunch earlier, or watch a YouTube video you didn’t have time to view for example. It’s pretty smart too, organising the tasks into categories so you don’t have to sort through the list.

”

Battery life The Asus Memo Pad 7 has a non-removable 15Wh battery, which Asus says will last for nine hours of constant use. We’ve been using the Memo Pad for browsing the web, sending emails and using social media occasionally throughout the day and have 124 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 124

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found that it can last for several days with this kind of use. If you’re a gamer or like to watch videos or TV shows on your commute, you will find that the battery drains quicker, but you won’t need to charge it more than once every couple of days. The Memo Pad 7 has an excellent Power Saver app, which allows you to turn on what Asus calls ‘Smart Saving’ options, including optimised mode for general battery life extension, ultra-saving mode if you’re running dangerously low, or a custom power saving mode that you can adapt to your preference.

Cameras The Asus Memo Pad 7 has two cameras, one on the front and one on the back. The rear-facing camera is 5Mp like the one found in the iPad mini and iPad Air. We found the results to be reasonable, but you won’t be printing the snaps and framing them. They’re not particularly sharp and many of our test photos were quite grainy, especially in darker conditions.


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The camera app is nice though, with previews of fun filters and effects, including Lomo (above right), Sepia, Cartoon, Hue and more. There’s also a useful Burst Mode for action shots and moving subjects. Other options include HDR, Panorama, Night, Selfie, All Smiles, Portrait and Smart Remove, which automatically removes moving subjects. We don’t usually like to use tablets to take photos – it always seems like a bit of a clumsy task – but we found that it actually felt quite natural with the size, shape and overall feel of the Memo Pad 7. The Memo Pad 7 can capture 1080p video, too, and the results, again, were reasonable. It’ll do the trick, but if you’re heading out with the view 126 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 126

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to capture something on video, we’d recommend taking another device with better video capabilities. On the front of the Memo Pad 7 is a 2Mp camera ideal for video calls, with 720p video recording.

Verdict For just £120, we’re really impressed with the Asus Memo Pad 7. In addition to a good-looking design and sturdy build, it also boasts hardware that rivals tablets with much higher price tags. A higherresolution screen and front-facing speakers would add even more appeal, but if you’re looking for a budget tablet and have been considering the Tesco Hudl, Kindle Fire HD or even the Nexus 7, it’s worth investigating the Asus Memo Pad 7, too.


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10 strangest, most pointless Android apps What were they thinking? You won’t believe what’s at number one in our list of the 10 strangest Android apps

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s there anything a smartphone or tablet can’t do these days? Making cows moo and licking your own phone screen is pretty odd, sure, but you won’t believe what’s at number one in our list of the 10 strangest, most pointless free Android apps you can download today.

10. Fake Call If you’re a bit of a loner Fake Call can help you to justify carrying a smartphone. Using this app you can initiate fake calls and texts to yourself; you can even pre-record your own voice to make it sound as though you are talking to someone else. Wow. According to the developer Fake Call is useful for getting yourself out of awkward situations (but to successfully pull off that one you’ll need to know in advance at what time you’ll want to escape and schedule the fake call). 128 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 128

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Also, probably best not to use a picture of Angelina Jolie if you want to avoid questions (pretty sure that’s not her phone number anyway).

9. Holy Cow Do you like cows? Do you like things that go Moo? You’ll love Holy Cow. You press Moo; the cow goes Moo. If only everything in life was so simple and straightforward.

8. Pointless Button Perhaps one of the most pointless apps is one that is designed to be pointless but actually has a point to it. Pointless Button is simply an onscreen button that you push. To be pointless, though, you’d expect nothing to happen when you push the button. After a certain number of taps you unlock various things such as a picture of a cat, and after a while you start to wonder what else will pop up onscreen if you just keep pushing that button…

7. Sleep Sheep If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia, no doubt some helpful soul has suggested you count sheep. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 129 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 129

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The idea is to picture sheep jumping over a fence, counting each as they pass. You’ll focus your mind on a single task, rather than whatever has been keeping you awake, and eventually bore yourself to sleep. Except counting sheep doesn’t work, according to scientists at Oxford University. So it probably doesn’t matter, then, that Sleep Sheep misses the point and counts the sheep on your behalf. With this app you simply get to watch a really boring graphic of sheep jumping over a fence. No matter how long you watch them, they don’t turn around and pull a silly face or do a star jump or anything. It’s just really dull. (And you’re still awake.)

6. Fake Windows 8 I once reviewed Fake Windows 8. I think I might have been trying to put off something else on my todo list. In essence, it lets you pretend your Android phone is running Windows 8. Not Windows Phone 8 – actual Windows 8. I can’t imagine why you might want to do that, unless you have some incredibly geeky friends you want to upset. 130 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 130

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5. Pimple Popper Did your mum tell you never to pick your spots because they would scar? Did you do it anyway and now regret it? Pimple Popper ensures the younger generation won’t have to endure this anguish, allowing them to get their pimple-popping hit from a free app rather than their own spotty faces. There are several types of spots to squeeze, even crusty ones. Personally I think it’s revolting, but then I once blocked a good friend on Facebook for posting *that* YouTube video to my wall. You know the one I mean. Yuck.

4. Beer FREE This is bizarre. Why would you pretend to drink beer when you could just go and have a beer? However, children, alcoholics and the barking mad might enjoy Beer FREE from neptune labs, a ‘fun’ app that lets you pretend your phone is a beer; you tilt your phone to drink the beer, and once it’s all gone you get a complimentary burp. Nice. ISSUE 7 • ANDROID ADVISOR 131 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 131

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3. I Am Rich Once upon a time if you had a spare $1,000 you could buy an app called ‘I Am Rich’ from the App Store. Its only functionality was to display a red gem onscreen (not even as a wallpaper), making sure everyone around you knew you were loaded (and weird). Eight people actually bought it before Apple pulled the app. (Really.) Now available on Google Play from the wonderfully named developer iBanned, I Am Rich doesn’t require you to be rich at all – it’s free. And still totally pointless.

2. Lick The Icicle You must have seen those apps that show a cat or a dog licking the inside of your smartphone screen. Cute, right? Erm, not really. More odd, though, are 132 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 7 Android Advisor Issue 7.indd 132

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those that encourage you to lick your own smartphone screen. (Now might be a good time to draw attention to our advice on how to clean your phone or tablet.) Now I don’t think the developer of Lick The Icicle really expects you to lick the icicle to make it melt (you need only touch it), but by suggesting your tongue will freeze if you lick the icicle for too long he just might be having a giggle at your expense.

1. TapThat With TapThat you take two NFC-enabled smartphones, choose a character on each (one of whom could be Homer Simpson, to give you an idea of the calibre of this app), then tap together those phones to let them, erm, get busy making mini smartphones. I say no more. (The horror.)


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Android.Advisor.Issue.07.2014.pdf

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