3G / 4G possibly coming to the London Underground.

We have Virgin Media's WiFi between stops but this looks to improve on that. 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/20/london-underground-3g-4g/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/long-term-economic-plan-for-london-announced-by-chancellor-and-mayor-of-london

I bought a OnePlus One - mini review time!

The UK is a horrible place for buying a contract phone! 12 month contracts are hard to come by and when someone does offer them, there is usually a considerable mark-up on the overall cost. 

So having gone now the sim-only rolling contract route, I got a great deal with Three.co.uk a while back which equals to: 200mins, 5000 SMS and Unlimited 4G* for about £13per month. You can't really argue with that and the price has since gone up. The only draw back is I can't tether other devices but I rarely do that to validate an extra £8 a month. 

So being on this contract left me with my old faithful Samsung Galaxy S4. It still works but looks beaten and deserves a rest (or a £100 exchange with recycling firms). 

Enter the OnePlus One. a high(ish) end phone that seems to have been priced as a mid-range phone. The excuse being they don't blow all their money on marketing. I went for the 64GB version as it doesn't have a micro SD slot. This comes in a £269 (not inc shipping). I also got the blue flip case for a little protection. 

Impressions:  It's big! Previously I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and it feels on par with that although not as wide and more comfortable in the hand as the buttons don't feel as low down on the bottom. Compared to the S4 it's huge! Thickness is what you'd expect from this size of phone and slips into pockets easily enough when combined with not being overly wide.

The Screen: It's 1080p, not 4k which is actually probably a good thing in terms of battery. The brightness is good and text looks clear and sharp.

Battery: This is my third day with it so I'm still unsure about this. I have been using the phone a lot while customising it and installing everything back onto it including videos and music. The specs suggest a nice large 3100 mAh battery which should mean a decent stint under normal use.  I haven't messed with any battery saving features so I might not be used to length as I always had my S4 on power saving mode.

The camera: The camera is great and the flash is even better. I haven't tested the 4k video yet but this was another appealing factor about the phone. Also the fact that it uses multiple mic's for better sound recording!

I mentioned in a previous post I got some Samsung Level Over's. These and the Samsung app for them work beautifully.

Only issue I've hit so far is that I used to get cheap plastic bike holders for my Samsung phones. Ironically with this being a Chinese phone I would have thought there would have been a ton of cheap accessories flooding the market. I seem to only be able to find universal bike holders which I'm not overly keen on.

[Edit] - Actually, I don't like how they've integrated SwiftyKey. I changed over to Swype in stead and found that much better.

Anyway, to wrap up. I'm very impressed with this phone. Any questions? Leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

https://oneplus.net/uk/one#specifications

*Fair use policy applies.

7680 x 4320 notebook and tablet screens are coming..(2016)

The Reg has the details. Basically the Display port standard is being updated to 1.4a from 1.3 which only included monitor support for 8k.

Might be worth skipping the whole 4k thang and waiting a year or two for 8k. Graphics cards will no doubt have to play catch up.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/13/displayport_standard_beefs_up_to_handle_8k_notebooks/

New gadget alert! Smasung Level Overs

I gave in and bought  these as the price point had come down far enough for my liking! £164 for a Bluetooth Headset with decent ANC is very nice and is now in the sort of range of Plantronics offering. 

I've only had them a few days and the ANC doesn't seem as crazy good as the Purity Pro's I had previously but it's good enough to drown out Office AC and other consistent background noises. It's not strong enough to drown out people taking though. 

Comfort: These are very nice. I can wear them for a good few hours with no aches or pains where as the really soft Senhheisers HD558's start to feel a bit too much like they are clamped to your head after a long while.

Looks: I thought the black version looked a little too boring while the White/tan colouring in my opinion looks very nice.

Controls: So on the right side there are touch controls. swipe the cup forward / back and the track will skip forward / back (Although I found this didn't work on play.sportify.com ). Up / Down will control the volume which works pretty damn well for me.

Premier League rights: Sky Sports & BT win UK broadcasting rights as price tops £5billion

I guess Sky thought they had to 'Go big or go home' at this auction. The share price had dropped about 50p by the end of the day on announcement (903p) and has recovered pretty  well today (933p).

God only knows what these auctions will be like in a few years, The prices paid are insane. Hopefully we won't get to a point where Ofcom has to step in to protect consumers from rising subscription costs,

I can't help but think the Premier League should be forced to feed more money down into the lower leagues as well or justify the amounts raised in some way. I would be nigh on impossible for a startup to enter the market without huge backing from the likes of say; Vodafone or Liberty Global these days.

Hopefully this won't effect Sky's commitment to original programming that they started making more noise about after the Champions league rights went in BT's favor previously. .

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-tv-rights-sky-sports-and-bt-sport-win-uk-broadcasting-rights-as-price-tops-5billion-10036935.html

Microsoft acquires Sunrise, the best calendar app for iOS and Android

Lets hope this means wider format support on Windows Phone 10 and a better outlook.com calendar on iOS and Android!

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/11/7984603/microsoft-sunrise-acquisition-official

HTC's cringe worthy vendor is hilarious!

Haven't had a HTC since the Windows Mobile days but the hardware isn't bad and the marketing team is obviously having some fun fighting with the other manufacturers for a place in peoples pockets.

RASPBERRY PI 2 ON SALE NOW AT £26 (More like £30)

Every school kid should be given one, its a great way to teach IT and give kids an understanding of the computer parts and how a computer really works as opposed to just learning Microsoft Office skills in class. This is the main goal of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and also why the price point is so low! 

I've ordered mine and can't wait to get it. I had the original and skipped the B+ model. 

There are so many add-ons and projects that can be done with these. Personally I've used mine for learning a bit of Python, some bit-coin mining and also to set-up my own email server (not for permanent use).  

http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/