My favourite Android apps

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Acer Android netbook review: first look

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Following Acer’s announcement of its dual-boot netbook that boasts both Google Android and Windows 7, I got an opportunity to spend some time with the netbook in question: the Acer Aspire One D250 with Android.

On this occasion, it isn’t the hardware I was interested in, but the software. For this is the first netbook PC Pro has seen to include Android as the OS, and the big question is – just how well can an operating system designed to work on a phone work on a full-blown PC?

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The HTC Magic and Google Android: a Real World test

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Perhaps I’m a luddite but my mobile phones have tended to be, well, pretty basic since my first, screen-less brick 13 years ago. My priorities had been limited to good signal quality, long battery life, the best possible camera and easy-to-use texting. Occasionally, I’d look up the football or cricket scores on the BBC’s mobile site but that was about the limit of my ambitions.  The BlackBerry passed me by completely (I don’t like phones with QWERTY keyboards) and I’d had little interest in the iPhone due to its long, expensive contract options and umbilical connection to the truly loathsome (on a PC at least) iTunes.

And then I found myself tempted by the Apple beast just because I’d come across some teenagers mucking about with theirs, leaving me feeling jealous and inadequate (shallow, me?). So I nearly gave in. But I just couldn’t justify it. I’d either have to pay the best part of £100 for the phone (pay? for a phone?) or saddle myself with a £45 a month contract for two years: that’s an expensive and long-lived mistake to make. (more…)

Spotify for iPhone: first look

Monday, September 7th, 2009

The eagerly awaited music-streaming service Spotify has today arrived on both the iPhone App Store and on Android’s Marketplace, and I’ve been granted a seven-day guest pass to see if it’s really worth that £10-a-month premium account.

Over the course of a year that does seem like a lot of money – particularly as most users will already have huge music collections of their own – but the promise of millions of tracks available on the move is certainly tempting.

Starting up

Once logged in, you’ll be delighted to see all of your desktop playlists seamlessly synced with Spotify on your phone, and if that’s what you’re after you can just dive straight in. (more…)

How to stream Spotify to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and digital radios

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Spotify may have launched its iPhone and Android apps, but how about streaming the Spotify sounds to other devices in the home, such as games consoles and digital radios? After all, many of us have expensive speaker systems connected to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, while the speakers found on the average laptop give even Barry White the nasally whine of the Bee Gees.

Although the Spotify software itself doesn’t support streaming to other devices, it’s perfectly possible to do so with the third-party software, Jamcast. What’s more, the Jamcast software is completely free of charge and (unlike the iPhone/Android software) you don’t need a premium Spotify account to take advantage.

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Microsoft to scrap three app limit for Windows 7 Starter?

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

It appears Microsoft has come to its senses and decided to remove the completely arbitrary three app limit from Windows 7 Starter edition. Word of the U-turn comes via the normally reliable Paul Thurrott, who makes the claim in the briefiest of blog posts on his SuperSite for Windows, although there’s no official word from Microsoft yet.

Why the about face? Perhaps Microsoft has recognised what we’ve been telling them publicly and privately since this ridiculous announcement was made: limiting netbook owners to three concurrent apps is hugely frustrating. Open your email, web browser and IM client, and you’ve got to shut down one of them before you can fire up Media Player to watch the video clip you’ve just clicked on.

With competitors such as the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the Intel-backed Moblin and Google’s Android all looming large, Microsoft probably decided it couldn’t afford to give PC manufacturers any excuse to look elsewhere.

So well done Microsoft. Now if you can see your way clear to putting BitLocker To Go into the Professional edition, we can all rest easy…

Hands on with the HTC Magic, the second Android phone

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

I’ve just come back from the launch of the second Google Android phone to be released, and I must say I’m impressed. Its sleek profile and solid build quality are a world away from the dumpy and disappointing T-Mobile G1, which we reviewed at the back end of last year.

UPDATE: Read the full review here

It’s been manufactured by the same company as the G1 – HTC – the firm also behind the Touch Diamond2 we reviewed last week, and it’s available for free on a £35 per month tariff, which gets you 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data.

And while I’m none too keen on the fact that it’s only going to be available in white, I did warm immediately to the solid and sleek feel of this new Android phone. It weighs 118.5g and its dimensions  - 55mm wide, 113mm tall and just 13.65mm thick – make it extremely pocket friendly. The gloss finish, sculpted lines and oversized trackball all contribute to a sophisticated look that the G1 could only dream of.

Apart from the looks, though, the key difference is the on-screen touch keyboard and I was keen to try this out…

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First look: the Android G1

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

After months of hype, we’ve finally laid hands and eyes on the most hotly-anticipated mobile phone launch since the first iPhone came out.

As you’ll probably know by now, unless you’ve been living in a particularly dark and damp cave over the past few months and weeks, the T-Mobile G1 is the first handset to sport Google’s Android mobile operating system. And, after a brief tete-a-tete with the phone this morning, we’re ready to report our first impressions. So how does it stack up?

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Will Apple or Android get in my pocket?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Following the unexpected demonstration of an Android handset here at Google’s Developer Day, more information about the OS and the upcoming handset has been leaking out of Android boss Mike Jennings in the last hour, as nearly a hundred curious developers fire volley after volley of tough questions at him.

He’s already using an Android-based handset as his personal phone, he claims, although he has to switch to another when in public. “Soon I’ll be able to show it off in less controlled conditions,” he says hopefully, carefully revealing nothing about the official release date.

Personally, I have six months left on my own mobile contract, and Google has just less than that time to tempt me away from an iPhone. What I’ve seen this morning bodes well, but I’m not the only one who needs to be won over.

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Android handset hits London

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

I’m currently sitting in an Android seminar at the Google Developer Day in London, watching Mike Jennings (the head of Android development, not our gargantuan staff writer) give a talk on the open mobile OS. What I thought would be an interesting day with few surprises has just got exciting. Out of the blue we’ve just had the first European demonstration of an Android handset.

 The actual device itself looks much like the “mystery” handset that we’ve all seen before in blurry YouTube videos, and the HTC Dream, which is rumoured to be launching as soon as the next fortnight. Personally, I think it bore a remarkable resemblance to the HTC Dream. 

 Technically, little had changed from the earlier leaked videos, but this device looked far more polished. In fact, it even had masking tape over the operator’s logo. This didn’t look like a pre-release prototype, this looked like it was a finished commercial device.

 Jennings gave a nice demonstration of an OpenGL and Java application that showed a cube morphing and rotating. I’d run the same application on my own PC in the office, and this was running far smoother on a mobile handset. 40 frames per second, claimed Jennings. It’s impressive stuff.