The key point here is that while Android 2.0 Gingerbread is now a little dated, it is also very stable, efficient and rarely crashes. The good news is that early reports do include a high level of stability. This is mostly down to the fact that ice cream sandwich has now had a few months to be fine tuned, but it was a highly efficient OS to begin with.

While Android 4.0 is now more stable, many Samsung Galaxy S2 owners might not be looking to make the switch straight away.  The new OS doesn’t really bring that many new features to the table, which leaves more casual users wondering whether the update will be worth the potential issues. For the most part the new android OS improves the look and usability of the phone rather than the features (although little additions  like ‘face unlock’ are pretty sweet).

Personally, the new features (while minor) are well worth the update in my opinion.

The Nokia PureView 41MP smart phone beats the resolution of most high end cameras, and most of it’s internal specs put current smart phones to shame, but despite these features, Nokia will not be releasing their flagship phone to the United States.

All is not lost though.  Nokia have mentioned that while the Nokia PureView wont be arriving any time soon, photography lovers will be pleased to hear that the 41 megapixel sensor will be released in the near future, albeit on the Windows OS.

If you don’t want to wait, the Nokia 808 PureView will be released in nearly every other country, so there is a possibility that you will be able to import this high end smart phone from abroad

Lets start with the basics, but first i need to point out that this is the Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G touch version of the phone, found on the Sprint network.  You may find that some other models of this phone vary slightly.

Samsung Galaxy S2

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a big phone.  Despite being big, it still manages to be surprisingly thin, and incredibly lightweight. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is in fact so lightweight, that the ‘flimsy’ feel to it is one of the largest complaints of this phone.  Don’t be deterred by this though, the Galaxy S2 is far from flimsy, it has  a high quality plastic case, and the tough Gorilla Glass. In drop tests the Galaxy S2 actually protects the phone much more effectively than the iPhone 4S. The overall size of the phone is 5.11 x 2.74 x 0.38 inches wighing in at 4.6 ounces.

What really makes the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s large clear super AMOLED plus 4.52 inch screen that is bright, clear and low power consumption. it has an 800×480 resolution, which is a little low compared to the competition, but not noticeably so. From personal use, the screen of the Galaxy S2 is very clear, sharp and bright, it stays visible even during daylight and quite easily blows past smart phone screens out of the water.

Inside the Galaxy S2 things get even better. A 1.2 ghz dual core, 1 gig of ram, and 16GB of built in internal storage make this phone a powerful device by itself, but compare it to the competition (including the iPhone 4S) and you can see just how far ahead of its class the Samsung Galaxy S2 really is!

The battery can last well over eight hours talk time and 10.5 days standby, and is a lithium ion 1899mAh beast that will help power this phone.  From personal usage, which includes heavy data use, I tend to need to charge this phone on a daily basis, but this does include everything from watching movies on the go via 4G, to checking my emails and playing games.

Feature wise the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with everything you would expect, including Siri like voice usage, apps, flash compatibility, web browser, GPS navigation and all the applications you can download.  One thing worth mentioning is that although the Samsung Galaxy S2 has 16GB of internal memory, only 2GB is available for your ‘system’.  The system file is also where many app files are stored, this means that if you install a large number of apps, you may find yourself limited when it comes to installs.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 uses Gingerbread 2.3 (maybe upgraded to ice cream sandwich)  which is a beautifully crafted OS.  My favorite feature of this operating system is the ability to add ‘widgets’ straight on to my dashboard screens. This means for the information I need on a regular basis, I don’t even have to load apps anymore, the information is right there where I need it.

One thing that will capture any budding photographers attention is the 8 Megapixel camera, any budding YouTuber will also fall in love with the front facing camera, which while not high-res, is great for taking videos of yourself talking.  You can also use this camera to do live video chat, and with the 4G network this works incredibly well.

Yes, one of the big benefits of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s true 4G connectivity.  You need to have a 4G network for this to really work, some carriers have what amounts to “3G plus”, which is actually quite a bit slower.

This smart phone has more than just a 4G connection. It also works with 3G, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth and of course GPS. This wide range of connectivity means that it is actually pretty hard not to get a data connection.

All in all the Samsung Galaxy S2 is absolutely everything you could want in a phone, it is large but thin, tough but light, fast and powerful.  If you are looking for an iPhone 4S alternative, this is it.

Don’t forget to buy a Samsung Galaxy S2 case though!

Looking for The Perfect Christmas Gift!

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift can be hard, even if you know a person really well. Fortunately these gifts are going to light up the eyes of most people!

Nintendo 3DS

When I first heard about the Nintendo 3DS and it’s glasses-free 3D capabilities I didn’t think too much about it, until I played on one. The 3D really does look 3D and you find yourself being drawn in to the game as it’s 3D world envelopes you.

While the Nintendo 3DS has very few downsides (A heavily reduced battery life being the prime example) it does come with more benefits than you can shake a stick at.

While the 3D screen is of course the main feature (and a great one at that) but it also lets you take 3D pictures, and it includes a gyroscope and accelerometer, letting you control your games with movement as well as controls!

Combining the 3D with movement based controls makes the Nintendo 3DS unbeateble in my eyes, and with the recent price drop of $80, it is now one of the most advanced yet affordable consoles on the market!

The Nintendo 3DS is a great Christmas gift for adults and children alike! You might want to check out some of the best 3DS games as well, to find the perfect accompyment to this amazing gadget!

The Amazon Kindle Fire

For those who love a more traditional style of entertainment, The Amazon Kindle Fire provides ebooks, films and more on the latest from the Amazon Kindle series.

Boasting full color and a multi touch screen, te Amazon Kindle Fire moves away from the traditional e-reader style of ‘soft’ reading and instead embraces the more colorful iPad format.

Based on the android platform, the Amazon Kindle Fire offers many of the things you would expect from a tablet PC. You can watch movies, tv shows, play games, browse the web and read your email on top of the basic e-book functionality.

What differentiates it from competitors tablets is the price.  At $199 on release this is a huge reduction on the $600 iPad price tag.

As of right now it looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire is the best well rounded portable entertainment device.

The iPad 2

The iPad 2 is an even more powerful version of the original iPad that turned Tablet PC’s in to a popular consumer product. With plenty of bells and whistles, the iPad 2 is a fantastic companion for both business and personal use. While it might not have enough capability to replace your laptop just yet, it is an amazing way to keep track of email and do research while you work.

For personal use the iPad 2 is fantastic for both entertainment and organization.  The near unlimited selection of apps means that you can use your iPad 2 to do anything from track your jogging performance, to play Angry birds.

While the iPad 2 really is one fantastic device, it does come at quite an expensive cost.  The good news is that there are plenty of other tablets available which provide the same, and often better functionality than the iPad 2, although they don’t carry quite the same cool factor.

f however you are buying this for someone who thinks the Amazon Kindle Fire is simple not enough, the iPad 2 is the most saught after tablet PC available!

Logitech Solar Keyboard

I have to admit I had kind of figured that the arms race on keyboards was over.  We already had wireless, we had functionality, and we had streamlined.  Therefore I was a little bit surprised when I saw the Logitech K750, the Logitech Solar Keyboard land in my tips e-mail address.

When I first saw this keyboard I have to admit, I did think it was a little bit of a gimmick, after all, is it really that much trouble to change batteries out every few weeks?

After digging a little further though, I began to discover that this simple idea has been built in to a truly fantastic Logitech wireless keyboard.

The first instant my opinion changed on this keyboard arrived when I thought about the number of times that I had been ‘caught short’ with my keyboard running out of juice before some major deadline. A late night trip to Walmart for a $2 pack of batteries is much more expensive than a cost of the batteries in terms of fuel, time, and of course mental stability.

To be honest I began to think having a solar powered keyboard might actually be a surprisingly good idea. Of course once I had decided this I also began to wonder whether it was worth the cost, since this is far from a $5 keyboard.

The truth of the matter is though that this keyboard delivers much more than solar power to the table.  To start with the looks of the Logitech K750 alone make this worth a few extra bucks. It’s ultra thin design combined with some beautiful curves make this one beautiful wireless keyboard.  It also comes in four colors, so you can quickly find a color that suits your style.  While I have to admit I prefer the black Logitech K750, the white Logitech K750 is perfect for those who want a keyboard to match their Mac.

All in all the Logitech K750 Logitech solar keyboard is a fantastic wireless keyboard which combines functionality with performance.  In true Logitech style the K750 looks good, has fantastic design, and will perform reliably for years to come.

But what struck me when I saw this email is that how many companies are not even targeting potential buyers anymore, which actually makes spam a rather expensive marketing technique.  Even though technology has advanced a lot over the decades, sending an e-mail still costs money, and sending out thousands of e-mails daily can actually cost a fairly large amount of money.

Without delving too deeply in to the fluff of this subject, I think the most surprising thing is that these companies are nto spending more resources to garner potential leads, rather than spam every inbox and gain a poor reputation.

While A little extra research could save these marketing companies thousands of dollars in wasted advertising, I have to be honest. I don’t think any amound of client targeting will fix things fora  company offering Christmas Deals in June.

So when I visited SXSWi last weekend I was amazed to find a game which not only showed a huge amount of promise by itself, but also brought some fantastic new features to the table for iphone gamers.

The Traveller-AR iPhone MMORPG is set in a vast universe, by vast we are talking over 40,000 systems and 350,000 explorable objects, pretty vast right? This huge number of star systems is not some random creation, it has been well thought out, and each object that appears comes from the old Traveller pen and paper role playing game from which Traveller-AR is based. That’s right, Traveller is an established brand which has had thousands of roleplayers dilligently fine tuning it for going on 40 years.

Continuing on the same vein as a true roleplaying game, Traveller-AR gives you a huge amount of customization and flexiibility to your game.  Different ship types and customizations, different player types and more will help you craft your game in to the kind of game that you want it to be. Do you love to trade? do you love to explore, do you love to invade? or do you love to fight? Traveller-AR has got you covered in it’s immersive iPhone MMORPG environment.

Traveller-AR is one of the first mobile games I have seen released that I can honestly say compare to true MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft. It combines the same community feeling, with an expansive world to explore, and a character to advance.

One unique feature of Traveller-AR has to be the Augmented Reality feature.  This immersing style of game-play actually overlays the game world over the real world as seen through the iPhone camera. This means that you can see planets and space ships orbiting over your own home, and with a simple click you can engage these objects in trade or battle.

All in all I am really looking forward to the release of Traveller-AR (set for Summer 2011), and definitely want to get started building up my character on this unique iPhone MMORPG!

Nintendo 3DS

The Nintendo 3DS is the latest DS Console release from Nintendo, and it is definitely an exciting prospect for those of us who fell in love with Nintendo DS Games. From Mario to Donkey Kong, and even Streeht Fighter, and Zelda, we are looking forward to some classic Nintendo heros return in Full 3D with the Nintendo 3DS!

The Nintendo 3DS gives you 3D gaming ,without the need for glasses. This is in itself a fantastic achievement. I don’t think anyone would have bought this console if it required the use of 3D glasses (Nobody wants to look that stupid in public). But this new 3D technology really does look rather good!

As the Nintendo 3DS has not been released yet, hands on testing has been very , and while I did have a little chance to play about with this console at a recent convention, I would still like to investigate it a little more. There are some features that I do feel I can talk about now though!

To start with, the big problem with the 3D depth is that it can suffer for less than optimal lighting conditions.  Fortunately the Nintendo 3DS comes with a 3D depth slider.  This simple slider can be adjusted for your viewing angle, and lighting conditions. It can even turn the Nintendo 3DS in to a 2D Nintendo if you are in really bright light!

One of my favorite features of the Nintendo 3DS is it’s 3D Digital camera.  This 3D camera is built in to the Nintendo 3DS, and it allows you to take amazing 3D pictures of you and your friends! This might not seem like a huge deal, but trust me, these photo’s are amazing!

All in all the Nintendo 3DS is a fantastic handheld console.  The 3D view definitely provides more engrossing entertainment, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it progresses over the next decade, true 3D Pokemon, or Street Fighter battles might not be that far away!

The lack of CSS3 in Internet explorer has created a huge amount of work for web developers who try their best to make a website look good in any browser.  While Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have curved borders, gradient backgrounds and varying levels of transparency, IE9 remains blocky. Creating a design which does not look completely out of place on Internet Explorer is a huge amount of work if you want to use CSS3.

This is causing problems for Micrsoft as several websites have now blocked IE users from their website, stating that people must download a more current browser.

Maybe it is this kick in the teeth to the out of date Microsoft browser which spawned IE9, a faster, more reliable, HTML5 and CSS3 compliant browser.

And yes, it seems Microsoft have finally got their act together for now, IE9 is CSS3 compliant, and it also has had a massive overhaul to improve it’s speed, performance and compatibility. The bad news is that IE9 with CSS3 is still only available for people with Windows Vista SP2 and up, meaning that many Webmasters are still left with a conundrum on whether to only support IE9, or try and keep the website looking good for legacy browser users.

Guitar Recording on iPhone

The iPhone is one of the most versatile mobile devices ever released, however it soon becomes frustrating if, as a musician, you try and record your work on teh iPhone.

Fortunately there are ways you can not only record sound perfect guitar recordings on your iPhone, but also mix your recordings on multitrack iPhone software applications to give you a powerful platform for any musician.

The bad news is that this kind of technology is not cheap,  running to around $200!

Sonoma Wireworks is probably the most popular iPhone guitar recording solution, which provides a great high quality recording system for your guitar (You can also buy an adapter for 1/8 inch input as well as the guitar’s 1/4 inch connection).

Sonoma Wireworks adapters work really well with iphone apps such as FourTrack, which costs around $10, but provides a fantastic fourtrack music studio for your iPhone!

As of yet we have received no details as to the innards of the latest test version of apples upcoming iPhone replacement, nevertheless we will keep a close eye on the preceedings for you to make sure you know the latest about the Apple iPhone 4G!

The last few months have been spent writing articles for others, in an attempt to get some quick cash for an emigration to America sorted, alongside with a marriage and a new apartment. I hope to be picking up my posts both here and at my other Gadget News website in the near future, however life is hectic.

Most of my recent work has been on Hubpages, where I have been earning a rather nice income of around $1000 a month, if you like to write then I strongly suggest you check it out, you might be able to make a nice little stash of extra cash every month!

If you do join up to Hubpages feel free to check out my profile at This is Oli!

In the meantime, I have just updated the version of wordpress which has been running this blog for the last 5 years or so.  It definitely needed doing, and I have not seen any major glitches YET.

If you do find any problems please tell me as soon as possible so I can get them fixed!

Oli

If you know what Google Wave is you will undoubtedly be wanting one of these precious invites, and now is your chance to get them!

Geekywood is giving you the chance to win one of three Google Wave invites, to win all you have to do is comment saying why you should win! The three best answers will be given a Google Wave invite!

If you do not know about Google Wave check out http://wave.google.com today!

WIth the Panasonic FP8 the research bods decided to take an innovative new approach. Instead of simply increasing current specifications they did something rather radical.

After much stagnation in the digital camera industry, panasonic went to it’s customers and asked what they wanted.

Quite surprisingly the customers said they did not care that it’s current digital cameras could take pictures with 12 megapixel resolution, neither did they give the proverbial about being able to put a picture frame around someones face. Infact the only real complaint was that it can sometimes take up to 10 seconds for a camera to start up, and two seconds for it to take a photo.

The people up at Panasonic HQ thought long and hard about this, after all they have spent 10 years working out how to fit more mega pixels in to a smaller space. But in the end they admitted, maybe it was time to listen to the consumer.

And the results do not dissapoint, the Panasonic Lumix FP8 starts in under a second, it has a new high speed auto focus system, which before was the domain only of Sony. Even with this high speed picture taking you get anti-blur technology and auto flash/whitebalance settings to give you the perfect picture!

This dinky little camera even comes with HD video capabilities, a sweet topping to this already delecious treat!

My only worry is that Panasonic may have come a little bit too late with their realization. Sony alraedy has sone pretty quick consumer digital cameras with the DSC series, and many casual photographers swear by it. However the New Panasonic Lumix FP8 is a very strong contender, which will do Panasonic proud!

The Sony PSP Go has a brand new look, and while it may have plenty of upgrades there are a few downsides too, first and foremost the loss of the UMD slot means that your old games will not work on this, though it has made the device smaller, and increased it’s battery life.

The next main downside in my view is the smaller screen, the original PSP was just about bearable for watching the odd movie.  Now the screen has been downsized 4.3 to 3.8 inches widescreen you may just find it simply too small.

Infact a lot of the improvements to the Sony PSP Go make it feel more like an attempt to rival the iPod touch, but without the touch.  This comparisson has also sparked questions on why Sony have not integrated cell phone features in to this device, something which truely could put it up against the iPhone and similair portable multi function devices.

Despite this however the Sony PSP Go has plenty of features to keep it going.  Since UMD is no longer supported the PSP Go works soley on direct downloads.  To help support this it comes with a huge 16GB internal flash memory stick, with a slot for another flash card, if required!

The controls for the Sony PSP Go follow the usual playstation layout, it does take a little getting used to, since the controls are pushed together in to the small pop out layer.  This can feel a little bit more cramped, but since the control panel has it’s own section it there are less accidental button presses, which many people found a problem on the original PSP Go.

On top of the original PSP WiFi integration the PSP Go also includes bluetooth compatability.  This allows bluetooth headset integrateion, connection to a cellphone for 3G connectivity, and the possibility of connecting a PS3 on the horizon. Although with the new smaller screen I am not sure just how well that would work out.

The PSP Go allows for much easier integration with TV show, movie and music downloading. Unlike Apple, Sony did not create their own store for this.  Instead they partnered with eMusic, to allow users DRM-free digital media downloading over a WiFi connection. This will supply the top digital media at competitive prices to the PSP Go customers with none of the numerous restrictions placed on iPod users.

We expect to hear more details from Sony in the near future regarding the PSP Go, the world is waiting with baited breath for the technical specs behind teh latest version of the PSP!

Let me reminisce for a few seconds.

Several years ago I was walking through York on a night when me and a friend came accross this young blonde girl having an asthma attack on a bridge.  Needless to say we called an ambulance, but in the meantime what were we supposed to do? Keep her warm or cool, give her water? We did not know.

This is where the new medical iPhone application comes in, it’s a hefty file, so i suggest you wait till you have a decent 3G or WiFi connection. But Download this!  It contains all the medical information you will need to cope with a basic medical crisis, something that could one day help you save somebody’s life!

In my eyes that makes this medical iPhone application the worlds greatest iPhone App!

The charging mat uses one wall socket and can charge up to four devices at a time.  it supports most current devices, and if it doesn’t it supplies additonal cables for $4.95 each!

At $40 the charging mat may seem a little bit expensive, but when you consider it can charge nearly any device, save you space and securely hold your hardware, well it suddenly doesn’t seem quite so much!

The silicon mat rolls up, and you can get a cigareet lighter adapter to charge your gadgets on the go!

Where the new Sony Vaio W Series differs from normal netbooks is the price, costing around $100 more than your typical netbook.  However this is a new release and we do expect the prices to go down in the future. Sony are not known for their cheap prices though, so the future is uncertain!

Personally I like the newSony Netbook, it is smooth and has true Vaio reliability.  In some ways though I think it may flop, it just isn’t cheap enough for the netbook market.  Who know though, maybe some people want small, lightweight high quality, rather than the small crap netbooks that you get from most other suppliers!

So lets get down to basics, how can you speed up your PC?

First things first, the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to speed up a computer is by formatting and re-installing the OS, this does however bring in a few probelms, especially if you have hundreds of programs installed (Like me).

The second, more advisable way is to start uninstalling programs you do not use.  Many of these will have background processes, some which start on boot and then close back down, others will constantly run. Either way they all will slow down your computers boot time by a small but significant amount.

You can uninstall programs from the control panel, however this often leaves things on your computer which can still slow it down, for this reason I suggest using something like Perfect Uninstaller

Once you have uninstalled the useless unused programs off your PC the next step in speeding up your computers boot time is to clean up the registry. Registry cleaning is often considered insignificant, however a single registry clean up can cut your computers boot time in half! Registry cleaning is as simple as a single click with products like Registry Easy!

Once you have removed all these excess programs then your next step is to keep your computer clean, An Antivirus such as McAfee and some anti-spyware tools such as Adaware are pretty much essential here!

Once you have the basics out of the way you can look at more interior ways to speed up boot time on your computer. These small tweaks can massively increase your computers Boot time

Change your Bios to speed up boot time on your PC, make your Hard drive the primary boot device (Ususally CD drive as default) and reduce the time the boot program pauses to let you press the safe mood and system set up keys.

Remove the boot up splash screen to speed up Windows boot time, this can be done in MSCONFIG by checking the /noguiboot option.

If you are using windows vista you can massively speed up vista boot time by using the fantastic ReadyBoost system. This actualy turns a USB flash drive in to extra memory for your computer, and gives a huge boost to your computers boot speed in Vista!

And there you have it, some cheap easy ways to speed up computer boot time!

The smoking ban in the UK has touched many, so it’s not surprising that alternatives are being sought the country over.  Fortunately for thoseof you who have the nicotine dependancy I Want One of Those has just brought out the Electronic Cigar, a disposabledevice which evaporates a mist of a concoction containing nicotine and flavorings to make it similar to smoking the real thing!

And since there is no smoke, this is not affected by the smoking ban!

Good for 600 puffs of carciogen free heaven you will love this disposable electronic cigar!

Despite the Amazon Kidle 2′s price still being on the hefty side, $359, the new device comes with some amazing features, at 25% thinner and 20% faster these two basic features alone are stunning, and with a massive 25% extra battery life you can go for 2 weeks without a recharge.

The screen has been improved as well, going from the 4 color gray scale to an impressive 16 shades of gray. This allows the user to customize the Kindle 2 much more effectively for easy reading!

Though the Amazon Kindle 2 is thinner, faster and all in all better that the original Kindle it still lacks a lot to be desired. Despite its 3G downloading giving you a book in less than 6 seconds many people are still unhappy about the restrictions placed by Amazon with DRM software. This is especially frustrating when you can get cheaper PDF and text document readers out there for a lower price and with no restrictions whatsoever,

While the Amazon Kindle 2 is a nice device, and they have addressed a lot of problems, making this a truely sweet device to use I cannot help but feel that they really need to relax the DRM and lower the price to somethign just a little more reasonable.

The use of digital SLR cameras has vastly reduced many of teh significant problems found in the film based SLR cameras. Though one major issue has always been that there has never been a duel lcd screen to allow off the hip or from the ground easy picture taking.

This issue is mainly because an extra LCD screen would make the camera extremely bulky and much heavier. This is something that has hindered progress on flexible screens on digital SLR cameras since they first became available.

Until now.

In recent years technological advancements have been focused around the high tech industry, but rather like a caveman in the 90′s it has taken the genius of the team at flipbac to provide us with a genius cheap and flexible device.

The Flipbac angle viewfinder is an amazing product which allows the photographer to change his viewing angle of the digital camera screen with nothing more than a small mirror with a small attachment device that fit most Digital SLR Cameras!

This handy little viewing divice has raised a storm from the digital SLR enthusiasts, many of whom still promote the optical viewfinder as the only true way to take photo’s. The truth of the matter is though that this growing minority are keeping themselves locked away from a huge convenience and speed factor in picture taking!

The Truphone currenly only lets you ring other Truphone and Google talk users via a WiFi network. (So slightly more limited than an iPohne as you need ana vailable connection)  This is all via VOIP so once you have converted you iPod touch to an iPhone you will be able to make 100% free calls to other users.

Truphoen have also announced that the app they have created to allow calls from an iPod Touch will soon be able to make calls to landlines and mobiles, current pricing structures are currently in creation.

Personally I think this is great news for iPod Touch users who wanted a bit more flexibility with their device.  The Truphone iPod touch to iPhone conversion software is available to download on the Apple iStore! for Free!