Continue reading »]]> Ever since I got my new phone – the HTC Sensation XE (which I love to pieces) – I’ve had the problem of stupidly poor battery life. Apparently this is an age-old Android problem where many smartphones don’t have the battery capacity to provide a decent level of charge.

With me, being a bit of a tech-head, I’ve got to the point where my phone battery will barely get me through the day. That’s because I spend a fair amount of time downloading and using apps, interacting with social networks, and generally browsing the net. Whilst none of these tasks should be particularly demanding, they do have a massive negative impact on the battery.

One way of solving this problem would be to just stop using my phone so regularly. I have done tests and found that if I’m really frugal with my phone – just using it for the odd text and call during the day – I can make the battery last all day long with some power to spare. But I don’t believe that, when I’ve committed to spending over £500 on a phone in 2 years, I should have to be limited as to what functionality I can use on the go.

So, I had to find a way of keeping the battery charged when I’m out and about. There are many ways of doing this:

• Obviously the easiest (and cheapest) solution is to look into little chargers like car chargers – which draw current from the cigarette lighter in your car – to keep the battery going strong. Yes, if you spend hours in the car daily (which many people obviously do) then this is your simple solution – but I personally don’t. Also, bear in mind that most smartphones will simply charge via a USB cable – so if you spend most of your working life in an office, then you should simply be able to plug your device into a port on your computer and charge it.
• You could invest in “green” portable charging solutions – such as solar chargers. Long time readers of GEEK! will know I’ve tested multiple solar chargers in the past – and in many cases they’re absolutely great. However, they do take some time to charge and if you’re not within easy access to sunlight for most of the day, you’re wasting your time.
• Another simple option would just be to buy another battery for your phone. This is a cheap solution and will work effectively. However, the problem with this is that if you can’t get a charging “dock” for your battery, you have to constantly switch batteries in your phone to make sure each one is charged up. This is a hassle!

The usual solutions weren’t going to work for me, so I had a browse on Amazon and came across an ideal solution. It’s called the Yoobao 11200mAh External Battery Pack. It’s available on Amazon for around about £30.

You might have heard of these external battery packs before. They’re quite simple really – they have a moderately powerful battery inside them and simply provide a USB port to charge any USB device you like. However, this one is very different!

For starters, the battery is insanely powerful. The 11200mAh battery is the most powerful portable battery I’ve ever seen. If you bear in mind that my Sensation XE has a battery capacity of 1730mAh – then this means the battery pack should be able to charge my phone at least 5 or 6 times (minus some inefficiencies).

It also is a dual-port USB charger. This means it can charge two devices at the same time. Not only that, but one of the charging ports is a 2 amp charging port – which means the device is quite capable of charging more demanding devices like the iPad 2.

The device also has an emergency LED light onboard – which is powerful enough to provide illumination when most needed – and because the onboard battery is so powerful, the LED can be (theoretically) illuminated for several weeks on a single charge!

There are also 5 LED power indicators which tell you how much charge is remaining in the device.

I’ve owned my device about a week now and have to say it really is a lifesaver when my phone’s battery is running down – for the sake of £30 it really isn’t a huge price to pay. With it being able to charge more than one gadget and also being capable of charging the iPad and other demanding devices – it’s perfect for any power-hungry user.

Continue reading »]]> I was recently browsing through the Amazon store for a new pair of headphones. I have countless pairs of earphones – some of which have great sound quality – but they tend to break so easily and are only goody for light use.

However, whilst browsing, it crossed my mind to have a look at some wireless headphones. I’ve previously known them to be very expensive and many of them seem to have poor build and sound quality.

However, I stumbled across a £24 pair on Amazon that had good reviews and thought I didn’t have much to lose – so I bought a pair.

It’s fair to say – considering the price tag – they’re brilliant. They aren’t branded (so those of you who like to show off their brands – these aren’t for you!), but that never seems to bother me!

The sound quality is relatively good and I was pleasantly surprised. The headphones have decent bass and don’t seem to sound “tinny” in the slightest.

They will happily connect to any Bluetooth audio device in stereo and/or mono (eg PC, iPod touch 2G or above, iPhone, any smartphone, etc) and it’s really simple to get them going. Simply hold down the multifunction key for 7 seconds (when the blue and red LEDs flash) and connect to them as normal.

I was also really impressed by the battery life. I’ve had these headphones for several days now and have used them for hours on end – and they’ve still only been charged once! They usually outrun the battery life of my iPod by miles!!

My only minor complaint is the LEDs on the device. When you’re using the headphones, a blue LED flashes occasionally. Whilst this is fine in a well lit room or outside, it can be irritating if you’re trying to use them in the dark or at night.

Other than that, they’re a fantastic pair of budget wireless headphones and seem to outsmart many of their more expensive competitors. At £24 a pair, you really don’t have much to lose.

Continue reading »]]> Yes, I know I’m not normally one to go round promoting jailbroken apps for iOS, but this one really is handy  – and until Apple start allowing scrobbles to last.fm I’ll continue to use it!

It’s totally free and will work on any jailbroken device of iOS 3.0 and above. Simply download an app from Cydia called Srobbl and plug in your account settings. It’ll work in the background and doesn’t actually have to be running in multitasking to scrobble.

I wouldn’t be promoting this app but for the fact that iPod touch and iPhone scrobbling hasn’t been working in the official last.fm app for months! However, I do like the fact it scrobbles live – I like to know when I listened to tracks.

It’ll even queue tracks for scrobbling if you aren’t connected to a wi-fi or data network, and then scrobble them later.

Simply set it and forget about it – it does the job nicely!

Continue reading »]]> Sorry it’s been such a long time since I last blogged. It’s been a busy year so far with countless AS level exams, coursework and other projects I’ve been getting up to out of college. However, I have a little free time so I thought I’d rekindle the site with a new post – I was getting worried that I might not make a single post within January!

Anyway, here’s your top 5 iPhone and iPod touch apps for January 2011:

5. Family Guy Time Warped [£0.59 for full version]

If you enjoy Family Guy, you’ll really enjoy this great app. You play characters from the game in various challenges. The game is very entertaining although sometimes it can get quite frustrating as, at times, you die repeatedly! Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a game that’ll occupy you for a few hours, try it.

4. FleetMaster [FREE]

FleetMaster is a brilliant free battleships game which works via online multiplayer. The game uses “Game Center” to find others players for you to challenge. Whilst the game is a little sluggish at times, it does work very effectively and can be good entertainment if you’ve got internet to hand.

3. Cover Orange [£0.59]

Sadly this game is no longer free, but even at £0.59 it is well worth the purchase. This is an extremely addictive game with seemingly endless levels to complete. You play to save oranges that need to be saved from deadly “rain”. Sounds random, but it is extremely good fun (and often very frustrating).

2. Words With Friends [Free version available]

This free game (ad supported, full version available) is a classic attempt at a digital interactive version of Scrabble. It does actually work very well with online multiplayer. However, if you’ve got many games running at the same time, the push notifications can become extremely irritating so you may want to consider turning those off. Otherwise, it’s another great way to waste some time.

1. Sunday Lawn [Free for a limited time]

I discovered this game some time ago, but it came to my attention that this is now free for a limited time. This has to be one of my favourite classic iOS games – but I almost find it too addictive.

So there you go – nothing very productive this month (!!) but definitely some great games to try. I apologize that there was no top 5 for December – I admit I simply ran out of time. I’ll try and get posts back on the go soon, but for the mean time I hope these keep your i-device stocked up for a while!

If I don’t get time to post, please remember that you can follow me with @geekonthepc on twitter for any personal updates.

Continue reading »]]> Apple has just set up their 12 days of Christmas website ready for Christmas 2010. The session will offer 12 days of various free music, videos, apps and books.

To download the app to your iPhone or iPod touch head here, or click here to go to the official site where you can sign up to email alerts.

The 12 days starts on December 26th, and finishes on January 6th – so don’t miss out! Last year I remember it was actually really good - some decent apps, films and music given out for free.

This really is a no brainer – something for nothing from Apple, for once!

Continue reading »]]> Since I’ve had my new iPod touch 4G, I’ve been downloading, installing and often deleting a huge number of apps. If you have to give Apple credit for one of their creations, the App Store would be where credit is due. It is, undoubtedly, the most popular store for mobile devices.

So, I’ve decided to start writing monthly top 5 app charts for the iPhone and iPod touch. Don’t ask me whether this will last – I haven’t got a clue! But I shall remain optimistic for the time being and begin now.

Here we go then. Here’s your top 5 roundup for November 2010 in reverse order.

Oh, and I’ll take the opportunity to point out that (for this month at least) there may be some older apps in the charts. You can’t ignore the classics and the most useful apps just because they’ve been out for some time. Basically, what I’m saying is, the month this refers to doesn’t necessarily mean that the app was launched during this month.

5. thetrainline [FREE]

This has to be one of my most used transport apps. This has been around for some time (I can remember it having a permanent residence on my old iPod touch as well as my new one) but, nevertheless, it is extremely useful for finding trains across the UK at the last minute. It’s only downside is that you can’t check ticket prices without registering for an account, which is a bit of a bummer if you need to know in a hurry. It does memorize your home location, though, which is handy as you can just tell the app to find the nearest station to your current location and get you a train home. If you use trains regularly, this is a must have.

4. OpenFeint (Free App a Day) [FREE]

The title gives the app away really. Every day, OpenFeint make an app on the App Store free for a day, and it’s your opportunity to get something for nothing. It’s pot luck really – sometimes the apps are great and other times they just aren’t worth the bandwidth. But as they’re free, I guess you haven’t got much to loose.

3. VLC [FREE]

If you know about VLC Media Player for your computer, it won’t take you long to work out what this app does. However, it does do an extremely good job. It plays a wide range of video formats so I can finally play videos that aren’t in the annoying, space hungry MP4 format. It doesn’t always display videos in the centre of the screen, though, which you might find irritating. However, if you have videos in various formats on your computer, it is well worth the download.

2. eBuddy Pro [£2.99]

If you want a decent portable IM client, this can’t really be beaten. There is a free version of eBuddy for iPhone (and iPod touch) but it’s full of adverts and limitations – so I would suggest buying the full version if you’re going to be using IM frequently on the go. I prefer eBuddy Pro to other IM clients (such as the official WLM app) mainly because it is clean, quick and I find the notifications are much more responsive in this app than any other app of it’s kind. It also handles multitasking very well.

1. RedLaser [FREE]

As previously reviewed on GEEK!, I think this has to be my first number 1 app. If you like comparing prices for products and saving money online, this app will be your new companion. The app utilises the camera built into the iPhone (and iPod touch 4G) and uses it is to scan barcodes. Yes, you’ve heard of this concept many times before – however this app actually works! It’s found the vast majority of barcodes I’ve tried to scan with it, and also managed to get good price comparisons. This app is undoubtedly a huge time saver. It’s also a good entertainer for half an hour if you’ve got plenty of DVD’s or the likes in your home!!

So there you go. Let’s see if I remember to post up next month’s roundup.

Continue reading »]]> Last night I came across a free app that’s on the App Store which seems to be very handy.

I’ve always been a fan of the concept of being able to scan barcodes and find the cheapest prices for various products. However, I’ve never found a decent app that’s (ideally) free and works very well.

Now I have my new iPod touch with the cameras built in, I thought it would be extremely useful to be able to scan barcodes and find the best prices.

So, I stumbled across this free app called RedLaser and downloaded it. Overall, I have to say it’s the best free app of it’s kind. It works in all kinds of environments – even low light!

Simply place the camera in front of the barcode until the iPhone (or iPod touch 4G) beeps and it will instantly search for the best price online from various price comparison sites.

You can even scan multiple barcodes, save them, and look them up later. And if you can’t get it to scan the code for whatever reason, you can enter it manually.If you’re into finding the cheapest prices for products, this is the app for you!

Continue reading »]]> Update: 4.1 is now live.

Update: This date has now been removed from the Apple site. The launch date of September 8th 2010 still remains on Wikipedia.

The Apple UK site now confirms that the OS 4.1 update for iPhone will be coming on September 8th. The iPod Touch page still says “Coming Soon”, as does the US site.

However, Apple usually launch all of their firmware updates on the same day so it gives me reason to believe that it will be launched to everyone on that date.

Unless you have one of the newer iPhones (iPhone 3Gs or 4) there isn’t really that much to get excited about. The iPod touch seems to be gaining Ping functionality within the iTunes app together with a new “Game Center” (I know that should be “centre” but Apple don’t seem to know British spelling). If you have an iPhone, you’ll also gain HD uploads to YouTube on the go and HDR photography.

So nothing to get too excited. Personally, I think Apple should be concentrating more on getting iPad users onto 4.0. Apple don’t seem to have much time for iPad users at the moment.

Continue reading »]]> Yes, the news that every Spotify customer has wanted to hear. Spotify finally supports multitasking on the iOS4 with the latest update.

You will of course need an iPhone 3GS/4 or an 3rd gen iPod Touch (unless you have jailbroken) to get the multitasking ability.

The new app also supports control from the lock screen and double-click control buttons, which does make the app much more usable. It also features a new “What’s new” section like in the PC application, so you can see the top tracks of the moment and any new releases.

A well deserved update I think.

Continue reading »]]> 3 UK, the network which claims to have the best 3G coverage in the UK, has recently announced that it will start offering the iPhone 4 from June 24th.

There’s no news on pricing as yet, but 3 have said that they’re aiming to announce tariffs on June 15th.

I’m personally very pleased with the idea. Despite the fact that I left 3 earlier this year, it’s good that 3 are finally offering one of the most popular smartphones around. And it could be perfect time, as O2 are cutting their mobile internet down later this month, coinciding with the iPhone 4 launch.

With their extensive 3G coverage in the UK, this could see a lot of customers moving from other networks to 3 for the brand new iPhone, which claims to have a bucket-load of new features that will interest a wide range of smartphone users.