Jul 13
Editorial David
android, google, jelly bean, nexus, tablet
Google’s latest Android flagship, the Nexus 7 arrived on doorstep today – several days ahead of schedule thanks to some eager marketing on the part of Ebuyer.com. I have to say, that I have always been sceptical over the need for tablets. I’ve always felt that if I had a laptop and a smartphone (and I do), then I had all I needed. However, Google have achieved something here that nobody else has by bringing to market a reasonably priced device that looks good too. So, I’ve spent my hard earned cash to see what life with a tablet is like!
The Nexus 7, running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), has been designed by Google and produced by Asus – there’s much talk in the press about whether Google is even managing to break even on this device, but there’s something more important than profit at stake for Google. Rather, Google has thrown its own engineering weight behind this device in an attempt to stimulate the Android tablet market.
Thus far, Android tablets have failed to effectively compete against Apple’s iPad. With the wildcard of Microsoft’s Surface tablet on the horizon, Google had to act now.
The device comes in very compact packaging and with no other accessories than a USB cable and mains adapter. However, you do get a digital gift in the form of £15 credit on the Google Play Store.
I have yet to test the device, but many people are eager to see what’s on offer, so I’ve photographed everything that comes in the box and prepared this blog post before I even turned the device on.
Enjoy!
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Aug 21
Cloud Services David
facebook, google, networks, plus, social, socialnetworking, Twitter
I’ve been trying Google Plus for a few weeks, and I think it has promise. It gets right all the things that Facebook got wrong, in terms of controlling which groups of people you interact with and share content with. Add to that the awesome Hangout feature which gives easy access to video conferencing.
My gripes with it is the +1 system, which seems to be a confused mix between the Facebook like button and the Twitter favourite function. I’m still trying to work out exactly the benefit of the +1 one button in terms of interaction on Google Plus. Of course, the +1 button serves to tailor search results for you, based on your social graph. Whether that is a good thing or an evil thing is a debate for another day!
The thing I’m really missing from Google Plus is an easy way to share content with my Plus followers. At the moment, if I want to share a link with my Google Plus circles, I have to go to the site and manually post the link. Instead, I want to have sharing buttons (or at least a browser plugin) to have a one-click share, like we have with Facebook and Twitter.
The only social buttons for Google that are appearing on blogs are the +1 buttons, which do not send content to your Google Plus feed! Of course, the +1 button can’t do this because you have to tell Plus which circles each of your posts are going to. Therein lies the rub.
Still though, if you’d like to try out Google Plus for yourself, I have 150 invites. All you need to do is click this link. If you’ve read this far, a Flattr wouldn’t go amiss either 
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Apr 22
Reviews David
battery, cable, charger, cradle, desktop, dock, google, htc, mobile, Nexus One, usb
The dual Nexus One charging stand
Today’s review comes courtesy of the kind folks at Mobile Fun, who have sent me a dual charging cradle for my Google Nexus One to test out.
Ever since I began using Android, my constant complaint has been poor battery life. The Nexus One I’m currently using came with the Froyo firmware, which didn’t have great battery life, but things have been even worse since I updated to Gingerbread.
One answer to the problem is a second battery. However, that isn’t much use if you can only charge while it’s in the phone! Therefore, I was keen to try out an independent charger.
Read my review, and see whether this is the accessory for you!
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Apr 7
Cloud Services David
blogging, brower, buffer, google, plug-ins, reader, schedule, social media, Twitter
Buffer, a new way to schedule tweets
Allow me to introduce you to Leo Widrich, co-founder of a new cloud service, called Buffer. It’s a Twitter scheduling service that I’ve been making much use of lately. You’ll also notice that I’m sporting a Buffer button at the bottom of each post. The idea is that using services such as Twitterfeed or Feedly can inadvertently cause you to flood your followers with more tweets than they can keep up with. This can in turn can annoy your followers, and maybe cause them to unfollow you.
Therefore, for non-time sensitive links, using a scheduler allows you to get all of your content out at a steady rate, without overwhelming your followers in the process.
Introduction over, I’ll hand over to Leo now, so he can explain to you about the service in his own words!
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