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CLASH TITANS OF
THE
GALAXY S5 VS HTC ONE (M8) VS XPERIA Z2
SMART DOUBLE
WATCH BATTERY
REVOLUTION
» Pebble Steel and
Qualcomm Toq rated
» What is Google’s
Android Wear?
LIFE
…and 19 extra
ways to boost
your phone

FIRST
HTC ON
BUDGET
MULTI-CORE
REVIEWE
Unlock the true
power of Android Fast phones that
won’t break the bank

Hacker
Zøne
» Tweak all your app
DO YOU NEED A
settings » Hack the
ISSUE 37
CURVED PHONE?
The bendy LG G Flex reviewed in full
Google Now Launcher
 Welcome
To issue 37 «

HOW TO
USE THE
QR CODES
Zero-click access to the best
apps in the Google Play store
A QR code is a 2D barcode that can act
as a shortcut for delivering information,
such as weblinks. You’ll notice them
throughout the mag – scan them on
your phone and you can download apps
and send us messages instantly.
ShopSavvy Free
Download this free barcode scanner
Welcome
“The screen, the build quality, the speakers,
even the software rank among the very best that
Android has to offer”
MY HOME SCREEN
S
o, the three big phones of the
year – or until the autumn at
On (and off) Andy’s least – have been launched.
phone this month… We’ve pitched the Samsung Galaxy
S5, Sony Xperia Z2 and the new HTC
One all in a head-to-head battle this
month. Which is your favourite?
Chromecast RealPlayer We’ve also got a full review of the
Cloud
new HTC phone. It’s another superb
handset, taking almost everything that was so great about
APPS

APPS
OUT
IN

to use our QR codes. Handily, you can

scan normal barcodes with it too, to the original HTC One and built on it. I say almost because
help you find bargains on all your the camera is the one thing I’m still not sold on. The new
favourite purchases! Microsoft Flash Scores
Office Mobile one is fast, and the dual-camera setup is fun to use, but
This month the benefit to the Ultrapixel approach – the larger pixels
I’ve been using: – is offset by the fact that the sensor itself is smaller than
HTC One (M8)
The new One on both of its rivals, as well as the leading camera phones
improves on the old on other platforms too. The results tend to even
Threes! one in almost every Google Now
way. It’s a triumph! Launcher themselves out as a consequence, only with images from
the One having considerably less detail in them due to the
lower resolution.
Still, if the camera isn’t the main priority in your

1 Get scanning smartphones you’ll be hard pushed to find a device better

Open ShopSavvy, hit the Scan a than the One M8. The screen, the build quality, the
Barcode button and then hold your speakers, even the software rank among the very best
phone over a QR code so that it appears
that Android has to offer.
in the window.
GET IN TOUCH The M8 isn’t the only exciting new device we’ve got in a
Let us know what you’d packed review section this month. We also take a look at
like to see in next issue… the bendy LG G Flex, a couple of smartwatches, and the

»facebook/littlegreenrobot
first CyanogenMod phone – the N1. Do get in touch on
Twitter or Facebook to let us know what you think of all this
great new gadgetry.
Like us on Facebook to send us
your comments

»email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Drop us an email and let us know what

2 Launch the link you’d like to see in the mag

When it has read, the phone will

beep and vibrate, then launch the link.
You may need to choose an app to
»twitter @lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter and send us
launch it with. your thoughts Andy Betts Editor
3
Contents www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
»Inside issue 37

CONTENTS
15 Special offer for USA readers » 48 Exclusive subscription offer

Launcher Previews,
news and
speculation
18 The three biggest phones of
the year go head-to-head

CLASH TITANS
from the
Android world OF
06 Android’s wearable
revolution
We take a look at Android
THE
Wear and what it means for
wearable devices

09 News
The latest hot topics from
around the world of Android

10 Dual-camera tech
We look at the latest
innovation in smartphone
camera technology

12 10 things you need

to know about the new
Play store
Discover how to get more from
the updated Play store app

13 Competition
Win a Prestigio MultiPhone
5500 Duo in our exclusive
competition

WIN
! 24 Double your
80 HTC ONE (M8) battery life
Is the new HTC phone the best
Android device to date? … and 19 extra ways to
enhance your phone

14 Fitness apps
Get yourself into shape with a
little help from your phone and
these brilliant apps

16 Messages
We delve into our virtual mailbag
to hear the latest rants on all
things Android

4
 Visit the Android Magazine online shop at
Contents
Hacker for back issues and books
Inside issue 37 «

Zøne
Explore the limits of
50
52
54
56
Hacking tips and tricks
Mod the Google Now Launcher
Control and tweak all your apps
Control apps through a sidebar Apps
58 Change your screen’s colour
your Android phone temperature
Your complete
guide to
Reviews
Cutting-edge tablets and
Tutorials
Essential guides to getting more
Google Play
60 App reviews
The latest apps on test
smartphones on test from your phone or tablet
68 Keyboard apps
72 Group test: Budget 30 Hands-free Android Is Fleksy or Kii the best?
multi-core phones Set up and master the speech and voice
Four low-cost phones with multi-core control features of Android 70 Game reviews
processors on test The latest games reviewed
34 Tutorials
80 Reviews
80 HTC One (M8)
34
36
Set up a firewall without root
Clean up your cache quickly
App review index
84 LG G Flex 37 Back up and share your apps 63 12Hours
86 Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition 38 Move files to your desktop with 67 AcDisplay
88 Samsung Galaxy NotePRO 12.2 Pushbullet
90 Prestigio MultiPhone 5500 Duo 40 Reduce screen brightness with 61 Agent – do not disturb
92 Pebble Steel Night Mode 62 Basecamp
93 Qualcomm Toq 41 Share files without Wi-Fi 71 Battlefront Heroes
42 Edit images in the new
62 Bolt
94 Accessories Google+
71 Broken Sword 5: Serpent’s
96 Gadget round-up 44 Droid Support Curse
The best new Android gadgets and Readers’ questions answered, plus 66 CloudMagic
troubleshooting tips and tricks
accessories on test 64 Cogi – Notes & Voice
Recorder

84 lex 67 Fenix

GF y
LGo you reuarvlled
67
71
FlickKey Keyboard
Groove Racer
D a c e? 67 Holofication Nation
needartphon 61 HoverChat
sm 70 Minigore 2: Zombies
62 MIXTRAX App
67 Muzei Live Wallpaper
65 Now TV Beta

72
70 oO
61 Opera Max beta for Android
66 PolyFauna
61 QuickStocks
66 Samsung Power Sleep
Budget 67 SimplyText SMS

multi-core 67
67
SlideLock
Snapdragon Glance
Four fast phones 71 Sorcery
that won’t 60 Telegram
break the bank 71 Threes!
face off
64 TimePIN
71 Tiny Goalie
64 Weather Underground

Check our website daily

for even more news »www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk 5
 All the latest from the world of Android devices
Google’s wearable
revolution
Google’s new SDK has opened
the door to the wearables mass
market. Here’s what to
expect…
G
oogle has announced that it has
developed a version of its Android
mobile operating system specifically
for wearable devices. Known as Android Wear,
the company has released a Software
Development Kit (SDK) that will enable
third-party developers to create a range of
wearable hardware and software.
Sundar Pichai, Google senior vice president,
who oversees the firm’s Android, Chrome and
Apps division, explained how the new suite of
wearable Android technology will perform. In
bullish mood, he exclaimed that the technology
would “understand the context of the world
6
THE
around you” and that you can also “interact simply
and efficiently, with just a glance or a spoken word.”
With Android Wear, Pichai said Google will cover all
types of wearables. But it will start with “the most
familiar wearable” – watches.
We have already seen this category of wearables
being targeted by a range of technology hopefuls,
Samsung’s Gear 2 series of watches being just the
latest incarnation. The new Google SDK, however,
promises to provide a wealth of new features
enabling users access to a wide range of
information and services so that any future watch
design promises to include a relatively advanced
feature set. Such a watch is already promised for an
big STORY
Our view
“Until now wearable tech has been an
unfocussed mess, with lots of ideas
but no clear vision of what a wearable
device should be, or how it should
work. Android Wear is Google’s
attempt to fix that, and it will make it easier for
more companies to build not just watches but all
kinds of devices. It also puts Google at the heart of
what looks set to be the next revolution in mobile
tech, ahead of Apple’s expected announcement
this year.” Andy Betts, Editor
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
»twitter
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

“The potential to
take the smart
wearable market
by storm“
Jong-seok Park, LG

early 2014 release: the LG G Watch. The company

has yet to release much information on the new
design but more details are promised soon. “The
opportunity to work with Google on LG G Watch was
the perfect chance for LG to really pull out all stops
in both design and engineering,” said Jong-seok
Park, president and chief executive of LG Electronics
Mobile Communications. “We’re confident that a
well-designed device has the potential to take the
smart wearable market by storm.”
Probably the most important aspect of the entire
SDK announcement is that it opens the floodgates
to a whole host of potential technology, sporting
many thousands of targeted apps. By pushing a Motorola is the latest
familiar platform like Android to wearable devices, company to jump onboard the
smartwatch bandwagon
Google makes it easy for the rosters of talented
Android and Java developers to get involved.
“This is one reason we saw Android apps
increase at a rapid pace and it is why we are likely to
“It’s also an provides a further push to the Android universe. “It’s
also an initiative we’ve anticipated for quite a while
see the same happen with wearables,” said Al initiative we’ve for several reasons,” added Yankee Group Associate
Hilwa, program director of software development anticipated for analyst, Ryan Martin. “Android needs to offer a
research at IDC. “Allowing programmers to build software vehicle for the developer community to
such apps with some degree of expediency is what
quite a while“ extend its OS ecosystem; it needs to create
the Android SDK will be all about.”
Ryan Martin, Yankee Group Associate analyst opportunities that further augment the mobile
Hilwa believes that Google is keeping a wary eye experience and it needs to ensure its relevance isn’t
Rivals up for the challenge on Apple, although Apple’s involvement will be part outpaced by the fast-changing tech industry.”
Any talk about wearable domination raises the of a much broader game: “I would expect this to Martin doesn’t believe Google’s announcement
shadow of Apple, a company that is currently bathed matter a lot to Apple because, no matter their has anything to do with the Samsung decision that
in rumours of its own upcoming wearable high-end, they are in an ecosystem battle with it will be dumping Android for its own Tizen OS in its
technologies. The almost mythical iWatch has been Android. Apple can make a few amazing devices and latest Gear 2 range of wearables. He believes that
the talk of many technology-oriented blogs, for likely they will be big hits but what Android Wear will Google’s announcement is part of a long-term
example. No conformation on Apple’s wearable stimulate is hundreds if not thousands of devices in ‘wearable’ strategy.
strategy has yet been revealed, but Apple chief addition to apps on top of them.” As good as this move is for Google, others see
executive, Tim Cook, has admitted that he finds the As such, Google’s move to launch a wearables- the opposite for Samsung. The theory is that Google
entire subject, “interesting”. specific SDK is a good move for the company and and, in fact, Apple, will have the advantage.

We’ve taken a look at some of the stand-out moments

History of wearables when tech and fashion collided – for better or worse

LIP-READING GLASSES CASIO DATABANK

Designed by Hubert Upton, for use One of the first, modern generation,
with the deaf, the system used a wearable computers was the
series of high and low-pass filters and digital watch with a mini pocket
LEDs to create a simple form of calculator attached, underneath the
augmented reality. watch’s read-out.

1961 1967 1977 1985

EUDAEMONIC CAMERA-TO-TACTILE
GAMBLING SHOE Designed for use with the blind and
A computer hidden in the base of a created by C.C. Collins, it used a
shoe, used in Las Vegas to defeat the head-mounted camera and converted
roulette wheel. It was created by images into a 1024-point, ten-inch
Edward O. Thorp and Claude Shannon. square tactile grid.

7
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
»twitter@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

According to Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor

Insight & Strategy, the reason is that both Google
and Apple “currently own the hearts and minds of
developers. If [Google and Apple] can make it easy
for current developers to deliver a good experience,
then there won’t be a lot of room for a Samsung
ecosystem,” he said. “Had Samsung started a lot
earlier, it may have been a different story.”

Multi-billion dollar business

The one fly in the bright, new wearable ointment?
An old nightmare which Google thought it was
tackling successfully – fragmentation. “All the
devices will be different with varying screen sizes,
hardware and sensors,” noted Richard Windsor,
who runs the RadioFreeMobile consultancy. “I
suspect most [hardware makers] will use their own
code.” This possible split in the swathe of old and
new smartwatch releases is concerning analysts. “I
hope Android Wear application development
doesn’t multiply the fragmentation issues Google
is already battling with Android,” said Neil Shah of
Counterpoint Research. While Windsor added that Google Glass could soon
the move by Samsung “will make fragmentation be joined by a host of new
wearable technologies
much worse than it already is.”
Shah is also confident that Google will be able to
address this potential problem in the same way
that it is tackling the fragmentation concerns
“Google is After all, new smartphones are very ‘me too’ in
their form factor and feature count. Even
currently prevalent in the smartphone sector. striving to Samsung’s new premium phone, the Galaxy S5,
Whatever the possible dangers, it is still
generally thought that the Google announcement
avoid history was seen to be more incremental in its specs than
revolutionary. “Google would be a competitor in the
was a logical move and one that the company had repeating itself“ market but also an enabler if it helps Android
to make in order to wrench some sort of early Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight developers,” added Delaney. And that market is
control on the newly emerging sector. “From predicated to be big – very big. In fact $20 billion
Google’s perspective it’s essential it introduces screen devices before Google had fully optimised large in just two years time with further massive
some consistency into a fast-fragmenting the platform,” he added. growth predicted afterwards. To that end, Google is
wearables space,” said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at This move by Google is not only timely, but it is already working with several partners, including
CCS Insight. “Without a consistent software seen by many in the mobile sector as critical to Asus, Broadcom, Fossil, HTC, Intel, LG, MediaTek,
development kit there was a danger that the the future development of mobile technology. Motorola, Qualcomm and, of course, Samsung.
wearables space would quickly result in a “Google is taking wearables seriously and it wants According to Google’s Pichai, the new wearables
fragmented array of implementations that would everyone else to,” said John Delaney, vice- sector will forge a parallel with the smartphone
make it harder for Google to control and monetise. president of mobility research at analyst firm IDC. ecosystem. While smartphones became tiny
Google is striving to avoid history repeating itself. “The industry thinks wearables is the next big computers, wearables will become centres for
The early wearables landscape is reminiscent of thing as sales of smartphones start to plateau in information. Information that will ultimately feed off
the tablet market when manufacturers sought to developed markets and this is the latest attempt a variety of sensors. Now you can look forward to
respond to Apple’s iPad by using Android for larger to build momentum behind it,” he said. your body becoming a massive information hub.

FOSSIL PDA SAMSUNG GEAR 2

Run on the Palm OS, the Fossil PDA Featuring a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED
handled most PDA-like functions and screen, running Samsung’s new
applications and was powered by a Tizen OS and able to run a range of
Motorola Dragonball Super VZ apps, it features a battery life of two
(66MHz) along with 8MB of RAM. to six days.

1994 2003 2013 2014

WRIST COMPUTER GOOGLE GLASSES
Developed by Edgar Matias and Mike Yet to be officially announced and
Ruicci, they modified a HP 95LX already threatened by legislation due
palmtop and a half-Qwerty keyboard. to privacy concerns, the glasses,
Both keyboard and display were controlled by a touchpad, can take
strapped to the user’s forearms. photos and record 720p HD video.

8
Android leaps to the top
of the tablet market
Android surpasses Apple and
moves into number one spot

T
he iPad has long been at the pinnacle of
tablet sales, helping Apple take a
commanding lead over Android sales – until
now. A recent report by research firm Gartner has
shown Android to surpass Apple and become the
number one operating system in terms of tablet
sales. The Android operating system now equates
for 62% of all tablets sold across the world, with a
total of 121 million tablets sold in 2013. This is a
massive jump from the 57 million sold worldwide in
2012. This is compared to Apple, who has seen its
total tablet sales last year fall to 70 million and its
overall market share drop to 36%.
Analysts at Gartner have found the large number
of quality budget tablets that run the Android OS to
be a large factor in this increase. Companies like
Samsung and Google still pave the way with their
quality yet affordable tablets, but it’s emerging
manufacturers, such as Tesco, who make
cost-friendly tablets at highly discounted prices.
The Nexus 7 still remains one of the most popular Android tablets today. Despite strong sales from the iPad mini,
The market demand for such devices is incredible, Apple’s marketshare has still dropped by 16%
with the likes of Tesco’s Hudl tablet going through
patches of being unavailable in nearly every single Another area in which Android tablet sales have With many more Android tabs announced for
one of its stores. The range of choice from these been prolific is within emerging markets. Many release this year and the inevitable release of a
manufacturers vastly outweigh the offerings from countries in Africa and Asia now have access to new Nexus and second Hudl device, we can expect
Apple, despite the iPad still being a strong brand. budget Android tablets where they normally sales to increase even further for the Android OS.
“In 2013, tablets became a mainstream wouldn’t. These devices offer very basic features at With Windows being a distant third in terms of
phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android tablets budget prices. Within the same report by Gartner, tablet sales, the race for tablet supremacy is very
being within the budget of everyday consumers it’s claimed that emerging markets recorded much between Android and Apple, but is there any
while still offering quality,” said Roberta Cozza, growth of 145% in 2013, where in developed and visible way that Apple can turn it around? In terms
research director at Gartner. “In 2014, it will be mature markets, there was growth of just 31%. of quality vs quantity, it’s the latter that seems to
critical for manufacturers to focus on device Again, much of the growth found in mature markets be winning, and one that Apple needs to address
experience and solid technology to prevail.” stems from budget tablets, namely the Nexus 7. drastically if it wants to come out on top.

Android tabs by numbers

A quick overview of the world’s new
26% 52%
http://bit.ly/1gg2KxZ

number one tablet OS

Businesses are predicted
Only 26% of developers to buy 52% more tablets in

$1.1m build separate apps for

tablets and phones
2014 than they did in 2013

1
19%
42.5% 2 3
75% Samsung’s Galaxy Tab
Google makes $1.1m in The Kindle Fire is the most used series leads the way in
terms of downloads from the Android accounts for 75% Samsung equates for 19% of tablet online, with 42.5% of its total number of Android
Play store every day of all app downloads all tablet sales worldwide users surfing the web tablet sales

9
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
»twitter
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

NEW TECH CAMERA LENSES

Next-gen The secondary lens here enables

users to pinpoint certain objects
no matter how far away they are
Images can be taken at up to 3x
optical zoom and videos at an
impressive 5x optical zoom

phone cameras
We’ve taken a look at new technology
Dual-lenses
in focus

championed by Corephotonics

S
martphone photography has
certainly come a long way in the
past year or so. Sony, for
example, has started to include its
EXMOR digital camera sensor in its
latest smartphones, and HTC has been
using its ‘Ultrapixels’ moniker. A small
start-up company named
Corephotonics is going for a different
angle altogether, a concept similar to
that seen in the new HTC One (M8)
smartphone, with the development of
its dual-lens cameras. Each lens
provides a different function,
The One (M8)
has a similar
dual-lens
setup
At a glance
» Product name Corephotonics
dual-lens camera
» Available from
www.corephotonics.com
» Price TBA
A new smartphone camera that uses
dual-lenses to offer unprecedented
picture quality. Expect to see it in many
upcoming devices from the likes of
market-leaders HTC and Sony.
The dual-lens camera will be one
measuring depth in a scene in the way of the first to offer high-quality
compact optical zoom
a single lens cannot, and aided by
Corephotonics-developed software,
the two work in sync to provide a new 3D imagery will be possible
level of optical zoom and sensor quality thanks to the disparity of both of
the lenses
that has the potential to surpass what
we have seen before. The power of the
dual-lenses also mean that problems The dual-lens will also help Each lens has fusion software
improve performance in that works to put images together
with low-light conditions and image and generate a finished image
low-light conditions
stabilising will be a thing of the past.

Eran Kali
VP Marketing,
Corephotonics
How long has it taken to get dual-lens
phone cameras into working products?
About two years. The Corephotonics
A dual-camera does not pose exceptional
manufacturing challenges – intentionally so. The
technology barriers are in lens design and image
fusion. At MWC we showed the lens and entire
camera in compact camera format and
packaging. Image processing was demonstrated
on Snapdragon S800; tightly integrated to the
camera. The lens and camera were fabricated
with the backing of world class vendors Kantatsu
(lens) and Liteon (camera). The entire product
will be ready for high volume production this year.
Could you briefly go into the technology
behind how the lenses work?
The gist of the zoom camera it is that one
A lens is normal with a wide field of view. The
Q&A
second lens has a fixed narrow field of view
(telephoto lens). The fusion software collects the
available information in both images and generates
a continuous and seamless zoom, ranging from 1x
to 3x zoom in the full resolution still images and up
to 5x zoom for high-definition video. To get the
quality right, we had to make a telephoto lens at a
very low height. It’s a unique way of capturing
photos that hasn’t been seen before in terms of
smartphone photography.
What would you say are the key
differences between the smartphone
cameras you’re developing and the ones
currently on the market?
Corephotonics’ mission statement is bridging
A the photographic quality gap between
compact cameras (smartphone type) and DSCs. To
achieve this we targeted the following areas in
development: compact optical zoom, tremendous
boost in low light performance (SNR), faster focus
speed and better optical stabilisation capabilities.
Smartphone cameras don’t tend to have a function
optical zoom feature, if not at all, so at
Corephotonics, we’ve made that a massive part
of our development here as well.
3D is a word that gets thrown around a
lot. Do you feel with the power of
dual-lenses, taking 3D photos on a
smartphone could be possible?
Yes. The disparity of our dual-cameras
A allows us to obtain 3D information. It’s
something many users will be able to enjoy in the
future for sure.
What are your future plans for the
dual-lens cameras and other products?
We are working on slim cameras (25 per
A cent lower than today) which have much
better low-light performance (+1EV). Of course,
we’ll also be looking at new ways to consistently
improve how smartphone cameras work as well.
There’s numerous partnerships currently in the
works, but we have to keep a closed lid on those
for now, unfortunately.

10
 Imagine Publishing Ltd
Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill
Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
 +44 (0) 1202 586200
Web: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
www.greatdigitalmags.com
www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk

Magazine team
Editor Andy Betts
andy.betts@imagine-publishing.co.uk
 01202 586254
Sub Editor Philip Morris
Art Editor Katie Peat
Photographer James Sheppard
Senior Art Editor Will Shum
Editor in Chief Nick Jones
Head of Publishing Aaron Asadi
Head of Design Ross Andrews
Contributors
Christian Cawley, David Crookes, Oliver Hill, Steve Jenkins,
Phil King, Shaun McGill, Paul O’Brien, Paul Rigby,
Harry Slater, Gavin Thomas, Sandra Vogel

Android books and mags Advertising

Digital or printed media packs are available on request.
Advertising Director Matthew Balch
 01202 586437

available on Newsstand
matthew.balch@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Head of Sales Hang Deretz
 01202 586442
hang.deretz@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Advertising Manager Alex Carnegie
 01202 586430
There’s now even more choice to getting the very best digital alex.carnegie@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Senior Account Manager Nick Marrow
magazines on your phone or tablet  01202 586419
nick.marrow@imagine-publishing.co.uk
International

A
ndroid Magazine continues to ride high on the
Google Play Newsstand, and there’s also a
wide range of fantastic additional Android
products from Imagine Publishing that will help you
get the most from your device. From device-specific
bookazines such as the Samsung Galaxy Book, to
more advanced titles like Expert Android that deals
with hacking and development topics, there is
something for every level of user.
Newsstand merges together your magazine and
later’ feature if you want to save an article on your
device to read at your own convenience.
Play Newsstand makes it easy to get copies of your
favourite digital magazines, including Android
Magazine, directly onto your smartphone or tablet for
you to enjoy wherever you are.
If you aren’t using Play Newsstand, but still want to
get your hands on some of your favourite digital
magazines, then make sure to check out
greatdigitalmags.com, which homes some of the
Android Magazine is available for licensing.
Contact the International department to discuss
partnership opportunities.
Head of International Licensing Cathy Blackman
 +44 (0) 1202 586401
licensing@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Subscriptions
Head of Subscriptions Gill Lambert
For all subscriptions enquiries
 0844 245 6963 (UK)
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Email: android@servicehelpline.co.uk
13 issue subscription (UK) – £51.90 (CC)
13 issue subscription (Europe) – £65
13 issue subscription (ROW) – £75

news feeds in one place for you to manage and read best technology, knowledge and video game Circulation
Head of Circulation Darren Pearce
your subscriptions. There’s also a fantastic ‘read it magazines in the world.  01202 586200
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Moto G grabs 6% of Production Director Jane Hawkins

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Founders
Group Managing Director Damian Butt

the UK phone market Group Finance & Commercial Director Steven Boyd
Printing & Distribution
Printed by William Gibbons, 26 Planetary Road,
Ultra budget device a massive success Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT
Distributed in the UK & Eire by Seymour Distribution, 2 East

M
otorola’s Moto G, the
award-winning ultra-
budget handset, has
become the company’s most
successful smartphone ever,
bagging six per cent of phone
sales in the UK since its launch.
New figures from analyst group
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech show
that the device has given Motorola
Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PT  0207 429 4000
British sales. It highlights the
Distributed in Australia by Gordon & Gotch Corporate Centre,
speed at which a quality budget 26 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
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The same pattern can be seen Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU
in France with Wiko, which has  0203 148 8105
Disclaimer
8.3 per cent share, and Xiaomi The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material
lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of
in China with 18.5 per cent.” Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced
in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher.
Android now has a 68.9 per All copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose
of criticism and review. Although the magazine has endeavoured
cent share of sales across to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and
availability may change. This magazine is fully independent and
Europe, including a massive 88 not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

a foothold in European markets,
where it had previously struggled
to sell in any meaningful numbers.
Dominic Sunnebo, strategic
insight director at Kantar
per cent in Spain, and 54 per If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post, email, social
network or any other means, you automatically grant Imagine Publishing
cent in the UK, based on sales an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free license to use the material across
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every care is taken, neither Imagine Publishing nor its employees,
also showed LG as the fastest agents or subcontractors shall be liable for the loss or damage.

Worldpanel ComTech, comments:
“Motorola was nowhere in Europe
before the Moto G launched in
November last year, but the new
model has since boosted the
manufacturer to 6 per cent of
growing brand, thanks to the © Imagine Publishing Ltd 2014
ISSN 2047-1580
popularity of its G2 and Nexus
5 handsets, both of which are
highly regarded – a factor
Sunnebo counts as being
increasingly important.

11
 »www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Visit us daily for news and more

1Stop icons
An option to
check out through
2Friend recommendations
As you browse
through either the
3In-app purchases
Before
downloading an app,
the Settings menu newsstand or app an alert letting you
is Add Icons. store, you’ll be able know whether there
Disabling this to see are in-app purchases
option will stop recommendations included in it will
app icons and ratings from appear. Although it
automatically your Google+ doesn’t go into
being added to contacts. Press on detail, you can see a
your homescreen the rating to read quick overview and
after you their full review of then choose not to
download. the app. download it.

10Settings
side menu
on
One of the biggest additions
4Force update
Through the settings
menu within the Play store,
to the latest build of the Play navigate to the bottom of the
store is the inclusion of the page. Under the build version
Settings tab you can now
through the check for
side menu of updates by
the app. simply
Simply pressing on
press on the it. If there’s
Play icon at an update
the top-left available,
of the app to it’ll begin to
find it. download it.

9 Mass update
Instead of updating apps
individually, through the My
5Magazine ratings
Google+ likes are now
more accurate on the Play
Apps section of the Google Newsstand section. As well as
Play store you can mass star ratings, the Google+ ‘like’
update your you leave
apps. Make will be
sure to do
this over
things you need to know about… shared
directly onto
Wi-Fi as your Google+
some of the
updates can
take a fair
amount of
the Play store profile for
others to
see and
interact with.
storage up.

8Quick ratings
Whether it’s a track from Play Music or
an application,
7 Password check
If your family
are frequently on
6 Redeem codes
Instead of going on your laptop to redeem a
code for the Google
you’ll find the quick your device, make Play store, you can
recommendation sure to check the now access the
feature on the new password Redeem menu
main menu. This check option in the through the side
will enable you to Settings menu. This menu of the Play
add a quick star will require the store app. Once
rating without password to your entered, you’ll
adding the Play store account instantly have
additional review to be entered every access to the
on top of it. so often. redeemed credit.

12
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 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
»twitter
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

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 Messages
Inside Android Magazine’s virtual mailbag

I
s it just me (a fifty-something business user), or is

Is KitKat
Android 4.4 a little bit of a let down? I bought the
latest issue of Android Magazine as the KitKat
Secrets headline grabbed my attention. By

underwhelming?
coincidence, a day later, my HTC One from Vodafone
announced that I could get the upgrade. I had been a
little disappointed by the previous upgrade to 4.3 and
this one proved no different. Many of the
improvements don’t apply to me – step counter,
lockscreen art options, and does anybody really need
Hangouts to replace the SMS and MMS system?
On the plus side, I have noticed a slightly smoother
interface and it does seem slightly faster (although I
haven’t dared to try ART yet).
I love my HTC One, definitely the best Android
phone out there in my mind, but to all those with
other handsets who will not receive the KitKat
upgrade I would say don’t worry, you’re really not
missing much.
John Clifton

We say: There were enough new features in KitKat to

make it one of the most important Android updates to
date. A lot of the under-the-hood stuff, such as the
significantly reduced memory usage, will really start
to show its value in the months to come, while a lot of
the new up-front features were more about polishing
what is now a very mature OS. It’s true that updates

month
are less important than they used to be, as Google is
now focused on updating its own apps and services Are there enough
independently, but a new version of Android will new features in
the KitKat update?
Letter of the
continue to be one of the highlights of the year.

Forgotten are being ignored. I enjoyed the

process of going from Gingerbread to “You’d still find
We say: With so many new Android
devices being released it is inevitable

older Jelly Bean and then KitKat and did get

pointers and help from your the G to be a lot
that everyone’s attentions will move
away from the older models. After all,

phones
I am a pensioner with limited
resources and have had my Galaxy S
(the original!) for nearly three years
now, managing  to update it to KitKat
4.4.2 using a CyanogenMod ROM (a
nightly at the moment). I think it’s still
a very good phone and with the
various tweaks it is running fast and
smoothly. However, why is the S
never mentioned now? How does it
compare to the others, say the Moto
G?  I am sure there are a lot of
readers with this phone that would
love to learn more about it, but we
magazine, although not specifically
about the S, so I relied a lot on
web searches with particular help
and solutions from the XDA
Developers site.
My first step at rooting and
installing a new ROM took me many
weeks of research before I felt (fairly)
confident and was amazed at how
easy it turned out to be. And even
easier to keep on updating via
CyanogenMod. I have many Nandroid
backups and had to revert to one
when a nightly caused problems. But
I am much more confident about
modifying the phone now.
faster and more
stable… in a
different league”
I have bought every copy of your
great magazine and it started
by saying how good the Samsung
Galaxy S was, but that died very
quickly as the S2 etc were soon
introduced. So please include
articles about the older phones like
the S, S2 and the Ace.
Keith Dix
three years is virtually a lifetime in
the mobile technology world. As to
your question about how the original
Galaxy S compares to newer
handsets like the Moto G, the
answer is simply that the G is better
in almost every way. Although you
have brought your S up to date with a
KitKat ROM you’d still find the G to be
a lot faster and more stable, with the
screen and battery in a completely
different league. We’d say the same
about the S II as well, which is one of
our favourite Android phones ever,
but is now really showing
its age.

16
Get in touch!
Send us your thoughts
on all things Android
Modding
the G-Pad
I recently bought myself an LG
G-Pad, mainly because it’s the only
eight-inch Android tablet with a
high-resolution screen and which
has had CyanogenMod ported to it. I
bought it to replace an iPad which
was a good size and had a nice
screen, but has Apple’s ridiculously
basic keypad and unreliable
auto-correct rather than a decent
multi-choice predictive text system
that you can get for Android. After
finding the supplied ROM (which is
based on Android 4.2) too limiting
and unreliable, I decided to install
CyanogenMod.
It’s nowhere near as easy as on a
Nexus, and it’s made worse by a
whole lot of incomplete advice that’s
out there. The G-Pad lacks Fastboot,
so installing a custom recovery
means downloading a zip file from
one of a number of malware-infested
sites with misleading ‘Download’
links that install junk on your
computer. For some reason, rooting
doesn’t work unless you have an SD
card installed (they don’t tell you
that) and you can’t sideload, as you
can on Nexus. You also need to use
Windows, both to install the recovery
module and to refresh the original
ROM if you brick your tablet.
The end result works fairly well,
but really it ought to be an easier and
safer process. Many of us don’t like
using Windows, because it’s slow,
buggy and open to malware, so why
can’t LG port their driver and
recovery utility to at least the Mac, if
not Linux as well (or make a
cross-platform one)?
TRENDING
Let us know your thoughts on
these hot topics
ǜ Thoughts on the new
HTC One?
ǜ How important is the
camera in your phone?
ǜ Are you interested in
wearable devices?
Get in touch!
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
»email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Got questions or comments? Drop
us an email and let us know
Older phones like the
Galaxy S II don’t compare
with today’s best handset
I wrote a detailed report so that
anyone who wants to install CM on
this device can avoid the pitfalls I
found – you can find it at http://
tinyurl.com/cymod-gpad. I wish other
modders would do the same.
Matthew J Smith
We say: Some devices certainly are
far more difficult to hack and mod
than others. The G Pad has only light
support from the developer
community, but with builds of
CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android
available it is well worth the effort.
More KitKat
woes…
Just downloaded 4.4.2 and
compared to your KitKat article in
your mag issue 35. Well, actually my
Samsung doesn’t compare at all!
Gallery has nothing like the editing
tools illustrated by yourselves. There
is no ‘Select Runtime’ to access ART
under Developer Options and moving
home screens about doesn’t
happen. Finally there is no sign of
Emoji when creating messages. So I
have given up… the Samsung KitKat
seems to be a different animal! In
fact, so far, a bit of a damp squib.
Terry Cullen
We say: We probably shouldn’t be
»facebook
/littlegreenrobot
Like us on Facebook to
send your comments
surprised that Samsung removed
features from KitKat, especially
where they are in apps that
Samsung has its own equivalents
for. The removal of ART is strange,
though, as it is expected to be
included in the KitKat-based
Galaxy S5.
Better HTC
camera
Having just seen the details of the
HTC One M8 I have to say I am
disappointed that they have stuck
to their daft ‘ultrapixel’ cameras.
Four megapixels is simply not
enough if you want to do anything
with your images. It’s fine for
looking at them on your phone
screen or posting them on
Facebook or wherever, but for
anything else it is not big enough.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the results
from the camera were
significantly better than the
competition, but they aren’t. From
what I’ve seen, Samsung, LG,
Apple and Nokia phones are all
capable of better shots, and
mostly free from gimmicks too.
Alan Jones
We say: Check out our full review
of the HTC One (M8) and its
camera on page 80.
CROWD
SOURCE
Opinion from the
Twittersphere
@lgrobot
What is the best app you’ve
found recently?
@peterhughes65 Changelog
Droid it’s a fantastic app. Notifies
you of app updates, along with
their version number even quicker
than the playstore!
@Rob_Al33 tangerine free. Good
app for keeping a track of your
finances with a good looking ui
@gavinlew Link Bubble by
@chrismlacy excellent app - Go
buy it now!
@edwardsj1978 Swipe Pad.
Amazing little app that allows me
to have my homescreen
completely clear of icons.
@lgrobot
Which of the year’s new
phones has impressed you
most?
@andrewlone28 @htc one m8
seems to be the best so far
@AhHaAlan4me Sony Xperia Z
ULTRA
@TonyP_UK HTC Desire 300 is an
absolute parent-friendly bargain!
Replaced my mum’s HTC One V
and she loves it.
@jglen_TNA That would be the
#MotoG. Cheap and powerful,
Samsung et al should take note
@geekinCroatia definately the
new HTC One. I want it so bad I
can hardly breathe.
@lgrobot
What’s the best thing on
another platform that you’d
like to see on Android?
@cantor1995 A version of Office
for tablets. I can’t even download
it on my Nexus 7.
@SusiejeanLow The musicroom
app so I can download and view
sheet music. Only on iPad
currently. :-(
t wit ter
Follow us @lgrobot to join
in the conversation
17
Feature
»Clash of the titans
CLASH TITANS GALAXY S5 VS HTC ONE (M8) VS XPERIA Z2
E
ach year, the Android mobile phone market
keeps dishing out goodies. It’s a given that the
flagship handsets from each of the major
manufacturers has to be better than their
predecessors, but the intense race for supremacy
means some fare far better than others. The latest
kid on the block is the HTC One (M8). HTC had lost
18
OF
THE
its way for a short spell, leaving Samsung to
become the cool Android go-to for so many people;
a company that has been standing toe-to-toe with
the media favourite Apple, and, in recent years,
striding ahead. But HTC, in announcing the One (M8)
has put itself back in the top pecking order, with
design being very much at the forefront. And yet it
has competition. With such a strong offering from
Samsung allied with Sony’s super Xperia Z2 – a
phone that draws upon the resources of the
Japanese firm’s entertainment empire – it will take
something special to make the number one slot. So
which will prove worthy enough of that place on the
podium? Here we put the big three to the test.
 Feature
Clash of the titans«

SPECS HEAD-TO-HEAD The big three's premium phones in numbers

Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S5 HTC One (M8) Sony Xperia Z2
Galaxy S5

An incremental, evolutionary step forward
from the Galaxy S4, the S5 tries to
compete with Apple with the addition of
an iPhone 5s-esque fingerprint scanner.
About Its improved camera and emphasis on
health capabilities makes it an attractive
handset. Tracking down the 32GB model
may prove tricky though.
A case of design over functionality for the
HTC One (M8)? Not at all, although we’ll
reserve judgement until later in the
feature. Certainly, a lot of thought has
gone into the way the HTC looks, but the
specs show it packs a mighty punch
inside with some very nifty,
high-end technology.
The 5.2-inch screen of the Xperia Z2
betters the Z1 but, most eye-catching, is
the camera’s huge number of
megapixels. It’s the heaviest model on
test – but not by a significant amount. Its
waterproofing is incredible: it has IP55
and IP58 ratings for this, so underwater
shots are possible.

Price £540, $700, €725 £549, $600, €730 £549, $600, €730

Dimensions 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm 146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4mm 146.8 x 73.3 x 8.2mm

Weight 145g 160g 163g

Display 5.1-inch Full HD Super AMOLED Five-inch 5.2-inch IPS LCD

Resolution 1920 x 1080 1920 x 1080 1920 x 1080

Pixel density 432ppi 441ppi 424ppi

Rear camera 16-MP Dual 4.1 Ultrapixel (4-MP & 2-MP) 20.7-MP

Front camera 2-MP 5-MP 2.2-MP

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 at 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 at 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 at 2.3GHz

RAM 2GB 2GB 3GB

Internal storage 16GB or 32GB 16 or 32GB 16GB

Battery size 2800mAh 2600mAh 3200mAh

WINNER Sony Xperia Z2 With its larger screen and fantastic camera specs, the Sony
Xperia Z2 edges it here, especially given the beefier battery and 50% more RAM 1st

19
Feature
»Clash of the titans

DESIGN AND BUILD

Samsung Galaxy S5
Perforated
A lthough it is a predominantly polycarbonate build, the Galaxy S5 looks and
feels fantastic, with a large screen and some great built-in hardware
functions. It is more contoured than its predecessor, which makes it great to hold
Metal-style
The silver surround
gives the Galaxy S5 a
pattern
Samsung says the
perforated pattern of
smart finish and adds the phone’s rear
and it is finished off with a metal-style surround that ensures it has a high-end to its overall feel of a displays “modern
appearance. The soft-touch rear of the phone has a perforated pattern that lends high-end phone glam”. The soft-touch
itself to a firm grip, but Samsung has also made much noise over the S5 being rear is comfortable
dust and waterproof. This, in turn, helps create a solid, quality phone that in no
way feels cheap while protecting it from the elements. The slim handset comes in
a range of colours: black, white, blue and gold. It sports some well placed buttons
Home button
The Home button
too. The home button is in the usual spot at the bottom of the device but it includes a fingertip
includes a fingerprint sensor, activated by using a swiping motion. The power sensor for more secure Polycarbonate
unlocking of the handset Some say it's just a fancy
button is on the top-right and the volume buttons run down the right side, each name for plastic and it is,
handily located for one-hand accessibility. to be fair, but it’s a solid
plastic all the same

HTC One (M8)

Speakers
There are two
BoomSound
speakers for added
oomph to your
Design H aving discovered a way to embed the phone’s antennas into the One (M8)’s
metal body, HTC has made a handset that is incredibly striking. This
innovation has meant that a metal case can be used for the first time without
Design is at the heart
favourite tracks of what HTC One (M8) impacting on the handset’s signal. The brushed metal curves around the edges
is setting out to achieve
– check out the metal
before it meets the handset’s glass front, making the device look sumptuously
Buttons body that makes this rich. It seems a shame to encase it in one of the official One (M8) Dot View cases,
The buttons fit nicely into handset stand out but even here the innovation doesn’t stop. The cases are transparent when they
the case so you can
activate the volume. are closed so that users can continue to see notifications. There are few buttons
Charge the unit from the and it lacks features that are seemingly becoming future standards such as
bottom socket Case
The dot matrix case is fingerprint scanning and wireless charging. But HTC has gone for onscreen
just as essential and HTC buttons and this again leaves room for BoomSound speakers. The greatest
has proven innovative:
it’s touch sensitive and innovation is on the back, however, with the camera lens and a new depth sensor
lets key info be displayed above it. And you can have it in gunmetal grey, glacial silver or rose gold.

Sony Xperia Z2
Screen size
T here is not a lot of difference between the Xperia Z2 and its predecessor, the
Z1. Then again, the Z1 hasn’t been out for that long. This is a speedy successor
– in more ways than one – that aims to be Sony’s flagship device. The first iteration
The screen-to-phone
size ratio is high. This
Camera
Take pictures with the
special, dedicated
means it takes up the camera button on the
wasn’t all that bad in terms of its design so it’s retained here. What we get is a bulk of the stylish side of the handset
beautiful-looking device that sandwiches a slightly curved aluminium side strip in glass-fronted phone
between two, flat sheets of glass. It’s simple and effective and it feels comfortable
Curved sides
Although the phone
to hold. It also enables the front and back of the handset to take on a minimalist, takes on a box
classic look, albeit with an LED that lights up when notifications come through. The appearance, the sides
are curved so that the
Z2 is water and dustproof. You can submerge it in 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 Buttons edges don’t feel sharp
minutes without damage. Even though it has micro SD and micro USB sockets, it The main navigation in your hand
buttons are on the
manages to protect them behind rubber-lined flaps and the seal proves to be tight. screen itself with the
With four colours (black, white, dark silver and purple), the phone oozes class, won’t physical buttons on
the side proving rather
weigh you down nor make you squint. Its 5.2-inch screen makes it large enough – stylish, particularly the
and it’s thin enough – for it to be a handset to show off, use and enjoy. power button

WINNER HTC ONE (M8) The HTC One (M8) is without a doubt the most gorgeous of the
three handsets here, with a lot of effort having gone into its sumptuous design 1st

20
 Feature
Clash of the titans«

SPEED Performance tests

Graphics and processor

T
here is barely any difference with these three phones in

performance
terms of CPU and RAM. Both the HTC One (M8) and the Sony Samsung Galaxy S5 35492

AnTuTu
Xperia Z2 have Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processors
clocked at 2.3GHz, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 has the same HTC One (M8) 34390
processor but clocked at 2.5GHz. The Xperia Z2 has higher RAM –
3GB as opposed to 2GB. Yet benchmarks have shown that the HTC
One (M8) and the Sony Xperia Z2 beat the Galaxy S5. Rightware Xperia Z2 34922
shows that the Sony Xperia Z2 is the top performing smartphone in
the overall benchmark rating, but that HTC One (M8) is best when
focusing on gaming. The Galaxy S5 comes third both times.

Basemark OS II
Samsung Galaxy S5 986.18

performance
System-wide
The AnTuTu benchmarking app also shows that the HTC One (M8)
packs a serious processing power punch, given its score of
38000 compared to the Galaxy S5’s 35666. It does suggest that HTC One (M8) 1071.37
HTC has pulled out something special with its One (M8) even
though updates for the Galaxy S5 could enable it to catch up. It Xperia Z2 1225.67
wouldn’t be a difficult catch up: there isn’t much in it given the
similarities of the processors.

WINNER Sony Xperia Z2 With the Sony Xperia Z2 winning the overall benchmark and
faring well when processing games, it makes it a nifty handset, that's for sure 1st

CAMERA HTC’s dual-camera

T
he new HTC One sports two cameras on the
Samsung Galaxy S5 HTC One (M8) Sony Xperia Z2 back that offer a variety of photographic tricks
including the ability to refocus images even
after they have been shot, and to add a bokeh-style
effect. It works well in some instances, but is less
effective in others, so is arguably not the game
changer than HTC would have hoped for. Still, with an
API available to developers, the technology could yet
be used in new and innovative ways.

W
e’re seeing some
stunning cameras on
smartphones these
days and what we have here is
some real diversity. Leading
the way in terms of megapixels
is Sony. The Z2 has a 20.7-MP
camera that includes Sony’s
G-Lens and the BIONZ mobile
image-processing engine.
Sony calls it the world’s best
smartphone camera and it
backs its claims with a range
of great apps. These can
capture high-speed clips at
120fps and allow for
background defocusing, AR
effects, panoramas and nice
Vine integration.
And yet, even though the
Galaxy S5 'only' packs a 16-MP
camera with LED flash, it still
turns heads thanks to its own
additional advanced hardware
and software. The Galaxy S5
camera can focus in just 0.3
seconds – which is currently
the world’s fastest speed,
although the HTC One (M8)
auto-focuses in 300
milliseconds – and it allows for
preview HDR and post-shot
focusing. The handset, like the
Sony, allows for 4K video
shooting capabilities.
But then you come to the
HTC One (M8). It has ducked The camera is fine for normal daylight shooting
out of the megapixel race and,
like with the HTC One, it’s gone
for a 4.1-Ultrapixel camera. The
pixels here are larger and so
let in more light but, by running
it through two image
processing chips and adding a
second camera that captures
depth information, the One
(M8) can produce vibrant, The dual camera enables bokeh-like effects, with mixed results
colourful images.

WINNER Sony Xperia Z2 HTC One (M8) shows innovation and fresh thinking, but the
pro-power of the Sony with its 4K recording ability is hard to ignore 1st

21
Feature
»Clash of the titans

SOFTWARE Add-ons
I
n keeping with the excellent camera function,

T
the HTC One (M8) has photo-editing tools for here are lots of add-ons for each of
refocusing and cutting out parts of images for our three phones, ranging from
use in other photos. It has also tidied up its watches to fitness gadgets, to
bespoke front end, which now allows for touch innovative cases. Samsung and Sony
gestures. Tapping the screen can turn the phone lead the way on fitness accessories,
on and BlinkFeed – HTC’s new feeding software – although HTC has joined forces with
can operate with a swipe to the left. Fitbit to add some additional features
Like the other two phones, the HTC One (M8) has to its phones without the need for
fitness capabilities. It is pre-loaded with the Fitbit extra peripherals.
app that can track sleep and capture exercise data.
But here, the Galaxy S5 excels. S Health turns the
S5 into a smart fitness tracker and works with the Samsung Gear 2
Lifestyle Coach to monitor the health of users. The The big daddy of the
HTC's BlinkFeed home screen
Gear add-ons enhance these abilities. widget is becoming a stand-out feature, bunch, this
But there is much more. The S5 can privately but can it match Samsung's gung-ho approach? smartwatch
lock photos and data and allow for mobile includes a 2-MP
payments using nothing more than your fingerprint. Walkman app which enables for online and offline camera. Its built-in
It can also flick into ultra power-saving mode and listening and Facebook integration. Movies is a speaker and mic let
download via Wi-Fi and 4G simultaneously. one-stop video store, Album is a cloud-integrated users have
While the Sony handset also allows for life photo app and PlayStation Mobile is a killer addition conversations via
tracking, it is also strong in terms of entertainment. that has cross-platform support with the PS Vita. their wrist.
Accessed via its customisable app menu is its Gamers would love this app on the Xperia Z2.

HTC (M8) case

WINNER Samsung Galaxy S5 It’s a tricky one – Versatile and practical, even if the
PlayStation Mobile is very enticing – but S Health is an HTC One (M8) proved to be standard
attractive proposition that has the capability to improve fare – which it
our health. Galaxy S5 it is then… 1st doesn’t – this case
would have us
drooling. It would be
useful and

UPDATES Which company is best for OS updates? protective at the

same time.

Samsung HTC Sony

Noise-cancelling
earphones
By plugging the
Digital Noise
Cancelling Headset
(MDR-NC31EM) into
Category Galaxy S II Galaxy S III Galaxy S4 HTC Desire HTC HTC One Xperia Play Xperia Xperia Z the Xperia Z2, you
Sensation mini can block out
Launched 2011 2012 2013 2010 2011 2013 2011 2011 2013 external noises and
fall deep into a
Launch OS 2.3 Ginger- 4.0.3 Ice 4.2.2 Jelly 2.1 Eclair 2.3.3 4.1.2 Jelly 2.3.7 2.3.4 4.1.2 Jelly musical nirvana.
bread Cream Bean Ginger- Bean Ginger- Ginger- Bean
Sandwich bread bread bread

Last OS 4.1.2 Jelly

Bean
4.3 Jelly
Bean
4.4.2 KitKat 2.2 Froyo 4.0.3 Ice
Cream
4.4.2 KitKat 2.3.7 Ginger- 4.0.4 Ice
bread Cream
4.3 Jelly
Bean
WINNER
Sandwich Sandwich HTC One (M8)
No of 2 3 1 so far 1 1 1 so far 0 official 1 2 Smartwatches are yet to
updates rise and noise cancelling
is not Z2 specific. With
the HTC One
WINNER Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung is more on the (M8) Case,
ball when it comes to updates. Sony can be slow – Xperia Play we’re viewing
did not get an official update, and HTC can mess around: the future 1st
it has forked its Sense user interface in the past 1st

22

HACKS
S
amsung seems to take a friendly
approach to hackers – indeed, it offered
a developer, hackable edition of the S III
in 2012 – and its phones tend to offer few
problems when it comes to rooting.
The popularity of Samsung handsets
means they are well embraced by the
community and there is a lot of help around
online, helping you to unlock your handset
with step-by-step instructions. As such, we
would expect the S5 to be just as easily
hacked and modded.
Sony is also hacker friendly. Although it
warns non-advanced users against rooting, it
posts guides on its website and it says it
WINNER Sony Xperia Z2 Sony’s open backing and willingness to allow people to
hack their phones to get the best out of them has to be commended
VERDICT
A
s fantastic as the Samsung Galaxy S5 is, it
was always a small step forward rather than
a revolutionary change to the flagship range
that a lot of people had hoped for and so, this time
around, it appears to have fallen behind in the
innovation pecking order.
Although its fingerprint scanner and heart-rate
monitor are impressive, for a lot of people these
don’t really matter. Sure, it’s not as much of a
gimmick as it perhaps is on the iPhone 5s right now
1st
Sony Xperia Z2
Anyone with a Sony Xperia Z2 will salivate at the
prospect of using it for photos, videos and gaming.
The PlayStation Mobile app is a great addition and
it works at lightning speed. On paper, and in reality,
it’s a great handset.
Hack facts
1 All three of these phones can be easily rooted,
supports the open developer community. On
meaning you'll be able to hack and tweak your
many devices from 2011, the bootloader can
device from day one.
be unlocked and again, there is a good
community following surrounding the handset,
2 Most built-in software can now be disabled by
appreciative of Sony’s hacker-courting stance.
The HTC One has not proven
to be difficult to root in the
most part so we don’t expect
this new handset will be either.
Problems seem to arise with
the carriers, though. Verizon, for
instance, makes it difficult to
root a HTC One running Android
4.3 or higher. This does dent
our enthusiasm for it.
– security and payments are certainly made easier
by having it – it’s not currently the killer feature we’re
all dying to see.
Since the innards of the three devices are all very
similar, these kinds of features matter. So we were
impressed by the strides taken by HTC with its
gorgeous, jaw-dropping design that oozes class and
its dual-camera and insistence on sticking with the
Ultrapixel camera that worked so well on the HTC
One (M7). Having depth and the ability to post-focus
2nd
HTC One (M8)
Sometimes tech rolls in that makes the eyebrows
raise and the dual-camera capabilities of the HTC
One (M8) certainly did that for us. We like the way
HTC is trying to put some distance between it and
other handsets, with innovation at its heart.
Feature
Clash of the titans«
going to Settings>Apps then locating the app and
selecting Disable. You can uninstall bloatware
altogether using the Titanium
Backup app.
3 Sony and HTC both offer
good tools for unlocking a
device's bootloader.
4 Samsung has traditionally
had wider support from
developers, resulting in a
greater selection of ROMs.
1st
is great and draws images out well. But then the
Sony Xperia Z2 came along and made so much
noise that it just cannot be ignored.
Being able to film in 4K and play that on a 4K TV is
good, but the 20.7-MP camera is what makes us
stop and think here. Its large battery should ensure
it keeps going for some time and its dust and
waterproofing makes not only the smartphone but
its camera capabilities that tad bit more versatile.
There is no doubting Sony has pulled a blinder.
3rd
Samsung Galaxy S5
A kick up the bum is needed for Samsung. It will
look at our first and second place handsets and
put their best brains into creating a smashing S6.
It’s a fantastic handset and is worthy of flagship
status, but the challenge has been set.
23
Feature
»Double your battery life

DOUBLE YOUR
BATTERY LIFE AND 19 MORE WAYS TO BOOST
YOUR PHONE

24
 Feature
Double your battery life«

DOUBLE YOUR BATTERY LIFE

Power-saving Change settings to boost battery
H
ow often do you recharge your Android? It
apps might be a daily occurrence, something you
Easy Battery do as a matter of course before bed at night,
Saver or it could be on charge several times a day for you
» Price Free to get the maximum performance from it.
Offering battery info and A collection of factors can deplete your device's
optimisation tools, this free battery, such as what connectivity settings you use,
app is a great way to reduce how often you play games and enjoy media, and
power use on how much you rely on it for tethering and
your Android. productivity tasks.
Expect as Boosting your battery shouldn’t be difficult,
much as a however. Disabling mobile internet when it is not
20 per cent required is a particularly easy way of reducing the
benefit. drain on your battery, as is switching your display
brightness from automatic to a manual setting. In
Android 4.4 KitKat you will find that there is a choice
of modes for Location services if you have this
DU Battery
Saver & setting enabled. These options demand more
Widgets power depending on how accurate you need
» Price Free Android to be, with the most accurate requiring
Offers up to 50 per cent more battery power.
increased battery with Android KitKat 4.4 devices come with built-in
preset and custom smart tools hidden in the OS to manage battery life,
modes. Also offering things like a power-saver mode and sleep
includes mode that can reduce battery depletion when the
widgets to phone is left idle.
relate which You should pay particular attention to new
apps are features identifying the cause of battery drain.
siphoning life. Disabling NFC if you’re not using it is a good start, as
is switching off Hotword Detection in Google Now
(Google Now>Settings>Voice). You can also disable
syncing in the Photos app (Settings> Poor battery life
Battery HD Auto-Backup). is a common
» Price Free complaint aimed
Arguably the most at modern phones
popular Android battery
saver, this features an
Root solutions
I
f quick fixes aren’t bringing your Android
accurate battery meter, and
provides accurate graphical
power drain under control there are HOW TO UNDERVOLT HOW TO UNDERCLOCK
alternatives available for root users.
data to show Install IncrediControl and
how much
Underclocking involves a decrease in 1 enable root access. With 1 Head to Google Play and
install Trickster MOD
clock speed, slowing Android slightly but
power is left the app open, select SVS from the Kernel Settings, granting super
producing better performance for less
for a variety top menu to display your Android user permissions when you
battery power. Meanwhile, undervolting
of tasks. device voltages. launch the app.
enables you to find a voltage lower than
Lowering your Android Go to Info>General and
the CPU manufacturer’s baseline, the aim 2 device's voltage is 2 under CPU Frequency
being to maintain performance while your
potentially a hair-raising Control set a minimum and
Battery Android device uses less power.
experience, so lower voltage only
Doctor Before you attempt to underclock or maximum clockspeed. Set
» Price Free one step at a time, and only on the Governor Control to On Demand
undervolt your device, take the time to
two highest frequencies. and Save.
With CPU management for perform a full back up before you start
Perform stress testing with Test your underclocked
rooted phones and ability to
disable power-hogging
making changes to your hardware. Any 3 StabilityTest. Use Classic to 3 Android by rebooting and
changes you make to your phone or tablet
check undervolting the highest CPU stress testing, making the
features, the using these tools are done so completely
frequency and Scaling to test a necessary changes or resetting
app also has at your own risk. So, if you’re uncertain or
range of values. if performance is too slow.
preset and lack confidence, please do not proceed.
custom
power-saving Estimated improvement:
modes. By closing down features you aren't using, clamping down on inefficient apps, and
tweaking the more advanced settings you should be able to push your battery towards
two full days of use

25
Feature
»Double your battery life

HARDWARE BOOSTERS
Increase your phone’s storage
F
orget cloud accounts and SD cards, you can use your Android’s USB port to
increase storage. Using an OTG cable and an external hard disk drive or flash
drive in conjunction with a suitable app such as StickMount (requires root), you
can use the peripheral to expand storage. Connect the storage to the OTG cable, “Using an OTG cable and an
which should in turn be connected to your phone, and in StickMount select Mount,
and use a file browser to move data between devices. It's that easy. external hard disk drive… you
can use the peripheral to
expand storage”

Got no obvious storage

options? Don't fear, there's
always a solution with Android

Pump up
the volume
C an it ever really be too loud? If you’re a fan of
maxing the volume right up to 11 you might
consider getting your hands on an external
speaker. This would come at a cost though.
Instead, there are apps that can do the job for
you, increasing the system volume beyond safe
levels (not healthy for prolonged use – so please
take care) to give you the best audio experience
for your music, video or game.
Among the best options is AC!D Audio Engine
(which does requires root), and is available from
http://chautemseric.wix.com.
Free up RAM
W hen your smartphone starts to slow down it
can often be because you have too many
applications open. Restarting can be effective,
but a bit inconvenient.
Another option is to always close down apps.
The Android app switcher tool can help here,
enabling you to see what’s open and to quickly
close it. Don’t overlook the App info screen
(Settings>Apps) where the Clear cache setting
will free up valuable RAM.
Alternatively, let an app like Easy RAM Booster
do the dirty work. Easy RAM Booster will close and
freeze apps, using the app switcher (as long as
you don’t have a load of auto-start apps). Increase
your screen’s
resolution
M any Android phones have quite a high screen
resolution, something that makes them
suitable for viewing high definition video, or
admiring photos from a digital camera.
However, if 720 x 1280 isn’t enough, the
resolution of your device can be increased using
apps such as NOMone Resolution Changer and
Resolution Changer Pro. Both apps require root
permissions, and can be used to increase screen
resolution as high as the display will allow.

26

Quick
power-ups
Auto-silence phone
No one wants to be
disturbed late at night.
Silence enables the creation
of wizard-based rules (easily
disabled) to govern when a
smartphone's ringer and
audio notifications should
be silenced.
Protect your data
Backing up to the cloud is
vital if you switch devices.
Android has some good
options from Google Drive
and Google Photo to
third-party solutions like
Dropbox, Box.net and
OneDrive. Protect your data
and never lose a byte.
Speed up dialling
DialApp is an evolution in
the way you make calls.
Rather than waste time
finding the right button for
the person you want to
speak to or message, the
app combines gesture
calling and voice search,
saving time and effort.
Feature life«
Double your batteryxxxx
SECURITY
Secure your Google apps
V
arious online apps benefit from Google’s 2-Step account, the hard work is performed on your Android
Verification service, an enhanced authentication phone, where the Google Authenticator app is used to
system that can help to keep your data secure. create a unique verification code each time you sign
After enabling 2-Step Verification in your Google into your account.
1 Install Google Authenticator
Before proceeding,
2 Sign in to Google
Sign in to your Google
install Google Authenticator. account in the browser
This will save time later on, (preferably desktop, or in
particularly if you choose the desktop mode on Android).
wrong option and find Click your profile photo in the
yourself unable to install top-right corner and select
anything without disabling Account>Security>Setup>
the 2-Step verification. 2-Step verification.
3 Confi gure 2-Step verification
On the 2-Step
4 Set up Google Authenticator
Run the app, selecting
verification page, click Start Begin setup>Scan a barcode,
setup and add your number, then switch back to your PC
selecting how you would like browser and click Switch to
to receive codes. A code will app. Scan the barcode to
be sent to your phone – enter configure the app and send
in the browser, then confirm future verification codes to
activation of verification. your phone.
Protect your data by locking individual apps
S
haring your phone with other people is often uncomfortable, but
you can reduce the chance of some vital secret being shared by
dialing the number on their behalf and monitoring them closely.
If this march towards building a personal panopticon isn’t for you,
however, there is another way. Locking individual apps is a good solution,
and can be done easily with App Lock (Smart App Protector) which
enables the use of PINs, patterns and gestures to unlock specific apps.
1 Configure Smart
App Protector
On first launch, you’ll be requested for a PIN.
The screen provides a hint, and once entered
you’ll see the main App Lock screen. From here
tap the key icon and set a Lock Type.
2 Find apps to lock
After setting a password, tap back and
then Add to view the list of apps that can be
locked. You’ll notice some recommended
choices such as the Package installer and
Settings screen – check then Add to lock.
3 Fakes and locks
When attempting to run locked apps, a
password is required. An alternative is also
available, allowing you to set a fake lock. This
Keep individual
displays a fake error message that you can apps safe from
disable by long-pressing OK. prying eyes
27
Feature
»Double your battery life

SPEED UP YOUR PHONE

Tips for a faster android
V
arious means exist for you to boost
your device and enjoy faster downloads,
GPS results, battery charging and even
general day-to-day performance. As you have
seen above it is possible to underclock and
undervolt your Android to encourage longer
battery life; overclocking can push your device
to its physical limits.
How much of a speed increase you gain
from Android really depends on how far you
want to go. Overclocking is at the extreme end
of such tweaks, but you might prefer to focus
on reconfiguring Android based on the native
settings. For instance, disabling live wallpaper
can speed things up, while ensuring you
download over Wi-Fi rather than mobile
internet will also provide good results.
Similarly, dropping rarely used widgets from
your home screen can help, as can limiting or
disabling background data (Settings>Data
usage, tap menu, uncheck Auto-sync data).
There are also benefits in switching to a new
app launcher, one optimised for speed such
as Lightning Launcher, free from Google Play.
Tweaking the kernel is a tactic that can be
used in conjunction with overclocking. There
are various root apps that you can employ for
this, such as Android Overclock. However, if
you’re using a custom ROM then there is a
good chance that you already have the tools.

HOW TO OVERCLOCK
Install Android
1 Overclock on a
rooted device with a
kernel that supports
overclocking. Launch the
app then select CPU
Frequency Scaling.
To overclock,
2 increase the Max
slider by a single step,
setting the Governor to
ondemand and saving.
Restart Android to test
the results and repeat.
Once you’ve
3 found the highest
working speed for your
CPU, use a stress testing
tool to establish whether
you need to reduce the
clock slightly.

Estimated improvement: Speeding up your

Overclocking can speed up your phone by 20%, with benefits best seen in games phone can be done
by various means

Charge the Download

battery faster
S ometimes it seems as though your
smartphone will never charge. Whether you’re
waiting for it to top up before a night out, or have it
hooked up to the car battery, charging never
seems to be fast enough. Using approved
charging hardware and cabling can help, but for
the best results you should be looking at
something like Fast Charge. As long as the custom
ROM or kernel you’re using has support for fast
charging, your waiting is very much over. Fast
Charge requires root permission, so when you
first run the app you will need to assign this.
files quicker
A re you a regular downloader? If so you may
have been frustrated by Android’s slow pace
in this area, especially when downloading multiple
files to your phone or tablet.
Using the Super Download app (£1.29/$1.99)
you can combine both your 3G or 4G data
connections with a Wi-Fi network to download
files and content faster than by using only one
method alone. You will need to be rooted and will
also need a compatible ROM. Beware that this
Get quicker method will eat your battery life pretty rapidly so
should be used only sparingly.
GPS fixes
I f you’re using satnav apps on your phone or have
trouble getting a reliable reading from the native
GPS software, there are several fixes that you can
consider making to your device.
Before considering third-party apps (the best
available on the Play store require root), open up
Settings>Location and switch the Mode to High
accuracy (Android 4.3 and later). This should
overcome GPS issues in the majority of cases, but
uses more battery life. Failing this, hunt down and
install FasterGPS from Google Play – a free app
with in-app purchases to boost your GPS.

28

Improve
performance
Visual voicemail
HulloMail turns visual
voicemail into something
remarkable and usable in
this free app, which enables
you to send voicemail
messages, divert incoming
messages to email and even
have them transcribed. It's
easy to set up too.
Improve
notifications
The standard LED
notifications can be
customised using Lite Flow
LED Control. Rather than the
usual green flash indicating
a missed call or new email,
the app enables you to set
different colours for
different notification types.
Speed up
messaging
Still using SMS? With
Handcent SMS you can
make your text messages
relevant by adding
signatures, formatting
canned responses and
configuring pop-ups that
display your new messages.
Feature
Double your battery life«
DATA IMPROVEMENTS
Automatic connection to wi-fi
I
mproving wireless connection speed can really boost performance isn’t so good for older devices it can prove
your Android experience. Save time connecting to Wi-Fi very useful. You can speed up access to wireless
with the help of apps that crowdsource information connections provided by BT, FON and some other providers
about public Wi-Fi and share it with other users. Such apps by opening Settings>Wi-Fi>Advanced and adding your
are typically free and include Osmino WiFi. Also, don’t miss WISPr account settings and enabling Auto login. As long as
The Cloud's FastConnect app, which will help you get you have a WISPr-compatible account, this is an attractive
connected to open WiFi in many city centres. Although 'fire-and-forget' solution.
WiFi Manager Trigger
It can be tricky choosing the One of the most useful
strongest wireless network, but automation apps available,
this free app simplifies the Trigger features a preset
process, displaying detailed enabling automatic connection
signal strength for nearby to a specific Wi-Fi network
wireless access points and whenever it is in reach, disabling
offering one-touch connection. 3G/4G and saving money.
Wifi Fixer Osmino Wi-Fi:
Ever had that problem when your free WiFi
Android device is connected to Signing up to Osmino will provide
Wi-Fi and no data is coming access to a vast library of open
through? Wifi Fixer is designed to wireless hotspots (5 million
detect these problems and across 50 countries), complete
recover your network connection with reviews and an augmented
in no time at all. reality Wi-Fi search tool.
Use less Unblock blocked
mobile data websites
M etered mobile data can prove expensive,
especially if you’re regularly downloading
media. A good way to reduce data while
S ometimes websites are
blocked, for good reason
or bad. You might be
maintaining your browsing habits is the free attempting to access
Opera Max app, which compresses video, sensitive data, or more
photos and other graphics by up to 50 per cent. commonly, stream region-
Best of all, this compression isn’t limited to just blocked media from overseas
your web browser… services like Netflix US.
ǜOpera Max is in ǜThe simplest way around
beta, so if you’re this is to employ a VPN app,
interested you such as VPN One Click, free
should install the from Google Play.
app and sign up. ǜTo access services like
ǜCompression is Netflix US or Hulu, you
restricted to video should switch to a server in
and photo-based the USA or Canada.
apps, affecting ǜWhile useful for
only the device overcoming region-
Opera Max is blocking, VPNs are not
installed on. completely secure, so
Tethering is regularly change the server
unsupported. if you're concerned.
29
Tutorials
» masterclass
Hands-free
Android
Make sure that you’re getting the most out of Android’s
brilliant voice and speech recognition functionality
O
ne of the biggest advances
since the inception of the
smartphone has been in voice
recognition and speech technology.
No longer do we actually have to touch
our phones or tablets to interact with
them. Now we can wake them up with
a word, get them to read our text
messages back to us, and tell us which
way we need to head when we’re
driving or walking. But getting the
most out of the hands-free
possibilities of your handset can take
a bit of working out. That’s what this
set of tutorials is here to help you
with. We’ll guide you through getting
your settings right, and make sure
that your phone is always ready and
waiting for your commands. We’ll also
show you how to use your Android
device to translate other languages on
the fly, and get you set up so that your
“We’ll guide you through
getting your settings right,
and make sure that your
phone is always ready and
waiting for your commands”
Google Now is talking Google Now is your best place for voice-controlled features
» It’s full of
great tips
Google Now is a
brilliant way to find
out the different
things that you can
get your Android
device to do with
your voice if you’re
starting out. Tap the
microphone icon,
but don’t actually
say anything.
30
phone will read you out text
messages when they arrive if
you’re driving. Everything’s
pretty simple once you know
what you’re doing, and with an
app like Tasker you’ll be able to
automate a lot of it, because
Ask your own sometimes it’s nice to tap on
question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk your phone instead of just
When can I shouting at it.
use my voice
to input text? Five top hands-free tips
All the time. You 1. Don’t cover up the
should see a
microphone icon on microphone on your device
any keyboard you’re when you’re talking to it,
using. Tap on this and
you’ll be able to speak
otherwise it might not
out whatever you understand a word you’re
wanted to type. It uses saying. Make sure you speak
the same technology
as the other clearly too, and don’t get too
speech-to-text upset if your phone doesn’t
functions on your hear you right.
Android phone.
2. Before you download an app
that performs voice-controlled
actions, make sure your device
can’t already do it anyway.
There are a lot of voice-activated
settings that you can enable on most
Google Now
holds a wealth of
Android devices.
voice-related functionality
3. If you’re going to use voice to make
phone calls and send texts, it can save
contacts have distinct names, even if
it’s just adding an initial after the first
you some hassle if you make sure your name. Everyone knows lots of Dans.
4. More apps are being updated with
voice control options regularly, so it’s
always a good idea to keep an eye out
» Help is » And there’s to see if any of your most-used
at hand even more applications can be talked to yet.
Scroll down and As well as the tips
you’ll find a big list of shown, you can tap
the various voice through to find other 5. If you listen to a lot of music on
actions you can get things you can get headphones it’s a good idea to use the
Google Now to your phone to do
perform for you. with just a few ones that come with your device.
They’re explained words. If you’re These usually have built-in mics, so
concisely for you, unsure how talking
you can control your phone without
and you can try them will help you, this is a
by simply tapping on brilliant primer in getting it out of your pocket just by
the microphone. hands-free Android. tapping on the correct button.
 »mHan ndr
as ds-f oid
ter re
A

c e las
s
Works with » Varies with device

2min All you need to do is

install an app and

Configure text guide

you’ll be having a
conversation in a
different language…

-to-speech in apps On-the-fly

Here’s how to get Google’s text-to-speech service up and
language
running in your apps
translation
I
n this tutorial we’re going to walk you through getting Google’s text-to-speech service set
up and running on your Android-powered device. It’s pretty simple, but you’ll want to make
sure that you’ve got Google’s own text-to-speech engine installed on your device before you
start to make things even simpler. You can grab the latest version of it from the Google Play store
for free, and it usually works better than any manufacturer’s version you might already have
pre-loaded on your device. When you’re set, follow these simple steps and you’ll have text-to-
speech up and running in no time flat.

Head to the Play store and download

1 the Google Translate app. It’s free, and
compatible with most phones. Make sure you
turn the sound up too.

1 Find the options

First bring up the Settings menu to make
sure the text-to-speech engine is running correctly.
There are a number of ways to navigate to the
correct menu, but the quickest is to go to the
Accessibility menu and tap Text-to-speech output.
2 Choose your engine
If there are multiple engines, like on
Samsung devices, make sure it’s the Google one
selected. You can listen to a snippet of text by
tapping on Listen to an example. Tap the settings
button by the name of the engine.

With the app installed, select the

2 correct language from the drop-down. If
you’re going to use the app away from Wi-Fi
it’s prudent to download the files beforehand.

3 Choose a voice
Here you can pick whether a male or
female voice is going to read the text back to you,
and download high-definition language packs to
make things a bit clearer. You can choose to have
the text read in different languages as well.
4 See how it works
Once you’ve tweaked the settings, head to
an app that uses text-to-speech, like Google
Books, and see how it works for you. Most apps
will have a ‘read aloud’ button to tap that
automatically starts your device nattering at you.
Tap the microphone and speak the first
3 language. When you’re done, the app
will translate it and read it aloud. When your
partner responds it’ll translate back.

31
Tutorials
Works with » Android 2.2 and up

Read SMS aloud while

you’re driving How to set up your phone to read out
your texts while you’re on the road

Y
ou still want to keep connected with
people when you’re out and about,
especially if you’re expecting an
important text message and you’ve got to
drive somewhere. While you can reply to
text messages hands-free with the speech-to-
text applications that are already built into
your phone, you’re probably going to have to
install an app to get your device to read
incoming messages out loud. Some devices
have the functionality built in from the box,
but if yours doesn’t, then ReadItToMe is the
next best thing. It’s an app that dictates your
SMS back to you, meaning you don’t have to
take your eyes off the road to see what
someone’s said. It even translates text speak
into proper English. There’s a free version
available from Google Play, and a pro version
with more settings to play with. Grab the free
version first to make sure it works with your
device, and we’ll walk you through getting
the app set up just the way you want it.

1 Grab the app

ReadItToMe could
become a very important
app for Android-using drivers
Head to the Google Play store and grab the
free version of the app. Once it’s installed and
you’ve opened it up it’ll offer a brief walk through of
some of its functions. Have a read through and
you’ll get some handy hints.
2 Choose what it reads
Depending on what you want to read, tick
on the boxes at the top of the screen. Choosing
calls will set your phone to read out the name of
the person calling. You can add other apps in the
pro version as well.

3 IfHow it reads
you’re in your car, connect your phone to
the Bluetooth and set the app to read text
messages over that. If it isn’t working you might
need to switch to the BT Mono setting further
down the screen.
4 Translate
Tap on the translate checkbox and the app
will change any text speak it recognises into real
English. You can add new terms to its dictionary
manually at the bottom of the Settings page.
Without it the texts can be a bit garbled.
5 Select who to talk to
You can mute contacts so that the app
only tells you that you’ve got a text from them,
rather than reading it all out, or change individual
settings to suit the amount of texts they send and
the content of them.

32
 »mHan ndr
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las
s
Works with » Varies with device

S
etting up the Search app so it responds

Set up Search to your voice whenever it’s open is a

really simple task that’s going to save
you a lot of time in the long run. It gives you
access to a whole host of voice-control options
and all it requires is you to open the app and

for voice control

Make sure your Android device is always paying
say a hot phrase, usually “Okay Google”. From
there you can not only search the internet,
but get your phone or tablet to do a lot of cool
stuff, from making phone calls to adding
meetings to your calendar. It’s like a less
attention when you talk pushy Siri and all you’ll need to get it working
is your Android device and some vocal chords.

1 Open the app

Open up the Google Search app and bring
up the Settings menu. We need to make sure that
the right box is checked, otherwise you’re just
going to be shouting at your phone, and that’s
going to make you look crazy.
2 Find the menu
From here you want to tap on the Voice
option. This will take you to another menu with a
variety of options. The one we’re looking for is
called Hotword detection. Make sure the box next
to it is ticked.
Speak and go
3 Once the box is ticked, you’re all set. Now
whenever you’re using the app all you have to do is
say “Okay Google” and it’ll start listening. From
there you can search, call and use the other voice
commands Android has built in.

2min How to use hands-free navigation

guide Get your device to talk you home by following this simple tutorial

First you’ll need to manually
1 input the journey you want to
make in Google Maps. Once you’ve
done that, tap on the blue arrow
you’ll see in the corner of the map
screen, or tap Start navigation from
the search screen.
When you start navigation, you
2 might be prompted to put on
your device’s GPS. You’ll need to do
this to get the most out of the
navigation. From here you’ll be led to
your destination. There are some
options you can toggle though.
Tap on the menu button and
3 you’ll bring up some options
you can tweak. For example, if you’re
not the one driving but you’re in
charge of where you’re going, you
can turn off the voice and look at
your device for directions instead.
Lastly it can help if you turn on
4 satellite imagery, just because
it gives you a better understanding
about the landmarks and road layout
that you’ve got coming up. Have a
play with the settings before you go
and find the one that works.

33
Tutorials
Works with » Android 4.0 and up

Set up a firewall
without root
Block apps from going Data use
online without you When customising your firewall, pay
close attention to how certain apps
knowing use your phone’s internet
connection. Potentially malicious
apps can rack up large data bills, so
setting the right parameters to

A
firewall is a piece of software
that acts as a gatekeeper between
your device and the internet. All
incoming and outgoing connections need
permission from the firewall to be
completed; without it they will be
blocked. On desktop computers the
primary use for a firewall is security, but
on a phone you’ve likely got a limited
data plan that you will want to protect,
or at the very least a battery that can be
drained very quickly by data intensive
apps. Thus, it can be very useful have a
firewall on your phone to keep an eye on
the apps that want to go online. It can
block any potentially dodgy apps, of the
kind that want to upload your entire
contacts list to their servers, as well as
reigning in those apps that insist on
syncing in the background for no
apparent reason. Until recently it was
only possible to set up a firewall on a
rooted phone, but with NoRoot Firewall
that has changed. By following this
tutorial you’ll be able to control exactly
which of your apps are going online.
prevent this is important
Refresh list
When using the No Root Firewall app for
the first time, chances are you won’t see
all your installed apps listed. Make sure
to use the refresh button at the top of
the app to perform a quick scan of your
installed apps, and then list them for you
to access later
Extra options
By pressing on one of the apps listed
on this screen, you can add and
remove extra firewall options available
to it. Although they’re more tailored for
advanced users, they do offer extra
security options for users to explore
and take advantage of
Block apps
By selecting the boxes all the way down the
left side, you can choose which apps are
blocked from using your Wi-Fi connection.
By then selecting the app itself, you can
add extra parameters to how it uses your
Wi-Fi connection

Start the firewall

1 After
downloading and installing the app
onto your phone, open it up and press the start
button listed near the top of the app. This will
initially start up the firewall and can take a few
seconds to fully load before you can continue
exploring the app further.
2 Initial scan
Press on the Apps tab listed at the top of
the app. Your phone will now load all the apps
currently installed on your phone. If you see that
an app is missing from the list, press on the
refresh button at the top so a more thorough scan
is performed.
3 Scroll through apps
Now scroll through the apps listed on this
page. Certain apps have different areas that you
can add firewall restrictions to, although these are
mainly the stock apps pre-loaded on your device.
After finding an app you want to add restrictions
to, press on it to get more detail.

34
 quick Protect your phone with these other great security apps
1 Snap Secure 2 Malwarebytes Secure 3 Avira Antivirus Suite 4 Kaspersky 5 HomeBase Lock Screen

tips
This app is best used to block any Move all your media files and SMS Perform thorough scans of all As you browse the web, this app will A colourful and customisable way of
spam calls and texts received as it messages to the cloud to stop directory files on your device to alert you to any spyware or adware adding different lockscreens to stop
keeps a block list of numbers. unwanted people accessing them. uncover any potential viruses. that you encounter. unwanted access on your device.

Ask your own

question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk

How often should I

customise my
firewall settings?
This entirely depends on how
many apps you download and
how often you use your phone’s
internet. Make sure to add
restrictions to each and every
4 App details
After selecting an individual app, you can
5 Add a filter
To implement a new filter, press on the ‘+’
app you download if you see fit,
and permanently ban access to
now begin to set up custom filters. These filters symbol. On the next screen you need to enter a any websites if any malicious
can make sure the firewall restricts certain access new name for it as well as a port number for it. You content is found.
from these apps to both your Wi-Fi and 3G/4G can then choose to restrict the app from being
connection. Certain filters you can implement can used either on your Wi-Fi connection, or your
impact on how apps function, however. 3G/4G connection.
Is using both a
firewall and
antivirus suite
beneficial?
If you’re serious about keeping
your smartphone completely
virus free, then using both of
these programs is a good idea
as they will protect your phone
really well. The only downside
to this is that both of these can
drain your battery considerably,
so use them sparingly if you
need both.
6 Clear uninstalled apps
Once you’ve added the custom filters,
7 Add overview filters
Scroll over to the left of the Apps tab at the
navigate back to your app list. Before going through top of the application until you reach the all-
the rest of your apps, press on the menu button important Global Filter tab. Here you can add
located at the top-right of the app. From here, general firewall settings that encompass all of your
select the Remove uninstalled apps tab. This will installed apps, as well as restricting internet
remove any uninstalled apps from your app list. access to certain websites.

Need help?
Got a problem with your
Android phone or tablet?
Get in touch with us...
»facebook/littlegreenrobot
Get help from our
Facebook community

8 Open access log

Your access log will list all the times your
9 Is it working?
A great tip to make sure your firewall is
»twitter @lgrobot
Follow us to send your
questions and thoughts
firewall has been used after being set up. If the working properly is to check out your device’s
general overview of each entry isn’t enough for
you, then press on an individual entry to take a
closer look at why it was blocked and if anything
notifications menu. Here you’ll be able to see
which apps the firewall is currently blocking, as
well as notice any malicious files and data that has
»email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Send your questions for our team of
malicious was found. been found by it. experts to tackle

35
Tutorials
Works with » Varies with device

Clean up
your cache
quickly
Use the App Cache Cleaner app to clear away
unwanted files and improve performance

A
pps are good at collecting
cache, but they do it for a
good reason. Cache is an
area where files are stored (in
memory) for future use. The
purpose of this is to give quicker
access to elements of an app that
are repeatedly used. However, as
the cache grows larger it can have
an effect on performance and how
its software operates.
The answer is to clear your
cache, and this is exactly what
App Cache Cleaner does. It has a
number of methods for removing
cache. There is the Clear button,
which is a straightforward one-tap
-cleans-all operation. However, for
those looking for a little more
finesse, there is the option to work
on individual apps.
Quick settings
Tap the menu icon to select Settings. This
offers a number of options that can be
switched on or off. Tap Clear All to remove all
cached files when an app starts. Tap Exit
After Clear to close the app when the Clear
button is tapped
Leftover files
Accompanying the System Cache are the
Residual Files. They typically relate to the
apps that have already been deleted but still
have the odd file left on the device. Select the
files to remove and tap the Delete button to
get rid of them
Individual apps
Each app in the list is assigned a trash icon.
This enables users to clear the cache from
individual apps. Tapping the trash icon will
activate the App info window. This in turn will
reveal how large the cache is and enable it to
be cleared by tapping Clear cache

Get more from App Cache Cleaner

Join the App Cache Cleaner community and make
sure your cache stays clean when it reaches a limit

Join community Set cache size Add a reminder

A slide-out menu can be The size of your cache can How often a reminder is
swiped out from the left. have a dramatic effect presented is set to one
This offers two sections:
Reminder and
on your device’s
performance. App Cache
day by default. To extend
the remind frequency, or
Viewing options One-tap cache killer
By default, App Cache Cleaner displays The Clear button is the big daddy of
Community. Selecting Cleaner enables users to remove reminders the apps By Size Descending. There is App Cache Cleaner. This doesn’t waste
Community takes the set a specific cache size. altogether, tap the the option to rearrange the list for time with small minimal tasks, it goes
user to the Google+ Tap the Remind me if Remind Frequence option specific viewing options. Tap the list straight for the kill. Selecting this
community for the App option and set the cache and select the icon (bottom-left) and select from By button will clear the cache of all the
Cache Cleaner app, which size using the slider. Tap appropriate option from Size Ascending, By Name Ascending or apps on the device with one single tap
has over 1,200 members. OK when finished. the list that appears. By Name Descending of the button

36
Works with » Varies with device

Back up and
share your apps
Create backups
A
pps are the lifeblood of the Android
ecosystem and getting the right ones for your
of your favourite device is what every user wants. However,
apps so you can finding the right app is not always that easy. So when
you do discover one, you want to share it either with
easily reinstall yourself or other Android users.
them in future You could simply share your recommendations via
a single channel, but for those who want to give a
little bit more, MyAppSharer is a great app for the
occasion. The app is aptly named as it’s all about
sharing. The app scours your Use MyAppSharer
to share your favourite
device and lists all the apps it can
find ready for sharing via a link.
apps with fellow
Android enthusiasts
Again, for those who want more
there is the option to share the APK file.
Users can share individual files or choose a selection
to share with a few taps. The beauty of MyAppSharer
is the sheer choice of sharing options. Share via
Dropbox, WordPress, Bluetooth, Email, Keep, Skype
and Twitter to name a few.

1 Share options
After installing the app from the Google
Play store, users get to view the main screen that
lists all the apps on the device. The default share
option is set to Link; this will share any app as a
live link. The alternative is to select APK to share
the app package file.
2 Search
Android devices typically contain a large
amount of apps, and this will leave a long list to
navigate when looking for apps to share with other
users. If you know what app you want to share,
use the Search facility at the top of the screen and
type in a relevant search.
3 Share a link
To share an individual app, first locate the
app and tap the app’s name. This will reveal a
pop-up menu with all the available sharing options.
Note, this will differ depending on what apps are
installed on the device. Swipe left to view the
complete collection.

4 Add to Dropbox
If Dropbox is installed on your device, the
option to share to it will be available. Tap the
Dropbox option to view the Choose location
window. Now select a location, or alternatively
create a new one by selecting the folder icon in
the top-left. Tap Add, enter a file name and hit OK.
5 Use email
A more traditional alternative is to use the
Email option. Tap the app to share, locate Email
and tap to open. This will automatically add the
default address and add a link. Now add the
recipient address and any additions, for example,
images and tap Send.
6 Multiple sharing
If you want to share details of more than
one app at a time, use the checkboxes located to
the right of the app name. Simply tap the desired
checkboxes and tap the Share button at the top of
the page. Again, select the service to share and
share accordingly.

37
Tutorials
Works with » Android 4.0 and up

Move files to your

desktop with Pushbullet
Send and share
O
ne of the many reasons why Android is an
amazing operating system is how simple it
files, links and makes it to keep all your electrical devices in
notifications sync with one another. One app that looks to take
this a step further is Pushbullet, an ingenious app
between your that enables you to receive phone notifications
smartphone directly on your desktop computer. Through its
simple menu system, users can create notifications to
and computer send to contacts, including your computer, while also
sending files and links across as well. Once the
connection has been made, all the notifications sent
to your phone, including text and missed call alerts,
will also be sent to your desktop computer. This is
especially handy if you’re away from your phone at
any point but want to know what’s happening on it.
In this tutorial we’ll guide you through the process
of setting up the app and how to make the connection
between phone and desktop computer. At the same
time, we’ll also show you the Pushbullet website and
the key differences between that and the app.

1 Sign in
After downloading and installing the
Pushbullet app, you’ll first need to choose which
Google account you want to send all notifications
and other links through. The app will take a few
Get your phone
and desktop working seconds to log in and then collate all your contacts
in perfect harmony for you before you begin creating them.
2 Follow tutorial steps
The app will now guide you through the
basics of how Pushbullet works, so make sure you
follow the instructions closely. Once you’ve gone
through all the tutorial pages, press Continue. At
this point you should turn on your laptop or
computer and go to the Pushbullet website.

Choose who to push to

3 You’ll
now see a collection of all your
contacts associated with your Google account.
Select the contacts you want to connect to and if
they don’t have a Pushbullet account, an invite will
be sent automatically. Press Continue when done
to move on to the next screen.
4 Send a message or link
Press on the bullet symbol located at the
top-right of the app. A menu will now appear
showing you the type of notifications you can
create and send to contacts. Although you can
only choose one type of notification, it’s possible
to combine the two at a later stage.
5 Choose a recipient
Although you can send your notification to
a contact, Pushbullet’s main use is to send it to
your desktop. This creates a mirroring system,
where all your notifications are displayed on both
devices. It’s perfect for reading text messages
sent to you on your phone on your desktop.

38
 Get in touch
We’re on Facebook and Twitter, or
»facebook
/littlegreenrobot
»twitter@lgrobot
»email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Like us on Facebook and Follow us to send your Need help? Got a question? Drop us
just drop us an email join our community comments and pics an email and let us know

Ask your own

question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk

Is it possible to
send music files via
Pushbullet?
Yes, one of the best features of
Pushbullet is that it enables
users to distribute music tracks
from your phone onto your

6 Create a notification
Now add all the details of your notification
in the appropriate windows provided by the app.
They can be as basic or detailed as you want them
to be, but larger notifications can take a
considerably longer time to go through and appear
on your desktop computer.
7 Add additional files
If you’ve created a text-based notification,
desktop computer. Start to
create a notification and select
you do have the option to add multimedia files to the file option provided. Here
you can send a music track
it. As previously mentioned, these sort of files will
associated with your Google
take longer to go through, but it’s a quick way of
Play Music account cross-
sending images. At this point, log in to the platform. Great stuff.
Pushbullet website and send the notification.

8 Did it work?
Both on your phone and desktop, a
notification will appear with the details of your
message. Drag down the notification bar on your
phone to take a closer look at it, or press the
Pushbullet icon in the Chrome browser to take a
look at it on your computer instead.
9 Pushbullet on Chrome
With the notification loaded on the
Pushbullet website, explore your options. You can
send a reply directly to that message or create one
from scratch. Now that the connection has been
made, you’ll see any text messages or phone calls
from your phone also sent to your desktop.
10 Check notifications
Create a message on your desktop and
press Send. Your phone should notify you of the
message and offer additional interactive options.
Under the notifications you’ll see the share options
where you can send the notification to other
people, or simply copy it to your virtual clipboard.

11 Troubleshooting
After sending messages to and from your
phone and desktop computer, if any problems
have arisen, go to the settings menu with
Pushbullet. Here you can run tests that detect any
problems with messages being sent and what you
can do to make the process work better.
12 Disable and enable apps
Also in the Settings menu is the disable
and enable apps option. Within this menu, you can
choose which apps will work with the app. Not
every app on your phone will be compatible, but
this menu will show the ones that are. Simply
de-tick any of the apps you don’t want to use.
13 Compatible apps
Some of the best apps on the Play store
are compatible. Google Keep is a great example,
as it lets you open up created lists sent via the
Pushbullet app in it. Take some time to explore
these apps and see which ones are compatible
and what they add to the Pushbullet experience.

39
Tutorials Works with » Android 2.1 and up

Reduce screen
brightness with
Night Mode
Override your phone’s brightness settings to reduce
screen glare and save power

D
ifferent conditions need different screen
brightness. There is nothing worse than a
screen that is simply too bright. Not only
does it hurt the eyes and reduce viewing times,
but it also has an adverse effect on battery life.
Typically, a device includes auto brightness
Getting the screen
brightness right is and manual manipulation. This offers adequate
important to most users
levels of brightness, but it doesn’t offer the
convenience of full control. There are times,
especially in low light, when the lowest screen
level simply isn’t enough.
Night Mode is a simple app that gives over total
control to the user. Drop the levels down to 50 or
10 per cent – the choice is all yours.

[FIG 3] The brightness

levels are fully
adjustable and can be
set to anything from
10 to 100 per cent. Tap
the slider for quick,
random adjustments

[FIG 4] There are

several settings that
allow the brightness
level to be
manipulated when the
app is running. These
can be switched off
with a few taps

1. Getting started selected, the Start button will change to a

Head to the Play store and search for the
Night Mode app developed by Bruno
Barao. Download and install the app and
open it up to take a look at the main
screen. The focus of the app’s main
screen is very straightforward. By default,
the slider is set to a specific brightness
level. To change the brightness level, first
set the slider to the preferred option. The
higher the brightness level the brighter the
screen. For example, choose 90 per cent
and press Start. The screen will dim down
from the current level.
2. Start Night Mode
Once the screen brightness has been
Stop button. To change the current level,
4. Minimum brightness
By default all the settings are set to on. To
first tap the Stop button and the screen
access the Settings, tap the menu icon in
will go back to its default level. The Stop
the top-right corner and select the right
button will revert back to a Start button. Ask your own
question online at tab. The Minimum Brightness option is set
littlegreenrobot.co.uk when the service is running. When
3. New level Does the switched off, the device’s default backlight
When the brightness level has reverted to brightness brightness setting is used.
normal, it’s time to select a new level. Use level go down
the slider to move the brightness level to 1 per cent?
The level does not go
5. Disable backlight
down to 25 per cent and tap the Start down to 1 per cent; its The other notable option is Disable Button
button to view the brightness level. If range goes from 10 to Backlight. Again this is activated by default
you’re not happy with the current level, tap 100 per cent. However, and disables the button backlight when
when the level is set to
the Stop button at the top and select a 10 per cent it’s difficult the service is running on your device. Tap
new level and then hit the Start button. to see; you may think to switch off and perform the reverse
Don’t be afraid to experiment until you get you have switched off
your device.
action, not disabling the button backlight
the right level. when the service is running.

40
Works with » Android 2.3.3 and up
Share files
without Wi-Fi
SuperBeam lets you transfer large files quickly and easily
T
here will always be times when you want
to share files with another device, but you
won’t always be connected to a Wi-Fi
network. There are other options, but none are
as convenient and quick as using WiFi Direct.
SuperBeam is an intuitive and easy-to-use app
that utilises WiFi Direct to send files from device
1. SuperBeam
First-time users will be introduced to a
host of introductory steps. Keep tapping
Next until the steps are finished. The
SuperBeam screen displays Send and
Receive options. The first step is to select
what type of file you wish to send. Select
one of the options: Files and Folders,
Audio and Music, Photos or Videos. This
will show the appropriate file type. Now
select the desired file by tapping the
related checkbox. Now tap the send icon
in the top-right corner.
2. QR code
The previous step will activate the
SuperBeam screen. This will display a QR
code along with an NFC or Enter key
to device. The only stipulation is that both
devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. Users
simply need to select the files they want to send
and scan a QR code, or use NFC to transfer the
files quickly. There is even an option for those
who want to share to non-Android devices such
Transferring files
as the iPhone.
has never been as easy
as it is with SuperBeam
[FIG 2] Each transfer
creates a QR code,
allowing for quick and
4. Send to iPhone
easy file transfers. While SuperBeam is an Android app it still
Simply scan the QR enables files to be sent to other devices,
code on the receiving for example, an iPhone. Tap the Other
device and the job is
done – it’s that easy devices option to view the specific
instructions. The second device will need
to be connected to the same network.
Open a web browser on the receiving
device and enter the supplied link. Now
select the file option to download.
5. SuperBeam settings
The opening SuperBeam screen offers
access to the Settings from the menu icon
in the top-right. There is the option to
adjust the Sending and Receiving settings,
eg Set hotspot password. Plus, there is
the option to change the colour theme.
[FIG 4] SuperBeam is
an Android-only app
but it does enable
users to transfer files
to another device
including non-Android
option. To transfer a file to another Android devices like the iPhone
device the SuperBeam app needs to be
installed on the receiving device. Open the
app on the receiving device and tap Scan
QR code under Receive and scan the QR
code. As soon as the QR code is read the
selected files will start transferring.
Ask your own
question online at
3. Send via NFC littlegreenrobot.co.uk
To use the NFC option both devices will Do I need to
need to have NFC enabled. To check that install a QR
NFC is switched on, go to Settings> code scanner?
The SuperBeam app
Wireless & networks and tap the NFC comes installed with
checkbox if it’s not already switched on. its own built-in QR code
On the device receiving the files, hit Tap
scanner. Selecting the
option will activate the
NFC under Receive. Now place the two scanning bar; simply
devices back to back and tap on the place over the QR code
to activate.
sending device to transfer the files.
41
Tutorials
Works with » Varies with device

Edit images in the new

Google+ How to touch up your photos quickly and easily with
the newly updated Google+ app

G
oogle has recently updated its
Google+ app with a whole host of
photo-editing options. It might not be
professional standard, but if you like
tweaking your shots after you’ve taken them,
be it by adding a filter or getting your hands a
bit dirtier changing the contrast and
brightness, then there’s going to be
something here for you. There’s an intuitive
UI that makes things really easy to
manipulate on a touchscreen, and the results
are far more impressive than most other
photo-editing applications on the Play store.
Throw in the fact that the editing is
non-destructive and cloud based, meaning
you can edit on one device, then pick up and
continue on another, and you’re left with a
great package. In this tutorial we’ll walk you
through the basics of the new features, as
well as explaining how a more advanced part
of the app works. All you’ll need is your
Android device and the Google+ app.

Google+ can now be
considered one the best
photo-editing apps on Android
1 Choose a picture
Load up your Google+ app and head to the
Photos section and pick a photo you want to edit.
Tap on the icon in the corner of the photo and
you’ll be taken to a larger, full-screen view. Tap on
the pencil icon at the bottom of the screen to go
to the editor itself.
2 Get familiar
This is the main screen of the editor. The
tools you use to change your picture are set along
the bottom in a scrollable menu. The picture in the
middle shows the changes you’ve made to your
original image. Tapping the dotted icon at the top
shows you the original.

Crop the image

3 Tapping
on the Crop tool lets you cut down
your image. There are three options. Free lets you
crop however you want, Original keeps the
dimensions of the original image and Square lets
you crop a square. To start cutting the picture just
drag from one of the white notches.
4 Add a filter
You can add filters to your image from the
Styles tool. It’s as simple as sliding the bar across
the bottom of the screen and choosing the one
you think suits your image best. You can also get
more hands-on with Vintage and the other tools in
the app’s main menu.
5 Tune the image
The Tune Image option lets you change a
variety of options including brightness and
contrast. To select which you want to change, slide
a finger up the screen and a menu appears. Lift
your finger to select, then slide it left to right to
change the effect on the picture.

42
 quick To help you get the most out of Google+’s editing functionality
1 Make it quick
tips
In a hurry? Tap the Auto button on
the left to let the app tweak an
image automatically.
6 Find your look
Playing around with the various settings in
this menu is a good way to find a more individual
look for your photos. There are more advanced
ways to change the light settings and other
options on your pictures as well, and they’re
covered in the other part of this tutorial.
7 When you’re happy
Last but not least, you can add a frame to
the image from a large selection in the Frames
menu at the far right of the main menu. You can
tweak the colours to better fit the palette of your
image as well. Once it’s added, tap the Done
button to move on.
8 The finished article
Congratulations you’ve just edited your
first photo on Google+. Now you can go and share
it and show people how good you are at photo
editing. Play with the more advanced settings of
the app as you go and you’ll get a feel for what they
do, and whether they’re going to be for you.
2 It’s in the details 3 Add some drama
Change the structure and The Vintage, Drama, Black & White,
sharpening options in Details to HDR Scape and Retrolux options let
highlight the detail in your picture. you add custom filters.
2 How to use the
min Selective tool
guide Using the Selective tool can really bring your
photos to life, so it’s worth getting to grips with it early
1 Tap the tool
When you’ve chosen the image you
want to edit, scroll across the menu at the
bottom of the screen and tap on the Selective
tool. This is a great way to make individual
aspects of your photos stand out from the rest,
and it’s really pretty easy to use too.
3 And more…
We’re changing the contrast around the
beach huts along the centre of the image. By
adding points along their length we can make it
so they stand out by making their colours much
more distinct. The same principle works on any
photo though, so feel free to experiment.
4 Focus the attention 5 Start again
Use the Centre Focus option to shift Don’t like what you’ve done? Tap on
the focus of an image and make it Revert to get rid of all the changes
even more dynamic. and get the original back in place.
2 Add some points
Tap on the Add button and then tap on
the area of the screen you’d like to alter. Just
like the standard Tuning tool, you slide a finger
up the screen to select the setting you want to
change, and then slide it left and right to tweak
the effect up or down.
4 When you’re done
When you’re finished, tap on the tick in
the corner and your image will be tweaked
accordingly. There are loads of ways you can
make your photos look better with this little
trick, and ways you can fix images too, so have a
play around and see what you can accomplish.
43
DroidSupport
»troubleshooting advice »hints and tips
»emailGotan expert
an Android-
related problem that
you need solving?
Let us know!
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Using the Nexus 5
Share your tips & tricks
Join us on Facebook and Twitter
to share and receive some
great tips and advice

»facebook
pedometer
/littlegreenrobot
Like us on Facebook and join
“When I bought the Nexus 5 I
in our Android community
was quite intrigued by the
»twitter
@lgrobot inclusion of the step counter
Follow us on Twitter to send
your thoughts and questions
directly in the hardware. It’s now
a few months later and I’ve
barely used it. I loaded up the
Moves app that was highlighted
when the phone was
Did you know? launched, but it drained
Android’s text-to-speech engine has
been updated with higher quality, and
my battery so quickly I
slightly more realistic sounding voices.
The newer voices, which include English removed it again. Are there
male and female voices, are now much
larger at around 200MB. Once updated
you can switch between voices and
any better apps for the
download others by going to
Settings>Language & input>Text-to-
pedometer?”
speech output. Claire Wilkinson Pacer is the
best-looking
pedometer app

The Moves app, while
A good looking and quite
fun to use, did turn out
to be a disappointment in
respect of its battery usage. We
suspect the reason is because it
not only counts your steps using
the built-in pedometer, but also
uses your phone’s location
features to record where you are
walking. It’s a cool feature, but is
overkill for those who simply
want a way to track whether
they are hitting their 10,000 steps
target for the day. A good
pedometer app for a Nexus 5 or
any phone with a dedicated step
counting sensor should
theoretically use almost no
battery power at all. The sensor
is working whether you have an
app or not; all the app needs to
do therefore is record the data it
produces. There are a few that
seem to fit the bill. We’ve been
testing three of them recently
and we suggest you give them a
try too. The great thing about
their low power requirements is
that you can actually use them
simultaneously, giving you a way
of directly comparing their
strengths and weaknesses.
Rather inconveniently all three
apps are called Pedometer. The
first is by the developer Pacer
Works (and shows up as Pacer
when you install it), and is by far
the most beautifully designed,
with graphs and reporting tools
plus the ability to use GPS to
track a walk or run if you wish
to. The second Pedometer is by
j4velin and is a simple app with
some basic reporting tools, a
handy widget to display your
steps and the implementation of
achievements and leaderboards
through Google Play Games. And
finally there is Pedometer by
Ivon Liu. This is the most simple,
literally just counting your steps,
with rudimentary Games
support as well. In our eyes
they’re all as accurate as each
other, so give them all a try and
see which you prefer.

44
 »facebook »email

DroidSupport
Ask your questions
Got a problem with your Android phone or tablet? /littlegreenrobot qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Get help from our Send your questions for our team of
Send it to us and we’ll find the solution Facebook community experts to tackle

My Tab keeps forgetting “This has

the Wi-Fi password… been known
“Why does my new Samsung Tab 3 tablet running Android version to resolve a
4.1.2 keep forgetting my home Wi-Fi login code? If I go to the
Settings app I find there is a strong Wi-Fi signal, and several more multitude of
secure ones popping up. My laptop and printer do not keep
requesting such input” connection
Reg Vear
problems”
This is one of those DHCP, that could be worth a try
A problems that will
require a lot of trial and
and we would suggest also
checking with the manufacturer
error to narrow down the of your router. On the Tab, try
solution. Most Android holding on your current
connection problems occur when connection and selecting Forget.
devices cannot re-connect after a Now try to set it up manually by
connection has stalled, but in going to your Wi-Fi settings and
your case there appears to be creating a new connection. You Keeping Wi-Fi on all of the time can help There are multiple Wi-Fi
stabilise connections settings that can be adjusted
software problems getting in the will then need to enter all of the
way. The fact that other devices details accurately, but this has this is not always an the above, changing the router
connect to your router without been known to resolve a advantageous setting to use, it password and testing to see if
issue does not guarantee that the multitude of connection may go some way to helping other Wi-Fi networks remain
problem is related just to the problems for others. Also, look resolve your problem. Other stable on your Tab without you
Tab. If you can find a setting for for a setting that lets you keep tricks to try include rebooting needing to continually input the
your router that lets you disable the Wi-Fi on during sleep – while your router before you do any of password. Good luck, Reg!

hints&tips Three great new tips for your Android devices

1 View battery percentage
Many new phones, such as the Moto G, do
not display the battery percentage in the
status bar or even offer an option to do so.
Third-party apps like BatteryMinder do include
this functionality so are worth checking out to
see the exact remaining battery life.
2 Google Now for news
Google Now will automatically show
cards detailing the latest news that the
service thinks you will be interested in. If you tap
the three dots in any card’s top-right corner, you
can then specify if you wish to continue seeing
updates for the topic in question.
3 Third-party security
It makes sense to protect the password
for your main Google account, but also
remember to take care when using it to log in to
third-party apps. Some will be able to see your
details so think carefully and do some checks
when you first install the app.

45
 Did you know?
DroidSupport Some Google phones now come with Hangouts as the default
option for MMS, but it doesn’t work perfectly. Fear not, because
there are many options available including Textra from the
Google Play store or ChompSMS.

Moving and easier ways to save space on

any Android device.

Gmail emails Galaxy Tab

is tricky
I own a Lenovo Yoga 10 tablet. keeps
Can the Yoga be set up to relay
incoming emails directly to the
SD card? If it is possible would
locking up
My Tab keeps stopping and
you please detail the setup locking up. You can’t swipe the
procedure. Where are synced screen to restart until the time
emails stored in the Gmail appears in the top-right. You
system? Your advice would be can’t switch it off either. It
much appreciated. Bob Hutt happens at all time. Why?
Anno
Those are unusual
A questions and ones that
we have struggled to
Emails are hidden for a reason
A
Thanks for the question,
but to be honest we
Sometimes a hard reset is the only answer

find answers for. If we take the
second question first, the emails
are stored in a folder structure
that is extremely difficult to
access. It is usually cache>
download>webviewcache>
databases>files etc, and even if
you are looking to follow a very
difficult set of hacks to get to
them, the resultant files will still
be difficult to translate. As for
syncing emails to the SD card,
this again may be possible, but
the advantages may likely be
low. Performance would be
hampered and the ever changing
nature of your email database is
the main reason they reside in
internal memory. Attachments
can be saved to an SD card or not
downloaded at all in Gmail
settings if space is the main
reason to want to do this, but
even so there are much quicker
would normally require
more specific information to
come up with a focused solution,
such as the exact model. There
are, however, some steps you can
take to try to understand what is
causing the problem. The first is
to back up as much of your data
as you can and to do a hard reset
from the Settings menu. This is
crucial if you are uncertain as to
what is causing the problem
because it will show if there is a
hardware problem with the
device. If it runs okay, you can
then start to re-install
applications, but take time to see
if one particular app is causing
the problem by installing each
one individually and using them
in sequence. This process can
take time, but it will be worth it
if you can get the tablet working
at normal speed again.

Apps not moving

to SD card
“My son has the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 running 4.2.2 with 8GB internal storage. Following
a recent update, apps to SD was enabled, but the internal storage is partitioned and part of
the storage is now ‘emulated’ which takes preference over an external SD card. This isn’t
usually a problem as files can be manually moved. However, games with large files such as
Fifa 14, which should be able to be moved to SD remain on the internal storage –
consequently, the tablet is always reporting it is low on memory.”
Matthew Larner

The emulated storage has been a
A source of confusion for many and
has caused some apps to not work
as intended when it comes to moving them
to expansion cards. We have looked at
various apps and it would appear that some
will work when moved to the SD card, and
offer support for the game files on external
storage as well. Others, however, do not
because the developers have not offered
support for the new file structures. It is a
difficult situation because on the one hand
developers are having to continually adjust to
new file systems added by the likes of
Samsung and the manufacturers are battling
with Android to offer more usable space
when memory is limited internally. It is just
about impossible to change the structure
unless you root and jump through lots of
potentially destabilising hoops, but we would
suggest trying each large game you have to Developers often control the
see if any can be moved successfully. moving of apps to expansion cards

46

Share your tips
Got a great tip, or found a cool
shortcut? Let us know!
The Facebook app can lower battery life
Why is my
battery
draining?
Overnight, my Nexus 5 battery
continues to drain. I installed
some games and the Facebook
app just before this started to
happen. Any ideas? Mark Bayler
The issue of battery
A drain on devices like the
Nexus 5 is not common
and in theory the hardware itself
is unlikely to be the cause.
Thankfully you mentioned the
Facebook app and this could be
the problem. We have read many
reports of users suffering battery
problems with the Facebook app
installed and it would appear
that the app does not like letting
the phone sleep in its default
setup. If Facebook is important to
you, the ability to minimise
battery drain is included in the
app. Tap the menu key and scroll
down until you see App Settings.
Tap it and then change the
refresh interval to 4 hours or
Never, untick the notifications
you do not require and disable
Facebook Chat if you do not use
it. You may be surprised at how
much of an improvement you
will see almost immediately and
especially when on standby at
night. If you use Facebook rarely,
the mobile site may be a better
option instead of the app to
ensure no battery drain.
»facebook »twitter »email
DroidSupport
/littlegreenrobot @lgrobot qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter to Discovered anything good about your
join our online community send us your tips & tricks Android phone? Let us know!
I can’t get through a day!
“The battery life on my Galaxy S4 is not great, but I admit to being a
power user and tend to use it throughout the day. When the battery is
running low, however, I am finding that the USB charger does not
work when attached to a laptop. The battery level just stays the Update
same? How can I get through a whole day?” 60% Complete
Ben Ayling
A This is a common
problem on Android
devices with large
batteries, and to date there is no
obvious solution because USB update update
power is sometimes not enough » We bring you the news and
to charge them at a decent rumours on the latest Android
speed. There are, however, many updates, and the phones that can
run them…
things that you can do to resolve
T
the issue and the best we have he new HTC One, code
found is to purchase an
emergency battery charger that
named the M8, has
gone on sale, sporting
will work in the same way as
plugging your device into a wall
KitKat, HTC Sense 6 (which
the company is calling the
charger. You should also look at
the various power management
options available on the phone
Sixth Sense) and updated
versions of several of HTC’s
other popular apps.
and ensure that you are using the Interestingly some of these
USB cable that came with your apps have also been placed
device. Also, some third-party on the Play store by HTC. This
batteries have been known to means that users will no
charge slower than official ones longer be reliant on a full
so this is also worth investigating firmware update to get a
if you have bought a spare one
from anyone other than Samsung.
newer version of BlinkFeed,
the news-based home screen
Battery management can be Managing a mobile battery can be difficult
app, or Zoe, the tool that
troublesome and poor battery life automatically makes properly
is incredibly annoying, but we through a heavy day. As it stands, edited movies out of your
always have solutions provided few devices will last for more video clips and photos.
we are prepared to carry a than a day, but batteries are Instead, whenever these apps
separate portable device to get us improving all the time. are updated the updates will
simply be available to
Mimic AC charging
1 Emergency
download, just as any other
battery chargers and portable app is. We’ve seen a similar
power blocks will mimic AC chargers and work in approach recently from both
exactly the same way. They will get around the Google and Motorola, with the
problem of slow charging from a laptop USB port unbundling of key apps and
and can be more convenient in everyday use. features so that they can be
more easily updated. This is
another important step
2 Offi cial USB cables
For charging devices, always use the
towards tackling the
fragmentation problem that
official USB cable that came with the product.
has plagued both Android
Some other market cables do not offer enough
and its device manufacturers
power throughput to charge larger batteries and
since day one. Apps updated
only work reliably for syncing tablets and phones.
in this way are only
compatible with the devices
3 Battery saver
Most phones and tablets include a
they are intended for, and
won’t even be visible on other
battery saver option that will turn off many phones, although HTC has
functions when the levels are getting low. This suggested it will be extending
will turn on automatically when the battery compatibility to non-HTC
reduces to a critical level to preserve power. devices in the future.
47
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 Explore the limits of your Android device

status update
Hacker Zøne Tips and tricks
Which devices are best for
the hacking scene?

HTC One
Organise all folders. For instance, you create
what the app calls a ‘redirect’

(M8)
Rooted? Yes
your files
The fact that Android has its own
containing a list of file types and a
destination folder. The app will then
move all of the files of that type to
Active Development:
QQQMedium
proper, accessible file system is one your chosen folder. So, you can list
It’s very early days for of the main benefits of the platform common video formats and have
the M8. We’d expect a over rivals like iOS. But it doesn’t them move into your Videos folder, or
good range of ROMs
and mods in the not come without a few downsides – the move Word files into a Documents
too distant future. lack of an overarching backup folder. You can set up white lists and
system for app data is one, another black lists to ensure you’re not
LG G Flex is that after only a short while you will moving files from places where they
Rooted? Yes
end up with a mess of files strewn may be needed. It’s best used when
Active Development:
QQQLow everywhere, making it harder and focusing on files you have dragged
The G Flex has been harder to find anything. The latter of and dropped from your desktop or for
rooted but developer
support is currently these two problems now has a cleaning up and sorting your
low and it seems solution in the form of a new app Downloads folder. Redirect File
unlikely that it will get called Redirect File Organizer. This Organizer is fast and compatible with Take control of your data, one permission at
very much better. a time
free utility, which does not require a wide number of devices, and is well
root, enables you to automatically worth checking out.
Sony Xperia sort all of your files into specific can block permissions without
Z1 Compact
Rooted? Yes
Active Development:
Clamp down breaking the app – when an app
requests access to your contacts or
QQQLow
It is possible to root
the Z1, with the
on app location it will simply return blank or
fake data and the app will continue
benefits that brings.
Custom ROMs are thin
on the ground.
permissions
XPrivacy is a tool we’ve looked at in
working happily, thinking that it is
real. Inevitably in some cases you
can stop an app from working. Your
the past, but a series of recent weather app, for example, won’t give
Moto X updates has made it better than you a local forecast if it doesn’t know
Rooted? Yes ever. The module, which works with where you are. XPrivacy should be
Active Development:
QQQMedium the Xposed Framework, takes control used for permissions that are not
Easy to root, and of app permissions, giving you the essential to the functioning of the
plenty of ROMs and
mods that can be tried
ability to enable them or block them app. The recent updates to XPrivacy
on this phone. A on a case-by-case basis (unlike the have seen the addition of a new
popular choice among default in Android which is to either Restrict On Demand setting that
the developer crowd.
accept them all or don’t install the pops up a prompt when an app
Sort all your files into organised folders app). The genius of XPrivacy is that it wants to use a specific permission,

quickhacks
Control your
root settings
Rooting your Android smartphone

1 InSuperSU Revoke permission Disable root entirely

opens it up to a whole world of
tweaks and mods that would not
otherwise be available to you. But
you should always keep an eye on
which apps you have granted root
privileges to. Here’s a quick guide
to making sure you do that…
the SuperSU app from
Chainfire you can see those apps
that you have given root access
privileges to. The list should be as
short as possible and only include
the apps you use.
2 Tap on an item and the
permissions request dialogue box
will open. You can change access to
Prompt, Grant or Deny, or tap Forget
to ensure you will be prompted next
time you launch the app.
3 Scroll over to the Settings
tab. Under the Superuser section
you will see an option labelled
Enable Superuser. Untick this to
temporarily unroot your phone.
You may need to reboot too.

50

Share your tips
Discovered a great hack or
tweak? Let us know!
“The PerApp
which you can allow or deny
permanently or temporarily. It gives
Settings feature
you great control over your apps, and
is not too intrusive once you have run
enables you to
the app the first time. It’s also quite
eye opening to see how and when
customise the
apps want to access certain parts of
your smartphone.
De-Nokia performance of
your Nokia X specifi c
applications”
Nokia’s first Android phones, the X
series, have launched without so
much as a hint of Google services on
them. With Nokia’s own app store
and HERE maps app, the
manufacturer has taken a similar
approach to what Amazon did with its
Kindle Fire tablets. Of course, the
ever industrious Android community
almost immediately set about rooting
the phone and getting it back to a
more traditional version of Android.
This includes the Google Now
launcher and the Play store. Various
solutions on doing it can be found in
threads over on the Nokia X forum at
xda-developers.com. At the time of
writing some users were also
working on porting Nokia’s apps so
that they could run on other Android
devices, albeit very unofficially.
Replace the Nokia version of Android with
something more familiar
Hacking the easy way Get great new features without getting your hands (too) dirty
Deep Sleep
Battery Saver
» Free
From: Play store
Need root? No
This app puts your phone
into deep sleep when the
screen goes off – all
wireless and other features
are disconnected. It then
reconnects at a set
frequency to grab emails
and other notifications.
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SlimKat
reinvents
the recent
apps menu
The developers of the SlimKat ROM
have turned their attentions to one
of the more underlooked parts of the
Android OS, the recent apps menu.
Over various iterations of Android,
the task switching function has
become more useable, but has not
had any real refinements in the last
few updates to the operating
system. The SlimKat approach still
fixes the recent apps menu to the
dedicated button below the screen,
but instead of opening full screen on
top of the app you’re using, it slides
open from the side. This has the
effect of integrating your background
applications into your workflow,
mimicking a true multitasking
feature, far better than the one-app-
at-a-time system currently in place.
The SlimKat ROM is available for
around 50 Android phones and
tablets. For more information, and to
download the app, head over to
www.sllimroms.net.
Automated
Device
» Free
From: Play store
Need root? No
The latest in the growing
range of apps that enable
you to automate your
device. It is very handy,
especially for completing
common tasks and
settings changes that you
perform every day.
Check our website daily
for even more tips & tricks
»email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Is there anything you’d like to see us
cover in the mag? Drop us a line!
The new-look task switcher works really
well on SlimKat
Power up
specific
applications
If you’re keen on maximising the
power of your phone without
impacting on the battery life too
much you need to install a custom
kernel. In the popular franco.Kernel
Updater app you can go a step
further than just tweaking the global
power settings though. The PerApp
Settings feature enables you to
customise the performance of
specific applications without
affecting the system as a whole. So
you can set your favourite 3D racing
game to run at full speed, while
throttling right back when you launch
your ebook reader. franco.Kernel
supports a wide number of devices,
and is one of the most popular
custom kernels for Android. You can
flash it on a rooted device via the free
app in the Play store, but the paid
version of the app is needed to
customise the settings.
Drive Droid
» Free
From: Play store
Need root? Yes
Boot your PC using an
ISO image you’ve got
stored on your Android
phone. DriveDroid is
perfect for testing
multiple Linux distros,
or even running a full
portable distro on any
desktop machine.
»www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Jargon
Hacker Zøne
Buster
Get up to speed on all the
terms you need to know
when hacking your phone
OS
Short for ‘operating system’. Often the
Android ROM will be referred to as the
OS – this just means the system files
on the Android device that make up
your user experience, similar to
Windows, Mac OS X or Ubuntu on a
desktop computer.
ROM
Stands for ‘read-only memory’. In the
context of Android, the ROM refers to
the files that make up the operating
system installed on your device.
Gaining root privileges allows for
replacement of the standard ROM
with a custom one.
Root
‘Rooting’ your phone gives apps access
to parts of the OS that are normally
hidden from consumers. This enables
you to run more powerful software and
install custom ROMs on your phone.
ROM Manager
An app available from the Android
Market that enables you to install
a whole new version of your OS with
a single click. It requires a rooted
phone to use and is ideal for those
new on the scene.
Titanium Backup
This app from the Market enables you
to back up everything on your phone
– apps, data, settings and all. It means
that you can restore your phone to how
it was, even after you’ve updated or
changed the ROM.
Unrevoked
Available from www.unrevoked.com,
this is a one-click tool that can be
used for rooting many popular
HTC smartphones.
ADB
Stands for ‘Android Debug Bridge’. ADB
is mainly used for software
development, but it also has some
uses for hacking your phone. It can be
used to push files onto the system
folder, for instance.
Nandroid
You might come across the phrase
‘perform a Nandroid backup’. This
means using a custom recovery tool
to make a back-up image of everything
currently on your phone: OS, apps,
data, etc. It’s very useful should you
wish to restore your phone to its
previous state later.
Radio
‘Radio’ refers to the software on your
Android device that deals with making
phone calls and data connections.
Updating your radio version can bring
better battery life and signal strength
to your device. Some ROMs require the
latest radio.
Flash
The storage in your device comprises
flash memory, a type of solid-state
storage. The terms ‘flash’ or ‘flashing’
mean installing new software onto your
device’s storage.
51
 Works with
Hacker Zøne
» Varies with device Difficulty » Intermediate
Mod the
Google Now
launcher
Google’s new launcher is fantastic,
but comes with no way to tweak it
– or so you thought…
Tweaking the new Google
Now launcher isn’t impossible,
as we show you in this tutorial
T
he Google Now Launcher is Google’s take
on the Android launcher. First seen on
the Nexus 5 it is now on the Play store
where it is freely downloadable for other Nexus
or Google Play Edition devices running KitKat.
It can also be installed on pretty much any
other device easily, but it does require you to
get hold of the apk from unofficial sources so we
won’t go into the details here.
The Google Now Launcher puts Now right at
the heart of your phone. No longer hidden away
behind an obscure swiping gesture, Now is now
given a home screen panel all of its own just
one screen to the left of your main one. It
means you will use it a whole lot more, and
52
Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks
“It means you will use
it a whole lot more… it
quickly develops into an
immensely powerful tool”
with the integrated Search function, with its
new ‘always listening’ feature, it quickly
develops into an immensely powerful tool.
However, the Google Now Launcher comes
with absolutely no options for tweaking or
configuring how it works. If you are used to
third-party launchers, or even those from the
various hardware manufacturers, then this
absence is quite telling, and makes GNL feel
less powerful and capable than it actually is.
Fortunately it is possible to tweak and mod
the launcher on a rooted device. You’ll need the
Xposed Framework installed, and the module
you’re looking for is called Xposed GEL Settings.
With that set up you’re ready to tweak away.
1 Install module
With the Xposed Framework
already installed and running on your
rooted device, head to the Download
section and install Xposed GEL
Settings. Once that’s done, activate it
through the Modules panel and then
reboot your phone to complete the
installation. Now find the Xposed GEL
Settings icon and launch the app.
6 Change
grid size
the
Under Homescreen, turn the Enable
setting to On. You can now resize the
icon grid, making more or less space
for applications and widgets. This will
completely break up your existing
layout, so you should back it up (as in
step 10) if you think you might want to
revert back.

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2 Basic tweaks
Beginning with the General
section you can perform some very
basic tweaks. These include hiding
the page indicator from the home
screen and app drawer, making
every widget resizable (tap and hold
on them to do this) and adding a
shortcut to these settings with a
long press of the Apps icon.
7 Reduce the size
of your icons
The app icons in GNL are larger than
they are in almost every other
Android launcher. Set Enable
changes to icons to On and then
set the icon size to 85%. This brings
them more into line with the
Android of old. If you’ve made your
grid larger, you can fit them in too.
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Follow us on Twitter
3 Rotate the
homescreen
The homescreen on a phone
doesn’t rotate to landscape mode
by default, but you can activate this
through the Rotate option. You may
need to reboot, and be warned that
some widgets don’t work well in
landscape mode. You’ll need to test
to see how well this feature works.
8 Tweaking the
App Drawer
The grid and icon size settings and
tweaks are also available for the
App Drawer, as well as the ability to
hide certain applications from view.
This is a highly convenient way of
ridding the drawer of apps you don’t
want, but which are unsafe to
disable or remove.
»email
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say hello, drop us an email
4 Restarting
the launcher
After you have completed every
tweak you will need to tap Restart
Launcher in order to activate it. It’s
worth doing this and checking the
effect of every tweak on a
case-by-case basis. Some of the
more advanced changes will require
a full reboot instead.
9 Control
gestures
through
Finally, gestures. These are
essential for one-handed use of a
large screen phone. Swipe down
left will open the notifications with a
short swipe down the left side of
the home screen (it doesn’t need to
be from the top). There are more
gestures to experiment with as well.
Hacker Zøne
5 Hide the
Google Bar
The Google search bar is a
permanent fixture of the GNL. You
can remove it by tapping Hide. This
will have the effect of adding extra
pixels to each row on your home
screen, shunting all the icons and
widgets up in the process. You
might need to rearrange some.
10 Restore
settings
your
As mentioned in step 6 you should
back up your settings before
performing significant tweaks. Tap
Export to do this (and then Import
to restore a backup). You can also
tap Rest to undo changes you’ve
made and get the Google Now
Launcher back to its original state.
53
 Hacker Zøne
Works with » Android 4.0 and up Difficulty » Intermediate
Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks

Control and
tweak all
your apps
Individually restrict
permissions, override 1 Download
module
the
screen sizes, hide nav First thing to do is open up Xposed
bars and much more Installer, head to the Download
section and search for App Settings.
There’s a lengthy but useful

A
pp Settings will unlock the description on its page, and it’s worth
power of your apps. It might checking out the Support (XDA) link
appear a little primitive but too as it breaks down the features in
that is its charm, because it takes you more detail. Download the module.
right to the core of all your apps’
settings and lets you override any of
them, on a per-app basis. You can
customise the display to hide or reveal
more of what you want to see, so if you
want to have more map onscreen
when you’re using the turn-by-turn
then you can hide your status bar and
the app’s title bar. You can disable
large, distracting notifications from
apps (such as Any.do, which slides an
alarm panel up over a third of your
screen), and if you want to give certain
apps a priority status then you can
give them insistent notifications with
endlessly looping sounds.
Not only that, you can delve deep
into your permissions and make
hugely powerful settings that control
the way your apps work. You can see
the entire permissions list for each
app, read and then enable or disable
them as you please, search and filter
6 Filter through
applications
by app or permission through your Back up to your main screen and you’ll
entire directory and generally take see the app you just adjusted is
absolute control of your device. highlighted in red text, to indicate that
Uninstalled an app recently because a change has been made. A quicker
you didn’t like the look of a way to find out which apps you’ve
permission it was asking for? Now you adjusted is to hit the eye icon at the
can just nip into App Settings and stop top-left corner and search for
Get your
apps working that tube map from accessing your Overridden settings.
just as you want microphone. Let’s get started.

54

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2 Activate
module
the
Once you’ve downloaded App
Settings, use the drop-down to go
to your Modules area and tick the
new module on. Head to Framework
and hit Reboot to load Android with
App Settings activated. It’ll be in
your app drawer, so drag it to a
home screen and open it up.
7 Search by
permission
Tap the padlock icon beside the eye
to filter through your apps, one
permission at a time. Keep an eye
out for red text as this indicates the
intrusive or potentially harmful
permissions, and you may wish to
disable them for apps that have no
real need for them.
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Follow us on Twitter
3 Find an app
App Settings will scan
through all of your apps, including
the OS and various utilities you have
installed, and list them all
alphabetically for you. The filter
buttons and search bar are up top,
and if you hit your Option key then
you’ll find Import/Export options for
saving settings.
8 Read that text
Next time you get a
confirmations screen for an app
update, don’t just tap Accept;
carefully scan through the
permissions. If there are any you
judge to be a risk, and which you
don’t think will impact on the
functionality of the app if denied,
open the app in App Settings.
»email
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If you’ve got questions or just want to
say hello, drop us an email
4 Change
settings
display
Once you’ve found an app, tap it to
see its display options; you’ll need
to switch the toggle on at the top.
Here we’re looking at Play Movies &
TV, and have ticked the option to
Keep screen on. For the developer’s
explanation of these options, read
more at bit.ly/1kGkSbS.
9 Deny app
permissions
Tap the Permissions button at the
bottom of the display options
screen. Switch the Revoke
Permissions toggle on and you can
then scroll through permissions
requested by the app in question.
Check the descriptions and tap a
permission to disable it.
Hacker Zøne
5 Export and save
When you try to back up,
you’ll be warned that you haven’t
saved anything yet. Make sure
you’re happy with your settings and
then tap the save icon at the
top-right. If you’re worried about
messing things up, hit Export before
you do anything so you can import
later if needs be.
10 Get control
of your apps
As well as defend yourself against
rogues and ensure your screen
stays on, you can boost app
performance. Here, for example,
we’ve forced Maps to go full screen,
scaled text to 90%, hidden the nav
bars and disabled big notifications,
to make for a better satnav.
55
 Hacker Zøne
Works with » Android 2.3 and up Difficulty » Intermediate
Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks

Control
your phone
through a
sidebar 1 Grab your app
First up, pay a visit to the Play
store and download Sidebar
Sidebar Launcher can replace your
A
brand-new app from Boat Launcher. It’s free and a tiny
Browser Design – download, though the permissions list
notification centre, quick settings accomplished browser, theme is fairly extensive. Don’t worry too
panel and home screens and interface developers – Sidebar much about this, though, as launcher
Launcher is so powerful that it can apps require access to things like
effectively replace your device’s your texts and call logs in order to
Make your home screen a existing infrastructure. You can work properly.
thing of the past with
Sidebar Launcher
launch apps from it, set up shortcuts
to particular aspects of your apps,
such as quick call buttons for your
contacts or direct URL links; you can
toggle your Android settings and
even control things you’d usually
need your hardware buttons for.
Not only that, with the ability to
see your recent calls and messages
and install a music player widget,
you don’t need to open your
notification centre any more, or your
quick settings panel.
And with all those app shortcuts,
why bother with home screens?
Since you can swipe this sidebar
out from anywhere and use its
links to hop into another app,
you might as well use all that
space to show off a smart
background wallpaper, a
favourite photo or create a
minimal clock screen or even
6 Favourite Apps
Now head over to the
a HUD. Once you’ve got the Favourite Apps settings. Again, use
app, you’ve freed up all that the tickboxes on show to add and
screen real estate. remove apps from the card, and
It’s a free app, but there are some remember to clear them all off first
additional widgets that you can pay and then add them in the order you
for as well as a premium package. want to see them. Make sure these
This app is also being actively are your most-used applications for
developed, so new features are being maximum effectiveness.
rolled out regularly.

56

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2 Launch
sidebar
the
Open the app and give it permanent
superuser access. Tap through the
introduction messages and you will
soon see your new sidebar, shown
above. Drag a row to the left to
reveal more of its buttons, and
swipe up and down to see all your
widgets (known as ‘cards’).
7 Quick Settings
The Quick Settings card is
the one with blue/white toggles, so
again customise this as you did the
last two cards. It’s worth noting that
you can also remove apps by
tapping the ‘X’ on their icons in the
top bar. Hopefully, a re-order
function will be added to this in a
future update.
»twitter@lgrobot
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Follow us on Twitter
3 Set slide-out
location
Tap the three-dot icon at the
bottom-right of the sidebar and tap
Settings. Note the blue pointers
along the side of your screen; drag
these up and down to mark the
area from which you can swipe the
sidebar out. Also change Sidebar
Location and Sensitivity as desired.
8 Add recent calls
An orange Add New Card
button appears at the bottom of
the app when you’re in edit mode;
give it a tap. Find the Call log card,
tap again to open its preview and
then tap Add. This shows the last
couple of calls you have made,
which you can tap to quickly re-dial
via the Phone app.
»email
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If you’ve got questions or just want to
say hello, drop us an email
4 Customise
the cards
Back up to the main sidebar screen
and tap the edit icon in the
bottom-left. Your cards now have
their own three-dot icons, and you
can tap these to reveal settings,
trash and handle icons. Use the
trash to delete a card and drag on
the handle to reposition it.
9 Tap for shortcuts
Now add the Recent
Messages card. As with Call logs,
tap your last text to open that
conversation in Messaging. You can
also tap the Phone and Messaging
app shortcuts to the left of these
cards, and the fields in the Time
and Date card for Clock, Calendar
and your alarms.
Hacker Zøne
5 Functions card
Open the Function card’s
settings – it has white icons like
Home and Lock Screen. You’ll see
all the functions you can add listed
with tickboxes beside them; use
the tickboxes to add and remove
icons from your card. You can’t
reposition these, so delete all and
re-add in the order you want.
10 Get the
Premium pack
Tap the shop icon at the bottom of
the sidebar (the cart) to see the
extra cards you can purchase.
Shortcut enables you to add
contact call shortcuts, URL links
and more, and the rest perform as
their titles indicate. Get them all in
the Premium pack for just $2.99.
57
 Hacker Zøne
Works with » Android 4.0.3 Difficulty » Advanced
Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks

Change your
franco.Kernel
gives you control
over your screen

screen’s colour
temperature
How you can
E
very smartphone’s screen is different. Some displays colour.
have AMOLED displays with deep contrast and And by flashing a
make your strongly saturated colours; others LCD displays custom kernel you can
screen brighter with realistic colours and washed-out blacks. You change the colour
don’t need to settle for what you get out of the box, temperature of your screen. In this tutorial we’ll be
and more vibrant however. Some manufacturers give you options using the full, paid-for version of the franco.Kernel
within their software for changing how the screen updater. You’ll need a rooted phone before you begin.

1 Flash the kernel

Begin by flashing the new kernel. Open the
franco.Kernel Updater app, go to Backup/Restore
and tap Backup. It won’t take long to back up your
kernel. Save it as stock. Now go to FK Updater and
tap Latest available version, followed by Auto-flash.
2 Find colour profiles
Your phone will reboot. When done reopen
the Franco app and locate the Color Control panel.
Here you will be able to test out profiles from other
users or create your own. Tap Save a new colour
profile to back up your original one.
3 Load a profile
Now hit Load a colour profile. You’ll see a
long list. Most have obscure names and there’s no
way to preview them, so tap one, followed by Apply
and then hit the home button on your phone to
see the effect. If you don’t like it try another.

4 IfCreate your own

you want to create or tweak your own,
slide over to the Gamma tab. It’s not for the faint
hearted, but you can remove a yellow or blue tint
from your display quite easily, as well as adjust the
brightness of the whites.
5 Save your settings
Your own gamma adjustments are not
applied in real time. Once tweaked you need to
save your new profile back in the Utils tab, then
apply that profile as in step 3. Again, exit the app
to get a picture of what changes have been made.
6 Apply the changes
Finally if you’re happy with your choice of
new colour profile you should tap the Save colors
on boot option to ensure that your settings are
applied the next time you boot. If you don’t like it,
restore your backup or reflash your stock kernel.

58
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Apps
Telegram
Communicate with confidence and speed
Following the
acquisition of
WhatsApp by Facebook
for a mind-boggling
$19bn, a backlash has led to millions
of the popular IM service’s users
defecting to other clients, most
notably Telegram. This is mainly due
to fears about personal privacy and
the possibility of targeted adverts –
even though Facebook has denied
this and insists that WhatsApp will
operate independently.
Either way, Telegram’s popularity
has rocketed and it’s not hard to see
why. For starters, this cloud-based
IM service offers excellent data
security through heavy encryption. In
addition, its creators Paul and Nikolai
Durov, co-founders of the Russian VK
social network, have promised that it
will remain ad and subscription-free
Create a group and
start a chat with up to
200 people
60
Playmarkers
Scan these QR codes for direct
links to the Google Play Store
forever. So far, it only has official
clients for Android and iOS, but there
are unofficial ones for other
platforms such as Windows and OS
X – created using Telegram’s open
source code, protocol and API.
Launching the official Android app
for the first time, for security reasons
you’re asked for a phone number
(which could be that of another
device or even a landline). This is
then sent a five-digit code to enter to
proceed. You can then set up your
profile, find any contacts already
using Telegram and invite others to
join (via email or social networks).
Select a contact and you can start
chatting instantly – and we mean
instantly: there is no lag whatsoever
between sending a message and the
recipient getting it. Apparently, it’s all
down to Telegram’s decentralised
EDITOR’S
CHOICE
Telegram
server structure, making it the
fastest service around.
In standard IM fashion, messages
appear in speech bubbles on either
side of the screen – with a choice of
snazzy backgrounds – and there are
options to add a vast array of Emoji,
icons and symbols. Tap the
paper-clip icon to attach a photo,
Files of up to 1GB can be attached, though
they may take time to send
Change the background and add all sorts of
icons to messages
»like this?
try this!
THREEMA » Super-secure Swiss service that lets you add contacts
by scanning their QR code.
15min wonder
Want your money back?
You’ve got 15 mins to decide!
! 5
15 10
»0-5 minutes
Starting up and inviting
friends is easy
! 5 »5-10 minutes
Wow, this is superfast
15 10
messaging
! 5 »10-15 minutes
We like the secret and group
15 10
chat options
keep refund
video, location or document. While
most rival services have tight limits
on the size of attachments (12MB for
video on WhatsApp), Telegram lets
you send files of up to 1GB. Photos
and map locations appear
immediately on screen, while other
attachments show their size and the
recipient can opt whether to
download them. Naturally, videos
and other large files can take a while
to send.
Telegram’s lack of serious
restrictions extends to group chats,
which can involve up to 200 users!
To start one, you first need to create
a new group, add members to it and
give it a suitable title. You can always
add extra members during a chat, if
you want.
Since all of your messages and
media are stored in the cloud, it’s
possible to access them from any
device. However, if privacy and
security are your main concerns,
there’s the option to start a secret
chat. These use end-to-end
encryption, aren’t stored on
Telegram’s servers, don’t allow
forwarding and even support
self-destructing messages – the
timer ranging from two seconds to
one week. You also get a
visualisation of the encryption key: if
it matches the other person’s, you
can be sure your chat is secure.
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone
Requires Android: 2.2
» verdict
Performance
Design
Value
Superfast and secure, it has
everything you need
 Opera Max
Agent – do beta for
not disturb HoverChat QuickStocks Android

Agent – do not disturb

Automate key tasks to avoid being disturbed
Wouldn’t it be great if
your phone could figure
out what you were
doing – such as driving
– and automatically behave
accordingly? That’s the idea behind
Agent, which offers five ‘agents’ to
automate various tasks in the
background. It’s dead easy to
configure the options you want via
the app’s clean and simple user
interface. Then you just leave Agent
to do its work.
Possibly the most useful agent is
the Drive one. This detects when
you’re driving – via a Bluetooth
connection to a hands-free kit and/or
motion sensing – and then silences
incoming calls and responds to
those from selected contacts with a
customisable message. Better yet, it
»trylikethis!
this? MOTOROLA ASSIST » Similar task automation, but its driving
mode only works on certain devices.
can read received SMS messages
aloud and there’s even a beta
function to speak a reply to send as
a text.
Also of use when travelling is the
Parking agent. Once it detects that
you’ve stopped, it stores your
vehicle’s position. It can remember
up to five parking spots; click on one
and you can get directions to it via
Google Maps.
Next up, the Meeting agent
detects your own and shared
calendar events – just ‘Busy’ ones if
you wish – and silences your phone
(or sets it to vibrate) during meetings.
Set it to only work at certain times
and days, to suit your working week.
You can also get it to auto-respond to
selected contacts and only alert you
if they text back with the word
‘urgent’. Similar options are
offered by the Sleep agent, which
silences your phone during certain
hours, and you can select the
Agent detects when you park and
stores your car’s position on the map
contacts who can wake you, by call
and/or text. Finally, the Battery agent
kicks in at the percentage you set (eg
10 per cent) and can dim the screen
and turn off auto-sync, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth etc.
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone
Requires Android: 4.0
» verdict
A handy task automator with
a clever driving mode
Each agent offers plentiful settings to get it
working the way you want

HoverChat QuickStocks Opera Max

Multitask while engaging in SMS chats Check the markets and beta for Android
your portfolio Save on mobile data usage
Most third-party
SMS apps offer This no-nonsense financial The Opera web browser
pretty much the app has a single scrolling has long been popular,
same layout and interface as screen showing up-to-the- helping to save on data
the standard Messaging and minute values of various markets usage by compressing webpages
Hangouts ones, simply and stocks. These can easily be while enabling faster loading. Opera
jazzing up the visuals and rearranged by dragging and dropping, Max aims to bring the same benefits
offering a few extra options. or removed by swiping sideways. to other apps by using data
HoverChat is a bit more Search for new stocks to add them, compression (of up to 50%) via a VPN
radical, however. Formerly including those in minor indices such connection. This certainly comes in
known as Ninja SMS, it as AIM, or add currency conversions. handy for video apps, saving a
enables you to read and reply Tap a stock to see a price graph serious amount of data in our tests.
to text messages (and now (showing anything Opera Max’s stats
MMS ones) without having to View multiple floating chat heads and windows while using from one day up to screen is also
another app
leave the app you’re in – so several years) and ideal for tracking
you could be watching a video, for instance. It’s highly reminiscent of Facebook stats such as the daily/monthly data
Chat Heads with its pop-up photos of contacts, but doesn’t require you to P/E ratio. The app usage and you can
replace your current Android launcher. You can have multiple floating Hover offers an easy restrict individual
Heads and chat windows, which can be overview of the apps to using Wi-Fi
» Price £2.39/$3.99 resized, made translucent and markets with the if they’re rather
» Designed for Phone repositioned. Even so, they often get in odd advert. data hungry.
» Requires Android 4.0 the way and you have to go full-screen
» Price Free » Price Free
to type a message anyhow. » Designed for Phone » Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 2.2 » Requires Android 4.0
»like this?
try this!
PORTAL (FLOATING WINDOWS) » Use a floating window to access
messages, Facebook, Twitter and the web.

61
Apps
MIXTRAX
App
Hear a non-stop mix of
your music
If you lack the DJ-ing skills
to seamlessly segue from
one music track to
another, or just can’t be bothered,
MIXTRAX can do it automatically for
you. At first sight, it’s a standard
music player and can indeed
function as (a pretty basic) one.
However, once it has analysed the
music library on your device – which
takes a while at approximately 15
seconds per track – it can act as a
virtual DJ. Tap the ‘Non-Stop Mix’
button and by default it’ll play a
chunk of one track before cross-
fading to another.
You can get it to play all of each
song, or a shorter excerpt, in the
settings. Some of the transitions
work better than others, which can
sound quite messy at times.
In addition, tapping the art for a
song takes you to the ‘LinkGate’
screen where you can choose one of
four mixes, based on the artist,
genre, tempo and year respectively.
Or tap the ‘Select song’ option to
access other mixes such as Beat,
Chill, Thump and Distortion.
The LinkGate screen enables you to switch to
any of four mixes
» Price £1.29/$1.99
» Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 4.0
62
Playmarkers
Scan these QR codes for direct
links to the Google Play Store
Basecamp At last, an official
Android app is here for
the popular project
management service. There have
been some unofficial ones around
for some time, but none of them
quite hit the mark. Note that the
official application only supports
the new Basecamp and not the
Classic version.
For the uninitiated, Basecamp
is an online project management
system that enables teams to
Document revisions are accessed
differently from in the web version
Bolt A simple Phone app replacement
The idea behind this Phone
app alternative is very
simple. Rather than
requiring you to set up an account
with a username and password, like
most other VoIP services, it identifies
you by your phone number, which it
verifies by sending you a four-digit
code to enter.
You can then call other Bolt users
(indicated by a Bolt symbol on their
photo) for free, or ring other contacts
using the minutes in your phone
service’s call plan – so, while it won’t
save you any money in that respect,
there’s no messing around with
»like this?
try this!
SKYPE » Enjoy free audio, video and text chats with other users,
plus cheap call rates.
MIXTRAX
App Basecamp Bolt
collaborate easily on projects, adding
Manage your projects
on the move
features from the Basecamp web
files and documents that others can portal may be a little disappointed
then edit, creating calendar events, with the app. The layout is a bit
and engaging in discussions. It’s a different too, so could prove
great way to keep tabs on every confusing at first. For instance, we
aspect of a project and there’s a were looking for the version history
60-day trial available (via the when viewing/editing a document,
website); it then costs from $20 per but it seems this is only accessible
month, depending on how many
projects you need to manage and
how much storage space you need,
“Anyone
but you can add unlimited users.
Anyone expecting the full quota of
expecting the
full quota of
features may
be a little
disappointed”
from the Latest Updates screen.
Another omission is the ability for
admins to alter the permissions
granted to other users, while the
Calendar doesn’t offer a grid view,
just an agenda list.
Still, the app was really designed
as a way to catch up on projects
while on the move and in that
The Discussions section enables you to
chat to other project members respect it works well. The interface is
»like this?
try this!
CAMPER - BASECAMP CLASSIC » A decent third-party app for
managing projects in the Classic version of Basecamp.
buying credits. Call quality is good
and it uses a mere 60KB per minute,
while a suitably simple interface
sees you swiping between
favourites, full contacts list and
dialling pad.
An iOS version is also in the works,
in case you want to talk to iPhone-
owning chums. In the mean time,
bask in the glory of an exclusive to
the Google Play store.
» Price Free
» Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 4.0
The Favourites tab shows the contacts you
call the most with Bolt
 12Hours
» like this? try this!
Every Task
A task manager that follows the full
GTD process for superior time management
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Tablet and phone
Requires Android: 4.0
» verdict
Performance
Design
Value
Not fully featured, but fine
for catching up on projects
easy enough to navigate, enabling
you to select a project from the
pull-out left menu and then swipe
between tabs for latest updates,
discussions, to-dos, files and text
documents. Handily, the latest app
version lets you search inside
individual projects, although it’s a
shame that there’s no facility yet for
push notifications.
12Hours
A clock that highlights calendar events
This intriguing app
combines the functionality
of an analogue clock and
day planner. It comes with a
selection of four widgets, of varying
size, to place on your home screen. It
then automatically grabs events
from your Google Calendar (you must
be using the official app) for the next
12 hours and shows them in
highlighted sectors on the clock
face, thereby offering a great way to
visualise your day. You can choose
multiple calendars as its data
»like this?
try this!
CLOCK AND EVENT WIDGET (FREE) » A customisable widget to
show calendar events, Google tasks, weather and more.
15min wonder
Want your money back?
You’ve got 15 mins to decide!
! 5 »0-5 minutes
The interface seems polished
15 10
and easy to use
! 5 »5-10 minutes
We can’t find all the web
15 10
portal features
! 5 »10-15 minutes
It works well for catching up
The Progress 15 10
on a project
screen gives a
handy overview of
all your projects keep refund
sources and whether to use their
colours. Open the app itself and you
can fine-tune the clock styling and
select which app is started when the
widget is tapped (Google Calendar by
default). Another useful feature is
the Free Time Finder: select up to
two calendars and the clock will
highlight your free time in green.
» Price Free
» Designed for Tablet and phone
» Requires Android 4.0
The Free Time Finder is a good way to plan
and visualise leisure time
Check our website daily
for even more app reviews »www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
quickhits
5 top apps for...
COOKING A
MEAL
BigOven has a massive database of
recipes to choose from
BigOven Free
Containing over 250,000
recipes, this app provides
plenty of ideas. Sign up for
free to save favourites, add
your own recipes, make shopping lists,
plan menus on a calendar and more.
ChefTap Recipe App Free
ChefTap can grab recipes
from any website or blog to
store in categories – it’s the
digital equivalent of cutting
recipes out of magazines and sticking
them in a scrapbook.
The Video Cookbook
£3.99/$5.99
This one’s a bit pricey, but you
do get HD demonstrations
and photos of 240 recipes
created by professional chefs. Other
features include a cooking glossary.
Jamie Oliver Free
Love or loathe him, you have
to admit that Jamie’s a fine
cook. While the ads are
obtrusive, this app gives you a
searchable database of his numerous
video recipes. Pukka!
Culinary Pal Beta Free
Speak a phrase to search the
allrecipes.com database and
the app reads out the recipe
so you don’t need to touch or
even look at the screen. Sadly, it’s a bit
glitchy so far.
63
Apps Playmarkers
Scan these QR codes for direct
links to the Google Play Store
Cogi – Notes
& Voice
Recorder TimePIN
Weather
Underground

Cogi – Notes & Voice

Recorder Record key soundbites
and stay focused
Weather
Frantically scribbling notes during a meeting or lecture can prove
distracting and lead you to miss hearing or seeing other crucial bits of
information while you’re doing so. Cogi solves the problem by enabling
you to record audio highlights. Start a session and then tap the large button to
record a key soundbite.
Underground
Using crowdsourced information for
Don’t worry about being quick: like
one of those smart video cameras, the greater accuracy
app is constantly recording, so will pick Weather Underground offers hyperlocal information and
up the 15 seconds (customisable) forecasts. Its data is partially supplied by thousands of personal
before you even tap it. weather stations around the globe to give a better idea of current
This means that you should never conditions in a precise place. The community aspect also enables users to
miss a vital point. In addition, recordings submit hazard reports (such as flooding) and sky reports.
can be augmented with photos (for After detecting your location, the main screen shows a plethora of info,
example, of a fully featured whiteboard), including temperature, wind direction/speed and chance of precipitation,
text and tags for the people present at plus a daily or hourly forecast. The various sections can be dragged up and
the meeting. down to rearrange them. The
It works well and is better than using You can add photos and more to audio clips » specification WunderMap view is what really
a standard, and much more expensive, impresses, however, enabling you to
dictaphone. Currently there’s no option
» Price Free
» Designed for Phone and tablet
Price Free select data layers such as satellite
to record directly to an external SD card, » Requires Android 2.3.3 Designed for: Phone and tablet and radar (for rainfall) – you can even
but the developer is working on this. Requires Android: 4.0 play a slideshow to track storms.
That will make it even better.
» verdict Additional features include ski/
snow reports, plus weather radio. It
»like this?
try this!
TAPNOTES - MEETING RECORDER » Take audio and text notes,
tagging key points at the time or later.
Performance all adds up to a comprehensive,
attractive weather app, complete
Design
with three widgets.
Value
TimePIN Accurate local weather in an
attractive interface with an
Confirm or alter
To improve accuracy, users can confirm
the current weather in their locality by
Stay secure with an ever-changing PIN interactive map tapping the tick. Or tap the cross to
submit your own ‘sky report’ with cloud
For data security, it’s advisable cover and conditions
to use a passcode (or pattern)
on your phone’s lockscreen.
However, snoopers could still obtain the
»like this?
try this!
WEZZOO » Fully crowdsourced weather info with photos and
more of a social network angle.
code by shoulder-surfing or examining
your onscreen fingerprints. TimePIN
solves the problem with an ever- Get to know
changing PIN based on the current time. A world of weather information, including an interactive
So, if it’s 9:27, your PIN (for that moment) map, hazard reports and hurricane alerts
will be 0927. For added security, you can
‘morph’ the PIN with reverse, mirror and
double options. Even safer is the offset
option (to add or subtract a chosen
number from the time) which, along with
a date-based PIN, requires an in-app
purchase. If you do get locked out of
your phone, just reboot it and use the
standard PIN you’ve set. As it uses your device’s standard PIN input,
no one will be any wiser
TimePIN is an ingenious idea that WunderMap Hazard report Hurricanes &
should offer more security than » Price Free This interactive map is one Users are able to help others cyclones
» Designed for Phone of the best parts of the by reporting local hazards If you’re holidaying in the
standard locking methods, although if » Requires Android 4.0.3 application, enabling you to such as flooding, slippery tropics, the Hurricanes &
you’re using the offset option you might select various data layers roads and power cuts. Tropical Cyclones screen
have to do some maths! and alter their opacity. It’s Naturally, this relies on them can give you warnings about
good for spotting incoming being sensible and honest severe storms – scroll down
storms, for example. accounts of the weather. for more info on them.
»like this?
try this!
PICTURE PASSWORD LOCKSCREEN » Choose a background
image and draw points, lines and circles on it for the code.

64
 Now TV Beta
Your location
While the app uses
location services to
detect where you are,
you can switch to a
different weather
station if you want,
possibly to get
information for another
locale. There’s no way
of storing two
locations and easily
switching between
them, however
EDITOR’S
CHOICE
WunderMap
view
Tap this thumbnail (or the
Weather drop-down at the
top) to switch to the
WunderMap view. This is an
Now TV Beta
The best of Sky TV without a contract
interactive, zoomable map
with a choice of data layers,
While the original Now TV
such as radar
app only supported a
limited range of phones,
this new Beta one will work on
most Android 4.0 devices,
including tablets. Why a Beta
version? It’s supposedly
due to a bug with the
Android native players on
certain devices, which can
cause video freezes –
although we didn’t
experience any major
problems ourselves.
The app enables you to
enjoy Sky TV on the go
without having to lock into
a contract, by buying one of
three passes. The Movies
Month pass (£8.99)
unlocks all 11 movie
channels plus over 800
on-demand films, the Sports
Day pass enables 24-hour
access to all six sports channels,
while the new Entertainment
Month pass (£4.99) unlocks ten
channels including Sky Atlantic, MTV Movies are organised into helpful
and Comedy Central. To start off, you categories and include some recent
cinema releases
can get a 30-day free trial of the
Movies package, which offers enough to browse categories/
everything from classics to recent channels or use the search facility to
blockbusters. It’s a bit odd that the find what you want. Playback is very
UI is portrait mode only, but it’s easy high quality and you can use the
scrubbing bar to rewind/fast-forward
to any point.
The forecast » like this? try this!
By default, the forecast
shows an overview for Netflix
the next seven days, Cheaper, with a bigger selection of
including a temperature movies and shows, if not the latest films.
graph. Tapping a day
switches it to a more
useful hour-by-hour
forecast, including
sunrise/set times
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 4.0
» verdict
A solid alternative to Netflix
– Now TV gives you a more
up-to-date selection
The Entertainment section lets you watch
live channels or catch-up shows
65
Apps
PolyFauna
Explore trippy terrain while listening
to Radiohead
Draw on the
screen to create
items that evolve their shape
This experimental
collaboration between
the band Radiohead and
digital art/film studio Universal
Everything was inspired by an
interest in early computer
life-experiments and ‘the
imagined creatures of our
subconscious’. Born out of The
King of Limbs sessions, it employs
imagery and sounds from the
song Bloom. Best enjoyed with
headphones to fully appreciate
the ever-evolving ambient music,
it sees you exploring a weird alien
Explore alien landscapes with weird
plants and flying objects
Find the red dot and steer into it to be
taken to a new world
»like this?
try this?
BIOPHILIA » A multimedia project by Björk, combining original
music with interactive artworks.
66
Playmarkers
Scan these QR codes for direct
links to the Google Play Store
EDITOR’S
CHOICE
landscape with strangely hued
plants, trees and mountains – all
very trippy. Your path is steered by
tilting and rotating the device and
you can also draw items on the
screen. When you’ve seen
enough, look for the red dot and
head into it to be transported to a
new world with new sounds. Since
there’s no real structure, it’s more
of a sensory experience. A camera
icon enables you to easily take
snapshots of your ‘travels’ that
are then shown on Radiohead’s
website to share with others.
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 4.0
» verdict
Performance
Design
Value
A fascinating sensory
experience combining
music and visuals
PolyFauna
Samsung
Power Sleep CloudMagic
Samsung Power Sleep
It gets to work while you snooze
While you bed down for the night, your phone can do good deeds.
Plug it in and once it’s charged to 80%, Power Sleep will start
calculating data packages to help decrypt protein sequences for the
SIMAP project at the University of Vienna. The sequences are used to benefit
cancer and Alzheimer’s research. Each
1MB data package takes between 30
minutes and an hour to calculate – the
longer you sleep, the more it can
process. While the app uses Wi-Fi by
default, it can be set to send and receive
data via a mobile network. Since Power
Sleep only uses 75% of your CPU power,
the device remains functional. To give
you something in return, the app also
functions as an alarm clock. On the other
hand, some users may not want this
function and there’s currently no option
to do the calculations without an alarm.
» Price Free
» Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 2.3
Set your alarm at night and Power Sleep
will start its good work
»like this?
try this!
BOINC » Choose from various scientific research projects to
donate your unused CPU power.
CloudMagic A refreshing
way to handle email
Rather than waste time organising your email messages into various
folders in a vain effort to achieve ‘inbox zero’, you could use
CloudMagic and increase your productivity. Its single universal inbox
(for up to five email accounts) is coupled with a lightning-fast search function
that enables you to find messages in any account with ease. Upon launching
the application, you’re asked to add one or more accounts – CloudMagic
supports Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook/Hotmail,
Exchange, iCloud, Google Apps,
Office 365 and any IMAP service, but
strangely not POP3.
Once you’re done adding, the universal
inbox is shown, containing messages
from all accounts – although you can still
select individual ones from the left
pull-out menu if you want. The search
facility is amazingly quick: you’re instantly
offered results while still typing a term.
While reading a message, there’s also a
neat option to pan and zoom
in on it.
» Price Free
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 4.0
The superfast search facility comes up
with results as you type
»like this?
try this?
MYMAIL » An attractive, easy-to-use email client that also
supports POP3 accounts.
 quickhits
SimplyText SlideLock Muzei Live Snapdragon
SMS Lockscreen with advanced
notification support Wallpaper Glance Intelligent lockscreen
A messaging app with This lockscreen An art gallery for your
smart features replacement offers a device’s home screen notifications for you
One of the most interesting simple system for the With a title that means In order to use this
features of this nifty notifications displayed on it: swipe ‘museum’ in Russian, this lockscreen replacement,
Messaging app one to the right to open it, or to the live wallpaper app will set you must first install
replacement is SmartTexter, which left to dismiss it. Or swipe right from your home (and lock) screen Snapdragon BatteryGuru, which
places the people you text most the bottom to unlock; left to open background to a new painting every claims to extend the performance of
often in the notifications bar for the Camera. You can select precisely day. This is then shown blurred and your battery. The reason for this is
quick access. And if you’re too busy which apps to include and also dimmed on the home screen and that BatteryGuru informs Glance of
to talk, you can ‘snooze’ a message, create custom settings for each app, you can double-tap it at any time to your usage so it can suggest relevant
setting it to remind you later. Another although some of these are only bring it into focus, and vice versa. apps and contacts. At the top of the
nice inclusion is available in the Alternatively, the lockscreen, the
the way that MMS paid version. In app can use next Calendar
are grouped addition, the random or event is shown,
together in a photo screen is woken manually selected followed by
stream. You can temporarily camera photos, missed calls/texts
also activate a whenever you but oddly not and app
Quick Reply that receive a others from notifications; tap
puts a pop-up on notification, so you your Gallery or to open or swipe
your home screen. can glance at it. Photos app. to remove.
» Price Free » Price Free » Price Free » Price Free
» Designed for Phone » Designed for Phone » Designed for Phone and tablet » Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 2.2 » Requires Android 4.1 » Requires Android 4.2 » Requires Android Varies with device

FlickKey Fenix Holofication AcDisplay

Keyboard A well-designed Twitter
client for Android
Nation Lightweight and handy
notification system
Use short flicks to type You can look, but you can’t
Do we really need another Inspired by Motorola’s
faster messages third-party Twitter client?
download much here Active Display, this app
FlickKey reduces the Probably, since each one At the time of writing, this aims to give you all the info
amount of sliding required soon hits the 100,000 user limit. So app is in a state of flux. you need at a glance, temporarily
for swipe-typing, by you might want to get hold of this When we first tried it out, it waking up your screen to show
splitting the keyboard into six 3x3 one quickly: even as a beta version, enabled us to download alternative, notifications as they arrive. You see
keypads. Just flick your finger in the it’s great. As well as the usual light modified versions of official apps the app icon with an elapsing timer
direction of the letter/character and dark themes, Fenix has a such as Instagram, Grooveshark, ring around it, giving you a chance to
required on each pad, or tap the dedicated tablet layout and offers CNN and Steam. However, in-app act upon it or not. Before it times out,
middle key. Leave your finger on the inline previews of photos and download links for these have now swipe up to open up the relevant
screen and it comes up with word YouTube videos, plus tappable links been disabled, although you can still app, or down to simply unlock the
suggestions; to view in an obtain their APKs phone.
selecting one with internal web from www. Alternatively, you
another flick leads browser. The left holonation.co.uk. can tap the small
to further menu gives easy So, at present, icons of other
suggestions until access to Holofication apps below the
you lift your finger. mentions, Nation simply main one to
It’s tricky, but has messages, showcases four of access their
the potential for favourites, lists the modded ‘proof recent
quick typing. and searches. of concept’ apps. notifications.
» Price Free » Price Free » Price Free » Price Free
» Designed for Phone and tablet » Designed for Phone and tablet » Designed for Phone and tablet » Designed for Phone
» Requires Android 4.0 » Requires Android 4.0 » Requires Android 2.2 » Requires Android Varies with device

67
Apps head tohead
to head
» specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 4.0
Fleksy
Fleksy includes an interactive
tutorial that guides you
through its rather complex
gesture system and various
typing aides that you can
complete at your own speed.
Being able to pinpoint how
you want Fleksy to look and
work is a great addition. The
high level of customisation
means you can change how
individual gestures function.
The larger buttons included on
Fleksy make it great for typing
at full speed. Gestures also
worked well for us, but the
more advanced ones can be
difficult to implement.
Fleksy tends to take a while
to recognise words you say
when typing via speech. It’s
also quite common for the
wrong word to be inserted
into your SMS message.
Fleksy’s range of advanced
settings enable users to
pinpoint the sizing of the
keyboard and the distance
between specific letters.
There’s not much else here.
And the On the face of it, Fleksy comes across as a rather simple keyboard app
winner is... that many users can enjoy, but it also includes enough for the more
seasoned Android user to discover. The level of customisation on offer
FLEKSY for all areas of the keyboard make it a clear winner in our eyes.
68
Which one of these apps offers the
best typing experience around?
FLEKSY
vs
Kii
Keyboards may not be the most exciting
apps to be found in the Play store, but they
offer users a great way to improve typing
on their Android device. Both Fleksy and
Kii are great choices for those looking to
download a new keyboard,
but which one » specification
comes out on Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
top in our strict Requires Android: 2.1
testing process?
Kii
Although not as complex as
the Fleksy tutorial, there’s a
great guide to how the app
TUTORIAL functions and some of the
features not found in other
keyboard apps.
Kii also provides users with
options to change the size and
shape of the keyboard. This is
CUSTOMISATION a great way of fitting the Kii
keyboard around your typing
speed and style.
There’s so much packed into
the Kii keyboard that it can be
TYPING a little daunting trying to type
out long messages. It’s easy
EXPERIENCE to switch between the
different menus, however.
Speech typing is Kii’s strong
point as it works with very
few faults. It’s also noticeably
SPEECH TYPING faster than typing manually;
perfect for those looking to
save a few seconds.
There’s already so much
packed into the Kii keyboard,
ADVANCED but keen users can venture to
the advanced settings to
SETTINGS change gesture input and
keyboard spacing.
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Games
Up to 150 enemies can appear onscreen
Playing as the aptly named
John Gore, it’s your task to
guide him through a whole
horde of different enemies. There’s
no complicated storyline, or even a
thorough control system, instead the
game relies solely on gameplay. Each
level puts you in a different location,
where the enemies are all zombified.
Using the dual-touchscreen controls
to shoot and slice your enemies, the
action is fairly relentless. It takes a
bit of coordination to get your
thumbs working in tandem in the
first instance, but it’s a fairly easy
game to master.
The further you get into the game,
the more enemies you’ll come
across, as well as playable
characters to try out. Although
enemies are varied and certainly
look the part, there’s not a whole lot
of difference between each playable
character. This isn’t a massive issue
when you consider up to 150
enemies can appear on your screen
at any single time. The gore part of
the game certainly comes into its
what we’ve
been playing
BADLAND
Free
BADLAND is a different take on
the side-scrolling platformer and
although we’ve only just started it, it’s
definitely a game worth checking out.
Globlins
Free
Although the mix and match
puzzle formula has been done plenty of
times before, it’s Globlins’ charming
graphics and laugh out loud humour that
have got us hooked.
Recommend a game…
70 »twitter @lgrobot
Playmarkers
Scan these QR codes for direct
links to the Google Play Store
Different challenges will pit you against different enemies
Minigore 2: Zombies
Gore, gore and even more gore…
own here, with splatterings of blood
appearing all over the place. Most
impressive though is the lack of
slowdown, even with all these
enemies appearing at one time.
In total, there are 300 different
challenges for users to complete,
some taking a lot longer to complete
than others. Across the way you’ll
also have the occasional boss battle
that requires a certain amount of
oO
Who knew circles could be
so puzzling?
Certain games leave you
frustrated and on the brink
of chucking your phone
against the wall; oO is one of these
games. The premise is simple
enough – guide a small ball around a
bunch of circles by tapping on the
screen to move into them and out of
them. Where the frustration comes
in, is when spikes are introduced.
These pesky obstacles
systematically go between the
insides and outsides of circles,
meaning you need to expertly time
your taps to progress.
Minigore 2:
Zombies
strategy. The balance of non-stop
action and strategy is something that
Minigore 2 has got perfect and
something that other games should
really take note of.
Gory games can be a tough ask to
judge correctly, but when mixed in
with a good amount of slapstick
comedy and solid gameplay, it tends
to be something worth checking out.
There’s a lot to love about Minigore
Jump from circle to circle
With some levels being
remarkably large and the addition of
no checkpoints, getting right near
the end to then hit a spike and have
to restart is more than annoying.
It’s arguably quite a dull game to
look at as well, even though the
minimalist theme has been done
countless times before, it just
oO
2: Zombies and although it might not
receive the coverage some of the
bigger name titles get, it’s one that
every Android user should check out
right away.
» Price Free
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 4.0.3
Hit a spike and you’ll have to restart
doesn’t fit quite right here. The bland
graphics and frustrating gameplay
that oO offers certainly won’t be to
everyone’s preference.
» Price £1.18/$1.97
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 2.3
 Broken
Sword 5:
Serpent’s Battlefront
Curse Heroes Tiny Goalie

Broken Sword 5: Serpent’s Curse
Adventure puzzlers don’t come much better than this
The Broken Sword series
of games has been
ported on to many home
consoles over the past few years,
but it’s the Android exclusive
titles that have really made the
Talk to people to potentially find new clues
series come into its own. The latest
in the series, the Serpent’s Curse, is
arguably the best yet. The game
sees you tracking down the thief of a
valuable painting, while also trying to
get your head around a complex
quickhits
murder conspiracy. From the get-go
you’re thrust into the action and with
so many potential leads to follow, it
can be a little daunting. As you
progress with finding clues, you’ll
encounter a good array of puzzles. Threes! £1.20/$1.99
Difficulty levels differ, but some will Piece the numbers together
to make the number three
keep you thinking for some time. – simple right? Guess again,
What really stands out is just how Threes! is a hardcore puzzler
beautiful it looks. Animations are that offers plenty of levels to leave you
stumped time and time again.
really crisp and the short cut scenes
run without fault too, even if there
isn’t that many. If you can look past
the difficulty level, this is by far the Sorcery
best Broken Sword game to date. £3.00/$5.00
Instead of a
» Price £4.99/$6.99 normal RPG,
» Designed for Phone and tablet Sorcery
» Requires Android 4.0.3 requires you
to plan out the story as
you want to play it. It’s
an intriguing idea,
which has somewhat
mixed results and is over all too quickly.

Tiny Goalie
Slip and slide to save Groove Racer Free
A simple enough racer
In this retro-themed game you play as a requiring you to just use one
goalkeeper, needing to save as many balls as finger to stop and start
without veering off the track.
possible before conceding. For every ball you Plenty of races and cars to choose from
save, you get 10 points, with the more you save in a row that will keep you interested.
making the points accrue faster.
Balls come from all directions and you need to slide
your goalie from left to right using your finger to actively
Create alliances with your friends save them. The QuizUp Free
Battlefront pinpoint precision
of doing this can be
a bit difficult at
Pit your wits against people all
over the world in this cracking
quizzing game. There are

Heroes Take the battle thousands of questions to get

times and through and lots of leaderboards to
online against friends compare scores.
especially when
With millions of players taking to Facebook to the balls are
play Battlefront Heroes, the game has now coming really thick
made its debut on the Android OS. Real time and fast, and with
strategies are difficult to get right on mobile screens, but you needing to LEGO DUPLO Food Free
Although not as thorough as
Battlefront Heroes does a solid job at it. As with games of restart after other LEGO games, DUPLO
this type, you need to create a sprawling town out of conceding just one Food is great for kids. Build
nothing, while also developing units to defend your city goal, the task items of food and sell them in
your virtual store to customers.
and defeat opposing forces and their cities too. There’s a becomes even
good selection of units to choose from and the further you more fiendish.
progress into the game, the more you unlock. Although there’s
Most of the gameplay will take you online, where you’ll not a whole lot else
come across plenty of players. Connecting isn’t an issue to do in Tiny Goalie, Swordigo Free
The more you save the quicker your points As far as 2D platformers go,
and the action is fast and furious. We would have liked to tally up it’s a great Swordigo is a bit on the basic
have seen more pick-up-and-play side. The controls are great,
» Price Free detail as it’s fairly
» Price Free title that will have but the lack of variety and
» Designed for Phone and tablet » Designed for Phone and tablet tiresome levels means there are much
» Requires Android 2.2 linear, but it’s » Requires Android 2.3.3 you trying to outdo better alternatives.
very enjoyable your best score
while it lasts. every time.

Check our website for

even more game reviews »www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk 71
Reviews
Group test
Budget
multi-core
phones
Get fast performance on phones that
won’t break the bank. These low-cost
handsets all have multi-core CPUs…

N
ot so long ago, good performance on an
Android phone cost money. Fast
processors were exclusively the domain of
the flagship devices, while those at the cheaper
end of the market were slow, laggy and generally
well short of an acceptable level of performance.
That has now changed. The four devices in our
test are available for prices starting at under £100
and all sport dual or quad-core processors
capable of performing at higher levels than
we’ve ever seen before at this price.

Kazam
Trooper X4.0
Kazam is a new name in the
Android world. The Trooper is a
four-inch phone that makes up
part of a much larger range where
every screen size is accounted
for. The specs are modest, but
the phone has a low price and
may surprise with its speed.

Prestigio
MultiPhone
5500 Duo
With a five-inch display, thin
profile and interchangeable,
multi-coloured backplates, the
5500 is a dual-SIM phone that is
perfect for those wanting power
and style without making a
massive financial investment.

72
ZTE Blade V
Not only is the Blade V the
cheapest phone in our test by
some margin, it is also powered
by a quad-core processor. It’s the
cheapest quad-core phone on the
market. Does the ultra-low price
and surprising spec combine to
make this phone the bargain of
the century, or are there a host of
hidden catches?
Motorola Moto G
The Moto G has already bagged
itself six per cent of the UK
market, thanks to its winning
combination of HD display,
quad-core processor and low, low
price. It also runs a near stock
version of Android, and was
among the first devices to be
updated to KitKat when it was
released last year.

“Fast processors
were exclusively
the domain of
the flagship
devices… That has
now changed”

73
Reviews
Prestigio
MultiPhone
5500 DUO
information
Price £129
» your right thumb. The
»More information www.prestigio.com
technical specs
» Operating system........Android 4.2
» Processor...........................ARM Cortex-A7 1.2GHz
dual-core
» Memory ..............................512MB RAM
» Dimensions......................146 x 75.3 x 10.55mm
» Weight..................................183g
» Display size ......................Five-inch
» Display resolution.......480 x 854 pixels, 196ppi
»head-to-head
Screen
The pixel density of the MultiPhone’s
screen is below 200ppi, which is an
uncommon sight these days. As a result
it is possible to see the jagged edges
on text, which means it isn’t entirely
comfortable to use for reading.
Performance
The processor is similar to that on
the Kazam Trooper, and its results in
benchmark tests were slightly worse.
However, to the eye, it was better, with
smoother and less laggy scrolling in
general use.
Features
The phone can take two SIMs, both
full sized, has a selection of alternative
backplates and an impressively loud
speaker. It is very lacking in both RAM and
storage, though, so is very much an
entry-level handset.
Value
The 5500 seems to be priced about
right. The specs are unimpressive, but
the build quality is above average for a
budget phone. Performance is generally
acceptable, so long as your needs are not
too demanding.
» Verdict
The 5500 is a likeable phone.
It’s not suitable for power
users, but is ideal for those
who want just a bit of web,
email and social use
74
Good
ergonomics
The buttons are mostly in
the right place, including
the power button beneath
micro USB port is
unusually positioned on
the top of the phone
Capacitive
buttons
The 5500 has three
capacitive buttons below
the screen, using the
Samsung layout with the
back button on the right.
The left button is for the
menu
Prestigio Multi
Phone 5500 DUO
The 5500 has the largest screen in our test at five
inches. What else can it offer at its low-price point?
T
he 5500 is the largest phone in our test with its
five-inch screen, and it feels even larger. With
sizeable bezels all around the screen and a hefty
weight it is not a compact phone. Yet it feels good in
the hand thanks to a curved soft-touch back, and is
well built too. A mildly creaking backplate apart, it’s a
pretty solid phone. The backplate can be replaced
incidentally, with four brightly coloured alternatives
included in the box. It’s a nice touch.
Booting up the phone reveals a shock in the form of
a startup sound that blares out of the very loud
speaker on the back. The bootscreen also displays
ads for apps that are either pre-installed or optional
installs on the device, such as a satnav trial.
The screen has the lowest pixel density in our test,
and though it is obviously inferior to that on the Moto
G, we didn’t mind it so much in comparison to the
others. It is set to maximum brightness by default and
you’ll need to leave it there as that is only just about
Loud
speaker
There’s a single
speaker around
the back that goes
somewhat louder
than you would
expect
Grippy screen
Scrolling on the phone is
quite smooth as long as
there’s nothing pressing
happening in the
background. Swiping on
the screen is less
pleasant thanks to the
glass’s grippy texture
bright enough. The vertical viewing angles are not so
great, and the glass also has a grippy texture, but on
the whole it was as we expected.
The phone has dual-SIM slots located beneath the
battery alongside a micro SD slot. That is needed as
the phone has less than 2.5GB of available storage.
There’s a number of extra apps pre-installed, and a
bunch more that are optional, but otherwise the
phone is largely stock Android 4.2. We had a firmware
update to install when we first turned the phone on,
but we wouldn’t expect OS updates at all.
The phone is no speed demon. Scrolling was mostly
smooth, jittering only when something was happening
in the background, and the 512MB of RAM does not
help for multitasking. Prestigio’s keyboard is good. It
has a dedicated number row and the size of the
phone makes two-thumbed typing quite easy. The
camera, on the other hand, was very responsive but
produced pretty ordinary shots.

720p display
The screen is outstanding;
the first time we’ve seen
high definition standards in
an entry-level handset
Good battery
With a decent-sized
battery and lack of bells
and whistles in the
skinned software, the
battery can stretch
beyond a day
reasonably comfortably
Motorola
Moto G
The Moto G packs in a HD display among its many
impressive features – it’s a real game-changer…
W
ith its bright 720p display, the Moto G
makes an instant impact that cannot be
matched by anything else in its price
bracket. 720p was cutting-edge, flagship phone spec
only 18 months ago, so to see it in a phone that costs
under £150 SIM-free, and as little as £100 on PAYG
deals is truly impressive. It leaves you wanting for
nothing, and genuinely makes the G feel like a far
more expensive handset than it actually is.
There are a few areas where the low price shows. It
is quite a heavy device, and quite chunky too. It’s
slightly larger and slightly thinner than the Kazam but
feels similar in the hand, with its curved soft-touch
backplate feeling comfortable to hold. Here, though,
the rear case is firmly fixed in place, so there’s no way
to switch the battery or to augment the 8GB of
storage – of which around 5.5GB is available.
The camera is the biggest disappointment. It
shoots five-megapixel images and is no better than
Group test
Motorola
Moto G
Design
The phone is quite
heavy but feels nice in
the hand thanks to a
curved back. All the
information
Price £144
buttons are in the
»
right place and within
»More information www.motorola.com
easy reach when
using the device
»Supplied by www.clove.co.uk
one-handed.
The left button is for
the menu technical specs
» Operating system........Android 4.4
» Processor...........................Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz
quad-core
» Memory ..............................1GB RAM
» Dimensions......................129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6mm
» Weight..................................143g
» Display size ......................4.5-inch
» Display resolution.......720 x 1280 pixels, 329ppi
»head-to-head
Screen
The screen is simply stunning, and even
surpasses most of the lower mid-range
phones on the market today. Compared
to the rest of the budget market they
are simply not in the same league as the
brilliant Moto G.
No extra Performance
storage It is noticeably slower than a high-end
The phone comes in 8GB
and 16GB versions. smartphone when launching apps, but has
Without a micro SD card a smoothness and lack of lag in general
slot, the 8GB is very light use that it becomes really enjoyable to
on storage (around 5.5GB)
use. Many users won’t need much more
speed than this.
Features
This budget phone is so impressive that
the things it lacks seem to stand out more
than its rivals. Chiefly these amount to a
shortage of storage (and no expansion
options), no 4G connectivity and a pretty
mediocre camera.
any of the other phones in our test. We had low
expectations for those; we hoped for more here. Value
Beyond this the Moto G really shines. It is powered It is unlikely that there has ever been a
by a Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at better value smartphone to hit the market
1.2GHz with 1GB of RAM, and delivers a smoothness than the Moto G. You’d happily pay a lot
that is more in line with a mid-range phone. It is more for an Android device of this quality,
helped by the software, which is a near stock Android and it feels like an absolute bargain. We
4.4. The phone launched with Jelly Bean but was can’t praise its value higher.
among the first to get a KitKat update – unheard of for
a £100 phone. Better still, Motorola’s tweaks are real
enhancements rather than bloat or change for the
sake of change. Assist automates common tasks and
»In almost
Verdict
every respect it feels
is a smart feature we’d like to see built into Android in
future, and Migrate makes it easy to bring your data
like a phone that costs £200
across from another phone. more. The Moto G is a triumph
It cannot be overstated just how impressive the and sets a new standard for
Moto G is. It changes how you look at budget phones budget devices
and for many users only the mediocre camera would
give them reason not to pick it up.
75
Reviews
Kazam Trooper
X4.0
information
Price £99.60
» dedicated menu
»More information www.kazam.mobi
»More supplied by www.clove.co.uk
technical specs
» Operating system........Android 4.2
» Processor...........................MediaTek MT6572M 1GHz
dual-core
» Memory ..............................512MB RAM
» Dimensions......................125 x 63.7 x 12.5mm
» Weight..................................N/A
» Display size ......................Four-inch
» Display resolution.......480 x 800 pixels, 233ppi
»head-to-head
Screen
The screen is very poor. It is low resolution,
has very limited viewing angles and a blue
tint that doesn’t make it good for viewing
photos or watching videos. It feels like a
display from a few years ago, and doesn’t
stack up well by modern standards.
Performance
The processor is low end by multi-core
standards and with a limited amount of
RAM it is not capable of living up to the
other devices in this group test. Battery
life is also average, and you may need an
afternoon top-up.
Features
The X4.0 has dual-SIM slots, both regular
sized, plus a micro SD card slot, all located
nicely beneath the battery. The software
on show is a largely stock Android 4.2.2
and there is around 3GB of internal
storage to access.
Value
Even at the low price of £100 SIM-free, the
X4.0 feels overpriced. Our other devices
have reset expectations for budget
smartphones, with the Blade V being
both cheaper and a significantly better
performer overall.
»EvenVerdict
for a budget phone, the
Trooper X4.0 feels overpriced.
Outdated specs and a poor
display cannot match up to
the rest of the market
76
Power
button
The power button is
located halfway up
the right-hand side,
and sits perfectly
below your thumb.
The phone is
actually quite nice,
from an ergonomic
perspective
Removable backplate
You can take off the back cover to switch out
the battery. Beneath that are dual-SIM slots
plus one for a memory card, which you’ll need
given the shortage of built-in storage
Kazam Trooper
X4.0 From a new name in smartphones, can
the Trooper X4.0 surpass expectations?
K
azam is a new name in Android phones. The
company was formed last year by two former
HTC executives, and has a range of devices with
screens from 5.5 inches down to 3.5. The Trooper
X4.0 is the four-inch version. It’s a relatively
uncommon size for an Android handset, and it’s easy
to see just how well it fits in the hand, with all controls
within easy reach of your thumb. The phone is pretty
chunky, at 12.5mm, but feels pretty solidly built, with
good ergonomics and a nice soft-touch back cover.
Any positive first impressions that stem from this
are lost as soon as you turn the phone on, however,
as the screen is very poor. We can overlook the low
resolution as being a disappointing, if frequently
inevitable, compromise to reach a price point, but the
air gap that sees the display panel sit about a
millimetre below the glass, the horrible vertical
viewing angles that are especially unpleasant when
trying to watch a video in landscape mode, and its
cold, blueish tint would have been barely acceptable
on a budget device three years ago.
Menu
button
The button is oddly
labelled but the
right-hand one is a
button. A long press
of this will open the
task-switching
screen
Four-inch screen
The screen measures just four inches from
corner to corner. It means it is quite easy to
stretch your thumb up to drag down the
notifications pane
The phone runs Android 4.2.2, and there’s a
software updater app installed, although no word on
whether this device will see any. It’s virtually a stock
setup, unskinned with the inclusion of a handful of
utilities like a file manager and torch app. Performance
is nothing special. The frame rate on animations is
quite low, even when just scrolling through home
screen panels and the like, so it always appears
somewhat jerky.
The MediaTek processor clocked at 1GHz is at the
bottom end of the current multi-core processor
market and it shows, especially when coupled with
just 512MB of RAM. This isn’t a smartphone that can
stand up to much more than basic use: a bit of web
and email, some social networking and casual, light
games. Any more and you’ll be hitting the limits of
what it can do quite quickly.
The camera is five megapixels and of mediocre
quality. It’s quite responsive in good light, but images
are not great. In poor light there is an LED to offer
some support, but it’s a feeble effort.

Hard-to-reach
buttons
The power button is found
on the top-right edge of the
phone, and is hard to reach
when holding in your right
hand, even on a phone with
such a small footprint
Menu button
There are capacitive
buttons below the screen,
including a dedicated menu
button. Within no time at
all they will all be covered
with highly visible
fingerprint smudges
ZTE Blade V
The Blade V has a Snapdragon quad-core processor and
is available for loose change. What’s the catch?
T
he ZTE Blade V takes the crown as the world’s
cheapest quad-core phone, available on a PAYG
deal through Virgin Media in the UK for just £59.
This feels every bit a budget device – a glossy plastic
backplate and fingerprint friendly front are among its
telltale signs – yet it remains a step ahead of all but
the remarkable Moto G on specs.
The design is pretty nondescript. It’s quite thick but
not heavy and feels comfortable in the hand, although
the ergonomics could be better. The power button
located on the top-right edge is hard to reach,
especially when holding the phone in your right hand,
and the micro USB port is awkwardly positioned.
At four inches and 480 x 800 pixels, the screen has
the same spec as the Trooper X4.0, but is in a much
higher class. It is brighter, has better colours and
much wider viewing angles. We’d have liked it to go
brighter still, but for the price point it is satisfactory.
The quad-core Snapdragon processor in use here is
Noisy
speaker
The mono speaker is
located around the
back. It is much louder
than you might expect
it to be, but if you crank
the volume too high it
will distort horribly
Skinned OS
The software is not the
best looking. ZTE’s
choice of skin is more
reminiscent of the
Gingerbread days than
the sleek and modern
Jelly Bean that this
phone runs
not up with the latest budget offerings and there is
some stuttering when scrolling through lists, although
generally it feels responsive, thanks also to the
inclusion of 1GB of RAM. 3D gaming is less viable,
although with only around 2.5GB of storage you
probably wouldn’t be installing many anyway.
The camera is poor. It shoots five-megapixel
images at a quality you’d expect at the cheapest end
of the market. This might be good enough for quick
Facebook snaps, if slow focusing and enormous
shutter lag didn’t render it virtually unusable.
The software is Android 4.1 with a fairly unattractive
and dated-looking skin on top. There’s also bags of
bloatware, albeit the kind of apps that are well
chosen: Twitter, Facebook, Kindle and so on.
On the whole the Blade V does a serviceable job,
and for £59 you can’t really complain about its
limitations. It shows that reasonably smooth
performance can be achieved at a low price.
Group test
ZTE Blade V
information
Price £59.99
»
» More information www.ztedevices.com
» Supplied by www.virginmedia.com
technical specs
» Operating system........Android 4.1
» Processor...........................Snapdragon 1.2GHz
quad-core
» Memory ..............................1GB RAM
» Dimensions......................126 x 64 x 10.9mm
» Weight..................................130g
» Display size ......................Four-inch
» Display resolution.......480x800 pixels, 233ppi
»head-to-head
Screen
Although obviously a budget panel, the
screen has good viewing angles and a high
enough pixel density over four inches to
make it easy on the eyes. We would have
liked it to be brighter, and in sunlight it
does become much harder to see.
Performance
By no means a speed demon, the Blade V
nonetheless delivers reliable performance
for non-demanding tasks. There’s a touch
of lag when scrolling long lists, and in our
experience, high-end games did not work
particularly well.
Features
As you would expect for a phone with
a rock bottom price tag there are no
surprises to be uncovered. The operating
system version is a bit old, and won’t be
updated, and the software and available
storage is lacking.
Value
The Moto G could easily be used as
your main phone, but the Blade V feels
more like a trusty backup, or one for an
undemanding relative. Mind you, you’re
still getting much more than you expect at
such a low price.
»Cheap
Verdict
as chips and
surprisingly fast. The ZTE is
only let down by questionable
software design and a truly
awful camera
77
Reviews
“The Moto G
feels like a
phone that
should cost
at least double
what it does”

The winner… GROUP

TEST WINNER

Motorola Moto G
C
heap Android phones used to be bad. A mess
of compromises that only served to make
them unpleasant to use. That is changing. As
we’ve seen from the devices on test here, a cheap
price does not automatically mean low end. This is
especially the case with the Moto G.
Motorola has gone on record to say that it makes
a profit on every handset sold, but it’s hard to see
how. The Moto G feels in every sense like a phone
that should cost at least double what it does, or
even considerably more. There are lots of phones in
the mid-range from big manufacturers that don’t
have screens as good as that on the G. Only the
camera lets it down – that is a real budget effort
– but if that isn’t a major priority for you then the G
may well be everything you need.
Of the others it is the cheapest that also stands
out. The Blade V is available for pocket money, and
still doesn’t set the alarm bells ringing. ZTE’s
handset exceeds your expectations in almost every
way. Unlike the Moto G it still feels like a budget
phone, but like that phone it sets a standard of
price, features and performance that will become
increasingly difficult for phone makers to ignore.

Prestigio Motorola Kazam ZTE

MultiPhone 5500 DUO Moto G Trooper X4.0 Blade V
OS Android 4.2 Android 4.4 Android 4.2 Android 4.1

Processor ARM Cortex-A7 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6572M 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon 1.2GHz quad-core

Memory 512MB RAM 1GB RAM 512MB RAM 1GB RAM

Dimensions 146 x 75.3 x 10.55mm 129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6mm 125 x 63.7 x 12.5mm 126 x 64 x 10.9mm

Weight 183g 143g N/A 130g

Display Size Five-inch 4.5-inch Four-inch Four-inch

Display Resolution 480 x 854 pixels, 196ppi 720 x 1280 pixels, 329ppi 480 x 800 pixels, 233ppi 480 x 800 pixels, 233ppi

Overall score

78
EXPERT REVIEWS
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Reviews
HTC One (M8)
HTC’s original One set new standards for design and
build, scooping up countless awards in the process.
Is the M8 a worthy successor?
I
f you have any interest in Android you can’t fail to
have noticed that the original HTC One was
incredibly well received at its launch a year ago.
Not only that, it has continued to wow with design
awards aplenty and widespread industry acclaim
both for the device’s hardware and software. With
this in mind, you might assume it has been a
roaring success. However, while it is HTC’s
best-selling product by some margin, it hasn’t really
turned around the sliding finances of what was
once the shining light of the Android world.
Samsung continue to dominate.

Fantastic
sound
The new
BoomSound
experience is not
only 25 per cent
Super- louder, it also
quick includes an
improved amplifier
charging and sound
The HTC One (M8) processor to
includes Qualcomm maintain sound
Quickcharge 2.0. quality and prevent
Using the charger in clipping. Sound is
the box you’ll get a noticeably
device that charges improved when
quicker than its compared to the
predecessor, but a original One
QC2 charger will
arrive later in the
year to speed things
up even further

Media
friendly
The M8 is great
media device. It
includes a FM Radio,
infrared TV remote, More
those fantastic
BoomSound
versions
Dual-SIM, Developer
speakers and and Google Play
three-finger swipe Edition versions of
support for sending the M8 are also
content to a range planned, although
of devices via availability is yet to
Miracast, DLNA, be confirmed. As
Bluetooth and more before, it’s likely to
be possible to switch
software from Sense
to stock Android and
back again

EDITOR’S
CHOICE

80
 What we have here is the successor, also called
the HTC One but with the ‘M8’ tag – the original
One was code named the ‘M7’ internally. When you
have a product as adored as the M7, it’s important
to try and capitalise on that goodwill with an
incremental product that will still excite the
industry, new owners and existing owners alike.
That’s what HTC has tried to achieve with the M8.
Not an easy task.
Externally the key design cues are an evolution
of the M8’s predecessor, dominated by that
signature all-metal body. Internally the device’s
specifications have received an update for 2014 –
it’s very much a case of evolution rather than
revolution. Until devices like the G3 start arriving in
the middle of 2014, this is what we’ll continue to
see (the same applies to devices such as the
Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2).
Design
The design of the M8 is dominated by the
aluminium body, as with the original, but to an even
greater degree than before. The M7 body was 70
per cent metal but the M8 pushes that to an
incredible 90 per cent – and you can really feel the
difference in the hand. On the first device, the back
was metal but the edge of the handset was plastic.
On the new phone, the metal wraps around the
edge right up to the screen, creating an even more
awe-inspiring experience. While the plastic trim
has gone from the edge of the device, there is one
concession to allow placement of the various
antennas required on the device and that is a shiny
piece of plastic on the top of the device. It actually
looks fine – the power button is on the top in the
Grey, Amber Gold and Glacial Silver), the grey ‘hero
colour’ is the only model to include a brushed
effect finish. It’s the best looking of the three.
Screen
HTC is known for making some of the best screens
in the business and the new HTC One is no
exception. A five-inch unit at 1920 x 1080, it’s an
incremental upgrade from last year (and actually,
the available real estate is less than its
predecessor due to the onscreen buttons), but it
looks fantastic. Brightness is excellent and viewing
angles are second to none.
The new HTC software offers improved auto
brightness with a customisable high point,
resolving a frequent complaint with many devices
– that the automatic brightness level is either too
high or too low.
Although later this year it’s likely that flagship
devices will move to QHD ‘2K’ screens, it’s largely Innovative cases
A number of cases are available for the phone. As well as a
irrelevant. The display on the One looks stunning. TPU case included in the box, a conventional flip case and a
‘double dip’ case as seen on the M7, a Dot View case gives a
Performance and battery dot matrix view of notifications. Innovative and fun!
The M8 packs a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801
processor with 2GB RAM. This is interesting as it
looked as though there might be a trend towards
3GB RAM following the launch of the Samsung
Performance tests
Galaxy Note 3, but with the exception of the Xperia Performance on the HTC One (M8) is
Z2, 2GB still looks to be the configuration of choice exceptional, both in benchmarks and in real
(the Galaxy S5 also retains the same setup). use. An ultra-high performance option is
While the Snapdragon 600 in the M7 still feels also available in developer settings, which is
pretty quick today, the 801 (a small upgrade from automatically activated for benchmark apps.
the 800 found in the Nexus 5 and LG G2) takes
performance to another level. The M8 flies. One of 35692
the advantages of running a device with HTC’s HTC One (M8)

& graphics
Processor
same area and is also black, with the IR transmitter software rather than stock Android is that it does a

AnTuTu
integrated as before. The 3.5mm headphone lot of performance tuning and you can really feel it.
23212
HTC One
socket has migrated from the top of the device to No matter what you throw at the new HTC One,
the bottom, which seems to be the preferred everything is silky smooth and there’s no lag or 27210
Nexus 5
placement among users. stutter to be seen.
If you place the device next to its predecessor, One of the other benefits of the new chipset is
you’ll immediately notice that it’s quite a lot taller. that it is more frugal than the Snapdragon 600. The
The primary reason for this is that the screen itself battery on the M8 has grown from 2300mAh to 1746
HTC One (M8)
has grown from 4.7 to five inches. The home and 2600mAh and while it’s still smaller than a lot of its
2385
HTLM5
Vellamo

back buttons have moved from either side of the
HTC logo to software buttons on screen (as per the
Nexus devices), but the area where they used to
reside remains, just with the HTC logo. The reason
for this is that there are screen electronics that are
behind this area, which can’t go any further down
the device due to the presence of another HTC
signature experience – the awesome BoomSound
speakers, which are now 25 per cent louder.
The double-size SIM tray (to enable use of the
same chassis on the dual-SIM device) is accessed
on the edge using a pin as before (nano SIM this
time round), but in addition there is now a micro SD
tray too on the other side. Finally, micro SD
expansion has returned.
The back of the device looks almost the same as
last year’s device, with the exception of the new
‘Duo camera’ with its dual-tone flash. Of the
colours of the M8 that are available (Gunmetal
peers (the Galaxy S5 is 2800mAh, the LG G2 is
3000mAh and the Xperia Z2 is 3200mAh!), HTC
claims a 40 per cent increase in battery life
compared to the original. This is particularly
significant because stamina was a problem on the
M7 and thankfully, in our experience, the M8 does
indeed perform much better, even if in our own use
the 40 per cent estimate is a little optimistic.
Software
Over the last year HTC has gone from being
notorious for including HTC Sense to being
commended for it. Although the purists will always
decry any manufacturer customisation of stock
Android, the reality is that Sense, particularly in its
sixth iteration as seen here, adds genuine value
and polish to the standard Google experience.
From a design perspective, Sense 6 takes the
flattening and simplification of the skin started in
HTC One
1495
Nexus 5
Sense 5 a step further. Sense is no longer
graphically heavy like its predecessors, instead
making great use of theme-defined colours (new to
Sense 6) and the Roboto Compact font to give a
mature, grown-up look throughout the OS.
Bloatware (pre-installed apps) is kept to an
absolute minimum and changes are generally
genuine enhancements rather than the
‘replacement for the sake of it’ approach that you
still see on competing devices.
HTC’s Flipboard-like interface, BlinkFeed, has
been given a major overhaul for the M8. The design
is more flexible to enable free scrolling through a

81
Reviews
feed with more variety of item sizes within the feed
and sources are greatly expanded. Developers can
also now integrate directly with BlinkFeed via a
SDK. HTC clearly has big plans for BlinkFeed as it
will be rolled out to non-HTC devices via the Play
store later in the year, which will certainly help
motivate developers to add support.
BlinkFeed won’t be the only application deployed
and updated via the Play store. In order to provide
more rapid upgrades in the future, HTC will be
offering updates outside of the usual over-the-air
ROM route for key elements of the device such as
BlinkFeed, Zoe Camera, Gallery and more over
time. A really positive step by HTC.
Among the pre-installed apps on the device you’ll
find Fitbit. If you already have a real Fitbit device
you’re ready to go, but if not then you can take
advantage of another new feature in the M8. The
device features a ‘Sensor Hub’, which allows it to
monitor various sensors even when the screen is
off and the main CPU is clocked down. This means
it can function as a basic pedometer that hooks
straight into Fitbit – just remember to keep the
phone in your pocket.
The sensor hub also facilitates the inclusion of
new ‘motion launch’ gestures on the M8. A
frequent complaint on the M7 was the placement
of the power button on the top, but the M8 uses
the sensor hub to determine when you pick up the
device. When you do, it turns on the screen’s touch
layer to allow double-tap to wake or sweep up,
down, left, right gestures to wake with various
actions. Picking up the device and tapping the
volume down button while held horizontally
launches you straight into the camera app.
Camera
The introduction of the original HTC One signalled a
huge change in HTC’s approach to the camera in its
smartphones. Rather than participating in the
inevitable race to cram in as many megapixels as
possible, HTC dropped the resolution of the sensor
down to 4.1-megapixels and instead used a larger
pixel size, giving the device exceptional
performance in low light. On the whole, the
strategy worked pretty well – while the lower pixel
count would compromise the ability to zoom in or
massively enlarge images, the trade off was
Hands-free driving
In the near future, a solution called
‘MirrorLink’ will begin to roll out in cars,
which enables you to use your car’s
touchscreen to both display and control
your phone. Support for the technology is
already built in to the M8
HTC One (M8)
information
Price £529.95
»More information
www.htc.com
Battery life
Although the
battery isn’t as
big as its peers
at 2600mAh,
performance is
still impressive.
technical specs
»Operating system...............Android 4.4.2 KitKat with
HTC Sense 6
»Processor...................................2.3GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 801
worthwhile because of the camera’s excellent »Memory.......................................2GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB ROM
all-round performance and incredible ability in »Dimensions..............................146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4mm
darker conditions. »Weight ..........................................160g
Surprisingly, the camera in the M8 maintains the »Display size...............................Five-inch
same resolution and same pixel size (although the »Display resolution...............1920 x 1080 pixels
module itself is from a different manufacturer). »Expansion slot.......................micro SD (up to 128GB)
Optical Image Stabilisation is not present this time
round, instead replaced by a software equivalent HTC One (M8)
courtesy of the innovative second camera. The
second camera doesn’t capture images per se – LG G2 None
it’s used for capturing depth information, enabling
issue 018
clever effects such as bokeh (background blurring) issue 032
and auto highlighting of image foreground objects
in order to manipulate just the background. It better than worse than
works fairly well, but feels at the moment as
though it’s a cool technology that HTC hasn’t quite
Performance
made the most of. As with BlinkFeed, an API is
available to allow developers to take advantage of
The Snapdragon 801 is the highest
performance processor available today
the sensor and we are likely to see the camera’s
abilities improve over time. The best assets of the Design
original’s camera remain with the addition of much Design is a high point, putting every other
better pictures when using the flash, by virtue of phone on the market today to shame
the dual-tone LEDs.
Apparently we live in a ‘selfie’ dominated world Features
now and this is reflected in the front camera, a Although the M8 does without high-profile
five-megapixel wide angle unit, which does take features, it’s no worse for it
much higher quality pictures than we’ve come to
Value for money
expect from a front-facing camera. It also means An expensive phone, but it is a flagship
the front camera has a higher resolution than the device. There are competitive deals though
rear camera. How strange.
»A beautiful
Verdict
HTC has accomplished exactly what it needed to
Verdict
with the HTC One (M8). It has built on all the phone that delivers
strengths of the original (particularly with regards both on form and function.
to the design), lightly massaged the specifications
to bring them right up to date and continued its
For now, it’s the phone to
process of gradual improvement in the software. It have, despite the camera
remains to be seen whether the camera’s performance being average
innovative Duo sensor will really add value in the
long term, but even so – the camera is at least as
good as on last year’s device.
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Reviews
LG G Flex With its unique curved design,
the LG G Flex turns heads – but
does it live up to the hype?

Back
buttons
Power and volume
buttons are on the
back rather than the
edges, as with LG’s
G2. It works okay,
but is not really an
improvement on
what we’ve seen
elsewhere

Self-healing
Light scratches on
the back will
disappear over time.
Heavier marks will
probably not be
repaired

T
he LG G Flex is one of the most expensive
smartphones you can buy at £650. For that
amount of money you should expect top of
the range perfection from a handset. What you get
with the G Flex is certainly different, but we aren’t
sure a purchase would be money well spent.
The gentle curve from top to bottom is the
obvious thing that makes this six-inch screened
phablet stand out from the crowd. It brings the
handset closer to your mouth when you make
calls, which LG marks as one of its strong points.
The curve also means, says LG, a better video
viewing and game playing experience. We’re not
sold on that, to be honest. And given that the
screen’s resolution is just 1280 x 720 pixels, it is
not exactly cutting edge.
There are two things about the back that mark
the LG G Flex out too. One is visible the other not.
You can see as soon as you turn the handset over
that there are volume buttons and a power switch
sitting below the camera lens. These fit fairly neatly
under the forefinger when you’re holding the LG G
Flex in tall screen mode, and the volume buttons
are easy to find by touch when the handset is in
your bag too (we found that it was a bit large for
most pockets).
This layout is one we’ve met before – in LG’s
rather nice G2. The other thing about the back that
you can’t see but an effect you will notice is that it
is ‘self healing’. Light scratches simply disappear.
We have seen it happen. A gentle, deliberately
made scratch with our keys was gone a couple of
hours after we made it thanks to the ‘springy’
nature of the outer layer of the backplate.
This isn’t a cure-all though. A deeper deliberately
made scratch did not disappear; we suppose we
cut through the outer layer. We’d expect that this
good Video
for... The massive six-inch, curved screen adds to
the video viewing experience

84

“While the curved frame takes centre stage,
there is a lot more to the LG G Flex”
self healing could handle the kind of day-to-day
wear and tear that phones receive, but heavy
scuffs from, say, a drop onto concrete may be
beyond its magical powers.
Technically, apart from the screen, there’s not a
lot to grumble about. A Snapdragon 800 processor,
2GB RAM, NFC, infrared zapper, 13-megapixel main
camera, 2.1-megapixel front camera, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and a monster 3500mAh battery that
might see you through two days and is a quick
charger are all great features.
Let downs, apart from the screen resolution, are
the fact that there’s just 23.7GB of the 32GB of
installed memory free and no micro SD card
support, and Android 4.2 as the operating system.
The former is overcome slightly by USB On The
Go support right out of the box – with the right
adaptor to micro USB you can use USB storage.
The latter is overcome by LG’s skinning of Android
and addition of a host of supplementary features.
These are many and plentiful. The front camera
can be used to help keep the screen on when you
Review
LG G Flex
information
Price £650
»More information
www.lg.com/uk
are looking at it and turn video off when you look
away. There are ‘floating apps’ via what LG calls its
QSlide menu. This is available under the
notifications menu. You can show two apps
Battery life
side-by-side, selecting from a subset of all that are Battery life is very
good and will get
installed. And you can push up to three running you a full day out
apps off one edge of the screen, calling them back of a charge, or
with a screen sweep when you need them. maybe even two
with lighter use
You can move the dialpad and keyboard to one
side of the display for easier use, and can push the technical specs
Android shortcuts to one side too. You can alter the »Operating system...............Android 4.2
order in which the shortcuts display and even add a »Processor...................................Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
couple of new ones or hide them completely. 2.2GHz quad-core
Android is bulked out with a large number of »Memory.......................................2GB RAM, 32GB storage
add-on apps from file manager to notes apps, from »Dimensions..............................160.5 x 81.6 x 8.7mm
media manager to calendar app. And more. »Weight ..........................................177g
While the curved frame takes centre stage, »Display size...............................Six-inch
there is a lot more to the LG G Flex. Ultimately, »Display resolution...............1280 x 720 pixels
though, a less-than-cutting-edge screen, outdated »Expansion slot.......................None
operating system, the fact that the curve doesn’t
really add anything useful and the high price do not
go in its favour.

LG G Flex

Curved N/A LG G2
The LG G Flex is curved, which
gives it a quirky look. The
benefit to the curve is not issue 003 issue 032
immediately obvious – it feels
okay in the hand and in calls,
but is not really better than a better than worse than
flat phone

Performance
Good performance, as you’d expect,
from a high-end processor
Design
It’s all about the curve, and we don’t
see what real benefit it brings
Features
Lots of good software features, and the
self-healing back is a great idea
Value for money
The specs don’t really match the ultra-
high price

On The Go
USB On The Go support means you can
attach USB storage in seconds. It partly
makes up for the absence of a memory
card slot, but only for emergency use,
not as a matter of course
Words
The large screen means words are easy to
read and write
QSlide
Apps can be popped up on
» Verdict
The Flex has some interesting
top of what you are doing
from the QSlide tab in the features but not interesting
notifications menu
enough to justify the hefty
Weekends away Gaming
price tag
The massive battery capacity should see two Big screen and good processing power leads
days of normal use to a device perfect for Android gaming

85
Reviews
Oppo N1
CyanogenMod Ed
No 4G
The N1 doesn’t include LTE
connectivity, which is a
black mark when compared
to rivals such as the Note 3
or One Max. This does help
contribute to the incredible
battery life though!
Solid build
The metal frame around the
edge of the device
contributes to a feeling of
rock-solid build quality.
Oppo might not be a
household name (yet), but
it knows how to engineer a
device – the N1 is up there
with the big players
Got it covered
A lovely blue snap-on cover
is included in the
CyanogenMod Edition box,
which features the
CyanogenMod mascot
‘CID’. It actually looks great
(it’s also available in black)
86
The love child of two inspirational
companies, is the N1 CyanogenMod
Edition ready for the masses?
I
f you asked the average Android user to list five
Android hardware manufacturers, there is a fair
chance that Oppo wouldn’t be there. If you did
the same with Android ROMs then it’s more likely
that CyanogenMod would come up, but neither
are household names. A Chinese company that
originally specialised in Blu-ray players, Oppo has
started to make a name for itself in recent years
with high-quality, high-spec devices at respectable
prices. Generally these devices run on Oppo’s own
Android version called ColorOS, and indeed a
version of the N1 is available running this OS.
CyanogenMod has long been the developer
community’s darling project; pure Android with a
raft of tweaks on top, maintained by a merry band
of enthusiasts bringing support to as many
devices as possible. Times have changed though,
and with CyanogenMod becoming Cyanogen Inc
courtesy of $7m of funding, moves are afoot to get
the OS onto more devices out of the box. The N1
CyanogenMod Edition is the first result.
Hardware wise, the N1 is high spec but not
bleeding edge. A 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
600 processor is paired with 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM
(not expandable), a huge 5.9-inch 1920 x 1080
display with Gorilla Glass 3, 3G connectivity (no
LTE), a 3610 mAh battery, dual-band Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 4.0 and the device’s party piece – a
13-megapixel camera with dual-mode LED flash
that rotates to be used as either a rear or
forward-facing camera. Detailed selfies ahoy!
There’s no denying the N1 is a huge phone. It’s
larger than both the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and
the HTC One Max (neither of which are exactly
compact) but, of course, the flip side to the
gargantuan dimensions is the large battery and
huge screen. The screen itself is very bright, clear
Key Cyanogen features
Nightly updates
If you want to
always be running
the latest and
greatest, nightly
updates of
CyanogenMod are
for you. Install
using the
CyanDelta app for
smaller
downloads.
 Review
Oppo N1
Rotating camera
The camera has apparently
Very hackable
The bootloader on the Oppo N1
CyanogenMod edition is, as
CyanogenMod Ed
been tested to withstand
you would expect, unlocked by

information
100,000 rotations without
incident, so even the most default. You can stick with CM
hardened selfie addict 10.2 as supplied out of the box,
shouldn’t break it! Of course, or flash a CM 11 Milestone or
pictures can be taken at nightly very easily
any angle between front and Price £470
back, which gives some »More information
unique opportunities www.oppo.com
»Supplied by
www.mobicity.co.uk

Battery life
If you want your
device to keep
pace with you all
day (and more),
you can’t go wrong
with the N1
No expansion
The 3.5mm headphone socket is on the bottom,
next to the micro USB port and the speaker. The
omission of micro SD might be a deal breaker for technical specs
some users, although a 32GB option (non-CM
edition) is available
»Operating system...............CyanogenMod 10.2 (optional
CyanogenMod 11, ColorOS)
»Processor...................................Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
and a joy to use. Much of the extra size comes find-your-phone features via the CyanogenMod
»Memory.......................................2GB RAM, 16/32GB storage
from the fact that the device uses capacitive account? Great! There’s lots of delightful little
»Dimensions..............................170.7 x 82.6 x 9mm
buttons below the screen and has that big camera tweaks you’ll find as you explore CyanogenMod. In
»Weight ..........................................213g
mechanism above the screen, a mechanism that the past, flashing CyanogenMod has meant
»Display size...............................5.9-inch
does feel very solid when rotated. On the back of searching around for Google Apps to install
»Display resolution...............1920 x 1080 pixels
the device is the ‘O-Touch’ touchpad, which yourself but the N1 is Google certified, which
»Expansion slot.......................None
provides an alternative way to control your device. means all its apps come pre-loaded – a significant
In reality it’s a little bit cumbersome. step that CyanogenMod needed to conquer to
The N1 isn’t just big; it’s well made too. bring its OS into the mainstream. Oppo N1 CyanogenMod
Construction is very solid, thanks to the aluminium So the hardware is up to scratch and the Huawei
Huawei HTC One
alloy frame. The finish on the device is a white software is everything you’d expect, but what is Ascend
Ascend MAX
Mate
Mate22
‘soft touch’ surface, which looks and feels good the N1 like to live with? Provided you can live with
N/A issue 032
and is grippy to hold. You wouldn’t want to drop the size, it’s a very pleasant experience overall. It
the 213g N1 for fear of damaging the pavement. might be Snapdragon 600 rather than the very
The CyanogenMod Edition N1 ships with CM latest 800, but the N1 positively speeds along in
better than worse than
10.2 out of the box, which is based on Android 4.3, use, likely thanks in no small part to the lightness
but in reality, you’ll probably want to update the and stock-ness of the CyanogenMod OS. Wireless
device to a CM 11 Milestone or a nightly build performance is good, battery performance, as
Performance
The Snapdragon 600, although not
based on KitKat. You could even flash the CM N1 to you’d expect, is exceptional, and as we mentioned
bang up to date, is a great CPU
ColorOS if you wanted but, please, don’t do that. before, everything is ultra stable. The unique
The benefits of CyanogenMod are well 13-megapixel rotating camera does indeed make Design
documented and, of course, it runs great on the for very detailed selfies, but on the whole the It’s difficult to design a product this big
N1 – even the nightlies seem to be ultra stable. image quality is fairly average. Inclusion of a f/2.0 to look good, but Oppo has done well
What’s great about CM is that it looks like pure aperture means low light capability is good,
Android, but it has lots of little tweaks that make however, there is no optical image stabilisation. A Features
life that little bit easier. Full customisability of the handy ‘O Click’ accessory that comes bundled can The only big omission is LTE, which is
status bar and quick toggles? Handy. Integrated be used as a remote shutter button.
vital for some but a non-issue for others
Value for money
You get a lot of phone for your money.
We’ve picked three reasons why the Oppo N1 stands out from the crowd The non-CM edition is even cheaper

CyanogenMod
includes the
Themes
CyanogenMod has
built-in privacy
Privacy Guard
» Verdict
The Oppo N1 CM edition is a
option for management
downloadable
themes, of which
features to help
ensure your
very good phone, with a very
there are a huge
number in the Play
device isn’t
leaking important
likeable OS that could now
store. Perfect for
the ultimate
data about you.
Preferences can
crack the mainstream
customisation of be set on an
your device. app-by-app basis.

87
Reviews
Samsung Galaxy
NotePRO 12.2
A revolution in tablet computing, or another
Samsung device for the sake of it?
Huge screen
The 12.2-inch screen is vast by everyday tablet
standards. It makes the tablet tough to hold for
anything more than short periods, and is certainly less
portable than more normal-sized devices

Handwriting recognition Pen-based input

The handwriting recognition is, in our The S Pen provides for a range of pen-based input
experience, accurate and efficient. The options. It is smart and well designed. We’d like a few
pressure-sensitive pen means you can more apps to support the S Pen, but what is built in is
write and draw with nuance as well a pretty good starting point

S
amsung is one of the keenest tablet makers
around. It has a range of devices, at a variety
of sizes, with and without 3G and 4G support.
The pen-friendly Galaxy Note range started off with
a large phone-sized device and has since grown
into the bigger screened tablet space too. The new
Galaxy NotePRO 12.2 takes the Note concept to its
extreme, putting it into a huge tablet with a
mammoth 12.2-inch screen.
The net result is something quite amazing. The
Samsung Galaxy NotePRO 12.2 is unquestionably
huge. It is heavy too. At 750g you aren’t going to
want to hold it in one hand for very long. But
actually, this device is about a different type of
tablet-based computing.
The screen isn’t far off being the same size as an
A4 sheet of paper. The pen-based input means you
can draw and write to it really easily, and the
handwriting recognition was, for us, very
impressive indeed. Moreover, the onscreen
keyboard is a cut above the norm. The oversized
screen means the keyboard can take up a bit more
space. Samsung has given it shift, tab, caps lock
and other keys in a good approximation of a
physical keyboard, and added keyboard-like
sounds. Typing on a tablet doesn’t get much easier.
There are links into the cloud for the data you
can’t fit onto the 25GB of free storage on the 32GB
version. There’s a whiteboarding, collaborative
working app for business types called eMeeting,
and Samsung’s business security app Knox.
There’s an infrared zapper, USB 3.0 for faster data
transfer and stereo speakers. The speakers are
loud but not great quality, it has to be said.
Samsung always adds a lot to Android. Many of
the usual Samsung gestures and other tweaks are
here. SmartStay for example, uses the two-
megapixel front camera to keep the screen on if
you are using it regardless of the display settings.
(There’s an eight-megapixel back camera too, by
the way, although the sheer size of this device
makes it even less convenient to use than tablet
cameras normally are).
And many of the familiar pen-friendly apps are
here too with others available to download. The
stylus works brilliantly, calling up the Air Command
good Drawing
for... The pressure-sensitive S Pen will attract art
fans to the device

88
 Review
Samsung Galaxy
NotePro 12.2
“The stylus works brilliantly. Samsung does
pen-based input better than any market information
Price £650
competitor, and it remains one of the Note »More information
www.samsung.com/uk

range’s biggest selling points”

options when you take it out of its housing, acting
in a clever pressure-sensitive way when you are
drawing, letting you control apps, identify areas of
the screen to copy and paste and more. Samsung
does pen-based input better than any market
competitor, and it remains one of the Note range’s
biggest selling points.
The 2560 x 1600 screen is sharp and bright with
great viewing angles. It is big enough for Samsung
to have been able to develop its split-screen
system to enable up to four apps to show on
screen at once, doubling the previous limit of two.
The octa-core processor in our review sample
was very nippy. If you go for the Wi-Fi plus 4G
model, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
machine keeping things ticking along. In either
case, 3GB of RAM assists. There’s good news on
the battery front as life is relatively long, but bad Battery life
news in that it takes an age to charge. It will charge
with a standard USB cable rather than the USB 3.0 Battery life is
one that’s provided, but very slowly. very good,
though
It is great to see Android 4.4 here. Samsung has charging is
skinned it heavily, of course, and included a couple really slow
of home screens it calls My Magazine, which bring
together news from third parties, apps and device
technical specs
information like your calendar. You can personalise
»Operating system...............Android 4.4
what’s included. Some people will love the
»Processor...................................1.9GHz Samsung Exynos
5 octa-core
approach, and it certainly works well on the »Memory.......................................3GB RAM, 32GB storage
super-sized screen. »Dimensions..............................295.6 x 204 x 7.95mm
There’s an awful lot going on in the Samsung »Weight ..........................................750g
Galaxy NotePRO 12.2, and this is a fast, capable, »Display size...............................12.2-inch
well-specified tablet. It will be too big for many, but »Display resolution...............2560 x 1600 pixels
for others, the bigger-than-usual screen will open »Expansion slot.......................micro SD
up new opportunities in tablet computing.

Four by four USB 3.0

You can show up to four apps onscreen It is unusual to find USB 3.0 in a Samsung Galaxy NotePro 12.2
at the same time. This makes the tablet, but here it is. You can use it to
tablet useful as a productivity tool, or transfer large files to and from the
for consuming media while working NotePRO at fast speeds N/A N/A

better than worse than

Performance
Blistering processor and a high-res display
makes this tablet a pleasure to use
Design
Safe but functional. The size of the tablet
makes it somewhat less than portable
Features
Stuffed with great features including the
legendary S Pen support
Value for money
Leading-edge tech, but you can buy a
good ultrabook for this amount of money

» Verdict
The NotePRO doesn’t quite
redefine the tablet, but it’s a
great productivity tool with a
Writing Browsing Real work
big price tag
The onscreen keyboard is great and Websites never look better than on a large, Business types can do real work on this
handwriting recognition very good high-resolution screen powerful tablet

89
Reviews
Prestigio MultiPhone
7600 Duo
Prestigio provides dual-SIM support in a
phablet-sized smartphone with the
MultiPhone 7600 Duo

P
restigio is not one of those top-end names
you would normally think of when listing
phone makers. But the company has quite a
lot of handsets for sale in the UK, and the new
MultiPhone 7600 is a dual-SIM six incher that fits
into the phablet category.
Six-inch screens are now far from rare, but few of
them have dual-SIM support. Prestigio offers that,
and has an interesting take on the idea. One of the
SIM slots is a standard size, the other takes a
micro SIM. This means you can switch to this
Two SIMs handset with the minimum of fuss using whatever
There is room for two SIM size you happen to have. When you are
SIM cards, on travelling and want a local SIM or if your company
standard sized, one
mini. They can handle wants to give you a SIM, get the appropriate size
3G, but not 4G for the other slot.
You won’t find a lot about this handset apart
from its size to draw attention as the design is
nondescript. The micro USB connector is a bit
Free stand awkwardly located on the top edge, but it’s nothing
Prestigio provides a we can’t live with. The phone is quite thin at just
flip case that
doubles up as a 8.4mm and this helps it sit neatly in the hand.
stand. It’s a nice We like that Prestigio provides a flip case with
touch that adds real the MultiPhone 7600 Duo and it is a bonus that
usefulness to the
overall package this doubles up as a wide screen orientation stand
Media for the phone. Its size means the screen is handy
friendly
The six-inch screen
lends itself nicely to
video viewing. For
things like ebook
reading you might find
the resolution is a
little lower than ideal

good Video
for... The big screen is good for some movie action,
nicely propped up by the accompanying stand

90
 Review
Prestigio
App bloat
There are many
MultiPhone
pre-installed apps –
probably too many. They
eat into the already low
7600 Duo
4GB of storage, leaving
you with just over
1GB available information
Price £250
»More information
www.prestigio.com

Battery life
Media fans might
struggle to get
through a day. We’d
have hoped for a
better battery in
a phablet

Android lag
With Android 4.2 onboard,
this handset is a bit behind
the times. There’s no news
on updates, and we
wouldn’t hold out too much
hope for one
“There is another important compromise on
the storage front. There is 4GB installed but
out of the box we only had 1.3GB free”
for watching video, and the case/stand certainly
helps with that. Sound comes from a speaker grille
on the back of the chassis and it is loud. Quality
isn’t top-notch, but it is passable.
The screen’s 1,280 x 720 pixels aren’t exactly
leading edge, but this handset is a relatively
low-cost phablet at just £249, and the pixel count
is one of the compromises made to get to that low
price. The pixel density is a middling 244ppi, and
quite a bit lower than you’d find on one of
Samsung’s phablets, for example.
There is another important compromise that’s
been made on the storage front. There is 4GB
installed but out of the box we only had 1.3GB free.
That this is such a low amount is in no small part
because of the multitude of apps that are
pre-installed here. Some install when you first turn
the handset on, some are there already. In
addition, more memory can be consumed if you
select to install any of a range of additional apps
offered at startup including a couple of games.
We’re not huge fans of this kind of bloat,
especially when it takes up a good proportion of
limited onboard memory. There is some good news
in that you can manually remove some of the apps
Web browsing ebooks
Websites render nicely on the large, crisp Your favourite ereader app is supplemented by
phablet display Prestigio’s own
technical specs
»Operating system...............Android 4.2
»Processor...................................1.5GHz quad-core Mediatek
MT6589T
»Memory.......................................1GB RAM, 4GB storage
»Dimensions..............................166.5 x 84.4 x 8.4mm
»Weight ..........................................191g
»Display size...............................Six-inch
»Display resolution...............1,280 x 720 pixels
»Expansion slot.......................micro SD
Prestigio MultiPhone 7600 Duo
Samsung
Galaxy
Samsung
Galaxy
Mega Note 3
that come pre-installed. And the freebies include
issue 027 issue 031
useful things like OfficeSuite 7, which lets you
create Microsoft Office compatible documents.
The large screen allows for a keyboard that can just
better than worse than
about be used for serious writing.
The 2600mAh battery is another slight
disappointment. You may struggle to get through a
Performance
Fast enough for most but for high-end
day if you use the large screen to its full advantage
gaming you may experience problems
for multimedia consumption.
Elsewhere Prestigio has made some smart Design
decisions. Near Field Communications is built in Neat and ergonomic. The screen looks
and there’s a massive eight-megapixel front nice but is not as high res as we’d like
camera and 13-megapixel main camera. We like
the setting that lets you slide the dialpad and Features
calculator to the left or right sides of the screen, Way too much pre-installed software
making one-handed use that little bit easier. And
eats into the paltry 4GB of storage
the quad-core processor with its 1GB of RAM in Value for money
support did not seem too troubled by hard work. Relatively low cost for its size. A good
Overall, Prestigio has undone its own good work starting point for a new phablet user
with its attitude to add-on software. Fewer apps
and more user accessible memory would have
lifted this handset considerably, as the other
cost-cutting measures that have been employed
» Verdict
The 7600 is a reasonable
here are able to be lived with and the two-size SIM
support is a real plus point.
entry-level phablet, but a
cull of the provided software
Music
would be most welcome
You’ll need to store your music on a micro SD
card, because storage is minimal

91
Accessories
Reviews
The best got better
Although the internals are the same, the
new design and metal construction of the
Pebble make it feel like a very different
– and much improved – product
Pebble Steel
Can the new Pebble make the best smartwatch on the market even better?
W
hen we previously
reviewed the original
Pebble, we loved it. While
the device was pretty big and
rather plasticky, the combination of
great battery life, good
performance and an excellent
e-paper (monochrome LCD) screen
convinced us that the Pebble,
borne out of a Kickstarter
campaign, was the smartwatch to
buy. Above all, the implementation
was just what we felt a smartwatch
should be – it didn’t try to do too
much, but what it did, it did well.
Fast forward to 2014 and here we
have the second iteration of the
Pebble. Since the release of the
original, a number of competitor
devices have appeared offering more
power, full colour screens and the
ability to run more complex software
on the device itself – so how does
Pebble respond?
Thankfully, Pebble has taken the
right approach to upgrading its
device. It hasn’t ruined the battery
life with a huge colour screen, it
hasn’t deserted existing owners by
completely changing the software
and it hasn’t skimped on where the
92
Leather or steel?
The Pebble Steel ships with two straps – a leather one
fitted out of the box and a metal one too. Unfortunately
the fitting is non-standard, unlike its predecessor
Pebble most needed an update –
design. Internally, the Pebble Steel is
identical to its predecessor. If you’ve
used the original this means you
know exactly what to expect, but it
also means software improvements
on this device can also be applied to
the original.
Externally is where you’ll find the
changes. Although the screen is the
same, it’s now covered with Gorilla
Glass – a useful update, as the
original was particularly susceptible
to scratching. The slightly mushy
buttons now click positively, which
makes the whole device feel quicker
in operation. The device is smaller
overall and, of course, it’s now made
of metal. Gone are the cheap
plastics, replaced by a beautifully
crafted black or silver body with both
leather and metal straps included.
With this change the Pebble has
moved from being a geek’s plaything
to a genuinely desirable piece of
jewellery – and that’s no mean feat.
Charging is still carried out via a
magnetically attached USB cable
(necessary due to the water
resistance), although the design has
changed slightly from the original. A
charging LED is now present on the
front of the watch.
With the new device comes a new
release of both the watch software
and the Android companion app,
which includes the new Pebble app
store to smooth the process of
loading content on to your watch.
This change feels like a ‘coming of
age’ for Pebble. Whereas the original
software could feel a bit ‘thrown
together’ and installing new
watchfaces and apps could be
confusing, the new app brings
everything together into one place.
The new watch software itself also
brings new capabilities for
developers, so ever more innovative
apps are starting to appear.
Is the Steel perfect? Nearly, but
not quite. Battery life does seem to
have dropped slightly compared to
the original, but this can be
attributed to the more thirsty version
2.0 firmware. We suspect that over
time Pebble will improve this, but
even so the watch will still outlast
rivals such as the Galaxy Gear. The
biggest disappointment with the
Steel is that Pebble has moved from
a standard 22mm watch strap to a
proprietary design. No longer is the
strap mounted by a conventional
spring bar, instead there is a tiny
screw that must be removed to
change the strap, and on the metal
strap itself the pins make the strap
cumbersome to adjust. With that
said, once you have the watch all set
up it’s a non-issue, and we imagine
we’ll see a dedicated replacement
Pebble strap ecosystem spring up.
» specification
Price £150/$229
More information
www.getpebble.com
» verdict
Performance
Design
Value
The Pebble Steel has
improvements in all the right
areas to ensure Pebble
retains its place as the
smartwatch to buy

Qualcomm Toq
Qualcomm’s innovative display tech finally comes to market…
but is it ready for consumers?
Q
ualcomm is not a name you’d
normally associate with
consumer products. Sure,
the majority of the phones we buy
have Qualcomm chips inside, but
until now, complete products have
been limited to reference devices.
With that in mind, you can start to
understand a little bit about the Toq
and its purpose for being.
The centrepiece of the Toq is its
display. It uses a technology called
Mirasol, which is similar to e-ink as
seen on devices like the Kindle, but
rather than being simply black and
white, it’s colour. It has two fantastic
characteristics: it is easily viewable in
direct sunlight and it only consumes
power when it is changing what is
“It’s an
incredibly
stupid design
decision”
displayed on the screen, a valuable
asset on a smartwatch.
Although the Mirasol display is
colour, don’t expect vibrancy like
you’d see on a Samsung Galaxy
Gear’s OLED screen. Colours are
rather washed out, but the screen is
sharp and the value of not having to
wake the screen to view the content
cannot be underestimated.
Aside from the display, is the Toq
worth having? It has some neat
tricks and certainly shows potential,
but it has some flaws too – and
positively fatal ones at that.
First, the good. The software is
solid, both on the device and for your
Android phone. Everything is a
breeze to set up. A decent selection
of apps and modes are available on
the watch and once you are familiar
with the user interface paradigm,
you’re set. The device itself isn’t just
a touchscreen – although there are
no conventional buttons, you interact
Mirasol screens are finally here
The party piece of the Toq is its innovative Mirasol
screen, a Qualcomm technology. Clear, colourful and
always on, but most importantly low on power – it’s what
all smartwatches should have
with the device either by sweeping
on an area along the bottom of the
screen, or by touching the wristband.
It feels a bit unnatural at first, but is
easily mastered.
The core function of a smartwatch
will be to notify the wearer about
events happening on their phone,
and the Toq accomplishes that with
aplomb. Notifications can be sent to
the watch either en masse or more
selectively – if you don’t want to
receive notifications from a
particular app, you can configure this
in the companion software.
With a battery life of a couple of
days, the charging experience is
important, and Qualcomm has done
a good job. The watch charges
wirelessly using another Qualcomm
technology – WiPower – via a
supplied dock. When docked the
watch is flipped sideways but the
screen rotates too, making a neat
Review
One size fits one
The Toq’s strap contains the
battery and the touch areas for
controlling the watch. So why do
you have to cut it to adjust it? A
ludicrous design flaw
bedside clock. Cut-outs in the dock
also allow for charging of wireless
earbuds (sold separately).
So far so good, however, the
watch itself is pretty chunky and
manufactured from cheap plastic,
which doesn’t give it a desirable look,
but the biggest issue is in the strap.
» specification
As mentioned, it’s used in the UI of Price £TBA/$249
the device but even more
More information
significantly, the battery is built into https://toq.qualcomm.com
the clasp of the strap. You’d imagine
that this would make the strap » verdict
expensive to replace. Fear not, you Performance
can’t replace it. Oh, and you have to
cut the strap to adjust it to size. Yes, Design
cut it! Once you’ve trimmed the
strap, that’s it, someone with a larger
Value
wrist can never wear the watch. It’s As a tech demo, the Toq is
an incredibly stupid design decision. nice enough, but as a
The Toq is a showcase for consumer product it’s not
Qualcomm’s technologies, which up to scratch. Disappointing
show a lot of promise, but currently,
this is not a desirable package.
93
 Accessories

Libratone Loop
» Price £399/$499 » More information www.libratone.com
The Loop has an undeniably distinctive style. Like a large drum with a
fleecy coat it certainly makes an impression. It looks premium,
although has a few more plasticky elements than you might expect.
The speaker uses AirPlay for iOS devices or DLNA for others – it lacks
the simplicity of a Bluetooth option – or plugging your phone in
around the back works just as well. Sound output is very loud, and
generally impressive, but it feels like you’re paying for the style rather
than the substance.

94
 Accessories
Ruark Audio MR1
» Price £299/$TBA » More information www.ruarkaudio.com
The MR1 is a Bluetooth speaker system that scores equally on
both the design and performance fronts. Ruark Audio is
EDITOR’S renowned for its retro designs and the MR1 speakers continue
CHOICE the trend – they are understated and beautifully made. The
system is also easy to use thanks to fast Bluetooth pairing, or
there are wired inputs if you prefer. With superior audio quality
producing rich sound for all styles of music, the MR1 speaker
system is a treat for audiophiles, even with the high price.

95
 Accessories

Hot new
Android gadgets
Accessorise your favourite device
with this selection of great new gear

thumbsUp! Bluetooth
Splash Speaker
» Price £39.99/$55
» More information www.thumbsupuk.com
As summer approaches the hunt for the perfect travel speaker begins once
more. The thumbsUp! Splash Speaker is probably not it, but it does offer a
unique feature that makes it worthy of further investigation: it is splashproof.
Use it by the pool or on the beach – or you can take it into the shower with you
– and you won’t need to worry about it breaking. The sound is nothing special,
as you’d expect from this size of device, and battery life is only average, but
for some carefree listening it does the job.

AbsolutePower KitSound Hive Sabotage EDITOR’S

CHOICE

Laptop, Phone, Wireless Speaker Royale

Tablet Charger
» Price £99/$119
» More information www.kensington.com
The AbsolutePower Charger is expensive for a
charger but comes with the added bonus that it
can charge a laptop. It’s handy for the road warrior,
though if you’re looking to charge only mobile
devices, there are more compact solutions around.
» Price £74.99/$TBA
» More information www.kitsound.co.uk
These Hive speakers are nice and compact and
look good, and able to deliver around ten hours of
battery life over a Bluetooth connection. The sound
is loud and quite punchy, making it a good option
for putting in your bag when you travel, while not
quite being up to the job of acting as your main
home audio system.
»Price £TBA/$77
» More information www.degausslabs.com
The Sabotage Royale headphones from Degauss
Labs are a fantastic package for a low price. They
include a three-button remote that works without
an app, a flat tangle-free cord, and even an airplane
adapter. As an added bonus they sound pretty
great too, a notch above what you’d expect from
similarly priced ‘phones.

96
 Accessories
“It’s ideal for taking extra
media content with you on
holiday, or viewing or backing
Kingston up photos from a camera
MobileLite Wireless while on the road”
» Price £55/$59
» More information www.kingston.com

The MobileLite Wireless is a device that enables an Android phone or tablet to

access flash drives or memory cards wirelessly. Connect the card or drive to
the device, then use the free app from the Play store to see what’s on it. You
can copy files across, or open them remotely. It’s ideal for taking extra media
content with you on holiday, or viewing or backing up photos from a camera
while on the road. The slow read and write speeds are what lets it down – it’s
enough for watching video, but is currently not able to be used as a full
portable storage device.

Corsair EDITOR’S
CHOICE
Voyager GO
» Price from £15/$20
» More information www.corsair.com
The Voyager GO is a neat solution to a long standing
problem: the lack of storage space on your phone
or tablet. Voyager GO is a simple USB flash drive,
only with a standard USB jack on one end and a
micro USB jack on the other. Connect it to a device
that supports USB On-The-Go and you can add up
to 64GB of storage from a keyring-sized device.
Music Fidelity
EB-33
» Price £79/$99
» More information www.musicfidelity.com
The EB-33s are a quality earphone that are just a
little larger than you may be used to, though they fit
in the ear very comfortably. They have a tangle-free
cable and are subtly colour-coded to differentiate
between the left and right ears. With a larger-than-
average 13.5mm driver, the sound is rich and
impressive for all styles of music.
Cupets
» Price £7/$10
» More information www.cupets.com
Cupets is something of an oddity. It’s a kind of
augmented reality Tamagotchi, which sounds fine
in theory, but is less fun in practice. You download
the app and scan a QR code on the Cupets’ head,
which launches the AR rendition of it. There are
some games included, but it’s neither intuitive nor
responsive enough to persevere with.

97
 From Elena Zhelezina

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DEVICES ON TEST
The hottest new Android
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Issue 38
goes on sale:
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From Jason Millanaise
Used HTC One
 Minx is a trademark of Cambridge Audio. Other product and company names mentioned within this advert are trademarks of their respective owners. These are only used for reference purposes and are subject to the terms of their registration.
Portable Bluetooth speaker

STREAM MUSIC FROM

YOUR SMARTPHONE,
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The Minx Go is the ideal go-anywhere speaker. Using the

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a room with beautiful, deep, crisp high quality sound.

Buy online or exclusively from

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