Opinion | newslite.tv

Weird Week: A moody moggie and the world's biggest burger

2011-07-10T17:00:06Z

The latest odd news from newslite.tv - How to turn your baby into gym equipment, the world's biggest burger and a very moody moggie.

Also, the record made from chocolate, the curry scented perfumes and a bar selling shots of horse semen.
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Gadgets: Best sub £80 iPhone Headphones

2011-06-26T14:15:56Z

By Jay Garrett

It was time for some new headphones to plug into my iPhone. I’ve already tried the current favourite on the streets, the Beats by Dre Solo’s but they’re very expensive and not the cleanest sounding to my ears as they seemed to favour the bass-end too much. I also didn’t fancy wearing the ‘mug me now!’ sign that these would probably give out to certain people in certain areas of London.

I originally planned to go down the Bluetooth route but as my headphones would be used when ‘silent’ rehearsing bass guitar, mixing music ideas as well as blocking out chatter on the commute I decided a wired set would have to be the way.

I then thought that this would mean heading to the expensive premium sets because they’re the ones with a removable chord which can be replaced when damaged. I knew that Bose and Shure did cans like that – but I also knew that they were well into triple figures.

After rummaging around the interwebs I found some that looked as light (or almost) as my old Koss Porta Pro’s and as comfy as my Audio Technica’s. The headphones in question are the AKG K450. I am no stranger to the Austrian brand as I’ve used their mics a number of times in studios and so knew that they were quality.

]]> Originally I was put of by the K450′s £130 RRP but, before you run away, I bought the headphones from Amazon (of all places) for £44. Bargain!

Design

The headband on the K450 allows for good adjustment to allow for a large head or big hair. The cans themselves are a closed-back design with lovely soft padded cups for better comfort.

The left can has a port for the detachable cable. You get two cables in the box of varying lengths as well as a pair of jack adapters (2.5mm/6.3mm).
The K450′s fold flat and in on themselves for travelling. To protect them further you get a padded case so shoving them into your hand/man-bag wont leave them all scratched and battered. There’s pockets inside the case for your leads and adapters. It’s not a tiny case but it does offer your kit a lot of protection.

Hands free

The one thing I liked about the Beats was that they came with an inline remote and mic – the K450′s come with 2 different length cables but neither have a phone kit. So, to make the headphone’s more iPhone friendly I bought the additional AKG HA450 Communication Kit (RRP £50) new for £35 from an eBay store.

That’s a grand total of £79 for iPhone all-in! I got free shipping on both items too!

I’m guessing offerings from Griffin et al will work but I liked the idea of making a hands free call using an AKG mic

The HA450 Communication Kit gives you the cable with mic and remote, as well as adaptors for Nokia and Blackberry mobiles and a splitter lead so that you can use your headphones and mic for gaming and VoIP on your computer – one jack for the headphones and the other for the mic.

Hands free calling gets top marks. The voice in the headphones is extremely clear and, on the other end, my voice came through the AKG mic very well and, as yet, I’ve not had to repeat myself due to call quality.
The in-line remote is a one button job without volume control which is slightly disappointing. It is rare that I need to adjust the volume between tracks so it’s not that much of a deal breaker for me but it is something that you may want to keep in mind.

Sounds

What I love about the sound coming out of the AKGs is that it’s extremely even. Don’t confuse that with being flat by the way.

None of the ranges are battling for supremacy – bass, midrange and treble are all given equal attention. The bass isn’t overbearing yet still punchy and clarity is excellent thanks to the crisp high frequencies.

Vocals come through with plenty of detail and are at least equal to that of headphones three-times the price I paid for these.

I listen to a broad range of music and all sound clear, defined with a decent punch from the bass. I’ve not noticed any glaring looks on the tube caused by leakage either. Obviously you’re not going to get the same performance from some mini-headphones as some fully enclosed cans but these are rather good.

Verdict

The AKG K 450 headphones look like premium mini-headphones. They’re stylish, classy and are really comfortable as well as having the ability to be packed away into a small space. The added bonus is that the average chav probably wont give the brand a second look – unlike the Beats.

The removable and, more importantly, replaceable cable means that the life span of these cans should be much more than the 6-18 month life expectancy most of my headphones get.

It is a shame that you have to fork out for the Communication Kit to make them the perfect iPhone/iPod headset but you also get additional cables with that so you can Skype and game with them.
Sound-wise I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you had paid £130 for the K450s but at £44 you’re laughing!

Weird Week: Black eyed pea art and a hoverbike

2011-06-19T10:10:30Z

In the latest Weird Week from Newslite - will.i.am made out of black eyed peas, the hoverbike becomes real and what happens if you stick to cycle lanes in New York. There's also the sailing ice cream van, the nose stylus for your phone, the new world's smallest man, surfing dogs and a giant penis.

]]> Enjoy.

Gadgets: Samsung Galaxy Ace Review

2011-06-12T16:00:34Z

By Jay Garrett

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is a restrained, classic beauty and features a 3.5-inch screen set into a body with a smooth front and a tactile rear. You even get a smooth white case back in the box if you’d rather sport that. The Galaxy Ace looks a little like the iPhone 4 but where there’s metal on the Apple phone you’ll find mostly plastic on the Ace – but that does make it lighter.

The Ace does not feel cheap, however, but weighing in at only 113g you’d hardly feel it in your pocket.

The 320×480 LCD screen is quick and responsive but that resolution may be a bit of a disappointment when compared with other, admittedly more expensive, mobiles out there. You may find yourself having to zoom in on small text on websites more often than on other phones but, thankfully, the multi-touch on the Ace is… well… ace!

The bonus of a slightly smaller screen is that the Galaxy Ace just sips at the battery. I’ve used the Ace over a weekend with GPS and Wi-Fi activated and it stayed with me, without a charge top-up for almost the entire time. Try getting two days out of your iPhone. ]]>
Another thing that the Ace has in common with the iPhone is that it has a great browser that also does not support Flash – don’t worry though. There is a YouTube app so you can still watch arguments on buses and cats being cute.

The lack of Flash is off-set by the fact that the Galaxy Ace works as a 3G Wi-Fi hotspot.

Being an Android phone the menus and icons are clear and you also get access to the Android Market. As well as that - Sammy has its own app store called Samsung Apps. Checking it out on the Ace the only apps I saw was a weather widget (which is pretty good), a news and stats app for Inter Milan (I-Inter) and Tek Trak which will help you locate your phone/tablet as well as giving you the option to remotely lock the device or wipe its memory – all of these are free downloads.

Other than adding handy shortcuts above the notification bar Google’s mobile OS is fairly untouched. What should get a most worthy mention is Samsung’s addition of the AllShare app. AllShare gives the Ace power to stream the media locked away on your phone up to DLNA-enabled TVs. That is rather special don’t you think?

Whilst you’re online you’ll notice that the Ace is very comfortable on the interwebs. Ignoring the lack of Flash everything appears smoothly and quickly thanks to its 7.2Mbps HSDPA connection and its support for 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Round the back of the Galaxy Ace you will find the 5-megapixel camera which is teamed with an LED flash. If you forget to install a microSD card (as I did) you will notice that the camera refuses to do anything – no matter how many times you scratch your head and ask the Ace nicely. The snapper isn’t going to replace your compact digital any time soon but for grabbing pics when out and about and squirting them onto your favourite pic sharing site it certainly does the job.

Conclusion

The Ace looks similar to an iPhone and certainly feels better screwed together than many of its opposition. It has many features that more expensive mobiles have and Android hands it a load more benefits.
Its battery-life also puts it in line for a handy festival phone – PAYG the phone will cost £199

Weird Week: Thieving monkeys and underwear shopping

2011-04-17T10:10:02Z

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-35 ejector seat shown off at 600mph - Knitting group recreates artistic masterpieces - 155mph "superbus" could improve your commute - Blood-scented perfumes launched... for vampires? - Thieving monkeys steal sunglasses at zoo - Gun shot dog leash designed by pet-loving artist - Women go shopping wearing only their underwear - Tiny Tim the tortoise becomes a big attraction.

Weird Week: Supermarket Scrabble and Mr Elastic

2011-04-10T16:55:58Z

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This week: Robot clouds could cool Qatar 2022 World Cup - Decorating made easy... with a light projector - Supermarket Scrabble puts rude words on shelves - Mr Elastic stretches his way into the record books - Virgin Oceanic: Branson unveils his deep-sea plans - Abandoned deaf puppy learns sign language - Monkeys rip a car apart at Longleat Safari Park - The royal wedding... recreated with Lego blocks - Hitler house: The house which looks like Hitler.

Gadgets: Hands on with the HTC Desire HD

2011-03-20T18:00:30Z

By Jay Garrett

When HTC released the Desire people were very happy with the 3.7-inch screen. Then HTC released the Desire HD and supersized that baby to 4.3 but the larger screen retains the same WVGA resolution, 480×800 pixels. Fear not though - the larger screen doesn’t look blurry or low-res.

On the side are the dedicated volume controls and on top is where you’ll find the power button. The 3.5mm jack sits in the base next to the Micro USB slot. There’s 1.5GB on-board storage and a MicroSD slot – you need to feed that gap in order to shoot video.

The machined aluminium case feels wonderfully solid and there’s the comforting feeling that, since the aluminium case wraps around the edge of the screen, the Desire HD should survive an accident or two. That metal case does add some weight as does the huge screen – this tally’s up to it tipping the scales at 164g.

]]> The screen is nice and responsive and the Sense user interface is a joy to use as ever.

The social-network integration on the Desire HD is excellent. The address book pulls in profile photos and updates from your contact’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. When you get a call from someone in your address book, their photo and latest status update is flashed up – the gallery also grabs your photos from Facebook and Flickr. Nice touch.

When posting updates, texting or using the virtual board for anything for that matter you are incredibly grateful for the screen being so massive – typing in portrait is easy but sling the phone to landscape and you could almost touch-type! 

Web browsing is possibly the area where the Desire HD’s huge screen really comes into its own. Sometimes trying to navigate an overly busy site on a mobile is an absolute nightmare – not on a 4.3-inch screen it aint! Pinch to zoom, flick up and down to move around pages and text automatically aligns to fit.

The phone slurps up your Wi-Fi connection nicely thanks to the on-board 802.11n standard – when not on Wi-Fi you get 14.4Mbps HSDPA for swift downloading over 3G. You can use the Desire HD as a personal 3G Wi-Fi hotspot and hook your laptop up to it for more serious interweb shenanigans.

The good ol’ Desire HD supports Flash Player 10, so you get all the web pages as they were meant to be. BBC iPlayer, Vimeo and even browser based Flash games were all displayed and acted as they would on a computer. The browsing experience is pretty much faultless on the Desire HD.

I’m not going to mention the underpowered external speaker but sling your choice of ear pleaser into the 3.5mm port and you will be spoiled as either Dolby Mobile or SRS lay a loving depth to your sound selection. Watching HD clips you almost get a home cinema in your hand. Music brings Dolby Mobile in to play which really makes a difference. I also like the fact that you’re able to use the ‘forward, back and pause’ controls even when the phone is locked.

The 720p HD movie mode isn’t as sharp as I was expecting if I am to be brutally honest about it – also there’s no HDMI, although you do get DLNA for wireless transfer.

The HTC Desire HD has an 8-megapixel camera and the size of the display makes it easy to compose images.

Autofocus works well and you can also tap to focus. Images are pretty good with plenty of detail, but that can lessen dramatically in high and low contrast areas. The dual LED flash is excellent though and you get 13 filters to play with.

The main drawback to all the Desire HD’s cleverness is battery drain. You have myriad widgets running which are grabbing info at regular intervals, the browser tempting you back to the interwebs, the screen begging you to play more games and videos and then, suddenly your phone gives a yelp and closes down.

Using the HTC Desire over the weekend it wasn’t even reaching the end of the day before it was gagging for some go-juice.

It’s easy to just call it a large phone but the Desire HD is a practically a portable computer and Mi-Fi all in one. On the subject of phones – making and taking calls were no problem and GPS, updating my social networks were all trouble free.

Verdict

 Looking for a smart-phone that doubles up as a mini home cinema (when using headphones)? Want a phone with an excellent browser, can record and playback 720p movies, and has a durable metal skeleton? The HTC Desire HD will tick all of those boxes.

Some may see it as being too large buy the 4.3-inch screen is great for browsing and video playback. Battery life is a concern - have a few decent length phone calls, watch a few vids and hammer the Wi-Fi a little and you’ll be looking for a power outlet by early evening.

Weird Week: Knitted breasts and floating houses

2011-03-13T11:49:59Z

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Weird Week: Crab Kong and Royal Gnomes

2011-02-28T11:02:26Z

]]> In the latest Weird Week we have got a giant crab, royal wedding gnomes and the armoured notepads you shouldn't use in the airport.

There is also the hummingbird spy drone and the world's hottest chilli.

Gadgets: Jay goes hands on with the SE Xperia Play

2011-02-23T19:37:49Z

By Jay Garrett

I was invited to a swanky Covent Garden venue in order to be introduced to the new range of SE Android handsets. The incredibly thin Xperia arc was there. Its screen blew me away as much as its size 0 waist. The one gripe I had with the arc was the plastic finish on its back – everything else is gorgeous.

Whilst the arc, Neo and Pro all shared the basement the obvious star had a room (and crowd) all to itself. Its name is Xperia Play.

The Xperia Play has arrived along with Sony Computer Entertainment’s announcement of the PlayStation Suite which brings PlayStation-branded games, including PSone classics, to Android phones. The gaming phone will be available in both white and black – the white version being an O2 exclusive.
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Closed and in portrait it could be any phone from the Xperia range which is no bad thing. What does strike you is its bright, sharp 4-inch display that boasts a 480×854 resolution.

Thankfully the Xperia Play launches with Android 2.3 as Gingerbread boasts game performance optimisation as one of its main features, along with an improved on-screen keyboard and better power management.

Slide the Play open to get your game on and… NOTHING.

Now I was told that these aren’t the finished retail versions but I was disappointed that extending the game pad didn’t automatically take you to an arcade or PlayStation menu screen. The screen doesn’t do anything so you have to scroll through to find your desired game and then off you go.

The controls feel very much like the PSPgo’s and you get a brushed-metal plate which holds the d-pad and four buttons as well as start, select and menu buttons.

I was expecting the same kind of feel that I get from my PSP but, instead, the controls were a bit stiff and ‘clicky’.

The Play does have shoulder buttons hidden away – I felt that these were a little claustrophobic (granted I am a bassist with fairly long fingers) but I had to adopt a fingertip style to operate these and not my natural PlayStation technique.

I actually enjoyed using the curious twin touch-pads between the buttons more than the physical controls. Each pad has a tiny raised stud at its centre and a raised line indicating its border. Using your thumbs as you would the analogue controls on the Dual Shock feels natural.

Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 8GB of memory (expandable to 32GB) and a 5-megapixel camera.

Confusingly no HDMI out – There’s 4 phones at this soiree and 3 of them have HDMI but not the Play. How cool would it be to have, for all intents and purposes, a PSOne in your pocket?

Sony Ericsson claims that the Xperia Play will last five-and-a-half-hours when gaming before needing juice.  The firm will also be offering a multimedia dock which charges the Play via its micro-USB port and connects to a home stereo system through line out. No, not even the dock has HDMI out.

Xperia Play will land on UK shelves in April and will come with seven pre-installed games and 50 compatible launch titles.

Verdict

It’s definitely the kind of phone that will get a nod of approval from other gamers on the commute. It looks the business.

For me it doesn’t feel as top-end as the flagship phones from Apple or HTC but the game pad does. I think the Play suffers from the same thin plastic finish that the arc has. Which is a real shame.

The Xperia Play is obviously relying on its gaming ability to lure that £40-a-month out of your account. Is that enough?

Weird Week: Let's go swimming with polar bears

2011-02-13T20:33:44Z

]]> This week we bring you news that holiday-makers in Canada are going swimming with polar bears, there's a horse who drinks at a British pub and a criminal genius has the tattoo to prove it.

Gadgets: Jay fondles the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition laptop

2011-02-13T14:00:46Z

By Jay Garrett

Hello there! It’s that time again and I’m back with another hands-on gadgety review. This time I’ve spent a fortnight with HP’s Envy 14 Beats Edition laptop. It’s funky, portable and has the blessing of Dr Dre himself – he has even thrown in a pair of his signature Solo headphones!

The Envy 14 is quite the looker - The matte-black finish to the main machine, attractive dark nickel-plated finish trim around the chassis, the subtle design touches such as the Beats ‘B’ on the keyboard, red accent colours and keyboard backlighting almost makes it an accessory rather than a laptop – even the large Beats symbol on the lid and the lit HP logo don’t seem intrusive - but that matte finish does have a tendency to attract fingerprints and smudges.

]]> Skype, Chat Roulette and such larks.

The keyboard, once I got used to the flat keys, is fairly comfy. I was worried at first when struggling to see the keys when daylight was fading (dark red text on black keys not that great to see) until I realised that the keyboard has a sexy red backlight.

The Beats Edition has some ear-pleasing additions (although not the mixing/recording software of the larger models). The in-built front facing speakers are very decent for their size and quite punchy. Clicking [fn] + [b] adds or removes the Beats bass end, you can also expand the Beats equalizer hidden in the right-hand side of the task bar where you’ll find some pre-sets as well as space for a custom EQ of your very own. Naturally, the sound from the laptop through the bundled Beats by Dr Dre Solo cans was enough to get my head bopping. One niggle is that when using the volume control buttons it automatically brings up an onscreen volume bar that bumps you out of full-screen games/vids.

Under the hood you’ll find an Intel Core i7-Q820 CPU mated with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. To make everything pretty there’s an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5650 graphics card. With that combo HD video wasn’t a problem and most games are playable – granted the latest titles may need the graphics dialled down a tad but hey, this aint a gaming puter. I’m filing the Envy 14 Beats as a media machine which makes the Blu-ray omission quite confusing. There’s a 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive on board too which should give you enough room for your music and vids on the move.

The Envy 14 Beats Edition runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, with Beats grey theme pre-loaded via Stardock’s theme manager. You also get Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Première Elements ready to go.
I managed to get around 3-4 hours out of the battery in general usage which I think is fair, I liked the fact that the slim power brick had a USB charger built in which was handy. On the subject of USB – the ports on the side of the laptop were a little close and I had to remove my external hard-drive in order to plug in a USB stick – not a major problem but there it us.

Overall there’s a lot to like about this laptop. The boost in sound quality courtesy of Dr Beats not to mention the added bonus of Dre’s Solo bundled headphones can only be a good thing. The graphics should keep this laptop usable for a while to come and where it isn’t a gaming rig it will tackle almost everything else you ask it to do in the realms of chucking polygons about. I found the Envy 14 Beats nice and sturdy and was happy to lug it around. If I was to point fingers it would be at the lack of VGA/DVI out and the refusal to spin Blu-rays.

Weird Week: Heavy Breathes, Leaves and Sheaves

2011-02-06T20:50:32Z

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There is also the little matter of a drug catapult, the copious quantity of tea Brits drink and the fact that you're less likely to remember the headlines if they are read by a sexy newsreader… so you should be fine here (sorry Steve).

Weird Week Video: Cuddle it,Trash it, Muppet

2011-01-30T09:49:25Z

]]> There's also a hotel made from trash, computer game characters invading real life and we see if we can do nothing for two minutes.

Jay the gadget-man goes hands on with the Nokia N8

2011-01-29T17:00:33Z

By Jay Garrett

Hello Gadgety faithful – fancy a hands-on review of Nokias N8? Read on my friends.

The N8 appeared in stores in October 2010 and the Symbian^3 phone is quite a looker as well as being loaded with goodies.

The anodised scratch-proof paint covered aluminium chassis feels good to hold but it’s not going to win any slimmer of the year titles though with vital statistics of 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm – thanks mainly to its 12MP camera. You can’t remove the battery or get in the case without special ninja tools so Nokia has put two hinged flaps on the side of the N8 so you can get to the microSD card slot and the SIM card port. Internal memory is 16GB worth but that hot-swappable microSD card slot can handle up to 32GB of extra space.

]]> Screen-wise you get a 3.5-inch capacitive OLED screen which is rather lush and the only other thing on the N8′s face is a single multi-function button

If you’ve ever used a Nokia then you’ll recognise much of what you see. Symbian^3 doesn’t seem miles away from any other version I’ve used. Flicking between homescreens isn’t as smooth as it should be though – swipe your finger across and then wait and then it catches up. I found myself using the on-screen page selector at the bottom more often than not.

I do like the fact that N8 multi-tasks. You can see what’s working away in the background by pressing and holding that multi-function front button. The other neat thing is that if you tap the battery icon a little display pops up – the three new icons will show you all the connectivity options (Wi-Fi networks, USB, etc) and a clock which you can use to enter the alarm clock settings. Talking about connectivity – The Nokia N8 is hooked up: Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi up to 802.11n, assisted GPS, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, mini HDMI port.

The N8’s 12MP camera is suited to being on a flagship Nokia. Carl Zeiss optics matched with a Xenon flash. There’s a load of customisable settings: contrast, sharpness, exposure or white balance to name but a few. There is a bit of lag between pressing the camera button on the side of the N8 to the application opening though.

Web pages appear fairly quickly (especially when hooked-up to WiFi) when using the browser but pinch-zooming is not in the iPhone league. The Nokia N8 uses Flash Lite 4 to interpret Flash 10 videos and plays nice with most vids.

Music through the rather nice bundled earphones and standard 3.5mm jack was a little top heavy but with a little bass boost all was fine for the commute. You can use the in-built FM transmitter to send your tunes to a radio and share your musical taste. The Nokia N8 will play a variety of video codecs including WMV, Xvid, DivX, MP4 and AVI files. You can even download video from the BBC iPlayer. Thanks to the N8’s HDMI port can squirt your vids and pics to your telly and the Nokia N8 can play full Dolby 5.1 surround you know.

The N8 only has a 1200mAh battery compared with most of similarly spec’d phones rocking a 1500mAh power cell, however, I did get 2 days use before having to juice it up.

Conclusion
It’s slightly chunky but still looks great and its battery stamina was amazing. The specs are impressive – 12MP camera with Xenon flash, HD video recording with good sound recording to boot, USB, HDMI output with 5.1 support as well as a sharp OLED screen. As a media machine there’s little to knock. The camera is as I’d expect for stills and video recording is pretty darned fine too. As for playback; having a multitude of codecs that will run on the N8 along with Flash, well, that must be worth bonus points.

The only things that muddy the waters for me is that the user interface doesn’t seem to have caught up with its peers yet. If you like Symbian and have stuck with the Nok for years then you’ll appreciate the improvements. If you’re looking over the wall from Android or iOS then you might find it takes some getting used to – and you might even regret the move.