Why So Sirius?

With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, the rumour mill is spinning like crazy and leaks are coming in thick and fast.

Over the last few days some leaked information and screenshots regarding Sony’s next flagship smart phone have grabbed my attention, which I am about to discuss yet pinch the proverbial salt on until any official announcement is made. I wouldn’t normally make a post about unconfirmed future products but the source is fairly solid and if this is what Sony brings to the table in a few weeks then I’m really impressed with the road they are taking to re-establish themselves as the kings of technology once again.

Codenamed “Sirius” (now the title makes sense) the new device will sport updated hardware and a whole host of software improvements. Specifications will include a Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.3 GHz processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The camera will still be 20.7MP with a 1/2.5" sensor and will run on Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Next To Xperia Z1

The hardware improvements don’t stop there though. The new device will have front facing stereo speakers (much like the HTC One) and although it will be physically no bigger in size than the current Z1, it will have a slightly larger 5.2” 1080p screen.

On the software side, it seems Sony have gone all out to provide features its rivals have been flashing around for a while as well as some further improvements on the stock Android experience that I think Google should really be taking some notes on.

Firstly is a menu in the settings that allows you to customise and control which apps can show notifications. The option to disable notifications for apps has been available in Android for a while by accessing the apps properties within the app manager, but this is a fairly non user friendly way of going about it and it’s nice to finally see a company step up and make this a much nicer experience.

Second on my most notable list is the ability to mount remote storage drives right into the phones storage management which will serve as a fantastic tool for businesses and savvy home users to easily access all their remote files and folders on the go.

The last additions I want to mention are Sony’s take on a host of useful additions you might recognise from Samsung’s Galaxy rage. These include Smart Backlight Control, which will keep the phones screen on until you look away from it. Smart Call Handling which will answer a call just by bringing it up to your ear, reject it my shaking it and mute by flipping it upside down. Also, a Simple Home mode for a basic and idiot proof alternative to the standard home screen.

On top of all this Sony has added 4K video recording and slow motion video, its own version of HTC’s Blinkfeed and Hi-Res DAC audio output.

If this is indeed what Sony announces at MWC next month then HTC and Samsung are in for big trouble as I have seen personally the reliability of those two brands in particular plummet in recent years. HTC still haven’t been able to produce a version of their Sense UI that isn’t riddled with bugs and problems, and Samsung’s bloated software and inflating batteries has plagued the Galaxy line for a while now.

The way I see Sony’s road to success I mentioned earlier is a determination to build and be recognised for the most robust and reliable products on the market and then add the finely tuned bells and whistles afterwards. A completely different strategy held by the current Android market leader Samsung, who seem to expand every iteration of their beloved flagship devices with every software gimmick and sensors without really testing them or incorporating them without bloating the system and before making sure the product itself is well designed and built to last.

Whatever happens, I will be looking forward to MWC and indeed to see what this year in tech brings all round. Happy (late) New Year everyone!

Google+, the ultimate first word problem.

Ok, so as is the usual reaction to change, the internet world has once again flipped its shit. If by some reason you live in rather rock like surroundings, Google has changed its YouTube service to require a user to have a Google+ account in order to make and manage comments on videos. This change in service, much like any Facebook redesign or update to a phones operating system, has lead the online community to act as though the people in charge have stepped into their homes, murdered their families and shit on their carpets. Quite simply, to overreact terribly and flock to their beloved internet to spread the word of their hatred and disgust of such minor and insignificant changes like the ultimate first world problem it is.

Let’s get one thing out of the way before I continue typing, I like Google+, I think it’s a far better social network than Facebook which is a site that everyone seems to use, yet also seems to complain about! All people ever do is bitch and moan about Facebook yet no one ever does anything about it! So either stop complaining, or find something else. The fact is, most of you reading this don’t use Google+, so how do you know that it’s so bad? How do you know it’s not better than the site you complain so much about? The fact is you don’t know, so how about trying it out before slamming it down?

Ok so rant over, now to continue with my original post. First off, YouTube has been notorious for years for its level of immature and hate filled comment sections and something had to be done. What Google have done is actually quite clever. Now that you have to sign in with social networking credentials, it makes commenting slightly less anonymous. Yes you can make a fake profile, but you still have to sign up which is a lengthy process many trolls might not bother to go through just to write the words ‘this video is gay’ or 'go kill yourself' underneath Charlie Bit My Finger. Taking away the anonymity is a fair start to helping YouTube filter out those trolls that hide behind their pseudonyms and ruin the YouTube experience for many people including me.

My second point is that Google are not forcing you into actually using the Google+ site itself, you simply need to sign in with it. Plus, if you had a YouTube account, you already had a Google account, and therefore already had a Google+ account, it just needed to be activated. Google aren't making you do much more than before, just activating something you already had, and nobody is making you actually use it for anything more than you already did. It’s called Google+ for a reason, and that’s because as a whole it’s an advanced version of a normal Google account with access to more services and options.

If YouTube was owned by Facebook or Microsoft for example, you would more than likely need to log in with a Facebook, or Microsoft account to use it, and I bet no one would question that. This is the same deal here, I think many people forget that YouTube is a Google product, and you need a Google account to use it. Google+ is not just a social networking site, it’s a central hub for connecting Google's services so that they can all work together. No one is making you use all of the services, but some are needed for others to work. Same as you need a Microsoft account to use your Xbox online although you might never use Outlook email or Skydrive, and an Apple ID to download an app even though you might not use iTunes to download music or backup to iCloud. These accounts are the framework that make all of a company’s services connect seamlessly without the need for multiple logins and ID’s.

In short here, no one is making you use the Google+ site, the account is just a common API that can better align all of Google's services into one simple login. Regardless of how many of Google's products you use, one login is much better than two or three or more and it helps Google to integrate those services together for the people that do use them.

I also watched a video from some people I subscribe to on YouTube and one of them gave another great advantage for the content providers such as themselves, The advantage is that with the new G+ notifications, they can see who's sharing your video and what kind of a response it's getting outside of YouTube. That's a great tool for the video makers, who before would only know how well their video was doing by the often useless comments in YouTube itself. Now if the video gets shared on G+, they can see that, and what people on G+ thought of it.

That's another thing people need to remember, these changes are not just for the viewer, but for the people making serious content for YouTube too. Without those people, the rest of YouTube is mainly cat videos and clips of Family Guy. Google is trying to provide a better experience for all.  

I do agree however that the implementation isn't great so far, there are some problems with it but there are always going to be problems with new systems. A famous YouTuber that I follow on Twitter posted that he was invited to a meeting with Google and reported that they are taking feedback from people to make improvements. They should definitely take away the ability to post ASCII, that's the only part about the new system I don't agree with because right now, the only people making the integration a problem are the trolls abusing the new system to post endless text based pictures of dicks and tanks. Once that ability gets removed or restricted the comments will start to get a whole lot better.

For now though, just stop whining about it! So what, you have to use the SAME email and password as you did before to use a FREE service in which you can upload gigabytes upon gigabytes of your inane content? Boo hoo, why don't you let the homeless or the starving children in the world know how bad your problems are! Get over it, live your lives and worry about things that are actually fucking important!

A week with the Sony Xperia Z1...

With almost exactly the same title as my Xperia Z review, does Sony’s update to their flagship phone share such minor changes? The short answer here is a resounding no! Unlike Apple who seeming release what is essentially the same product year in year out, Sony have gone all guns blazing to add as much as they can to make the Z1 a whole new breed.

So what does the new specs sheet look like I hear you ask? Here it is:

Weight

• 169 grams

Dimensions

• 144.4 x 73.9 x 8.5 mm

Battery

• Talk time up to 14 hours, Standby time up to 880 hours

Display

• 5.0 inch Full HD TRILUMINOS™ Display for mobile with X-Reality™

• 16,777,216 colours, 1920x1080 pixels

Inside

• Google Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

• 2.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974 Quad Core

Camera

• 20.7 megapixel camera with Exmor RS® for mobile image sensor

• 2 MP, Exmor R, front facing camera (1080p)

Durability

• Waterproof (IPX5 and IPX8), Dust-resistant (IP5X)

The very first thing I noticed was the incredible build quality. The original Z was certainly no toy, but with the Z1, Sony have built the tempered glass front and back panels around a single piece aluminium frame. From the second I picked this device up it felt like a quality and premium product that's built to last, much higher than any other phone in its class.

Having a closer look at the specs above, the first number that jumps out at you here is the camera. Not only has it jumped from 13MP to a staggering 20.7MP, the Z1 sports Sony’s award winning G Lens and intelligent Bionz image processing engine along with a huge 1/2.3 sensor. All of this allows for absolutely stunning photographs the likes of which I have never seen on a smartphone before, including great low light shots and immensely sharp action shots. I have been blown away by the pictures I have taken so far and I will add some of them to the bottom of this post.

The improvements don’t stop at the camera hardware either, the camera software has been completely revamped too. Superior Auto mode is still the default, and is even more accurate at detecting the scene than on the original Z. It can still have a tendency to produce noisy images in certain situations, especially low light due to it favouring much higher ISO settings for sharper images, but a quick switch over to Manual Mode can let you tweak everything to your heart’s content to get that perfect shot including switching the resolution right up to the maximum 20MP. Superior Auto actually provides an 8MP picture once the image is processed, this allows for some clever camera trickery when it comes to digital zoom. Going as far as 3x zoom in this mode will provide an image with almost the same clarity as a regular photo giving the impression of real optical zoom!

AR Mode

There are a host of new camera options in here too. The first is AR Mode which will generate a live and customizable augmented reality scene in front of you that provides no end of fun, especially when people are in the scene as the face detection will add masks or helmets related to the scenes content. Objects in the scene can be moved around with a simple drag of the finger, and the masks or helmets added to people in the scene can be changed by tapping on them.

Picture Effects

Next is InfoEye, which is a bit like Google Goggles on steroids. In this mode you can take a picture of many objects or landmarks and receive instant Google Now like information. Take a photo of the Eiffel Tower for example and get information on its history and structure. Take a photo of a wine bottle label and get information on the vineyard and what foods it will go best with. This can be done with all sorts of places and products including books, CD’s and even barcodes and QR codes.

Info Eye

The final new app here is Social Live. This can allow you to broadcast video live from your Z1 to Facebook meaning all your friends can join you at that awesome gig or the entire family can be there to see your child’s first steps. Along with this they can also chat and comment with that feed being shown to you on screen too.

Sony have been really smart here and have included API’s for other developers to make extra extensions that can be opened right from the camera app itself, much like Lenses on the Lumia range. Also like Windows Phone, the Z1 has been given a dedicated camera key so the camera can be launched right away without having to unlock the device or even turn the screen on, just hold the camera key for a second and up pops the camera. This also helps for easier photo taking and the ability to take photos underwater!

Video recording has been given a stabilization option which works really well taking all the shakiness out of all your video. I would have liked to see an option for higher frame rates, slow motion or 4K but it is possible these could be added in a software update or even third party apps.

 Camera Modes And Extensions

The Z1 is even more water resistant than the Z and can be taken right down to 1 and a half meters this time. An even more incredible feat here is that with the original Z every port had to be covered with a water proof seal to protect it, but Sony have managed to do away with the seal for the headphone jack making it's much more convenient when listening to music. There are still seals for the rest of the ports but a dock connector is still present for easier charging and this time it’s magnetic too.

The new 3000mAh battery allows for outstanding battery life, especially when Stamina Mode is used and on moderate use the phone could easily stretch 2 or 3 days which is pretty remarkable for a smartphone these days. Even as a heavy user, I have more than managed to see two days through without the need to recharge.

Mini Apps

The display has been improved too and now uses Sony’s Triluminos technology along with the new X-Reality Engine which is a definite improvement over Bravia Engine 2 for mobile that was in the Z. Viewing angles are better but still not as wide as many other phone displays, to which I still ask, why on earth does anyone care? I only ever look at my phone straight on, I have never understood why anyone would need to look at their phone from some stupid angle so this is a complete non-issue for me.

Amongst all this, Sony still keep their Android theme very clean and close to stock Holo which is great. I am not a fan of Samsung and HTC’s over-theming. Also, you can now open more than one Mini App at a time, great for multi-tasking.

My only real disappointment so far is that the Walkman app still shows compilation artists in the list, thus cluttering the artist selection with hundreds of one-offs I really don’t want to see, but to be honest I more often use Play Music or Spotify anyway. I would have also liked to see more handy extras like flipping it over to mute an incoming call or advanced camera features similar to the Galaxy S4/HTC One/Lumia 925 such as Drama/Sequence Shot, Best Face and Object Removal but with Sony’s camera API’s I hope a third party can add these features in later.

In conclusion, anyone that had the first Xperia Z will find the Z1 a vast and brilliant improvement worthy of an upgrade and to anyone new to Sony looking for a great smartphone I simply cannot recommend the Xperia Z1 any more highly. This is a blazingly fast, beautifully designed and feature packed bit of kit worthy of anyone’s pocket.

Here are some of the photos I have taken so far, all of them in Superior Auto mode. I will be adding more soon: (Click to enlarge)

Using 3x Zoom

'One' Thing I Will Definately Be Buying This Year

So it seems I am in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the Xbox Reveal show. Before the show had even finished, the online world was plagued with many slamming the show and Microsoft for not answering the pressing questions that's on many of our minds about the next generation of consoles and instead filling almost the entire hour with very little about gaming at all.

Microsoft in fact chose to show off the new non-gaming features of it's new console, which mainly involved the ability to watch live television, social interactions, and new voice controls.

For me, I really enjoyed this and I really do not understand the backlash Microsoft has received since. Personally I would have found an hour of game previews a complete bore. I know it's going to play games, because it's a fucking games console, and I know what games it's going to play and what they will look like because that's all been posted elsewhere previously. I'm not a huge gamer, but I am looking forward to Star Wars 1313 and Metal Gear Solid Ground Zero. Both of which I have already seen extended game play footage of on YouTube. If Microsoft had spent the hour showing me endless clips I had already seen, then I would have seen reason to start complaining for wasting my time.

I use my Xbox mainly for Movies, TV and Music through the likes of Netflix and Last.fm and so on, so the features shown were incredibly relevant to me and I'm sure many others that do use their console as an all round media device, as it should be, and I welcome the features that were shown and Microsoft's approach at making it 'One' device to rule them all. The days when a games console was purely for games were lost in the mid 90's when the original PlayStation played CD's, so get used to it!

I also enjoyed seeing the next generation of Kinect and some of its new features. Many serious gamers seem to slate the Kinect but its by far the best controller-alternative input method, far superior to PlayStation Move or Nintendo's tablet thing. Having it ship with every console is going to drastically improve the line up of titles available for it, giving the casual gamer a home in the Xbox world as well as giving an interesting edge to more serious games and also just a cool way to navigate around the console.

I think the keyboard warriors of the internet need to sit, chill and think for a just minute that this is a console that wont be ready for sale for at least another six months and since Sony decided this year to hold a special event of their own prior to E3, a trend many tech companies are following recently, I think that put Microsoft in a hard position to follow suit and bring something to the table in a special event of their own when a lot of their product wouldn't be ready till at least E3 in June.

I think Microsoft made a great decision to take the time to show off what non-gaming features they had ready to show off and just because something wasn't mentioned or certain pressing questions weren't answered in that small hour in no way means that it was a complete and final representation of Microsoft's entire new feature set or game plan (pardon the pun). It was simply a show of what was ready.

Critics, news reports and Facebook friends alike have since been quick to publish the worst case scenario of all unanswered questions as cold hard fact without any official statements from Microsoft. It is still unclear as to how the new system will operate, whether it will play pre-owned games or how much it will cost, and until we get any official word on those matters, the world needs to calm it's shit down and enjoy the Xbox One for what it is, a new games console from Microsoft finally after nearly the decade the 360 has been available. I know these matters are important, but with a release so far away and the console still in stages of development, I don't think Microsoft themselves know what the final plans are in order to make official statements about them.

One final thing I wanted to write about is directly towards the live TV features that were demonstrated and something that I saw get a terrible amount of criticism for. It became knowledge shortly after, that a separate box/adaptor would be required in order to make the live TV functions actually work. Again I see this as a positive and in many ways a technological inevitability but yet again, Joe Public's stupidity gets the better of them. I live in the UK, and just off the top of my head and can think of at least 6 different television providers using completely different transmission technology that we have on offer. Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, BT Vision, all using either terrestrial, satellite or cable systems. To have just one box that would be compatible with all these systems, for every country the Xbox will ship to, would be both horrendously costly and require the Xbox itself to be much larger than could comfortably fit on a shelf. Bare in mind also the people that might not be interested in this function, it makes it much more viable to supply a separate box for the TV provider you have to keep the cost of the Xbox down and save from forcing people  into paying more for stuff they might not use.

Putting everything else aside though, love or hate what Microsoft did or didn't do in their event, at least they showed us what the fucking thing looks like unlike Sony!

A New Xbox Is Almost Upon Us

Almost exactly three months since Sony's live unavailing of their PlayStation 4, Microsoft is set to announce their new games console tonight at 18:00GMT which you can watch live right here at the bottom of this post.

I for one am a huge Xbox fan, I much prefer it to the PlayStation for many reasons and after Sony's rather disappointing PS4 event, with the exception of at least one cool game demo, it wont take much for Microsoft to wow me once again.

Against the PS3, the Xbox 360 has by far the best online experience including apps for movies and music, a better selection of games including indie titles, a much better controller as well as Kinect which is far superior to PlayStation Move. This as well as other little things like being able to charge my phone or other device with the USB ports while the console is switched off make the Xbox my console of choice.

This is all of course my own opinion but having said that, all of my close friends are also Xbox users so if I did switch to PlayStation, I wouldn't be able to play with any of them online or swap games.

Watch the live event right here and let me know what you think in the comments...

Sony Xperia Z Review Update & Camera Samples.

First off, I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who read, re-posted and commented on my last blog post, it saw nearly two thousand views and I got some great responses that I just was not expecting! The fact that many more people than I anticipated are taking the time to read my ramblings inspires me to write more so a big thanks to all of you once again.

Ok so onto the topic. I have had my Xperia Z for a while now, long enough to really get to know the device, delve deep and really put it through it's paces and with that I wanted to write another post with a few details about the phone I have learnt since my initial review as a kind of mini update.

Something that has continued to impress me is the camera, I have taken some great shots and I wanted to post some here for you to judge for yourself which I will add at the bottom of the post. My greatest passion outside of technology is skateboarding and taking pictures of sports is always a tricky task with a phone. The burst mode on the Z can take some great rapid shots, but I found them to be of a slightly lower quality when the subject is moving fast. Instead I have discovered by accident a way to take pictures very quickly that takes very clear and sharp photos that I haven’t seen written about elsewhere. I discovered that holding down on the capture button sets up the focus and I can keep it held until I eventually let go and it will take a photo instantaneously which makes timing a shot at that crucial point so much easier.

Also just as impressive is the battery life. In my last post, I tried to dismiss other reviews for slating the battery in the Z and I still stand by that. I have been using the phone without Stamina Mode enabled recently as it disables LED notifications. I expected the battery life to take a hit as a result but I have to say it lasts just as long on a full charge as it did before and that's with having it connected to a bluetooth Smartwatch all day, and bluetooth headphones for a good portion of the day too.

USB Connections

Another great and less written about feature is the ability to mount SD cards as Mass Storage when connected to another device, such as a PC. Android's MTP connection is great in most cases, being able to continue using the phone and access files while connected to a computer is handy, but I have found it to be a lot slower than Mass Storage which can be a pain when moving lots of data at once, which I often do with music as I have a lot of it. I have recently bought a 64GB SD card to be able to hold my entire library and the ability to mount this as Mass Storage instead of MTP while it’s still in the phone makes it a great deal easier than taking it out and using the memory card reader on my laptop. This also gives the device better compatibility with Mac's, TV's and car kits that do not support MTP connections.

Eventually Loads

Missing Album Art

Staying with music, I come to the only new criticism I have with the device. I have been using Google Play Music for the best part of nearly two years since its launch. It’s great, I have all my music in the cloud, can access it anywhere, any time and download it to any device for offline use when needed. The app for Play Music is also great and with the possible exception of the slightly stale UI, as a music player, it’s perfect. After getting a 64GB SD card and having all my music on the phone locally, I have given Sony's Walkman app a try as it works better with the music controls on my Smartwatch. The app looks beautiful and from the outset works fairly well, this however is where the praise will end. The app often seems to forget how much music I have and shows that I have -1 tracks, albums and artists, and then later on it will randomly decide to show me the real numbers. If I choose the shuffle all option, it can often take ages to load album art for the next tracks so if I skip ahead a few songs, I'm left with a large portion of the screen as blank for a few seconds until it eventually loads the artwork. Something that really annoys me is that the app includes artists from compilations in the artist list, which clutters it up with hundreds of one-off artists and mixed artists that I don't need to see, making it much more difficult to select music by that category. Another thing that annoys me is that pressing the back button on the phone just exits the app rather than going to the previous screen as there is another back button within the app itself and this often leads me to close the app by accident. The absolute worst thing about the app though is that it does not support gap-less playback. That on it's own is just simply unacceptable for a music player from a company that many would consider to be pioneers in portable music. I really hope Sony can address these issues in an update as I would like to continue using the app but for now I have gone back to Google Play Music.

Incorrect Library Information 

All in all though I’m still incredibly impressed with this phone and even with spending lots of time playing with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One at work, the Xperia Z still comes out on top for me and I still recommend it to anyone looking at a new phone right now. It's incredibly reliable and works flawlessly each and every time i need it.

So here are some of the camera samples for those interested, all have been taken with the Superior Auto mode and are completely unedited. Click to see larger images:

Hope you enjoyed this post and I have some non Xperia Z related stuff coming soon as i fear that lately I'm just running this into a Sony blog! For now though, tech off.