Decisions, Decisions.

I'm not your average consumer when it comes to mobile phones, I like to keep all of my technology fairly up to date, but with phones its an absolute must. I tend to change my personal phone at least twice a year and that's normally because a new device makes its way into the wild that I just cant live without, as lame as that sounds.

That however hasn't been the case for almost a year now as nothing new has been able to demote the love I have for my current handset, the Samsung Galaxy S3. I simply cannot fault it and until now, no new phone has been able to beat it. My dilemma now though is that with all the recent announcements at CES and Mobile World Congress, there isn't just one device that's been pulling my attention from my beloved S3, not two either, but three.

I'm currently tied between choosing the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC One, or the as of yet unannounced Samsung Galaxy S4 to be my next handset. The contest is slightly unfair at the moment seeing as all of the information about the S4 is just rumour and Samsung have yet to release anything official but seeing as most of the leaks and rumours about the S2 and S3 came to be true, I'm holding them with at least few pinches of salt for the purposes of this blog post.

In true teenage girl style, I decided to make a pro/con list to settle my indecisions and come to a conclusion, so here goes...

Sony Xperia Z

Pros:

• Incredible design, one of the best looking phones I have ever seen and I personally think it looks far better than the other two (if rumoured images of the S4 come to be real).
• Water proof and dust proof with an IP57 rating. This is just unheard of in premium devices and just adds a greater piece of mind when using it around rain or water. I have even seen videos on YouTube where people have used it as an underwater video camera with incredible results.
• SD Card slot, which is a necessity for me, I have a lot of data, and having it on removable media makes it far easier to transfer that data between devices.
• Bravia display engine that makes photos and videos look absolutely stunning.
• A 13 mega pixel camera to keep the photographer in me happy, with Sony's Exmor Sensor and a world first with HDR video.
• It will work better with my Sony SmartWatch, which works great with any Android device, but the call features work best with a Sony phone.
• Another world first with a full 1080p HD screen, great for web browsing and videos which are two key things I use my phone for.

Cons:

• Non removable battery. Not a big problem, but is always handy to have.
• It will be more difficult to root and modify the device software which is something I love to do and also have some apps that only work with root access. I'm sure it wont be impossible, but will require more work than the other two.

Samsung Galaxy S4

This is, as i said earlier, all based on leaks and rumours, including the image to the right, but given that many leaks and rumours for the S2 and S3 came to be correct, I'm using them for this post.

Pros:

• 8 core processor in Samsung's new Exynos 5 Octa powerhouse. This is real and already publicised, but unconfirmed that it will be in the S4. I have a feeling they will save it for the Note 3 but either way, it will pave the way for some incredible applications.
• Far easier to root and modify and tends to attract far more home brew developers than other brand devices which leads to some brilliant tools and applications that can make the device even better than Samsung originally intended.
• Removable battery, again not a major issue, but it's nice to have.
• SD card support.
• Better compatibility with my Samsung Smart TV. Although there are many apps that will allow any brand phone or tablet to share and stream content to any brand smart TV, the Samsung Smart TV apps I have on my S3 do tend to work better or have other features that third party ones dont.

Cons:

• The only con I can think of here is design, and material. Samsung is known for using plastic for their flagship devices and I cant see it being any different for the S4. Admittedly its nice, hard wearing plastic, but plastic none the less and although its never been a deal breaker for me in the past, with other brand flagships being built with much higher grade materials such as glass and polycarbonate, plastic is starting to look a bit cheap, especially for a high end product.

HTC One

HTC have developed some possible game changing features for their new One device, which I plan to go over properly in another blog post, for now though I'll keep it simple.

Pros:

• Beats Audio, which I had on my HTC One X last year and the audio quality was far superior than any phone I have ever used before or since, an excellent phone for music.
• Stereo speakers on the front of the device, nice and loud, which means it would be great for watching films and would also eliminate having cup your phone in your hand to boost the sound in order to show someone a YouTube clip.
• Wide angle front facing camera, same as the one on the HTC 8X which comes in handy for those Instagram selfies, making a Skype call to someone with a group of friends or taking an arm length photo of you and your other half.

Cons:

• No SD card support, which for me is a true deal breaker. I was really excited about this phone, it has some amazing new features including a revolutionary new camera, redesigned Sense UI, and of course the above pro list but for me its a total no-go without an SD card slot. It comes in both 32 and 64 GB models, and although the 64GB would probably be enough for my use, its just easier to transfer data between my phone/tablet/laptop and various other devices with removeable storage and after using the One X for a short while recently while I was waiting on an insurance claim for my Galaxy S3 to be replaced, its something I learnt I just cant live without.
• Non removable battery.

Quite conclusively then, I'm going to opt for the Xperia Z, which launches in the UK on 28th Febuarary. It's a stunning and jam packed device with everything I need in a phone and with the only real downside of being slightly more difficult to root and install custom software than the others.

The HTC One, or M7 as it will be known in Europe will be available from March 15th and the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be unveiled on March 14th at this years Unpacked Event with a rumoured release date around April/May.

Of course these are all Android devices and 2013 has an awful lot to offer besides this with the new BlackBerry Z10, a new range of Windows Phone 8 devices and dedicated Ubuntu devices due later in the year, but at the moment only Android has the feature set and apps I require for day to day use. Your needs may differ but I hope this post goes some way to helping you make an informative choice on your next phone.

Finally, a new games console.

In the next hour, Sony's special PlayStation event will start to kick off and the first of the next generation games consoles will be unveiled, the PlayStation 4/Orbis/Sandra/whatever the fuck they decide to call it.

We've spent over half a decade with the current generation of consoles and the PlayStation 3 was originally launched way back in 2007. To put that into perspective, 2007 was also the year the very first iPhone was launched!

I'm not a huge fan of Sony's console, I much prefer Microsoft's Xbox but I will be tuning in to the live feed of Sony's event to see what they pull out of their sleeves. You can watch this event yourself below and post your thoughts in the comments.

2013, is this the year we've been waiting for?

Almost every year a technology journalist somewhere will claim that year 'x' will be the year everything changes and very rarely does that ever actually happen. The last time I can really think it did was 2007 when smartphones made it to the consumer market thanks mainly to Apple and the success of the iPhone, which is probably the only praise I’m likely to give Apple within the realm of this blog, but as this post will discuss, anything is possible.

Since then, smartphones have changed not only what type of device we carry in our pocket, but what we actually use those devices for. No longer are they a tool for making calls with the odd game of Snake on a long train journey, now they are the all-in-one product we use for everything from office work to console quality gaming... with the odd phone call on a long train journey.

Apart from the level of applications and peripherals adding further functionality to these devices growing at an incredible rate, not much else has really changed in the mobile world. They get more powerful, faster or have a better camera with each new generation and the applications get even crazier (There is a coffee machine now that you can control with your phone so the coffee or tea you want is all made and ready for you by the time you've made it to the kitchen!). The enhancements seem to stop right there though, and although I love nothing more than to see these devices get faster or be able to do almost everything for me in one product, not much lately has been really revolutionary.

I am far from being a journalist, but this is the year that I think things might see a real shake up, at least in the world of smartphones. This year RIM will launch BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8 will see a much larger product range and there will be at least two new players with both Firefox and Ubuntu debuting their new mobile operating systems. Designed from scratch and with today’s market in mind, these new players could stand a real chance to completely change the market as it is today. It may seem like a crazy idea given the market share and dominance the likes of Android and iPhone have in this space, but then just a few short years ago no one ever thought anything could take over Myspace.

I personally think this year is a perfect playing ground for new players to take over the show. At the moment we're seeing a lot of long term iPhone fans moving to Android and vice versa just because consumers are looking for something new. If the end products from Firefox or Ubuntu can bring on their promises, it could be really easy for them to see fairly quick adoption.

The Ubuntu case is the one I’m particularly interested in as it promises to bring something I believe could be that 'revolutionary' change the mobile world could do with in order to once again change the way we live. That something is having both the mobile and desktop variants of Ubuntu built into one product, and one device. Today smartphones have almost caught up with our desktops and laptops in terms of processor power and graphics performance, we already have a computer in our pockets, so why aren't we using them like computers? This is the exact thinking the Ubuntu team are trying to bring to reality, a smartphone, with a mobile version of the operating system, then when plugged into an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, switches to the desktop operating system. Just think of that simplicity for a second. There would be no need to sync your documents and files with a cloud service or transfer them with a cable to another device, your files are already on your computer because your phone IS the computer.

In the last few years smartphone manufacturers have been coming up with ways to make sure all your devices talk to one another and keep all your files in sync and work with each other, but the Ubuntu team have sparked an idea that I think could change the way we use smart phones as much as the original iPhone changed the way we used mobile phones altogether. Why have a phone, a tablet and a desktop or laptop when you could have one device capable of being all three?

With the Ubuntu desktop operating system gaining ever more consumer adoption, thanks largely to computer manufacturers like HP releasing desktops and laptops pre-loaded with Ubuntu instead of Windows I think it has a real chance to become a real game changer. Then again, like many people each and every new tech year, I could also be wrong.

Yet another blog about technology...

Yes the title is true, this is yet another blog about technology so by all means click away now, there is probably a cat video you haven't seen somewhere.

If you're still here, welcome. Within this blog I will be posting a semi readable form of the technology based nonsense that floats within my cranium. I will cover most technology news/information/personal thoughts here but mainly mobile phone based writing as this is what interests me most and also have a little inside knowledge from time to time as I am a Technical Adviser for Vodafone UK.

For those of you who have read this far, thank you, I hope you enjoy reading my posts and I reward you with one cat video...