Rough Cuts Ltd Blog

One of these landed on my desk last week and within a week, I've warmed not only to the device, but also to the OS too. windows Phone used to be as complicated as any RIM offering, but now, it's as simple as you like. Two main screens make this phone function. The first screen you're presented with is the 'tile' display. These can be moved, deleted, added to and customised in whatever way you see fit. You scroll up and down through your tiles and tap to select, Facebook, email, weather, youtube, whatever you use most often. Swipe right to left and you enter a full list of apps with smaller icons, laid out alphabetically, top to bottom. Settings, initially being the lowest, until you add the vevo and youtube apps. What's exceptionally good however is the speech control. This is most easily explained by an example of a conversation you may have with your phone after you've pressed and held the windows key for a second or two. Bleep. "Text John" &q

Hot on the heels of the LG 3D is this offering from HTC. On the face of it, from the front at least, it looks just like any other HTC android phone. It's smart and the screen is very high resolution and clear. The menu's are the usual neat HTC affair, but unlike the LG there is no 'magical 3D portal'. In fact the only function on the handset that we can find is the camera. Now there are a handful of 3D pictures in the gallery to set you off, but we found these a bit hit n miss. There is no 'tuning' of the 3D like there is on the LG and several of us to start off with were a bit perplexed with the 3D effect. Initially its a little nauseating. Then, on one or two of the pictures, you'll get it. The sensation is very much like the moment you get a magic eye picture. One of those old garbled pictures, that eventually 'pop out' as a 3D cut out. Many people could never get the hang of those, so I guess, this could end up being the same? Some people may not

I really want this device to win, so after the reboot, I try again. I click on photos again, and we appear to have loads more thumbnails. The whole thing now looks much nicer. But there are still loads missing. I click email, it's sync'd with most of my webmail, which is a massive account. (perhaps that was causing the issues?). Either way, I read an important email and respond. It's becoming usable and it's correcting and highlighting my mistypes for me. I 'star/favourite inbox and sent items and they're the only mailboxes that appear. Neat touch. I go back to the apps and all of the yellow exclamation marks have gone. I click the HP app store and it loads. Categories. Featured. Bookmarks. Search. It looks gloriously like the Apple app store. I search for twitter again and am disappointed to find, no app. I install weTwit lite. It's another Palm pre app, only half the screen size of the touchpad. I delete. I return to just type and type "this isn'

After an initially disappointing start to the day. I arrive in work to find the New HP Tablets have landed, or should I say; 'touched down'. Having been to the training for these several weeks back, it's great to see them finally land in store. Due for release to the general public on Friday the 15th, I think this could be the machine, to take the fight with Apple, one step further. The HP touchpa we tested was a prototype, with an OS that despite still in beta, was extremely slick with a number of neat touches, that make it stand out from the rest of the pack. The initial challenge comes in opening the box. The training materials etc all had magnetic flaps to secure them, this too appears to have a magnetic flap, but it's a decoy, it is in fact a slide out drawer. I succeed without causing the box any damage. On top of the box, the unit greets me. It's identical to the prototype and very iphone 3gs in appearance. Albeit far larger. But the back is sculpted in the s

I'm excited. Excited like it's Christmas, or like its an Apple product launch. Neighbouring stores have had this handset in, but we haven't. I'm distraught. Even though I've seen one before and been initally unimpressed*, with a brief encounter, everyone is now raving about it, so I figure, perhaps I've been too hasty. So I plea with a neighbouring store to let me borrow one. He transfers it across and excitedly, I go and pick it up. I ask the team. "What's it like?" "Amazing, unbelievable, really has got the wow factor". I rush back to my store and show the team..... I've got one! One of the team members follows me into the back and we open it up. Upon boot, it would appear to be yet another humdrum Android handset, albeit fast. We skip through the usual setup process and finally we're in. There it is, straight in front of us. The button that reads "3D Space", no glasses required, this part of the menu leaps out at y

I've just had Sony's latest smartphone offering thrust my way, so it's only right that I should have a quick fiddle. Opening the now traditional Sony Folding box, I find wrapped in a 'greeheart' paper bag, a new phone. Looks like they're conveying some environmental message, although I'm not quite sure what? The unit itself seems smaller than the Experia Arc, the design is minimalist, but slightly cheap feeling, (at this point I have no idea of price). The back has a fab graduated blue black metallic appearance, and a simple HD in the middle.. (I guess it does 720 or 1080 video?). I hunt for the battery and prise the flimsy plastic back cover off, with difficulty. Fortunately nothing snaps. so I put the sim and battery in and fire the unit up. The  cover clips on well and I also notice a LED for the camera. On the top is a HDMi cover and usb conector cover, on the side  find the power button. The screen bursts to life and displays retina rivalling fonts and

Just had a bit of a revelation. Using doublesync the other week, I inadvertently dumped 10% of my record collection onto my HTC desire. It's late. I'm not tired, kids and wife are in bed, so I decided to listen to some tunes on my Dr Dre Beats headphones. The HTC was the closest phone to hand, and seeing as it had alot of music on it, I thought, why not? Them something odd happened. It didn't sound right. Was it me? it just sounded, 'central' and well, lacking in depth. It wasn't making the involving sounds happen that I've come to expect from these headphones, so I flicked through a few more songs, it was the same, Beatles, Foo fighters, Gerry Rafferty, all sounded, muted. Tom Petty American girl came on, the live version,  a truly legendary track. No.... I wasn't feeling it. I pulled up the same track on the iPhone 4 and tried again...... This is more like it! I wouldn't have believed there would have been such a difference. The stereo separa

Is this becoming a bit of a bore now.... Yup, it's yet ANOTHER android handset. It's like spot the difference. This one is magnificently thin. To accomplish this look, the back cover is made of sugar paper. Yet another back cover that should be removed only once. Seriously, there are about ten clips around the outer edge and they all need some force to clip in one by one. But once the back cover is comfortably in place, it feels, er, thin. Really thin. Next to the iphone 4, the camera and thicker base push its height so its fractionally larger, (or higher off the ground) than the iphone. But in reality the middle section, is actually narrower that the iphone. But.... to be frank, I couldn't care less. The iphone is thin enough, so its a hollow victory. Especially when you consider the fact that you can't take the back off the iphone4 and snap it by breathing too hard on it. Front on and the Galaxy S mk 2 is something of a monster. It is noticeably larger than an iphone

This Machine is a heavy little unit. But that gives it a great feeling of quality. The battery compartment is something of an oddity however. On first inspection, there is no way to get into the back of the handset. The top and bottom are slightly rubberised, but they don't prevent the unit slipping in your hand. But where to put your sim in isn't immediately obvious. When you figure that you have to slide the bottom portion off, things get even more unusual. Two exposed metal contacts sit on the battery cover, initially I thought this was to connect the Mic, but they're not, the mic is built into the phone on the opposite side, it just pokes out of a small hole. These contacts must let the phone know that the cover is on. I would've assumed then that these trigger the phone to dismount the memory card, to avoid the potential of read/write errors corrupting it, but no, the card is still accessible with the battery cover removed. So I have no idea why they're there.

This question has been rattling round in my skull for a while now. A quick google search and I found this link. http://www.ehow.com/how_5945326_sync-android-mac.html I first checked the Apple Mac store and to my amazement, found it WAS available, for £8.99! However, thats too easy. I want to do it for free.  Ok, lets tackle these issues one by one....... firstly I have the details of my Gmail account.  Contacts and Address book .   All of the contacts I want are already stored in my gmail account. But what I really want is to add contacts in my Address book, and have them auto sync with my android phone. As they're already syncing, phone to gmail cloud. The issue becomes, how do I sync google with my mac? I boot up address book and click Address book>Preferences. I see a box; it says Sync with Google..... can it be this easy? I click it, and input my gmail details. Done. Well, no actually, that option is only there because I own an iphone. And well, to be blunt. It won't w

I still can't decide whether there is room for one of these in my life or not. The argument I get from so many people is that, if they just want to look on the internet for something quick. A tablet is always on, so they could pick it up and launch their browser straight away. Now without wanting to spark a Windows vs Mac debate. I can already do that on my Mac anyway, even when its off, and even if I have to put my password in. Not only that, but sadly, due to a major lack of a social life. It's usually keeping my knee's warm anyway. However, What is it like to use? Well, it's always on, for a start. The android OS is dreamy to use. It really is simple and it has so much 'desktop' space to customise, I really think that there is more than most users would ever be able to make use of. The two camera's are useful for things like skype video calls and er, photos. The Camera is ok, although for a 5mp, it isn't quite as sharp as I'd expected. But its mos

The HTC desire was an exceptionally good class leading android handset, that catapulted HTC to the forefront of smart phone development and sales. The Wildfire was a good entry level Android phone. So how does the Incredible S stack up next to them? well, To start with, it feels like its got one of those 'extra battery' cases on it. Initially it feels odd. Although the matt black plastic feels high quality. If it weren't for the extra bulk, it would be as slim as an iphone4. But because of it, it isn't. All of the extra goodies in the box are wrapped in strange grey sealed body bags. Neat, but weird. I slip a sim in and boot up. What I'm hoping for here, is a Desire, with a better screen, sound and swype! Initial impressions are hopeful. The screen looks excellent. Clear and responsive too. It feels like a high quality device. Flicking from app to app, the handset copes brilliantly as I fumble my way through the menu's, changing my mind, the phone keeps up with

The initial worry with any borderline 'droid phone is whether the screen is resistive or capacitive. Capacitive screens tend to be pretty responsive, where as resistive, require resistance, IE, they need to be pushed. The good news with this one, is, it's capacitative. After opening the very funky box, a simple user guide falls out. Seriously easy instructions to follow, one may assume this is a smartphone for beginners. Appropriately ignoring the guide, I put my sim in and ran through the initial setup. Simple, within about 6 simple setup screens, I was connected to both my network and wifi. I followed the 'learn more about your phone route' and found myself looking at the same simple instructions that fell out of the box earlier! Gmail details entered and a short while later, my screen is full of facebook (I didn't ask for this, it just appeared!) I duly enter my facebook details and surprise, surprise I'm logged into Facebook. Then, I allow INQ mobile to acce

I welcome comments and respect other people's difference of opinions. But if you're compelled to comment, do it with manners and/or respect. Otherwise, I'll simply ignore your ill-conceived diatribe. Apparently the V-Moda crossfades improve over time, to be specific, one reader suggested 22 hours or more!! Wow. I have left them plugged into a music source for 50 hours now, and well, to be honest they still sound poor by comparison to the beats phones. Although some clarity of the mid range does appear to have improved. However they still play second fiddle to the balanced results from the Beats. Yes, on paper, in terms of frequency response, the V-Moda's should produce better results. The headphones I replaced had a better frequency response than the Beats, but they didn't sound half as good. Numbers don't always give one the full picture. It would also appear that other reviewers (perhaps even with younger ears than mine) wouldn't rate the sonic ability

Alcatel have surprised me in the past. Whilst this blog has focussed mainly on the high end smartphones. It's interesting from time to time to delve into the cheaper end of the spectrum. Like the used car forecourts, sometimes this end of the market can be more rewarding than the top end. Expectations are lower, therefore delights and surprises are more regular occurrences. Here I'll be giving the briefest of overviews of three current Alcatel offerings. The OT710, OT799 and the Android powered OT980. The 710 is a svelte touch screen device, small and thinner than a palm pre. The screen is noticeably blocky by comparison to top end models and the colours look dour and pale. Although the menu's are well laid out, the resistive screen needs a good push to activate the icons, even swiping the screen to unlock is an annoyance. The camera doesn't appear to auto rotate image's (this really annoys me, especially when people upload pics to facebook etc, and you have to ti

For those of you that noticed I didn't mention the Nexus S curved screen, you're absolutely right. I spent a whole morning with it looking over its features and hadn't noticed one of its unique selling points. Which goes to show, either it doesn't detract from the user experience, or its a complete waste of space. My belief is the latter, it makes absolutely no difference or benefit at all, and if the 'worlds first curved screen' is enough to rouse your interest levels, then you're an easily misguided fool.

Ok, I've opened the box and, well, to be frank, with the exception of the buttons at the bottom of the screen, it doesn't look that much more different than a Galaxy S. Turning the unit on, and to get started, I have to touch up the Android. Is there some subtle psychological 'connection' here, by touching the android, somehow, I'm accepting it into my life? Then, as per usual, create or sign in using the gmail account I have, noticing in the process that Swype isn't enable out of the box, or as an input option. Why ever the hell not, it's one of the best things about android? Signing in shows us that, it hasn't realised it doesn't have a data connection, so it asks me to connect to wifi, which I do; and then re-input my password. There's a problem with our wifi too so, I skip the process to troubleshoot. I attempt to slide the menu from the top of the phone down, but I notice that the quick access wifi, bluetooth, options are no longer there, li

Over the last few weeks, I've been exploring options for free online storage. Previously, I've been a keen advocate of Dropbox. So keen in fact that they've upped my storage allowance from the stadard 2gb to over 6gb, simply because I've successfully referred so many new customers. Dropbox has a simple app which creates a folder on your Mac, within your home folder, which simply stays up to date with their servers. Mp3's are indexed, so when you put them into a folder, although they eat into your allowance and do show as on your hard drive, they're simply pulled from a catalogue of pre stored Mp3's on Dropbox servers. So they sync pretty much instantly. There is also a dropbox iphone app, which can be pin protected and the same program also works well on PC. Folders can also be shared with other Dropbox users by right clicking and selecting sharing options. Humyo is a similar service which offers a far more generous 10Gb of storage, although its split, 50% f