JJRC have sent over a little Quadcopter to look at. This funky little toy costs around £20 and can be picked up from various online retailers.

Main Features:
2.4GHz control system:
Ensures the stronger anti-interference performance and powerful signal

360-degree flip:
The quadcopter will flip forward / backward / leftward / rightward according to your instructions

6 axis gyro:
Provides the best stability during indoor and outdoor flight

Colourful LED light:
The drone will shine in the darkness, shows you the right flying direction and gives you a special look

Super mini design:
Easy to carry, takes it into your pocket and enjoys flight anywhere anytime

Tumbling skill:
It can realise 3D tumbling in four directions with colourful LED lights

Speed switch:
High-low speed modes can be changed by the transmitter

Longer propeller usage life:
4 safety guard-protected propellers prevent collision and damage

Check here for more information.

You can grab one from Amazon here.

The post A Look at the JJRC Quadcopter H36 appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Tech Addicts UK Podcast – July 12th 2017 – Prime deals and are Flagships overrated?

With Gareth Myles, Ricky West and Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

RSS Link: http://mobiletechaddicts.libsyn.com/rss

Direct Download.

iTunes

Stitcher

Tunein

pppppppppppppppp

Show Notes

Play Test:

Gareth

• The Boy With His Head Stuck In A Book Review

Gavin

• Aukey Bluetooth Wireless Headphones review
• Aukey Quick Charge 3 16,000mAh Power Bank review
• Aukey Clip On Wide & Macro Lens review

Ricky

• Fresh ‘n Rebel Rockbox Cube Fabriq Edition
• Vodafone Smart V8 Review

Bargain Basement:

• Nokia 3 UK-SIM Free Smartphone £129.99
• APPLE 9.7″ iPad Pro £489.00

Main Show URL: http://www.techaddicts.uk

Email: contact@techaddicts.uk

Twitter: @techaddictsuk ; @garethmyles ; @gavinfabiani  ; @GadgetyNewsCom ; @JayGarrett ; @swanny ; @girlsngadgets ; @wildlime ; @TechTalkUK1

Facebook: Tech Addicts

Web: http://gavinsgadgets.com ; http://GadgetyNews.com ; http://swanny.me/

Google Plus: +Techaddicts; +garethmyles ; +gavinfabiani-laymond; +JayGarrett

The post Podcast – 12th July 2017 – Prime deals and are Flagships overrated? appeared first on Tech Addicts.

The Mio MiVue C330 is a cheap but impressive dashcam for a little more than £100. Giving you piece of mind that any incidents on the road will be captured and ready to be presented is needed. Occupying a small amount of space on your windscreen, the Mio MiVue C330 features:

• 1080P Full HD recording
• Auto record when starting car
• 5 axis g-sensor
• 2.0″ Screen
• MiVue manager desktop application

You can grab one from Amazon for £105 currently.

The post Mio MiVue C330 Unboxing – a great dashcam? appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Sennheiser continues to produce some high-quality goods are respectable prices with these OCX 686G sports headphones. The OCX 686G SPORTS headset combines innovative design with best in class sound quality. It’s compatible with Samsung Galaxy devices and most other Android devices. Sennheiser has added some new moisture-resistant materials and fitted with SteriTouch antibacterial ear adapters, this ergonomic ‘ear clip’ design provides a secure fit and exceptional wearing comfort.

The Sennheiser OCX 686G Sport headphones for Android phones are available from Amazon here, for £79.99.

Or if Apple is your thing, the Sennheiser OCX 686i Sports Headphones for iOS are also available and similarly priced at £79.99.

The post Sennhesier OCX 686G Sport Headphones Unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

You backup battery might be missing one important feature, solar! Image not having to plug in your power bank to charge it. Instead just leaving it out on a window sill to absorb some rays to replenish your phone battery. Nice idea and we will experiment to see what this is capable. The power bank also features Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and a 16,000 mAh battery to keep you on the go for a long time.

You can grab one from Amazon, here.

If the Solar element isn’t your bag, we took a look at the regular 16,000 mAh charger with Qualcomm recently. Alongside the bigger brother, the 20,000 mAh power bank here.

The post Aukey 16000mAh Solar charger with Type C Unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Those that take their gaming serious will have a need for the best sound setup and there are options for not having to break the bank to get an amazing sound setup. Enter the Sennheiser GSX 1000, a £190 Dac/Amp that features a 7.1 Binaural Rendering Engine to achieve Surround Sound, Double USB enumeration for separation of game sound and communication audio, the ability to adjust game and communication audio separately. Change between the headset and speaker sound without having to unplug any cables and a stylish aluminium volume wheel and high-quality materials for long-lasting durability.

You can grab one from Amazon for £189.99 here.

There is also a bigger brother, the Sennheiser GSX 1200 PRO, for £219.99 adding two extra 2.5 mm chat interface sockets adding the capability of up to 8 GSX 1200 PROs together for hard-wired lag-free communication with control of inbound and outbound chat, again available from Amazon, here.

The post Sennheiser GSX 1000 Audio Amplifier Unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Aukey has put together another Mechanical Keyboard LED-Backlit, this time at a much lower price and yet featuring Blue Switches, a full 104 Keys and water resistance.

The Aukey LED Mechanical Gaming Keyboard does, unfortunately, have a US-Layout as default, however, if like me you can see past that there is a metal plate, full sized keys and anti-ghosting with a key cap puller for Gamers and Typists to reconfigure.

You can grab one from Amazon here.

Check out the AUKEY Mechanical Gaming Keyboard for a specced out alternative.

The post Aukey LED Mechanical Keyboard unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Another rock solid performer coming from Archos, originally built by Nubia and Archos doing nothing to hide the fact.

The Archos Diamond Alpha is a nicely priced and sleek mid-range device that will impress right from the get go.

The Archos Diamond Alpha is powered by 1.4GHz octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. The phone packs 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. The dual cameras contain a 13-megapixel Sony optics on the rear and a 16-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

The Archos Diamond Alpha is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 4G.

Unfortunately Archos Diamond Alpha runs Android 6.0, however, has the April 2017 security update and a heavy the Nubia UI. A 2950mAh non-removable battery rest inside and a 5.2-inch on the front. Here in the UK, the phone will cost you £350.

You can pick up the Archos Diamond Alpha for £350 from the Archos website.

The post Archos Diamond Alpha Unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

With Gareth Myles and Ricky West

RSS Link: http://mobiletechaddicts.libsyn.com/rss

Direct Download

iTunes

Stitcher

Tunein

Show Notes

News

• Nokia 8 Leaks

Play Test:

Gareth

• Kodak Tablet 10 Unboxing.
• Archos Diamond Alpha Unboxing
• Sennheiser GSX 1000 Audio Amplifier Unboxing
• Aukey 16000mAh Solar charger with Type C Unboxing

Ricky

• Motion sensitive light
• Vodafone Smart N8
• Ataribox

Bargain Basement:

• Alcatel Pixi 3 £1.99 + £20 Top up
• Acer Swift 3 £479.99

Main Show URL: http://www.techaddicts.uk

Email: contact@techaddicts.uk

Twitter: @techaddictsuk ; @garethmyles ; @gavinfabiani  ; @GadgetyNewsCom ; @JayGarrett ; @swanny ; @girlsngadgets ; @wildlime ; @TechTalkUK1

Facebook: Tech Addicts

Web: http://gavinsgadgets.com ; http://GadgetyNews.com ; http://swanny.me/

Google Plus: +Techaddicts; +garethmyles ; +gavinfabiani-laymond; +JayGarrett

The post Podcast – 19th July 2017 – Nokia 8, Archos Diamond Alpha and Sensitive Lighting appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Budget screens are always something folks are wary of however BenQ has been hitting most of the right notes for some time now with their recent line and the GW2406Z is another perfectly tuned chime.

The GW2406Z is notable right out of the box for having very little in the bezel department, looks can be deceiving as the screen doesn’t quite meet the minimal bezel, and there is a 2mm black line between the two. However, for argument sake, I would consider this to be one of the smallest bezels, especially on a cheap screen, for a long time. There is a matte black chassis and a compact but spacious 24-inches view space.

The rear isn’t particularly wide, measuring a total width of 1.6 inches, the GW2406Z is pretty slim and lightweight. An external power brick will require a home somewhere around the desk or surface and whilst it’s understood that the power hardware would have added extra size to the rear I’m in the camp of this being the less of two evils and personally strap them to the underside of the desk, out of the way and forgotten about.

Also around the back are the connectivity features and the layout holds no big surprises. Here we have a DisplayPort 1.2, an HDMI and a VGA port. One of the few oddities about the GW2406Z is that there is a lack of speakers, I can’t imagine too many people out there find this a deal breaker, however, it’s worth noting if this was to be the main office screen needing some limited beeps and notifications. Also missing is a USB hub, again a difficult one to fault as this is a luxury we are taking for granted now.

On the front, there is no indication where the power or on screen menu buttons are and you will have to fumble and consult literature as to the workings of this. There are not ideally located and certainly not intuitive. More effort could be made on these and BenQ have rarely let me down in this field.

The stand is a little restrictive. There is a tilt to the mechanism and that is all. No swivel action at all, save for moving the whole unit. However, the stand is solid and unintrusive.

The BenQ GW2406Z comes with a 24-inch IPS panel at a 1080p resolution the viewing angles are perfectly acceptable and the colours are rich. It features a 5ms response time, alongside a 60Hz refresh rate. As a budget screen, it is impressive to find that the screen can display 98% of the sRGB gamut working out better than a TN display which most would expect to be better.

Particularly dark scenes and objects have a slight greyish tint on media playback and gaming and is a little disappointed. However, the contrast ratio remains constant no matter how high or low you adjust the brightness.

The IPS panel in the BenQ GW2406Z  did not require very much adjustment out of the box. The On screen controls are annoying to use, however, thankfully if it unlikely you will need to use them as the screen is well setup by default.

Added by BenQ is their AMA (Advanced Motion Accelerator) overdrive feature, designed to relieve some of the blurs if trying some fast paced gaming. On the normal setting, this seems to smooth out the result very well as increasing can cause reverse ghosting.

The BenQ GW2406Z is a pretty smart all-rounder. For such a small price, it achieves some great results. For general office duties, media consumption and web browsing this is a fine piece of kit.

The post BenQ GW2406Z review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Is your smart home safe? Let SENSE take over!

Trojans, Malicious spyware, Botnets are just some of the potential threats to your home network.  Many people are unaware that these threats can infiltrate your home network by a simple click on a website that like a cyber landmine could have a catastrophic effect on your digital self.  Credit card details, access to your personal documents, photographs anything that you have online that is of value can be taken remotely in seconds. This is truly frightening and the attitude this will never happen to me will not protect you. Prevention is better than the cure!

Thankfully F-Secure a Finnish cyber security and privacy company established since 1988 have been working on SENSE a device designed to create a secure home network and protect you and your family’s digital identities.

SENSE is a smart security router that is being heavily advertised as ‘The missing piece of your connected home’ Being a family man I want to protect my home and family from any threats so what can SENSE do?

SENSE can connect to all devices in the home from tablets and smartphones to games consoles and baby monitors.

In the age of IoT it is important that all items within your home are under your control and not left open for an unknown presence to use at their will.  Listening to F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen at this years TNW 2017 conference in Amsterdam, made me stand up and take notice that the possibility for a hacker to infiltrate my home through a games console is a reality. With the WannaCry ransomware attack happening in May 2017 F-secures timing to launch SENSE could not have happened at a better time. Everyone needs to be more security savvy and with SENSE F-secure has made this easy to do.

You can check out the unboxing of SENSE here with Gareth.

Out of the box, you have to appreciate the commendable design of the SENSE router, a strikingly bright white triangular shape with the router panel hidden away at the back, definitely different from past routers I have had which have been typically black/grey and boring.

Inside the box, there is a rather striking cardboard panel welcoming you as a smart person for purchasing SENSE. I guess in the world of smart technologies we also need to adapt and become smarter people. Under this you have a few leaflets; Product safety information and a Quick guide setup for SENSE.

Below the leaflets, you have the angelic white SENSE router, the power cord and plug and an ethernet cable.

The instructions on the cardboard panel instruct you to download the SENSE app from either the Google Play Store or App store. There are a number of ways to connect SENSE to your home network. They are clearly outlined in the instructions. Setup took about ten minutes which was surprisingly quick. I downloaded the SENSE app from the play store and followed the on screen setup. Below you can follow the screenshots of the setup.

My current broadband provider is with Sky.

SENSE connected effortlessly to the internet and boom it was ready to serve and protect.

SENSE creates a secure WiFi network within your home network. It splits the frequency between 2.4ghz and 5ghz which is useful. Your original WiFi network will still be available to connect to but there will be two further options to consider F-SECURE SENSE 2.4 and 5ghz.

I’m not sure what I was expecting with this newfound technology. SENSE requires minimal effort and works tirelessly to protect all my devices connected to it.  SENSE so far has blocked 386 threats on the 8 devices I have connected to the network. As you can see from the screenshot these threats are generally websites blocked that SENSE realises there is a potential threat. We all have clicked on a ‘where are they now?’ link to be faced with a barrage of advertising and pop ups. Even though you could just look ‘them’ up on a search engine you still proceed to click here for the next page allowing your vital information being collected by a website like this. SENSE recognises the potential threat and blocks the website from being viewed. Unless you don’t mind having your data shared by a website like this SENSE will allow you to continue against its better judgement.

My wife and kids are also becoming smarter with SENSE. They are now learning where to access the information they need safely as SENSE has blocked a few of their usual news feed websites are deemed unsafe.

The SENSE app also gives a breakdown of each device on browsing protection and tracking protection. The beauty about SENSE is that it will evolve with time, more updates and patches will be created all included with your one off fee of £169.

One thing I found surprising is that my phone which I leave on all night was trying to access websites as I slept. This may be an application that has not closed down properly but with SENSE to the rescue it has discovered something sinister and blocked the action.

Should you invest in SENSE? The price tag of £169 for SENSE with 12 months membership followed by £8.50 a month subscription may put a lot of consumers off, why pay for internet security when you can get it for free? As you will know nothing is free nowadays and that free software is making you pay for it with your privacy.

SENSE does not track your internet history as explained here.

With SENSE now running in my house for three weeks, I have discovered WiFi signal to be stronger. Previous to SENSE we had suffered drop offs and had to restart the router in order to connect to the internet again. SENSE boosting WiFi signal is an added bonus to the job it was designed for.

SENSE has proven a welcome addition to my now smarter home. The digital clock displayed on the front has become more useful than I originally thought. We have absolutely no luck with analogue clocks in our house no clock has the right display, knowing that the SENSE router has the right time my wife and kids just pop into the hall if they need to know the time.

I have peace of mind that my family and my IoT devices are not going to be attacked as SENSE acts as my cyber Guardian. F-Secure has not rushed the production of SENSE as they wanted to get the product just right. Their patience and endurance have truly paid off as SENSE really is the missing piece of your connected home.

A mobile device to run the F-Secure SENSE app is required to operate:

• iOS 9 or higher (iPad 2 not supported)
• Android 4.4 or higher
• Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE)
• Support for WPA2 WLAN encryption
• Extra security functions are available on Windows 7 (SP1) and later (32 and 64 bit) and Android.
  
  Hardware Specifications
• WLAN
• IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz, 5GHz, AC 1750
• Antenna 4 × internal
• USB – 1 × USB 3.0
• WAN – 1 × RJ45 Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps
• LAN – 3 × RJ45 Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0 & Bluetooth LE
• CPU – 1 GHz Dual-core 
• RAM – 512 MB DDR3
• ROM – 1 GB
• Power DC: 12V 2A, AC: 110-240V, 50/60Hz 0.8A max.
• Dimensions – 217 × 125 × 90 mm (8.54 × 4.88 × 3.54 in)

The post F-Secure Sense Review – The best online security? appeared first on Tech Addicts.

The BenQ GL2706PQ 27-inch LED monitor is a large, good looking screen with a has decent resolution and looks to be a Jack of All Trades, Master of Much!

The GL2706PQ is catchily titled and look as you would expect a screen to look. A thick bezel, measuring around 1 inch of black plastic on top of 27”s of matte screen. Thankfully the size of the 27” screen distracts greatly from the bezels and helps cut a more acceptable aesthetic. In saying that, the screen is pretty heavy, weighing in at around 6Kg, so try to leave it at home as much as possible.

That base also allows for the screen to rotate and tilt quite a bit, allowing the screen to be quite flexible. The screen zips up to 120cm above the desk and has a full 90 degrees of pivot. There is a decent tilt to avoid any glare, however, there is a good viewing angle so you might not need to adjust the screen too much.

The screen can also turn a full 90 degrees to benefit coders and writers and artists and people with broken necks.

Connections on the back include an HDMI port, 1.2 DisplayPort, DVI-D and a headphone jack.

The panel here is TN technology with a decent resolution of a 2560 x 1440. Whilst the image quality doesn’t particularly stand out it is certainly more impressive than the standard TN display. Colours are bright and the 1000:1 contrast ratio certainly makes all the difference, if not particularly dazzling. Where the bright colours pretty vivid the darker areas are where this suffers. The blacks and dark greys are not terribly impressive.

For office work, this screen is perfectly suited, for gaming I have no complaints. Certainly, there was a little issue with the grey scale however not enough to distract and primarily because I was looking for it. The 1ms response time is better than you would need from a similarly priced IPS display, however, the 30Hz – 78 Hz vertical refresh rate does fall a little behind when playing faster action games. Using the screen to edit video also presented very little in the way of problems.

The BenQ GL2706PQ is a perfectly acceptable screen and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone looking for a  27-inch desktop workhorse. BenQ’s Eye-care technology help the office worker, the response time helps the gamer and the price really helps this one come with a full recommendation.

You can find the BenQ GL2706PQ for sale on Amazon here.

The post BenQ GL2706PQ Review – A great screen with huge benefits appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Portable travel mice are popular at the moment with every retailer seeming to do something along the lines of a portable assistant for your laptop or tablet whether it be a Bluetooth connection,  focusing on its own proprietary wireless link or just a simple wire that plugs into USB the portable, the smaller mouse is big business.

Enter Speedlink with a Calado silent wireless mouse. We have looked this number of SpeedLink peripherals in the past and I’m generally quite pleased with the quality versus the price. The same can be said for the Calado. I’ve been using the Calado for the last three weeks and recently took it on holiday with me and relied on it as a more comfortable option for my laptop than using the Trackpad, and it worked out quite well.

The biggest selling point of the mouse is the fact that it has a whisper quiet Clicker. Something I have come to rely on, as we record our podcast, a silent voice is paramount for audio recording or in the event you might disturb a sleeping partner or for use on a plane. It’s considerate and I can’t believe it’s taking so long for this to become an important feature in tech.

The Calado has a very simple compact shape that lends itself very well to larger hands. Some of these travel mice tend to be a little too small for longer periods of work. Having large hands myself I find the Calado to be very comfortable under palm and all of the buttons are laid out as you would expect on regular desktop mice.

On the top is a non-slip rubber coating that helps greatly when tossing the mouse around in your luggage and provides a cruel exterior when working in a warm climate.

The precision amounts to a 600dpi optical sensor that keeps accuracy and response time bang on and I haven’t noticed any problem areas when using it with Windows or Android. Above the scroll wheel is a dedicated dpi switch that allows you to quickly swap between three different levels of sensor resolution to adjust the mouse’s sensitivity to a faster or slower pointer speed.

If there was one problem I would raise against the Calado would be the USB dongle. There is very little resistance in the slot to keep the dongle in place and whilst it doesn’t fall out particularly easily, I do feel the worry is there and therefore it’s better off keeping it in the USB slot of your computer 24/7 than leaving it to chance as if it’s lost you cannot connect to the mouse.

The mouse does not feature an on/off button, instead of relying on activation by just clicking one of the buttons.  I haven’t found this to be a nuisance and for the three weeks I’ve been using it with my laptop the battery has held out. After a few minutes, the automatic standby mode kicks in and the mouse puts itself to sleep saving battery power.

We have looked at the number portable mice over the last while and honestly, this SpeedLink is the one I’m going to continue to use with my laptop as I feel it’s just the right size for my hand. Available for around £20 from Amazon the mouse build quality and price do seem to match up. Certainly, there are cheaper options however the rubberised coating on the outside give that higher quality feel.

The post Speedlink CALADO Silent Wireless Mouse Review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

A challenge sent my way is to identify a foolproof way of watching television in bed whilst a partner is sleeping. Certainly most people would get around this by using an iPad or tablet with a set of headphones however what if you want that big screen effect or perhaps have a TV nailed to the bedroom wall that doesn’t get as much use anymore as you are often having to resort to the tablet method to catch up on some crucial TV in the darkness of night.

Most are happy to sleep with colours blurring across the room however the sound pouring out of a television in the wee hours can never be just right as a gunshot or explosion can upset the perfect volume level you may find to just be able to hear the dialogue without disturbing anyone.

German audio company Sennheiser seems to have cracked this dilemma that probably bothers a large amount people all over the world. The flex 5000, a particularly Goofy title for the hardware creates a wireless link between the base unit and a small remote control that you pin to your lapel and plug your headphones into.  

Sennheiser recommended that I use their HD 569 headphones to test as these closed back headphones are designed to give the best playback of television audio and isolating audio. But obviously, you can use whatever headphones you prefer.

The flex 5000 itself looks like some kind of elongated TV remote control crossed with a cartoonish wedge of cheese. It’s an odd shape for a TV stand or a chest of drawers and it occupies maybe a little more space than it really should. There are a couple of cables required to connect the Flex 5000 to your television. Initially, I tried the 3.5-millimetre cable, however, there was a hiss associated with this and whether this was to do with my television or just a sub standard cable I opted to change to the optical cable quite quickly afterwards, and for the better. Having a wall mounted television meant this was a bit of a pain as the optical socket was right in the middle of the back of the television and not accessible from the side, so I had to take everything down in order to plug it in. And now it’s in I’m never taking it out.

The power socket goes into the appropriate socket on the back beside the optical cable and aside from the headphone unit you’re ready to go. Lifting the remote unit out of the dock there are only a couple of buttons for you to familiarise yourself with and at the bottom is a 3.5 mm headphone jack for you to plug your headphones into. Clicking a button on the remote activates the connection and the audio will start pouring through. The flex 5000 does not over take the audio channels on your television,  in fact, it runs in tandem with them and you will need to turn down the volume of your television whilst the flex 5000 is running.  

This isn’t a system for you to be able to stream music to headphones and walk around your house. I live in a brick house with brick walls throughout and I was really only able to move about 10 feet from the television before it started cutting out. The signal can certainly travel through a brick wall however it does have trouble with multiple brick walls. In testing the range I was able to walk across my garden up to around about 100 yards away from the unit with only a double glazed window obstructing the Line of Sight between the main unit and the remote.

There are three different hearing profiles built into the Flex 5000. These profiles are designed to intelligently sort out speech from TV background sound and honestly, it works pretty well. The profiles switch is built into the main unit alongside the remote and with the click of a button you can flip between them and the LED on the front of the main unit changes colour. You can also balance the audio between your left and right ear from the main unit. All of this works extremely well however it will take some experience to realise which profile suits, what the best and you might find yourself clicking through them and struggling to hear the difference when watching particular content.

Using high-quality headphones to listen to a TV show is a very different world to having the greatest surround sound system set up around your television. Watching something on the move with a pair of in-ear noise cancelling headphones can be a very isolating experience. The amount of detail to the audio with particular voices sounds gorgeous to your ears on such a personal basis. The flex 5000 recreates this in the home and adds a beautiful personal experience the television viewing.

There is a latency of less than 60 milliseconds and I will go as far to say not noticeable at all. And with the battery life on the remote of up to 12 hours, it means you’re not going to be running out of battery too soon.  I tested this by accident when my wife knocked the remote off the Cradle before we went on holiday only to come back to have a couple of minutes of usability in the remote before requiring a charge.  I honestly thought something had gone wrong with the unit however a quick charge restored everything to normal.

The Flex 5000 is easy to use and easy to get the most out of. Audio quality will suffer with a lesser pair of headphones however the Flex 5000 really helps provide a beautifully personal experience for home media. You can pick the Sennheiser Flex 5000 up from Amazon for £179.99.

The post Sennheiser Flex 5000 review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Ever looked at your iPhone 7 and thought “you know what would make this phone better – more screens!”? Well someone at InkCase certainly did and came up with a protective case for your iPhone that has an e-ink screen on the back.

The first thing you notice as soon as you remove the case from the package is just how unnaturally light it seems, especially for something that contains a screen, battery, Bluetooth and changing system. It has a very low profile so it really doesn’t add much bulk to your phone. Your phone fits snuggly into the impact resistant, semi rigid InkCase, VERY snugly. So much so in fact that you need a little tool (supplied) that looks very like a guitar plectrum to remove the case. The unit is charged by a proprietary cable with a magnetic attachment, which is not only rather swish, but it also helps keep the size down – no chunky ports. There are buttons on the perimeter of the case that correspond with your volume and power buttons and I have to say, these work fantastically well. Much better than the rubber buttons you usually get on cases. The case has a raised bezel, which offers further protection for your screen.

The case does feel very well built, despite its feather weight and slim profile, although I did find the finish on it to be very slick in hand and it offers no grip at all. I did notice that once or twice, whilst sitting down, my phone did try to slide from my pocket and make its escape.

The obvious feature of this product is, of course, the e-ink screen on the back. The case pairs with your phone via Bluetooth and is controlled by the InkCase app, downloaded from the app store. There are 3 soft keys on the InkCase which are used for navigation and selection, as well as a power button. When you transition from using the phones touch screen to the e-ink screen, you will undoubtedly find yourself tapping on it and wondering why it wasn’t responding! You can use the second screen as an e-reader for news (pushed to your device) and ebooks in the epub format with content added via iTunes or the Pocket app (you will need to set up an account), again, available through the app store. You can also display photos, sent from your phones photo library, or the InkCase’s widget. The widget can be a simple clock or it can sync with your phone using low power Bluetooth to display the time along with your reminders and calendar events for the day.

This is a very smart idea and I have to admit, I love the concept. I did feel that the functionality was a bit limited though. When displaying a photo, I would have loved for there to be a gallery function that would periodically cycle through the photos you sent to the case rather than a single static one. I’m not sure how comfortable I would be having my reminders and daily itinerary on permanent display for the people sitting opposite to you on the train to read, however, the customisation of the InkCase widget is fairly basic, only giving a few options. If you just want the clock, it’s a big analogue dial. I would hope that as the product develops, more customisation options will be added allowing more control over what is displayed etc.

The screen itself is pretty decent, although the resolution is relatively low and I noticed quite a bit of ghosting left after the screen has transitioned as there is no screen flash between images. Battery life seems very good for the diminutive size of it and will depend on what you have the “auto power off” function set to and of course how much you use it. The screen only uses power in transition, so static image will last a lot longer than a constantly updating clock display. When the unit switches off it displays a default notification image. There is an option in the app for “customised power off image” but there are no clear instructions as to how to actually do this.

I will say though that InkCase seems to be a company that listens to feedback and learn from it. They have recently released a new and improved version of the case for the iPhone 7 plus and have increased its functionality, adding more features. This a great sign, and I am more than intrigued to see what this company can come up with in subsequent iterations of the case. The original iPhone 7 case is a very handy gadget, admittedly not without a few limitations, but it is early days and very importantly – it has shown that it can be done. You can have a second screen on your phone with its own separate power source for separate tasks. As each new version of this case comes out, it will undoubtedly unlock more and more capabilities, and that is really rather exciting!

Click here for the Oaxis InkCase website.

Click here to go straight to the Kickstarter campaign.

The post Oaxis InkCase for the iPhone 7 Review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

The Blackberry KeyOne is the latest offering from Blackberry under the flag of TCL. This flagship is possibly the most interesting Android hardware on the market right now as it dares to be different. Keeping Blackberry’s trade mark Qwerty keyboard and making efforts to enhance the software and hardware we are used to the KeyOne is a pleasantly surprising flagship alternative.The Blackberry KeyOne is the latest offering from Blackberry under the flag of TCL. This flagship is possibly the most interesting Android hardware on the market right now as it dares to be different. Keeping Blackberry’s trade mark Qwerty keyboard and making efforts to enhance the software and hardware we are used to the KeyOne is a pleasantly surprising flagship alternative.

Featuring the camera from the Google Pixel, a large battery and the DTEK security suite there is a lot to like in this business focused phone with an attitude for leisure.

• OS – Android 7.1.1 Nougat
• Display – 4.5-inch, 1620×1080 IPS LCD 434ppi
• Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core 2.00GHz
• GPU – Adreno 506
• RAM – 3GB
• Storage – 32GB
• Expandable – microSD up to 2TB
• Rear Camera – 12MP (1.55 micron) f/2.0, PDAF dual-tone LED flash HDR, 4K, 30fps
• Front Camera – 8MP f/2.2 1.12-micron pixels, Selfie flash, 1080p/30 video
• Battery – non-removable 3505 mAh
• Charging – Quick Charge 3.0 USB-C
• DTEK security suite
• FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption
• Dimensions – 149.1 mm x 72.39 mm x 9.4 mm
• Weight – 180 grams

The Blackberry KeyOne is available on Amazon for around £500.

The post Blackberry KeyOne Unboxing appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Airboxlad has sent over the Foobot for a little assessment. This box of tricks analyses the air in a p[particular room and gives you an outlook on how is it. Interacting with an app on your phone you can keep up to date with the air quality in that room wherever you happen to be. Alerts can be sent to you if there is a change.

Foobot uses internal sensors to check for pollution in the form of chemicals and particulate matter, which are up to five times more common indoors as a result of confinement and alerts you via its companion app and the LEDs on the device itself.

The device is sensitive to:
• PM2.5s – Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres, like dust, pollen and pet dander
• VOCs – Volatile organic compounds, toxic gases like formaldehyde and ammonia. This sensor is also sensitive to carbon monoxide, a potentially dangerous gas.
• Carbon dioxide – Exhaled naturally from humans. Not itself harmful, but indicative of poor circulation. This is measured via data from other sensors.
• Humidity – Low humidity can cause irritation. Excessive humidity let mould and dust mites grow.
• Temperature – Mostly for comfort, but still important to optimise

You can grab one off Amazon when they can keep them in stock!

The post Foobot Unboxing – Check your air is the best it can be! appeared first on Tech Addicts.

You apply the words Porsche Design to anything and it can conjure up images a particular brand of car, or wildly expensive Huawei or Blackberry phones, maybe some sunglasses, watches or perhaps a robust Lacie portable hard drive. It would seem that AOC has managed to snare the design of Studio F. A. Porsche, apply it to a couple of their screens and bring it in at a reasonable price, albeit with its limitations.

AOC have produced the PDS241 and the slightly larger 27-inch version, the PDS271. They decided to keep these screens within reach of anyone looking for a 1080p IPS panel.

To start with, the monitor looks exceptional. From the original press release, I was taken by the immense styling and the skinny screen. In reality, I was mildly disappointed by some of the decisions however the panel’s tiny footprint is an extremely redeeming feature.

Sensibly keep the price low, AOC is looking for £189 for this stylish display and you will be hard pressed to find a better-looking screen for the money. There are extremely tiny bezels,  and whilst it’s not exactly frameless this is about as close as you will see. The screen measures a mere 5.2mm at its narrowest point and from the side, it’s truly impressive. However, There design is somewhat spoiled by a glossy plastic panel over the workings of the screen, making up almost a third of the rear of the display. Certainly, few will be looking at the back of the screen.

To the bottom of the front is a brushed steel panel carrying the AOC brand, however, the Porsche Design brand is oddly missing.

A little cheat AOC has used it to put some of the power connections into a little box that attaches to the main screen by HDMI. Thankfully, this power supply sized box is styled in the same shiny silver of the main screen. This gives the screen a unique desktop companion that you might not be so concerned about hiding as you would a black plastic box on a standard screen.

The stand features the brushed silver metal look of the lower screen however the design lacks adjustment. You can tilt the screen some and that’s your lot. Following this leads to the micro HDMI port connects.

This proves to be one of the biggest problems with the AOC PDS241 Porsche Design is that there is one solitary HDMI socket, hidden at the foot of the stand. I am hoping that perhaps in the future different versions of the power brick might be released allowing for differing connections.

The screen lacks built-in speakers which many will shrug off, however, there is a headphone jack connection, much to my surprise allowing headphones or external speakers to be added. There is no control panel, instead, a lonely button is hidden under the screen pressing this brings up the easily navigated menu and holding the button in powers the screen off. The stand continues the brushed silver metal theme of the monitor, with a simple yet elegant curved design. The micro HDMI port connects to the monitor at the tip of the stand.

Out of the boxes, this AOC requires very little adjustment. As stated early, the on screen display is incredibly simple to use, especially as there is only one button. Pressing the button brings up the display, pressing again a number of times moves the cursor to the element needing adjustment, a short wait sees the icon selected and a bar appears in the middle of the screen. Pressing the button over and over increases the bar, once you exceed the max it drops to the lowest. Some will find issue however it’s just simple.

The screen’s picture quality is very good, the AOC PDS241 has vibrant colours and great contrast. The blacks are deep and there is are great viewing angles. The matte screen has a layer of anti-glare coating that really helps diminish the light in brighter climates keep the picture quality crisp and looking food.

The big flaws with the screen’s image quality is the 60Hz refresh rate combined with a 4ms response time makes gaming a less stellar experience with blurring and ghosting during fast action. The PDS241 does a good job of colour reproduction but not amazing. Professionals will need to look elsewhere, however, most everyone else will find the screen perfectly usable.

The AOC PDS241 Porsche Design is a beautiful monitor to have on your desk. A lot of work has gone into to make it one of the best-looking screens on the market today and whilst there are some issues with the display this is incredible value for a great looking business screen.

The post AOC PDS241 review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

Recently I have been having a blast with mid-range phones. Right now this is the most interesting and satisfying area of mobile phone technology. As we have discussed at length on our Podcast mid-range phones are where all the action is, best value for money and most innovation. Lately, we have looked at efforts from Honor, Vodafone and Huawei. Each of which has been superb and highly recommended. Crazily, I’ll have to extend this status to the Archos Diamond Alpha, by far and away the best phone they have ever released.

Archos makes no secret that they didn’t build this.  The phone is actually a rebranded Nubia which is a sub-brand of ZTE. If you think of Huawei and their sub-brand Honor this is a similar set up to ZTE. Seems quite bizarre that Nubia would use a partnership with Archos to enter the UK market, however, it is not a partnership I am going to question in any way as it’s given Archos a wonderful phone to add into their catalogue.

Certainly, the phone is not without its faults however they are easily overlooked when you actually pick the phone up and feel the quality of the build. Looking around the phone on the top we have a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microphone hole.

To the right are a volume rocker and a power switch.

On the bottom are two speaker grills, the right of which contains a mono speaker, and the USB type-c connection. The mono speaker at the bottom is notable as it is quite loud and contains a decent fullness to its sound, ordinarily I would gloss over the speaker, however, this one deserves a little bit of attention as it’s slightly better than normal.

To the left is a little SIM card tray which contains a dual SIM setup or a micro SD card slot plus a single SIM setup.

Around the back are the dual 13-megapixel autofocus cameras with an LED flash.  These cameras have a 1.25-micrometre pixel size, geo-tagging, touch Focus, face detection, HDR service and panoramic function.  It can also capture video in 4K at 30 frames per second. Under here we have an obligatory fingerprint sensor.

On the front is a 5.2 inch IPS LCD touchscreen with a 424 PPI pixel density. The resolution of the screen is 1080 x 1920 and it looks pretty gorgeous. Above this is an ear speaker alongside a 16-megapixel selfie camera with an f stop of 2.2.

Underneath are 3 capacitive buttons,  in the centre is a red ring that glows when you have a notification and also acts as a home button. Either side of this is two configurable red dots that act back and menu buttons.

The whole thing has a severe iPhone 7 feel to it, looking at the pictures I’m sure you’ll agree that the layout is very similar and easily inspired by Apple’s offering. The rear is a form of plastic, however, is very high quality, possibly a little too smooth but altogether pleasing to the touch.

Inside the phone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor, backed by an Adreno 510 GPU and 4 gigabytes of RAM. This phone is no slouch, the 652 is roughly equivalent to the Snapdragon 820 from a couple of years back with better power management. And whilst this phone will hardly make a dent in the benchmark race the average user is going to suffer no slowdown whatsoever. It handles day-to-day tasks with ease and comfort. There also 64gb of storage and with the expandable storage reaching 256gb, you won’t be running out of space very quickly.

On the software side, things are a little disappointing as the phone is running Android 6.0 marshmallow.  This is a little bit off set by the fact that Nubia has added a full launcher to the experience and it’s actually quite good.  It is fairly heavy, removing the app drawer and replacing the notification shade, settings menu and adding a lot of features and tools. However much like Honor, a lot of effort has gone into it with various additions being somewhat useful for example Edge gestures, dual instances of various applications like Twitter, screen projection and a decently featured screenshot tool.

I did, however, find problem with notifications in that I haven’t received any for a while and I haven’t quite worked out why. The lock screen is quite difficult to have things interact with, for example, Spotify widgets do not appear on the lock screen by default and need to be added. My issue with notifications is that they don’t appear anywhere and I have to manually check in various social networks and email clients to see if there is actually any new content. There must be some setting in either of the original base version of Android or perhaps the Nubia launcher that I am missing however initial checks seem to confirm that notifications and widgets should be appearing on both the lock screen and the notification shade. As this device runs Android 6.0 there are some features of Android that are not available to the user, for example, Android pay.

The camera application is fully featured with lots of interesting additions to enhance the experience. There are various filters and modes to enjoy the likes of slow shutter photography like star tracking,  slow motion and time lapse. There are a few more difficult to use features such as 3D photography and zoom Blur.

When it comes to the camera it has to be said that the quality of the pictures is a little cold. Colours are not as vivid as I would have appreciated from the standard automatic settings. Also, the faster action tends to be somewhat pixelated and sometimes misses the crucial action. For all the metering that goes on when trying to get a fast action shot you come away with a blurry, colder image. That’s not to say that the camera is useless, far from it, the Alpha easily delivers a medium quality output, however, it could do with a little more adjustment to bring those colours out. There is a little Sony in the mix for the camera, however, I don’t feel that it has been fully realised and certainly doesn’t show in the final shots.

My time with the Diamond Alpha has been an incredibly pleasant one and I will be saddened to have to give it back to Archos. I have a flagship phone waiting to be reviewed, however, I’m not willing to put this down at the moment to switch my focus to the other phone right at the moment.

There is an awful lot of liking this phone the build quality is superb, however, Marshmallow and the camera bring it down a peg. With work on these two features and you will have something that can easily rival the excellence of the Honor 8. Right now this is a marvellous phone that will appeal to some. I would love to see this device succeed and put Archos solidly back on the map.

For more information and purchasing options head to the Archos website.

The post Archos Diamond Alpha Review appeared first on Tech Addicts.

As a podcaster, a shockmount is essential hardware for the sound recording setup. The Neewer Shockmount makes professional level of recording hardware accessible to all at the exceptionally low price of £6.50.

Neewer Shockmount features:

This professional suspension shock mount isolates most studio condenser mics from physical vibration, floor, and stand noise. For mic of 43-46mm Diameter.
Clamp interior is lined with cloth to protect your mic.
The die-cast steel adapter with 5/8 inch-27 threads features an angle adjustment with locking knob and will attach to any mic boom.
Material: metal, Bearable load: 3kg / 106oz.

You can grab one from Amazon here.

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