opinions
Opinion: What will Windows 8 ARM slates be? Because they won't be PCs
Mobile phone opinions pieces from the Recombu team
Opinion: The new iPad and the impact of mobile devices behind IT's Iron Curtain
2 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Mike Anderson, CEO of Chelsea Apps Factory, tells us why the coming together of home and business technology means we might get some fun apps to play with at work. You’ll all know that Apple has just released the new iPad with a sharper screen, a camera with advanced optics, a new processor which will significantly boost the device’s graphics capabilities and, for those prepared to pay (and live in the right region) a super-fast 4G (or 3.5G) wireless data connection. All of this also...
Opinion: What will be the best-selling mobile phones of 2012?
2 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
With over a week having passed now since Mobile World Congress closed its doors for another year, the time has come to take stock of the veritable smorgasbord of new products that made their debut. While some of the headlines may have been focused on what was not in Barcelona, from the no-show of a Samsung Galaxy S 3 to the release of invitations to the new iPad press conference, MWC nonetheless highlighted many of this Spring and Summer’s leading devices. So based on previous flops and...
Opinion: What will Windows 8 ARM slates be? Because they won't be PCs
2 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Windows 8, Microsoft has been saying for some time, is Windows “re-imagined for a new generation of computing devices”. There will still be familiar PCs running the x86 version of Windows 8, but there will also be Windows on ARM (WOA) slates (or tablets) and ultra-thin notebooks with battery life measured in days rather than hours that won’t run any current PC apps at all. You won’t buy them like a PC and you won’t use them like a PC, because they won’t...
Opinion: The three phone play - are Android OEMs finally starting to get it?
2 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
On the run up to MWC, everyone was expecting Android OEMs to come out guns blazing with the latest and greatest specs. Everyone would be pushing Nvidia’s latest quad-core monster of a processor, Tegra 3, along with larger screens, in resolution and size. That happened to a certain extent, and it certainly wasn’t surprising (if anything, a little disappointing) to see the push towards 4.7-inch devices with quad-core processors. It was refreshing then to see a certain level of...
Creating the perfect postcard with Touchnote
3 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Postcards are great ways to share a little bit of your holiday/travels with your friends and family, and maybe make them a little jealous too. There are a plethora of postcards available when you reach your destination, including picturesque scenery, beautiful beaches, landmarks and the odd boob or sun-kissed bottom joke postcard. We were thinking the other day though, in a world filled with online social communications and rise of smartphones and tablets ... has the humble postcard seen its...
Debate: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Holo themes - too much control or not enough?
3 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Last week we locked horns over the pricing of Windows Phone devices and now we’re ruminating over the design direction Google is taking Android in with its Holo themes for Ice Cream Sandwich. Android's four point oh user interface is a futuristic amalgam of strokes and gradients against clean blacks and simple shapes. A handsome, simplistic application of skinny hair-lines and Roboto type is layed against a more dynamic, functional operating system than either Gingerbread or Honeycomb....
Opinion: What does the future hold for Symbian?
3 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
There’s a problem with Symbian, and it’s one I sympathise with. It’s old. Older than you think. Like me. Back in the early 1990s, Psion came up with a fully multitasking, graphical, extensible operating system that was app-rich, fully programmable and which ran on the Series 3 for a month on 2 ‘AA’ batteries. This was SIBO, later renamed EPOC/16 - and there was a 32-bit follow-up for the modern age, EPOC/32, launched in 1997 for Psion’s Series 5 palmtop....
Opinion: Google TV is here – but does anybody care?
3 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Google wants to take over your TV. After an abortive first sortie, the Giant of Search was back with a second iteration of its interactive TV platform at this year’s International CES. But despite its ambitions, there remain enormous hurdles for Google to overcome before it can even begin to repeat the success it’s had with its mobile platform. Google’s vision is for a multi-brand army of connected screens all running an Android platform optimized for TV. For you, this means a...
Debate: Are Windows Phone smartphones too expensive?
3 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
Nokia recently introduced it's second Windows Phone handset: the Nokia Lumia 710. We loved the handset and scored it highly, but it did provoke a question in the office. Are Windows Phone handsets too expensive? Recombu's Hannah Bouckley and Thomas Newton have differing opinions. Hannah Bouckley - YesOver the last couple of weeks I've tried a couple of affordable Windows Phone handsets. The Nokia Lumia 710 - described at launch as ‘affordable’ and the ZTE Tania billed as...
Opinion: Mobile Predictions for 2012
4 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
The first week of 2012 over, which for many people involved early starts, rail fare hikes and less predictable galeforce winds, with the Olympic Games and the Mayan 2012 phenomenon still to contend with. But what will happen to the mobile industry in 2012? Here we’re looking into our crystal ball and letting our imagination get creative with our likely and not-so-likely predictions for 2012. 1: It’s all about the Quad2012 will be the year of the quad core phone. NVIDIA has already...
Opinion: iPhone 5 vs Android next-gen rumours
5 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
My quad-core’s better than yours. No it isn’t. Yes, it is! It’s already coming down to this. With rumours abound about the iPhone 5 and its suspected A6 quad-core processor, Android's upcoming devices are getting a fair bit of stick, with one website describing them as “impoverished relatives of the next-gen Apple smartphone”. In the minds of many an Apple advocate, the Android platform is suggested to be sorely lacking in the performance and usability stakes...
Opinion: Taking on South America and giving up my smartphone
5 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
I've been a smartphone lover since I first was introduced to the iPhone 2G and have had the pleasure (well most of the time), of using a variety of devices including Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia and most recently Windows Phone 7. To give you a better idea of who I am; I'm the one sat with my phone strapped to my face most of the time tweeting, checking-in or playing with my latest favourite app. However, this all changed about a month ago when I decided to go travelling around...
Opinion: The smartphone needs to go back to basics
6 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
In the rush to make our smartphones faster, thinner, and lighter, I can’t help but feel that manufacturers are overlooking the finer details. Our phones have moved beyond their basic functions and have essentially become mini computers in our pockets. While it’s truly amazing to see how far things have progressed in such a small amount of time, it seems to be coming at the expense of basic form and function. Let’s start with the most obvious: build and design. Phones of the...
Opinion: Why smartphone gaming is broken, and how it can be fixed
7 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
When people talk about smartphone gaming, they mean one of two things. Either they're talking about cutesy, time-passing puzzlers like Angry Birds or Cut the Rope - something quick and challenging and perfect for the bus. Fret not, casual-game developers; I'm not here for you. I'm after the "high-end" stuff, the spin-offs from the big name PC franchises or re-releases of the PlayStations and N64s of yore, showered with cash, spruced up and polished to a shine and ready for...
Opinion: Festival advice; leave your smartphone at home
9 months ago | POSTED IN Opinions
As the festival season nears it second peak with Reading and Leeds this weekend and Bestival following shortly after, we’ve seen a few stories on ‘best festival apps’ and 'festival proof smartphones’ and the like. But if you ask me, my advice is; don’t take your expensive app-happy smartphone. Stick your SIM in a cheapy pay-as-you-go-er, or an older phone that you wouldn’t mind losing and use that. One enduring memory from the Download Festival in 2006...
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