Will there be an end to Samsung’s Galaxy range? It stated sometime back and it seems like they’re not going to stop with range. The latest two models offer some interesting developments.

The new Galaxy Note 10.1 has nothing major in the development of hardware, but rather takes the original 5” Galaxy with its specs and puts into a 10.1′ form factor. The same 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU and ICS on the front end. Resolution is fair at 1280×800, but the selling factor is the features offered in the Note devices – that being the ability to use the stylus to capture screen shots as well as edit and write all on a 10.1” screen.

The more important development comes in a much smaller package, with no real overwhelming specifications: The new galaxy Beam has a 1 GHz Dual-Core CPU, 768MB RAM and a 4” Screen at 480×800 pixels, not even a 5 megapixel camera can move this into a wow factor phone, so why should I even write about a such a small, seemingly pathetic phone?
Well it is fairly simple; a while back I discussed the progress made with miniature projects, and here Samsung has offered a phone with one such projector. The projector offers 15 Lumens and Samsung say that from 2m away the image will be around that of a 50” TV. The Phone should be good enough to watch videos on, and (as long as it has been set up correctly) show a presentation.

The limitations will come in terms of the lumens, it would have to be in a darker setting in order to get the benefit of the projector.

Although some may say that the projector is not that great, and it will eat away at the battery life – yes all this may be true, but the owner will still have a portable projection mechanism with great possibilities, not to mention it gives us a point towards the what the future may hold.

Bring it on Samsung…

Logo Design by Afridesign

Business Card Design by Afridesign

In recent months Sony seem to have fallen behind a bit on the phone front with the likes of Samsung and HTC forging ahead to be the best on the market. While the only thing Sony has brought to the challenge is their Mobile Bravia Engine for their display, but that all may be about to change…

Recently Sony announced the Xperia S which takes the brand to a new level. For some reason Sony seemed to top out at 512MB of RAM in their devices, but have now finally got the picture and beefed that up to 1GB in the new S and giving the user 32GB of storage. Although this is nothing too fancy or out of this world, it does start to push Sony in the right direction and the dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU will certainly help as well. The GPU is nothing to brag about being the Adreno 220 (I am curious why not the 225), I am pretty sure there won’t be any complaints with the display. Sony will of cause use their Mobile Bravia Engine which will give the 4.3” screen a resolution of 720×1280 pixels – yes that is HD ready level – and more importantly a pixel density of 342 ppi, making it one of the clearest screens available.

Everything else you would expect from a modern Smartphone is available, including a massive 12 megapixel camera which is able to take those stills at 4000×3000 pixels and motion at full HD, 30 frames a second. The device also has a HDMI Port, something we’ve come to expect from the maker. And it will be running none other than Android OS, although only v2.3, and upgrade to Ice Screen Sandwich is expected.

If this is what breaking the partnership with Ericson did, what took so long?

On paper this looks great, I just wonder if it is too little in light of other makers looking at going Quad-core, we will have to see.

I was looking at some of the new phones, seeing the ever-increasing growth towards higher performance, bigger screens and greater battery life and it got me into thinking; “What is the greatest phone that has ever been made?”

When a question like this is asked, one’s mind will always jump to the best phone out at the moment, but that is not what I am getting at here; this is not the performance comparison, but rather a phone which has made the most impact through history.

If I was looking for the most sold phone ever, then it would be a simple answer – the Nokia 1100 selling 250,000,000 units, but I don’t think – other than bringing the phones to the masses – it would win my vote.

The blackberry Bold 9000 was a stand out phone from RIM. It changed the face of Blackberry (especially in South Africa) and started the walk toward a business phone, which could be cool, and with BIS it makes it a very popular choice. But you cannot forget the range of curve phones, which made it possible for everyone to have a Blackberry and with it, a connection to the Internet… that’s a real contender.

At least one iPhone has to make it into this list – not because I am an Apple fan but because, like it or not, they are good at what they do. They also brought great options into phones (maybe not the first to do it though): 3G, GPS, cameras and the list goes on, what makes it stand out is the fact that Apple was one of the first to put it all into a great looking device.

Other Nokia’s which could be contenders are the 3310/3330 phones or the communicator range, both of which were great at what they did. But no matter what phone we choose, they all have a fault here or there.

You will notice that no Android phones have been included here – in my opinion, and that is because I feel, as good as some of them are, they have all basically borrowed off other devices.

If I had to choose one device to say that this is the best phone to date of all time, I would say … and it is not my favorite thing to admit … the iPhone 3GS. The highest selling iPhone to date, as well as the fact that it was far better looking than any other makes at the time and from a feature point was loaded, and did pretty much everything well.

What do you think, is there something I missed? Which has been your favourite? Leave us a comment…

Chief Privacy Officer for Facebook, Erin Egan, posted a blog on Friday 23 March, 2012, that highlighted Facebook’s concern at people abusing their authority by requesting user details and passwords. It seems a number of employers have been requesting both current and prospective employees to hand over their Facebook account passwords. Facebook is outraged that employers would even think of doing such a thing as this totally contravenes the privacy policies set out by Facebook.

Egan wrote: “If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends.  We have worked really hard at Facebook to give you the tools to control who sees your information.

As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job.  And as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job.”

Egan also made a convincing argument as to why employers are at risk when they ask for employee passwords: “We don’t think employers should be asking prospective employees to provide their passwords because we don’t think it’s the right thing to do.  But it also may cause problems for the employers that they are not anticipating.  For example, if an employer sees on Facebook that someone is a member of a protected group (e.g. over a certain age, etc.) that employer may open themselves up to claims of discrimination if they don’t hire that person.”

Facebook has “made it a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to share or solicit a Facebook password.” They also state that if need be, they would take legal action should the need arise, against anyone infringing on their Privacy Policy.

While I appreciate Facebook’s sincere concern at these privacy violations, and Egan has written a convincing blog addressing the issues, I can’t help but feel that this blog was not the best place to address the issue. I am quite sure that those already infringing on the privacy policies of Facebook, probably don’t know what the policies are, or even care what they are. This leads me to believe that they probably will not even read Egan’s blog, but maybe that’s just the pessimist in me and Egan’s blog will in fact change the actions of these employers who, in infringing the Facebook privacy policies, clearly have no respect for the privacy of their employees or potential employees.

Die-hard Apple fans (as a conversation just last night confirms), always fall back on the fact that Apple will trump other companies because they make software which is programmed specifically for their hardware and for this reason it will work faster. Well, move over Apple.

Recent announcements from Google have hinted towards them looking into the hardware arena. This would make them one of the very few companies who create both hardware and software, and in my opinion, a very strong contender for the best tech company in the world. Google will start in the home theatre department but we can only imagine where it will lead.

I personally use Android, and there are some things that I really like about it, but I must be honest that I don’t think I would move all my technology to just one company. That being said, I do think that the biggest phone OS company in the world, would quickly become the largest phone company in the world – the first company to really give Microsoft a run in the business arena and Apple in the personal arena at the same time; quite a feat in any language.

Even though I have a few issues with Google, I’m all in for them taking on the giants, it brings prices down while making sure everyone stays on their feet and keep things moving forward.

It seems that amongst all the speculations about the iPad 3’s release date and its new features, no-one has noticed that Apple themselves have not released any information yet. Some speculated dates include 7 March, 9 March, or anytime in March and April 2012. The quieter Apple is about the release, the more the rumours grow and spread – I would say this is an example of free marketing at its best.

Some of the features that are being speculated about include a new quad-core processor, 4G LTE networking and a 2048×1536 Retina display. There was also an image released in February of what will supposedly be the new iPad 3 Case; this image shows a thicker iPad, suggesting that both battery life & graphics will be improved. It has also been suggested that the iPad 3 will be available with 128 GBs worth of storage, as well as an SD Card slot. The camera is also said to be better in the new iPad.

A new rumour has also started claiming that the next iPad release will actually be the iPad 2S, rather than the iPad 3. This rumour started with an iPad case maker in China selling a cover for an iPad 2S.  This isn’t too far a leap, especially after Apple’s release of the iPhone 4S, rather than an iPhone 5.

Needless to say, until Apple makes their own press release, these are all just rumours and speculations. Come on Mr Tim Cook (Apple CEO) tell us what is going on!

Have your say: Tell us what you would like to see in the new iPad, or perhaps some other improvements you have heard it may have.

One of our long-standing clients,  My Gas Gas Solutions, has gone from strength to strength over the years.

In keeping with their ever expanding business and service offering, it is fitting, as well as necessary, that their website & database evolve in the same way.

We would like to introduce My Gas’ newly revamped website.  We have given it a fresh, new look, as well as showcased services & products which were not previously catered for on the previous site.

Below are some screenshots which will give you a taste of what we have been working on the last few months. For more, please visit the website itself at www.mygas.co.za .

My Gas entry page design

My Gas sub-page design

Website Design by Afridesign

I will spare you the details as to how I ended up having one, but the short of it is that I do. I have found myself ratherquickly having become the proud owner of a HTC Flyer.

I have heard many different opinions about the 7″ tablets, from “its just a very big phone” too it is far too small for a tablet”. Well I guess that both of those opinions have their place, but for me and for what I need, it is just the perfect size. A 10″ tablet would be a bit big for me since I often carry it around with me, and since I walk very often, having something the size of an A5 notepad is just perfect for just that… taking notes.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that it is only good for taking notes. For one, I am writing this article on it, using my Microsoft bluetooth keyboard to speed it up a little.
When you look at the specs it also manages to keep up with most of them: single core 1.5 Ghz CPU with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The screen is not quite bright enough to manage being used in the sun – you will have sore eyes fairly quickly. The pixel density is also a bit low, but it is good enough to watch a video on without any issues. The 5 megapixel camera is decent enough to take simple stills and short ‘catch the moment’ videos.

The one thing that I am surprised at is the fact that I like this device – not because of its form factor, its specifications or it’s OS, but because it is a HTC. I have never really been a fan of the make, but you cannot fault the build quality of the device.

The other thing that I am really impressed with, is the HTC sync which comes with HTC devices that are equipped with HTC sense. Other Android devices have lacked this (well at least the ones I have used); basically it allows the device to sync quickly and easily with a windows PC including Outlook.
My final words would be that I am impressed with this device in all aspects, and I will keep using it! If only it wasn’t so expensive, HTC would have ann excellent package.

Tired of adverts getting in your way? Ad breaks in your favourite series, ads in the middle of the magazine article you’re reading, ads popping up in the middle of your favourite freeware game and even ads on signposts blocking your view of the road? Well, it seems that Google agrees.

Technology today allows us to fast-forward through the ads on TV, so why should we still have to scroll through them to get to the info we are looking for on a website. Google has decided to change their algorithm that is used to rank websites. Websites with too many adverts on the top of the page, thus causing users to scroll down in order to get to actual content, will be penalised in their rankings.

Google states:

“We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

This algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally.”  Read the post here.

This has resulted in many people questioning whether or not Google will penalise themselves as their results pages have so many ads. Seriously?! Google’s ads are not really ads in the traditional sense. When you use Google, you are looking for links to sites with relevant information; Google’s ads are mostly links to relevant information. People are so worried about what is fair; wonder if while they sit writing or reading these blogs on their iPad or laptop they consider the children in underdeveloped countries who can’t even get a book to read. Such a fuss made over a possible 1% of searches that may be affected. I say go for it Google!