Best deals for the Galaxy S4...

...or lack of!
I mentioned in my previous blogposts my next phone purchase was going to be the Galaxy S4. There's still about a month left before it's released but my sister had recently managed to get the Sony Xperia Z for £26 a month so I was optimistic for myself. How wrong I was, having scoured all the comparison sites and different outlets, the cheapest deal I found was for £32.04 per month for 24 months after cashback, giving a grand total of £768.96. This deal gives a mediocre package of 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data, pretty decent for a normal smartphone but not so much for a top end phone nowadays. I put together a comparison table for various deals but unfortunately for me, I'll have to keep looking...

Network	Mins	Texts	Data (mb)	Upfront cost	Monthly cost	Duration	Total cost	Link
Vodafone	Unlimited	Unlimited	4GB	£29.00	£57	12	£713	Click
Orange	600	Unlimited	1GB	£0	£32.04	24	£768.96	Click
Three	300	5000	Unlimited	£0	£33.31	24	£799.44	Click
O2	Unlimited	Unlimited	1GB	£0	£34.29	24	£822.96	Click
T-mobile	2000	Unlimited	Unlimited	£99.00	£36	24	£963.99	Click
Vodafone	Unlimited	Unlimited	2GB	£0	£42	24	£1,008	Click
EE	Unlimited	Unlimited	3GB	£29.99	£41	24	£1,013.99	Click

Buy now? Buy later?
Let's wait and see, these are only a small number of deals but I wanted to find some from across the board for comparison. Only EE offers 4G, the rest will all be on the 3G network but I think EE have got a greedy pricing structure and would advise anyone to wait until other networks get their 4G up and running to get it cheaper. You should also note that T-mobile will slow your data connection down after you exceed their fair usage policy, whereas 3 will not.

What's a good deal?
I've found the Xperia Z and the HTC One for £26 a month, so I know the S4 should fall to around that price too, until then I'll hold out. Bear in mind there's still a month left before the S4 is released so you won't be missing out if you want the phone on launch day and because of that I think you should hold out for a better deal too.

Mo

Permissions and Warnings - should we pay more attention?

If you've ever installed an app on your phone (who hasn't?) then you'll have seen a list of permissions an app requests before being installed. You've probably also come across warnings on Android, but how much attention do we really pay to either of them? I think too many people blindly agree to a lot of things on their phone without fully understanding what they're asking for, similar to how we always click the little check-box asking if we agree to the T&Cs when we're signing up to stuff.

You have been warned
You rarely get warnings on Android but when you do, make sure you know what you're agreeing to before clicking to go ahead. I've picked the two below that I want to talk about, partly because I was quickly trying to find warnings to use as examples (it's harder than you think!), but mainly because I think they are very important to have a think about. The first is the location services using Google's database, it might seem innocent enough but have you ever had WiFi at your house and gone on Google Maps only to find your location given to a couple of feet without GPS? Chances are that it was your phone that transmitted your WiFi and its location to Google, who are now able to give you an accurate location by only using WiFi. This service constantly runs in the background when WiFi is on and you are not connected to any network. This happens because data is collected from all the networks your phone comes across. As it states, data can be sent back to Google even when there are no apps running, so when your phone is in your pocket this is likely to be happening too. 

Now I might make this seem really evil, but in fact it's not that bad. If you think about it, a database such as this is most effectively built by using thousands of phones to relay data back because of the nature of what's being collected. Basically because WiFi networks come and go quickly, it would never make sense for Google to independently collect this sort of data. Still, bearing in mind what it actually does, at least now you can make a better informed decision about whether you want this going on or not right?

The next warning I want to look at was the input method whereby it warns you about any application potentially being able to collect sensitive data you input onto your phone. I think this one is more serious than the last as it depends more on the app that will handle your input. There are a lot of keyboards on the Play store, but how can you be totally sure that the one you're using right now isn't storing and sending your data to a server about what you've just written? I'm not saying that keyboards on the Play store are doing that, but I think people should take care when trusting apps with their sensitive details. As with all apps, if you're getting it from somewhere that's not the Play store then you should really be wary as apps are very easy to manipulate and what might seem like a legit copy of a keyboard app could be an altered version to record all your keystrokes. You just never really know.

Permission to do what?

Well permission to do a lot of things actually! Permissions are basically rights you give an app in terms of what it can and can't do on your phone. I've taken Viber as an example as it requests a long list of permissions but I think you should have a little flick through the permissions any app requires before installing it just in case you find something that doesn't quite add up. This isn't a witch hunt against Viber as it's an over-the-top service provider like Skype or Whatsapp so they require various permissions, whilst sometimes a permission might only be required for a small thing, such as verifying your phone number at the beginning. You might also notice the system tools permission, which might seem a bit scary at first and hard to work out why an app would need it but for something like Viber, if you receive a call then the app needs to be able to disable your lockscreen to allow you to answer.

These permissions are somewhat expected of a messaging and calling app, to be able to access your contacts and logs to extract and match who uses Viber on your phone. Nothing really that worrying here but again, it's always good to have a think about how an app would use these permissions and how they could potentially abuse them too. 

I don't mean to scare anyone or cause paranoia, but giving permissions a bit of thought before you blindly accept it on your phone might save you a headache or two further down the line, especially at a time when Android is becoming so popular that malware is being created specifically for it.

Mo

Google's answer to Evernote - Google Keep

As some people might have seen, Google has released a new app to compete with the likes of Evernote. It's a pretty simple app and I think that's exactly what it needs if it wants to stand any chance of toppling a market leader like Evernote. The app was released just three days ago and has already racked up more than half a million downloads, not many other apps can boast the same feat, then again not many apps have a developer of such reputation.

Features

The features include being able to create to-do lists, take on the fly notes, capture photos and annotate them and  colour code notes to make it easier to sort and keep track of them. In terms of features, it's still pretty basic and updates will no doubt bring more features but at the moment I find myself using it more than Evernote and even if they didn't bring out any new features, it's definitely an app that satisfies my needs. It's the simplicity that Google always brings to the table I find myself attracted to. Before using either of these, I was using Tasks as it was so easy to use and everything I needed, a basic to-do list app that would sync with Gmail so I didn't always need my phone to access my to-do lists. 

The app itself

When you open Keep, you are presented with this screen:

Very clean and very simple, you have four options to select from, create a note, create a to-do list, use voice dictation or take a picture. It's pretty hard to say much else about the app as it's very straightforward and doesn't require you to create a separate account as it will link to a Gmail account of your choice. Give Google Keep a try and see if you'll be converted from one of its competitors or become a user of an organiser app.

Coming or going?

The only worry I have is how long this will be around for, you might have read that Google Reader is being retired in July, which has left a lot of people wondering if this will be around to stay or become a casualty of Google's spring cleaning a few years down the line...

Mo

LG and HTC's attempt to steal limelight

A lot of attention was focussed on Samsung's midweek launch event of their new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4 but while this was going on, HTC and LG were not so quietly trying to steal some of the limelight with what I can only describe as borderline distasteful advertising, well in HTC's case anyway. I have to hand it to LG in that their advertising was at least clever and funny, but if anyone had a look at HTC's twitter feed at the time then you might have seen some of their tweets. I'm a fan of Samsung, I'll admit, but not to the point where I will foam at the mount to defend them and the constant tweets that came from HTC made it quite hard for me to even contemplate taking their phones seriously or even their company. I'm all for advertising but not in that way.

LG be trolling...

Here's LG's advertising in Times Square:

Courtesy of Gizmodo

You have to give them credit for come up with this, plastered right above Samsung's ad, you can see LG advertising their phones, the Optimus G.

HTC be boring...

And here's HTC's tweets:

 

Quite a few retweets but I don't understand this kind of tactic, there were a lot of people for and against this one Twitter. I guess all publicity is good publicity and in HTC's case, a lot of people are talking about this stunt they pulled so maybe they got what they wanted but I for one don't approve of this style of shameless self-advertising and behaviour. At least try to be original or funny so people don't feel like the only reason you set out to make fun of a rival is because you can't compete with them.

At times I felt a little bit sorry for HTC and it was a bit cringeworthy. From their performance it's easy to see they, as well as most other Android phone makers, are struggling but this really isn't the answer. Try to stay professional next time eh? Failing that, try to be funny than pathetic. Thanks.

Mo

Clash of the Titans - S4 vs HTC One

We finally got what we all wanted, well most of us did. The S4 has been announced and we did actually see quite a few features which weren't leaked before the event. I watched the launch event and like a lot of launch events it was quite flashy and pretty fast paced. I wasn't a fan of everything they did and at times it was a bit dull and in between the gimmicky features, I saw quite a lot of things that Samsung are bringing out that I think are very useful additions to a phone.

Let's compare phone specs, as if they haven't been done already to death:















Design
The design of the two phones are very different with Samsung deciding to stick to its S3 design and HTC brining out a very sexy looking phone made of aluminium. HTC have always made good looking phones with amazing form factor and this is no exception, although the plastic of the Samsung might be more durable, I have to give this to the One as it does look fantastic.


Screen
The S4 has a Super AMOLED 5 inch touchscreen while the One has a Super LCD3 4.7 inch touch screen. Both have the same resolution, 1080 x 1920 pixels, often referred to as 'Full HD'. Since the S4 has a slightly bigger screen, the ppi (pixels per inch) pixel density is slightly lower as it covers a larger area so we get 441 ppi for the S4 and 469 ppi for the One. The winner really depends on how you look at it, but given the S4 has Cornering Gorilla Glass 3 instead of 2 to protect the screen, I am tempted to just give it to the S4 but let's call it a draw.

Storage
Quite an easy one here, the S4 comes in three different storage capacities, 16/32/64gb while the One has two, 32/64gb but the winner is the S4 by a mile as it has the ability to increase storage using a microSD card up to 64gb. I can't see it any other way, microSD slot is always a winner in my eyes.

Connectivity
Boring stuff here, but basically the two phones have more or the less the same type of connectivity here. They are both LTE capable, so 4G in areas which it is available, they both have v4.0 Bluetooth, NFC, infrared ports and microUSB v2.0. The only slight difference is that the S4 has USB on-the-go which means you can plug in extra storage if you ever need it, something which will probably be available for the One if you decide to go down the custom firmware route. We'll call it another draw.

Camera
The S4 has a 13 megapixel camera while the One has a 4 megapixel camera which they have marketed as the 4 Ultra Pixels camera. At first glance you might think that S4 wins but early camera comparisons have shown that the One does indeed appear to perform better. I think it's always important to bear in mind higher megapixels isn't always better and the One indeed seems to prove this. Have to give it the HTC One for the camera.

Processor and graphics
On paper there doesn't seem to be a competition here. The S4 has the Exynos 5 Octa 5410 which is an eight-core processor while the One has a Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 processor which is quad-core. So the S4 has four more cores than the One, but again until these are properly benchmarked then it's not easy to compare. In terms of the GPU (graphics processing unit), it's another difficult one with the S4 sporting a PowerVR SGX 544MP3 and the One with the Adreno 320. A lot of fancy words and numbers there but S4's GPU has three cores clocked at 533 MHz which is roughly between the performance of the iPhone 5 and the iPad 4. The Adreno 320 is a little bit older and has already been featured in the Nexus 4. Overall I think we'll have to give this to the S4 in theory and wait to see what happens in reality.

Sensors and features
The S4 will come fitted with the usual accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass, all of which the One has too but on top of this, the S4 will also include a barometer, temperature and humidity sensors. These are going to be used for various features that come with the S4. Talking about features, Samsung have introduced a lot of new things that the S4 will bring. Overall this round goes to the S4 as Samsung appear to have added in many little things, some gimmicky, that I can see being quite useful such as touch-less gestures, dual camera, drama shot, S-translate and so on.

Battery life
I don't know why HTC continue down this road but they've fitted the One with a non-removable 2300 mAh battery while the S4 has a 2600 mAh battery that is removable. It's a no brainer for me, the S4 wins in this category as I have the choice of buying an extra battery if I wanted to and overall it does have a higher capacity battery fitted.

Final remarks
Samsung - 6
HTC - 4

Obviously this is my view but I find the S4 more appealing that the One, maybe because of a slight brand loyalty to Samsung nowadays or it might just be that it is the better phone, either way I firmly believe that Samsung will sell many more units than HTC and this is most down to their incredible marketing budget! Having said that, my next phone is likely to be the S4.

Mo

Apps you can't live without?

As you might have noticed if you've been on the Play store, its celebrating one year since the renaming and rebranding of the Android marketplace. To celebrate, Google has launched a sale across its movies, books and apps, which is a bit of a letdown to say the least. There's not much on there that's enticing or new in terms of sales. It's basically an EA sale at the moment, one that happens every now and again and I really hope that more apps are added otherwise this will be the worst promotion they've done, period. It's also quite difficult to find what's on sale as there doesn't seem to be somewhere on the Play store where all these promotions are collated. You can check out the 'sale' here.

Since we're on the topic of apps, I always wonder what apps other people have that they think are 'must haves'. I mean the ones that you can't do without and quite unique in what they do. I have quite a few, with the most used app on my phone being Whatsapp, if you don't know what it is then either you've been living under a rock or you have no friends (sorry!), or both. I think the next most important app I have is Titanium Backup but this one is only for rooted users and if you're rooted then you've probably heard about it and what it can do. I guess most of my 'must have' apps are some of the most popular on Android so here's a few gems which I think people could definitely do with:

• mSecure
• AirDroid
• CurrentWidget
• Endomondo PRO
• Kingsoft Office
• Plume

mSecure

Store all your important data in this app, be it credit card details or website passwords. You can even create complicated, random passwords that the app can store for various websites so you can rest easy in the knowledge that your password is very strong and you don't have to remember it as it's stored, fully encrypted mind, on your phone. Instead of having to remember all your passwords for various websites, you only need to remember the password to access the app! Bear in mind you, if someone manages to guess this password then all the information stored is at their mercy. If your password is strong enough you can at least be assured that no-one can access the data stored on mSecure even if your phone is stolen or lost.

AirDroid

A very neat, simple app that allows you to access many of your phone's functions over wifi. You can send text messages, check your phone log and access your media and files and transfer files to and from your phone to your PC/Laptop. It's a feature rich app that you have to try to understand where the reviews are coming from and I think once you've tried it, this app will definitely remain on your phone. One drawback if you plan on using this app for transferring files is that you have to accept the slower transfer speeds compared to connecting your phone up using a USB cable so I wouldn't plan on transferring movies or your music library just yet using this method. For the odd files here and there though it does save you the hassle of connecting your phone up every time or trying to use Dropbox/Google Drive. 

CurrentWidget

This is a bit of a niche app, but I think a lot of people have come across a time when their phone hasn't been charging as quickly as it usually does. This clever widget can tell you what current your phone is accepting when charging so you can see whether your phone is charging normally or not. If it's not, you usually need to unplug your phone from the charger and just plug it back in. If this doesn't solve your issue you might have to change your charger or there could be a more serious problem. Either way, this phone is very useful for isolating the cause of why your phone is charging slowly.

Endomondo PRO

Do you do any sort of distance sports? If yes, then the chances are Endomondo can track your progress when your training. I do a lot of running and use it very regularly, it provides invaluable data when you're training and helps you to train with different modes such as interval training. The best part of the app in my mind is that you can make an Endomondo account online and view in depth how you work out and view all the data the app has collected. I haven't come across another app that does what Endomondo does anywhere near as well or as efficiently. It's definitely one that you must have if you do distance based training of any sort.

Kingsoft Office

One of the best mobile Office suites I've been able to find and it's free! It really doesn't get any better that this, I've tried both free and paid Office apps but none of them are as functional as this or as easy to use. I use this day to day and have slowly started removing my other Office suite apps as I've always kept a few on my phone just in case I want to use a feature that one of them didn't have. It doesn't feel like this with, I can do everything I need to do and do it well and on top of that, it can read PDFs. Perfect, well near enough.

Plume

For Twitter users only! This app is one of the best Twitter clients on the market in my opinion. We've lost quite a few Twitter apps recently owing to the ridiculous 100K user token ceiling that some apps have hit. But that aside, I've found Plume to be a very clean, efficient Twitter client that is much better than the official Twitter app (then again most 3rd party clients are) and competes very well with other Twitter clients on the market. I especially like the design of the app and how easy and intuitive it is to use. 

I'm sure there are a lot of apps that are vital to other users, let me know what your 'must have' apps are and your reasons why.

Mo

Virus scanner for your phone? Hell no!

Are they being serious when they say you need to have a virus scanner for your Android phone? I never understood who 'they' were and why 'they' recommend this but no doubt a lot of people have virus scanners on their phone. Phones are becoming more like computers nowadays, but I'm still adamant that 'they' are giving the wrong advice to people about this topic.

The Play Store and Malware

Android is not Windows, it doesn't need a virus scanner unless you're really pushing the envelope in terms of dodgy activities on your phone. For the average user of an Android smartphone, downloading apps from the Play store, browsing the web, checking social networking and so on are all perfectly safe tasks that you can do without the worry of malware (malicious software; an umbrella term for viruses, worms, trojan horses and so on). Sure there have been reports of malicious apps making their way onto Google's Play Store but Google is constantly monitoring the apps that are published on there using Bouncer, an automated system checking all apps published. Google also remotely monitor apps that are installed on phones to prevent an app that is later flagged as a virus or one might have been downloaded from a third party source remaining on the end user's phone. This technique might seen invasive but think of it as someone doing the rounds on the apps you have installed rather than rifling through your personal details.

Safest way to download

There are many ways that users can prevent a virus or other types of malware making their way onto their phones. It takes just a little bit of vigilance which will save you a lot of headache. The easiest way is to download apps from the Play Store as opposed to other sources. This will dramatically reduce the chances of having malware on your phone as any app on the Play Store will have gone through Google's checks before being made available. After all, when you download an app you only see the file size and you unless you're a programmer, you don't even know what the app contains. You end up having to trust the source you downloaded the app from. There are literally thousands of apps on the Internet that you could potentially download that would fool you into thinking they are genuine when really, they are running background processes doing who knows what to your phone.

Permissions, permissions, permissions!

Always check the permissions of any app you download. This might seem a bit time consuming but it's definitely worth doing. Always think about the app you are about to download to see if you can justify why they need the permissions stated. Most developers avoid asking for permissions which aren't required by their app as it arouses suspicion. You should also be wary of an app that requires new permissions during an update. Developers usually justify the reason for new permissions but think about whether it's actually needed or not. If not, simply don't update the app and voice your concerns to the developer.

Play in my Sandbox?

Android has a sandboxing feature which basically separates each application so that it only acts within certain parameters, namely the permissions it has been granted by you. This means applications cannot interact with each other so if a malicious app tries to read your contacts, it will simply fail if it does not have the specific permission. This is a very handy feature to prevent any apps running rampant on your phone. This feature doesn't allow apps to completely corrupt the phone's memory either, like you might see with other operating systems. The memory for each app is sandboxed too so if an app attempts any such thing, it will just end up crashing itself and nothing else, very handy if you end up in that situation. This safety feature drastically limits the damage a rouge app can do but doesn't eradicate the problem completely as the app can still carry out tasks within its given permissions which is why it is vital to check the permissions an app is asking for before installing.

Still not convinced?

If you're still worried about malware then obviously I can't stop you downloading a virus scanner but just bear in mind the safety features and failsafes built into Android and the common sense that you, as a user, can apply when downloading apps. Then make sure you free yourself from battery draining virus scanners!

Mo