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• Industry voice: Combining Text Technologies: Text Mining & Voice to Text
• Should your company switch to Google Inbox?
• Aston Martin DB10: James Bond's new ride revealed
• Xodiom: an affordable and impressive OnePlus competitor emerges
• Apple may be working on virtual reality, but it's destroyed the evidence
• Microsoft now offers digital gift cards for Windows and Xbox stores
• Industry voice: Are vendor audits now a fact of life for enterprises?
• Is Sprint ditching Windows Phone?
• Fitbit is releasing a limited number of Charge HR and Surge trackers early
• China's Xiaomi might make US debut with new flagship in early 2015
• IBM and Docker team up for next-gen enterprise apps in the cloud
• Review: mini review: Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime
• PayPal for Android gains Samsung fingerprint reader support in Google Play
• Twitter continues its efforts to make Instagram irrelevant
• Buying Guide: Phone of the year 2014: the winners
• Updated: Android Lollipop 5.0 update: when can I get it?
• HTC One M8 edges LG G3 and iPhone 6 as TechRadar's Best Flagship Phone
• Industry voice: Cloud Comes of Age: Love it or loath it, just don't ignore it
• Industry voice: A quick guide to going green
• Hands-on review: Pinć

Industry voice: Combining Text Technologies: Text Mining & Voice to Text Posted: 05 Dec 2014 01:00 AM PST In 2001, the band Cake released a song entitled "Short Skirt, Long Jacket". It's one of my favorite songs of all time, and is still on rotation in my playlists. I first saw the music video in 2002, and was blown away: it's composed entirely of people listening to the song on headphones and giving the viewer their honest opinion. Check out the video. How cool is that? At the time, I remember thinking it was brilliant. They were getting honest reviews of the song, on the spot. Makes me wonder why more bands don't do stuff like that. Maybe they don't like the criticism? In any case, the music video stuck with me. And nearly 13 years later, when I saw how far voice-to-text technology had come, the first thing that came to mind was that video. What if, every time anyone gave you an opinion, it was recorded and transcribed with voice-to-text technology? Then the transcription was subsequently analyzed with text analytics software, and the results were sent back to you? That would be amazing. For any large company, that information is priceless. Every time someone calls a customer service line, or leaves a voicemail, or is interviewed about a product, that information could be analyzed almost instantly, with few resources. Rather than hire a team of analysts to listen and transcribe hours of people talk, and compile the information to find patterns, it could all be done by one person equipped with the right software, in a fraction of the time. The possibilities are endless, but all based on the same model: using text analytics software like Semantria, on top of voice-to-text software like Voci, they could determine how users feel about their latest product (positive or negative), find out what the most common problem they have is (billing? slow service? bad tech support), and chart the progress by running the same analytics on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Let's bring it back to the music. For Cake, at the end of a long day of vox pop style street interviews, they'd go home and run the audio they recorded through the voice-to-text text analytics combination. The software would show them instantly how many people liked their song, how many didn't like it, the most common phrases used to describe their song, and so much more. Rami Nuseir, Marketing Director, Semantria.

Should your company switch to Google Inbox? Posted: 05 Dec 2014 12:10 AM PST Introduction and key changes Making a radical change in email at a large company is a recipe for disaster. Users tend to revolt if you push out a different productivity app, and the support nightmares start arriving in droves. Yet, with Google Inbox, there are quite a few reasons to consider encouraging users to make an upgrade. It's not a wholesale replacement, like switching from Outlook to Gmail. And it's technically a pure consumer play (since it's not part of Google for Work). Yet business users can take advantage of a few key features to pump up their work productivity. As long as you know there are some trade-offs (according to a few experts), it's worth investigating. Key changes The key change here is that Google has offered Google Inbox as the first web app to use its new Material Design metaphor. It's really a major overhaul that takes the virtual concepts of flat colour layouts, whitespace, and a trim design structure and puts them into a browser (or a mobile app). The interface looks remarkably less cluttered, and the immediate effect for knowledge workers is that you can think a bit more clearly about what you are doing without so many options on the screen. It's arguably a cleaner interface than what you see on an iPad. Another critical change is that Inbox borrows many ideas from Google Now, the landing page and search platform you can use on many Android phones and tablets (and in the browser). Google Now "listens" to your email and knows when you are near an airport, standing by a bus terminal, or late for a meeting. In Google Inbox, similar features show reminders about flights and even things you've ordered on the web. This all integrates directly into the interface. A surprising enhancement has been made with search. When you type anything in the search box, you don't have to wait for a drop-down menu or hit Enter. The results appear "live" in your inbox as you type. This increases productivity tremendously over Gmail searches. It also means less of a reliance on Gmail labels (which still appear on the left in a drop-down menu) because you can trust that you can find your needles in the haystack just by typing a search. It improves workflow because you can search more interactively, spontaneously, and quickly. "Google seems to be taking Inbox toward what might be called dynamic messaging management – that is, trying to reframe email and related tasks as being truly productive instead of the burdens they often are," says Charles King, an IT analyst. "Some of the features appear based on practical lessons Google has learned from developing and managing Gmail. Others, like airline flight alerts, are likely to blend functionality from services like Google Now." Productivity issues An important question to ask before using Google Inbox (and you have to request an invite at http://www.google.com/inbox first before jumping ship from Gmail) is whether these changes will impact your productivity or if they might cause a slowdown. The app certainly does provide some improvements visually and from a technical standpoint, but any change in how you work could have a detrimental effect if the gains do not compensate for the shift. One example of this is that Google has moved the tabs for promotions, forum posts, social networking activity, and non-critical updates over to the left column above the tabs. They cannot be disabled or moved from that spot, so if you rely on labels, you will be scrolling down below these hard-coded buckets. You can decide to bundle them into groups and only view them once in a while, so they don't clutter your inbox, but you can't completely ignore them. Slow adoption The IT analyst Rob Enderle says adoption for Google Inbox has not exactly exploded, so business users might want to take a close look at the features and interface changes before committing to using it on a regular basis and on every laptop, desktop, and mobile device. "This is an optimised offering for professional users," he says. "Google is not good at marketing or even explaining their decisions so this move wasn't received particularly well. So I think the idea was good, and I expect the actual execution of the offering was well thought through, but because it wasn't presented well and, given Google doesn't focus well either, I expect adoption will be below potential. So a focus on professional users is an excellent idea but an inability to present changes and drive usage by Google will likely cripple this offering." Sherry Chao, a spokesperson for the company Iterable (which makes an email marketing app) says Google Inbox does lead the charge toward more intuitive email processing. She says the features are designed for power users to get more done. Yet, there are some drawbacks. It only works if you already have a Gmail account, and it only works in Chrome or on a mobile device, and seems to be geared more for speedy individual email work than for teams working on projects. "I think the bundles feature would need to be skewed more to business than personal," Chao says. "I do like how it is more like a task manager now, so if you're not using something like Asana, then Inbox can help manage your to-do list and to remember specific emails." Deserves a look Overall, the experts agreed that Google Inbox deserves a serious look if companies have already allowed employees to use Gmail, possibly as a secondary work email. It's a visual improvement, offers plenty of power user options, and improves workflow. The most serious drawback is that it is not Gmail – users might balk at the redesigned interface, the fact that labels are somewhat hidden in a menu now, and that you have to relearn a few email tricks. If corporate employees get more work done, however, it'll be worth many of those early frustrations. Hands on with Google Inbox: what's it like to use?

Aston Martin DB10: James Bond's new ride revealed Posted: 04 Dec 2014 07:16 PM PST James Bond has had more than his share of enviable cars over the half century or so that he's graced our screens, but his next ride sets a new standard for spy car cool. Having had his classic Aston Martin DB5 spectacularly and heartbreakingly totalled in 2012's Skyfall, Bond was in need of a new set wheels – one that would be impractically conspicuous for a spy, naturally – and Aston Martin has delivered. The iconic British manufacturer's DB10 will make its debut when Bond returns in Spectre, the series' 24th film, which is scheduled to hit cinemas at the end of 2015. Live and let drive The DB10 has been developed specially for the film, although with a production run of 10 we imagine it will find its way into a few collectors' garages. Aston Martin claims the car provides a glimpse at what is in store for the brand's next generation of vehicles, so we can probably expect to see larger grills and a narrowing of the headlights. We can only hope James Bond takes better care of this Aston than he did his last one. Want a Bond-esque car on a budget? The Hyundai Genesis might surprise you.

Xodiom: an affordable and impressive OnePlus competitor emerges Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:36 PM PST The market for affordable but powerful phones may be about to get even hotter. Currently the OnePlus One has the lead, but Chinese phone maker Xiaomi might join in early next year with a new flagship at CES 2015. And now another new competitor has appeared: a company called "xodiom." Xodiom just launched a phone totally out of nowhere, and it looks like it might be a serious contender. "Wink" The xodiom phone is powered by a 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 chip with a 5.5-inch QHD super AMOLED display, 3GB of memory, a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization, a 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3200mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with a custom UI called "xOS" and is scheduled to launch January 5, 2015. And the price? just $329 (about £210, AU$390) for a 32GB model and $379 (about £240, AU$450) for 64GB. The company even takes a dig at OnePlus when you go to buy the xodiom phone, showing a message that reads, "to buy the xodiom you DO NOT need an invite, hooray for freedom," complete with a winking smiley face. What's the catch? If there's a catch here, it's not evident - unless the whole thing turns out to be a scam. It's not every day that a totally unheard-of company announces a brand new, almost-too-good-to-be-true smartphone. And for some reason they're only accepting payments via Bitcoin and wire transfer (seriously?). Either way, we'll know in January, right? OnePlus Two rumors point to another big screened beast

Apple may be working on virtual reality, but it's destroyed the evidence Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:11 PM PST Update: The job listings previously spotted on Apple's website - including the one described below and another, for a VR hardware engineer - have disappeared. It's unclear exactly why, but as Venturebeat speculates, Apple may have regretted tipping its own hand too early and removed the ads to mitigate any further damage. Then again, maybe they simply filled the positions. Either way, they're not likely to comment any time soon (read: ever), so for now we'll just have to keep on guessing. Original story follows… Virtual reality is currently the realm of Oculus Rift, Samsung and Sony - with a little Google thrown in - but Apple may soon join the fray as well. It certainly seems that way based on an Apple job listing for an app engineer with experience with "virtual reality systems." "This engineer will create high performance apps that integrate with Virtual Reality systems for prototyping and user testing," the ad reads. It also lists iOS and OS X app development and "VR/AR development" experience (i.e. virtual reality/augmented reality) as requirements. Read between the screens Naturally the listing doesn't go into detail beyond these requirements, but it's not hard to see where Apple might be going with it. Virtual reality is still on the cusp of really taking off, but with heavy hitters like Sony (with Project Morpheus), Facebook (which owns Oculus VR) and even Google (which punked everyone with a cardboard headset this year) in the mix there's little doubt that it will. There are even third-party accessories, like the Pinć, that do for the iPhone what Samsung's and Oculus's Gear VR does for the Galaxy Note 4, turning it into a VR display mounted to your face. Add Apple in officially and you just might be looking at the next big thing in tech. The consumer-ready Oculus Rift will launch in public beta by summer 2015

Microsoft now offers digital gift cards for Windows and Xbox stores Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:03 PM PST Microsoft launched a digital gift cards app for Windows Phone at the end of November, and now it's extended that functionality to the web. The company's new digital gift cards site lets users buy gift cards for the Windows and Xbox stores with a number of designs and in increments ranging from $10 (about £6, AU$12) to $100 (about £60, AU$120). The gift cards can be used in the Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox stores to buy games, movies, music, apps and other content. You can also choose what date they'll arrive in your recipients' inbox, so you'll have perfect timing for whatever holiday they happen to celebrate. A Microsoft digital gift card may not be the most thoughtful gift, but at least you won't have to leave the house or mess with a physical gift card - and neither will your giftee. Is Sprint ditching Windows Phone?

Industry voice: Are vendor audits now a fact of life for enterprises? Posted: 04 Dec 2014 06:00 PM PST Vendor audits are a fact of life and if anything, the expectation for this year is that they will be increasing in frequency. As soon someone in an organisation signs the 'EULA' (Enterprise Unlimited License Agreement) contract, opens the wrapping on a software box, breaks the seal on a disk, ticks the box confirming that T&Cs have been read or in some cases, even just starts using the software, an implicit agreement to be audited at some point in the future has been made. Every software contract and/or terms and conditions page contains an audit clause. According to a 2013 report published by KPMG, 90% of software vendors admitted that their compliance program is a source of revenue, with 10% using audits as a strategy to secure 10% of overall revenues. Over half of all vendors have confirmed audits help to secure 4% of their revenues and in about 59% of cases, vendor audit specialists are incentivised using sales commissions. Since an audit typically cannot be avoided entirely, the question to consider is whether or not this is a bad thing? Users are nearly always alarmed at the prospect of being audited but in reality, vendor audits are not necessarily a negative occurrence. They can be used constructively, as an opportunity to potentially save money by getting a better understanding of actual usage and potential software over spend from excess licensing. Imagine the scenario of a company that has seen rapid expansion over the last two years as a result of organic growth and M&A activities. In normal circumstances, keeping control over one organisation's license entitlement records, software purchases, software deployments and generally ensuring people adhere to official SAM processes, is a fulltime, complex task. Now add in the complexity of having to integrate the newly acquired part of the business. Collecting license entitlements and transferring these across to the new entity, potentially without the support of a software asset management (SAM) tool to assist with software discovery and building a license repository, can make obtaining an accurate picture of whether or not the organisation is compliant difficult to achieve. This is typically where the 'troubles' start and why using automated inventory technology is able to create a baseline of installed applications and then recording license entitlements within a single repository is essential. The mere fact that an organisation has been acquired or been acquisitive will have placed it on a vendor's target list for an audit. Vendors know how to take advantage of 'low hanging fruit' and this is always a lucrative one. So rather than fret about the possibility of an audit, accept it is inevitable and use it as an opportunity to obtain an agreed entitlement baseline with a vendor. Ideally this should be done proactively, as part of an internal audit focusing on reconciling software usage against entitlement prior to the vendor's own assessment taking place. Returning to the more positive aspects of vendor audits, they represent a way to test whether tools and processes are working efficiently. An organisation is rarely knowingly non-compliant, as that is illegal. However, the complexity of managing software licensing, procurement processes and license metrics contracts, whilst ensuring that day to day company operations are not affected, means that mistakes can and will happen. The main benefit of approaching software auditing in a proactive and methodical way is the potential to make significant cost savings through having a more detailed understanding of precise utilisation requirements. Just as an internal audit can highlight an under licensing issue, it frequently highlights where an organisation is over licensed or not taking advantage of the most cost-effective licensing schemes available to it. This is a surprisingly common scenario as risk averse companies have traditionally opted for unlimited licensing agreements in the belief that it is better to 'play safe' because potential audit penalties will be greater. It's a bit like avoiding a customer satisfaction survey because the results won't be complementary. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. Jelle Wijndelts is a SAM Consultant at Snow Software.

Is Sprint ditching Windows Phone? Posted: 04 Dec 2014 05:05 PM PST Sprint's disinterest in selling Windows Phone devices may have finally bubbled over, as the carrier appears to have removed all traces of the OS from its website. Maybe Sprint doesn't heart Windows Phone quite as much as we thought? A search for Windows Phone devices on Sprint.com comes up empty, and the site's menu now lists only iOS, Android and BlackBerry. We've asked Sprint to clarify its current stance on Windows Phone, but so far we haven't heard back. Meanwhile Microsoft and Amazon are still selling Sprint versions of Windows Phone devices like the Samsung Ativ S Neo and HTC 8XT. Guess they didn't get the memo. It's not a good month for Microsoft's OS, as Huawei trashed Windows Phone earlier in December. Hopefully everyone has better luck with Windows 10. Windows 10 is the next version of Windows Phone, too

Fitbit is releasing a limited number of Charge HR and Surge trackers early Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:42 PM PST Fitbit is amping up its fitness tracker game with two new devices, the Fitbit Surge and Fitbit Charge HR, that are scheduled to release in 2015. But a limited number are about to go on sale to certain customers early, the company has revealed. They'll offer the Surge and Charge HR this month to customers who signed up on Fitbit's website to be notified about their availability, and a small number will also go on sale in select retailers. This may be US only, and we've asked Fitbit to clarify. "The Fitbit team is excited to be able to make this limited release available before the holidays; we are releasing the products now because we were able to complete development a bit early and get our manufacturing cranking early," a spokesperson told TechRadar. Well that's just super The Fitbit Charge HR is an updated Fitbit Charge with a heart rate monitor, caller ID and more, while the Surge has so many additional features that Fitbit has labelled it a "superwatch." For anyone who doesn't grab one this month the new bands are still scheduled for an unspecified early 2015 release. They aren't offering pre-orders, but you can still sign up to get notified about them on Fitbit's website. Fitbit shuns Apple's HealthKit

China's Xiaomi might make US debut with new flagship in early 2015 Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:08 PM PST No one in the US pays much attention to Chinese phone maker Xiaomi, and rightfully so - the company has yet to make much of an impact here. But that could change as soon as January 2015, according to China's Economic Daily News. The site says Xiaomi will be present at CES 2015 with its next flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 5, in tow. The Mi 5 is Xiaomi's follow-up to the Mi 4, which released over the summer (although not in the US). The Xiaomi Mi 5 will reportedly sell for CNY1,999 (about $325, £210, AU$390) in China, and with its rumored 5.7-inch 2K display, Snapdragon 810, 20-megapixel camera, and fingerprint sensor, it may turn out to rival the OnePlus One in the new high-end low-cost smartphones market. That is if it really is coming to the US, of course. In any case we'll know in a matter of weeks, as CES is right around the corner once again. Sony Xperia Z4 looks set for CES 2015

IBM and Docker team up for next-gen enterprise apps in the cloud Posted: 04 Dec 2014 03:40 PM PST IBM has announced a partnership with open app distribution platform Docker that will help businesses build and run the next generation of IBM Cloud and on-premises apps. The company says Docker's open platform will let businesses deploy next-gen IBM apps "more efficiently, quickly and cost effectively." "Enterprises can use the combination of IBM and Docker to create and manage a new generation of portable distributed applications that are rapidly composed of discrete interoperable Docker containers, have a dynamic lifecycle, and can scale to run in concert anywhere from the developer's laptop to hundreds of hosts in the cloud," IBM said in an announcement. Docker's flagship product is the Docker Hub Enterprise, a turnkey solution that lets developers focus on creating multi-container and multi-host apps and services and integrating them with the 60,000 other "Dockerized" services in the Hub. In addition developers can integrate these apps and services with IBM's other enterprise services and safeguard them with IBM security. To kick things off IBM is debuting its own Docker-based container service, IBM Containers, that it will deliver as part of Bluemix, IBM's own open cloud app development platform. My dear Watson IBM also announced today that its Watson-powered Analytics tool for businesses is now in open beta. Enterprises can use Watson Analytics to automate processes like data preparation, predictive analysis and visual storytelling, the company says. Business users can now access the cloud-based "freemium" service beta from any desktop or mobile device at watsonanalytics.com. IBM to put Watson supercomputer in a pizza box

Review: mini review: Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime Posted: 04 Dec 2014 01:25 PM PST Peripheral manufacturers must think that all gamers want expensive mice, chock-full of flashy, but superfluous features. They don't. Sure, what gamers want in a mouse often deviates from the basic two-button mouse packed in with a PC, but not often by much. Logitech took a long, hard look at the peripheral scene, did their homework and came to market with the G302 Daedalus Prime. It's an impressive gaming mouse, more specifically, a MOBA gaming mouse, but you'd never guess it. Maybe that's because its impressive feature-set is disguised in its stunning, consumer-friendly body, or maybe it's because the G302 is just so affordable at 50 bucks. With feedback from professional MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) players, a strategic genre of gaming where hours upon hours of relentless clicking is required, Logitech has crafted a mouse that's not only fine-tuned for marathon MOBA games into the night and short-session twitch gameplay, but it also happens to be a worthwhile choice for the PC community at large thanks to its ease of use, comfort and affordability. Design If a computer peripheral looks hard to use, it probably is. Most products made with gamers in mind sport an intimidating array of buttons and sharp edges, but Logitech went in a direction less traveled, making the G302 beautifully simple on the eyes and comfy in the hand with inviting curves. On this right-handed only mouse, you'll find six customizable buttons, three of which are standard buttons you are probably used to, the left/right click and the scroll button. On the top of the mouse is a DPI (dots per inch) adjustment button. It allows for on-the-fly tweaks to the mouse's tracking speed. To finish the offering, two customizable buttons on the side allow for thumb presses. It's delightfully plain. A stylish mix of glossy and matte black plastics wrap around the G302. The distinction between the two is subtle, yet purposeful. Matte plastic is in place for non-slip usability during intense matches, and its subdued appearance allows the gloss to take center stage. These glossy sections are reserved for the G302's boldest statement. Around the palm rest, blue light emanates through the grille, gently pulsating a cool effect onto the working surface. The G302 weighs just over 3 ounces and while my opinion is certainly subjective, its feels lighter than it appears to be, but hefty enough to not feel like a hollow toy sliding around in my hand. For the cheap price of entry, it's generously stocked with nice design touches that gamers and even general users who aren't so picky will appreciate. The mouse cradles fingers nicely, regardless of whether your grip is light, or if it's tight with your hand engulfing the whole mouse. Looks can only go so far when it comes to tech, especially when it's engineered to perform up to spec of the most rigorous computing activities. Fortunately, the G302 is no slouch. Performance I'll admit it, I'm not a hardcore MOBA player, so the daily allotment of clicks the G302 gets on my desk isn't in the thousands, but the hundreds. I do, however, play games that require a similar level of pinpoint precision both in movement and click speed and accuracy. With games like Hotline Miami, Team Fortress 2 and Gunpoint, the G302 performed favorably. With tips coming on high from a legion of MOBA professionals during the G302's creation, Logitech crafted a mouse that's a joy to use in-game and during normal computing tasks. On the technical side, it's capable of a whopping 20 million clicks and can cover a distance of 250 kilometers accurately with its 32-bit ARM microprocessor before it tracks its last movement. To ground those numbers in reality, the mouse buttons click fast and easily thanks to the metal spring tension system, which claims to have an astonishing 1 millisecond response time. That many clicks will indeed last you a long time, whether you're a DOTA player or not. There were several times that I forgot I was using a MOBA gaming mouse. This is the greatest compliment I can give to the G302. What it lacks in a good name (Daedalus Prime), it makes up for with distinct style and comfort. We liked For the low price of $49.99 (£39.99, AU$59.95), the Logitech G302 excels in its confident design and performance. It's on the more affordable end in the spectrum of PC gaming peripherals, but by no means does it feel or perform like a cheap mouse. We disliked The lack of ambidextrous support is a bit of a downer. Aside from the two thumb buttons on the left side, the design is perfectly symmetrical, which makes its left-handed omission that much more baffling. Final verdict If you're looking for a wireless mouse that ditches the LED effects and offers more of a subdued design, check out the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless. If you're right-handed and in the market for a hard-working wired mouse that won't break the bank, it's hard to go wrong with the G302.

PayPal for Android gains Samsung fingerprint reader support in Google Play Posted: 04 Dec 2014 12:11 PM PST The Google Play version of PayPal's Android app has been updated with support for fingerprint recognition on a handful of Samsung gadgets. With the new version users on the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Alpha, and Galaxy Tab S can swipe their fingers for authentication when making PayPal purchases. This capability existed already in the version of Android's PayPal app distributed through Samsung's own app store, but not in the Google Play version. Samsung opened its fingerprint scanner up to third-party apps early in 2014, putting the ball in Apple's court, where it has since been completely ignored. But hopefully that changes if more big-name apps like PayPal continue to take advantage. Samsung Galaxy note 4 Android Lollipop update pictured in latest leak

Twitter continues its efforts to make Instagram irrelevant Posted: 04 Dec 2014 10:53 AM PST Who needs Instagram when you can put cheesy filters over your crappy phone photos from right within Twitter itself? Twitter first began offering photo filters in 2012, and it's continued its efforts to make Instagram irrelevant ever since. Not that it's working - Instagram is still hugely popular - but maybe the set of new photo filters Twitter just added in its iOS and Android apps will help. But why? There is an argument to be made for simply posting to Twitter instead of going through Instagram. Your accounts are probably linked anyway, so your Instagram photos get tweeted automatically. And this way your photos will actually appear natively in your tweets, instead of in a link your followers have to click. But most users who care about this are probably already invested enough in Instagram that they don't want to quit, barring some moral objection to Instagram owner Facebook - which, to be fair, isn't that far-fetched. Facebook has found another new spot in your News Feed for auto-play video ads

Buying Guide: Phone of the year 2014: the winners Posted: 04 Dec 2014 08:36 AM PST Phones review of the year: Introduction It has been a funny old year for phones. In some areas it seems as though progress has plateaued, that the improvements we're seeing these days are a case of diminishing returns. Are phones getting boring? Anything but. This year we've seen the capabilities of phones branch out from the phones themselves into other parts of our lives. A while back this sort of stuff was 'the future' but it's fast becoming the norm. We're talking about things like Chromecast, smart watches, fitness trackers, and that just about every new TV offers a mode to stream video directly from your phone. What was once the preserve of very expensive gadgets is now here for everyone. Even multi-room audio, which became a much, much bigger deal in 2014, centres around your smartphone. If you don't think phones really changed enough in 2014, consider the ways they're subtly changing the way we live in the periphery. We live in exciting tech times. The best in the biz An awful lot of phones were released in 2014. It's not all about watches and fitness trackers. We reviewed more than 100 phones this year, ranging from the great to the truly awful. It has been a tough year for many phone-makers, with the rate of sales slowing for most manufacturers. Apple is one of the few that seems to be immune to this. Apple gave the iPhone series a full reboot this year, bringing the most radical design changes since the series began back in 2007. iPhones are no longer dinky things that anyone from a child to a 57 year-old banking executive can handle with ease. The giant 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus raised a few eyebrows, and while it hasn't sold quite as well as the iPhone 6, Apple shifted a jaw-dropping 10 million of the pair in just a weekend. These sorts of figures have Samsung execs crying into their balance sheets. Sad-sung It has been a tough year for Samsung. Sales of the Samsung Galaxy S5 haven't matched those of the Galaxy S4, and the company has been clutching at straws ever since. To combat the most common criticism: that Samsung's phone often look and feel a bit cheap, the plastic fantastic style of Samsung's premium phones has been tweaked. We now get metal around the edge of many phones instead of plastic, although it hasn't managed to get over its obsession with leather-effect plastic. Some vices are hard to give up. What's next? Samsung has already shown us its next steps with the Galaxy Note Edge, a phone with a curved edge to its screen. Some say this is what Samsung is banking on to re-inspire you in 2015. The jury's out on whether it'll do the trick. HTC and LG have always been smaller Android players than Samsung, but we actually preferred these companies' top phones, the HTC One M8 and the LG G3, to Samsung's. Did they sell as well as the Galaxy S5? Of course not. Here's how the main top-tier phones' sales stacked up in 2014, judging by little tit bits of information we've gathered from a whole bunch of financial reports: iPhone 6 and 6 Plus: 10 million in a weekend Galaxy S5: 12 million in 3 months LG G3: 'on track' for 10 million HTC One M8: 3-5 million in Q2 2014 The revelation here is the LG G3. It's LG's best-selling phone ever, and after the smash that was 2013's LG G2, the G3 has really brought the company back into the big time. If you want a high-end phone, you should always consider an LG. We certainly wouldn't have said that a couple of years ago. Where's the hover-phone? But what have these phones brought that we didn't get back in 2013? The laser beams and 10-day batteries we ordered never turned up, and a lack of features that might induce pant-wetting excitement might be why most manufacturers struggled this year. After all, why would you spend £500 on an upgrade when all you get is one more digit on the name and a 0.1-inch larger screen? Still, we did get a few important upgrades. The LG G3 was the first big-name phone to use a QHD screen, offering four times the resolution of a 720p display. A 5.5-inch phone with more pixels than a 65-inch TV. It's kinda crazy when you think about it. This is the future, and we'll see this resolution in most super-high-end phones next year. What else? Android and Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPUs kicked battery life up a notch, with two-day battery life seeing Androids leave iPhones chowing down on dust. It's really the parts outside of the phones themselves that got us excited this year, though. Android Wear is still a newborn baby and the Apple Watch isn't even out yet, but they're going to change the way with interact with our phones. Fitness trackers have exploded too, if you find Wear just that bit too much like a box of gimmicks no-one asked for. We live in a wearable world now, folks. You need to get on-board to earn your gadget geek points. Just having a phone isn't enough anymore. Phones of the year 2014 The Phones of the Year 2014 More pixels. More screen inches. More power. Faster mobile internet, and all for less cash. 2014 saw the capabilities of phones expand in both directions. As ever, the ceiling for power and camera performance in phones was raised, while the expectations of what you can get for under £100 and under £200 have changed completely. But who won the smartphone war that really matters: the one the top-end phones battle out every year? Samsung didn't get a sniff this year, despite the Galaxy S5 being a top-notch, high-performing mobile. The competition was incredibly fierce. This year also saw the beginnings of a few phone innovations that'll become common next year. LG set the bar with the first widely-distributed phone with a QHD resolution screen, which is four times the resolution of a 720p phone like the Moto G. And while screens have got bigger once again, the extra space taken up by a phone's bezel has been trimmed. We're pretty close to all-screen mobiles now. This was the year that even normal people who wouldn't consider spending hundreds of pounds and hours of research on a phone embraced big screens. When Apple goes with an idea, you know it's finally mainstream. Best Flagship Phone: HTC One M8 What's special about our winner? The HTC One M8 is a phone that seems to consider what it's like to use on a daily basis in almost every aspect. It's not just about one-upping the competition with a bit more spec here, some more tech there. The design has a lot to do with it too. Like the HTC One (sometime referred to as the M7), it's made of aluminium, but HTC took the curved back a step further, making an incredibly smooth handset that feels great to handle. It's not small, but its ergonomics are more-or-less faultless. You also get the BoomSound speakers we loved so much in HTC's other top-end phones, getting you much beefier sound than just about any other phone maker's mobiles. These two bits alone make the HTC One M8 a pleasure to use. But there's more too. HTC plugged one big hole of the One M8 by adding microSD card support, while the camera adopted a dual-lens system that lets you create photos with artsy-looking blurry backgrounds. A gimmick? Perhaps, but the HTC does it better and quicker than any of the competition. And it's a sure way to get you a few more likes in Facebook with any portrait shots. Also consider: LG G3 It's not often that a phone combines a 'first' with standard-setting value, but that's just what the LG G3 did. It arrived cheaper than arch rival the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, but was also the first big-name phone to use a QHD screen. Next year's top-end phones will almost all offer this grade of resolution, but the humble LG G3 got you that all the way back in mid-2014. Did it get credit? Not as much as Apple would have for pulling the same trick. Meanwhile the LG G3 is still far, far sharper than the iPhone 6 Plus, despite costing half the price. We don't love absolutely everything LG does, but we'll hand it to the company: it really pulled it out of the bag with the G3. Screen quality is far from the only benefit too. You get OIS in the camera, infrared, NFC, expandable memory. The list goes on. Not everyone instantly falls in love with the way LG puts the volume and power buttons on the back of its phones, but even if you actively dislike the design, you'll get used to it in days. We still find ourselves regularly recommending the LG G3. We're often met with eyes rolling at the idea of buying an LG phone, but the G3 proves LG is back and deserves to be taken seriously. iPhone 6 Apple's iPhones have gotten bigger. The iPhone 6 makes the iPhone 5S look like a toy, and it's the smaller of the two new iPhone models. However, it's also the better choice for many people. You get an alarmingly thin body, whose increased size does not remotely feel like a practical compromise now we're all so used to much larger phones. Where the iPhone 6 Plus has come under fire for possibly being a bit bendy should you put too much pressure on certain parts of it, the iPhone 6 is a very solid design. And one that has all the power of its bigger sibling. So why isn't it our phone of the year? Quite a lot of the key technical improvements were made in 2013. The iPhone 5S already had a fingerprint scanner, a 64-bit CPU and as ever there's nothing too specific to the iPhone 6 when it comes to software, which is shared with all recent iPhones. Much as people always want Apple to drop the ball each year, though, it hasn't with the iPhone 6. Best phablet: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 The Galaxy Note series has, since its beginnings, been the flag-bearer for those who think gadgets should have the latest tech. A giant screen, a stylus, loads of power and high-end specs across the board mean it can't really fail to draw in the enthusiast crowd. Samsung hasn't messed with the Note philosophy too much this year with the Galaxy Note 4. You still get a large screen, this time 5.7 inches, and the fantastic S-Pen, which now offers a whopping 2,048 pressure sensitivity levels. The Note 4 is also the first Samsung flagship to use QHD resolution, making it a good deal more pixel-packed than the Galaxy S5 despite having a much larger screen. There are two variants of the Note 4 and only one of them offers a native 64-bit processor, but we take this as a sign that Samsung doesn't think 64-bit is quite a necessity yet. And the Snapdragon 810 CPU Samsung's lead phones will use isn't available yet. For pure phone royalty you can't do much better than the Note 4. Also consider: iPhone 6 Plus Apple's move into the 'phablet' market seems quite awkward at first. Apple has always made small, super-accessible phones but now, with the iPhone 6 Plus, it hasn't gone with half measures. Thanks to its 5.5-inch screen it's much bigger than much of the large Android phone brigade. It really is competing with oversized Androids like the Note 4, which have always had a slightly niche appeal. Apple going for a niche with one of its main products? Perhaps it sees more big-screen potential than even us. The launch of the iPhone 6 Plus has been beset by a few niggles though. First there was bendgate, where it was claimed the phone could bend by being put in your pocket. We've not experienced this ourselves but there are plenty of claims online. There are also rumours of scratch-prone screens and crash bugs. But what Apple launch would be complete without a bit of controversy? Best Compact Phone: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact There's only one company that makes smaller versions of its phones that don't end up feeling compromised in most core respects: Sony. The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is a fantastic, palm-friendly phone, and one that offers the same high-end hardware as its bigger sibling the Xperia Z3, aside from the display. You get the Snapdragon 801 CPU, IP68 water/dust resistance and a seriously impressive-sounding 20.7MP 1/2.3-inch camera sensor. Some 'mini' phones barely seem better than budget models. This one is a real high-end device in a small body. The one bit of hardware you might want to try and poke a hole in is the screen itself, which is 'just' 720p resolution. With QHD screens around, why can't we pack a 1080p display into a 4.6-inch screen? Well, it's still very sharp, while well-saturated, vivid colours mean only pixel obsessives need worry. Also consider: HTC One Mini 2 The HTC One Mini 2 is more of a traditional take on the 'mini' version of a flagship. It looks the same as the HTC One M8, feels similar, but the hardware has been cut down a bit to get the price (and the profits, no doubt) to the right level. HTC's TouchWiz UI arrives intact, and performance is generally very good, though, making it a sound choice if you're not too bothered about pure specs. Several of the HTC One M8's design benefits are here too. Those BoomSound speakers we raved about so much in the One M8? You get them in the One Mini 2, alongside the cool and expensive feel of aluminium thanks to that smooth brushed metal body. It goes a long way towards excusing that you're arguably paying a fair bit for such a middling phone in pure spec terms. We're tech pedants though. Plenty of people will use the HTC One Mini 2 without even noticing the cheaper bits. Best Budget Phone: Moto G The Motorola Moto G was the budget king of 2013, and Motorola has pulled off the trick again in 2014 with… the Moto G. We're not giving another award to the same phone, though. Motorola has actually released two updates to the phone in 2014. First we saw the 4G version of the 4.5-inch model announced in May, then Motorola gave the design a full refresh in September. For around £130-140 you get a 5-inch 720p screen, the sound Snapdragon 400 processor and a much-improved camera. There's just one issue: it doesn't have 4G. We expect to see a 4G version announced, which some of you may want to hold out for. There have been a few attempts to steal the Moto G's thunder, for example the Asus Zenfone 5, but none have been quite as good. And none of the major manufacturers even seem to have tried. Their phones are either a lot more expensive, or simply nowhere near as good. Also consider: EE Kestrel 4G phones used to be expensive, but the EE Kestrel proves you don't need to pay too much to get on-board with high-speed mobile internet. £99 on a pre-pay deal gets you a 4.5-inch QHD screen, Snapdragon 400 CPU, dual cameras — the works, really. The design won't get many excited, but if you want 4G and you are on a budget this actually gets you even more than the Moto G in some respects, for less cash. Huawei actually makes the phone, and it has a lot in common with the Huawei Ascend G6, a very similar but not quite as cheap mobile. What's wrong, then? Screen resolution isn't as high as the Moto G's and it uses Huawei's infamously quirky Emotion UI. You can tweak out most of the odd little bits in the EE Kestrel, but it does take a little bit of effort and know-how. Sony Xperia M2 (and Aqua version) The Sony Xperia M2 was one of the most convincing budget 4G phones, and one of the only ones from the real big players. It costs Pay As You Go-grade money, but gets you good-looking design, 4G and a big screen. Sound battery life is another solid bonus, making this a phone that's extremely easy to live with. If you want even more of a carefree style, there's the Sony Xperia M2 Aqua. This is a waterproof version of the M2, using similar rubbery flaps to the Sony Xperia Z2 and Z3: a recipe for bath-time Netflix bliss. Makes us feel all warm just thinking about it. The screen's not as good as the Moto G's, and despite having a relatively high-res sensor its camera photos are pretty rubbish. As such it's not quite on-par with the Moto G. But if you just can't get on with Motorola's budget baby, this is a good second bet. End of year report: which brand did best? Which brand should you choose? Brand loyalty: should it be a thing of the past? As far as we're concerned, how good a company's phones are, not the name on them, is how you should pick your next mobile. With many of the big phone-makers struggling to turn a decent profile from phones in 2014, it hasn't really been a great year for the coffers of the mobile megacorps. But is it just the way the market's going, or have Samsung, Sony and co. just been taking their position as leaders of the phone world for granted? We're going to have a look at the highs and lows of the biggest names in mobile from 2014 to find out. Samsung 2014 It's hard being king, as Samsung found out this year. Despite still producing many of the most popular Android phones in the world, it has struggled to reproduce the sort of success it had in 2014. Towards the end of the year, we saw numbers in the company's Q3 2014 figures suggesting the Samsung's profits were down 60% since 2014. It makes scary reading coming from the company that's still the behemoth of Android phones. Look at the phones themselves and things aren't quite so drastic. We loved the Galaxy S5, and the Galaxy Note 4 was, as usual for the Note series, another smash. Still, Samsung needs to figure out how to gets its mojo back, because it's slipping between the company's fingers like a toddler trying to grip a giant jelly dollar sign. The current tactics: phones with metal edges instead of plastic ones and screens that wrap around the side, as seen in the Galaxy Note Edge. Who knows if that'll succeed. The Good 2014 saw Samsung finally try to get classy. It calmed down its custom TouchWiz interface a bit, so that looking through the array of preinstalled apps on its phones isn't like thumbing through an encyclopaedia. Samsung's phones are altogether more approachable these days. While it hasn't proved as big a smash as hoped, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is also rather special. With a fairly high price, initially strange design and lack of real eye-opening features beyond a frankly rubbish fingerprint scanner, it may seem like a disappointment. But the excellent ISOCELL camera and superb AMOLED screen make it a top pick for tech fans to this day. The Bad There's a lot more bad to bring up this year for the big dog of Android phones. It may have produced some of the years best, most popular phones. But that hasn't really been enough to offset all the wrong moves. In 2014 Samsung failed to offer a single lower-cost phone that truly captured the imagination, and as much as it may think itself on-par with Apple, a core part of Samsung's business is serious box-shifting, not just selling ultra-premium phones. You only need to look at phone retailers to see the fallout of this failure: why is the two year-old Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini still on sale? How can a two year-old phone that was disappointing at the time possible compete with something like the Motorola Moto G? The painful truth is it can't. Samsung needs to realise this rather than piling its effort into high-end phones that offer little for the value buyer. Its low-end phones are often dreadful. Samsung is failing at both ends of the spectrum too. Despite racking-up plenty of hype, the Galaxy S5 has hugely under performed when it comes to sales. Mental images of warehouses full of unsold S5s paint a pretty painful picture and that's the reality according to current reports. HTC 2014 After a few precarious years, HTC pulled things back a bit in 2014. It made our favourite phone of the year for one, making it a twice-in-a-row victory for the company. We're talking about the HTC One, a favourite from 2013, and One M8, two of the best phones ever made. 2014 also saw HTC come back to the world of tablets, which it hasn't set foot in since 2011 with the cataclysmic disaster HTC Flyer. Google got HTC in to make the Nexus 9 tablet. It's early days for that tab, but first impressions are fairly good. After trying to establish itself as a king of phone cameras, something it hasn't quite pulled off, HTC fell back to the less ambitious goal of making the best phone speakers. If you want a phone that sounds great, HTC is a pretty good bet. It has been one of the main promoters of stereo front-facing speakers. You'll even find its BoomSound speakers in several of its phones, not just the most expensive ones. The Good How can we start other than talking about the HTC One M8? It's our favourite phone of the year, offering the most beautiful, best-sounding handset you can get, even six months on since its release. Many of its values are the same as last year's HTC One, but with a curvier body, memory card slot and larger screen in tow. What's not to like? Nothing. Well, apart from the low-res camera. Later in the year HTC had a go at making its cameras stand out once more, but without any UItraPixel branding this time. The HTC Desire Eye was the first phone to use 13MP cameras on the front and back. Fancy a selfie demi-god? Look no further. We're yet to see whether the phone really captures the imagination of the selfie brigade, though as it's barely on shelves yet. The Bad Just like Samsung, HTC has failed to come up with a killer budget phone this year. But unlike Samsung, it's not for a lack of trying. HTC has released a full range of budget mobiles this year, from the HTC Desire 310 to the mid-range Desire 610 and beyond. But they're all a bit expensive compared with the best out there. Where are the competitive models, HTC? Again, like Samsung, HTC's revenues are generally on the downward slide too, with its Q3 2014 results showing a decline year-on-year. However, for a company that has been seen as being on its last legs, we're glad to say it's still in the black. Many of us are disappointed that HTC hasn't really done anything with the UltraPixel tech that was all the rage in 2013. This was all about cameras with relatively low-res sensors but larger photosites, making them much better for low-light shots. Look deeper and the truth is pretty simple. HTC's 4MP UltraPixel sensor was really made by ST Microelectronics, not HTC. And we guess no-one had made a similar, cost-effective sensor solution offering higher resolution. LG 2014 Ahead of the curve and managing to undercut most of the competition, LG showed everyone how it's done with its top phone for 2014, the LG G3. It was the first big-name phone to be released with a QHD screen, which several of the big names won't get to until 2015. However, it lost the bid to make 2014's big Nexus phone, having made the Nexus 5 last year. Motorola got that honour, robbing LG of a few potential plaudits. Still, having really upped its game in 2013, LG has slowly been gaining steam this year, winning back credibility as a serious phone brand among the general public. Where Samsung is on the wane, LG's slow-but-steady approach seems to be paying off. LG's Q3 financial results were its best since 2009. Its profits may just be a fraction of Samsung's ($163 million to Samsung's $3.8 billion) but having positive momentum in mobiles, where everyone seems to be struggling, is a big win for LG. The Good LG produced the one super high-end, big-name phone this year that could really be considered a bargain. We've seen the LG G3 on sale for as little as £299, and for that price it offers a ridiculous amount of hardware. Even at its launch price it offered a much better deal than arch rivals the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z3. LG is the one major manufacturer that reminds us high-end phones don't need to forget about value entirely. This high-end value has seen several of its 2013 phones sell very strongly well into 2014. The Nexus 5 and LG G2 are still great options even now, and that's despite the Nexus 5 having been discontinued by Google. A few years ago we'd have laughed at the idea LG would become a paragon of reason and taste in high-end phones, but that's exactly what's happened. Quite how is still a mystery. They must have made some great hires. The Bad After LG made such a cracking job of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, we were a little sad to hear it wouldn't be taking the reins for the Nexus 6. Instead Motorola got that honour. Why? Perhaps we'll never know, but it seems likely money had something to do with it. Pitching for a Nexus design is a bit more involved that coming up with a science fair project and handing it to the teacher. LG also failed to match the value of the LG G3 and G2 in models lower down the line-up. The LG G3 S was the closest we had to an 'LG G3 Mini', but just like the Mini models from Samsung and HTC, it failed to recreate the magic of the original, or offer aggressive-enough pricing to make up for it. LG's re-entry to the tablet space has proved a bit of a dud too. The LG G Pad 7.0 and 10.1 seemed outdated at their point of arrival. They're low-price tablets that can't even match the 2013 Nexus 7 for specs or value. Better luck next time, LG. Sony 2014 Sony has a frankly quite bizarre approach to its upgrade cycle. It has worked itself into a six month upgrade loop. You can buy a new Sony flagship for £500, only to find out it's out of date before it has even earned its first scratch. It's a funny situation to find yourself in, but we've come to accept that it just means you have to consider that Sony's upgrades just aren't as big as everyone else's. This sort of cycle was seen as a way for Sony to keep up with competitors more easily, after some of its early Xperia Z phones found themselves quickly beaten by Samsung and co. It doesn't seem to have done the company any favours longer-term though. Fairly poor mobile sales led to a huge restructuring of the company and have let Xiaomi become the third biggest global phone manufacturer, ahead of Sony. Of course, hardly anyone's even heard of Xiaomi in the UK or US. The Good Sony has spearheaded a couple of pretty neat changes in the way mobile phones are designed. It was the big force behind making waterproof phones mainstream, and that has continued into 2014. The Xperia Z2, Z3, Z3 Compact and Xperia M2 Aqua are all happy to be dunked in water, as long as it's not chlorinated or salty. The lead Xperia phones have also offered some of the biggest batteries around. The Xperia Z2 has a 3200mAh battery, and while that was chopped down to 3100mAh in the Xperia Z3, it's still much bigger than the units you get in Samsung or HTC rivals. Sony is one of the few big companies to offer a really good low-cost 4G phone this year. The Sony Xperia M2 was a bit like a cheap Xperia Z2, and was available for just £149 right around its launch. LG and Samsung failed to offer anything quite as alluring that you could also buy easily on the high street. Granted, between the M2 and the 4G Moto G we'd probably pick the Motorola, but it was still one of the year's better budget phones. The Bad Sony's high-end cameras have a great reputation. They can replace compact cameras if need be. However, step down the line-up a bit and you'll find some real photographic stinkers. Horrible processing and seemingly naff sensors mean you end up with some real ugly photos from some of Sony's lower-cost phones. Manage your expectations or read our reviews. Some of the real entry-level models are pretty bad all-round. The Motorola Moto E absolutely wipes the floor with the Sony Xperia E1, for example. The moral of the story is not to put too much faith in a big brand. They are often used to scrimp on models because there's a certain feeling among some that 'a Sony phone can't be bad, can it?' We're afraid it can. In late 2013 and 2014 we also saw Sony's Lens Camera idea fall more-or-less flat on its face. These are camera sensors, processors and lenses that fit into the space of a normal camera lens that you're meant to clamp to your phone. It sounds like a neat idea, but slightly dodgy implementation and lag meant it took too long for them to get up to speed. Microsoft/Nokia 2014 It has been a turbulent year for Nokia, and really the end of the company as we know it since Microsoft bought Nokia's mobile division in April. It's pretty obvious why: Nokia has for a long time been the main manufacturer of Windows Phone devices. The middle of the year saw the company in limbo, releasing Lumia phones and even a now-abandoned Android phone range as if nothing had happened. However, in recent months we've seen a true picture of the future. Nokia phones are no more. In October, Microsoft announced the Nokia brand is being dropped, to be replaced by 'Microsoft Lumia'. Maybe it makes sense, but we're still left feeling sad as one of the great long-standing names in phones has walked into the night. Still, it is not gone for good — other parts of Nokia not owned by Microsoft are planning on releasing an Android tablet soon. And it's going to be dirt cheap at £199. The Good Nokia's phone team doesn't half know how to make a great phone camera. 2014 didn't see any of the gigantic sensor phones like the Lumia 1020, which was released back in 2013, but high-quality sensors and optically-stabilised lenses were used to great effect in mobiles like the Lumia 930. The benefit of newer phones like this is that, because the hardware involved is fairly petite, you don't end up with a truly massive phone but get fantastic image quality that provides much of the functional benefit of Nokia's best. Even further down the range, the Lumia phones have started top-notch low-light photo performance, with models like the Lumia 830 and Lumia 735. Given this is where phone cameras usually fail, it gives the Lumia range of phones great all-round photo skills. We also love that despite being in a brand identity crisis, the phones themselves have kept their colourful character. Lumias are bright and fun-looking, and have even started adopting a bit of metal trim in some models. The Bad So, whatever happened to the Nokia X series? Nokia announced these low-cost Android phones at MWC 2014 to confusion and great interest. Then, well, then they were never really released beyond a few spots, before being officially axed in July, going from birth to funeral in under five months. 2014 also saw Nokia piss away all the goodwill it worked to get with the excellent Nokia Lumia 620 and 520 models from 2013. They were fantastic value-packed phones that really helped establish Windows Phone as an important force among budget phones. And then Nokia followed it up with the Lumia 530. It's worse in just about every way than the Lumia 520. And we don't mean worse in the sense of 'for its time', we mean flat-out worse. Worse screen, worse CPU, worse camera. At the time of release you could still get the Lumia 520 for about £40 less than the Lumia 530. It was a real 'palm meet forehead' moment. Apple 2014 What might seem like a small change for another phone manufacturer is a world-shattering move for Apple. It changed the size of the iPhone screens this year. Just about every other phone-maker does this every year, but Apple doing it had jaws dropping across the world, afterall, its phones have been 4-inchers since 2012. Aside from being, bigger, slimmer and faster, 2014's iPhones are actually more-or-less business as usual. The Touch ID fingerprint scanner was introduced back in 2013, as was the 64-bit CPU architecture that's now standard across all Apple's new iPhones. Sales are going well too. While Samsung has had bad news about its Galaxy S5 sales, iPhone sales are healthy. And the iPhone 6 is reportedly outselling the larger iPhone 6 Plus 2:1. The good The new iPhones have strolled into their more spacious skins with ease. Compatibility issues? Not really. Complaints from the fans? Nah, pretty much everyone decided the old iPhones were tiny and toy-like upon first getting an iPhone 6 in their hands. The iPhone 6 Plus is a little big for some, but then that's the whole idea. For all the talk of Apple devices not being as powerful as the competition, the A8 processors used in the new iPhones are extremely adept. Even now, most Android rivals aren't using 64-bit architectures while iPhones have used them for more than a year. It's mad when you think about it. The iPhones are also the only mainstream models to offer 128GB of internal memory, making them real storage trailblazers. But before you ask: no, Apple still doesn't let you use memory cards. The Bad Heard about bendgate? Or #bendgate for the Twitterati? It was a rather tedious interlude that looked like it might tip over into a recall-inciting event for a bit. People say the larger iPhone 6 Plus will bend under the pressure of your backside/thigh if you keep it in a pocket for a good long while. Now, no-one wants their £600 phone to bend, but the jury's still out on whether the claims of bendy iPhones are totally exaggerated. With the scandal dying down, it looks as though the iPhone 6 Plus has lived to bend another day. The same old Apple complaints ring true, though. These phones are very expensive, especially when you consider something like the LG G3 offers more compelling tech in some areas for half the price. Screen resolution may be high enough not to be a serious issue, but for the price you're paying it is a bit low, way off QHD. How to buy the perfect smartphone Buying Tips for Christmas 2014 Need to buy someone a phone this Christmas? It's a great idea, especially now that you don't have to pay anything near a top-dollar price to get a great phone. However, you need to do some research and abide by a few rules to make sure you don't spend more than you should, or end up with a dud. 1. More than a 5-incher? Time for a test drive For most people, the point at which phones can go from seeming big to 'too big' is somewhere between five and six inches. It all depends about how big your hands are, and how used to smaller phones you are. A good general rule to live by is to test drive any phone with a screen of five inches or larger. Almost every high street is littered with phone shops, or at least shops that stock them. Even a dummy model with give you a good indication of whether you might find a phone too big. 2. 'PAYG' gets you better deals than SIM-free Pre-pay deals are phones sold with SIM cards, while SIM-free phones are generic models without any carrier associations. You'll almost always get a lower price with a pre-pay or Pay As You Go mobile, and there's actually no commitment to spend any money with that network. The only limitation is that the mobile phone may be locked to the network it's bought from. Most phones can be unlocked without too much trouble though. 3. Mobile gamers beware of Windows Phone Windows Phone is a great system, one that in most respects is a great alternative to iOS and Android. However, serious mobile gamers should think twice about buying into the operating system. There are loads of games available for it, but if you want to check out that latest mobile phone game you keep on hearing about on Twitter or down the pub, there's a good chance it won't be available for Windows Phone. It's generally much lower down the porting priority list for developers, meaning games and apps generally come to the system a good deal later, if at all. 4. You can unlock phones If you buy a phone locked to a specific network, you can normally get it unlocked to work with any carrier. You'll often have to buy an unlock code though. This generally costs £10-30 depending on the model. You'll find spots that sell these codes online (Google is your friend) or some shops on the high street offer an unlocking service. It's normally the sort of shops that offer a colour photocopying service and an 'internet cafe' that is just an ancient PC hooked up to a CRT monitor. But, hey, if it gets the job done… 5. There's nothing wrong with buying 2013 models 2014 saw relatively little development in terms of core phone hardware. Chips have gotten new names, but the top CPUs of 2014 and the top CPUs of 2013 really aren't worlds apart. It's a good idea not to rule out some of the phones released in 2013 (particularly the Nexus 5 and LG G2) because if you're willing to shop around they offer better value these days than 99% of phones released in 2014. 6. Import phones from China without getting stung If you want to get a phone that's completely different from your mates' mobiles, you might want to consider importing from China. There are several solid brands that aren't really distributed here, but flourish over there. The most important is Xiaomi, the third-biggest phone producer, and one you'll currently never see on the shelves of your local phone shop. Want to import? Rule number one is to make sure the site your order from is legit. A dodgy site may nick your credit card details, so check it out on a user feedback site like TrustPilot before even considering placing an order. Also, be sure to read their terms and conditions as you will also be liable for customs charges. Some sites mark orders as 'gifts' or 'samples' to try to avoid these charges. 7. Android vs iOS? notes on the big decision Android or iOS? It's a question we've been asked regularly for six years. The answer is not simple. If you want a cheaper phone, Android is definitely the way to go. Unless you want a phone that's scratched to death and possibly stolen, there's no cheap route to iPhone bliss. There are loads of good, cheap Androids. However, iOS still has the edge for apps and games, with titles generally coming to iPhones first if one platform is to get the jump on another. 8. 4G or 3G? If you're buying on a budget you need to decide whether you need 4G or not. Some of the best-deal budget phones still do not have 4G connectivity. Is 4G the future? Absolutely. The present, if anything. However, it's important to know the truth about 4G. Most carriers do not offer anything approaching the sort of speeds the standard is capable of because — as usual — mobile networks are crowded, and 4G isn't much use unless you have a pretty generous data allowance. Factor this in when deciding whether you need 4G. Other factors may be more important if you're working with a very tight budget. 9. £130 is all you need to pay for a great phone, £80 for a good one Our top pick budget phone is the Moto G, and it's available for £140 SIM-free. If someone tells you that you need to spend £500 to get a great phone, they're talking nonsense. For most people, the compromises involved in a phone like the Moto G are relatively minor. It can do most of the key things a £500 model can. You can get a perfectly good phone even cheaper, too. The Moto E costs just £80 and we'd be happy to use it as our main phone. You don't always have to spend the earth on a mobile 10. Buying someone a contract is no gift at all Want to get someone a phone this Christmas? Whatever you do, don't go getting someone a contract deal: stick to pre-pay deals or SIM-free phones. The one time when a contract might be a good idea is for parents buying phones for their children. A contract comes with the burden of paying the monthly fees for the whole term — usually two years. So if you're not going to pay that too, you're not doing someone any favours by buying them a contract phone. The future of phones - what to get excited about What to look for in 2015 What do we have to look forward to next year? Nothing ever stands still in the mobile phone business, and the things that'll come to define 2015 are already in the works. The cogs are whirring away even now. On the technical side, we're on the verge of a 64-bit revolution in Android with Google adding native support for 64-bit system architectures as part of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Within just a few months we'll see almost every new phone use a 64-bit CPU, not just the pricey ones. The Snapdragon 410 is already out there, a 64-bit version of the Snapdragon 400 we see so often we swear it's stalking us. This will soon be joined by the Snapdragon 810, the upcoming Qualcomm flagship CPU that'll make the Note 4's Snapdragon 805 look like old news. But what is 64-bit going to get us beyond smug bragging rights? It'll mean we start to see phones with 4GB of RAM along with a radical performance boost that'll make us forget that the Snapdragon 805 really isn't all that much more powerful than the Snapdragon 800, which is so old its original adverts were in black and white. It's up to the devs to prove the upgrade is really worthwhile, but it'll also come in handy for those QHD phones. More pixels means more power demand. iOS on games So will Androids have the advantage for games, and power in general? Not quite. Apple started using 64-bit processors with the iPhone 5S. We've also seen some pant-wettingly exciting demos of what we can look forward to soon thanks to something called Metal. This is an Apple API that gives developers access to a graphics processor's power with lower overheads, unlocking the potential for even more dazzling visuals. It's not going to affect Farmville 6, but DICE has even got parts of Battlefield 4 working on iOS thanks to Metal. And, yep, that's the same game you might play on Xbox One and PS4. The power's already there, but hopefully we'll see it used a bit more in 2015. Microsoft goes hardcore Going from exploiting what's already there to companies with an awful lot of change on the horizon, we have Microsoft and its Lumia phones, which has just dropped the Nokia brand. 2015 is when we'll see where Lumia phones are headed. Will they change completely or is Microsoft going to keep the sort of design identity Nokia has diligently forged for Windows Phone over the last three years (colour, plastic, curviness)? The first non-Nokia Lumia, the 535, has that classic Nokia styling. But it's no guarantee that some bright spark at Microsoft won't upturn the cart and start making all-grey devices made of compressed cardboard. What's the future for poor old Nokia then? Well, when Microsoft bought Nokia it actually only bought its mobile division. And that leaves, ooh, at least five people working in a shed in Finland somewhere doing other things. The brand still has big plans, though, with a super-cheap Nokia N1 tablet already confirmed. For the money (£199) it sounds amazing, but we're yet to touch, or even see, one in the flesh. Its 7.9-inch 2,048 x 1,536 pixel screen has us excited, mind. Drowning in pixels These sorts of ultra-high resolutions are going to become very common, too. Just about all the top phone of next year will have QHD displays, just like the LG G3. More pixels than your eyeballs could possibly compute is going to be terribly de rigueur, you just wait. What's far more useful for the average person, though, is that the UK's 4G networks are going to be given a thorough overhaul. Telecoms regulator Ofcom is selling off more frequency bands carriers can use to beam 4G over to your phone, meaning the currently horribly crowded 4G services will be able to ease up a bit. The speeds you get with 4G in many places really aren't that '4G' at all. Hopefully this will change. Some of the most exciting new stuff won't be in the phones themselves, but the bits and bobs we use with them. Accessorise like the world is ending 2015 may be remembered as the year of the USB headphone. iOS and Android 5.0 can both output audio from their USB/Lightning ports, meaning that the simple headphone jack may become a bit, well, redundant. USB headphones would be able to bypass a phone's DAC and amplifier, letting you get a true audiophile experience from a phone with the right pair of cans. Match up something like this with Tidal, the lossless Spotify alternative, and you have an audio nerd's dream. A bit closer to home, we'll get to see how Android Wear develops and whether the Apple Watch does for smartwatches what the iPod did for MP3 players. Or will it bumble along like Apple TV, not quite setting the world alight?

Updated: Android Lollipop 5.0 update: when can I get it? Posted: 04 Dec 2014 08:26 AM PST Google, HTC, Samsung and Sony Android Lollipop is now out in the open and it includes a hat full of new features, a visual overhaul and numerous under-the-hood improvements to make if faster, more efficient and lighter on your battery, but while we know all about it, it's not yet available for public consumption. Even once it does launch it will be down to individual manufacturers to port it to their devices, so chances are you'll still be waiting a while to get it on your phone and tablet (unless you've gone full Nexus already) and most companies haven't yet been all that forthcoming with details of when they'll bring it to their phones and tablets. But we do know some things and we can take educated guesses at others, so read on for all the information and theories on when you might see Android Lollipop on your device Read our hands on: Android 5.0 Lollipop review Latest updates: We've now heard more information on when the HTC One M7 Google Play Edition will receive Android 5.0. Google During the launch of the Nexus 6, Android Lollipop was officially confirmed as the name for Android 5.0, but no information surfaced about when it will be coming to the older Nexus family. The Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 are Google's first devices to come with Android Lollipop, but these aren't the only Nexus products which will get the latest sweet treat. Android 5.0 Lollipop will also be available on the Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks. A recent announcement by the official Android Twitter account revealed that the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade is now being rolled out to the Nexus 5, Nexus 7 Wi-Fi (both the 2012 and 2013 versions) and the Nexus 10. The rolling out of the update will be done in waves, which will take around three weeks to reach every customer. Asus has announced that Android 5.0 Lollipop will be available right now for both generations of its Nexus 7 tablets, though just the Wi-Fi only models for now. We've heard rumours that Android 5.0 Lollipop had been delayed until November 12 for the majority of Nexus devices due to the last minute discovery of a few software bugs. With the roll out of the update to Nexus devices now begun, it looks like those bugs have been fixed. The roll out has not yet begun for the cellular versions of the Nexus 7 2012 and 2013 or the Nexus 4. Those handsets should see an update later on, though Google has not indicated when this will be. Any Nexus devices older than the ones we've already mentioned are all but guaranteed not to get it, meaning that Nexus S owners are plum out of luck. Google has also confirmed that the Galaxy Nexus will not receive the update. HTC HTC has been more forthcoming with its update plans than most manufacturers and it's no surprise given how quickly it plans to bring the update to users. In a statement the company said: "HTC is excited about the new features in Android Lollipop and we can't wait to share them with our customers. We are committed to updating our flagship HTC One family as fast as possible. "We will begin rolling out updates to the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) in regions worldwide within 90 days of receiving final software from Google, followed shortly thereafter by other One family members and select devices." Sure enough, on November 4 HTC's Twitter account announced that it has now got the Android 5.0 Lollipop code and that it will make good on its promise to update the HTC One M8 and HTC One M7 within 90 days. Doing the mathematics that means the company's most recent two flagships should get Android Lollipop at least before February of next year. After a series of delays it looks like the Google Play Edition of the HTC One M7 will receive the Android 5.0 Lollipop update on Monday December 8. This is according to a report from Techtastic. It is unclear when the standard version of the HTC One M7 will be updated, but it shouldn't be too long after the Google Play Edition gets Android 5.0. If you're keen to see what Android 5.0 Lollipop will look like running on the HTC One M8 with HTC's own Sense 6.0 interface, then a recent batch of screenshots leaked by the LlabTooFeR Twitter account could satisfy your needs. We're going to go ahead and assume that most other HTC handsets released in the last year or so will also get the update at some point. As a general rule the more recent and high profile a device is the more likely it is to get an update, so the HTC Desire Eye will almost certainly be near the front of the line. The HTC One Mini 2, the HTC One Mini and perhaps the HTC One Max and some of the other recent Desire handsets are likely to get the update too, though probably not until sometime after the One M7 and the One M8. According to one leak, the One Mini 2 and Desire 816 will get Lollipop sometime in March or April, while the One Max, One Mini and Butterfly S have an expected Android 5.0 rollout of March-May. Samsung Samsung is yet to officially shed any light on when it will be bringing Android Lollipop to its phones, but there are sources saying its sooner rather than later. According to Sam Mobile, the Samsung Galaxy S5 could be in for an Android Lollipop release in December 2014. Given that networks can delay the rollout, there is always the possibility it won't reach devices until January 2015. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 arrived too early to launch with Android Lollipop, but it will likely be updated quickly, although there's been no word - official or otherwise - on this so far. The Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 3 are also likely to get the update very shortly after it launches, probably within the same sort of several month timeframe as HTC is operating under. Other Samsung handsets may have to wait a little longer, however we'd expect that most high profile devices released in the last 18 months to 2 years will get the update, including the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Galaxy S4 Mini and the Galaxy S5 Mini. Sources close to Sam Mobile suggest that Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S4 will be getting an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop, with the Exynos variant (GT-I9500), which runs Samsung's own Exynos 5 Octa SoC, getting the update first. It is rumoured that the Galaxy S4 will be updated sometime in early 2015, though Samsung has yet to officially announce any plans. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qD_h6iL1g Sam Mobile has also released a video showing how Android 5.0 will look running on a Samsung Galaxy S4, effectively confirming that the latest version of Android will come to Samsung's older flagship handset. We doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S3 or anything older will get Android Lollipop. It's a device that's already over two years old and some versions of it didn't even get Android 4.4. Samsung doesn't seem great at updating its tablets either. There's a good chance recent slates like its Note Pro and Tab S ranges and even the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 will get Android Lollipop but anything older or low end is iffy. Sony Sony has openly declared that it will be "bringing Android 5.0 Lollipop to the entire Xperia Z Series." It's even published a full list of handsets which are in line for Android Lollipop, so here we go... Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1S, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3v, Xperia Z3 Compact and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. It's worth noting that the Sony Z Ultra Google Play edition will be first in line, but Sony is yet to reveal an exact date for the update. As to when Sony will start rolling out the update to its main line of devices, the manufacturer has said "We'll start the upgrade at the beginning of 2015 for the core Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z2 series – continuing thereafter for all remaining devices above." LG, Motorola, OnePlus, Huawei, Asus and ZTE LG It has now been confirmed that the LG G3 will receive the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade sometime between late November and early December. A report published on October 24 by a Dutch website asserts that LG has told its Dutch and Belgian users that they will see an Android 5.0 Lollipop update before the end of 2014. Before our Dutch and Belgian readers get too excited, there's no specific date mentioned and also no indication of where the information has come from. We haven't heard anything about LG's other handsets, but we imagine that in time the LG G2 and LG G2 Mini will probably get updated too and the LG G3 Beat is bound to get updated. Motorola Motorola has confirmed that Android Lollipop will be coming to a number of its handsets in a post on the official Motorola blog. According to the post Android Lollipop will come to both the first and second generation Moto X, the Moto G, the Moto G 4G and the Moto E. A more recent blog post has announced that Android 5.0 Lollipop has begun rolling out to second generation Moto X and Moto G devices in the US. Other Motorola handsets that will get Android Lollipop are the Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx and Droid Mini. Motorola has launched a helpful website where you can track when your handset will get updated to Android 5.0, which is being constantly updated with information about the upgrade process. Motorola's UI is very close to stock Android as well so it shouldn't be as much work to get new versions up and running and back when the company was owned by Google it was pretty prompt with updates, unsurprisingly. Things might be different now that Lenovo's in the driving seat, but we doubt there'll be too long a wait for Android Lollipop on any recent Moto handsets. OnePlus The OnePlus One is still bizarrely hard to get hold of thanks to the requirement for an invitation, but if you have managed to get your hands on one you'll be pleased to know that the company plans to upgrade it Android Lollipop (or a CyanogenMod build based on Android Lollipop anyway). In a statement posted to the OnePlus forums a staff member confirmed that not only would its first and only handset be getting Android Lollipop, but that it would arrive within three months of Google releasing a final build. So the same time frame as HTC in other words. Huawei Like most manufacturers, Huawei hasn't yet shared any details on its Android Lollipop plans. Unfortunately it's not always the quickest at updating its phones either as it only fairly recently started rolling out Android 4.4 to the Ascend P6 for example and the Ascend G6 is still waiting for it. The company's latest flagship, the Ascend P7, shipped with Android 4.4 and we imagine it will probably get Android Lollipop, but possibly not any time soon. We're less sure whether any of the company's other phones will get it, but fingers crossed. Asus If you own an Asus ZenFone it looks like you're going to have to wait until 2015 to get the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade. Asus has apparently confirmed that the Asus ZenFone 5, along with the rest of the ZenFone line, will be updated in April 2015. The Padfone S will also be updated around April. In June 2015 Asus will update its Padfone Infinity smartphone. So far there's been no news about Asus' other devices, such as the Padfone mini, and when they will be updated to Android 5.0. ZTE If you're one of the relatively few with a ZTE handset you might be wondering if and when Android Lollipop will be arriving for it. Unfortunately so are we and this is one case where it's very much an 'if' rather than a 'when'. Fairly recent phones like the ZTE Blade V and the ZTE Blade Q Mini launched with old versions of Android and they haven't been updated, so we're not optimistic that they'll get Android Lollipop. Nvidia Nvidia might not be high on most people's radars when it comes to Android devices, but gaming fans might be interested in knowing if and when the Nvidia Shield will be getting Android Lollipop. Nvidia told us that "we've worked hard to support every official Android release in the past, as you can see with our SHIELD portable and our software team is always working hard to bring new features and the latest updates with no delay. We try to make sure that updates come as close to their announcement as possible." So while it didn't go so far as to confirm anything it sounds very likely that the Nvidia Shield will get Android Lollipop and probably quite soon after launch. Here's everything we know so far about Android Lollipop.

HTC One M8 edges LG G3 and iPhone 6 as TechRadar's Best Flagship Phone Posted: 04 Dec 2014 08:21 AM PST Few would argue that mobile phones have become the most important technological tool we possess. And over the last 12 months, the world's biggest manufacturers have given us the most powerful, best looking and most feature-packed handsets to date. We've spent all year testing and debating all of them, and have arrived at our conclusions forTechRadar's Phones of the Year 2014. We've awarded titles to the top phones in four different categories: Best Flagship Phone, Best Phablet, Best Compact Phone and Best Budget Phone. Overall bragging rights go to the HTC One M8, which takes the title of Best Flagship phone from the likes of the LG G3 and Apple iPhone 6. Elsewhere, we've looked at which brand performed the best over the course of the year, how to buy the perfect smartphone and what the future may hold for our devices. All things considered, it's looking pretty positive for 2015. You can find the full list of winners, as well as our thoughts on the smartphone market and the biggest and best devices of the year on our Phone of the Year 2014 page. 10 Things we'd like to see from the iPhone 7

Industry voice: Cloud Comes of Age: Love it or loath it, just don't ignore it Posted: 04 Dec 2014 08:00 AM PST Is it a fad, just a buzzword? While these questions have been debated, the reality is that our children are already enjoying life in an increasingly cloud-enabled world. Gaming with 'friends' on different continents and backing up smartphones online via services like Apple iCloud; major enterprises have been extolling cloud's virtues; and IT departments everywhere have been working away to achieve some of the promised technical and financial benefits of cloud solutions. If it was tempting to see this as a technology conversation two or three years ago, now is the moment to jump back in. Let me be clear: cloud computing will have as big an impact on business as factory production lines had during the industrial revolution. It's a revolution in the way computing services are delivered and will have an irreversible impact on the way virtually every industry is run. Technologists will be familiar with the three flavours of cloud, but management teams may still be trying to get their heads around them. The 'public cloud' involves a service provider making resources such as software or data storage available over the Internet either on a free or pay-per-use model. An example of this is Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and this can be a quick, cost-effective approach for projects where information is not commercially sensitive or heavily regulated (although the process of removing your data from these platforms – should you need to manage it in-house at a point in the future – is somewhat unclear; more on this in a future post). A 'private cloud' offers similar services but does so through a business' own infrastructure, made available online via secure remote access. This is often needed for computing services that require higher performance, reliability, security and management controls. Lastly, as the name suggests, a 'hybrid cloud' offers some combination of the two and enables a company to manage more sensitive or higher value information via a private cloud, and run other operations on a public cloud to benefit from greater flexibility and scale at a lower cost. Cloud adoption is picking up pace: nearly half of EMEA decision makers think cloud architectures will overtake traditional ones in the next three years. We're seeing organisations adopt one or other variant of cloud computing as commercial pressures mount and business needs escalate in keeping with the rest of the digital universe – which anticipates storage of digital data to grow 300-fold between 2012 and 2020. Despite the hype, cloud is already reshaping corporate computing and business leaders should consider where the greatest opportunity lies for their company. For example: Scale One of the key benefits of the cloud is scale. Most businesses have regular times of the year when the demand for computing resource leaps, including seasonal sales trends or the end of a quarter or financial year. As cloud develops, limitations around processing power, storage capacity and eventually bandwidth become less significant and it is easier for a business to 'switch' on additional computing. Corporate leaders can now plan ahead and decide which departments may need rapid access to scalable computing power, which will boost productivity. Mobility The personal benefits of mobile working are widely accepted but cloud also opens up operational benefits. If staff are able to access systems through the cloud from wherever they are, without being limited by the processing power of a mobile device, then companies can rethink working practices. For example, does the company still need to spend as much on office space if teams can work effectively by combining mobile and cloud? Does the company need to invest as much in physical IT, as the cloud makes it possible for staff to use less expensive client devices but still access corporate systems and data? Disruptive innovation Cloud is redefining agility and accessibility in the enterprise: where it would once have taken six months or more to launch a new application, the cloud means business leaders can turn on a dime, rolling-out new applications within hours. The IT-controlled and IT-limited paradigm of old has given way to a new world order that is business-controlled and self-provisioned, albeit where governance remains an open issue. Equally disruptive is the combination of the cloud and more extensive, readily available structured data from within an organisation – as well as unstructured data available online – which has the potential to create a wealth of valuable new business insight. Cloud is evolving from being solely the domain of the CIO to a topic for the entire management team. In a sense, many of the talking points around cloud migration – the questions of writing down legacy investment, of shifting operational practice, of evaluating risk in a new context – are similar to those taken by a business that's evaluating diversification or entry into a new market. Make no mistake – yesterday's cloud hype has become today's reality. New companies starting up today are building their entire IT infrastructures using cloud tools, and businesses that don't have an IT department today are unlikely to employ one in the future. For most mid-sized and large businesses, which have legacy infrastructure – or for organisations in regulated sectors – a balanced and realistic approach which tailors the different 'flavours' of cloud to a particular organisation will be vital. Adrian McDonald, President, EMEA, EMC.

Industry voice: A quick guide to going green Posted: 04 Dec 2014 07:45 AM PST All businesses should care about green issues and the environment. However, questions over the cost and benefits to the business get asked when I talk about 'going green'. There are plenty of sobering predictions about energy consumption, so reducing your carbon footprint and improving your image as well as your bottom line may be attractive for a business. Energy reducing methods · Use low-emission materials · Reducing power consumption and improving lighting · Introduction of sustainable landscaping · Improving waste recycling · Using eco-friendly company vehicles Low-emission materials LED lighting: LED lamps are much more efficient than traditional bulbs; they offer longer life and lower heat output. Using them in combination with some of the lighting tips above will help reduce your energy usage. The lower heat production of LEDs also cut the amount of cooling needed within the office. Paint: Traditionally paints contain formaldehyde, heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The VOCs are emissions which are given out for up to five years after the paint is applied.Eco-friendly paints have low VOC emissions and are often water-based rather than solvent-based, so help protect the quality of the air that you breathe. The leftovers from these paints are compostable and kinder to your pocket too. Carpet: Love the smell of new carpet? That smell is actually the evaporation of chemicals (i.e. VOCs). To get rid of these emissions choose carpet with a high wool content. Wool is a completely natural, sustainable product. It is also very hard-wearing if you get the right quality. Wool-based carpets are lower in carbon emissions than other more processed products and opting for a brand manufactured in the UK reduces your carbon footprint further. Also, look for carpet with an eco-friendly backing made from polymer granules rather than plastic. The right eco-friendly carpet can also save 15 percent on heating costs. Power consumption Heating: Heating systems can be unreliable and leak out heat in areas that don't need it. Get your heating system checked annually to ensure it is running efficiently and the thermostat is set at the right temperature; look at zoning the building so only essential areas are heated. Cooling: Many companies use traditional air conditioning which uses lots of power and carries a weighty carbon footprint. When the office is not too hot or cold, consider switching the air-con off. Also, here's a novel idea, why not open the windows (if that's possible) to cool things down - fresh air is free and eco-friendly. Hardware: Computers, printers and other devices can often be switched off at the day's end. Install a smart meter to show you what's using the most power. Lighting: Approximately (source: Carbon Trust) 40% of a company's electricity is used on lighting. Try these tips: Asking staff to dim or switch off lights when the last person leaves a room will significantly reduce your electricity usage. Automatically adjusting the lighting depending on the amount of natural light can save 25 – 50 per cent. Cleaning all windows, skylights and light fixtures regularly can also reduce the amount of artificial light needed. Installing low-cost motion sensors for stairways, corridors and restroom areas to reduce consumption. Sustainable landscaping Sustainable landscaping is based on producing an outside area which requires minimal resources to maintain, such as fertilizer, pesticides, fuel, time and water. Many businesses don't have an extensive 'garden' area, but if you have the space consider planting trees, a wildflower strip or a sedum roof which would dramatically improve your environment. And if everywhere is tarmacked, introduce raised beds made of recycled materials e.g. sleepers or tyres. If the area outside is restricted, a nesting box, a bird feeding station or window boxes with bee-friendly plants show visitors that you are making an effort towards caring for the environment. But do ensure someone is responsible for maintaining these. Waste recycling Each year, England alone generates approximately 177 million tonnes of waste, more than half of which still ends up in landfill. Businesses can do a multitude of things to combat the amount of waste that they produce, like: · Reusing the reverse of printed sheets in your printer (if the content isn't confidential), and for note taking. · Buy recyclable office products. · Buy office stationery which has been created from recycled material. · Encourage staff to use hand towels and loo roll economically. · Introduce recycling bins in the staff kitchen to take paper, cardboard, food, tins, plastic, etc. Company vehicles Businesses in great locations often attract staff who live close by, so another way of improving your green credentials is to encourage them to walk or cycle to work. Perhaps provide electric bikes, or have a 'cycle to work' scheme. If employees drive to work, or if you have a delivery fleet, consider more environmentally conscious vehicles such as electric or hybrid cars/vans. The benefits · Reduce your energy bill · Reduce your carbon footprint · Increase staff moraleI Increase new business interest from other companies who want to work with suppliers who are more environmentally friendly. Jack Bedell-Pearce has over 12 years of commercial, operational and technical experience. He is responsible for the day-to-day running of 4D Data Centres, a colocation and connectivity supplier for SMEs in the South East.

Hands-on review: Pinć Posted: 04 Dec 2014 07:07 AM PST Update: Pinć announced that their case and software support will extend to Android, expanding its once-limited reach to a wide spread of Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, LG G3, HTC One M8, Nexus 6 and more. A few years ago, I was sure that I saw the pinnacle of smartphone case innovations: a smartphone case with a bottle opener embedded in it. Fast forward to 2014 and Pinć, a smartphone case that doubles as a VR headset, is now on its way. From its outer shell, Pinć (pronounced "pinch") is an unassuming case. The current prototype, the first piece of hardware ever designed and assembled by interface software firm Cordon Media, is the size of two iPhones stacked together. The headset's boxy design looks to protests pockets, though the team hopes to trim it down significantly before launch. The eye lenses inside the case pressed uncomfortably against my eyes while it was strapped to my head. I couldn't see anything clearly until I held the unit away from my eyelashes. Setting the lenses deeper into the case, as well as providing an alternative place on the face to rest the goggles will help to solve this. As a standalone case, there's not much to Pinć. But of course, this is no standalone case. Opened up, the ingredients of VR, a head strap and goggles, take stage. So, they're making the iOS and Android experience completely VR-friendly? Nope. Rather, the Pinć team has a better solution to bring virtual reality to the small screen. Through their Unity-powered app, it operates in a fashion similar to HTC's Blinkfeed, bringing a smartphone user's most beloved content front and center, albeit in a new, fully-interactive way. But why bring VR to mobile users at all? To the Pinć team, the platform was ripe for innovation. Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift each require additional (and expensive) hardware to do the heavy lifting of the VR software, but powerful smartphones, already in the hands of millions, are more than capable to provide a good experience to users. Samsung has made waves in this space with their Samsung Gear VR for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Pinć to zoom Visually, the Pinć app puts you in control of panoramic, interactive cockpit (think Minority Report). You can move your head freely, with the accelerometer inside the iPhone 6 tracking its movement for sensitive, 360-degree head-tracking. The best claim for touch control on modern smartphones is that it's so simple, that even a baby can learn to use it. The team recognizes that simplicity and almost universal understanding and thus, makes the new-age "pinch to zoom" a cinch. To do this, Pinć includes two bands that you wrap around a finger on each hand. Holding your hands in front of you, the smartphone camera tracks the LED and infrared-equipped finger bands. When the camera sees the bands, two dots appear on screen. These are your fingers, which look like mouse pointers. See an item that you want to get a closer look at? Move your arms to hover the two cursors over it and "click" by pressing the finger bands to your thumbs. With that, the rest of the controls mimic familiar touch gestures. Pinć will be releasing the SDK to developers soon, but they developed some fun mock-ups of what's possible. One was a shoe retailer page and I was able to get a closer look at some boots. With a click, the shoe model popped out of the page into closer focus, making it bigger with a outward pinch. A more unique demo allowed me to go apartment hunting by checking out detailed panoramic images of a space. It'll be interesting to see what Pinć offers closer to launch. Cordon Media made clear that there's a time and place for Pinć. It's much more appropriate while waiting in the airport terminal than if you're late for a meeting. It's a new way to experience your content, not a replacement. And with the prototype draining an iPhone 6 battery in 2 hours, you'll definitely want to plan your use of Pinć accordingly. Early verdict The rough edges of Pinć prototype won't appeal to tech fashionistas, but with Cordon Media's aim for a $99 CAD launch, which is about $88 (£70, AU$102), it's hard to deny the appeal of such a cheap entry-point into virtual reality. With a tentative 2015 release, a bit of polish on its already impressive software will round out the offering. Now, let's just hope that get that hardware in order before launch. If it manages to produce a more comfortable headset, Pinć has the potential to become a formidable opponent in the mobile VR space.

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