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Sony Xperia L3: A Fine Entry Level Sony?

Jon
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Sony Xperia L3: A Fine Entry Level Sony?

No point denying it, this guy right here is a bit of a Sony fan. Recently I wrote about the new upcoming lineup that is covering each price point, including the mid-range entry, the Sony Xperia 10. With the Xperia 1 catering for the top end, the Xperia 10, hitting the middle ground, the question remains, what’s available in the budget category? Enter the Sony Xperia L3, a bargain bin smartphone with a performance unlike what you would expect for the price.

Design

Image result for sony l3 design

Let’s start with the design. The Sony Xperia L3 boats and all plastic body and at first glance, it does look more expensive than the €200 price suggests. However, it doesn’t feel high end once you get your hands on it.

I’m not going against the grain here in saying this, Sony held back the budget for under the hood, so even though the phone might certainly not look cheap, the rear plastic back feels it. I have been testing the Xperia 10 and L3 side by side and what I’ve noticed is the attention to maximising user comfort with their new shape is clearly evident in the more expensive model (which is of course understandable). However, it has a fancy finish that tricks the eyes, if not your fingers.

The Xperia L3 is a little smaller than the other handsets in the range, which is traditionally a good thing for those who wouldn’t be big phone fans. It fits easily in the pocket and it’s super easy to use. People might be quick to compare with the Moto G7 Play and while they are quite similar, I find the size and shape of the Xperia L3 just fits nicely in your hand.

As I mentioned in the Sony Xperia 10 review, the fingerprint scanner is in a slightly different position to the norm. Well, for most phones but clearly not Sony. In the higher end models, the sensor is normally built into the power but, but not here. On the L3 and 10 the power button and scanner are different buttons. On the right side of this new model, you get the power button, volume keys and the fingerprint scanner.

The fingerprint pad itself isn’t the fastest around but does work from a screen-off state with simple finger contact. Overall the design won’t blow you away, as is normally the case with budget phones, but overall the Sony L3 has a nice form, it’s smaller and lighter than the competition and once you get your head around the separated power and fingerprint scanners, for €200 it’s a fine phone.

Display

Unlike the remaining phones in the Sony range, the L3 is fitted with an edge to edge 18:9 display, coated in Gorilla Glass 5. It’s reasonably slim with a small bezel above and below the screen. Straight off the notice, this ain’t no high-resolution display, nor should you expect that at below 200 beans. What matters is it looks nice for the price and it does.

The screen comes in at 5.7″ with a 1440 x 720 pixel LCD screen. It’s an 18:9 aspect display, similar to what most notched phones would have if you chopped off their notch area. As mentioned, this isn’t HD like any phone under the €200 mark and whether you will even notice this or not really depends on what phone you are coming from. For example, my daily runner is the Google Pixel 3XL so I would notice right away but if you were coming from anything else mid to low end then all g, no issues here. What’s clever here like a lot of recent 720-pixel displays is how quickly you adjust to the lower pixel density. Maybe it’s black magic, maybe it’s tech or maybe it’s just me but there you go.

The Xperia L3 doesn’t exactly have the best screen in its range and on bright days the on-screen image struggles against reflections. Colour and contrast are fine, again no problems. But if you want to watch something on a sunny day then you might want to stay in the shade.

Camera

Moving onto the camera, the Xperia L3 is fitted with a dual camera on the rear. The standard lens is a 13-mp supported by a 2-mp depth-sensing unit, commonly used for the bokeh effect shots. In the front, we have an 8-mp “selfie” camera that sits centrally above the screen. I managed to find out that it’s complete face-smoothing beauty mode…that doesn’t work on me, see before hungover Jon Vs”beauty” Jon:

The L3’s daylight pics are sharp and really good for such a budget phone. It does a good job at capturing detail-rich images with great colour and Sony’s processing algorithms do seem to do well with detail capture over smoothness and noise reduction. Probably unsurprising given that it’s Sony but it even does quite well in low-light, especially given the price.

Here’s where I get picky, I think the Xperia L3 software could have been better. Going through the camera settings such as exposure and colour temperature, the sliders aren’t labelled so things can get a wee bit fiddly. No major crisis.

The phone is capable of recording video at a maximum resolution of 1080p but there is no motion smoothing or stabilization in place so footage won’t exactly look smooth. Again, it needs to be said that’s a lot to ask for in a phone of this price. The camera handles very well for sub €200, I just think a couple of little tweaks here and there, it could have been top of the class in this price point.

Battery

While the Sony Xperia L3 isn’t pulling up any trees, the battery life for the price is exceptional. The 3300mAh battery is actually bigger than the one in the more expensive Xperia 10 and unlike the bigger brother, I reckon you can go through your day safe in the knowledge that it will make it to the night before you need a recharge. I was messing around with the auld YouTube and I discovered that an hour of going down that rabbit hole burns around 10-15% battery so by that metric of heavy usage the battery should last about 9 hours. Handy that.

Sony says the Xperia L3 supports Adaptive fast charging, but our phone did not come with a fast charger. And yours probably won’t either. If you’re likely to charge your phone overnight anyway, this isn’t necessarily a big loss. The phone has a USB-C for charging, so at least its plug isn’t as dated as its software. Very impressed by the bang for the buck this battery returns.

Hardware

The Sony Xperia L3 comes with the a Helio P22 platform (equivalent to Qualcomm Snapdragon 450) and 3GB of RAM, a slight downgrade from the Xperia 1, but expected. The storage space is adequate with 32 of memory- and there is microSD support for storage expansion up to 512GB.

Overall I found the performance to be quite good and the day to day performance was reasonable for the pricing. Little jittery at times if you had too many apps open but again just clear of your stuff, it saves battery and performance.

As with the Xperia 10, the Sony Xperia L3 is fitted with the 3.5mm headphone jack and the sound quality is best described as grand, Sony traditionally do good audio so their entry-level model was always going to do alright.

Finally, gaming performance is still fine for the price. You can play most high-end Android games perfectly.

Software

The Xperia L3 runs Android Oreo and as mentioned in the Xperia 10 article, Sony has reduced their bloatware massively in recent years which is great for the operation of the phone.

Sony just applies a few light touches here are there, but it’s much more subtle than many other manufacturers. The result is a simple, uncluttered layout that some might think as basic, but we say it does a good job of getting out of the way and letting the user operate the phone without complication.

Unlike the higher models, we don’t get the fancy extras like SideSense but overall you get a pretty standard Android experience. It’s a good, clean experience with gestures at the button and Google Assistant on board, as you would expect.

Pricing

Eir €150
Littlewoods €199
Amazon £160
Laptops Direct £160
Sony e-store €199

 

Spec Sheet

Performance Octa-core MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 (2GHz)
Display 5.7in (1,440 x 720)
Storage 64 GB
Camera 13-mp, 2-mp, front facing 8-mp
Battery 3,300mAh
Ram 3 GB

Verdict

The Sony Xperia L3 is certainly not groundbreaking or anything but it gets the basics right on a budget. Excuse me for using a sporting reference here but for me, the Sony L3 is a bit of a Lee Carsley, cheap, solid and will never let you down.

For teenagers, people starting out with a smartphone and social media enthusiasts this phone will do the job without any frills or thrills. The L3 offers a fine balance of usability and price, making it a solid choice for those on a budget or aren’t too bothered about having something high end. Long and short of it, if you have the extra €100 to spend by the Xperia 10 and if you don’t want to pay more then this Sony Xperia L3 could be the phone for you.

Varadkar and the Scooter Question: What The Green Wave Means For eRides

Marty
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Varadkar and the Scooter Question: What The Green Wave Means For eRides

Something quite remarkable has happened. Across both European elections and local elections, The Green Party has gained substantial ground. The reason is simple. We’re killing our planet and not doing enough to try and heal it. It’s being called the green wave on Twitter, a wave that’s hitting with such impact An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had no choice but to outline his own party’s green plans:

Great to see, but my first reaction was, huh? An Taoiseach’s own Minister for Transport is far from filling members of the eRide community with confidence over the future of these environmentally friendly, green modes of personal transport.

What Are eRides? Much More Than Electric Scooters

Electric scooters have been making the headlines over the past few months. The Gardai started seizing scooters, claiming people were driving uninsured despite many believing you could not classify electric scooters as MPVs at all. But there’s a lot more to eRides than just electric scooters. I’ve gone along to an eRide meetup which has grown to a community of over 200 members ranging from enthusiasts to everyday commuters. Within this community, there is a majority of electric scooter riders but there’s also a huge number of members who ride other eRides.

Electric Bikes

Electric bikes or eBikes are everywhere, they’re just really discreet. Electric bikes often look just like regular bikes with a motor squirrelled away somewhere and a battery pack to boot. Some eBikes assist the rider on their journey, others, once started, do all the work. The most important thing with eBikes is just how small the learning curve is. It’s as simple as, well, riding a bike.

On top of all the usual benefits, you can also get electric bicycles on the Bike to Work scheme.

Electric Unicycles

Electric unicycles are single wheel personal electric vehicles. These devices are self-balancing with two footplates where the user stands. To control speed, direction and braking the rider leans either left or right, forward or backwards.

To see someone going by on one of these nearly always causes a double take. They are mad vehicles, but once you get used to them, they are a very practical mode of transport.

Electric unicycles offer most of the benefits that electric scooters do. Some will offer greater range and speed, but of course, they do have a bigger learning curve. Electric unicycles are also even more convenient for people breaking up commutes with public transport given the size of these eRides.

Electric Skateboards

Until electric scooters came along, electric skateboards probably got the most attention. A lot of that was down to Casey Neistat and his undying love for Boosted Board.

Electric skateboards kind of fall between scooters and electric unicycles. You have the board for your feet, just like a scooter, but it leaves your hands free, just like a unicycle. Though it’s worth noting that you do need to carry a controller in your hand.

What is the Government’s Stance on eRides?

The most public voice on eRides in Government is the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross. I should point out he’s a reluctant voice on eRides and to date has really only discussed electric scooters when pressed to by fellow politicians such as Noel

Rock. Last year, Mr. Rock raised the growing popularity of electric scooters in the Dail though Minister Ross believed it was a complete non-issue, stating “electric scooters are not subject to roadworthiness testing and it is not envisaged that this position will change in the immediate future”. Unfortunately for the Minister, just a few months later and the use of eRides, in particular, electric scooters, has exploded in Ireland, especially in Dublin. Things have escalated to the point where the Minister has had to commission the Road Safety Authority to conduct a study into the impact of electric scooters joining our roads.

With no sign of the report, the Minister was further pressed on the matter when he finally began to show less than promising indications as to how he would be leaning when it came to eRides. Minister Ross debated with Deputy Rock’s claims that “these scooters will reduce congestion”. Ross outlined his own belief that evidence “shows the opposite of that” and that “those who are proposing to use and are using these particular e-scooters are swapping from bicycles, buses and other means of public transport”.

Backing Up Claims

For me, this was an unusual thing to hear. Not just because it didn’t feel like it could be true, but after following this story so closely for so long, I had never heard of such research. It didn’t feel right to Jean Jose Garcia Monila either, organiser of the eRide community meetup in Dublin. Jean challenged Minister Ross via social media, but it appears to have fallen on deaf ears with no reply to date:

Without a reply, but also having a community of eRider users to hand, Jean set about validating what the Minister said and surveyed members as to which modes of transport they used before they switched to eRides.

Considering the Minister is leaning so heavily on this impending RSA report to make a decision on electric scooters, he’s been very slow to show which research supports his claim that eRide users not really taking from congestion at all. To further undermine the Minister statement, Jean’s survey shows that of the 81 eRide users surveyed, 66% have switched from either a car, motorbike or similar. Just 23% of personal electric vehicle users have switched from public transport.

What’s Next for eRides?

This is the big question? What’s actually going to happen next? In the build-up to the local elections, I asked several politicians what their stance would be on electric scooters should they get elected. Michael Pidgeon is a newly elected Green councillor for my area and he highlighted the benefits of electric scooters, benefits which can easily be transferred to eRides in general.

This has gotten me thinking. As the Taoiseach congratulated The Green Party on their success, he’s left himself in a position where his Minister for Transport regulating against electric scooters and eRides would be a massive own goal. eRides tick nearly every box when it comes to environmental goals. One would hope that the green wave is carrying with it fair and logical legislation in favour of personal electric vehicles.

Of course, politics doesn’t always make sense and logical things don’t always happen. Minister Ross has promised the RSA report will be here in the next few weeks. The time of kicking the can down the road is coming to a close. We’ll have our answer soon and we can only hope it’s the answer that makes the most sense for greener commutes in Dublin.

We’ve reached out to both the Office of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport seeking an update on the Government’s position on eRides along with seeking a source for the Minister’s claims.

 

F1 Manager Review: A Stupidly Addicitive F1 Management Game

Marty
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F1 Manager Review: A Stupidly Addicitive F1 Management Game

Back in the Eddie Jordan and Eddie Irvine days of Formula One, EA Sports released a cracking management game. You controlled every aspect of the team from part development, hiring drivers and bringing in sponsors. Many hours I lost to it. Unfortunately, F1 management sims are a niche interest and there hasn’t been a follow-up. Until now. F1 has teamed up with Hutch games to create F1 Manager.

What is F1 Manager?

The similarities between EA Sports’ F1 manager and it’s modern mobile counterpart from  Hutch Games are few and far between. Beyond the titles and the sport, there’s not a whole lot to compare. Modern mobile gaming is a completely different beast. Traditional desktop game titles focus on the deep details. Mobile games focus on quick experiences you can enjoy on the bus. Quick experiences which can be deeply addictive and easily monetised. But there’s a balance to be struck for mobile games and I feel this new F1 Manager game does it.

What Do You Need To Do In F1 Manager?

F1 Manager gets the balance between fun and scratching an F1 fan’s itch for the sport perfect. To begin, you start your own team including your racing livery. For non-F1 fans that’s the car colour and graphics. You start out with two drivers that you’d normally see towards the rear of the grid on race day. Once you have your car prepped and your drivers ready to go, you’re set to take on series one also known as “The Beginning”.

Duel Racing

These races are based on a duel format which adds some extra excitement. You’re always taking on another person playing the game from around the world. After a quick simulated qualification run, you and your competitor take your position on the grid for an eight-lap race. During the race, your ability to strategise comes into play. As with F1 in the real world, there’s no refuelling allowed. You can only choose which tyres your cars will run on, opting for one of three tyres; soft, hard or wet. Really that means for most races you only choose between two; soft of hard.

Soft or Hard Tyres?

The soft tyre makes your car go faster, but degrades much quicker, typically lasting for between two and three laps. The hard compound tyre can last anywhere between three and five laps. However, you can also push your driver harder which burns more fuel and wears down the tyres faster. When the tyres start to lose grip, you need to pit your driver.

When To Pit

Pitting takes a few seconds and there are a few things to consider. Remember, you can’t refuel your driver, you can only change tyres and tyre compound. Basic pit strategy comes down to two things; the number of pit stops you plan to take in the race combined with the when you choose to take them. For example, the last thing you want to happen is pit two cars at once, making your second car have to wait for the first one to leave.

Other Race Events

There are a few other things that can happen during a race. If there’s an on-track accident, the safety car may come out. This will immediately impact your pit strategy as you get an almost free pit-stop as cars drive slowly around the track. Great if it happens just before you planned for a stop, but a disaster should the safety car appear right after you make your stop.

Cars can also break down and have errors. This can be fixed, but it’ll require a longer pit stop.

How Do You Win While Playing F1 Manager?

The goal of F1 Manager is to score more points than your duel rival. Remember, you both have two drivers so it’s the combined team score that matters most. When you win, you’re awarded upgrades and coins which you can use to upgrade your car parts, drivers and even buy booster kits.

microtransactions in mobile gaming

Which leads me onto the in-game microtransactions. Microtransactions ruin the vast majority of games this feature in. These are in-game purchases which allow you to buy upgrades faster, buy coins to enter more races and buy extra customisations. I can see how some mobile gamers willing to fork out extra cash can gain a winning edge. With that said, I’ve been playing for a few weeks and haven’t really found the fact I’m not throwing cash into the game much of a restriction.

So after a few weeks of playing F1 Manager on mobile, I’m impressed. It’s a pretty simple game that’ll quickly have you in a rhythm of racing against opponents three or four times a day. It’s great to have an F1 management game to scratch the itch on a race weekend or even fill in the breaks if you’re an F1 fan. If you wanted a little something extra to scratch that itch for speed this weekend, remember Golden Mondello is streaming on Netflix from Monday at 7 pm.

F1 Manager is available to download for Android and iOS.

F1 Manager Trailer

The Coro: The Smarter Breastfeeding Measurement System From CoroFlo

Marty
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0
The Coro: The Smarter Breastfeeding Measurement System From CoroFlo

Every now and then, there comes are an article which falls outside my comfort zone. In the past, I wrote about Natural Cycles, a smart birth control system which measures ovulation cycles using temperature. I’m going to step back outside my comfort zone and try to explain Coro; a smart breastfeeding measurement system. I know nothing about breastfeeding, but I do know a bit about tech solving very real problems.

The Coro has just been accepted into Google’s 2019 Adopt A Startup Program. Here’s what it does.

Why Do We Need Smart Breastfeeding?

Coro is the brainchild of Rosanne Longmore, who spotted a gap in the market when her friend, and new-mum, Dr Helen Barry gave birth to an underweight son. Weighing just five pounds, weight gain for her newborn was crucial. For Helen, it was quite a stressful time. The only way to measure progress was through infrequent weigh-ins which only took place weekly. That left a lot of time for worry and even weighing after meals were wildly inaccurate. Her husband Jamie has coincidentally also started working on measurement of flow for a completely different project and between the two of them. Rosanne has listened to the two and had a eureka moment, giving birth (pardon the pun) to Coroflow.

What Does Coro Do?

Regardless of whether you’re a man or woman, you can appreciate nipples get sensitive. The only difference is unless you’re a breastfeeding mother, you probably don’t understand just how sensitive nipples can get. For this reason, when breastfeeding, women may opt to wear a nipple shield. The Coro is a nipple shield, but also a very smart piece of wearable tech.

The Coro, while protecting breastfeeding mothers’ nipples, also measures the volume of milk that is passing from breast to baby. While I’ve outlined the example earlier of an underweight child, there are countless instances where a mother may wish to measure how much milk is being consumed.

This is made possible by the tech in the Coro and the smartphone app which this device pairs with. The Coroflo companion app will let you know how much your baby has been feed, tracking each breast separately. You can also track this data over time and even compare to similar babies based on age through shared anonymised data housed in the cloud.

Peace of Mind for Breastfeeding Mothers

Breastfeeding isn’t for all mothers, but research has shown it’s the best for baby. According to the people behind Coro, it’s also often beneficial to mother, baby, society and the environment, bringing nutritional, immune system, developmental, psychological, social, economic, and environmental benefits to the table.

Yet, women often stop breastfeeding early, fearing they are not providing enough milk for their newborn. The Coro from Coroflo provides an accurate and scientific way for breastfeeding mothers to ensure baby is well fed.

The Coro from Coroflo will launch in Ireland soon. You can follow Coroflo’s progress in the Google Adopt A Startup Program by following them on social.

Google Adopt A Startup Program

Every year, Google adopts a selection of startups and provides them with access to the knowledge and experience required to help them grow. When they complete the program it comes down to a battle to the death; not literally of course. Each startup will have the chance to pitch their own unique growth plan to a panel of select judges. The prizes up for grabs include €10,000 in Google Ads credit and eligibility for the Google Cloud Programme which includes $100,000 in Google Cloud Credit.

The 15 companies selected for the Spring Adopt a Startup Programme are; Allergy Lifestyle, Vrai, Change Donations, ConstructionBOS, Coroflo, Danalto, EdgeTier, FarmHedge, Limtz, Moby, PepTalk, RideShair, SureSitter, Teemie and Wrkit.

SureSitter: Find a Trusted Baby Sitter Near You

Marty
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SureSitter: Find a Trusted Baby Sitter Near You

As part of our coverage looking at startups selected for this year’s Google Adopt a Startup programme, we’re taking a closer look at SureSitter. Founded by Sinead Asple and Paula Reilly, two busy working mums, SureSitter was created to help people find trusted babysitters.

Demand for SureSitter

I don’t have kids but I can only imagine that finding babysitters these days is a nightmare. I was also lucky enough to have my parents working from home all the time, a real rarity back in the day, but this meant we didn’t really need babysitters. Of course, I know people do need childminders and since moving to Dublin, even I can see what the problem is here.

No one knows their neighbours anymore. At least I don’t beyond the nod and a smile you give each other. You might trust them to take in an Amazon delivery or something, but you’re not going to let them mind your kids while you head out to dinner. And this is exactly why Sinead and Paula founded SureSitter.

There are traditional means of finding babysitters, but it’s often time-consuming, can be, incredibly expensive and other options like creches don’t suit because of timing or distance from the home. As is often the best inspiration for a startup, these two women set about solving their own problem and reduce the stress of juggling work and childcare.

Finding A Babysitter Near You With SureSitter

SureSitter is a dual purpose platform and by this, I mean parent/parents and babysitters can use the service. It’s effectively a marketplace where parent/parents can come and hire babysitters with a trusted track record. There are benefits for both parties to use SureSitter. For babysitters, you have the opportunity to list your services and get more work. For parent/parents, you can remove the guesswork of selecting a babysitter and remove the anxiety of leaving your children with someone you don’t know.

In the past, babysitters were your neighbour or might have been referred to you by a friend. Today, this is much more unlikely as we often don’t know our neighbours and perhaps your friends haven’t had children yet.

Babysitters Using SureSitter

For SureSitter to be a success there has to be enough babysitters for hire. That’s why the founders made one crucial step in the right direction. It’s completely free to register as a babysitter. Better still, SureSitter doesn’t take any of the fees earned for the job. There’s really no downside for childminders listing their services for hire on the site.

You have to be over 18 and must provide a profile photo, but there’s no further vetting. If you are Garda vetted you can add this to your profile and parents will see it. However, SureSitter does not carry out further background checks. For this reason, you should ask whoever hired you to review you. This will help you get additional gigs.

How much you earn from the job is decided between you and the hiring parent or parents. You’ll receive payment at the end of your job, but that’s all arranged off-site between you and the parent/parents.

Parent/Parents Using SureSitter

You’re nearly there. You can nearly go for that meal. You can almost taste the wine, but you’ve got to hire a babysitter first. I can only imagine how stressful this is. Not just the process of finding a childminder, but also leaving your children with them. SureSitter can help with this.

As a parent seeking a childminder, you must pay a €15 listing fee to advertise for a babysitter. How much you pay the childminder is between you and them, arranged away from the SureSitter platform. Your listing will remain on site for 14-days and auto-renew if not taken down. Important to note that you will be charged €15 every time this rolls over.

Babysitters are not vetted by the SureSitter platform, but you will be able to see previous reviews of your potential childminder. For this reason, it’s really important you review your babysitter too. This is what drives the platform.

Whether you’re a parent or a babysitter, SureSitter can help you either find work or get a childminder. It’s not just for finding babysitters nearby in Dublin either as SureSitter is a nationwide service. Remember, they’re just starting out, but the future is bright for these guys.

Google Adopt A Startup Program

Every year, Google adopts a selection of startups and provides them with access to the knowledge and experience required to help them grow. When they complete the program it comes down to a battle to the death; not literally of course. Each startup will have the chance to pitch their own unique growth plan to a panel of select judges. The prizes up for grabs include €10,000 in Google Ads credit and eligibility for the Google Cloud Programme which includes $100,000 in Google Cloud Credit.

The 15 companies selected for the Spring Adopt a Startup Programme are; Allergy Lifestyle, Vrai, Change Donations, ConstructionBOS, Coroflo, Danalto, EdgeTier, FarmHedge, Limtz, Moby, PepTalk, RideShair, SureSitter,Teemie and Wrkit.

Black Mirror Season Five: Episode List and Launch Date

Marty
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Black Mirror Season Five: Episode List and Launch Date

I’m obviously a massive fan of technology, but as much as I love the stuff, I appreciate it’s got a very dark side. While there’s an anxiety about tech that always lingered deep down inside me, it really peaked once Channel 4 released Black Mirror. Netflix has taken the series under its wing and done some really cool stuff with it, including an interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ movie called Bandersnatch. Netflix has just announced that Black Mirror will return, so here’s everything you need to know including the release date, episode descriptions and trailers for what’s in store.

When is the new Black Mirror season launching?

The brand new season of Black Mirror will begin streaming on Netflix from June 5th. It’s a small launch with just three episodes, but early doors suggest the episodes are next level quality. Here’s a closer look at each episode in more detail

Smithereens

Isn’t it great to see a bit of Irish leaking into Black Mirror. First, the episode title ‘Smithereens’ comes from an Irish word smidirín. Then we have the lead actor, Andrew Scott, also Irish. You might know him from Sherlock or Saving Private Ryan.

Scott plays a taxi driver with an agenda who picks up fares using an app very similar to MyTaxi, or whatever they’re calling themselves these days. He has a problem with a company called Smithereens and loses control when he picks up one of their employees.

Rachel Jack and Ashley Too

Showing Netflix’s ambition for Black Mirror, this episode features Miley Cyrus. The story surrounds a lonely teenager looking to connect with a pop-star and a pop-star who wants to connect with every fan. The episode looks to be a take on smart assistants and the continuing marriage between the human mind and machines.

Striking Vipers

Anthony Mackie, perhaps best known for featuring in the Avengers, stars in the final episode of Black Mirror season five. His relationship begins to suffer from what appears to be an addiction to virtual reality. Believe it or not, this is also a very real modern day phenomenon where people feel more themselves in online worlds than the real world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgNQyE_l6U

Restrictions on Huawei Already Scaled Back

Marty
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0
Restrictions on Huawei Already Scaled Back

Well, that was quick. News broke yesterday that following on from sanctions imposed by the U.S. government, Google would restrict Huawei’s access to Android updates and popular Android apps. At the time, I wrote that I hoped it would simply blow over. While that hasn’t happened, a small breeze has blown the can down the street for a few months.

Today, the U.S. Commerce Department created a temporary general license which restores Huawei’s ability to maintain existing networks. It also paves the way for allowing Google to provide Android software updates to existing Huawei handsets. Long story short, this scales back the restrictions imposed by the U.S. government last week on Huawei and lasts until August 2019.

What Happens After The License Expires

Being totally honest, this still remains a complete unknown. The U.S. has become incredibly unpredictable for stuff like this. For me, most telling in all of this is how quickly this went from complete disaster for Huawei to being back to square one. It smacks of a political move of a pawn, but I’ll leave my conspiracy theories for another day.

To stick to the fact, this temporary license lasts until August 2019. When it expires we’re back to where we were yesterday with Huawei phones not having access to Android updates and popular Google apps like YouTube. Again, I’d be shocked if this were to actually ever happen, but we’ll have to watch on with bated breath.

Unfortunately for Huawei, the damage has already been done. Even before this announcement, following yesterday’s news, buying a P30 Pro wouldn’t have meant you were up shit creek. Google’s withdrawal of access to Android goodies for Huawei meant new phones coming to the market. Not existing handsets. Today’s update means Huawei will likely get to launch their Mate X folding phone without restrictions. The Mate 30 Pro will likely fall on the far side of the deadline.

Huawei’s Plan For The Future

What will Huawei do with this time? Will they continue to battle on and prove their worth to Google? I really don’t think so. Right now, I believe Huawei will focus on porting as much Android functionality as possible to their own bespoke operating system. Whether or not this is a modified version of Android or a brand new operating system altogether remains to be seen. I can’t see Huwaei waiting around to see what happens next from the U.S.

This is speculation, but sure to follow us for the latest as this story develops.

 

Bear Grylls You Vs Wild, A Safe Adventure

Jon
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Bear Grylls You Vs Wild, A Safe Adventure

Remember last year when Netflix took the big leap into interactive television with Bandersnatch? How could you not it took over the world at the time? It was brilliant, innovative, different but the movie was also great, albeit a tad depressing. Following the success of the interactive system, Netflix has decided to take its tech in the other direction strapping survivalist Bear Grylls with a camera and pushing him out into the wild. In You vs Wild, Bear Grylls takes us on a journey through the harsh terrains we have seen from his Discovery series, but now we call the shots. Just keep your expectations low, this is primarily aimed at a younger audience.

Before I get into this, I love how the interaction works, I think it’s a cool gimmick and done right we can have more content at the level of Bandersnatch, that or it can be used for children’s education tv. However, this is neither. Yes, it’s aimed somewhat at children, but it feels totally fabricated and there’s no real sense of danger..probably not surprising when you think he would have to film each physically laborious choice which I can’t imagine is a pile of fun.

It was a great idea, it’s taken me longer than I expected to get through the series and simply the reason is this. It has massive potential, but it just doesn’t work. All of the action shots from various different locations are painfully obvious, and no you can’t kill Bear. I tried.

Right from the start, we can see it’s all a bit meh. In episode one we are given a choice to take a grip hook or a slingshot with you because apparently we one have space for one. For example, we take the slingshot, we stumble upon a croc, fire the slingshot to scare him and he goes into the water. Bear tells us “good job” before then ploughing back into the river, where we saw two seconds beforehand the crocodile has gone into. Logic.

I get they want to make this educational but wow this gets repetitive. Each time you get a choice our guide will explain each choice in great detail, and again while you contemplate your choice and again when you actually pick. You get where I’m going with this, after the 3rd or 4th choice in a row you might be fit to fire the remote at the tv with a sense of “just get on with it”

Image result for bear grylls you vs the wild reviewI feel like this is one I watched so you don’t have too. As I said before you can’t kill Bear, you can just about make him sick or trapped where you go back to your previous selection, not unlike Bandersnatch. Sadly for Bear Grylls this is the only similarity between the two interactive shows. You vs Wild in its defence looks very impressive, each of the locations is stunning but for what this show wanted to be, maybe it’s a bit to clean cut and polished. Initially, I came into this hoping for something along the lines of the old Born Survivor Bear from his earlier Discovery days. As a fan of the Discovery shows my initial plan was to see if I could survive but after 2 episodes of trying to make the right survival decisions boredom set in. It’s more fun to see if you can mess around with Bear, make him eat the wrong thing or take the riskier journey, just to see what would happen.

For me, this would have been much better if he was simply strapped with GoPro and you were made to feel like you had an actual impact on his journey. Instead, we get a boring, Hollywood clean production which sucks the life out of what could have been a cool collaboration of tv and tech. If you’re a Bear Grylls fan, give it a go, make up your own might. But don’t expect to make it to the end without getting bored. It’s more scripted reality tv and less survival but it would keep a curious child entertained…for an episode or two anyway.

Google Suspends Huawei Android License Following Trump Ban

Marty
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Google Suspends Huawei Android License Following Trump Ban

Some pretty remarkable news breaking at the moment. Google has announced that the US company will suspend some business with the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei. The immediate impact for consumers will be Huawei’s Android phones no longer having access to the latest Android updates. Down the road, further impacts will include new Huawei phones, including the Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and Mate X folding phone, will not have access to popular Google apps such as the Google Play Store and Gmail.

While it all sounds pretty dramatic, this could be a storm in a teacup. Then again, it could be massive. The joy of something unprecedented.

Trump Bans Huawei

Last Thursday, U.S. President, Donald Trump, added Huawei to a trading blacklist. What this basically means is Huawei can no longer buy or sell technology into the United States. Directly, this has limited consequences for consumers. For manufacturers like chip company Qualcomm, it was a much bigger deal. Huawei is a considerable buyer for Qualcomm and news immediately hit Qualcomm’s share price as Trump’s ban means they can no longer sell to Huawei.

Huawei themselves tweeted describing the situation as “lose lose” for everyone, but direct impact on consumers is limited.

Huawei has never seen the United States as an important retail space. They have already removed Apple as the world’s second biggest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung without a supported phone network in the U.S. For Irish consumers, this would have had an even smaller impact. For example, relations between Huawei and the European Union are pretty good, far from the paranoia over the Chinese smartphone manufacturer being seen in the U.S. Another important thing to note is that this could all be very shortlived as President Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet next month in an effort to cool the ongoing trade between the United States and China.

With that said, today’s news from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is a much bigger headline for Huawei and Irish consumers.

Google Suspending Huawei’s Android License

The news breaking today is very interesting. I won’t lie, I have a vested interested in this as I’m currently testing the P30 and P30 Pro. Already I feel like I’m looking at the two best Android phones on the market in 2019. Naturally, news that Google is moving to suspend Huawei’s Android licence pricked my ears a little.

Trump’s ban could have a massive impact on any chances Huawei had to enter The U.S. market, but it would make little difference to the P30 Pro in my pocket. Google’s news, on the other hand, would appear to have a much larger impact.

With Google suspending Huawei’s Android licence, Huawei smartphones immediately lose access to the latest Android updates. This also means that the next range of Huawei phones outside of China will lose access to the Google Play Store, Gmail and YouTube. Whether or not this will include the P30 Lite remains unclear, but it almost certainly will impact the Mate X folding phone, set for a mid-year launch, and the next Mate range due to launch around October later this year.

That is assuming all of this isn’t a gigantic game of chess with the reputation of the U.S. and Huawei being pitted against each other.

What Does This Mean For You – The Consumer?

Right now, the biggest unknown is the real world implications for Irish people who own Huawei phones. First and foremost, right now there’s no impact. Your phone will continue to operate as normal, you still have access to Google services like Gmail, the Play Store and YouTube.

 

Huawei will retain access to the open source version of Android, so it’s likely the Chinese manufacturer will start customising this to suit their needs. OnePlus is already doing this through their massively popular OxygenOS.

The longer-term consequences do seem to be a little greyer right now.

Potentially, this could see Huawei develop their own operating system altogether. Last year, they already moved their smartwatches over to LiteOS. Moving to a new smartphone OS would be a much bigger move. I’m sweating at the thought of the compatibility issues to be honest, so fingers crossed the much more likely outcome prevails here.

And that is this all blows over. It feels like all of this is two countries with their chests puffed out circling each other much to the detriment of Huawei. I’ll admit that I’m hopeful of this outcome because I quite like Huawei phones. I can see this one playing out in the news over the coming weeks and months, and we’ll be covering every angle of it so be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Update: Huawei has released an official response.

Sony Xperia 10: The Full Review

Jon
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Sony Xperia 10: The Full Review

Sony, they just like to be different, don’t they? Over the years they have intentionally gone left when others went right. We forget Sony was the first Android phone maker to push waterproof, side-placed fingerprint sensors and all-glass designs so it should come as no surprise that they are completely reinventing it’s Xperia lineup again.

This year Sony has swapped the Xperia XA range out for new Xperia 10 and 10 Plus. This new model just doesn’t boast a new name, it brings a new shape with an elongated 21:9 aspect ratio. But is that enough for the Sony Xperia 10 to stand out as the best mid-ranger on the market? Let’s have a look.

Design

Image result for sony 10 design

The Xperia 10 is a really sharp looking bit of kit. As ever, I find with Sony they really know their style. Boasting a metal unibody it offers solid quality, the curved corners and edges make the phone feel really slick considering its €300 pricing.

Straight out of the box, you will notice how tall the Xperia 10 is, the narrow, slender frame and tall body makes for a form factor that is certainly different from the competition. Sure the 21:9 display won’t be for everyone but it’s perfect for movies, exactly what Sony wanted. At this years CES, it was clear Sony is targeting the entertainment industry with releases of their new 8K TV and 360° audio systems. So it shouldn’t be a surprise their mobiles followed suit. This new shape and aspect ratio means that if you’re watching a movie on your mobile, you will never have the black banners above or below the movie.

Moving onto the rear it’s typically Sony, a raised dual camera housed in a metal surround stands out from the main body. On the front, it’s pretty much all screen apart from the speaker and front camera at the top. Again, I have to say the phone looks and feels a lot more premium than the €300 price suggests.

At the bottom, there is a 3.5mm jack and the USB Type-C at the bottom for charging. The right-hand side contains the power button, volume control and a side-positioned fingerprint sensor. Unlike devices of old, the fingerprint sensor and the power button are separate, which is grand and all but I would have much rather if they combined.

Display

The display is the main selling point on the Xperia range this year, the Xperia 10 contains a 6-inch display, which is 0.5-inches smaller than the Xperia 1 and the Xperia 10 Plus. So it’s a good size and it opts for a full HD+ resolution which means you get a good crisp display.

Why this new longer look? This 21:9 aspect is new to smartphones, though not new in general. It’s the same ratio used for cinema content and Sony claim they film 70% of their content in this ratio. Theoretically, it means watching movies and stuff on the Xperia 10 should be more immersive.

Compatible content looks brilliant. Colours look great and the picture fills the space beautifully. Impressive stuff in my opinion. There is one problem, not a lot of content is filmed in this ratio. Netflix Originals are normally filmed in 16:9, or 18:9 which means those black bars they are trying to avoid still show and a lot of apps aren’t in this format so things can look squeezed, thus defeating the object of the phone’s USP.

Camera

Image result for sony xperia 10 back

As with any phone of the market now, the camera is one of the phones major USP’s. The Xperia 10 comes a dual camera on the back. At 13mp and 5mp, the rear cameras showcase similar features to it’s bigger brother the Xperia 10 Plus, including bokeh images and 4K video recording, but it misses out on optical zoom.

The camera itself performs well in good light, very well indeed. Anything shot in a good light offers strong colours and balance. Pictures are crisp and not overly processed, the bokeh and portrait modes are solid performers so all in all, I’m happy. Sadly in low light, it all falls apart. This is when the phone starts to show it’s pricing. Sure the pictures are useable but they display a grainy quality and are fairly noisy. Maybe I’m just being picky but the lack of image stabilization showed. You can also shoot images and video in the new 21:9 ratio and they look brilliant of the screen, this is really cool and again shows a willingness from Sony to try to push the boundaries.

At the front, we have the 8mp ‘selfie’ camera that is capable of taking those pro-effect bokeh style photos. It’s solid, not industry leading but solid. Again in regular lighting, the shots can be quite impressive but the performance falls apart in low light.

Battery

Rocking a 2870mAh battery, it’s no surprise the Xperia 10’s battery life is distinctly middle of the road. I would unplug normally about 7:30 most mornings but I would usually be rushing to a charger by 8ish. My regular use consists of all the usuals…checking emails, Sky Sports News, social media, a bit of Spotify and the usual calls and text, nothing too out of the ordinary.

The Xperia 10 supports fast charging, which makes topping it up fairly easily, but I’d normally expect a phone to last at least the full day. It’s not bad by any means but it’s middling at best. Look Sony has concentrated on style and a crisp display at this price point – we can’t have it all.

Hardware

The Sony Xperia 10 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 platform and 3GB of RAM, a slight downgrade from the Xperia 10 Plus. The storage space is adequate with 64GB of memory- and there is microSD support for storage expansion up to 512GB.

Overall I found the performance to be quite good and the day to day performance was reasonable for the pricing. It also offers some software to help the battery last that little bit longer, including Stamina mode but with the fast charging capability, a quick boost is no big deal.

When it comes to the audio side of things, the Xperia 10 not only has the now retro 3.5mm headphone jack but it also supports Hi-Res audio, it would have been amazing to get the Sony Dynamic Vibration system because I think it would have added another dimension to the movie watching experience. But again that’s just me being picky, overall for €300 it packs a punch for the price.

Software

Image result for sony xperia 10 android

The Xperia 10 runs Android Pie, with some Sony bloatware thrown in. Over the last few years, Sony has massively reduced its interference with operations, offering a much more refined experience.

Some of these additional software touches from Sony are really clever to be fair. To make use of the new 21:9 aspect ratio display, they have released a new feature call the Multi-Window user interface. This allows users to easily run two apps simultaneously – one at the top of the display and one at the bottom. A nice feature to have, especially for me watching the last day of the EPL while tracking the other results on Live Score.

Since the XZ3, Sony has given us SideSense a feature that allows for easier access to frequent apps and better one-handed operation. It uses AI to show you the apps you use most at specific times and gives you easy access without having to swipe up from the bottom of the display for app access.

Aside from those enhancements, you get a pretty standard Android experience. It’s a good, clean experience with gestures at the button and Google Assistant on board, as you would expect.

Pricing

Eir €329.99
Three €299.99
Tesco €369.99
Littlewoods €359.99
Amazon £299.00
Currys €379.99

Spec Sheet

Performance Octa core
Display 6.0″ (15.24 cm)
Storage 64 GB
Camera 13 MP + 5 MP
Battery 2870 mAh
Ram 3 GB

Verdict

Credit where it’s due, the Sony Xperia 10 gives you a lot of phone for about €300. The build quality is good, the new 6″ 21:9 screen is ideal for movies and it’s generally a decent runner.

On the flip side, the battery isn’t brilliant and we get some of the usual performance blips we have become used to from the Sony mid-range over the last few years. However, at the same price point, there is also the Samsung A50 and the Huawei P30 Lite. The competition is fierce.

The Xperia 10 could have been one of the best mid-range phones around, but underpowered hardware stops it from delivering on its opening promise. It won’t steer you wrong if you want something stylish and you like watching tv and movies on your phone, then this could be the one for you.

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