Samsung Galaxy Camera Review

I've never owned a camera in my life, but with a HD touch screen and Android Jelly Bean the Galaxy Camera looked like a worthy purchase. I usually feel that most cameras look either cheap or old fashioned - but the Galaxy Camera looks great with a mix of aluminium, glossy plastic and chrome. It'd be an understatement to say it matches the style of the Galaxy phones and tablets - I think this is one of the best looking devices Samsung have created.

I won't try to comment too much on the photo quality as I wouldn't know where to start - it's easy to say it's a huge step up from current camera phones, but maybe not so much that phones couldn't catch up in a year or two. That said, the additional hardware benefits of an optical zoom, large flash, shutter button and tripod support will probably not make it to phones any time soon, so I think it's a fairly future-proof device that will get a few years use out of it.

The main selling point of the device is that a mix of HD screen, Jelly Bean and a quad-core processor make it the first camera to be truly capable of installing and smoothly running Android apps. I think the possibilities here are huge but there's a severe lack of useful apps at the moment - most existing camera apps don't support the device's zoom and Samsung's smart camera apps such as remote viewfinder don't seem to work yet. I expect that this will all pick up of over time and it could be an amazing opportunity to develop innovative camera-optimized apps.

A key reason I bought the Galaxy Camera was to use it for streaming Hangouts on Air, so was disappointed that there was no option in the Google+ app to start a Hangout. The helpful G+ page responded on this issue, and I discovered it's possible if you start the hangout on another device and invite the Galaxy Camera in. So while it could be clearer, I think it's incredible that this device can be used to wirelessly broadcast high quality livestreams from effectively anywhere in the world with a 3G or wifi connection.

Assuming app support improves, there's very little I would change about the Galaxy Camera. While it's not cheap compared to other cameras, I think the build quality and uncompromised power of Android make it a very recommendable purchase.

Android 4.2 First Impressions

This week  I updated my Nexus 7 and Gnex to 4.2 to try out the new version of Android, 4.2. One of the most notable new features is the lockscreen customization which jumps out as soon as you boot up with somewhat annoying flashes of white to indicate that left/right swipes enable multiple pages of apps. I never fully understood the need for lockscreen apps, I prefer to just jump into the OS undistracted and get to full versions of the apps. The ability to customize the clock is welcome at least, especially as the new default has odd styling that I'm not a fan of.

The clock app itself has been rebuilt with some strange design choices. For setting the time, you now need to type in the digits instead of scrolling, which makes it impossible to add an extra 10 minutes or so without retyping the whole thing. The alarm also requires dragging to deactivate or snooze, which is a bit too much to think about at 7am in the morning.

The notification bar flicks between two modes for access to quick settings, a nice idea in theory, but it misses some of my most used settings such as GPS, wifi hotspots and daa usage. Without these I'd prefer to have just kept the one-click button for going into the full Settings menu. I'm also not too sure about the Nexus 7 having the notification and settings menus on separate sides as I often swipe down the wrong one.

The camera app has been re-hauled with a simpler, circle-based style that I like quite a lot. One of the most highlighted features of 4.2 is Photospheres, which is effectively just two-way panoramas, but the results are very cool and probably the most fun thing to play about in this update.

Swype has always been my very favourite thing about Android so I was pleased to see Gesture Typing added as a feature of the stock keyboard. This stock version works nearly as well as Swype, getting it right more often than other 3rd party options I've tried. I prefer the key layout here, especially in the UK where £ gets prominence over $ unlike Swype. With a couple of improvements this could be the perfect keyboard.

Performance-wise there's no significant leap like Jelly Bean, but clear improvements in some areas. Google Now is probably the most notable leap, with swipes from the Home buttons activating it almost immediately.

New features aside the core OS hasn't changed around much, there's a few niceties such as being able to double tap apps on the Intents picker and the current app sliding into the app switcher, but it's clear why this version didn't merit a major version jump to K. Whereas ICS and Jelly Bean left me wondering how Android could possibly improve, 4.2 leaves me more excited about what could be coming next.

In Dublin with a Nexus 7

This week I went to Dublin to visit the local Google Developer Group, which was also the first chance I've had to get to use my Nexus 7. Before the N7 was released I'd been sceptical to the usefulness of a tablet and only went for this due to the low cost, so this was a good chance to see if it was worth the money.


The size of the N7 is perfect as it just fits into a jacket pocket, so there's no need to carry around a bag. Playing Broken Sword on the flight was a great experience, the extra two inches of screen size really makes a big difference in playing games like this.


I made regular stops in coffee shops to jump on wifi and check emails and social networks, which is much easier on the N7 than a phone. Chrome is more like the desktop version with tabs at the top, and pages usually don't require zooming. Gmail and Google+ are both also well optimized for the bigger screen, though most third party apps such as Facebook and Twitter still feel much like they do on a phone.


I already expressed my love for the Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus in my last post, but here it's even better, with more space for icons and very snappy performance. Although I felt like I was using the Nexus 7 more than my phone, the battery held out significantly better, surviving a day with most of the charge left.


After trying out the Nexus 7 in Dublin I can't see myself ever leaving for a trip without it, & would choose it in many situations where I would've previously taken my Chromebook or laptop. The size is perfect and makes a much bigger difference from a sub-5" phone than I would have expected. Google have got everything right on their first official tablet and for less than £160 I can't imagine anyone regretting buying one, it's by far my favourite device of the year so far.

Jelly Bean Impressions

Google's newest version of Android, 4.1 "Jelly Bean", rolled out to my Galaxy Nexus earlier this week. Never one to let a major Android update go un-blogged, here are my opinions so far.

The best thing here is how much faster everything feels than in ICS. The so-called 'Project Butter' is much more than just a performance tweak, there's a lot of new transitions such as slide-ins when opening apps and jumping from the camera to photos. The overall experience on the Nexus is smoother than any other phone I've tried, including more powerful devices like the One X or S3.


The UI looks similar to ICS, the only thing that really jumps out is the richer notifications, which adds handy shortcuts to save a few seconds here and there. Other changes are less obvious but just as welcome, like the way homescreen icons and widgets intelligently re-arrange themselves when you drag them about.


The big new feature is Google Now, which works with a much-improved voice search to offer a personal assistant of sorts. It's fun to play about with but personally I still don't find it quite accurate or robust enough to use on a regular basis (though still a step up from the likes of Siri and S-Voice). For example, it can provide directions to a local tube station, but didn't manage to understand a post code, which is what I usually enter into Maps. I don't doubt that AI is the way forward, but still has some way to go until it makes a reliable alternative to manually inputting commands.


Jelly Bean is probably the best .x update yet, with a performance upgrade that I wouldn't expect in a minor version jump. It'd be nice to see some improvements on the stock apps like messaging and the dialler, with most manufacturer skins and 3rd party apps improving on these areas. The core OS itself though has reached a level that feels close to perfection, I can't imagine where Google will take it next, but look forwards to seeing what they come up with.

Android on the Web

One of my most wanted Android features has been a way to control basic functionality of the device via a web browser, such as messaging, file access and photo viewing. I came across an app the other day called AirDroid that looked like a good solution.

AirDroid offers a huge choice of features, including those mentioned and some other useful additions incuding phone details (battery status, disk usage etc), contact info, URL sending, clipboard access and screenshots (with root). All features are accessed in a well designed web view, with it's own window management that makes most actions much quicker than doing them on the phone.

There's a few downsides though. One is that you need to be over the same wifi connection, so truly remote access or use whilst on 3G is not an option. You also need to enter a code generated on the phone every time you access the web view, which gets annoying and means you need your phone in-hand every time you want to access it.

Another app that doesn't suffer from either of these issues is MightyText, which is is a fantastically handy way of reading and sending text messaged from a web browser wherever you are. As the name suggests though, texting is all it does.

It'd be great to see Google make their own solution to this, combining the functionality of AirDroid with the accessibility of MightyText. For now though, both are excellent apps and worth trying out. Any other suggestions for apps that can do this?

Windows 8 - Release Preview Impressions

Despite giving other OS's such as Chrome OS, Ubuntu & OSX a try, I've always come back to Windows as my OS of choice. While it lacked it visual appeal, Windows 7 always seemed like the most all-round solid choice in terms of stability, UI design and compatibility. So I've been looking forward to the Windows 8 update, and the Metro interface appeared to be a big step up from Aero. Expecting the Release Preview to be a finalized, stable version, I decided this was the time to try it out.

Start Screen
This is the biggest change in W8, and one of the better ones. Instead of the fiddly scrolling menus of the old Start menu popup, the new screen present apps as a full screen grid of icons. Along with full screen search, it's much easier to find apps. The Metro interface here looks great too.

That said, I rarely used the W7 Start menu anyway, with all of my commonly used apps pinned to the taskbar, so personally the new Start screen in a welcome but unnecessary addition.

Taskbar
The taskbar is completely unchanged from Windows 7, even down to the glowing Aero style. The whole thing clashes horribly with the new task switcher and 'charms' menus, which are awkwardly brought up by hovering in the corners of the screen, which I often trigger by accident.

I can't see why Microsoft didn't redesign the taskbar to fit with the new menus,  I can only think they expect people to rely solely on the full-screen metro apps while the old desktop/taskbar is phased out - but I don't see a chance of this happening any time soon.

Explorer
Explorer has had a subtle Metro style applied which fits better with the OS. The new ribbon menu is home to a vast array of new sorting and selecting options which range from useful to inexplicably unnecessary. I personally welcome the additions but it's hard to see an average PC user be anything but confused.

Settings
The Control Panel has been a mess in Windows for many years, so I was pleased to see that Start Screen is home to a  beautiful new full screen settings interface, similar to Chrome OS with categories on the left and details on the right.

Unfortunately, this is only half the story. Many options are missing here, which requires the user to delve into the classic and cluttered Windows 7-style Control Panel. It would have been far better if Microsoft had moved everything to the new menu, but instead the settings are even more confusing than they were before.

Performance
Two days of use and three critical crashes already isn't a good start for W8, but I expect these bugs will be gone before the final release. Speed-wise I can't say I've noticed a huge improvement from W7 on my Samsung Series 7, but it's no worse either.

Conclusion
Windows 8 mixes well designed new features with disappointingly unchanged elements from Windows 7, which ultimately don't fit together and make the overall experience confusing and a headache to use. If this was a early alpha I'd be optimistic, but as a release preview which probably won't change much before release, I'm left wondering if Windows has any future at all.

I wouldn't recommend upgrading from W7 to the release preview, the (very) few improvements don't make up for the confusing user experience and poor stability. I'm hoping Microsoft have some big surprises to pull before the final release.

Chrome OS Aura

I was surprised to turn on my Chromebook today to find that the OS had been given a complete overhaul - no longer just a simple Chrome browser, but now a more traditional style desktop with arrangeable windows, a dock, a desktop with wallpaper and various other new features.

The multiple windows are probably the best thing here, as one of my gripes with Chrome OS was the lack of a way to arrange windows next to each other for multitasking. I'd have hoped for a more Windows 8 style snapping though, rather than a classic free-for-all - it's too easy now to get lost in the open Windows, a problem that always plagued other OS's.

I'm less taken by the dock - it looks nice enough but I don't see why it couldn't have been merged with the tab bar - for me this had always been more than sufficient for switching between tasks. There's also a problem with the bar auto-hiding, as there's now no way to have the clock and battery permanently on screen.

My least favourite thing here is the desktop, I never used it on Windows or Mac and loved to see it gone in Chrome - but now it's back in full force, complete with wallpapers and shortcuts. What purpose does this have that the New Tab page didn't already do?

It's great to see Chrome OS evolving but I think it's essential that the changes complement the revolutionary concept of a browser-only OS and don't slip back into old traditions.

Laser Eyes

In a bit of a deviation from my usual tech posts, I had laser eye surgery last week and this is a quick summary of how it went and what to expect if you're thinking of getting it done.

I was very shortsighted in both eyes (-3.5), previously I'd worn contacts or glasses, but not liked the hassle of either. The price of standard lasik surgery at Optical Express works out about the same as 15 years of contacts, so seemed like a worthwhile investment (or at least that was how I justified it).

The surgery is a surreal experience but nowhere near as bad as I expected, I barely felt a thing after the initial anaesthetic drops (which is only a mild sting). The eyes feel sore for a few hours but not painful, and after the first day it's just a slight dryness.

My vision seemed great immediately after the surgery and by the evening I could see as well as I could with contacts. After a day or two my vision was even better than that.

I couldn't be more impressed with how easy and effective the surgery is, and would definitely recommend it. There are risks involved, and results aren't always perfect, but I think it's well worth taking the chance.

New Website

I just launched a complete redesign for my portfolio site at www.marklunney.com.

The aim of the site is to help promote my HTML5 web app work, so the site itself is designed to look more like an app than a traditional website. To maintain compatibility with older browsers, the site doesn't rely on HTML5, mostly being powered by jQuery and the wonderful Isotope library.

Have a look and let me know what you think, I'm not sure how people will take to the very non-standard design, but I think it suits my work better than my old site did. Suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Samsung Chronos (Series 7) Review

After clinging on to my Dell Studio 15 for over 3 years, I was finally tempted into buying a new laptop by Samsung's Series 7 Chronos. I picked up an i7 model for £849 on Amazon, which seemed like a great deal for high-end specs.

The laptop looks great in all-aluminium, especially in dim lighting with the backlit keys glowing. It's not quite as stylish as Samsung's Series 9 or as thin as some ultrabooks, but it's better than any 15" Windows machine I've seen, and about on par with a Macbook Pro.

The laptop could be lighter, it's just light enough to carry around but I'd be happier if they'd trimmed off some weight by ditching the DVD drive. The US has a slightly smaller 14" version without a numpad, I'd definitely have chosen this over the 15" if it had been out in the UK.

The display has a decent resolution and very thin bezel, so appears bigger than other laptops this size. It's bright but the viewing angles aren't great, so I find myself tilting it a lot to get the right angle.

Like any worthwhile new laptop the Chronos has USB 3.0 ports, with which I get file transfers about 10 times faster than with USB 2.0. There's a HDMI too but unfortunately no VGA, maybe it's outdated but I still used my old one quite a bit. Edit - my bad, there's a converter in the box!

The speakers aren't as good as I hoped, as with my Dell they suffice for videos but it's hard to listen to music on them, with very little bass and a tinny sound. If you're using this for all your music listening without earphones, look elsewhere.

The trackpad is pretty terrible, there's no differentiation between left and right clicks so it's easy to mix up the two. I use a mouse at home so can live with this, but when carrying it about it would be good to have a better trackpad.

The laptop unsurprisingly comes installed with Windows 7, which I liked when it came out, but admittedly feels outdated now. With Windows 8 beta out soon and the option of installing Linux it's hardly a bad thing though - at least it's not OSX.

My main problem is that I've had a few crashes when playing online video, seemingly related to the graphics display driver. I never had a crash with my Dell so this is really concerning, I expect it's fixable but this is a bad sign for a new high end laptop. Edit - Fixed the crash by turning off hardware acceleration in Flash. Guess Adobe is to blame here.

(Updated Summary) I wasn't blown away by the Chronos at first but after finding solutions to the small issues I had, I'm starting to appreciate the incredible battery life (7+ hours), fast speed, great backlit keyboard and good port selection. The lack of bloatware is also a big plus over other Windows laptops. Overall it's not a perfect machine, but for a modest price I think the Chronos is one of the best Windows laptops available currently, but with CES around the corner, it's hard to see that lasting long.