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Sunday, April 24, 2016

 

Two Android bad boys duke it out!

When Samsung unveiled their new flagship—the Galaxy S7—earlier this year it set the stage for the first of many great Android handsets to come in 2016. And for a while, it was clearly the best Android handset on the market.
However, as we move through the year and more and more Android flagships come out, it’s become evident the Galaxy S7 has some stiff competition. HTC and LG both have strong flagships this year and the OnePlus 3 is apparently just around the corner. But there is a new player in town, one that has been slowly building up its presence in Western markets over the last few years — Huawei.

We line up the Apple iPhone SE (left) and Samsung Galaxy S7, to see how their features and specs compare. View gallery (25 images)
If the two phones you're considering are the iPhone SE and Galaxy S7, then you must have pretty flexible taste. Samsung's is a modern-sized flagship with modern flagship pricing, while Apple's is a budget-priced horsepower upgrade to a teeny-tiny phone from years ago. In other words, the two aren't obvious rivals at all. Nonetheless, being the two biggest names in mobile, someone is sure to wonder – so let's see how they stack up.

Source  :  http://www.techtimes.com/
Saturday, April 23, 2016

If you've been dreaming of a newly updated MacBook family, all glistening with newly milled metal and amazing new features, then prepare to be slightly crestfallen. Apple, ever the tease, has given its daintiest laptops – the MacBook and MacBook Air – a minor specification bump. 


In a game of spot the difference, you'd need a keen eye to spot what's changed in the new, improved Apple MacBook. In fact, you'd need X-ray vision as the big difference is that the MacBook's processors have now been upgraded to the latest Skylake generation of Intel's Core M processors. To round off the upgrade, Apple has bumped up the RAM speeds to 1,866MHz and given the PCI Express flash storage a speed boost, too.




"This is more exciting than it sounds."



The arrival of a new CPU is more exciting than it sounds. At the time of their release, Intel was claiming between 10 and 20% performance increases for the Skylake generation of Core M, and around a 40% improvement to graphics performance thanks to the Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU. 



Given that Intel announced the updated Skylake Core M family in 2015, however, there's every chance that Apple has gone straight to the refreshed version of Skylake – codenamed Kaby Lake – for its latest MacBook generation. As Kaby Lake makes various tweaks to the processor architecture, it's likely to provide further performance improvements across the board. 


Roses are red


If all this sounds outrageously dull and boring, then fear not for there is a much, much more exciting development in MacBook world: it is now available in Rose Gold. Yes, finally you can buy a MacBook that matches your iPhone and iPad. Jobs be praised. 


Not to be left out, the 13in MacBook Air also gets a little upgrade – 8GB of RAM is now supplied as standard. 


If you're tempted to rush out and buy a new MacBook right now, then you'll just have to wait patiently. Apple's UK site hasn't yet been updated to reflect the latest changes. 


READ NEXT: Apple's MacBook has already earned its place on Alphr's best laptops of 2016 line-up, but you can click here to find out who else makes the list


Source : http://www.alphr.com

Since the launch of the iPad Air 2, Apple has released two new tablets - the larger, 12.9in iPad Pro and more compact iPad Pro 9.7.


These two new tablets aren't designed to replace the iPad Air 2, but to complement it, with support for official keyboards and the pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil, for sketching and taking notes onscreen.


For those who still only want a tablet, the iPad Air 2 remains among the best in the business, however, and the good news is it's now £50 cheaper than it was. If you want to find out more, read our original review below.


Apple is a company that knows its customers better than anyone – and at the launch of the iPad Air 2, it was in no doubt as to what they really wanted from their new iPad. A larger screen? Nope. A lower price? Of course not. How about a base model with higher storage capacity? Not a chance. So what was the iPad Air 2's headline feature? It was thinner. Precisely the feature everyone had been clamouring for. 



In fairness, Apple has made further changes, but it's revealing that this was the feature it chose to lead on at the tablet's official unveiling. Not a faster CPU, nor an improved display or camera, though it has those things as well, but the tablet's astonishing slenderness. With a tablet so good – and still the market leader even a year after its first launch – it seems Apple has decided there simply wasn't any reason to pile on new features.



All the same, with this new update, Apple has most certainly made its flagship tablet better, and the design department hasn't been entirely unoccupied these past 12 months. Aside from the iPad Air 2's slimmer 6.1mm chassis (the iPad Air was 7.4mm thick), and lighter 437g weight (down from 469g), a number of other small changes have been made: the buttons have been redesigned to match those on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; the speaker grille on the bottom edge is now a single row of larger perforations, not two; and the mute switch has been removed.


While some may mourn the demise of the latter, it's no great loss as it's still possible to quickly mute the tablet by simply holding the volume down key.


For those with a penchant for bling, the iPad Air 2 ushers in a gold version of the tablet. If this sounds a little too ostentatious, never fear; the Air 2 is still be available in silver and grey versions, as before.



Apple iPad Air 2 review: Touch ID


You do have to look pretty hard to see most of the functional differences between this year's Air and the last, but one of the more obvious is the introduction of Apple's Touch ID sensor.


In look and operation, this works in exactly the same way as it does on the iPhone. To initially register a fingerprint, you repeatedly tap your finger to the sensor, then change the orientation of your finger and repeat the process. Once done, the iPad can be unlocked simply by holding a finger to the sensor.


You can also use the sensor to authorise payment for items purchased through the App Store or iTunes, and now that the system has been opened up to third parties, you can use it with other apps, too. Evernote was among the early adopters – you can use your fingerprint to sign in to the app – but there are now others as well, includiong LastPass and Dropbox.



Now that Touch ID has arrived, the big difference between the current crop of iPhones and iPads is that the iPads have no near-field communication (NFC), so there's no direct support for touch-based payment. This is hardly a great loss, though; we can't imagine that paying via an iPad, even one as slim and light as this, would be particularly convenient.


Continues on page 2: Display and camera quality


Source : http://www.alphr.com

The iPad Air has been superseded by three new models - the iPad Air 2, the iPad Pro and the iPad Pro 9.7 since it first came out in 2014, and Apple no longer sells it on its website. That doesn't mean that you should ignore the original iPad Air, though.


The iPad Air 2, iPad Pro and Pro 9.7 are superior devices, but the original iPad Air is still no slouch, and if you can get hold of it secondhand, it's likely to be much cheaper.


Read on to learn why we loved the original iPad Air, and click here to jump to our iPad Air 2 review and find out why it's arguably the best tablet on the market.


It took Apple CEO Tim Cook a long time to get around to the iPad Air at the company's Autumn launch event last month. After rattling through a set that covered OS X Mavericks and the free versions of the iLife and iWork suites, he finally got to the meat of the presentation: a pair of new iPads, the first of which we have on review here.


Apple iPad Air review: design


So, what's new about the iPad Air, aside from the name? The major change concerns the design. The full-sized, 9.7in iPad is now a dead ringer for its little brother, the iPad mini. It has the same chamfered metal edges around the glass front; those edges are more aggressively rounded than on the iPad 4; and discrete volume buttons have replaced the rocker switch of old. In our view it's a marginally more attractive device, especially in the moody Space Grey livery (it also comes in silver), but there's not much in it.



The headline is the reduced weight and size of the iPad Air. At 469g, the Wi-Fi iPad Air is a significant 28% lighter than the equivalent iPad 4, and it's thinner and narrower across its waist. Hold each in succession and you notice the difference immediately.


In isolation, the weight reduction is less noticeable, but the slightly more compact dimensions make a material difference to the way you handle the Air. It's now possible for people with large hands to stretch their fingers across the back and grip the iPad in one hand. This isn't something we'd recommend you do for any length of time, but it gives you an extra option.


For the most part, you'll grip it by the edge, with a thumb resting on the narrower bezel. This isn't as much of a bind as you'd think: while reading a book in the Kindle app, for instance, you can rest a thumb in the margin without anything untoward happening, and the same goes for the browser. In our time with the tablet so far, the Air's narrow bezels haven't proved a problem.


Apple iPad Air review: battery life and performance


In realising the new design, Apple has reduced the capacity of the battery by 23%: it drops from a huge 43Wh to 33Wh. Yet remarkably, this hasn't had a negative impact on longevity. In our looping video test, with the screen calibrated to a brightness of 120cd/m2 and flight mode activated, the Air lasted 12hrs 55mins – 43 minutes longer than its predecessor.



Clearly, the Air is a much more efficient tablet. According to Apple this is due in part to the low-power M7 processor, which takes over the role of handling data from the tablet's various motion sensors (the accelerometer, the gyroscope and the compass).


A pleasant side effect of having a smaller battery is that the iPad takes less time to charge. Using the supplied AC adapter, the Air charged from 0% to 100% in around four hours. In the same time span, the iPad 4 hit only 80%. This may be a result of the more potent charger, too: the adapter bundled with the Air delivers DC current at 2.4A, compared to the 2A of the previous effort.


Performance, too, has seen a significant boost, with the same dual-core, 64-bit, 1.4GHz A7 CPU as the iPhone 5s on board. In every benchmark we ran, this helped the iPad Air stretch out a significant lead on the iPad 4, which is no slouch. It's also faster than every Android tablet we've tested recently (you can find comparative results in the table below).


In real-world terms, that means swift load times for apps, slick menu and web-page scrolling and sumptuous graphics in games. In Asphalt 8: Airborne, one of the most demanding games around, there's a slightly smoother frame rate than on the iPad 4, and the particle effects and high-resolution textures are stunning.


Apple iPad Air review: display, cameras, audio and wireless


The component that hasn't seen any change is the display, which is an IPS unit with a resolution of 1,536 x 2,048 and a pixel density of 264ppi. We measured the maximum brightness at 410cd/m2 and the contrast ratio at 1,000:1. Eyeballing it next to the previous model, it looks identical, with rich colours and an ever-so-slightly compressed dark-end to the colour spectrum.


Source : http://www.alphr.com

The Surface Pro 4 is one of those products that proves the best route to success is to take an already great recipe and tweak it very slightly, year on year. Using this method, Microsoft turned an average product into a very good one in three years flat, and this latest model builds yet again on that accumulated achievement.


The improvements evident in the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 are mostly small and incremental, then, but don’t, whatever you do, make the mistake of thinking they're “only” iterative. As Apple has proved time and time again, constant iteration leads to products that end up head and shoulders above the competition. That's where the Surface Pro 4 finds itself, and it's why its stablemate the Microsoft Surface Book, though quite, quite lovely, isn't at the same level just yet. 


In case you haven’t seen a Surface Pro, or you've been hiding from the multi-million dollar advertising campaign Microsoft has run since the first one launched, it's designed to be the tablet that can replace a laptop. It runs Microsoft's desktop OS software, Windows 10, and as such allows you to run any Windows application on the planet, as well as apps from the Windows Store.


That makes it a very different proposition to the iPad Pro, which only runs iOS apps. It's all at once a powerful laptop replacement that you can use in a business environment to run legacy Windows apps, browse networks and copy and paste files, and a consumer tablet you can use to run casual games and watch Netflix on. It's truly a one-size fits all machine.


It's also built around an Intel processor – in our case, the latest Skylake Core i5-6300U – although you can go up to an i7, or even step down to a Core m3. And prices start at £749 inc VAT for the Intel Core m3 model with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, and rise to £1,799 for an i7 with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. As usual, you’ll have to add on £110 for the (pretty much essential) Type Cover, which means a top-of-the-line Surface Pro 4 won’t leave you much change from £2,000. Microsoft is truly following the Apple model with this one.



Surface Pro 4 review: Design and build quality


That’s not to say, though, that you’re not getting value for money, and you’re definitely getting a design and build quality that’s at least as good as Apple’s here. Although the design of the Surface Pro 4 doesn’t stray too far from that of the Surface Pro 3, there are little touches Microsoft has made that improve it.


There’s still the same, beautiful kickstand, which you can adjust to almost any angle, so it’s close to being a laptop-like experience. You can even angle it all the way back, in which case it makes the Surface Pro very usable without your keyboard attached in a lap – think the iPad with a Smart Cover on it, folded back, and you have an idea of the angle it sits at.


How does it compare with the competition, though? Well, it's a sight better than the iPad Pro’s keyboard stand. Although I don't mind typing on that keyboard, its lack of adjustability - it's set at one angle - lack of backlight and touchpad sets it at a significant disadvantage.


And, while Google has made a much better attempt with the Google Pixel C's magnificent magnetically attachable keyboard, which allows you to adjust the keyboard at any angle and has a stiff, solid base, it suffers from similar shortcomings. It also lacks both a touchpad and backlighting and its small size means it isn't as comfortable to use as the Surface Pro 4's Type Cover.


The body is the same as its predecessor, as is the array of ports: USB 3, mini-DisplayPort, and a microSD slot hidden under the stand. Microsoft hasn’t taken the opportunity to shift to USB Type-C, which I think is a shame. This means we’re also stuck with the weird proprietary power connector, rather than being able to charge from USB Type-C. Oh well, perhaps next time.



One small design tweak that's welcome, though, is the addition of a few magnets on the left-hand side. These hold the Surface Pen – which is now included – firmly to the side of the device. How firmly? Firmly enough that, on a flat desk, I can drag the device along just by holding the pen and pulling. It isn't quite as secure as an internal docking slot, but it comes close enough for me to stop complaining about not having a place to put the pen.


Overall, though, the design and build quality remain the gold standard for this kind of convertible. The Surface Pro 4 looks, and feels, like an expensive, high-quality product. And that’s because it is – on both counts.


The biggest question mark over the design remains its "lapability", as Microsoft has taken to calling it. As with the Surface Pro 3, the Surface Pro 4 is helped considerably by the stand’s ability to tilt the screen to a wide range of angles. While it’s now very steady, it's much longer than a conventional laptop on your lap, which means people who have shorter legs (like me) are likely to find it less comfortable.


Although this is something that's raised again and again by journalists, how much of an issue it is in the real world is debatable. Most laptops in daily use are on tables – lap use tends to be a much rarer event for ordinary people than it is for journalists. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time using your laptop on your lap, the Surface Pro 4 will be less suitable for you. If on the other hand, you’re largely desk- or table-bound, it will be perfectly fine.


Surface Pro review 4: Type Cover


I didn’t hate the Surface Pro 3’s Type Cover. I could happily type on it for hours, but was always happy to get back to a proper keyboard. It wasn’t so much the size of the keys or the travel, but the slight feel of flexing that you got when you hit it.


The good news is that Surface Pro 4’s Type Cover largely fixes this. Microsoft has added some much-needed rigidity to the cover – it’s actually hard to bend it now – which means the keyboard doesn’t bounce in quite the same way. The keys themselves are still a bit clicky, but it’s a nice experience, and I’d be more than happy to type on it all the time.



The trackpad has also been improved. It’s now a little bigger, and topped with glass, with a much better feel. This has, thus, moved from the “I want a mouse now, please” category to “yeah, I can use this”. There are a few small nice extra touches here. For example, the function key now has a tiny light on it and acts as function-lock. The backlighting has also improved, although the keys still leak light in a way that will alarm those used to Apple keyboards, with their highly precise lighting.


There's also the snappily-named Surface Pro 4 Type Cover with Fingerprint ID. Although this accessory has been available in the US since the launch of the Surface Pro 4, it's only recently made it over to the UK and at £135 inc VAT it isn't cheap. I've now had the opportunity to try one out, however, and can confirm that it works very well indeed. Enrolling a fingerprint works in a similar manner to Touch ID on an iPad or iPhone, and once done you'll be able to tap the sensor - located just to the right of the touchpad - to instantly unlock the tablet, even directly from sleep.


It's so good, in fact, that if you're considering buying a Surface for the first time I'd recommend seriously considering paying the extra £25 for the privilege. Also worth noting is that both versions of the Surface Pro 4 keyboard work with the Surface Pro 3 as well. So, if you have an older Pro, I’d definitely recommend running out and buying one as soon as you can.


Source : http://www.alphr.com





















Update: As of 20 April at 11.45am, Google.com is showing as “Not dangerous”. Phew.


There are plenty of conspiracy theorists who believe Google is not to be trusted, which was not helped by the company dumping its “Don’t Be Evil” mantra the day it became Alphabet. That number appears to include Google itself.


An eagle-eyed Reddit user has spotted that, if you visit the Google Transparency Report and check on the status of Google.com, you’ll get a warning from the company that all is not well with its own product:


It’s “partially dangerous”, apparently, with Google warning that its own pages may try to install malware on your computer, trick you into downloading something or steal your credit card information.


Amusingly, if you do the same test for Bing.com – Microsoft’s search engine – Google is quick to reassure you that you won’t have any issues at all.


 Google.co.uk also gets a clean bill of health:



So, what’s going on here? Well, the safe-browsing tools are automated, and most likely someone was using Google’s services to host something malicious. That comes with the territory when you’re as big a site as Google. Indeed, other huge sites with user-generated content are not immune from being highlighted as dangerous, including Tumblr and GitHub.


It is possible that the malicious sites have already been removed – Safe Browsing isn’t a real-time scanner, according to Google’s own FAQ on the subject. The same FAQ also says that the company has had very few false positives,” but on this occasion I think we can take the findings with a small shaker of salt.


READ NEXT: Microsoft thinks I’m a golden retriever














Source : http://www.alphr.com