Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 11-11-2013

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In Depth: The 10 best apps for your Samsung GALAXY Note 3 Nov 11th 2013, 13:57, by Your Mobile Life The Samsung GALAXY Note 3 has great hardware and is packed with many useful and unique features – but its ace in the hole is a library of incredible apps and games. Here is our pick of ten apps that best show off the Note 3's abilities, and help you get the most from Samsung's flagship phone. 1. Magisto Video Editor Free – Get it here It is easy to capture video using the GALAXY Note 3 – you can even do it in full 4K Ultra HD – but making a watchable video can take a fair bit of skill. This is, after all, why they pay Steven Spielberg the big bucks. Magisto is an almost magical app that will actually edit your videos for you, automatically choosing the best shots and combining them to make a great-looking whole. The app adds stabilisation to wobbly camera work, adds in photos (including Instagrams) and uses facial recognition to pick out important people in your movies and match them across several clips. Magisto uses colourful filter effects as well as soundtracks (using your own music or a library of free tracks) and has almost a sixth sense for what will look good. You can export the finished clips to YouTube, social media or your email app. 2. Real Racing 3 Free – Get it here Real Racing 3 is one of the most graphically taxing games available for Android devices. Most phones and tablets struggle when trying to display this game on its highest detail settings but the Note 3's combination of Quad-Core processor and 3 GB of RAM means that this free racing game plays as smoothly as butter. 3. SketchBook Pro £3.13 – Buy it here Drawing apps for smartphones are fairly commonplace, but SketchBook Pro is a professional-quality drawing program designed by industry leaders Autodesk. The app offers you over 100 customisable brushes, a full colour palette and the ability to draw on huge, multi-megapixel canvasses. The brush handling can take advantage of the S Pen's support for pressure sensitivity and each drawing can be split into layers that may be edited separately and then combined. 4. MyScript Calculator Free – Get it here What we wouldn't have given for this app when we did our Maths A-Level. MyScript Calculator makes brilliant use of the S Pen and handwriting capture, using them to create a unique 'calculator' that lets you simply write out a formula for the Note 3 to solve. The app understands trigonometry, logarithms and mathematical constants like pi. You can even scratch out corrections and the app will re-evaluate the formula. 5. PlayCall Free – Get it here Whether you're an armchair sports fan, an under-12's soccer coach or a Premiership manager, PlayCall offers a simple way to sketch out tactics and set plays on a diagram of the pitch, using the S Pen or your fingertip. The app covers football (UK and US), basketball, tennis and baseball. Bring an element of professionalism to your post-match pub arguments by using PlayCall to illustrate exactly why that goal was offside. 6. Flipaclip Free – Get it here Have you ever made a flipbook animation using the corner of a notepad? With Flipaclip you can do the same thing on your Note 3, only better! Draw each frame of your animation using the S Pen, with the same 'onion skin' outlines of previous frames that professional animators use. You can select or draw a background, edit individual frames and watch your creation on the Note 3's expansive screen before sharing via YouTube or other social platforms. 7. SIGNificant Signature Capture Free – Get it here You can of course use the S Pen to sign your name in S Note or even Action Memo, but SIGNificant actually treats your scribble as a proper signature, capturing additional biometric data such as acceleration, speed, and rhythm to confirm that your signature is indeed your own. You can use the app to sign documents, and it will even insert your scrawl into a PDF if you need to fill out a form that you've downloaded. 8. S-PEN Voice PRO £2 – Get it here This useful app won first prize in the S Pen category of Samsung's 2012 Smart App Challenge. Designed for students or anyone that ever has to sit through a lecture or interview, S-PEN Voice PRO lets you write using the S Pen while recording audio via the Note 3's microphone. Notes and their accompanying audio clips can be labelled or shared. A simple but effective idea, S-PEN Voice PRO is a must-have if you have ever scribbled down a note, only to forget about the context. 9. MX Player Free – Get it here (or £3.70 for the Pro version – here) Samsung ships the GALAXY Note 3 with an excellent video player, but if you download a lot of unusual video formats – or just want to try an alternative – then MX Player is one of the best around. MX Player can take advantage of the Note 3's Quad-Core processor to boost performance, ensuring smooth playback of even highly-compressed formats like Matroska (.MKV) files. It has an intuitive gesture-based interface that makes it easy for you to zoom in and out, skip forward and back and adjust volume and brightness levels. 10. Evernote Free – Get it here For the first time, Samsung has tightly integrated its S Note app with the pre-installed and popular notebook app, Evernote. Notes and clippings made with the S Pen can be instantly synced with your Evernote account. GALAXY Note 3 owners will also get a boost in the amount of data they are allowed to sync every month to allow them to get the most from the service. The Evernote app on the Note 3 can be used to further manipulate and file your notes and makes it easy to share your ideas with other devices or across the web. In Depth: Getting the most from Samsung S Voice Nov 11th 2013, 12:18, by Your Mobile Life If you've just picked up a Samsung GALAXY Note 3 then you'll want to learn more about the excellent Samsung S Voice feature. We've put together a comprehensive guide so that you can get the most out of your very own personal assistant. 1. What is S Voice? S Voice is Samsung's unique mobile personal assistant, providing you with voice control for many of the functions on your GALAXY device. S Voice allows you to improve the speed of your communications as well as increasing productivity with quick shortcuts to vital settings, all while leaving your hands free to deal with other tasks. For the ultimate Samsung S Voice experience make sure you pick up the GALAXY Note 3 – the world's most powerful smartphone – with its outstanding 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, innovative S Pen controls and market-leading 2.3 GHz Quad-Core processor. 2. How to enable S Voice Activating Samsung S Voice on your GALAXY Note 3 couldn't be simpler. The application comes pre-installed (and deeply integrated) on the smartphone, so all you need to do is double press the home key to launch your very own personal assistant. As soon as you've done this S Voice will be ready and waiting for your command, so just start speaking and your GALAXY Note 3 will be listening. Once you've spoken your first command, you can then give another simply by pressing the microphone on screen or by saying "Hi GALAXY!" S Voice will speak your messages to you, as well as read out information and other types of feedback, but if you need some peace and quiet you can easily silence your personal assistant by tapping the head icon at the bottom of the screen. If you're unsure of what to say, just tap the question mark icon in the right corner and S Voice will display the available commands. 3. Ready to go, 24/7 For those of you who require access to Samsung S Voice at any given time you can turn on the Wake up command, allowing you to launch the personal assistant without having to double tap the home key – it even works when the GALAXY Note 3 is locked. To enable Wake up, launch the S Voice application, tap the menu, select Settings and then scroll down to the "Wake up" section. Check the Wake up command box and turn the Voice Wake up switch on and you're good to go. This is perfect for those looking to use their GALAXY Note 3 more efficiently, as now it's always ready to go. 4. Driving mode Samsung S Voice is the perfect tool for drivers, allowing you to communicate with your phone without losing any concentration. S Voice's help starts before you've even entered the car. Load up S Voice and select "Hands-free mode" from the menu or just say "Hands-free mode on" to enter a dedicated S Voice panel specifically tailored to help you when on the road. You can then select to navigate to your destination by speaking a command such as "Navigate to Church Road, Watford" – the GALAXY Note 3 will then launch the turn-by-turn navigation application. Your S Voice personal assistant is still active while the navigation is switched on, allowing you to make a call, send a text, check the weather, create memos or play music from your phone simply by speaking your requests to the handset. 5. Organising your life As our lives become busier it's harder to keep track of just where we need to be, when events are happening, and what vital food items we need to pick up from the shop on the way home. Luckily Samsung S Voice is on hand, and the personal assistant can help to organise your life and ensure you're always at the right place at the correct time. Using S Voice you're able to create memos, set reminders, start timers and check your schedule – all with your voice. It's simple, it's easy and it saves time. 6. Efficient communication Efficiency is at the heart of Samsung S Voice and another area where it can help streamline your experience is with communications. You can view a contact by saying, for example, "Look up Jason", and S Voice will return Jason's contact details, including his phone numbers and email addresses. If you then wanted to speak to Jason you can say, "Call Jason" and S Voice will ring him. If there are multiple contacts with the same name, you'll be given the choice of which one you want to call. It's not just voice calls that S Voice can handle – text messaging is very much on the agenda as well. All you need to do is say something like "Text Jeff message Will you be home tonight?" and S Voice will do the rest. This is great if you're using a computer or reading a document and your GALAXY Note 3 is sitting on your desk, as you don't need to stop what you're doing to send a message or make a call. 7. Hands-free social networking Samsung S Voice supports integration with both Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to update the world with ease. You'll need to enable the social networks on S Voice by heading into the settings within the app, but it's just a couple of taps and then you're ready to roll. Simply say something along the lines of "Twitter update, I love S Voice" or "Facebook status, just won an awesome game of Monopoly", and S Voice will do the rest. You'll be able to review your message before posting it to your account. Then just say "update" and you'll be done. 8. Control your connections You can control settings such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with S Voice, allowing you to turn them on and off in a matter of seconds. This means you can easily turn off these settings when they're not in use to ensure the security of your device, as well as to conserve battery life when you're out and about. When you find yourself in a situation where you need Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or another setting, a quick speech prompt will see them turned back on – you don't even have to unlock your GALAXY Note 3 with your digits. 9. Talk to the watch The Samsung GALAXY Note 3 is compatible with the GALAXY Gear and S Voice has also made the leap onto your wrist for an even more convenient experience. Once you've paired your GALAXY Gear with your Note 3, just select the S Voice option from the menu and you'll be able to use all manner of voice commands without having to go near your phone. S Voice on the GALAXY Gear is capable of reading out text messages as well as writing them, along with making calls, finding out the weather and telling you the time anywhere in the world. 10. More tips and tricks Samsung S Voice isn't finished there. There's also a range of additional features just waiting to be explored. Spend some time with your new personal assistant and you'll be surprised at what it's capable of. S Voice can keep you updated with the latest news headlines – just say "read me the news" and your personal assistant will go through the top stories. You can also ask S Voice to open applications. All you need to say is "open calculator" and that's exactly what will happen. Perhaps you're stuck for an answer. Just ask your challenging question to S Voice and it will search the web and return the answer to you in next to no time. If you're a keen weather watcher you can get S Voice to provide you details of the weather from anywhere in the world, including a 5-day forecast – perfect if you're just about to jet off and want to know what clothes to pack. Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2 clears FCC ahead of CES 2014 Nov 11th 2013, 12:11, by Thomas Thorn We've heard a few things about the rumoured Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2 tablet, and it seems like we could be learning a fair amount more in the coming months. As both an LTE (SM-P905) and a Wi-Fi only (SM-P900) version have now cleared the FCC, we're slowly gearing ourselves up for an approaching launch, which might be timed rather nicely with CES 2014. The news puts it in line with details we heard a few months ago from @evleaks, who touted a 2560x1600 screen and an Exynos 5 octacore CPU. The FCC clearances tell us a few things will be on board, like a 14.1-inch diagonal measurement, dual-band Wi-Fi and LTE, as well as appearing to confirm @evleaks's claim of an S-pen. This size also puts it in line with reports that a Chinese firm was producing a 12.2-inch screen for Samsung. Samsung vs Apple: Round 12? A 12.2-inch Galaxy Note tablet would also provide stiff competition to a rumoured 12.2-inch iPad. Whether that one is true or not, evidence is certainly mounting that Samsung is set to launch a tablet eviathan. It's less than two months until the next big Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, and we'll be there to let you know if Samsung does indeed drop some 12.2-inch tablet-y goodness. Believe it or not, the Galaxy Note 12.2 isn't the biggest tablet we've ever seen... Google Play Store to hit BlackBerry 10.2 devices? Nov 11th 2013, 10:30, by Thomas Thorn Could we finally be able to see BlackBerry devices making use of the Jelly Bean Android runtime? Leaked screenshots taken from a rather grubby looking BlackBerry Z10, found on Crackberry, suggest that we could finally see the Google Play Store on BlackBerry 10.2. We always have to err on the side of caution here and point out that we could well be looking at some heavily Photoshopped images, but we already know that BlackBerry will support Android Jelly Bean. If this is true, this could prove a massive boost to the BlackBerry 10 OS, making it a more attractive option to consumers. Jelly Bean to make BlackBerrys more app-etising? It would open up a whole new world of apps, something that BlackBerry devices tend to suffer in comparison to both Android and iOS devices. We should note that the screen shots aren't of the most recent update to the Play Store that we've encountered, nor does it support Music. This could be remedied in a final release version, if or whenever that hits. With BlackBerry struggling at the moment, we would really hope that it makes its way over to BB devices soon. It might be just what the Canadian doctor ordered. BBM batting away rivals as it skyrockets on Android Nov 11th 2013, 09:50, by Hugh Langley BlackBerry might be in a bad place right now, but at least its messaging app seems to be proving a hit with Android and iOS users. The BBM app has been downloaded over 20 million times on Android and iOS and Android data provided to BGR by Mobidia shows that BBM is pushing past its competitors. According to the figures, use of BBM in the US stands at an average of 40 minutes a week in the week of October 20. That's close to touching on Viber's 44-minute record and tearing ahead of Tango's 24-minute score. In other words, it's doing a lot better than we expected it would. Hype hype hype It's still not quite at the level of WhatsApp, which comes in at 160 minutes, or Kik's 106 minutes - unsurprising given the popularity of these messaging titans. But for all we know, that BlackBerry figure could be even higher by now and could get another boost if it does eventually launch on Windows Phone. Of course, it could also go the other way and die down once users get over the novelty of using BBM on a non-BlackBerry device, but right now it looks like users aren't just downloading it for a quick play-and-delete. Is the BlackBerry 10 worth your cash? Find out in our review. Pebble CEO touts 'hidden' functionality, says 'tons of apps' on the way Nov 10th 2013, 18:43, by Chris Smith The CEO of Pebble says the popular smartwatch is only going to get better, as more features are unlocked and the next wave of apps arrive on the platform. Speaking at the Engadget Expand event in New York, Eric Migicovsky revealed the Kickstarter phenomenon has "hidden functionalities" that'll be made available in due course. When asked whether there's already a second iteration of the hardware in the works, Migicovsky said, there's still plenty of life in the current device, which raked in over $10m on the crowd-funding site. "Right now we're focusing on the platform that's already on 190,000 wrists around the world," he said. "The hardware's already there, and has a lot of hidden functionalities that we haven't even unlocked yet." More apps on the way Migicovsky also revealed he's said he's betting big on third-party developers building apps for the device and said there's already "tons on the way" "We're a small company. We decided to put most of our effort into the framework and underlying structure that'll let other people build apps on top of it," he said. So, it seems good times are in store for Pebble fans. Just this week it got a whole lot more useful for iOS 7 users as it now plays nice with the Apple Notification Centre. You can check out the rest of the 20 minute video interview over at Engadget. In other news, the Galaxy Gear has been so poorly received that one retailer is now giving the thing away. Microsoft killing support for purchased Xbox Video content on Windows Phone 7 Nov 10th 2013, 17:35, by Chris Smith Windows Phone 7 users and old-timey Zune player owners will no longer be able to view video they've purchased through the Xbox Video store, Microsoft has announced. The company emailed customers this weekend to inform them that, from February 2014, that video content they own will no longer be supported on their devices. "This email is to notify you that in late February, 2014, Xbox will be making an update to our video catalog," the company wrote: "This update will allow us to more quickly and efficiently add the highest quality video content to the Xbox Video service. "As a result, beginning in late February 2014, any Xbox Video content you own as of then, will no longer be playable through the Zune PC client, Zune devices, or Windows Phone 7 devices. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." Still available on other devices The announcement is a blow for those users on Windows Phone 7 or Zune devices, that have invested in video from the Xbox Video store. Microsoft has not indicated that any compensation will be offered to those users who have lost access to their video content and did not offer hope that the Xbox Video app will relaunch on Windows Phone 7. "You can still enjoy all of your owned content at XboxVideo.com on your PC or Mac, or on your Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8 & 8.1 PC and tablet, or Windows Phone 8." Apple developing larger iPhones with curved displays for 2014, report claims Nov 10th 2013, 15:50, by Chris Smith The iPhone 6 is in for a big design overhaul, if reports this weekend can be believed. According to Bloomberg News, the company is working on devices with larger screens than the current generation coming in at 4.7- and 5.5-inches respectively. Previous reports have suggest Apple would launch a full 6-inch handset. Perhaps more interestingly, the source said the new iPhone's will embraced curved display technology, with screens that curve down towards the edges of the device. If the report proves to be accurate, the iPhone 6 promises to be the most radical design overhaul since the device first launched in 2008. Pressure sensitive Plans have not been finalised yet, according to 'people familiar with the matter', but the new handsets will likely arrive in the autumn of 2014. Interestingly, Bloomberg also claims Apple is working on touchscreen sensors that can distinguish between light and heavy presses, although that tech, it says is likely to be incorporated in future models. Testing continues, the report claims. Is Apple preparing to go big on sapphire for the next-gen iPhones and iPads? Samsung Galaxy Gear now free with Galaxy Note 3 contract at UK retailer Nov 9th 2013, 16:30, by Chris Smith The Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch has endured such a poor response from consumers that one UK retailer is now giving the accessory away free, for a limited time. Phones 4U is offering a free Galaxy Gear with all new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 contracts, making a mockery of Samsung's recommended price for the watch, which has been on sale less than two months. The deal lasts until November 14 in store and online from Phones 4U, so it'll be interesting to see whether the Galaxy Gear holds enough appeal to approve sign ups at the retailer. So far the smartwatch, hasn't fared any better in the US than in the UK, with reports claiming a third have been returned to Best Buy stores. Lacking 'something special' The device, which has 1.6-inch Super AMOLED 320 x 320 and a 1.9-megapixel camera, allows users to make and receive phone calls as well as read and reply to SMS messages, courted little favour in TechRadar's review, earning just 2 stars out of a possible 5. Samsung itself has admitted the first iteration of the Galaxy Gear lacks 'something special,' but says there are big plans to improve the device. "We've acknowledged that our Gear lacks something special," an unnamed Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Times in September. "With more investment for user interface and user experience, Samsung devices will be better in terms of customer satisfaction." Will you be picking up a free Galaxy Gear in the next week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Who's keeping watch? A third of all Galaxy Gear's reportedly returned to Best Buy stores.

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