| Fighting talk: My Android epiphany: iPhone battery life is killing Apple Jul 18th 2014, 14:00, by Phil Lavelle 
The last week or so, I've been using a different device – a Sony Xperia Z2. Just for fun. As you do. And I've had this major epiphany: I have been battering the device and yet, the battery just won't die. I'm yelling at it: "LET GO, DAMMIT!" but it just won't. I managed 18 hours of standby yesterday with almost four hours of screen on time and it still sat at 36%. That was without power saving mode enabled. I've come to work without a charging cable today and for the first time in a long time, I'm not panicking. Why the epiphany? Well quite simply because the phone I was using previously was an iPhone 5S - and... oh, dear. The battery is just terrible compared. What the hell is Apple doing here? The world's richest company – probably the world's coolest – and yet it can't sort out a smartphone staple. "It just works" does it Tim Cook? Not when you've spent a little too long away from a charger, it doesn't. We've put a man on the moon!I'm no scientist, but what's the deal with these awful batteries? We can put a man on the moon, we have Sat Nav.. an invisible thing that tells us where to go. Can you imagine trying to explain Sat Nav to someone 20 years ago? You'd have been drowned for sorcery. And yet, one of the world's leading phone manufacturers can't make a battery seemingly last more than a day. Here's where I get accused of bias again, but I'm firmly on Android's side of this argument. Because as the OS grows up, so do the handset capabilities. I remember the first Android phone – the T-Mobile G1, which was certainly one of – if not the - worst batteries I've ever encountered. But now, five or six years later, the current crop of Droid offerings like the Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and Xperia Z2 just seem to be kicking Apple's backsides. I've seen lots of friends switch from the iZone recently who I'd never expect to. And the reason they give is that they're fed up of awful battery life. Apple may be able to fix it all come the iPhone 6 announcement. For Tim Cook's sake, I really hope so. Until then though, I'm going to continue walking towards that Android coloured light.        |  | In pictures: TechRadar Phone Awards: what went down at 2014's hottest phone event? Jul 18th 2014, 11:54, by TechRadar 
The TechRadar Phone AwardsThere's always an amount of trepidation when you try something for the first time – thankfully, the TechRadar Phone Awards kicked off in brilliant style. Held at the cool Ticketmaster offices, we had a bar, burritos, a piñata and even a slide, which more than a few brave attendees entered through. We had loads of the industry's best and brightest down to celebrate the best of the phone and tablet world, and all enjoyed the free-flowing food and drink on offer as Phones and Tablets editor Gareth Beavis and Editor in Chief Patrick Goss presented the awards on stage. 
We also had music from both an acoustic set by Blacky from The Howling and DJ set by Chas from The Hounds to really get the party started, with the winners and nominees partying together to make it a really memorable event. 
Before the action kicked off, we decided to get some old tech out, with the Nokia 3310 the star of the show in a 'fastest texter' competition. 
Qualcomm was the first to receive a TechRadar award, with the Snapdragon 801 SoC taking the best innovation ahead of Apple's TouchID and HTC's Boomsound, after much deliberation over which new feature in the last 12 months had really changed the phone landscape as we know it. 
Next up came the best app – a hotly-contested category that saw the likes of Sky Go, Swiftkey and Google Maps fight it out for the title, but hugely popular music app Spotify slipped ahead of the pack to take the award. 
Then came the battle of the budgets: both tablets and phones. It doesn't always have to be able the brilliant specs, as these lower-cost devices proved. Google (the most-nominated brand at the Awards, with four devices or services up for a gong) walked away with Best Budget Tablet for the awesome Nexus 7, beating out Samsung, Asus, Amazon and more to the title. 
In the budget phone category, it was a little Noah's Ark for the nominations: The Nokia Lumia 520 and 630, the Moto G and Moto E, and the EE Kestrel and Huawei Ascend G6 (the last two being variants of the same model). 
This was a very close category indeed, but Motorola's Moto G just snuck ahead of the two Nokias to take the crown – showing that you really can get some decent handsets for less cash these days. And finally, the two big awards: Best Tablet and Best Phone. The iPad Air took the gong for the former, with the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet the closest challenger from the Android pack which saw entries from Amazon, Google and Samsung. 
In the Best Phone category, all entries from Samsung, Sony, Apple, OnePlus, LG and HTC were hoping to nab an award to reflect their efforts this year – and it was a tricky one to call. 
The OnePlus offers brilliant value, the LG G3 a great screen, Sony could have taken it with with the Xperia Z2 or Z1 Compact, and Apple and Samsung's popularity could have tipped them into top spot. 
But it was HTC's One M8 that emerged victorious, taking the crown for its brilliant blend of design, power, screen tech, ergonomics and sheer usability… can it possibly repeat the feat next year? So the first awards were a huge success, our chance to award the industry for all its hard work and thank the people we get to work with week in, week out, to bring you the best phone news, features and reviews. And there was a slide. Who doesn't love a slide? 
       | | Insane holographic smartphone just one-upped Amazon Fire phone Jul 18th 2014, 11:26, by John McCann 
We kid you not. This isn't the latest season of Star Trek, this is July 2014 - Planet Earth, and Chinese firm Takee has produced the world's first holographic smartphone. Holographic displays on our mobile devices have been nothing more than a pipe dream, but it appears no longer with some bold claims being made in the company's promo video. Sporting four front-facing cameras to track eye movement - similar to the quad-cam setup on the Amazon Fire phone - the Takee 1 is able to generate holographic images that float above the display. You can interact with these holograms via a series of air gestures - a wave of the hand here, a pinch of the fingers there. 3D snap, view and printRound the back you'll find not one, but two camera lenses, allowing you to capture 3D images and create holograms from them to display on screen. The Takee 1 will also apparently let you 3D print scanned images from the rear camera setup. If we're honest, it does all sound a little too good to be true, and the holographic effects in the video are more than likely computer generated, so it's unclear how far into development the Takee 1 actually is. Take a look for yourself in the video below and let us know what you make of the Takee 1 in the comments. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAJrrQzBs_Y       | | Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Microsoft ditches Android, but the robots get smarter Jul 18th 2014, 11:00, by TechRadar 
Remember the famous photo of Steve Jobs flicking v-signs at IBM's head office? Pretend you don't, because Apple and IBM are now best friends forever. And that's not the only surprising bit of news this week. Google's hired one of the world's most notorious hackers, some OnePlus One owners are getting unpleasant surprises, and it turns out that one of the world's best phones is one you can't buy. It's the week in tech! Apple and IBM up a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-gApple and IBM have teamed up to give Windows a wedgie and BlackBerry the boot. That's not how they describe it, of course - the press release is an avalanche of business jargon - but Michelle Fitzsimmons cuts through the jargon to say it straight: "Apple and IBM have partnered for a major initiative to bring more iOS devices and solutions to the workplace. And by more, we mean a lot." Apple is using IBM as a Trojan Horse, says Désiré Athow. "Apple will use IBM as a medium to crack the elusive enterprise market while Big Blue will get privileged - but not exclusive - access to the IOS ecosystem." X RatedWith Microsoft cutting 18,000 jobs from its business, something had to give. Turns out that something was Android, as Microsoft announced that it will be saying goodbye to Google's OS in favour of Nokia, just six months after the Nokia X. It's a shame really, because the Nokia X is actually the most exciting smartphone around right now - you just can't buy one. But the Android-powered smartphone has been a huge success in the bits of the world we don't live in. The fact it's cheap certainly helps, but the combination of Nokia's reputation and Android's utility and popularity is the real secret sauce here. The internet of Samsung thingsSamsung could be getting into the internet of things in a big way: it's in the market to buy SmartThings, a home automation startup whose kit controls lighting, electronic devices and locks with their smartphones. It's also teamed up with Google's Nest as part of the IoT connectivity group Thread and may be considering a partnership with smart tracker and smart clothing firm Under Armour too. OnePlus One: cheap. Nasty?We really like the OnePlus One phone, which offers performance at a price that seems too good to be true. Unfortunately for some, it seems to be exactly that: a number of owners are reporting display flaws that give their screens a distinct yellow tinge, with some also reporting dead pixels. OnePlus says there isn't a problem and that users can return their phones within 14 days to get a refund, but some forum owners report being asked to pay the postage to send their phones back to China. Google saves the internetNever mind driverless cars and mad glasses: Google's next project is designed to fix the entire internet. The excitingly named Project Zero aims to crack down on the "zero-day" vulnerabilities that cause so much online chaos, and the team apparently includes infamous PS3 hacker George Hotz. Amazon's preparing Netflix for ebooksFancy getting access to a library of 600,000 for a low monthly fee? According to some accidentally leaked product pages on Amazon, that's exactly what the ebook giant is planning. We're surprised that the service isn't part of the ever-growing Prime package, which currently offers just one free ebook rental per month. A smarter ASIMOEverybody loves Honda's ASIMO, and we'll keep on doing so just so long as he doesn't go ED-209 on us. For now, though, the humanoid robot is concentrating on becoming even more mobile and learning practical ways to help us out - such as pouring drinks, avoiding walking into us and using sign language. - Looking for something new? Check out our round-up of cool gadgets to buy now
       | | Early LG G3 Beat price hints at an affordable handset Jul 18th 2014, 10:15, by John McCann 
The LG G3 Beat (a mini-ish LG G3) was made official earlier this week and we've now got our first sighting of a price. It's been priced by none other than LG Germany, which makes its as official as you're likely to get and the magic number is €349 (that's around £275, $475, AU$500) for a SIM-free handset. At that price it could be hard to 'Beat', although direct conversions are usually not an accurate reflection of a handset's cost in varying markets as different taxes and charges need to be taken into consideration. UndercuttingEither way, the G3 Beat looks set to undercut the likes of the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, HTC One Mini 2 and potentially even the Galaxy S5 Mini although we're still waiting on pricing for the latter. For your money you'll be getting a far-from-mini 5-inch 720p display, a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD slot, 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front snapper and Android 4.4 KitKat. LG said the G3 Beat would be arriving in Europe in the coming weeks at launch, and LG Germany has stated that it'll be in the continent by mid-August. We're still waiting on availability news for the rest of the world however.        | | 4.7-inch iPhone 6 may hit production before July is out Jul 18th 2014, 09:52, by John McCann 
It's coming, we all know it's coming, so it's no surprise that we're seeing reports claiming that production of the iPhone 6 will start very soon. Details from the Economic Daily News in China has seemingly spilled the beans on the manufacturing process, stating that production on the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will begin next week. It also talks about the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6, saying it'll be a little later to the factory floor, with its production kicking off sometime in August. You need to take this information with a decent pinch of salt, as it's not clear how legitimate the source is, but we are arriving at the production time for the handset. Battery back up
Further evidence that the first iPhone 6 handsets may be about to be put together comes from NoWhereElse, which posted a photo claiming to show the battery for Apple's upcoming smartphone. The battery in question appears to have an 1810mAh capacity which falls in line with previous rumours quoting an 1800mAh power pack. If it's legit it's likely to be the battery for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, as the 5.5-inch model is expected to pack a larger offering - potentially somewhere in the region of 2500mAh. We expect Apple to launch its new iPhone(s) in September, so there's not too long to go now.        | | Google's CBO is out as Q2 revenues grow Jul 17th 2014, 20:40, by Michelle Fitzsimmons 
Google has filed its earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, 2014, posting a gross revenue growth of 22% year-over-year. Revenue for the quarter topped out at $16 billion (about £9.3b, AU$17.1b). The biggest and most unexpected news to come out of the report is word that Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora is leaving Google to join SoftBank as vice chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media. Arora, who participated in Google's earnings call today, has been with Google for almost 10 years. Omid Kordestani, business founder and sales team lead, will take over Google's business organization for the time being. More numbersIn addition to its 22% gross revenue increase year-on-year, Google reported a 3% increase quarter-to-quarter. The company's total revenue from its own sites was $10.9 billion (about £6.4b, AU$11.7b), 69% of total revenues, and its revenue from partner sites was $3.4 billion (about £2b, AU$3.6b), or 21% of the total. Google reported that digital sales in the Play store also helped drive year-over-year growth, and pay-per-click was strong. In addition paid clicks on ads on Google sites and on Google Network sites increased 25% from the same period last year. However cost-per-click on ads, which decreased by 6% in Q2 2013, remained the same. A full 58% of total revenue came from sites outside the US, a slight increase over previous quarters. That Motorola feelingDuring its earnings call Google mentioned that the ongoing convergence of Chromebooks and Android is going splendidly as the two platforms continue to become closer and closer. Google also touched on the sale of Motorola to Lenovo, remarking that the Moto G and Moto E are showing strong momentum, especially in emerging markets, and the two devices had a strong quarter. Lenovo piped in with its own statement following the call, noting that Motorola's "recent results show why they can be such a strong growth engine for Lenovo once our acquisition is approved." The statement continues, "Once our acquisition is complete, we will be able to bring more innovative products to more consumers around the world - and we will be able to build on the momentum Motorola has built in the market."        | | Apple's iTunes Pass digital payments go live around the world Jul 17th 2014, 18:22, by klee 
Inputting long codes off the backs of iTunes cards will soon be a thing of the past. Apple has debuted iTunes Pass allowing United States and Australian iTunes users to pour money into their accounts using the Passbook app. This allows customers to refill their iTunes account balance without need to buy physical gift cards or giving out their credit card information to Apple. Users can start using their iTunes Pass by adding it to the Passbook app on their iOS device. Once activated users can visit their local Apple retail store and inform a store employee they want to add a credit to their account. The store employee will then scan an iTunes Pass generated code to deposit money into the user's account. The Cupertino company first debuted the program the program earlier this Monday in Japan but now it's making its way to more locations around the world. According to iPhone Hacks iTunes Pass has also gone live in a number of other countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Mobile moniesAs Apple moves away from gift cards iTunes Pass seems like a logical progression. The feature could also be part of Apple's larger goal to create it's own platform for mobile payments. A report from the beginning of the year discovered Apple was looking into allowing iOS users pay using for goods and services using their Apple ID. A few days later Apple CEO Tim Cook also noted that mobile payments were intrigued by the idea of connecting mobile payments with Touch ID, Apple's fingerprint sensing technology. - Will Apple become future of health with the iWatch?
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