Tag Archive for: How To Kill An Hour

Sony Xperia XZ2

Sony Xperia XZ2

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Marcus Bronzy checked out the Sony Xperia XZ2 whilst he was at Mobile World Congress and he was very impressed! Sony Xperia are quite the dark horse in the smartphone industry and they’ve got quite the range of features that many smartphone makers would be jealous of!

For example the display of the Sony Xperia XZ2 comes complete with their worlds famous Sony Bravia TV Technology. Complete will Full HD+ HDR display to give a user a very stimulating experience! Not only that but the audio is immense too! It has very powerful stereo speaker system and has built in tiny sub woofers that Sony are dubbing a ‘dynamic vibration system’.

Getting one over on Apple and Google, the Sony Xperia XZ2 is able to shoot 4K in movies, but in HDR. Making the home movies that you make whilst on holiday that much closer to cinema quality! Plus still photos will be shot in glorious 19MP one of the highest in smartphone technology today. You are able to shoot in slow motion at 960fps. With Sony’s 3D creator you’re able to scan yourself and your environment in 3D by utilising the front and rear cameras of the device.

Sony are very enthusiastic about protection and the Xperia XZ2 has Gorilla Glass 5 to offer top of the range protection to it’s screens. Furthermore Sony’s smartphone comes complete with IP65/86 water resistance!

Sony Xperia XZ2: Battery

One thing to note is Sony’s smart battery system! The Xperia XZ2 has a 3180mah battery which is very smart thanks to the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform processor. The Xperia Xz2 will over time predict how long you use your phone on a day to day basis. It will then warn you early in the day if it thinks you’re going to run out later on. Prompting you to enter Stamina mode. Entering this mode will cut off energy consumption to make sure you make it to the end of the day. Once your done for the day you can place it on a wireless charging base to top it up for the next day!

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Bonus Tech Mobile World Congress

Bonus Tech Mobile World Congress

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Marcus Bronzy is currently at Mobile World Congress and he’s seen a lot of brand new cool technology. Below are 3 of the things that he’s seen are bonus tech from Mobile World Congress!

Bonus Tech: SelFly

bonus tech SelFly

SelFly

This is the SelFly a phone case like no other, it’s a selfie drone. That’s also a case. Yes, our cases are also becoming drones now too! The drone craze is going one step further so we are never away from our drones as well as our phones. The case is only 9mm thin too so there’s not too much added thickness or weight to your phone either. Don’t worry though the case isn’y designed to have your expensive phone fly off attached to itself. So no dropping of £1000 smartphones from 60ft in the sky!

See more here!

 

Bonus Tech: FITT360 Camera

bonus tech FITT Camera

FITT Camera

The FITT Camera is designed to unobtrusively capture your most loving moments in full 360 degrees. Butin first person view, so people will get to see first hand your memories from as if they’re looking through your own eyes! It’s hands free and sits on your neck, you don’t even have to do anything. Just hit record and let go, the camera does all the other work for you. All you have to do is when your ready, hit share on your smartphone! The FITT360 even has GPS built in so you’re able to track and record exactly where you went when using this device. Not out making memories? Simply connect the camera to your smartphone and use it to listen to music via the bluetooth!

See more here!

 

Bonus Tech: 3MK Protection

Bonus Tech 3MK

3MK

This was one of the most impressive pieces of technology that Marcus saw whilst at Mobile World Congress. 3MK Protection are a smartphone protection company that’s built on making sure that their protectors, first and foremost protect well. But at the same time keep your phone looking ‘naked’ and as pristine as possible. Whilst there Marcus checked out the Flexible Glass ‘cases’ that they have on sale. Once on, the flexible hybrid glass, looked as though there was nothing on his phone at all. But yet it provides it with incredible protection!

See more here!

 

 

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

LiFi

LiFi – Lights that have Wifi?

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Marcus Bronzy is at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this week and he got to witness something really really cool! Our internet connectivity is about to be revolutionised! With LiFi – a type of technology that will allow internet connections via light. Yes light. It’s quicker than wifi too! When we said Lights we mean any lights, so thats lights that are in our car headlights, street lights and the lights in our homes.

LiFi

‪How are lightbulbs the answer to faster internet?! Find out more here: howtokillanhour.com/gadgets-tech/lifi-lights-that-have-wifi #MWC18 ‬Marcus Bronzy DJ Ace Funk Butcher Nick Bright Purelifi

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Thursday, 1 March 2018

LiFi: How does it work?

LiFi enabled LED lights modulate illumination levels and send data, just like morse code. Thus sending it to your device. The current (light) can be modulated at extremely high speeds, this in turn can be detected by a light detector on your device and the current re-converted into an electrical current, therefore carrying data.

You will still need an ethernet connection to connect to the internet, but once you’re all set up, you’re good to go to get wireless internet from light!

As routers are that gives you 100mbs a second, lights are much faster as each LED bulb has a maximum of 42mbs EACH. So if you have 10 LED bulbs in your area, that’s a total of 400mbs! What makes it faster is that data is sent and received at the same time!

LiFi doesn’t use radio frequencies, it uses the light spectrum which allows for a whole lot more data to be carried. 1000x more bandwidth available to users to be exact!It doesn’t affect radio frequencies either so you can use it in hospitals, airplanes and places like chemical plants. Safely.

This technology will be an integral part of wireless networks in the future!

LiFi: Security

LiFi is limited to the area in which the light illuminates and touches. So unlike WiFi your signal will remain hidden to anyone outside of the illuminated area! Want even more security? Simply close the door or draw the curtains to protect your network from hackers! The LiFi lights are fully networked and each light can ‘speak’ to each other, each with their own separate IP address! Why would the lights need to speak to one another? So you’re able to move around your home or office space and not lose connection!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

La Liga

LA Liga are changing the way we watch football!

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Marcus Bronzy is at Mobile World Congress and he headed over to La Liga where he was shown some of the cool techt they’re using to improve the way we consume football television!

La Liga

‪How are LaLiga changing the way we watch football? Find out more here: howtokillanhour.com/entertainment/la-liga-changing-way-watch-football‬Marcus Bronzy Nick Bright DJ Ace Funk Butcher

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Thursday, 1 March 2018

La Liga 4K HDR

The way that Spanish football is broadcast will soon be taken to a different dimension. Very much thanks to the 4K HDR broadcasts that the league displays to two headline matches every matchday. To achieve this a grand total of 20 different HDR cameras are used to give viewers the crispest and clearest image possible. Though these types of broadcast are saved for headline games such as El Clasico. With the use of HDR it makes viewers feel closer to the action and as a result a lot more immersed in what they are seeing on screen. La Liga are one of the few organisations and football are one of the few sports that are taking advantage of HDR and it will look to really improve the quality of games on display.

La Liga: Intel True View

Intel True View is like something that you have never witnessed before. Viewers of La Liga are able to see replays in full 360 degree views. So each play is reproduced on screen so they can get their own perspective on games. Allowing replays to be viewed from any position and any angle. However, there is nothing quite like what we saw at Mobile World Congress.

First up is the ‘Be The Player’ feature, where users get to physically see what the player see’s during a match. So for example, you see a match and a shot was missed. You’re able to be shown a replay of this goal but from the players perspective. How cool is that!

Furthermore there will no longer be arguments between you and your mates about is it or isn’t it offside. Thanks to the use of something called the “Laser Wall”. The “Laser Wall a virtual wall that’s overlaid on the pitch giving viewers a much clearer view of the offside call.

La Liga: 3D Graphics

Ever wondered how much a player has run during a match? How well they’re doing throughout the season? The pass percentage during a game? Well now you can thanks to 3D overlays that’s displayed on the pitch above the players heads during live broadcasts. The tech allows viewers to give a unique insight into the analytical space of the game of football. Furthermore the tech also allows tactical and positional changes to be displayed on the screen during replays. So this one is mainly for the statisticians out there and for those who like abit of novelty in the game of football.

La Liga: Virtual Reality

VR is making it’s way to football! The use of VR allows viewers to pick and choose what they’re watching while the game is being played. Be that a highlight of the game or a replay, just by simply looking at it on screen. You’re also able to see 3D models of players right in front of you in your living room, not only that you can watch the game in full 360 degree VR! Putting you right at the heart of the action!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

 

Sandisk 400gb microSD Card

Sandisk 400gb microSD Card

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Marcus has been at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week and he has seen a range of different weird and wonderful mobile technology. But one thing that has really caught his eye is the Sandisk 400gb microSD Card. Yes you read that right, a whopping 400gb microSD card! We remember floppy disks that could hold 4mb, so 400gb is very very impressive for us!

So what do you get for your £199 400gb MicroSD card? Well you get 100Mb/s a second data transfer. That’s SUPER quick! Data transfers that quick equate to a total of 1200 photos in a minute!! 400gb will also allow you to hold 960 albums approximately. Hold a total of 7200 photos and 1920 mins Full HD video.

If you have a MIL Camera and/or android smartphone or tablets take microSD cards, you’re able to load apps a lot faster due to the A1 rated performance.

Your super small and super light microSD card also comes with a SD card converter, making it less easy to lose it! At £200 and 5g it’s super easy to lose but super heavy on the bank balance!

BUT!

Sandisk have made sure that their Sandisk 400gb microSD card is protected! This card is very durable it is waterproof, X-ray proof, shock-proof and temperature-proof!

This is a great buy and even at £200 it is pricey, but, it’s not even £1 a gig, if someone said to you it would cost 50p per gigabyte of storage. In this day and age you’d rip their arm off! It’s just as it’s so small of a device we think it’s expensive. But for the drone users out there and the action cam users, 400gb on such a small device is very very enticing for them. After all it’s one less thing to carry around.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

To purchase your own 400gb microSD card please click here!

Mobile World Congress

Episode 269 Best of Mobile World Congress

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Mobile World Congress

Mobile World Congress Day 1

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Marcus recently went along to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and saw lots of stuff during day 1, check out a vlog of his time there below:

Mobile World Congress: Samsung S9

The latest update in the hugely successful Samsung S series has been released! The Samsung S9 is this years answer to last years S8. While it doesn’t look all that much different design wise. There’s a lot more going on under the hood of the device that makes it worthwhile. Especially if you like cameras.

To read more please click here!

Mobile World Congress: Nokia 8110

Nokia are playing on our nostalgia once again with the success of the 3310, HMD Global are re-releasing the Nokia 8110. This time with a whole new modern and upgraded set of insides. In 1996 the original ‘banana phone’ was made famous by Keanu Reeves in ‘The Matrix’

To read more please click here!

Mobile World Congress: HTC Vive Pro

Virtual Reality has been steadily growing over the past year and we have tried a lot of them here at How To Kill An Hour. We liked HTC’s Vive, we thought it was very impressive. But now HTC have upgraded and put rockets on the HTC Vive. Introducing the HTC Vive Pro!! It’s designed to meet the most hardcore of users and gamers in the Virtual Reality world and it is impressive! HTC are calling it the most immersive virtual reality to date.

To read more please click here!

Mobile World Congress: Huawei Mate

The Huawei MediaPad 5 is a 8.4″ tablet device with a TON of features that make it stand out from the crowd. For example it has an incredible sound system built in, that uses it’s Histen audio technology. The Histen audio tech creates a perfect soundscape that gives 3D sound that is richer, boldered, layered and much more powerful than anything before.

The Matebook X Pro is the follow up to Huawei’s Matebook which was released in 2017, it has a aluminum body and is thin and light, giving it a very modern look. It comes complete with a 13in 3K LTPS screen. Which Huawei are stating, allows the bigger screen to fit inside a 12″ laptop shell. Thus bringing form factor down.

The Huawei Mate 10 is a smartphone that is HUGE and has a few features up it’s sleeve which separate it from the rest of the pack. Firstly, the Huawei Mate 10 has a FULL HDR display, in glorious 16:9 aspect ratio, making it perfect to watch movies on. It has an almost bezel less design, and a robust glass casing. On both the front and the back of this glorious phone! It’s Android based so all of your favourite apps are capable with it too.

To read more please click here!

 

Huawei Mate

Huawei Mate series

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The Huawei Mate 10 is a smartphone that is HUGE and has a few features up it’s sleeve which separate it from the rest of the pack. Firstly, the Huawei Mate 10 has a FULL HDR display, in glorious 16:9 aspect ratio, making it perfect to watch movies on. It has an almost bezel less design, and a robust glass casing. On both the front and the back of this glorious phone! It’s Android based so all of your favourite apps are capable with it too.

Huawei Mate 10: Battery

The Huawei Mate 10 has a very impressive battery. The Huawei Mate 10 has a HUGE 4000mah battery and optimized with Huawei’s own internal software. The Smart Power Management system helps to optimize the use of the phones power and thus make your phone stay alive for longer.

Huawei Mate 10: Camera

The Huawei Mate 10 has an incredible camera, that unlike other cameras with two lenses. Uses software driven capabilities to recoreate the Bokeh effect. While it also boasts a 1.6 F stop aperture and ‘Real Time Recognition’ Which basically means the phone’s camera will easily be able to recognise the scene that it’s in (Low Light/Day time) and objetcs that are in the shot.

Despite all these super cool features, unfortunately it doesn’t have wireless charging built in. Though that is a minor compared to all the really cool features that it has. Most notably the vivid and crystal clear screen that the smartphone has is one of the best we’ve seen here at How To Kill An Hour!

Huawei MediaPad M5

The Huawei MediaPad 5 is a 8.4″ tablet device with a TON of features that make it stand out from the crowd. For example it has an incredible sound system built in, that uses it’s Histen audio technology. The Histen audio tech creates a perfect soundscape that gives 3D sound that is richer, boldered, layered and much more powerful than anything before.

The Huawei Media Pad 5 has a HUGE 5100mah battery, that takes no time at all to fully charge from flat. A total of 1.9 hours is all that’s needed to give your MediaPad a new lease of life. The MediaPad uses smart power saving technology to allow a user to watch up to 11hours of 1080p video too.

Are you a gamer? When gaming on this powerhouse the Huawei minimises all notifications so you are able to save the world in peace!

The design is simple and stylish and comes complete with curved 2.5D glass. Allowing for secure and comfortable use for long periods of time.

Huawei MateBook X Pro

The Matebook X Pro is the follow up to Huawei’s Matebook which was released in 2017, it has a aluminum body and is thin and light, giving it a very modern look. It comes complete with a 13in 3K LTPS screen. Which Huawei are stating, allows the bigger screen to fit inside a 12″ laptop shell. Thus bringing form factor down.

“The MateBook X Pro has the world’s first full-view screen in a notebook, featuring a massive 91% screen to body ratio, which is down to the amount of engineering work we’ve done to reduce the bezels around the display,” (Peter Gauden, senior product marketing manager for Huawei. Guardian)

The Huawei is very smart too, with the power button also doubling up as a fingerprint scanner. Here are some impressive stats from the Huawei Matebook X Pro:

  • 1.33 Kg Weight
  • 1 USB A port and 2 USB C ports
  • Thunderbolt 3
  • 3.5mm Headphone Jack
  • 4.9mm depth at it’s smallest
  • 4 speakers (Two treble, two bass and comes complete with Dolby Atm0s)
  • Intel 8th generation quad-core i7 U series processor
  • Up to 16GB RAM
  • Nvidia MX15 Graphics Card
  • 2GB Memory
  • 12 hours of battery life (Video Playback)

Plus it comes with something that you may not even notice at first. But there is a camera. It’s hidden beneath a key in the middle of the keyboard!

To listen to our latest show please click here!

To see more watch our Mobile World Congress Day 1 Vlog please click here!

HTC Vive Pro

HTC Vive Pro

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Virtual Reality has been steadily growing over the past year and we have tried a lot of them here at How To Kill An Hour. We liked HTC’s Vive, we thought it was very impressive. But now HTC have upgraded and put rockets on the HTC Vive. Introducing the HTC Vive Pro!! It’s designed to meet the most hardcore of users and gamers in the Virtual Reality world and it is impressive! HTC are calling it the most immersive virtual reality to date.

HTC Vive Pro: Hardware

Firstly the headset itself, hardware, not software, has been upgraded. The face cushion has been redesigned to block even more light out to make a user feel more immersed before a game has been played. The face cushion will contour to most users faces with the use of a brand new cloth lined foam. The nose rest will shape to fit any nose thanks to a unique flower petal inspired design too! Plus the headset moves all the weight so it’s at the centre of gravity, making for comfort like no other.

HTC Vive Pro: Chaperone

A very impressive introduction to the HTC Vive pro is a feature which HTC are calling ‘Chaperone’. They’re stating that a user will no longer have to second guess their surroundings. The tech creates a virtual outline of their environment enabling them to see without ever having to remove the headset. The headset has also seen an improvement and upgraded tracking abilities. Increased colours available from the highest screen available.

Not only that the audio has seen an incredible upgrade, the Hi-Res audio has been upgraded to include, 3D Spacial Audio. Allowing the headset to deliver true to life immersive audio. The powerful amp that’s built in creates soundscapes that will transport a user into a whole different world. Noise cancellation is also included. The dual microphones allow for active noise cancellation but also safety is key and alert mode and conversation mode are included. This way you can hear what’s going on around you, thus avoiding any accidents. (Or any need to take off the headset!)

Also what a lot of VR enthusiasts have been calling out for: VR without the need for wires! For the first time thanks to Intels WiGig technology, users can use the HTC Vive Pro as they please and with full freedom!

To listen our latest podcast please click here!

Also see more watch our Mobile World Congress Day 1 Vlog please click here!

 

 

 

Samsung S9

Samsung S9

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The latest update in the hugely successful Samsung S series has been released! The Samsung S9 is this years answer to last years S8. While it doesn’t look all that much different design wise. There’s a lot more going on under the hood of the device that makes it worthwhile. Especially if you like cameras.

Firstly the Samsung S9 solves something that annoyed a lot of S8 owners straight out of the gate. The placement of the fingerprint reader. On the old S8 the reader was next to the camera and a lot of users complained that they’d often print the camera and not the sensor. This time, Samsung have done the smart thing and placed it underneath the camera.

Taking a look at the specs the S9 isn’t much different, if at all, to it’s younger brother. They both share the screen size (5.8 inches) resolution (QHD) and aspect ratio. It still has a headphone jack, it still has USB type C, still has wireless charging and obviously it still looks the same. Plus IP68 dust and water resistance.

Samsung S9: So what’s new?

Firstly, the Samsung s9 has got Dolby Atmos surround sound in their upgraded speakers. All be it slightly. So you can enjoy surround sound on your phone. Specs got a little bump, the battery is 3000mah and 3500mah for the larger S9 model. 4Gb Ram and 6Gb Ram for the larger model.

The most notable thing about the Samsung S9? The camera.

Samsung’s S9 has an all new camera system, with a 12MP rear camera and the lens has seen a huge update. The rear camera has a variable aperture lens. Using Samsung’s ‘dual-aperture’ technology. You can shoot at F/1.5 and let in A LOT of light into the camera. Or, you can shoot at F/2.4 to get that super fine detail. The adjustment is all done in camera and the software adjusts itself depending on how much light is in the scene. Samsung say its around 100Luts where the camera adjusts to the bigger F stop setting and is defaulted at F/2.4. For the enthusiasts and professionals among us, there is an option to adjust these manually in the ‘pro mode’

Other camera upgrades include slow motion video, 240fps at 1080p and 960fps at 720p. Though quality may be hurt at this fast of a frame per second.

Also in something that we’ve seen before, not sure what it is called. Anyhow, Samsung are calling it ARemoji and it uses the front phone to create an emoji based on your likeness. So you can use the emoji to create videos of yourself talking in emoji form. Animals are also available if you wish to become an animal.

Samsung S9 is available March 16th 2018 and is available to pre-order on March 2nd 2018.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

To see more watch our Mobile World Congress Day 1 Vlog please click here!