Hardware > Earlier Phones
National Rail Enquiries
Android App of the Week I should use local trains more often, but there are several reasons why I don’t. One is I’ve no idea where most of my local stations are, let alone the ones dotted further afield around Manchester. Secondly, I can’t be bothered picking up timetables.
The new National Rail Enquiries app solves both these problems and could herald …
SnapGuide
iOS App of the Week There are zillions of ‘how to’ apps that provide expert – or not-so-expert – advice on pretty much any topic you care to name. However, SnapGuide is a free app that puts you in the driving seat and allows you to share your know-how and wisdom with the rest of the world.
If there’s something that you’re really good at – whether …
Total War Battles: Shogun
iGamer For fans of the PC series, the first hour of Total War Battles: Shogun - on iOS but coming soon to Android - will be defined purely by what's missing.
The RTS gameplay was never going to squeeze onto fondleslabs without hefty distillation, of course. But in early forays The Creative Assembly's first handheld stab at its popular …
Textgram
Android App of the Week Textgram is another app designed to differentiate your digital self from the masses, in this case by letting you send graphically enhanced missives as MMS messages, or as pictures to your social network.
Maybe it’s the use of 'gram' in the name, but Textgram has already racked up between 100,000 and 500,000 downloads since its …
CloudOn
iOS App of the Week There have been a lot of rumours recently about Microsoft launching a version of Office for the iPad. I doubt it - it would amount to a pre-admission of the failure of Windows 8 on tablets.
It’s not really essential either, as there are a number of good Office-compatible applications and suites that are already available for iOS …
Google Currents
Android App of the Week When Google’s Currents news and magazine reader was released late last year, I thought it one of the most visually attractive apps ever to come out of Mountain View.
Looks aside, though, there was a lot wrong with it, not least the time it took to sync. A recent update claims to have fixed that and added a host of new features …
Propellerhead Figure
iOS App of the Week Propellerhead’s ReBirth app brought some powerful sequencer tools to iOS last year, but made a fatal mistake by simply transplanting the complex interface of the original PC software onto the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPad.
Propellerhead Figure iOS app screenshot Propellerhead Figure iOS app screenshot Clear hints help …
HTC One S Android smartphone
Review Playing Tonto to the One X’s Lone Ranger in HTC’s new model line-up is the One S. I’ll get to Silver, the One V, when it arrives in a few weeks. For now though, we can see if HTC’s much vaunted One series makes sense from a technical, as well as a marketing perspective.
HTC One S Android smartphone Tonto's talker: HTC's One S …
Android App of the Week At last, the much vaunted iPhone picture blogging app has arrived on Android and, judging by the one million downloads it saw on the day of release, it’s been eagerly awaited.
For the uninitiated, Instagram is a Twitter-like affair but with a picture taking the place of the 140 characters. You take a snap, jazz it up with some …
Wondershare PowerCam
iOS App of the Week I thought that the recent one-two punch of Adobe's Photoshop Touch and Apple's iPhoto would have knocked out most of the competition from other photo apps, but Wondershare’s PowerCam shows that the big-name boys don’t have a monopoly on good ideas.
Wondershare PowerCam ios app screenshot Pick your effect
At first glance, …
TED
Android App of the Week TED - or Technology, Entertainment and Design - is a series of conferences run by a private not-for-profit organisation called the Sapling Foundation. In its own words, it was formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading".
So what we have here then is a collection of 1200-odd - with more being added each week - video lectures …
HTC One X Android smartphone
Review HTC messed up in 2011 by releasing too many similar handsets. There was nothing actually wrong with phones likes the Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE or Incredible S but equally none of them had me itching to upgrade my Desire HD ahead of schedule.
HTC One X quad-core Android smartphone The X factor: HTC's One X
Now HTC …
Zanther Taposé
iOS App of the Week Oh the irony. Microsoft cancelled plans for its Courier tablet when Apple launched the iPad, but the Courier’s two-screen design has now found a home on the very device that killed it off, courtesy of Taposé from developer Zanther.
Tapose iOS app screenshot Create your journal then add handwritten notes...
The basic idea …
Runtastic Push Up
Android App of the Week Those of you with six-packs, biceps of iron and a physique from a eugenicist’s wet dream can stop reading now. For the rest of us, who have been planning to “get fit” next week, next month or next year, Runtastic’s Push Up app may be just what’s needed to whet our blunted purpose.
The idea behind this app - like all the best …
Griffin Reserve Battery Case
Accessory of the Week If you’re anything like me and use your smartphone for everything from arguing on Twitter to watching the latest episode of Homeland on the train to work, you’ll find yourself re-charging its battery daily.
Griffin Reserve battery case for iPhone
Forget to do it, and you’ll run out of steam, just when you need to make that …
TopWrite
iOS App of the Week There’s no end of messaging apps available for the iPhone and iPad, not to mention the built-in email and SMS/IM apps included in iOS itself. But that over-abundance of apps can actually be something of a problem: you can often find yourself fiddling with multiple apps and services when all you want to do is fire off a quick …
Angry Birds Space
iGamer Such was the original's stellar success it's no wonder resisting the pull of Angry Birds Space is proving more difficult than escaping an event horizon. Ask the ten million or so folk who've apparently downloaded it since last Friday, and they'll tell you. You simply can't mess with universal laws - you're going to get sucked in …
Motorola Motoactv GPS fitness tracker
Review Motorola may be pitching its "world's first" GPS fitness tracker as the ultimate fusion between exercise and music, but I reserve that accolade for mosh pits. In fact, I'm more inclined to agree with Henry Ford who once said “Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick you should not take it.” …
Dijit
Android App of the Week It’s two-for-one this week as I take a look at the Dijit remote control app and Griffin Technologies' Beacon accessory, which connects to your phone over Bluetooth and then operates your home entertainment kit.
Dijit Android app screenshot Dijit Android app screenshot Devices get basic layouts, such as this one for a Sky+ box …
Apple iPhoto
iOS App of the Week Apple’s iPhoto has a relatively modest set of editing tools but – as you might expect from Apple – wraps them up in an attractive and easy-to-use interface that leaves most other photo-editing apps looking positively antiquated.
Apple iPhoto iOS app screenshot Collate your photos in albums on the iPhoto bookshelf
The app is …
N7Player
Android App of the Week It’s not often that I come across an application that displaces a default choice on my phone within minutes of me downloading it, but the N7Player music player is just one such. I think it’s brilliant.
Before I go on, let me make one thing clear: I’m an obsessive about album cover art. I go to great, some would say unhealthy …
Adobe Photoshop Touch
iOS App of the Week Annoyingly for us iOS fans, Photoshop Touch actually made its debut on Android, late last year. You can download it from Google Play. However, it has now arrived on the iPad 2 and the ‘new iPad’ – but not the first-generation iPad or any other iOS device – just in time to bump pixels with Apple’s own iPhoto.
They’re not really …
Waking Mars
iGamer An exquisitely mature and thought-provoking iOS adventure, Waking Mars is a love letter to late-1970s and early-1980s sci-fi films such as Silent Running, Solaris and Alien.
Just as those movies contrasted the space opera of Star Trek and Star Wars with more believable, melancholic depictions of man's cosmological insignificance …
TuneIn Radio Pro
Android App of the Week I stumbled across TuneIn while reviewing the Archos 35 Home Connect - it’s preinstalled as that device’s main radio portal - and since that chance encounter it has ended up on all my Android devices.
TuneIn allegedly offers over 50,000 internet radio stations and 1.2m on-demand programmes. I’m not about to count them to see if …
Poynt
iOS App of the Week Reg Hardware Car Week
With the price of petrol hitting yet another all-time high, I decided to try and find an app that could save us all some money when we fill up our tanks.
Also available on BlackBerry and Android, Poynt started out as an app for locating nearby businesses, such as restaurants and cinemas. But the …
Sony Xperia S NXT series Android smartphone
Review So farewell, then, Sony Ericsson. The Xperia S is the first phone for a decade to be branded with the Sony logo, and very nice it looks, too. As does the phone itself, a large screen with matt-black rubberised casing and a curious transparent strip across the bottom. It feels good in the hand, thanks to the curved back, though …
iOnRoad Augmented Driving
Android App of the Week Reg Hardware Car Week
Possibly the most - only? - useful augmented reality app I’ve come across, iOnRoad Augmented Driving uses your phone to provide a selection of handy driving advisories and warnings not unlike those provided by the latest Ford Focus.
The app uses your phone’s rear camera to scan traffic in front of you. …
Belkin Power Pack 4000
Accessory of the Week Reg Hardware Mobile Week
We’ve all been there. You leave the house in the morning, whip your smartphone out of your pocket to send a text and the dreaded red indicator is displaying on its battery level indicator. You won’t be near a computer or power socket for hours. What to do?
Belkin’s Power Pack 4000 may be the answer. …
Motorola Defy Mini rugged Android smartphone
Review Reg Hardware Mobile Week
The original Motorola Defy from 2010 was aimed at a niche that no-one else knew was there – rugged cool. The thinking was that rugged phones that were hard to damage were a great idea, but that chunky rubber casings and hard-to-press buttons tended to put people off.
Motorola Defy Mini rugged Android …
Sony PlayStation Vita
Review Reg Hardware Mobile Week
The PlaySation Vita is Sony's latest attempt to take portable gaming to new heights, and it finally hit UK shelves last week. With quad-core smartphones waiting in the wings and gaming apps aplenty, the company's refreshed PSP has its work cut out.
Sony PSP Vita Tap to play
Fortunately, the PS Vita …
Jabra Halo 2 Bluetooth headset
Geek Treat of the Week Reg Hardware Mobile Week
Jabra’s Halo 2 is a lightweight, easy-on-the-eye Bluetooth headset that won’t attract the kind of disparaging looks that the typical cyborg-style Bluetooth phone attachment will get you.
Jabra Halo 2 Bluetooth headset
The Halo 2’s design is about function as much as form. The headset is comfortable …
Grid Lens
iOS App of the Week Grid Lens is a fun little photography app that allows you to combine multiple images within a single shot.
Grid Lens iOS app screenshot
Grid Lens iOS app screenshot Single lens mode
The app uses a grid to divide the image on the iPhone’s screen into a series of frames. You can then take photos in two different ways. Single- …
AppAware
Android App of the Week Developed mobile ecosystems are all well and good but a marketplace with over a third of a million apps raises one significant problem – how to discover new and worthwhile stuff.
AppAware – which underwent a complete redesign late last year – aims to make finding essential and interesting apps more of a pleasure by providing …
Motorola Motoluxe Android smartphone
Review Don’t be confused by the name: it may be seem classy and good-looking but this is a mid-range handset, not a deluxe one. It’s also quite distinctive, which is good at a time when Android handsets are numerous and often me-too copies or unimaginative derivatives.
Motorola Motoluxe Android smartphone A comfortable compromise: …
Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone
Review When Nokia announced its three new Asha budget phones in October they didn’t attract much attention alongside the WinPho 7 handsets that were punted by the company at the same time.
Nokia Asha 201 Keeping it simple: Nokia's Asha 201
That’s a shame, because the Ashas look like being very good mobile phones, perfect for people …
NHS Direct
iOS App of the Week Reg Hardware Sex Week
Apple, in its infinite prudery wisdom, has decided to protect users of iOS devices from any material that it deems "inappropriate" or "overtly sexual". Dating apps have to be constantly monitored by developers to ensure that your profile pics don’t show too much, and even the mighty Playboy has had to …
SexInfo 101
NSFW App of the Week Reg Hardware Sex Week
The Android market is full of apps dedicated to the various positions you and your other half can tie yourselves into, but be warned: many have a terrifyingly long Permissions list.
In other words many are nothing more than scams targeting the randy and stupid.
SexInfo 101 Android app screenshot 139 …
Prada Phone by LG 3.0
Review Why is black and white classier than colour? And should we want our phones, with their increasingly glorious screens, to mute their rainbow hues? It’s the arrival of LG’s third collaboration with Prada that’s raised these questions – a handset that favours an interface dressed mostly in black and white.
Prada Phone by LG 3.0 …
British Red Cross First Aid
iOS App of the Week The Red Cross was in the news recently when it issued new guidelines for performing CPR - Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - and it has followed this up with a free First Aid app that's worth downloading in case of emergencies.
The app is divided into four sections. The Emergency area provides instant advice for dealing with common …
ViewSonic V350 dual Sim Android smartphone
Review Every now and again, a brand new product comes along that seems to hark back to days of yore, to a time when things were different. One of those things would be the steam-powered PC, another is the ViewSonic V350 – a smartphone that can work on two networks simultaneously.
ViewSonic V350 dual Sim Android smartphone Dual of the …
Avast! Mobile Security
Android App of the Week The security or lack thereof of the Android platform - real or imagined - is a common topic of conversation at the moment so it seems like a good time to take a look for a comprehensive security app. My preferred choice is Avast!.
Avast! for Android is free and carries no advertising, making it perfect for anyone who is just a …
Orange San Francisco 2
Review The Orange San Francisco was the smartphone bargain of 2011. For £99 you got a solid little handset with a 3.5in 480 x 800 screen, Android 2.1 and a 3.2Mp camera. The fact it was falling-off-a-wet-log easy to root and change ROMs – even I managed it – was the icing on the cake.
Orange San Francisco 2 budget Android smartphone …
