Sunday, March 3, 2013

HTC One X


HTC has downplayed his presence at MWC, merely a small stand somewhat apart. The opportunity to spend some time with its new model, the One, presented a few days ago. The photos do not do justice to the  HTC One X, especially in the light purple and green stand HTC. With its all-metal unibody shell back rounded, HTC One X is just as luxurious as the iPhone 5. It is a little more reassuring, perhaps because it fits better in hand, perhaps because it has only one polished bevel. In all cases, it is an undeniable success.

HTC One X is another success in screen technology. HTC is restrained and did not exceed 4.7 ", but there cased 1920 x 1080 pixels, for a definition record 468 dpi. Add some bright colors but not too bright and good and you get, in a nutshell, a beautiful screen. Quantum leap between the screen and the Retina display is less impressive than a screen between non-Retina and Retina display, but remains sensitive.

The overall level of performance is excellent thanks to the 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, the new Snapdragon 600, accompanied by 2GB of RAM. The new HTC overlay, which reminds home screen and Windows Phone Flipboard, this mask a little power with transitions too long and too unwanted effects present. The home screen, called BlinkFeed, also leaves an impression mid-figue mi-raisin. It is supposed to give information at a glance, but the thumbnails are so large you have to scroll to see would not do three songs. It is a constant Sense: by wanting to do too much, HTC finally create noise, lots of noise. We can happily hide BlinkFeed.

The camera Zoe leaves a better impression. If it is impossible to judge the actual quality of the environment seen pictures of exposure, the ability to record a variety of animated pictures, with a duration of three seconds, is more interesting and useful than expected (the parents may appreciate). HTC burst mode is always practical to select the perfect shot from a selection of 20.

HTC One X will be available in March for less than € 700.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

HP Slate 7 An Cheap Android Tablet



HP really finished the Slate 7 with the expense of a billion dollars and a few months later, it is presented at the Mobile World Congress, which is a 7 "tablet running Android. Announced the price of $ 169.99, the Slate 7 hardly be distinguished from other tablets 7. It is really cheap: it has a 7" screen FFS 1024 x 600 px, a 1.6 GHz processor double heart, one gigabyte of RAM, 8GB of internal memory expandable via microSD, and a couple of sensors 3 MP / VGA. Most Asian manufacturers offer similar tablets 20 to $ 30 less, it is not the price that can stand 7 Slate.

HP does not overlay on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but made a few changes and added a printing application wireless - which is enough to delay updates. Or for just 30 € more, the Google Nexus 7 has a IPS screen, a quad-core processor, and ensuring regular updates. Again, Slate 7 does not shine. In short, the experience ended webOS, HP has returned to simple and proven solutions. But the market has changed since the fantastically Touchpad and Slate 7 bring nothing. The new HP tablet will be available in May.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

ZTE Open Firefox OS Smartphone Unveiled



Mozilla has benefited from MWC 2013 to announce the upcoming launch of Firefox OS in Europe and South America. One of the first Smart phones Firefox OS is the ZTE Open. Open the ZTE is a decidedly low-end Smartphone: it has a 3.5 "screen 320x480 px, heart of a single processor 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM and a 3.2 megapixel sensor. Do look no 4G LTE, NFC or Bluetooth, there is not - the ZTE reminds Open mid-range Android Smartphones in 2011. Available in blue and orange, Open ZTE is also nice in hand that could be another device in its class - ZTE does not disclose the price, but it will be "aggressive." Yes, it is light years ahead of the iPhone 5, but it can be compared to Nokia Asha.

The first launch apps may take several seconds, and bugs are numerous, Firefox OS is not finished yet. Operations are quite slow in absolute terms, but correspond to the data sheet: we are at a 3G iPhone when apps are stored. ZTE Open Firefox does not allow OS to shine, far from it, but the OS Mozilla has more potential than detractor’s webapps want to believe. The Geeksphone Peak, cruised the aisles of the show, he can already speak better: Firefox OS is not nearly as fluid iOS or Android, but very advantageously replace the proprietary OS in Java. Mozilla plans to launch Smartphone more opulent Firefox OS in Western Europe and the United States by 2014, a period in which will probably refine it and make it more competitive in the midrange.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0


The Galaxy Tab 8.0 is the main novelty of Samsung in this MWC 2013. This tablet 8 "takes its place between the Galaxy Note II (5.5") and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (10.1 ") and competes directly with the iPad mini. The Galaxy Tab 8.0 is probably not the most beautiful Samsung device, or the best finish. The white plastic is quite generic and adjustments are good. The 8 "screen displays of definition 1280 x 800 px, itself is of good overall quality - comparable to the iPad mini anyway.

Precisely the Galaxy Note 8.0 is little heavier than the iPad mini and is also little bulkier (338 g and 21.01 x 13.59 x 0.79 cm against 308 g and 20 x 13.47 x 0.72 cm of iPad mini). Despite fairly thick edges and through the screen 16:10, we can nevertheless keep a full hand. On the other hand, we have to hold the stylus S Pen, for some few functions. It now works with capacitive keys navigation apps and some are able to trigger two actions depending on whether you fly screen with the stylus or be touched. Here with Flip board, fly screen displays today's headlines.

Samsung puts his usual overlay on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with some new features like a remote control (Note 8.0 includes an infrared module onto the wafer) and mode "contrast-enhanced" for reading. The system operations are fluid and responsive, as might be expected with a quad-core processor 1.6 GHz and 2 GB of RAM under the hood. Many have mocked the fact that the 3G version of Galaxy Tab 8.0 phone can be used. A Samsung spokesman said that the Korean company has decided not to stifle the cellular functions of its mid-size devices - this was the case a few years ago with the Galaxy Tab. Samsung does not expect that that much big Note 8.0 to the ear, but guess it can be placed in a bag and connected to a Bluetooth headset, it will provide specific services.

iTunes Match Problems and solutions -3

Lost album covers:

Two large pockets of loss may arise. In the first, the covers of the songs in the cloud suddenly disappear: it is most often covers repatriated with the Get album artwork, while those added by hand are preserved. Sometimes it is a temporary problem that goes all alone in order, but if it will accept a less aesthetic presentation, since the Get Album Artwork does not work with songs in the cloud.

In the second case, it is the local covers of songs that are deleted. Another variant: you change the cover of a song by local, and the former comes when syncing with iTunes Match. Again, there is unfortunately not much to do, although some have managed to find their covers by disabling iTunes Match holding down the ⌥ then reactivating.

In general, it seems that the covers inserted as ID3 tag (by dragging an image file in the box Illustration of the Info tab of the info panel) are less sensitive to these problems that covers associated with the Get illustrations album. It is therefore not impossible that the problem comes from the timing of the iTunes Album Artwork folder - about whether Apple will decide to settle ...

My metadata is lost:

Variant of the problem of pockets, overwriting metadata iTunes Match. It may happen that some pieces are downright famous for iTunes Match, for no apparent reason, or that all their metadata are removed. It does not seem to be a file corruption problem.

In general, refill and metadata sync iTunes Match is enough to get things in order If the problem affects many pieces, do not hesitate to use an application like the excellent Music Brainz Picard to automatically fill metadata.

iTunes Match has duplicated my playlists:

Another classic, duplicate playlists - sometimes hundreds of times! In our experience, the problem seems to be related to the loss of which would cause a runaway network during synchronization. These playlists are empty extra: a simple script will remove quickly while keeping your playlists original (and full).

If none of the previous manipulations has worked and that your problems were not resolved in themselves (as is often the case with iTunes Match), there are only two solutions: resetting iTunes Match and updating your iTunes library.

Reset iTunes Match:

Simply put: there is no "reset" button on iTunes Match. To reset a library in the cloud, so you have to tweak: if you do not already have one, you will have to create a library that will contain only pieces in the cloud. To do this, quit iTunes, and then run it by pressing the ⌥. Then choose to create a new library.


Connect to iTunes Match (iTunes Store> iTunes Match) and wait until your entire library in the cloud appears. You might be tempted to select all and delete everything at once: it would be a mistake. Relations department to developers Apple has confirmed that to immediately delete songs from iTunes Match, it was not to remove more than 1000 pieces at a time. In short, delete 999 songs by 999 until you have deleted all your songs to iCloud.

Prior to removal, make sure you have kept a copy of all your songs in the cloud.  Update your iTunes library Match (Store> Update iTunes Match): it is now empty and de facto reset on Apple's servers. Quit iTunes and restart holding down ⌥ and select your usual library containing your songs locally. Connect to iTunes Match: since your library in the cloud is empty, the longest stage of synchronization will start from scratch.