Author / Xavier Voigt-Hill

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Posts by Xavier Voigt-Hill

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by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Google Play Music All Access hits some European territories with special launch price of £7.99/€7.99

Screenshot 2013-08-07 at 22.27.12

You! Hey you!

Do you like music?
Do you like the idea of being able to stream an unlimited number of a selection of millions of tracks to your internet connected devices in exchange for a monthly fee with a 30 day free trial before you start?
Do you like such services to force you to remain in a certain ecosystem due to a frustrating lack of platform agnosticism?
Do you think that you don’t give Google enough information about you and your habits already?
Do Spotify and Rdio not have enough letters in their names for you?

If you answered yes to a good proportion of these questions, you should try Google Play Music All Access! Launched in the States at Google I/O, the ridiculously named service (which I affectionately refer to as GPMAAAAAAAAAAA), has finally crossed over the Atlantic, and you can now sign up with a 30 day free trial in the following countries. Note: all are new today unless otherwise specified.

  • Australia (since July)
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • France
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • New Zealand (since July)
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • United Kingdom
  • United States (since forever)

This means that every country that has access to the Google Play Music locker service (with the sole exception of Germany (thanks, GEMA)) also gets the streaming service, which has been priced at £7.99/€7.99 for those who sign up before September 15th, at which point it will rise up to match its main competitors at £9.99/€9.99. I’ve had a few minutes with it and, at least in the UK, I can’t see a reason to pick it over Spotify, which offers the same holes in the streaming library but, most importantly, the true cross-platform accessibility that Google’s offering lacks. Hell, you can’t access All Access outside of the web app and Android yet. Still, those entrenched in Google’s ecosystem and those who like to, well, ‘fill the gaps’ with the music locker service may find GPMAAAAAAAAAAA to be the streaming service for them.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Samsung evokes memories of 2003 with leaked Galaxy Folder

Samsung Galaxy Folder Side

You thought Samsung didn’t make enough bizarre phones already? Well, thanks to All About Samsung, we have a couple of images of the Galaxy Folder, which takes design cues from the Motorola RAZR (no, not the Android one) and shoves a second 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED panel on the rear of the standard clamshell design so it doesn’t look totally ancient when you try and use the thing like a conventional smartphone. Inside, it’s said to include a 1.7GHz dual core Snapdragon 400, 2GB RAM, LTE and an 1820mAh battery. Remember when clamshells would last a week on a single charge? Yeah, those days are long gone. Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Digixav Podcast 014 – July 30th 2013

For the one true episode 014 of our now adolescent podcast, Xavier and Chris make up for lost time by talking about everything important since the Lumia 1020 happened. It turns out that this includes a fair bit about the 1020 itself, but our dynamic duo (sorry Henry) also trawl through news about its baby big brother, a new family of Droids from Motorola and Verizon with the Moto X launch looming later this week and HTC’s quest for profitability with One variants both big and small. Samsung, on the other hand, go full-on with the purple and Canonical decide that a crowdfunding campaign to make an Ubuntu phone with a sapphire crystal display makes perfect sense. There’s also a new BlackBerry leak if you’re into that kind of phone and Google’s new Nexus 7 and Chromecast streaming HDMI dongle thing.

Right click and save this link to download, and you can subscribe (and rate and review the show) using iTunes! Don’t fancy iTunes or use a different podcatcher? Here’s our RSS link!

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, tweet us or send us an email to podcast@digixav.com. We’d love to hear from you!

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Watch Google’s “Breakfast With Sundar” event live with new Nexus 7, Android 4.3 and more!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZzS6BxHEns]

It may well end up just being a couple of hours of Sundar Pichai eating breakfast, but the Chrome and Android head has promised some exciting announcements from both camps today, and the rumour mill points towards a new Nexus 7, a Chrome-powered dongle for your telly and possibly some new Chromebooks and Android 4.3 news. Whatever happens, you can catch it all in the stream embedded above from 5pm BST/12pm Eastern/9am Pacific.

 

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

New Nexus 7 launching on July 30th with Android 4.3 and improved hardware

New Nexus 7

After numerous leaks including one from retailer Best Buy that allowed customers to begin placing orders prior to launch, Google and Asus today unveiled the latest version of their Nexus 7 tablet. Serving as an identically named successor to the device that was released at Google I/O last year, the new Nexus 7 boasts upgraded hardware and the addition of a 5MP rear camera while maintaining the popular form factor of its predecessor. A 7″ 1920 x 1200 IPS display is powered by a quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (APQ8064) clocked at 1.5GHz. Coupled with 2GB of RAM and either 16 or 32GB of internal non-expandable storage depending on your SKU, stark similarities can be seen with the new 7″ tablet and its smaller sibling, the Nexus 4. The tablet is set to hit store shelves next Tuesday, and price points will lie slightly higher than before, starting at $229.99 for 16GB and extending to $269.99 for 32GB.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Second generation Nexus 7 (or Asus ME571K_PR1_SKU2) caught on camera ahead of July 24th launch event

After it failed to make an appearance at Google I/O in May, rampant speculation ensued surrounding Asus and Google’s inevitable launch of the successor to the Nexus 7. When Google sent out invitations this morning for an event next Wednesday to be hosted by Chrome and now Android chief Sundar Pichai, many concluded that the Moto X, Android 4.3 and this mystery tablet would turn up, and this has been all but confirmed by Android Central obtaining many pictures and a video of the miniature tablet. Rumours point towards a quad-core Qualcomm processor, a higher resolution display, rear camera and up to 4GB of RAM, all while retaining a price point similar to that of the original, clocking in on retailer databases as $229 and $269 for 16 and 32GB variants.

Source Android Central

 

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Digixav Podcast 013 – July 12th 2013: Nokia Lumia 1020 special edition

Nokia may have given us 41 million reasons to zoom in yesterday, but today Xavier and Chris bring you 1020 reasons to listen to the podcast, as our second episode this week focuses on Nokia’s new Lumia 1020 and its 41MP sensor.

Links

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, tweet us or send us an email to podcast@digixav.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Right click and save this link to download, and you can now subscribe (and rate and review the show) using iTunes! Don’t fancy iTunes or use a different podcatcher? Here’s our RSS link!

You should also check out our intro music on SoundCloud! It’s Melodic Trap by Harry Ling.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Digixav Podcast 012 – July 10th 2013

Twelve. That’s a mighty large number, and it’s also the number of topics in the show notes for our return from yet another unintentional hiatus. While Henry lies in a field getting fried by the British heatwave, Xavier and Chris take cover in the depths of the night to talk about Apple’s mobile product lines and web ambitions, imminent announcements from Nokia and Motorola, new devices from Sony and HTC that are scaring Xavier’s wallet and leaked information about upcoming phablets from the Korean pairing of LG and Samsung. Chris goes on to wax lyrical about rap music while Xavier enthuses about The Last of Us while finding it horribly difficult (yet completely possible) to avoid spoilers. We also answer some user questions from Twitter, thanks to our wonderful listeners and #AskChris, which we’ve chosen to hijack.

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, tweet us or send us an email to podcast@digixav.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Right click and save this link to download, and you can now subscribe (and rate and review the show) using iTunes! Don’t fancy iTunes or use a different podcatcher? Here’s our RSS link!

You should also check out our intro music on SoundCloud! It’s Melodic Trap by Harry Ling.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Motorola blags about Moto X ahead of announcement in new ad campaign

20130702-204631.jpg

After confirming it at D11, Motorola’s latest newspaper ad tells us that more official news about the Moto X and its apparently somehow real customisation options lie just around the corner.

Source The Verge