The Kurio Pocket Tablet Review Pt2

Many of you may remember my first post talking about the Kurio Pocket Tablet last year? No? Well, read the first post as this is post 2 of 2

Like most families we've become a bit obsessed with technology here at Imwellconfused towers, but at the same time we're concerned about application safety, dodgy adverts based on our search histories and malware laced full games. While many of these concerns are easily resolved by common sense, it's not always cut and dry when it comes to applications. But for protecting the kids we do have an ace up our sleeves - The Kurio Pocket Tablet. 

The Kurio Pocket is a small 4 inch android tablet the size of many android phones on the market, loaded with an adapted variant of Android JellyBean with multi user accounts, internet and game restrictions and individual time settings for all user accounts on the device. Add in the 50 pre-installed games, multimedia apps, utilities and educational tools and the opportunity to install a host of additional apps through either the Kurio store or the Google Play Store, with enough safety tools built in to keep the most worrisome parents calm, trust me.

Hardware wise the Kurio holds it's own quite reasonably, while not a speed demon it's more than capable for children to play games, watch YouTube videos, Skype their friends and browse the internet without throwing a wobbler. Even HD video clips my personal tablet struggles with the Kurio Pocket plays without a hitch. only finding the odd slowdown when the tablet's been on for more than 2 days where the girls have been catching up on their My Little Pony Game, leaving the device overnight on charge and going back to it.

The battery life is very impressive, lasting most of the day if the girls are mooching on YouTube, Spotify or any other bandwidth hogging applications the buffering can eat into battery life, but games and applications seem to be less taxing on the pint sized tab. With an Idle test from full to flat we were able to pull 75 hours of runtime, with the screen on full brightness and WIFI on that's better than my personal tablet in flight mode.

The screen and touch panel are adequate for the Kurio Pocket tab, while many geeks would hope for higher resolutions or a slightly larger screen it's a perfect balance. A higher pixel density would eat more battery and memory and a larger display size (not resolution) would cost more to manufacture. A good compromise in my mind. Also, the reinforced plastic screen is ultra tough, designed to take a lot of stress from most users without failing, most manufacturers should take a leaf out of Kurio's book here.

The Kurio Pocket has 8gb of storage, with a larger than normal amount taken for the OS they make up for this with removable applications and for those who need a more space the MicroSD card slot can accept upto 32gb of extra storage, but with the vast majority of software being removable meaning the 8gb storage should be adequate for most purposes.

The cameras aren't the highest of quality but suitable for Instagram, skype or making simple YouTube videos of their toys, with the built in microphones picking up voice exceedingly well, including the one on my headphones.

Audio playback quality is good, I've commandeered the headphones for the main PC as they have volume limited cans for their ears, the Kurio seems to have limited audio playback volumes to a safe level. Playback is decent with good sound levels with the bundled headphones.

The micro USB port accepts USB on the go, meaning you can use a mouse, 3g modem, memory stick, or other USB powered device on the tablet with the bundled OTG cable, making the device extremely versatile something many devices lack. 

Software wise there's a host of pre-installed games and educational titles on the device but it's main feature being Kurio Genius™ Kid-Safe Web Filtering System, keeping kids safe online and updating daily. Children can't also bypass the protection is tightly integrated  into Android for a seamless layer of protection the kids don't realise is in place.

Bundled applications are a pretty good, with the odd trial and ad supported game. They play well, but the girls prefer specific games in the play store being Nyan Cat - Lost in Space, My Little Pony, Toca Boo (Interesting note - Lissy named the ghosts in the game) and Youtube to name but a few. They're happy and on a safe environments so I'm happy.

Both girls really like the Kurio Pocket. while Lissy has her own android tablet already, Vee's taken a shine to this tablet, using it to research her homework from school, play games and we've been working together on programming in BASIC using Frodo, and when they're feeling under the weather they load their favourite online radio station up to help them sleep the night through.
To the girls its a fun, small tablet that's come with us everywhere we've gone so far this year with a large amount of the Instagram pics I took at the London Bike Show taken with the Kurio Pocket tab and had enough juice left for the kids to play games on the train. Seriously it's fantastic.

While overall we're impressed with the Kurio pocket tab it does have the odd complaint, with the screen taking 3-4 seconds to re-initialise if the tablet has been unused for more than 10 minutes, more of an annoyance but it's nothing to really complain about.

Overall the Kurio Pocket tab is an amazing little device with enough functionality for the entire family to get on with and at a fantastic price point. The girls both love it and I love the safetynet features built in like real-time web filtering, protection from malicious sites, and in app purchase protection with pin codes.

You can get one by clicking here, and for more information about Kurio's Tablets click here and to find out where you can buy one click here. 

If you want to know anything about the Kurio Pocket, please let me know and I'll get back to you asap (yes, there is an update coming I've heard) 

The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit Review Pt 2

This is part 2 of a two part review. Click here for part 1.

Hi all,

Over the last two weeks I've been using the Vodafone Powered Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and Gear Fit fitness band/smartwatch while doing the #SchoolPedal with the kids and tracking our progress.
I must warn you this is a long one, with no TL:DR spoilers at the bottom!

While the review is primarily about the devices we will be talking a lot about the fitness benefits of the device duo so without further ado, let's crack on with the devices themselves,

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is the SM-G900M Vodafone specific build of the device, be happy in the fact Vodafone have listened to it's customers and left out the bloat, while there is a few Vodafone Specific applications they've not caused me any issue. So rest assured you're getting a good experience from the get go, also Android Lollipop is on the way too!
The handset is a very well crafted desirable phone, with a premium feel, with it's gold leatherette style battery panel to the feint gold colouring etched into the touch panel bezel it oozes class in my mind. It's a good looking phone with some very desirable internal goodness to live it's days out as a perfect companion to you.

Thanks to the amazing people at GSMARENA we've got the handsets full specifications and data from the tests they've done at their labs. We love you guys!

2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions

3G Network
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900F
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900A
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900M
HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900T

4G Network
LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900F
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900A
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900M
LTE 700/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 - SM-G900T

Sim Type - Micro-SIM

Announced - 2014, February
Status - Available. Released 2014, April
BODY
Dimensions 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 in)
Weight 145 g (5.11 oz)
 - Fingerprint sensor (PayPal certified)
- IP67 certified - dust and water resistant
- Water resistant up to 1 meter and 30 minutes

DISPLAY:
Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors 1080 x 1920 pixels,
5.1 inches (~432 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Glass Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3

SOUND
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY:
Card slot microSD, up to 128 GB
Internal 16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM

Connectivity:
DATA GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, EDR, LE, apt-X
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
USB microUSB v3.0 (MHL 2.1 TV-out), USB Host

CAMERA:
Primary 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features 1/2.6'' sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, HDR
Video 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
Secondary 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call

FEATURES:
Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0 (Lollipop)
Chipset - Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
CPU - Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 GPU Adreno 330
Sensors - Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, gesture, heart rate
Messaging - SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser - HTML5
Radio - No
GPS - Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
Java - Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Colors:
Charcoal Black, Copper Gold, Electric Blue, Shimmery White

Additonal:
Wireless charging (Qi-enabled) - market dependent
- ANT+ support
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player
- Photo/video editor
- Document viewer
BATTERY:
Li-Ion 2800 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 390 h
Talk time Up to 21 h
Music play Up to 67 h

MISC:
SAR US 1.20 W/kg (head)     1.58 W/kg (body)  
SAR EU 0.56 W/kg (head)     0.41 W/kg (body)  

TESTS:
Performance Basemark OS II: 1082 / Basemark X: 11744
Display Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 3.549 (sunlight)
Loudspeaker Voice 66dB / Noise 66dB / Ring 75dB
Audio quality Noise -96.3dB / Crosstalk -95.2dB
Battery life Endurance rating 72h


Now onto the Gear Fit wearable fitness band, before you get excited it's not running android, while many applications are compatible with the band it's more of a fitness companion over smartwatch so please bear that in mind when choosing this.

The Galaxy Gear Fit will only work with 17 Samsung handsets officially so this does put it at a disadvantage compared to Android wear, and similar products on the market, this I feel should change this as it could be a unique seller for Samsung on a wider level.

However where it wins brownie points is the beautiful curved touch-screen, boasting an incredibly beautiful 432 x 128 pixel resolution Super AMOLED display, bringing great brightness, amazingly bright colours and considerably less battery draw compared to traditional LCD Displays. Being curved the device feels natural on the hand compared to some early smartwatches, on top of this it's minimal weight makes it feel more like a watch than a smart companion.

Key Features:
Bluetooth 4.0 low power draw
Curved 432x128 pixel display with touch
Heartrate monitor
App connect for third party application paring
Sleep monitoring mode
Pedometer
Media controller
Phone notifications and reader,
Incoming call controls
Excercise mode with running, walking, cycling, hiking and exercise log/history (these tie into the S Health application)

For the rest of this post we'll talk about the devices and how well they work together, while this may mean a part three it's well worth it I promise you now.

The SGS5 is a well crafted smartphone with all the power one could need to go through the day and that is down to the generous 2800mAH battery, add the beautiful HD display, ip65 waterproofing, fingerprint sensor for secure payments, UltraHD 4K video capabilities with editor tools and NFC functionality make for a highly desirable powerhouse with everything you could possibly need and want. But we'll get to that in higher detail later in the post. 

Before we get into the review I'll explain how it's been used. 

I've been using both S Health and Endomondo for fitness tracking comparison, both are free applications with one built into firmware and the other available on the Play store, with Samsung generously offering a years premium service to get you on the way, even for newbies to the pleasure of releasing the endorphins will appreciate such a generous offer. (For privacy of my children and their classmates at school I'll not mention or show tracking data from the daily School Pedal, while some are on-line the tracker was disabled away from the school. Any that pinpoint the school will remain hidden or deleted)

S Health is a one stop well being shop with many, many features not found in premium applications, especially when pared with a Galaxy Gear device or similar fitness band/watch it becomes an ultimate tool kit to aid in achieving or fitness and health goals in life. Now I can't lie I was hesitant to  use S Health due to the need of a Samsung account but once I bit the bullet I actually regret not doing so sooner.
As the screenshots show, the S Health tool show's you're progress through a day with quite achievable goals, 10,000 steps for walking is easy and I beat this target often through the review. Similarly to the goals set for cycling, S Health sets the goal's for you and let's you smash them, and once you do, both devices let you know, by means of a little buzz on the hand or an audio message played through headphones, with the audio messages being notifications of half way points, encouragement when you slow down or seem to be feigning, I promise you now when you're feeling deflated, the bike's brakes thickly coated in a mix of mud and leaves, making every inch moving torture. Just hearing "you're doing great, keep it up" helped so so much the smile came back and I was trying my best to hoon (speed up) it despite the mud causing me the pleasure of slipping and crunching one's chestnuts on the crossbar! Always a pleasant experience.

The only problem I found (and this may be me doing something wrong) was the Gear fit wouldn't monitor my heart rate while riding, meaning my most recent ride/mudfest missed out some information I would have liked to have for comparison, I think this was due to me using the phone to commence the ride rather than using the Gear fit, but I can't confirm this as it went back the same day I was completing the post. I must say though I'm happy Samsung made the S5 and the Gear Fit IP65 water resistant here as they got a little moist in my pocket and muddy on my wrist.

The handset itself runs well, and while I wish some of the Google tools were the defaults here I get what Samsung are trying to achieve here by utilising their own applications. This is done for device uniformity throughout their Android, Tizen and Feature phones so I can fully understand and appreciate the reasoning for this. Many manufacturers could learn from this methodology.

On testing the 16 mega-pixel camera I was impressed, even in the cold it held up well, producing some fantastic shots, with similar quality to the Nokia N8, I've left the images on Flickr as it seems to leave the images as I intended them to look without any editing. Images come out good, despite the autofocus likes the odd slowdown at times but it's caught up as your taking the shot with the shot improving through sheer fluke. On top of that the camera modes are top notch too.
While I didn't play with all modes on trying HDR images came out as you would expect,

Video comes out beautifully with 4K ultra HD capabilities, but I would recommend using the phones microphone over the wired headset's as you'll hear in this video. Additionally the lighting in this shot is not the best thanks to a mix of florescent lights, LED's and natural light coming through the roof lights.



On top of high quality video recording playback is no problem, including 4K UHD clips, playing UHD was easy for the phone while I suspect most users will be watching youtube and facebook videos so for majority the GPU will tick along quite nicely, on this note higher performance games ran with no lag or issues.

Audio and music performance is very good on this handset, in fact it's miles better than the iPhone I have here to pit it against. And I'm not just talking volume here, audio and voice quality is sublime, no doubt down to software and hardware enhancements to improve things on an aural level for all users.
When showing the phone off the first thing friends did was launch the music player and they were very impressed with the quality Even if my choices of music from The Beards, Steel Panther to Lindesfarne could not have been any more diverse.
The bundled headphones sound fantastic, with great all around sound, the Microphone was a bit boxy as shown in the above video, but it's a fair compromise here as we can't have it all

Data access was kindly provided by Vodafone's Red 4G services. Our town is awaiting a 4G boos in the near future so for now we have 2G, 3G and HSPA based services available, with decent speed tests of approximately 2-4MB on 3G whereas H+ on average pulled around 4-6MB. This is about normal for the local area.

GPS Signal took next to no time to latch, even on 2g, this with Google's built in wifi and cell location service disabled for most of the fortnight so again impressive.

Image credit: DailyTech LLC

Battery impressed me a lot, Many phones won't last two days on moderate - heavy use this did. Impressive when I'm used to charging daily, my only niggle here was the connection, a USB 3.0 plug, I've only used one other device with this jack and didn't like it much at all, more down to the fact I had to concentrate on what I was doing more than normal when connecting the phone to a charger or pc, the USB 3.0 Micro USB port is a slightly different design to Micro USB 2.0, despite being compatible if not used to it it can be fiddly.

Now the phone also includes a fingerprint sensor, certified for PayPal payments which I've not tested due to time constraints, but it's a good innovation.

A welcome addition to the phone comes in the shape of Kids Mode,
A fall-back to the success of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids edition it's a child safe android launcher, with individual user accounts for all your children. housing a child safe app store with pre-installed child friendly music player, camera, doodle pad and gallery. to exit kids mode you need to enter a pin code, if by chance the little angels lock the device out a quick login to your Google account will fix it.



In Conclusion the Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit are a great duo for both every day use and improving health and well-being for everyone thanks to the wide array of applications designed for both to work together in unison. Add in the High build quality and high end components it's a daily driver even iPhone users can and have turned to.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is available is available for £34.50 on Vodafone Red 4G price plans 

Thanks to Vodafone for the loan of the S5 and Gear fit for the duration of this review, 

The Dog on Stilts Review #DaddyReads

It's no secret that I read stories for my children every evening, even if it means halting meetings when I'm away from home to create stories about the train to London, weird people and even the gargantuan funny stairs taking me from the insanity of the train networks to the sanctity of the rainy day outside. It's probably one of the only things I do for my children that can influence their futures by feeding their imaginations, something all children need in my opinions.

We are very fortunate to be sent a beautifully crafted hardback of epic proportions to review by the lovelies at Superhairies last week, that beautiful hardback is Dog On Stilts. By children's bookwriting* duo James Thorp and Angus Mackinnon (Guys, could I get some of Earl Ketchup's toast please?)

But who is the Dog On Stilts? Meet Medium Dog is just an average, everyday dog - not particularly tall or spotty or interesting in any way. So he dreams up a way to become extraordinary, a dog to be noticed at last! An exquisitely illustrated story about friendship and the desire to be 'more',  from the creators of the Weasel Puffin Unicorn Baboon Pig Lobster Race book.

I'm far from a book reviewer so forgive me for my ham-fisted approach here but let's tell the truth parent to parent here.
There are books designed to be read to children while many are good it feels like there are many rehashes of classic tales and those books so quick they're already over the moment you grasp the imaginations. And then you get books that completely captivate the imagination of those reading, listening and admiring the illustrations, Dog On Stilts is a winner all round on this in our house.

From it's beautiful illustrations, it's sections in small chunks easy for a child and to one of the best surprised I've seen in a while (it's coming later) The SuperHairies have done a fabulous job here on this book to encourage young imaginations to grow and expand through written word.

I liked the book so much I bought the Daddy reads video series out of retirement.




Now if you've watched the video you may know about the surprise. Well, one of them anyway, but there is another and it's none other than Dog On Stilts, The Musical! A musical story treat your children will love,

While I can read like a loon the musicians have captured the story in a way I didn't think was possible, while it may not be to everyone's taste it should be a favourite with many.

I've gone to the trouble of embedding this for your aural pleasure



This book in my eyes is set to be a modern children's classic, a classic that would be at home on any book shelf and well loved through the generations, with the amount of love and attention given by the SuperHairies it's clear to me it's one of the children's books to buy.

Where can you buy the book? Well the hardback is available in stores now ready to take home with with an RRP of £10.99,with the Musical available freely on their soundcloud as embedded above.

For more information on the SuperHairies clicky here 

Thanks for reading
Paul

*Their own words, lifted from twitter.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo Review Pt1

This post forms part of a three post review Hands on | Part 1 | Part 2

Over the last two weeks I've been putting one of the newest handsets from Vodafone, the Smart 4 Turbo through it's paces.

As there will be a lot to cover this review will be a two part affair, part one focusing on the phone, it's software and ease of use from day to day use and the main question on my mind, is it worth the £135 price tag.
With part two will focus on the hardware including the battery, screen, optics, 4g vs 3g speed tests, device strengths and weakness and benchmarks

The phone itself is very similar in size to the Samsung galaxy s2, but feels a a lot better in the hand, while it's the usual plastic back we're getting used to with Vodafone devices in the past but with a hugely premium feel for the market it's aimed at. The device have very good flexibility while in the pocket and does not seem to creak when tested, on top of this the rear of the case also holds the SD and Sim cards safely in position to help prevent removal by flex as they are not lockable. It feels great in the hand with a sturdy feel and well suited to both the larger and daintiest of hands, much to the joy of my children who've loved playing games on it.

Software wise the Smart 4 and the smart 4 turbo are both rocking the latest version of Android, similarly to the Moto G lte, Similarly they've left it as a stock setup, while it does have Vodafone services installed on the device they are non intrusive and easily disabled in settings and/or removed from the main home screens, while I know these are not to everyone's tastes and I'm not overly keen on them but in this instance they are finally utilising new tools inside these to help find wifi hotspots and tell you batter life and storage space in handy indicators.

Additionally, the phone comes with no demos on the device, something of a refreshing thing to see, especially as these trials are usually 30 second limited things with little value to many so with this, and in many cases non-installable without rooting and voiding your warranty in the process so it's great to see. Thanks Vodafone for a double barrelled win.

I've used the phone as a parent and blogger rather than a geek here on this side of the review to provide a real world view of the device so it's had the usual application I use day in day out installed being YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Molome, with Google Calendar, G+ and Yahoo Email for good measure. There were some glitches I will mention soon, just in case it's an isolated issue with the firmware.

For you music lover you get Google Play Music bundled in and while I prefer Winamp Pro for it's graphic equalizer and extra audio tools bundled in it seemed to match audio quality with Google Play Music here. Audio playback was good with little distortion and good overall sounds. But I seriously would consider not using the the built in headphones, they look awful and identical with the ones bundled with many cheaper (£10) phones I've used in the past. I can't say how good the online side of Play Music is as it requires purchase and I felt it was not relevant to the review in itself at this point.

Day to day usage of the phone was fantastic with decent voice quality, a decent quality camera, fast processors and memory for multitasking and games. add the phones internet and radio capabilities (2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 3.75 and 4G) and you have an impressive device I will probably be purchasing in September and happily use it as a daily driver phone as long as Vodafone tweak one or two things on the device in the near future you'll have a perfect starter 4g phone rivalling the MotoG.

There are two issues I run into with the phone but not major enough to discourage purchase, one of them has since stopped so I'm assuming it was an issue with Google's side of things more than the devices software.

Instagram would take an image and store it on the phone itself but it uploads a black image with the filter you added. Reinstalling or updating did not fix this. I've reported it so I hope it'll be fixed soon. But until fixed it those snap happy Instagrammers may feel left out. Here I tell them to try Molome!
The more concerning glitch/setting was from the Google Play Store. By default I always set auto updates via wifi only so not to gobble data from my plan and also reduced the risk of app corruption while out and about but in the first few days the Google Play store ignored this setting and tried updating anywhere it could. This is concerning as many contracts are given capped data allowances which could be gobbled with no warning. It's not good to receive a scary data bill.

As with all things glitch related I've contacted Vodafone, Instagram and attempted to reach out to Google about this so they can resolve this in the future.

For the phone's price of £135 prepaid or £26.50 on a fixed term contract it's an absolute bargain. A high quality device with some solid specs for the budget market. A solid phone you know could cope with what the day has in store for you. Now while my reviews are hopefully good enough for many to make the decision to buy or not to buy I would always say go into a store and play with a demo unit. Thankfully my local store, which happens to be the spanking new Dunstable store has demonstrator models so you can try it and see why I like it so much!

The Mr Nutcase Review Part 2 - The Case

This is part two of a two part review for part one click here

The delightfully happy postman dropped off the case we've been waiting for from Mr Nutcase today, I'm impressed with how quickly it took and the quality. The best way to show it off is via video again!

I'm really impressed with the print quality and the colour reproduction of this case, on top of this the printing process gives the device a rough feeling in the hand, making for a more textured experience and a bit more grip too. While it's not a TPU case it's hard plastic will no doubt take a fair few knocks before the phone would. I do wish there was a slight bit more top and bottom protection with the case but we can't have it all!

TheJess is ecstatic with her case and I've had tonnes of  thumbs up from her about it so it makes it a roaring success in my eyes! Don't forget if you want a Custom Iphone, Samsung, Nokia phone or tablet case drop MrNutcase a line! 

The Mr Nutcase Review Part 1 - Ordering

Hi all.

A few weeks back we received an email from phone and tablet custom case manufacturers Mr Nutcase to see about a review we jumped onto it like tigger on a big bounce!

Mr Nutcase has a wide selection of the most popular phone cases available, with everything from Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry to iPhone custom cases they have it all for the major manufacturers, including many budget devices too. It was quite refreshing to see so many models supported, I'd like a bit of love for the Alcatel or Mobile carriers OEM Devices but I understand that's not always possible.

Why two part I hear you say! Well it's simple, I've just ordered the case now so it's best to explain how the ordering process went to you all without wake up fuzzybrain tomorrow, plus I'm an idiot who may forget to do write this bit otherwise.

On visiting the site you're presented with a friendly site with an easy to follow interface and clear, but stern instructions and warnings along the way so you don't make any mistakes. The only two complaints I have are the page layout, at a screen resolution of 1280 by 1024 i have to scroll down a lot to change the lower settings. additionally I dislike clip art. It reminds me of the (crashtastic) good old days of Office 95...... Thankfully there is not a lot of clip art so it's something many will not play with. I think so far that's the only complaint, but I bet some people like it. Talking on here about it is one thing but seeing an order placed is better. so I've actually filmed me creating an order for you to see how easy it is. The case you see here is the case we'll be reviewing in the next 24-48 hours or so. I'm in the good books with the wife too now, thanks Mr Nutcase.


The ordering process was simple and easy. As long as you understand how images work and understand placement at certain times to avoid camera, speaker and button cut-outs on crucial points on your case all will be fantastic. For image editing in a simple fashion, Paint in windows7 may be able to help or free software the Gimp could do the job splendidly well.

So far Mr Nutcase have done well in my eyes. We'll see how the case comes through and how much theJess likes it when the case arrives.

What sort of case would you order?

Paul.

The Youview Review #Spon

Morning all. 

Over the last few weeks I've been playing with a new gadget. None other than the YouView+, the new freeview and smart TV On Demand viewer backed by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva. I'll tell you now it's a fantastic bit of kit, but we'll go through the reasons why I love it during the review! 

What is it? 

Youview is an internet connected set top box with the all the Free to Air channels and Radio stations from the freeview network you could want. On top of that the set top box has a 500Gb hard disk drive for up to 300 hours of recording. Additionally this set top box is one of the most compatible on the market for televisions of all ages due to it's HDMI, Scart and RCA outputs meaning it'll run with a vast array of Televisions of all ages and types. 

To set YouView up is a Painless process. You simply connect the box to your TV, connect the Ethernet cable to your broadband router and the box's rear connection, Turn it on and within no times you'll be greeted with a very simple setup, It's designed for anyone to be able to set it up with minimal fuss. Once tuned and updated you're good to go.

Here's a video of the UI and general feel of the Youview service.



The User Interface (UI) of the YouView box is very advanced, in fact I think it trumps the competitors UI. Once setup the Backwards EPG is blissful to use. It offers you 14 days of options, 7 days in the future so you can add reminders for your favourite shows and the 7 days previous programming with the option to view on demand content direct from the guide itself regardless of the provider. As most* YouView boxes have a hard drive inside you can also record series at the same time as watching another channel thanks to it's dual tuners.  Very useful if you want to watch both Almost Naked Animals and Andy's Wild Dinosaur Adventures and they're on at the same time.
The genius part of YouView Boxes is the built in online connectivity to give you a vast array of free and paid for on demand services. Free services are BBC Iplayer, ITVPlayer, 4On Demand, S4c, 5 On Demand, Milkshake. Whereas Sky's Now TV and Sky Store are subscription based services. Sadly Netflix or LoveFilm are not avaliable at present, if this changes I'll let you know by re-updating the post. If you get a YouView box from BT or TalkTalk it may come with TalkTalk's or BT's Television service options, including the BT Sport service. (Plusnet are actively trialling YouView services at the moment - More on that in a separate post if PN get back to me.)

Parent's rejoice. The YouView box has parental controls. While I've yet to experiment with them I've been told they work fantastically from other users.

Since installing the Box both the kids and I have argued over who watches what! so the dual tuners comes into it's own here as I usually lose and end up recording my thing to watch when they go to bed. The kids have gotten used to the controls and understood how to work all the options faster than me. I kid you not they found the MyView page of recordings before I did. If used to another providers box you may need a day or two to get used to it but it's not a hard box and UI to learn. The only snags I've noticed are Milkshake On Demand. It seems to glitch every now and again and the box gets toasty in enclosed spaces

The mobile app is pretty good. I've only used it a few times I can record or set reminders while I'm out and about. I've tried it so far on 3g, the local bus company bus wifi and at home and it works pretty well. With adding a device being an absolute doddle even the kids can do it.

The Box itself is a very good looking device with a brushed steel effect on the front of the box with capacitive touch sensitive power button and menu key, Hidden under a flap on the right hand side is a USB port. I feel they missed a trick here as I think they should have included a smartcard slot for Internet providers to use to add their own TV Services, but not a major disaster nonetheless. On the rear of the Device we have the full array of ports as shown on the image below. These ports include RF in/out, USB, Scart, HDMI, SPDIF, RCA AV OUT, power and Ethernet.

I now I've mentioned this before but with such an array of ports compatible with the vast majority of older and more modern Televisions it's a very wise choice for those not with an older CRT or early LCD TV knowing the TV they have is 90% sure to work without hassle. Also if they choose to upgrade to a newer television it'll still work fantastically.

In conclusion the Youview+ boxes are a fantastic bit of kit. With a plethora of channels and entertainment for all the family it's a perfect choice for those who want a quality experience without the monthly subscriptions. Additonally the mobile app for IOS and Android works seamlessly to make the whole experience a breeze.I will probably buy another one for the bedroom in the future. 

If you have any questions please drop them below and I'll respond asap. 

Paul

This is a Netmum's sponsored review.To find out more click the button:

*A model with a single tuner and no hard disk drive has been released recently by Huawei and seems to be exclusively available to TalkTalk essential customers at the moment.

Now if you want your own YouView or YouView+ Box I can help you out. 

If you're looking at changing broadband providers then you can get a free YouView box as part of a broadband subscription from BT or TalkTalk (activation / installation fees may apply)

You can also buy Youview+  boxes from all major retailers and many independent electrical stores including John Lewis, Currys, Argos, Amazon, Richer Sounds and Euronics. with the RRP being around £229

You'll need to make sure with your internet service provider that you are on an unlimited package to ensure you don't incur added costs for more bandwidth. Also make sure your provider can give you download speeds of 3mb as a minimum. Otherwise it may not work too well. 

The Paediasure Vanilla review #Spon

Howdy everyone!
My youngest Lissy is a fussy little monster when it comes to food and always has been, some of this stems to me as I'm also fussy but try not to be in front of the kids, especially knowing how it can influence them on what they eat and drink. So when we were invited to try PaediaSure shake by the Netmums team we jumped on board, curious to see if we can curb our youngest's fussy streak, which seems to be getting larger in recent times.

For those wondering, Paediasure Shake is a nutritious shake for the more fussy of eater to help support them adding nutrients they may be missing from their eating habits, some of these are pretty crucial to our children's future growth and development.

"PaediaSure Shake is a food supplement containing essential nutrients, providing balanced nutrition to help support parents during their child’s fussy eating phase. PaediaSure Shake is formulated to support growth and development in children who are generally well"

Additionally, the Paediasure Fussy Eater website has worked tirelessly to create a 12 week plan to help beat the fussy eating gremlins. Paired with the shake it can help children aged 1-10 years old go from refusing to eat to an improvement. I've not had the shake 12 weeks but we have given it a go with the plan and aim to resume again shortly once we order some of the additional flavours. Why we've stopped the plan for the moment should become clear further down the page.

PaediaSure Shake is available in three flavours – vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, we were sent the vanilla shake. On opening the tin it has a nice vanilla smell. Adding five scoops of the powdered solution into 190ml of water and mixing well it's ready to drink. On passing it to Lissy she gave it a smell and told me it "smells like vanilla!" She then took a big gulp and gave a pause, the kind of unsure pause that seconds feel like minutes, she tries it again and tells me with a thumbs down "Dad. I don't like this it tastes yucky."

I tried it to see what the problem was. Initially it tasted pleasant, not too thick and somewhat refreshing and the Vanilla flavour is not over the top. Unfortunately it has a somewhat bitter after-taste. Once that bites it taints the shake leaving a taste of mixed Toffee and Fudge. In my opinion it's still a palatable drink but not all children will like it, so I'd recommend researching into the flavours before purchasing. That said, we'll be purchasing the Chocolate and Strawberry mixes to try them in the very near future as we want to get on top of Lissy's fight with the fuss monsters and this could be a key tool into winning the fight.
One thing to note is the drink can be filling to smaller tummies. Lissy drank a whole glass of the shake shortly after she told us her tummy was full. This may be due to her being a smaller four year old but it may cause children to not want their lunch or dinner so consider this when using the recommended two glasses a day!

To wrap up the shake is not the worst product out there for fussy eaters but I hope the manufacturers produce tester powder pots or pre mixed bottles so parents can try all three flavours and work out what's best for your children. If used with the 12 week plan it could be a crucial tool to help children beat fussy eating. This is why I'm happy to buy more flavours to restart the 12 week plan with my daughter knowing if we tackle it head on it'll be a worthwhile investment for her future.

Paediasure Shake is suited to children aged 1-10 years old and is available at Boots, The 12 week plan and more information for parents and specialists is available at the Fussy Eaters website.

I'll be happy to awnser any questions about the shake on here or via twitter as @hooker1uk or on Google plus +Paul Hooker

Paul.

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I have been paid expenses and supplied with a product sample for this review but retain all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post

This is a Netmum's sponsored review.To find out more click the button: 

The Hornit Review Part 2

****There are a few bits missing, will be updated asap****

I've had the Hornit for over a month now and I feel able to talk about it in greater detail now.

In Summary it's a fantastic package which works well. But for the daily cyclist there are a few caveats. Are these enough to sway you to an air based product. Let's see!

For now Let's look at the good.
It's certainly loud and gains the right amount of attention required when needed, be it to say hi to a friend or try and tell a fool he's clipped you at 30mph! It makes for good fun in tunnels too as seen in this lower res clip below. A more in Depth video review is rendering now!



I like how it looks too. Emulating the look of some bike cameras. which is a good thing if it encourages road users to treat others with the same respect we should all get. (with exception of the idiots on the roads. We all dislike them)
on huge advantage is the lack of air pump or huge rechargeable batteries required for this horn. 2 AAA's will last around a year if used in short blasts. Usually enough for a lookout warning, or Don't Pull out bark!!

I've got another to upload onto youtube soon. I'll be completing it this week. Some of the footage of the hornit in use on the road have been canned due to me getting shouty at a few bad drivers.


Now let's go onto the bad
The mounting clip seems to come loose a lot. But if you over tighten it you get the same effect too. I suspected it was my bars at first but now suspect the mount more now. I would invest in some strips of rubber from a local bike shop or an old piece of inner tube to help stabilise it.

If you choose to remove the horn a lot I suggest cable tying the wire in place or it'll go walkies or the cable will come loose at the silicon button joint which could cause it to fail in the oncoming bad weather.

Bar it's pitfalls It's an impressive device for the price. I give it a 7 out of 10 mainly as some people prefer the air powered alternatives or the classic bell. Heck I use a bell still also, for pedestrians it's much more useful

Spares of both the mounting clip and the fire trigger are available as spares for £3.99 each I like that a lot as some manufacturers would make you buy the kit again which would be useless if it's just a clip damaged or cable frayed.

The only thing i would improve is the horns. There is a choice of two, One is a solid tone, the second a multi tone horn, which sounds identical to an alarm I installed at my old flat after a break in. It's not a bad noise in terms of what it is, It does indeed get you noticed but I feel the horns could do with beefing up a bit or made to sound more like a car horn if possible.


Would you like one? here's your chance!

If you would like a Hornit, Visit the Hornit website and use discount code confused. for 20% off for the first 50 people.


Tell me if you were using the road daily would you invest in one?

A special day at Whipsnade Zoo. Review

Eh Up!

We were asked by the Superbreak Community to visit ZSL Whipsnade Zoo as part of the Superbreak Short Breaks promotions, offering great days and short stays at good prices. I'm so, SO glad we visited today.

We live about 3 miles away from ZSL Whipsnade Zoo and have grown up around the park, being filmed with my class at the zoo, on the Really Wild Road Show, growing up with my brother and step brother both working there, with the family up there as much as we could. It was always the local place to go and do things. A place forged into my memories.

I loved the feeling you get when visiting and I got that buzz again the moment we walked in. For the children this a magical feeling, I'm so happy it's not changed throughout the years, I'm glad it's retained it's fun and exciting atmosphere.
The staff were also happy and really bubbly, we found out 15 mins into our visit the celebrations were over the birth of a baby elephant at 5AM that morning.

We decided to take the Zoo Bus around the site and have a quick look around first, as we wanted the children's farm first it was a great chance to see the park without worrying as much about my partners disability. The Bus was a welcomed service to my partner who is registered disabled and mobility impaired. She found the stops to be decent and in the right areas for her. Also props to ArrivaBus for providing an easy access bus which can move up or down  and is wheelchair friendly bus, something the partnership between Arriva and ZSL should be proud of.

We visited the children's zoo first. As the kids said it best "Rabbits to Llama, Alpacas to Sheep, some just awaking while others want sleep." There is one thing children can find quicker than chocolate in a fruit bowl and that is playgrounds. They charged for the indoor playground, Hullabazoo, a purpose built playground mainly for the rainy days but was suited for both rain or sun, as there is a cafe inside we used it as an excuse for a quick coffee break.

Outside they have recently refreshed the playground, the old structures out and new ones in their places. I was impressed with both HullabaZoo and the outdoor play area,  mainly for the design and the signage to help children find their way to help points if they get lost or hurt and plenty of places to sit and chill while the monsters play.

The girls decided they wanted to go on the train, and got a tad upset that it was not running until a certain time, entirely our own fault for not checking the times when we were planning the day ahead. Luckily the Sea lions took their minds off it. We went into the underground observation windows to see Salt and her cohorts were rockin' the tank, despite Salt not doing any tricks any more. They certainly showed the kids how cheeky four playful Sea lions could be.

I received a message to let us know the Jumbo Express, The new name for the Great Whipsnade Railway was about to open. This railway is special, It's a narrow gauge line with specially cared for trains, with Excelsior, the oldest was in service today. I'll admit the engine looked spectacular, testament of the dedication and effort and darned hard work the railway society staff put into this special railway.  Both Vee and Lissy loved it. I'll be uploading video from our trip soon

Straight after our train ride we went to see the tigers and elephants, one of the tigers was very photogenic, despite being unimpressed by the lack of conkers he's found, well that's our story and we're keeping to it.

The elephants were exciting, despite not seeing the calf in the paddock, next time maybe.
After seeing plenty of amazing animals and the girls and my partner were beginning to grow tired. I wanted to quickly see the penguins, bears and monkeys which are situated in the same corner of the park, One girl came the other decided to stay with mum.

Suffice to say Vee loved the penguins and their cheeky behaviour, the Wolverines we saw were scary to her but she told me the brown bear "needed hugs". I agree with that comment, he really did look sad, like he was missing someone or something had upset him, on reporting it to the staff it's a ploy he uses to try and get food scraps. Cheeky little scallywag.

We finally took a trip to the Discovery Center to look at the creepy crawlies and some of the most beautiful butterflies I've seen in a while.

The food and drink prices for such a large venue were actually reasonable. I was expecting to be swearing in my head or begrudgingly paying for overpriced gak. Thankfully This was not the case. Drinks were priced ok and food prices were ok too. Still higher than some cafe's but better than expected from larger corporate parks.

From chubby Chameleons to a relaxed European bear, wolverines, mooses, rhino, monkeys and the penguins. we had a great time today at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo thanks to Superbreak!

Overall I'll give it a 9 out of ten and do recommend visiting the zoo on quieter times of the year as you'll enjoy it more.

If you end up visiting the Zoo with your family here are some easy tips to help it go with a breeze.

Overall I'll give it a 9 out of 10 and do recommend visiting the zoo on quieter times of the year as you'll enjoy it more. Especially if your children dislike hustle and bustle or busier environments.

If you end up visiting the Zoo with your family here are some easy tips to help it go with a breeze. 

Plan ahead, use the website to understand what you want to do first and work from there onwards. It'll help you get the best out of the day. Especially with all the activities, talks and demonstrations on around the day.

Use transport options like the free zoo bus to your advantage. Trust me it does come in useful if you don't drive. or take scooters for the kids so they can scoot to the enclosures and events with you. I'll be trying that the next time we go.


If you are disabled or need assistance discus this with the zoo directly. The staff are very keen to assist if they are able to do so. They can help plan your day with you to make sure you get the most out of your day.


If visiting via Rail and bus links from out of the area (this is doable.) remember to plusbus rail tickets. From Luton train you would have to walk to bus stop 10 at the new interchange, Take the A bus to Asda/Grove theatre and wait there for the x31 to Hemel Hempstead. check the times first though as the zoo bus diversion is limited to a few a day, not a good option but during summer this increases to hourly.


Do you like Zoos and have you visited Whipsnade Zoo? Tell us all!
Cheers! 

P, J, and the kids! 

CrazyTalk 6 Pro Review

HI all.
A while back I was asked if I would review Crazy Talk 6 from Reallusion. Then the PC died.

Eventually I fixed it and we're back to the review.

Crazytalk6 pro is a facial animation video suite, where you can create animated videos with just a picture, a microphone and a few moments of your time.

The software installs Promptly. Once installed it's very easy to use with an easy going tabbed interface,
Within ten minutes I had created a video of my daughter telling the world about chocolate and her missing piece, pilfered from her hands, which will be uploaded soon. If you want to discover how to use it there are many templates you can use to practice with, including facial expressions, scripts and other goodies, have a play yourself. You won't be disappointed. Once you feel comfortable add your own images, use the step by step tools to model the face as you want the eyes mouth and head to do what you want them to, Fun for everyone to have a try

Here is a quick video review and ramble from old ted.



I will be using the software a lot more over the next few weeks,
If you want to buy. I suggest buying direct from Reallusion, you could make a saving on bundles.
If you want to try the software before buying here is a link to the Crazytalk 6 trial pages, 


The software comes complete with dedicated forum access, with help for all levels and abilities, for instance. I asked for help with red lines around the video of my daughter, which seems to come down to a fault caused by my graphics card's awful RAM compression methods. However uses had a workaround without having to purchase a new graphics card. This brings me on to the only issue some will have with the software.


Crazytalk 6 Pro requires a bit of grunt to get it to work efficiently  If your machine is older, or like mine using a (very) low end graphics card expect the odd glitch from the software, which causes struggles at times. I've only experienced glitching when Windows 7 is in aero mode and lots of programs are running at the same time, so bear that in mind.


If you want me to try some videos out with it drop me a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Paul

My Vitus Vee - 1 revew Part two.

Holyhellsticksonaplate I'm still here!

this is my little way of blogging about the bike and trying to ignore things happening with my nan passing away.recently (operation stop me doing illegally stupid things)

The problem is Operation Stop me doing illegally stupid things has a fail point. My Bike!

THE VITUS VEE ONE IS AN EVIL, TWO FACED MONSTER! *Clarkson voice* Oh yeahhhh baby!

The bike has shown me how the gears were being used poorly on Betsy my old, retired GT, but also how reliant I was on them too. This is my naughty bike and my daughters fun ride to school too.

(photo will be up soon - phone mmc has gone screwy - Meh, don't expect miracles)

The best part of it being Vee's ride to and from school is Naughty Bike Time! The bike has so far kept up with (sticking to the limit of 30mph. I have to respect the law too!) including an irate pair of police officers and anyone else who wants to take my babyVee on!
I get it to school and the sensible hat comes back to play.The kids all know Vee's dad as I ride the bike, even in the rain. (she likes sliding about somewhat)

Once Vee gets on though the attitude is dead set. no higher than 20kph (set to Kilometres to look better... he lies. I changed it's settings by mistake and the broadsheet manual is too confusing) she loves it and the lack of gears make it less clunky, which she hated on the old bike. Also in comparison, Arriva Bus 38/7 from Dunstable to Houghton Regis. Vs the bike on the same route. We arrived to our location in 13-16 mins (video being uploaded soon) the bus should have mirrored us, we beat it by 45 mins.  the GT did struggle, but has beaten the Arriva drivers on the 31 route a fair few times too (just me on the bike at that point, YES NAUGHTY TIME) A bike can beat a bus big time,

Now the bugbears.
Handlebars and grips are an opposing force, the grips hate me, Club Roost and much hairspray to the rescue here methinks, not to mention my DB flanges being rubbed down to snugly fit there new home. I need car scratching bars, too many loons like me on the road. Failing that I may upgrade the front bars to a DMR WingBar like on Betsy, as there lighter than the current bars, and I can get them in Purple. (my bikes have to stand out, not just for the cameras on them)

Drive Actually, the bottom bracket.
It's crap. Comes loose too quickly, I can only assume torque damaged on installation or inaccurately set torque on it's readjustment. service 2 coming up very soon :(

Wheels.
Front rim has had two spokes become dangerously loose within a week or three. that's probably an isolated issue and I've fixed that already
Although the rear was possibly not set up properly as it sounds like it needs adjustment, (at 400Km it's done well so far I'll say) Off to Bedford for that in the next week or two thanks to a recommendation from the father in law. Tim. You rock!

Niggles so far.
Apart from the above all i want to do is slap a 3 speed hub on it in the future.
Fit a rear child trailer for when the two girls both go to school,
My beast best pull like an old Volvo F12 of she's in trouble.

In short I love the bike and once tweaked up and setup properly it'll be awesome!

:Paul

The Nokia N8 Review! I miss you

The lovely Tom at WOM World Nokia saved my (mobile) life 2 weeks ago when they offered me a Nokia N8 to test while my C6-00 was off for repair.

On arrival I was like a child with a new toy, or Tigger with extra bounce. The N8 I have wanted since the Nokia World 2010 Event unveiling.

I've not had a rush of excitement over a device since my Motorola V66. Placing it in my hand it felt solid, The anodised aluminium was cold, leaving a feeling your carrying a high end device. Weight wise it felt perfect.

Turning it on was painlessly quick in comparison to the LG Optimus One and the C6-00 , set-up again was simple and easy, I would say 10 mins we were away.

The home screen is standard of symbian wares in the past, as are the menus. making the general user experience seem normal to everyday users, but to apple or droid user may be confused.

The touchscreen is a capacitive AMOLED display and dang it is gorgeous. Works great in the sunlight and produces some real amazing colours. It can be over-sensitive in the corners holding the phone has resulted in opening the phone's dialler or exiting applications unintentionally, annoying but I'm blaming my clumsiness here. But a calibration tool would have been useful.

Internet on the N8 averages out around 2.8mb on Vodafone in the strongest 3g areas, and 1.3MB on the Sure Signal device at home (using speedtest.net mini test) Wireless connectivity worked out of the box and secured wifi worked perfectly too.

One thing that surprised me was how stable the browser was in comparison to the C6-00 and N97 mini's offerings.

The N8-00 can play most flash content perfectly. Compared to android refusing to load content, including some video services. Tainted by the C6-00's small memory I won't lie. I was expecting it to inform me it was out of memory then crash, but. It didn't the device stayed solid. Even loading heavier content from parentdish and Adobe Flash content from the potential NSFW madhouse that is Pown.it (link is safe but other content on site is not) Flash content did stutter when zooming out to fit the content on the screen, but recovers very quickly.

I found the USB on the go function one of the most useful to use, plugging in a USB hub, then a Keyboard and mouse into the hub. Plug the N8 into the TV with the provided HDMI lead and there you have a full computing experience from a tiny device.

Call quality seemed to be the same as the C6, but slightly better than the LG offering, even in poor signal areas it worked well.

Now onto Symbian OS. It's an elderly operating system going back in the days to early Psion devices with Epoc, which has progressed to many different variants of Symbian. Today we're rocking Symbian ^3 or s60 of Symbian exist PR 2 or Symbian ANNA on the way soon with more updates coming over the next few years it's going to be a safe bet it'll keep up better than many other products.
One huge advantage of Symbian is it was designed with lower powered devices in mind, meaning cheaper hardware, and in comparison to most smartphone platforms, Longer battery life, this is useful for heavy users.

Lets look at that camera.

Many Nokia devices have a fairly decent Camera, then a device comes and raises the bar even higher. The N8 raised the bar stupidly high in comparison to the N97, 6700s and the N95.

At 12 Megapixels This is a monster camera with xenon flash, coupled in with the Carl Zeiss optics and one of the largest sensors to appear on a cellphone, measuring 1/1.83", it's a beast of a camera, and judging from the photos taken by it can perform and compete with higher end cameras with ease.
The camera is also capable of filming HD too, I have a quick test I'll be uploading them to youtube once the blog is up (need to check them over in first)

Here are some sample pictures. (I only spent a few days using the N8 Camera School. So expect better in the future) Click the links below to see some of the N8's snaps.

Here
Here

Here

Also try some on MoloME

Sadly I didn't get much chance to get more due to job interviews and poorly 2 year olds wanting cuddles. :(

Gaming on the device is pretty good too. Angry birds was tested, that had minimal lag with the odd slowdown, but considering it the nokia has half the memory, and a decent graphics accelerator meaning a good all round gaming experience, Even older J2ME (java) games work, but are a tad more cumbersome due to the lack of buttons.

Purchasing apps in the Ovi (soon to be renamed Nokia) Store was a fairly decent expereience with minimal hassle, but it kept loosing connection at times, which is a widespread bug according to the guru's at Symbian Tweet with no update planned yet. It's a quirky issue but should have been solved by now i feel.

Products from the store range from the absolutely amazing Gravity Twitter Client, to the aboslute rubbish fart applications. Not forgetting Epically amazing Educational apps made by a 12 year old inspired to help his sister. In fairness the store does need improvements to find things easier, but that may happen in future updates. The Ovi team like to keep the community as a whole happy.

The handset handled the transfer of my contact's, Email, bookmarks and calendar to the N8 quite well, with minimal effort required for the odd truncated entry.

Every day use consisted of web browsing, Snaptu (facebook, twitter and tech articles) it never failed me, with true multitasking, changing between utilities, web based services and documentation was a simple task of holding the menu button for a second.

In conclusion

The device worked how I wanted, when I wanted with little issues. Symbian could probably benefit from a faster process and a touch more RAM, but it performed well enough to be considered a long term device in comparison to many similarly priced device. Then the SIM free cost. Currently it's at £365 this is an amazing price for a high end device, with 16Gb of internal storage, and the ability to add another 32Gb on the memory card slot. You are on to a media player winner here. Glitches are being worked on by the boffin's at Nokia so you have a future proofed device in a colourful shell.

One more thing.

NOKIA. Please make the N8 and E7 in Purple.

You make it in purple. I'll buy it. Today, even if i have to sell my spleen to get it.

I recommend the device to many, even trying to convert iPhone users to the Nokia quality.

Get yours ASAP!

Paul