A #Smartphone battery that can charge in ONE MINUTE, Stanford University scientists say. by @jimboireland

With battery anxiety been a heavy topic of late and how can it be solved going forward this gives some light on what lies ahead,given that manufacturers like to sell extras along with their device such as power bars and wireless chargers this is also a revenue stream for them so how likely they will uptake on this is another days work,but nonetheless its what the consumer wants as today battery life is still a problem especially for power users..

Aluminum has long been an attractive material for batteries, mainly because of its low cost, low flammability and high-charge storage capacity. For decades, researchers have tried unsuccessfully to develop a commercially viable aluminum-ion battery.  A key challenge has been finding materials capable of producing sufficient voltage after repeated cycles of charging and discharging.

DSC_5757

 

“We have developed a rechargeable aluminum-ion battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. “Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.” 

 

“In our study, we have videos showing that you can drill through the aluminum battery pouch, and it will continue working for a while longer without catching fire,” Dai said. “But lithium batteries can go off in an unpredictable manner  – in the air, the car or in your pocket. Besides safety, we have achieved major breakthroughs in aluminum-battery performance.”

“Our battery produces about half the voltage of a typical lithium battery,” he said. “But improving the cathode material could eventually increase the voltage and energy density. Otherwise, our battery has everything else you’d dream that a battery should have: inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life. I see this as a new battery in its early days. It’s quite exciting.” 

What do you think ?

Source

Stocard,All your loyalty cards on your smartphone. by @jimboireland #Stocard #Apps #Shopping

Loyalty cards are everywhere these days and if its not a card its a keyring/fob and they can add some bulk to your wallet or keychain,with bargain hunting ever more on the increase people like to get loyalty cards everywhere this then results in a wallet stuffed with plastic cards and over time becomes unbearable to carry.Now there is a solution for this..Whilst the app is Optimized for the USA, Canada, Australia & the United Kingdom its worth a mention and perhaps in the future it may also become available Ireland,but for those who travel can use the app and its free on Android,Windows Phone and iOS.

STOCARD IS FAST:
– The built in high-tech-camera scanner enables you to add rewards cards within seconds.
– Have your phone’s screen scanned for a faster transaction at properly equipped stores*.
STOCARD IS EASY TO USE:
– No registration necessary, start using Stocard right after downloading.
– Choose from over 1800 preset discount cards
Stocard supports all major loyalty cards, ranging from drug store cards (CVS, Walgreens, Shoppers Drug Mart) to airlines (American, United, Quantas) and hotels (Hilton, Starwood) to the most popular multi-partner cards like Air Miles, Everyday Rewards and flybuys.
Stocard even works with your favorite auto-club card (AAA, CAA, RACV).

– Add any not preset loyalty card as an “other loyalty card”.
– Discover exclusive coupons, discounts, flyers and circulars in Stocard – all related to your favorite stores!
+ ADVANCED FEATURES:
– Location based-widget: The location-based widget will show you the most relevant loyalty cards based on your location. (GPS turned off by default)
– Rewards cards on Android Wear: Stocard now supports your loyalty cards on Android Wear. Whenever you’re shopping, just pop-up your loyalty cards barcode on your new watch and have it scanned by the cashier to receive your discounts or points.
– You can even use Stocard for your airline-tickets and even gift cards.

If you are planning on buying the Apple watch there is good news,it will be available for it too..

Download

Nuzzel. – News from your friends in an App. Dont miss a thing. by @jimboireland #Apps #Nuzzel #News

Nuzzel is a news aggregate so to speak and since the app i used most which was called Taptu closed its services i began looking for another app,there is of course many others like FlipBoard,Feedy and gReader but i like to have a selection.

Nuzzle is simple to use and works rather smoothly and requires a FaceBook or Twitter login,this will then keep you up to date with things you may have missed from your friends and news they may have shared,its a rather nice app and deserves the mention.. You can also use Nuzzel to share interesting stories with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, email, or SMS.Within the app you can decide what news to read within timeframes and days..Also you can get customised alerts with breaking news from your friends.

Download 

Samsung respond to recent bend tests,and ask for another. #Samsung #Bendgate #SqaureTrade by @jimboireland

If you have not seen the video,you can watch it below but to be honest i did think this test was unfair myself due to how it was conducted and i am happy Samsung have now officially responded to this if you watch the video below you will see how this test was completed across,first up is Samsungs own test via Samsung Tomorrow.

This is the test below that Squaretrade put out over the last few days showing the 6 Plus,the HTC One M9 and the S6 Edge.

 

 

 

Samsung Statement Official

Recently, there have been several reports about the durability of smartphones stemming from a You Tube video posted by SquareTrade. It shows several smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, being bent or broken under high pressure. In this video, the Galaxy S6 edge was broken under the pressure of 110lbf (50kgf), but there are two things that need to be addressed with regard to the video.

 First, the video assumes a very specific condition – 110lbf (50kgf), which rarely occurs under normal circumstances. The normal force that generated when a person presses the back pocket is approximately 66lbf (30kgf). Our internal test results indicate that the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are not bendable even under 79lbf (32kgf), which is equivalent to putting pressure to snap a bundle of five pencils at once.

 Secondly, even though both front and back sides are exposed under the same level of pressure in normal circumstances, this test does not show the strength of the back side. Some smartphones have different durability in each the front and back sides respectively.  SquareTrade has only tested the front side, which may mislead consumers about the entire durability of smartphones.

 For this reason being, Samsung will officially deliver our statement to SquareTrade and ask them to conduct the stress test again which targets both front and back sides, and open the test result to the public.

 All our devices are put rigorous high-quality validation tests before they are delivered to consumers. These tests include various conditions, such as dropping, bending, and breakage. And we are confident that all our smartphones are not bendable under daily usage.

Source

One Plus release OxygenOS and vows to enhance customer support. #OxygenOS #OnePlus by @jimboireland

At last One Plus owners can now obtain Oxygen OS but note its not an OTA it has to be flashed onto your device but it does contain some bug ,but this is to be expected and One Plus want to hear what you have to say..before you attempt to flash your device make sure you back it up first,after this process is complete OTA updates will available.

Developing OxygenOS has been an incredibly fun and challenging experience for all of us. In this environment where everyone is fighting to standout with custom ROMs, we think it’s important to go back to basics. We place things like performance and battery life over gimmicks and bloated features.

We want to be careful that we aren’t adding features simply for the sake of differentiation. We’ve implemented some important features thus far, but they are subtle and meaningful. That’s our philosophy behind OxygenOS: keep it light and essential.

You can head to oneplus.net/oxygenos to try out Oxygen right now. There, you’ll find a download link along with a detailed list of instructions on how to flash Oxygen on your OnePlus One.  – See more at: https://blog.oneplus.net/2015/04/oxygenos-is-here-2/#sthash.JQlh2dEq.dpuf

One Plus also stated,

We want to emphasize that we built this initial version so that you guys could begin taking a direct role in the future of Oxygen. To make sure we’re heading in the right direction, we need your input. On our forums, you’ll find a feedback app that allows you to submit your comments directly to our ROM team. We encourage you to use it; we can build a better OS together.

Also to note One Plus has been criticised to some extend especially when it came to RMAs and have vowed to fix this they have announced the following on their forum.

In the past, many of you felt that our customer support was lacking, and we heard you loud and clear. We’ve made the improvement of our support team a priority, and we’d love to share with you just some of the ways that we have been working to make the support experience amazing for every customer.

Our customer support team has grown exponentially. A year ago, the OnePlus CS team was our smallest department. Today, it’s the largest, and our team works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure all customer needs can be fulfilled.

After listening to feedback, we’ve made several notable changes to our existing warranty and return policy. Our one year manufacturer’s warranty on the OnePlus One now extends to all of our accessories. In addition, our 14 day no-questions-asked return policy has been extended to 15 days.

As for our RMA (return merchandise authorization) process, we’ve increased the numbers in our RMA and Payments teams, meaning more requests are filled each day. We’ve made improvements to our web platform, making it faster for our agents to assist whatever issues our customers may have. Our target is to shorten the turnaround time as much as possible and make sure you can have your repaired device back within 7 days.

One Plus is a year or so old and are trying really hard to help its customers so going forward they are moving in the right direction

Source

Motorola Moto X, E, and G(4g) 1st gen will jump directly to Android 5.1 By @VicenteA_George #android #motorola

Yesterday Motorola’s Software product manager, David Schuster, said on his Google+ account that all 1st gen Moto devices are being tested on Android 5.0.2 on par of the Android 5.1

Apparently all of the improvements found with the latest build, suggest it’s better for the customers, go directly to 5.1

Schuster said nothing about when the update will start rolling out, but should be really soon as the Moto G Google Play Edition is already receiving the OTA making this the first GPE devices getting the new build.

What do you think about this? Let us know by using #techbuzzireland

Stay tuned for more Buzz

Source; Google+

Make fun videos with your friends thanks to the new Facebook app Riff By @VicenteA_George #facebook #IOS #android

Facebook is working hard on making us use their services, and now the have add a new app to fight with Vine, let’s take a look at Riff.

Riff is the new Video app from the big blue, and it present and interesting way of share stories.

Once you have the app, you log in with your FB ID and immediately can start using the service, you can watch some of the videos already done by the developers or some global videos made from other users.

What’s the story with the app?

Well, you just need an idea, make a short video (20sec limit unlike Vine) explaining your idea, and then any FB friend you have can add another video to the same story.

Once they have done that, they friends can do the same, so your initial story now have hundreds of sequels.

The story can remain as Riff exclusive or you can share them on the social networks you have.

The app is on IOS and Android, with no words on WP

You can download the app here: IOS, Android

Show us your stories using #techbuzzireland

Stay tuned for more Buzz.

Microsoft launches Office Lens for Android and iOS #OfficeLens #Microsoft by @jimboireland

Microsoft yet again dish out more goodies for Android and iOS users despite the lack of favours in return im sure people will be happy to hear they can now avail of the feature.However the version for Android is just a preview. Office Lens is a handy capture app that turns your smartphone into a pocket scanner. It crops, straightens, enhances, and makes pictures of whiteboards and documents readable. Pictures of documents are automatically saved to OneDrive and editable on any device.

Office Lens on iPhone

 

  • Identifies printed text with optical character recognition (OCR) so that you can search by key word for the image in OneNote or OneDrive.
  • Converts images of paper documents and whiteboard notes into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDF files for easy editing and reformatting (see moredetails here).
  • Captures business cards and generates contacts you can add to your phone.
  • Inserts images to OneNote or OneDrive (as DOCX, PPTX, JPG or PDF format) and gives you options to save, export and share the image.

Download for iPhone

 

Office Lens Preview for Android

Download for Android you need to go via G + and join preview first

 

Are Sky + UPC giving Windows Phone the cold shoulder ? #Sky #WindowsPhone by @jimobireland #Apps

Windows phone users are well aware there is a shortage of Apps,especially locally here in Ireland and alongside the bad perception by the media in General plus the lack of updates and Apps by MS and big companies here Windows users are pissed off to say the least and yes i am one of them.. So much to say i don’t use WP as a main daily driver no more but i have the phones there anyhow..

On boards.ie there is a community of users constantly asking about when apps will be updated or apps coming to the platform and i of course am one of those members there..

During the week a thread was started on SKY and will apps come to the platform,as we users already know we have Sky sports and Sky News..Sky think this is great and it will silence the lack of other apps but sadly not…

So we asked them head on and told them to cut the usual scripted nonsense like the banks have been feeding for the last two years. A user asked Sky the following.

 

So i asked sky Which Apps to be precise and Sky replied.. on this thread HERE  As it stands on the SKY forums there is lots of people complaining regarding this matter and perhaps its not a sustainable move considered the market share for Windows which is said to be around 12% here in Ireland and similar in the UK..

 

At present, users of Windows devices can download the Sky Sports and Sky News apps from the Windows Marketplace. The full range of Sky’s apps are described in detail here, but as my colleague Daniel stated above, at this time we have no plans to expand to Windows devices. You should also be able to use Sky Go via your web browser on your Windows PC or laptop.

Regards,
Sam

 

 

 

 

Next up is Horizon app from UPC again a user asked these about the app and again the same scripted replies on this thread HERE this is also not the first time the question has been asked,same case as Sky..

 

I had to say this to them..

“We have heard this same tune months ago why don’t you be just straight with people.”

UPC replied..

As mentioned above, we don’t have any info on this coming to windows phone. 

If this changes in any way we’ll certainly post back here. Thanks.

So thats it on these two,no point in going on about the banks because for two years i have tried and i have given up,i have given up.Some have mentioned also that they are possibly waiting for W10 to arrive or in the future Android apps can be ported onto WP but would that not admit defeat for Microsoft ?? As it stands there has been no flagship now for two years and a miriad of low end-mid tier devices announced,user are getting impatient overall..