NEWS

As a country, probably parttially due to the Covid effect and staying home more, we're watching more and more TV, nearing 6 hours a day in fact! Almost 20% of that is now online and streamed. There are several options for Video Subscription on Demand services here in the UK, so I cover what the best options are and what some of the shows are that you should be watching on each service.

Mobile prices keep goin up and up, but our options in the midrange are getting better and better. This summer the iPhone SE 2020, the OnePlus Nord, the Poco F2 Pro are all great options for under £500 and it makes me wonder, who really needs a flagship phone these days?

Read More...

As a hardcore Android fan, I've never used an iPhone as a daily device, which I'e often thought was an issue, for someone evaluating technology and specifically mobile phones. I never thought I'd see Apple launch a device in the under £500 price range though, so when they did, I thought it was a great opportunity for me to try iOS out!

After using it for a week, I have a bit of a surprise... if I'm very honest, which I try to always be, I started kind of enjoying iOS!

Read More...

Obviously, this is a tech site, as is my YouTube Channel. This year though, I've started to take getting healthy and losing weight very seriously. If you follow my YouTube channel you'll have seen big differences in me since March this year as I've lost over 6 stone in weight.

This is done using a pretty simply theory of move more, eat less, but of course it's not as simple as that. Eating less should also include eating the right things. I now check the calories on pretty much everything I eat and have found a few companies that help me control my calorific intake which makes the weight loss much easier to control. Here are the main companies I use. If you're going to try them (and I honestly recommend you do) then please use my affiliate links 👍

Read More...

Over the past couple of weeks I've been upgrading various parts of my kit, enabling me to make better quality YouTube videos (hopefully!). I got a new Panasonic Lumix GH5 for better video. I invested in Adobe Creative Cloud for better video editing software in Premiere Pro and After Effects. Then I wondered, can I do any better with my mic?

For the last year or two I've used my Rode NT1 for my videos and the sounds is pretty damn great from it, but it does somewhat get in the way. I'm also tethered to my desk with it needing to be plugged in to my PC. Maybe a shotgun mic was needed?

Read More...

I know it might seem odd an Android site with an article about Apple AirPlay, but I do have a MacBook and sometimes I get sent gadgets to play with that perhaps don't warrant a full video but are still kinda handy. This MagicEther Wireless dongle is one such device.

Read More...

I've used many Xiaomi devices over the years and the software has always been a dealbreaker. Almost always they have good hardware, especially for the price you pay, but the software has always been rather clunky and more than I could bare for a daily device. But as I recently used the Redmi k20 Pro with MIUI 10 I started to think 'maybe this aint so bad!'

Read More...

You might be aware, Im trying to lose wieight. A big part of that is my diet and controlling the amount of calories I eat. This of course means cutting out lots of things, I don't eat much bread these days, not much sugary products and in fact my evening meal was often a fruit & veg smoothie I would make myself.

I was very interested though, when I read about a lot of people using Huel as meal replacements. Some people would go so far as having pretty much nothing but Huel! I was interested in perhaps replacing my smoothie with Huel, so placed an order of two packs, Vanilla and Mixed Berry.

Read More...

I'm not a huge action camera user, but having said that, I have a motorbike and sometimes do track days, I cycle and occasionally do things like karting or paintball, when an action cam is handy to have. Up to this point the default choice if you want quality footage was a GoPro of some form. A month back I was considering upgrading my GoPro HERO 4 Black as I tended not to use it due to the batteries being worn and not lasting more than about 15 minutes and it generally just being old and out of date. So, the obvious choice was the GoPro HERO 7 Black, right?

Read More...

I have a mixed history with OnePlus. I loved the original and named it my phone of the year for 2014. I then bought the OnePlus 2 and was somewhat disappointed. I didn't buy another until the OnePlus 6T a few months back and actually really liked it. It might have been my daily if the fingerprint sensor worked for me, but alas, it worked only about 20% of the time, so now my brother has that as his daily device.

The along came the OnePlus 7 Pro. It wasn't really on my radar until MKBHD said it was his phone of the year so far. That's pretty high praise, so I watched a few more reviews and thought it was worth a go. I love OnePlus' near stock software and their build quality is generally good, so I had high hopes. I have to say, I think my hopes were met! One of the first things I realised was just how beautiful a device it is. It's the first phone... well, maybe ever, that I've not wanted to cover up with a skin!

Read More...

If I'm honest, I don't really know how much this matters to most people, but I like to play with the latest tech, so for a while now I've had my sights set on upgrading my YouTube channel to 4K video. For this I initially though I simply need two things. A 4K Compact Camera (for the close up shots of the gadgets) and a 4K Webcam (for the footage of me). So, I had my eye on the Logitech Brio 4K Webcam on Amazon. Annoyingly I missed it on Prime day, but it was reduced for Black Friday and I got it for £110.

Read More...

I don't really visit Kickstarter or Indiegogo very often, I don't think I should, mainly because I don't fully understand them. They're not a shop, right? I'm sure people much smarter than me have lost money on projects in the past, why would I risk it? But, every now and then a product appears that pursuades me to take the risk and the TAIHE Gemini Portable 'On-the-go' Monitor is one of those projects.

Read More...

I was recently reminiscing about previously owned devices, all the way back to my first Android the HTC Hero. One device that stood out as a milestone in many ways was the Google Nexus One. I recell it's super fast processor, it's amazing design and it's multi coloured LED track ball. Full of excitement, I bought one on eBay!

Click here to watch my video review of the Google Nexus One in 2018.

Read More...

I can't lie, I'm a bit of a sucker for a gimmick on a phone, so when I saw the Huawei Mate 20 Pro had reverse wireless charging, the ability to turn your phone into a wireless charging pad, I knew I had to give it a go.

Yesterday I finished my video review of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro but I realised I'd not really tried reverse wireless charging. The review was already close to 30 minutes long, so I figured I had better deal with this separately. This morning I've been using it to charge my Pixel 3 XL and here are some of my findings.

Read More...

It's quite chunky at almost 30 minutes long, but there was a lot to discuss!

Does the amazing hardware make up for the janky EMUI 9.0? Is the camera really that good? Does the massive 4,200mAh battery best the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for lastability?

Watch the review to find out!

I've had my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for about a month now and I still really like it. There are a few things that annoy me a little, mainly around Samsung Experience, their own skin that replaced Touchwiz. Still, I thought I would take a look at the Pixel 3 XL and I would have one of my classic head to heads over Samsung's flagship and Google's flagship, pick my favourite and that would be my new phone into the new year. Then I watched a few videos on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro...

Read More...

"Hi guys, Andy here..."

You might have notice, but I've been quite busy through September. Not only did I have a Note 9 and Pocophone F1 to review, but I came across many different gadgets such as the HyperX Cloud Flight Headset, a variety of CHOETECH accessories as well as my new Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless noise cancelling headphones. Throw in a few amazing apps and there was at least one video released every day of September! Infact, I think I counted 43 videos in total released last month. Busy!

If you've not seen them yet, go check out my channel!

I can't lie, I've been a big fan of the Note series since the Note 3. Funnily enough, I had the original Note but thought it was too big and ugly. Didn't even bother getting the Note 2. I have then loved the Note 3, 4 and 5.

I had a Note 7 on order, but Carphone Warehouse mucked me about with my delivery date and I cancelled... just before they started bursting into flames. In a stroke of good timing, the Pixel XL came out and I bought that and followed it up with the Pixel 2 XL.

This year, partly because of what I see from the Pixel 3 XL leaks I decided to go back to the Note 9 and see how they've progressed since the Note 5.

Read More...

I'm trying to make more of an effort with social media in general recently. I've posted a few times on Facebook in the last week, I've been putting some bits on Google+ and now I've signed up a specific account for AndroidAndyUK on Instagram!

Be sure to follow me.

I've got a spare Slickwraps Skin, so thought I might as well give it away!

Competition over, congratulations Chris B on winning!

I've been using the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for over a week now and I can honestly say I love it. Whilst it's one of the heaviest devices I've ever owned, it doesn't really feel bulky in the hand. The screen is huge, bright and vibrant, the stereo speakers are loud and clear even containing a little base, the camera is up their amongst the best and the battery is now a monster with enough power for me to go two days without charging.

Read More...

I thought I'd write a little something, just in case you've just emerged from a cave and hadn't seen the Pixel 3 XL leaks that have come from some Russian guy, who is apprently now trying to sell the Pixel 2 XL for around $2,000!

Really there are two things that have caught people's eye from the leaks. The main talking point seems to be the 'notch'...

Read More...

I'm aware I've not posted much recently and now along comes loads of news in the same week. Let's start with a nice simple one, my thoughts on the Note 9 announcement.

Althought my last two devices have been Pixels, I owned the Note 3, 4 and 5 with the Note 3 and Note 5 being two of my favourite devices I've ever used. I don't think I even used a Note 7 or 8 though and having seen some videos on the Note 9, I have to say I'm really tempted to move back to Samsung.

Read More...

It's been quite a big week for Google releasing new apps this week. It was only a few weeks ago they released a new (and improved?) Google News app, well this week we've been blessed with two more media consumption apps from the Big G.

The first I will mention is Google Podcasts. Previously Google would have us use Google Play Music for listening to our favourite podcasts, even then, it would only work if you're in the US. The rest of us had no options. Now, they've finally released a stand alone app for us to listen to our favourite podcasts on, like AndroidAndyUK (pictured to the right) for example!

The first thing you notice is it's a nicely presented app with a neat and simple layout. At this point though, it's not just the layout that's simple, the app itself seems rather bare. You search for an app you want and then subscribe.

There are features coming though. I don't know if it's official or I've just heard a rumour, but the hope is in the future it will transcribe all podcasts and you would be able to search for a particular discussion and jump right to it. Now that would be pretty cool!

Read More...