Row.co.uk Blog

iPhone 6 Launch


Yesterday Apple held a presentation announcing two new versions of the iPhone, the 6 and the 6 Plus. It also announced the Apple Watch, a wearable device and a new mobile payments system. 

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will be released on 19th September, available for pre-order from 12th September. It’s a major revision of the iPhone including changes and enhancements to the design, the display, the power and the camera. 

Design
Apple waves goodbye to the squared-off design that has been present since the iPhone 4 and introduces a more rounded, slimmer body. The new design is 6.9mm thin, which makes it one of the thinnest smartphones available on the market. It is slightly heavier than the 5S, weighing in at 129g, measuring 138.1mm x 67mm. 

Display
Both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have bigger screens than previous models. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7inch LED back-lit display with a 1334 x 750 resolution, incorporating Apple’s new ‘Retina HD.’ The pixel density is the same as the iPhone 5S – 326ppi. 

iPhone 5s – 4in
iPhone 6 – 4.7in
Samsung Galaxy S5 – 5.1in
iPhone 6 plus – 5.5in 

Power
Apple has worked hard to ensure that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will have equal or better battery life than the 5S. The iPhone 6 battery will cover 50 hours of audio, 11 of video, 11 of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of LTE browsing, 10 of 3G browsing or 14 hours of 3G talk. 

Camera
The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus uses the iSight system, an all-new sensor with 8 megapixels. Apple has made way for faster focusing in photo taking, with ‘phase-detection autofocus.’ The iPhone 6 achieves this with digital image stabilisation and the 6 Plus is even more enhanced, with optical image stabilisation to reduce shake and blur. 

What else is new from Apple? 

Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D Cook also announced during yesterday’s presentation, the introduction of a new payments system – Apple Pay. This new mobile payment service uses near-field communications and wireless functionality, operated by the fingerprint sensor on the device. Cook confirmed that American Express, MasterCard and Visa have already signed up as partners. 

Cook then announced details about the new smartwatch, the Apple Watch. This is the first new device to be released under Tim Cook’s stewardship of Apple. The last time the company released an entirely new category was 4 years ago with the launch of the iPad – and despite initial concerns, just think how successful that has been! But is there room for yet another device in our lives? 

Cook commented: “We’ve been working incredibly hard and for a long time on an entirely new product. We believe this product will redefine what people expect from its category. It’s the most personal device we’ve ever created; a new form of communication, digital touch.” 

The Apple Watch is a comprehensive health and fitness device, which also features:
- Siri functionality
- smart replies
- dictation
- call answering (vibrates when receiving a call)
- weather info
- traffic info
- Apple Maps – you can view business hours, phone number and walking or driving directions to specific locations. 

The back of the device detects pulse rate and you can share heartbeat / nutritional info between watches. The iWatch is marketed as “helping you live a better day” – whether you’re a serious athlete, or you just you want to get more active. 

There’s even a feature to customize your own smiley face when sending a message! 

The iPhone 6 will be available from £539 for pre-order on 12th September. The Apple Watch will be available early 2015. 

We offer iPhone 6 and 6 Plus insurance from only £5.99. Insure your phone today and get protected from those nasty mishaps! Click here to get a quote for iPhone 6 insurance with us. We will hopefully be offering insurance for the Apple Watch in the future too.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

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The Rise of the Android Console

Row.co.uk Blog

The Rise of the Android Console

PlayStation and Xboxes are always going to be around, however low cost chips and high quality mobile operating systems have resulted in a new sort of gaming machine on the horizon – Android Consoles.

Android’s versatility and cheap and powerful chips from the likes of NVIDIA mean that a raft of Android consoles has arrived. These Android gaming consoles offer gaming thrills on your TV in a small footprint for a fraction of the price of a console and many do more than play games. 

Amazon Fire TV

Take the Amazon Fire TV for instance, the latest foray into technology from the former book retailer. As well as offering a whole host of apps for watching media, streaming TV and turning your TV into essentially a computer with voice control. It also comes with a gaming pad and allows you to play a variety of Android games in your living room. Even though games are partially limited, it offers a lot of bang for its buck and showcases just some of the amazing things these low cost machines can do.

Ouya

In a lot of ways the daddy of Android gaming consoles, the Ouya is priced around the £99 mark. Having begun life on Kickstarter as a crowdfunding project the little cube was hailed as a revolutionary device. With its own store populated by the likes of Final Fantasy III, as well as Android classics such as Dead Trigger. 

However, like the Amazon Fire TV it’s somewhat limited and developers need to create games specifically for it as a platform – essentially they need to re-tool the controller. This means that people end up having to buy the same game separately for it and a mobile device. However, it’s a great machine and a new, improved version is in the works – let’s hope it irons out the problem of having to purchase two version of the same game and also makes the developers’ job easier. 

GameStick

The size of a USB stick, the GameStick is another Kickstarter winner and takes up only a tiny increment of space. It’s attractive, easy to bring to a friend’s house and comes with an attractive, well build joypad. However, like the Ouya there are developer issues and a lack of games. That said it shows plenty of promise. 

M.O.J.O.

The Mojo is everything we’d want in this sort of a console aside from one think – it’s pretty expensive. Made by Mad Catz who are famed for their controllers, it offers expandable memory, comes with a super powerful Tegra 4 CPU and offers full Google Play support so you can play all your mobile games on it. It seems like it’s the complete package, the only issue is that it’s twice as expensive as most of the other devices here. 

Android consoles are in their infancy in a way, however each iteration we see is better and better and they do show a lot of promise. For the price and for what they offer they’re definitely value for money and well worth a look for casual gamers. 

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

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