There's revolution in the air. People and companies are tired of essentially being limited to a choice of just three smartphone operating systems. They're tired of the walled gardens of iOS and Windows Phone and they're wondering about the open-source-but-secretive development of Android.

This atmosphere has led to four new operating systems being built to challenge the status quo. There's Firefox OS, Ubuntu, Tizen and then now Sailfish OS, an operating system developed by a small team with big ambitions.

Sailfish OS might be reasonably new, but many of the ideas driving it aren't. It's an open source Linux based operating system but more specifically it was born from the ashes of Nokia's failed MeeGo OS, which was used on precisely one phone: the Nokia N9, before the Finnish phone-smiths pulled the plug.

• Hands on: Jolla Phone review

Some of the people behind MeeGo weren't ready to abandon it though, so they jumped ship, formed a new company called Jolla, raised an impressive £160 million and got to work on Sailfish OS, taking many of the ideas from MeeGo with them.

Not a button in sight

So why should you care about Sailfish OS? Well, it's largely open source for one thing, and not open source in the way Android is where most of the development is done behind closed doors, but truly open, allowing the public to see much of what Jolla is doing and use the code for their own purposes.

It also has a user interface that's quite different from any of the competition. It starts with the homescreen, which rather than showing static app icons instead gives you a window to all your open apps, and lets you switch between them or interact with them with a swipe, taking multitasking to a level not really seen on other phone OS's.

For example, if you have the phone app open on the homescreen a swipe one way will reveal the dialer and the opposite way will show you your contacts.

But each app icon also shows live information, so for example the music player might show what track is playing. In many ways it's a mix of BlackBerry 10's homescreen layout, Windows Phone 8's live tiles and Android's widgets all in one.

As you might have guessed from all that, it's also a very gesture based OS. You can access the app drawer with a swipe up from the homescreen, get back by swiping from one side to the other when in an app or close it down by sliding your digit from top to bottom.

You can also check your social network updates and other notifications without interrupting what you're doing by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, quickly access options that are relevant to the screen you're on by accessing the 'Pulley Menu' with a downwards swipe from the centre of the screen and wake the phone up from sleep by double tapping anywhere on the screen.

It's a system which cuts down on buttons and menus and gives you access to just about everything from any app or screen.

In fact there are no physical or virtual home, back, menu or search buttons. Being able to carry out different actions with just a swipe also makes it much easier to use one-handed than other mobile operating systems and could potentially help it stand out on larger handsets and tablets where two-handed use has been all but essential up to now.

Custom colours

Sailfish OS also puts a lot of focus on visual customisation, allowing you to change the colour of the interface to match the colours of whatever background image you're using and the colour change is applied not just to the home screen but also to the apps themselves.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Super AMOLED and Super LCD are two of the best and most popular screen technologies currently in use on phones, and are the display tech of choice for two of the most popular Android phones around.

HTC for example, packed its One flagship with a Super LCD screen (in fact, it's one of the biggest customers of the tech by some way) while Samsung not only uses Super AMOLED, the company actually created it. But what's the difference between them? And which is better?

Super AMOLED

To understand Super AMOLED you first need to understand its origins. It started with OLED, which stands for 'organic light-emitting diode' and consists of a thin organic film with electrodes at either side. As soon as an electric current is applied to the film it emits light.

AMOLED is an 'active-matrix organic light-emitting diode'. It adds a layer of semiconducting film behind the OLED panel which allows it to more quickly activate each pixel. That increased speed makes it ideal for larger, higher definition displays with a lot of pixels. In fact it's as much as 1000 times faster than LCD.

AMOLED screens also tend to have great contrast, as the light on the screen comes from each individual pixel rather than a backlight; when it needs to create a black colour it simply dims or turns off the relevant pixels, for a true, deep black.

AMOLED screens also use a large colour gamut, so they can display a wide range of colours, but that can also cause images to look very vibrant or over-saturated.

Other advantages of AMOLED screens are that they have wide viewing angles and can even be made transparent or flexible, which makes them ideal for the curved handsets which are starting to hit the market, such as the Samsung Galaxy Round.

An AMOLED touchscreen usually has an extra, touch sensitive layer on top of the screen, but with Super AMOLED Samsung has been able to integrate touch sensitivity into the screen itself.

The result of this is that not only is the screen thinner, lighter, more touch sensitive and less power-hungry, but without that extra layer it's also far less reflective than a typical AMOLED screen, making it easier to view in bright sunlight.

On the other hand Super AMOLED screens are quite susceptible to image burn in and sometimes use a PenTile matrix with fewer subpixels than their LCD companions, which can potentially lead to less sharp images or give the screen an unnatural colour tint.

Samsung obviously has a lot of faith in Super AMOLED, as the company uses it in its latest flagship (the Samsung Galaxy S5) as well as most other phones in the Galaxy S range, but it's also developed variations on the technology.

For example there's Super AMOLED Plus, which was used in the Samsung Galaxy S2 and has a standard RGB matrix rather than a PenTile matrix, meaning it has 50% more subpixels and therefore delivers clearer images, but it also degrades faster than a Super AMOLED display, which is why Samsung stopped using it in its flagships.

Then there's HD Super AMOLED, which is just a 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED display and Full HD Super AMOLED, which, you guessed it, is Full HD 1080 x 1920.

Super LCD

Just as AMOLED was the predecessor to Super AMOLED, LCD was the predecessor to Super LCD. Unlike an AMOLED display which lights each pixel individually, an LCD (or liquid crystal display) has a backlight, so the whole screen is lit to some extent, even supposedly black areas.

It uses liquid crystals which are manipulated via electrical charges to cover or not cover pixels as needed, thereby letting more or less light through, but it can never deliver true blacks as the backlight is always on.

In standard LCD displays there's an air gap between the outer glass and the display element, but with Super LCD that gap is removed, which has similar benefits to Super AMOLED.

Glare is reduced, making it more easily viewable when outside and in bright sunlight, plus the screen is also thinner and uses less power than standard LCD.

The power consumption of a Super LCD screen is particularly low when displaying lighter colours, which makes it ideal for web browsing for example as websites tend to have white backgrounds. The opposite is true with Super AMOLED, where blacks consume less power as the pixels don't have to be lit.

Things get a bit more complicated when you consider that there's also such a thing as Super LCD2 and Super LCD3, but really each numbered version is just an improvement on the last while working in much the same way.

Super LCD3 for example is brighter than Super LCD2, as well as having better viewing angles and a faster refresh rate to avoid blurring when watching videos.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Samsung's going to let developers use the Galaxy S5's fingerprint scanner in their own apps, which means you could be waving goodbye to your passwords for good.

The fingerprint-friendly Pass API was released as part of the S5's development kit, which also includes all the information devs need to create apps for the Gear 2 and Gear Fit.

The fingerprint scanner was already more useful than most, allowing you to control certain parts of the phone with your biometric data, and more apps being able to access the info will certainly attract consumers.

Pass out

"With Pass, you can provide reinforced security, since you can identify whether the current user actually is the authentic owner of the device," the document explains.

PayPal is the first to make use of the open API; its app lets you use your phone and fingerprint scanner combo to pay for things in participating stores.

Unlike Samsung, Apple's TouchID has stayed tightly guarded so you can only use it to unlock your iPhone 5S and authorise payments in Apple's own products like iBooks, iTunes and the App Store.

• What did we make of the new Samsung flagship? Read our hands on Samsung Galaxy S5 review to find out

Source : techradar[dot]com

Once in a while, a product pops up that reminds you just how remarkable digital technology can be. The Jabra Motion Bluetooth headset does just that.

It integrates such an impressive array of functionality into such a tiny device, you simply have to marvel at what's possible.

Put another way, it's that Star Trek thing - the Jabra Motion is Lieutenant Uhura's ear-dangling comms device productionised and available to buy.

That's not to say it's unique or even necessarily does its intended job well. Several outfits will do you a full-function Bluetooth headset.

Indeed, the critical point is that you can have a Bluetooth headset for as little as £10 – Amazon.co.uk will do you a Plantronics ML18 for just that. The most basic version of the Jabra Motion typically costs in excess of £60.

On paper, both that device and the Jabra Motion do the same basic job – allow you to connect to your mobile phone via Bluetooth for hands-free calls.

Question is, then, does the Jabra Motion's particular feature set and execution – its controls, its battery life, the quality of its noise cancellation – make it worth the price premium.

Features

Our review sample is the basic Jabra Motion. That means its a Bluetooth hands-free headset that will connect to any Bluetooth-enabled phone for voice calls.

It has physical controls for receiving and ending calls, audio volume and mute. The micrphone itseld is on a flip-boom which doubles as a power switch for the whole device.

Thanks to an extendable, swiveling ear piece, it's also adjustable for size and can be worn on both left and right ears.

Digital features start with motion and environment-sensitive noise canceling. It also sports voice control both natively and through certain handsets.

That means you have voice control of a number of the Jabra's own functions. But you can also use the full voice control of your handset through the headset. For example, you can access Apple's Siri voice control on iPhones with the headset.

The Jabra Motion also has a few other neat frills, such as using its motion sensor to automatically answer calls when you pick it up.

If this is the entry-level version, other variants add extras like a USB Bluetooth adapter to allow you to connect to PCs and support for Unified Communications (UC) which will be attractive to corporate users.

Performance

Call quality, that's surely one of the biggies for any Bluetooth headset and here the Jabra Motion scores pretty heavily.

Exactly what goes into the noise cancelling tech, we're not sure. But the end result is impressive suppression of car noise. If you didn't already know someone was calling you in-car and on the move with the Motion, you probably wouldn't guess.

And that was with our test car which is a relatively noise cabriolet with a fabric roof. That said, the audio quality for the receiver is a little thin. But if you don't want people to automatically know you're on the road, the Motion gets the job done.

As it happens, the sound quality for the Jabra Motion user is a little skinny, too. You don't notice this much in calls. But it is obvious if you try to listen to music through the ear piece.

Not that you'll likely want to use it as a single-ear wireless headphone. But it does reveal the fundamental quality of the audio of offer. And it's mediocre.

The other major element of the user experience is ease of use and that's a story of wins and losses for the Motion. The least satisfying aspect is physical fit.

The Jabra motion is adjustable and also configurable for both ears. But we found achieving a comfortable, stable fit tricky to achieve.

That's compounded if you wear glasses where the Motion and the arm of your glasses compete for space and stability atop your ear.

However, we're all different shapes and sizes so our advice here is clear. Try before you buy. The Motion isn't poorly designed, it's adjustable and it may fit you very nicely.

The rest of the usability package, however, is much more successful. Initial setup and syncing is a cinch, as is accepting and ending calls. Ditto volume adjustment and accessing additional features. It all works very smoothly indeed.

The voice control feature is an added boon and means you can have full access to your contacts on the move and hands-free. In our testing, there was no detectable loss of accuracy of Apple's Siri voice control when on the move and using the Motion as an interface.

Battery life is also good. Much will depend on usage. But Jabra claims seven hours talk time and that seems realistic.

The bottom line is that you want the device to last a day on a single charge and so long as you don't spend literally every moment on calls, we reckon you'll get just that.

Source : techradar[dot]com

The LG F70 is the Korean firm's first push into producing more affordable 4G handsets, something which many manufacturers are doing at MWC 2014.

LG hasn't announced the price of the F70, but the handset is confirmed to arrive in Europe in the coming months.

In terms of design the LG F70 takes cues from the flagship G2, although LG has decided against on screen navigation keys, instead choosing to stick a physical home button below the display, flanked by touch sensitive back and menu options.

The power/lock button is located on the right of the F70, while the volume switch is on the left and both are easy to hit.

The lightweight, plastic build of the F70 feels sturdy, although the rear cover offers little in the way of grip, so you'll need to make sure you've got a firm hold of the phone.

It is a little on the chunky side too, measuring in at 127.2 x 66.4 x 10mm, but the rounded edges means the F70 still sits nicely in the hand.

A 4.5-inch display dominates the front of the LG F70, although its 800 x 480 resolution is a little disappointing as I'm now starting to see 720p options arriving towards the bottom end of the market.

That said, text is still perfectly legible on the F70, but if you look closely you can see that it's a little on the grainy side.

The main selling point of the F70 however is it's 4G connectivity at a lower price point, although I was unable to test out just how quick it could access the web during my short time playing with the device.

I was pleased to find Android 4.4 KitKat installed on the F70, the latest flavour of Google's mobile platform, and LG has stuck its own interface over the top.

One of the features LG's overlay brings to the F70 is Knockcode, a security function which the Korean firm has put on its low-end L-series devices as well as top end products such as the G Pro 2 and G2 Mini.

Knockcode allows you to wake the screen and unlock the F70 by tapping out a pattern on the display of between two and eight knocks.

It 's a clever idea, but one which is a little hit and miss as the F70 didn't always register my taps, forcing me to repeat the pattern.

There's a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM inside the LG F70 and it keeps KitKat ticking over nicely with smooth performance and no lag experienced during my hands on.

Rather annoyingly though for a mid range handset it only comes with a tiny 4GB of internal storage. There is a microSD slot allowing you to build on this, but it's still a very low amount and I would have liked a minimum of 8GB.

The camera setup on the LG F70 isn't much to write home about either, with a pretty average 5MP lens on the rear and a VGA offering on the front.

That's fine for the occasional casual snap, but you won't be shooting beautiful vistas with the LG F70.

The rear cover of the F70 comes off, giving you access to the microSIM and microSD slots and also the removable 2440mAh battery.

That's a decent size and should keep the F70 going for a while, although you'll have to wait for our in-depth review to see just how well it performs.

Early verdict

The LG F70 has a mediocre range of specs, but its main focus is the 4G connectivity at a lower price.

If 4G isn't important to you then you may want to check out something like the Motorola Moto G, but for a hassle free handset with access to superfast data speeds the F70 isn't a bad shout.

Source : techradar[dot]com