The Kidigi desktop dock is a simple desktop charging and USB sync cradle for the Samsung Google Nexus S. Although the product is made from plastic, it actually feels very high quality and has a good weight to it - this means that it provides a solid base for your phone to sit on, and it’s unlikely that you’ll knock it over when it’s sat on your desk. The dock is designed so that it angles your device upward toward your face; in practise, I found that the angle was absolutely perfect for me and that I could actually easily operate my device with a forefinger or a thumb even when it was placed in the dock.

At the front of the dock, there is a small blue LED that lights up to indicate whether your device is charging or not. Sometimes it’s easy to just place your phone onto the dock without checking whether mains power is on or not, so this is a nice little addition. Of course, there is a Micro USB connector at the front, and your Nexus S would simply slide into the dock and charge immediately. Another nice feature is the small foam tab toward the top of the dock, which prevents your device from being scratched when it is being removed/replaced - again, a very nice touch and shows that the designers paid attention to detail. 

I’d say the main downside of this dock is the fact that those who use cases on their Nexus S will have to remove it before docking, as the size and shape of the cradle section simply doesn’t make allowance for cases. However, those who use full body protectors such as the ones from Invisibleshield should be fine with this dock. It’s also worth noting that the dock can not only charge but also connect to a computer using the provided USB cable, so you can sync data between your computer and phone right from the dock, exactly as you would use a standard USB cable. 

The Kidigi is an excellent dock. It’s well built, good value, and works flawlessly. They even provide a Micro USB sync/charge cable as well as a USB mains adapter, which is always handy. It’s also available for a variety of different devices, and I’d highly recommend it. 

A big thanks to the folks over at Mobilefun.co.uk for sending this product out to me for review. Mobilefun stock a huge range of mobile phone holders as well as a ton of other accessories for your smartphone - go check them out! 

I love my netbook. I prefer using it to a tablet because I have a full-sized keyboard, and (nearly) a full desktop OS. Tablets are, currently, too expensive and simply not practical enough; most of them run mobile OSs (such as iOS or various versions of Android) which, again, just aren’t practical for my needs. 

Then along comes the Chromebook, essentially netbooks than run Chrome OS. The entire OS is essentially a slightly ‘bloated’ version of Google’s outstanding Chrome browser. To be honest, I could use Chrome OS for my netbook; for word processing I can use Google Docs, which saves everything in the cloud, therefore saving on space. Great idea, right? Most of my netbook use involves an Internet connection, so a Chromebook made perfect sense. I then found out that the Chromebooks cost £350 to £400. For me, and for a lot of people, that killed the Chromebook. I expected them to actually be cheaper than my netbook, and most Atom powered netbooks. Charging this much money for something as, dare I say it, sparse as a Chromebook is ridiculous. If these Chromebooks were selling for £199 or less, they’d sell like hotcakes. 

So we finally got the Galaxy Nexus (previously known as the Nexus Prime). I got home from a 2-3am bike ride earlier today and sat down to watch the stream of the launch event, and at first I wasn’t really that impressed. However, I’ve taken a closer look at the GalNex (which is how I like to refer to it), and it’s grown on me. A lot. 

Screen

I want to address this first, because I think that it’s the most impressive feature of the device. The GalNex features a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED display touting a resolution of 1280x720. Yes, that is a 720p display on a phone. I’ve been impressed with both Apple’s Retina Display as well as HTC’s qHD displays, but this takes things to a whole new level. You’ll be able to fit so much on that screen; this makes it ideal for browsing the web and reading large amounts of text. Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology will also ensure that the screen looks utterly amazing, which it does. 

Camera

Although the phone ‘only’ features a 5-megapixel camera, it records video in full 1080p HD with continuous autofocus, and has some nice effects built-in, such as the panorama mode that merely requires you to sweep your phone from one side of your shot to the other. The software will then automatically create you a nice panorama. Looking at the image samples online, I can see that the camera quality is very good, and probably on a par with that of the 8-megapixel cameras found on most recent HTC devices. It really shows that the number of megapixels really doesn’t matter. 

Ice Cream Sandwich

Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will ship with the Galaxy Nexus. It features a total UI overhaul, and the only word I can use to describe the new UI is stunning. Everything takes a whole new ‘glass’ look, and the blue accents around the whole OS give it a very ‘Tron’ like appearance. Check out this video for a runthrough of the new OS. ICS also supports dual-core processors fully, which makes the GalNex a damn fast device, with its dual-core 1.2Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM. 

Samsung

I hate to burst my own bubble, but the only real thing that puts me off this device (other than the potential SIM-free prices, which are likely to be over £500) is the fact that it’s a Samsung phone. I have a minor vendetta against Samsung, and because of this there’s a small part of me that wants to completely avoid this phone. However, it is Google-branded; also, to be fair to Samsung they have packed in some formidable hardware. Samsung have only manufactured the device, and designed the hardware, so you are getting a Google phone with the Galaxy Nexus, and not a Samsung device. Samsung also don’t have the rock-solid build quality of HTC, and I suppose they never will, but I think this is something I could deal with. 

Verdict

Am I getting the Galaxy Nexus? Truthfully, I don’t know for sure yet, but it’s more than likely. As with every phone, I need to get my hands on one and find out what it’s like to live with before going out and purchasing one (I’ll need to purchase SIM-free and sell my current device, as my contract isn’t up for a very long time). I’m also getting fed up of HTC being unfaithful with software updates; where’s the 2.3.4 update for the Incredible S, guys? I believe that it’s the best smartphone in terms of raw specifications, and it will (like every Nexus device) get the latest Android software updates long before any other phone. Previously, this hadn’t bothered me, but now that I’ve been stuck using non-rooted devices and delayed software updates for the past two years or so, I think I want a change. 

Look out for my continued coverage on the Galaxy Nexus, and feel free to leave comments to help me decide. 

Last week, Google launched their new social network: Google Plus. Plus is contending with Facebook, and bring some interesting new concepts to the table. I’ve been using it for a few days now, and thought I’d share my initial opinions. 

First of all, the integration that Plus has with one’s Google account is just fantastic; I love to have loads of different services all contained within one main account (hence why I use Android). In a lot of ways, Plus is very similar to Facebook: you have a profile, and you are able to send out status updates containing anything from links to photos to videos, and people can comment on these. One of the things that Plus has at the heart of it is ‘Circles’, where you can collect a group of people (work colleagues, family, friends, etc.) in one group and only see their status updates on your timeline. Plus also allows you to choose which Circle you wish to view, and there’s also an option to view all of your contacts in one timeline. Plus also gives you the option to choose exactly who you want to view an update, whether it is a Circle, public, or even just one specific person: a great feature for the power user. 

Google have also integrated Google Talk into Plus, so you can view and chat with any of your Google contacts when you’re online and using Plus: another great feature. There’s also a feature called ‘Hangouts’, which is essentially group video chat. Where Plus really impresses me is its seamless integration with the rest of my Google account; I didn’t even need to set up my profile as all of the details I have were automatically imported from my Google Buzz profile into Plus. 

Plus also has a really, really nice Android app, so using the service on-the-go is a wonderfully painless experience. All in all, I’m very impressed with Google Plus; all it needs is for the community to grow, and then we’ll see a big contender to Facebook for sure. In its current state, it’s a fantastic start. 

I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time, however a recent increase in workload meant that I only had time to draft a few parts of it. In the past three years the human race has advanced so rapidly in terms of technology that we are, in my opinion, almost at a point where everything is the same. For instance, if you’re a guy walk into a bar holding either a Blackberry, iPhone, or HTC to impress, your average girl isn’t going to know the difference between them and will probably think they are all equally amazing, discuss. A huge majority of smartphone buyers today don’t know about the various fights that Apple and Google have had with each other, or about the controversy surrounding the original television advertisement for the Blackberry Storm, or about how Android is quickly eating away at Apple’s market share, they’ll buy a smartphone because they like the way it looks and the way it functions. Android and iPhone are supposedly the leaders today, but the smartphone you see most frequently is a Blackberry, right? 

The mindset of the consumer is, in most cases, to be able to purchase the best product that they think they are getting, at the best possible price. However, in the technology industry, Apple threw a proverbial spanner in the works: people were more than happy to front the extra cash to get an Apple product, such as a Mac or iPod. This is the sole driving force behind Apple’s success of recent; they make a quality product, but so do Blackberry and Microsoft you may argue, but everyone knows that Apple make the best quality products out there. Present a non-techie with some sort of Android device (dare I say it, iPhone ‘rip-off’) or an iPhone and ask them to pick which is best, they’re going to pick the iPhone. This is due to the fact that during their success, Apple has planted a mindset and thought pattern into the minds of customers: think ‘Apple’ and you relate that word to the iPod and iPhone; were those products successful? Even if you’re a non-techie you know that is the case. Apple has consistently produced products without fault; the design of an Apple product has a certain ’wow factor’ that other brands cannot seem to replicate, however hard they try. 

An aspect of successful business is building up your brand’s reputation, and as much as there is wrong with Apple, the fact that they have a virtually bulletproof image, and the way in which they have acquired this, are things to be greatly admired. 

Sidebar: I use an Android phone, and I typed this on a laptop running Windows 7, lol.