Which smartphone takes the best photos?

A post from Microsoft showed up in my Facebook news feed that compares photographs taken with an iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Nokia Lumia 920. Microsoft's phone is clearly the winner with the best photo by far. You can see the results here for yourself. There aren't any details of how, why or when the photos were taken and a Microsoft test in which the Microsoft product won (OK Nokia make the hardware), is a little bit suspect.

You can see another test of these three phones here and the results are different. I would place the iPhone first, Samsung second and Nokia third. The iPhone photo looks more natural and the Nokia photo looks like it has had some processing like smoothing or something.

I have have never tried the Nokia, so I can't say what it is like. However, I do have an iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 and have used the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S2.

I have't run any lab tests and I haven't specially set up photos to analyse the difference. I simply use them in every day life to take photos when I am out, with the family, on holiday and so on. Some shots on the iPhone are brilliant, but on the whole I have to say it is a bit disappointing because some shots are poor. It just seems a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you don't have time to set up a shot perfectly. You see something and you get out your phone and take a shot as fast as you can before the moment passes. Sometimes the iPhone messes up.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 seems much better when I'm fumbling with the phone, trying to work the controls and take a shot. It just seems to take lovely photos most of the time. Even the Samsung Galaxy S2 seems to take better shots than the iPhone 5 on many occasions. I know my tests are completely unscientific and they aren't even tests. They're just everyday shots. The Samsung simply makes me a better photographer.

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Is Facebook Home a disaster?

Facebook Home, launched on April 4th, has split people's opinions and some love it while others hate it. The problem is that more people hate it than love it. In fact, it could be called a major disaster for the company. Instead of ushering a new mobile era for the company, it has turned people off and people have shunned the new app.

Facebook Home is an Android launcher. There are actually quite a few to choose from and what they do is replace the home screen, icons and menus with their own. Facebook thought it would be a great idea to replace the standard Android interface with one that features content from people's Facebook news feed.

There are several problems with it and one common comment is that it makes using the phone harder. People don't want it to be harder, they want it to be easier. People don't want to live in the Facebook world 24/7 and it pushes other apps and services to the back where they are awkward to access.

Comments like "It is just horrible. I don't know why would anyone want to use this. I do not see purpose for this app. It is not that user friendly at all," and "Waste of time. Don't bother. Don't know how the idea made it past the drawing board," are common on the Google Play Store.

Here are the ratings (25th May). As you can see, a huge number of people have rated it only one star. If you call three stars an OK score then 4,813 rated it as good, but 11,720 rated it as bad.

Personally, I don't install apps where the one star bar is almost three times the length of the 5 star bar.

Actually, I couldn't install it even if I wanted to. Even though I have a fairly new Google Nexus 7 tablet and a brand new Samsung Galaxy S4, the Play Store says both are incompatible and it won't let me install it. I'm pretty sure that when I first looked at Facebook Home it said the S4 was compatible, but now it's not.

The HTC First is the first smartphone to come with Facebook Home pre-installed. It's the Facebook phone that has been rumoured for years. It may be the first, but it might also be the last. Sales have apparently been so disappointing that Facebook and HTC have cancelled the UK launch.

Part of the problem is that the hardware is a bit bland. It simply isn't exciting and HTC First's specifications are very middle-of-the-road. It runs Android 4.1, which is OK, but it isn't the latest version. It has a 5MP camera, which again is OK, but some phones come with 8MP or even 13MP in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4. It has a 1.4GHz dual core processor, but others, like the HTC One has a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU. The screen is 4.3in, but many are larger these days.

Added to this bland hardware is a launcher that has had a lot of poor reviews and comments on the Play Store. The phone is a major disaster and HTC is a company that has been struggling lately and can ill afford it.

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The question you should ask when buying a phone

Watchdog is a popular television program on the BBC here in the UK. It exposes scams, rogue traders, shoddy service by companies, conmen and more. You can find it on the BBC's website here or watch it on iPlayer (I'm not sure if it is limited to UK residents or not, try it and see).

A recent programme featured the Samsung Galaxy S4 and it was basically airing a few people's complaints about the lack of memory on the new phone, asking Samsung where all the memory has gone. One user featured on the programme had an S2 or S3, I can't remember which, and when he upgraded to Samsung's latest and greatest gadget he couldn't install all his apps and music. He was complaining that the phone lacked the memory that it was advertised to have.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with 16GB of memory of course, but you should not ask how much memory is installed as this isn't that relevant. What is important of course, and what you should ask before buying a phone is how much memory is available. On the S4 you get the latest version of Android and on top of that, Samsung adds quite a bundle of software. It actually reduces the amount of free memory to around 9GB on a 16GB phone.

This is a little disappointing, but if you want a phone that is packed with features then the software is going to take up a fair bit of space. It is inevitable. However, Samsung could have made the situation a bit better by installing regular apps that could easily be uninstalled to free up space should the user not want them. All regular apps from the Google Play store have uninstall options, but Samsung's don't. Instead of an Uninstall option, you get an Uninstall Updates option. There is also some duplication of software too, so there is a Google Calendar and a Samsung S Planner app, which actually displays your Google Calendar, a Music player when Google Play Music is also installed, and a Samsung Apps Store when there's Google Play Store.

I thought it was a bit unfair to feature the Samsung Galaxy S4 on such a program. It's not a scam, fault, rip-off or bad service like the other items covered in the programme. The high memory usage by the system is just a fact of life really. There are rumours that there is a version of the S4 coming out this summer with plain vanilla Android. That could be interesting and the free memory could be as much as 13GB without the Samsung bloat.

The S4 isn't the only device with memory issues that has come to light and the operating system on the Microsoft Surface tablet uses a lot of memory too. On a 32GB Surface you will be lucky to get half that for your programs, photos, videos and music.

The question you should ask when buying a device is not how much memory is installed, but how much is available to use.

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Lock screen notifications on Samsung Galaxy S4 and S3

There is a missing feature in Android that I wish it had. It is in the iPhone and a really miss it on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (and any phone or tablet running the latest version of Android). It is lock screen notifications.

If I receive a text message, an email, Facebook message or any other kind of notification, the iPhone switches on for a couple of seconds and displays a brief notification telling you what just happened. I like to keep it on the desk beside me when I am working and it regularly dings, switches on and lets me know of a new message, update or whatever. It then switches off again.

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I wish the Samsung Galaxy S4 did that. Well, it can if you install the NiLS Notification Lock Screen app. It is in the Google Play store and it is free.

It is a small download of just 577K, although when it is running my phone reports that it uses 41MB of memory (it's a slight irritation and I'm sure it could have a lighter footprint).

Wake an Android 4.2.2 device and swipe right across the top of the screen and a plus panel appears. Tapping this enables you to add lock screen widgets. These are like regular widgets, but they appear on the lock screen before you've even swiped to unlock the device. Tap the plus and you can add the NiLS widget.

NiLS is confgured in settings where it installs an accessibility service. There is a clock and notifications. Initially when the phone or tablet is woken up NiLS displays a brief summary of notifications. Press, hold and then drag down to display an expanded version.

Both the compact and expanded notifications can be configured and you can choose the text colour, background colour and background transparency. The number of lines for a notification can be set too.

In some ways it is better than the iPhone because instead of waking up and showing one notification, it shows them all in a compact list. However, I would prefer the expanded list to be the default or to show just the most recent notifications. Sometimes I find the compact list too brief and the expanded list too long. It is still a great app though and the phone is better with it than without it.

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How much space do apps really use?

Have you ever sat looking at your phone wondering where all the memory has gone? There never seems to be enough and after taking a few photos and downloading a handful of apps, there seems to be hardly anything left. Whatever size phone you get it doesn't seem to have enough memory. Where does it all go to?

Let's look at a an example app. Vine, the new six-second video sharing social networking app from Twitter.

Go to the Apple App Store on the iPhone and find Vine. It clearly states that this is 11.5MB. That is obviously a lightweight app that uses very little memory, so you go ahead and download it.

Run it a few times and watch the clever and amusing videos that people have posted, follow some people and watch some more videos.

Now go to Settings, General, Usage. You can see my phone on the left and Vine, down near the bottom is using 270MB of memory. That's a bit different to the 11.5MB that the App Store says it uses. How come?

Well, 11.5MB is the size of the download. I'm guessing that this is a compressed file that is expanded when it is installed because tapping Vine on the left says it is 14.2MB. So the compressed file expands to 14.2MB.

The app plays six-second video clips and I suspect that it is caching the videos and storing every one I've watched recently. This is not a 14.2MB app as the store states, it requires over a quarter of a gigabyte. That's why all your memory is disappearing fast even though you have only installed a few lightweight apps.

This problem isn't limited to Vine and many other apps cache information and so use up large amounts of memory. Take a look at Podcasts in the screen shot. This is a 9.9MB app, yet it takes up 530MB because of the podcasts it has stored.

This is not an iOS problem either and it happens just as much on Android. On a Google Nexus 7 for example, (other phones and tablets are similar) go to Settings, Apps, and select Google Earth. The app is 9.41MB, but there is a 371MB cache.

Now you know why there is so little memory left on your phone or tablet.

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Turn off 3G to save battery life on your phone

As smartphones get increasingly smarter, they require more and more power to operate. Although there have been advances in battery life in recent years, the gains have been soaked up by the increasing demands of mobile computing on smartphones. Mobile phones used to last a week on a battery charge, but now many people have to charge them up each day.

There are many ways to prolong the battery life of your phone and one of these is to disable 3G. A 3G connection is a high speed data network that is great for apps that require internet access, but the downside is that it requires more power to operate.

For most of the day your phone will probably be in your pocket. You don't need 3G to receive phone calls, text messages, instant messages, Facebook and Twitter notifications or email. Everything is available without it. So why is it on and burning through your battery charge like there's no tomorrow?

Turn off 3G and you will save quite a lot of battery power, prolonging its life. When you need to do something that requires the internet like watching YouTube videos or sat-nav, then turn it back on. Turn it off afterwards. It is a bit of a hassle, but not much and you may find that some days you don't need 3G at all. After all, there are lots of Wi-Fi hotspots around and these can be used when you need a high speed internet connection.

On  Samsung Galaxy S4 for example, (other Android phones are similar), go to Settings. Select Connections at the top and then tap More networks. Press Mobile networks and then Network mode. The default setting is GSM/WCDMA (auto connect). This means look for 3G and connect to it if available, otherwise use a standard 2G connection. Select GSM only, which turns off 3G. On an iPhone with iOS 6 (previous versions are similar) go to Settings, General, Cellular and set Enable 3G to Off.

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