I hate running out of power on my phone. I do not even think I am that much of a phone junkie, but I read books on my phone, listen to music on my phone, and even watch my favourite TV shows on it. I was delighted to be sent this super cute avocado charger. It is wireless and pocket sized. it plugs directly into your Smartphone and the 2000mAh battery works its magic. Love it.
The Avocado Shaped Powerbank costs £14.99 from ThumbsUp.com
Not many products actually make a huge difference to your life, but ever since the Leef iBridge arrived I have been singing its praises. In fact, I have even bought some for relatives, that is how amazing it is.
So, I hear you ask: what is it? The Leef iBridge is a compact and convenient must-have for all Apple users, featuring a lightning connector at one end and a standard USB connector on the other. Users can also take photos and videos directly to the iBridge, bypassing their Apple device’s internal memory altogether.
Before this arrived my iPhone was struggling and I could not take any more pictures as I had no memory. My son is not even a year old and I have thousands of pictures and videos of him. I could not even access Twitter or Whatsapp. Enter Leaf iBridge. It can bypass the internal memory of the iPhone so you never have to see the ‘memory full’ pop-up message ever again. It backs-up your iPhone AND it makes it easy to transfer your files to your computer. Or any other computer for that matter. It can also be used on an iPad and an android version is available. I did have to delete some pictures to download the app which goes with the iBridge but it was not a big hassle. I am obsessed with this and have already bought some for other people. I reckon I might even buy another for myself. LOVE.
– Ideal for… anyone with a full to capacity iPhone – Instagram addicts, commuters or holidaymakers.
– Device in 10 words: Never see the dreaded ‘memory full’ pop-up ever again
– Price: starts at £69.99 for 32GB (64, 128 and 256GB also available)
– Available to purchase: From Leefco.com, Amazon.co.uk
Android compatible devices are also available – the Leef Bridge 3.0 and Leef Access are available to purchase from Leefco.com and Amazon.co.uk.
The Poetry App hits 100k downloads as Brits burst with love for romantic poems to recite on Valentine’s Day
Tech-loving Casanovas are searching for romance in the lines of poetry, with help from The Poetry App, to woo their loved ones this Valentine’s Day. The app has been receiving 900 downloads a day in the run up to February 14.
With February 14 a few hours away lines from W.H. Auden’s O Tell Me The Truth About Love, are proving the most popular with the app’s 100,000 users.
Great delivery really gets to the heart of poetry and tongue tied romantics can hear Auden’s famous poem read aloud on the app by actors Ralph Fiennes and Julian Glover.
Other popular romantic love lines on the app include ‘What is all this sweet work worth, If thou kiss me not?’ from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy and ‘All that’s best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes’ from Lord Byron’s She Walks in Beauty. Along with a host of others, Brits can be sure to make sure ‘love’ is the word on everyone’s lips.
Actor Dan Stevens, who reads work by Kipling on the app, said: “I cannot think of a better way to fall in love with the majesty of poetry.”
Users can compile their favourite poems into an online anthology to fill their digital bookcase. If they’re suffering from writer’s block, the app allows users to take inspiration from the great poets via collections of words which feature in their poetic masterpieces.
The Poetry App, created by The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation, includes a collection of 115 poems from 16 well-known poets from Keats and Shelley, to Plath and Larkin read on the app by over 30 great British actors and actresses including Bafta winner Dominic West of The Wire and The Hour, Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens, Silent Witness’ Emilia Fox and Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons.
Users can read, listen and even write their own poetry on the app. The app is available now for free download on Android, iPad and iPhone devices and features in the Top 40 book category on the iTunes App store.
The Food Hospital Fibre Challenge app has had over 60,000 downloads to date following the return of the new series of The Food Hospital on Channel 4 last month. The application available on iPhone and Android devices has got the nation reaching for the fruit bowl and monitoring their toilet habits on a daily basis.
The Fibre Challenge application encourages viewers to record their bowel movements and increase the amount of fibre in their diet for 21 days. Participants are challenged to eat an extra five grams of dietary fibre every day in the first stage, and an extra ten grams per day in the second stage. Each day, they should record how many bowel movements they have had and the stool type using the Bristol Stool Form Scale. At the end of the challenge, participants hope to see a noticeable improvement in bowel health. The anonymous data will be added to the national results, with the overall findings published on The Food Hospital website.
The Food Hospital Fibre Challenge app has been devised by specialist dietitians and is a mass participation initiative to assess the effect of fibre on the nation’s bowel health. Most people don’t eat enough fibre. The recommended minimum daily intake of dietary fibre is 18 grams, but few get anywhere near that. Increasing the amount of fibre in your diet is believed to provide short-term health benefits and help prevent serious disease.
Alongside the app and as part of the new series, each week volunteers who have previously participated in The Fibre Challenge will have their results analysed to help viewers gain a better understanding to whether a high fibre diet significantly improves short-term bowel health. Fifty volunteers took part in The Fibre Challenge earlier this summer and for 21 days, they ate extra dietary fibre and sent information about their bowel movements anonymously to an expert team for analysis.
In a recent study, British Medical Journal reported that dietary fibre can potentially reduce bowel cancer risk by up to 20%. Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer: one person dies every half an hour from the disease, often because of late diagnosis.
The Food Hospital Fibre Challenge app has been devised by betty, the production company behind the series, in consultation with Channel 4 and specialist dietitians. Betty’s executive producer Neil Smith says, “betty has a track record for creating innovative content that captures the imagination. Our challenge was to translate this into a digital form, so we’re thrilled that it’s been so enthusiastically embraced. It’s engaging content with the potential to save lives”.
Deborah Alsina, Chief Executive of Bowel Cancer UK says: ‘We are delighted the Fibre Challenge app has been so popular as it is an important early step to improving bowel health. It is well known that simple changes to your diet and lifestyle, such as increasing your intake of fibre can make you feel better and help stack the odds against bowel cancer. Therefore the makers of The Food Hospital are to be commended for bringing this into the mainstream. We now need to keep momentum and continue to raise awareness and encourage action around this important public health issue.’
Lizzy Keene, Senior Producer for Factual at Channel 4, adds “We are delighted with the success of the app and to have reached over 60,000 downloads already. Our aim was to encourage people to talk openly about their bowel habits and visit their GP with any concerns. Bowel cancer can be successfully treated if it’s caught early enough and we wanted to break down the ‘poo taboo’ in a fun but informative way.”
Sony has confirmed the worst kept secret in tech, the PlayStation licensed smart phone. The Xperia PLAY will be the latest model in Sony Ericsson’s Xperia range of Android based smart phones.
Said to deliver the smartphone functionality that the most serious power users could need, teamed with the immersive gaming experience that any gamer would want. The features will also include a 5 megapixel camera, a 4” multi-touch screen and social networking features, so it rivals most existing smart phones in the usual areas.
Slide out the gaming control and users enter a new world of immersive mobile gaming. The slide out game pad reveals a digital D pad, two analogue touch pads, two shoulder buttons and the four PlayStation icons: circle, cross, square and triangle. Qualcomm’s optimized Snapdragon processor with a 1Ghz CPU and embedded Adreno GPU graphics processor deliver 60fps play-back 3D mobile gaming and Web browsing with minimal power consumption so Xperia PLAY users can enjoy long hours of battery life and game time. How long? Up to 5hrs 35mins of game play time.
Xperia PLAY will run on Gingerbread (version 2.3) and as the first PlayStation Certified device it will have access to PlayStation game content provided through the PlayStation Suite initiative, currently under development by Sony Computer Entertainment and due to launch later this calendar year. There’s only a hint as to the games to be available so far but they include The Sims 3, FIFA 10, Guitar Hero, Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY will be available globally in selected markets from March 2011.
Here’s some specifications (and by ‘some’ I mean lots):
Xperia™ PLAY at a glance:
Sony Ericsson Xperia™ PLAY
Camera
Music
Internet
Communication
Messaging
Design
Entertainment
Organiser
Connectivity
* The service is not available in all markets.
** Requires Facebook™ application installed on the device.
Google™ services*
* These services may not be available in every market Android Market™ Client
Screen
In-Box:
Facts
Talk time and networks Networks
Networks
Colour