Bluetooth headphones have existed for years, of course, though anyone who really cared about audio quality usually stuck to the traditional wired headphones and a phone's 3.5mm jack (this being AAWP, the DAC and output in the Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro is exceptional). But over the years, with new codecs (e.g. aptX HD at the high end) and faster and more capable chipsets in both phone and accessory, quality has been rising, prompting me to experiment with the mass market 'state of the art', exemplified here in the Tribit XFree Color.
Now, this is certainly not traditional freemium - it's £15 to get rid of the ads, so perhaps it's priced as a desktop game, with this working on Windows 10 computers everywhere. But it works beautifully on Mobile, in this case my test Windows 10 phone, the Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro. There's the catch in that there are compulsory 30 second adverts to watch between games, but you can retry levels after dying without being hit by ads. So as long as you consider the waits to be where you sip your beer or coffee then this might be a load of motorised fun.
The status and efficiency of the official Instagram client for Windows 10 has always been a bit suspect, which is why I'm happy to welcome Winsta UWP, an unashamedly unofficial client, but one that's fast and fluid. Even if it does bend some rules along the way and even if it has more than a few MIA components at the moment. See below for an illustrated initial review...
Hooking accessories up to smartphones has always been a case of finding the right adapter and then praying that it'll all work. USB Type C, used on the top end Lumias and IDOL 4 Pro, made things easier because of the plug and play protocols involved. And the need for adapters got more intense with the arrival of the Surface Go, which I've been reviewing over the last month or so. As with the phones, it only has one Type C port. Enter a variety of hubs and adapters, which I'll get to in time. First to arrive on my desk though, is this Choetech hub - and you'll be surprised at just how much it can do.
It's not often that we review applications that don't run on Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile, but Microsoft Launcher for Android is significant as it may well provide an easy-ish bridge between a Windows phone and Microsoft applications and services while moving the phone itself to Android. Microsoft Launcher has been covered here before in passing, but it hit the big 5.0 in the last week and it's time to assess it properly.
Following on from my Gallery of the Surface Go review hardware kit and the first part of my main review of this relevant ultra-mobile computing device, here's part 2, concentrating on the Type Cover and the laptop experience. And you'll forgive the gushing praise, but the Alcantara Microsoft Type Covers are just spectacularly high quality. Snapped onto a Surface Go, this gives you the Windows laptop experience at not much more than 700g.
A week ago I took my first look at the new Surface Go with an illustrated gallery showing the device, its optional keyboard and its definitely optional pen. And I have to confess that it won me over fairly quickly. Having already opined on the design many months ago, at launch, I can happily admit that some of my fears were quickly dispelled and the Go is now one of my favourite computing devices - it's just so... light and small, yet it's - literally - a full PC. Not quite in my pocket, but close. It's certainly trivial to add to any folio or carry bag. Here's part one of my multi-part review for AAWP.
