Phone Condoms Protect Devices From the Rain

Smartskin Condoms for Smartphones are sheaths made from soft and stretchy thermoplastic that cover your device to protect it. The skins slip on and stretch to fit, and sealing tabs are provided to stick over the remaining area.
The water-resistant plastic wraps are useful if you need to use your phone out in the rain or want to use it at the beach, without worrying about water or sand damaging it.

You never know when you’ll get lucky ... enough to take your phone to the beach, or on a boat, or cycling in the rain, or driving a rally car, or riding a camel in the desert. But thanks to the sleek and stretchy Condoms for Smartphone, you'll never have to say no to an unexpected bit of excitement again. Keep them in your wallet for that special situation or emergency occasion, and know that your smartphone has protection at a moment's notice.

There are versions available for the iPhone 4/4s, the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy SIII. A pack contains three skins and three sealing tabs, said to work up to three times each.
The smartphone retains full touchscreen and call functionality and 98% camera clarity, although headphones and cables cannot be used while the skin is on. The Condoms for Smartphones are available from Firebox for £12 ($18.50).

2 Ways to Fix the Typing-on-Touchscreens Problem

Considering how much typing on a glass touchscreen blows in comparison to using hard keys, it's easy to imagine how Blackberry saw the first iPhone back in 2007 and thought, "Bah, this isn't a threat." We all know how that turned out. But typing on glass still blows, and voice dictation on mobile devices (while pretty awesome) isn't a good fit for every situation. So how can we un-blowify touchscreen typing? Two interesting software-design approaches have recently emerged: one rethinks how the keyboard looks, while the other rethinks how the keyboard acts. (Spoiler alert: I think the latter has more potential.)
KALQ, an experimental system developed by a team of HCI researchers including Per Ola Kristensson (whose distraction-reducing display interface I wrote about here), takes the standard QWERTY keyboard layout and redesigns its layout to reflect mobile-device usage patterns (well, one in particular: gripping a phablet or tablet in landscape view with both hands and typing with one's thumbs). KALQ takes its name from its redistribution of the QWERTY keys. It splits the keyboard into two mini-keyboards: one on the left, one on the right, each positioned within easy striking distance of the thumb on each hand, with the letters laid out in such a way to maximize efficiency. For example, the researchers discovered that oft-typed words like "on," "see," "you," and "read" must be typed solely with one thumb if the QWERTY keyboard is simply split in half. Typing entire words (even short ones) with one thumb is slow and awkward. So they redistributed the keys across the two "boards" to make a better ergonomic fit for these word-usage frequencies.
The result? A 34% boost in typing speed. The catch? It'll take four to eight hours of training to be able to use it at a level of fluency equivalent to a standard QWERTY keyboard, and more hours to get faster.
Meanwhile, a startup called Syntellia has created a soft keyboard called Fleksy that is also dedicated to making touchscreen typing less cumbersome. It's still a QWERTY keyboard, though. Instead, Fleksy uses a beefed-up autocorrection/prediction engine under the hood to minimize typing errors. It's so beefed-up, in fact, that you can use it to type accurately without even seeing the keys. So blaze away as fast and out-of-control on your glass screen as you like — Fleksy's software will mop up your mistakes. (In theory. I tried it myself on iOS and was encumbered by the weird gesture it makes you use instead of hitting a spacebar button. If they'd kept that in, I'd have been much faster.)
Both KALQ and Fleksy are flawed but technologically impressive solutions to similar problems. KALQ, though, seems like a design solution wrought in a vacuum. It asks, What if we could redesign keyboards from scratch to better fit how we use mobile devices now? The trouble is that keyboards don't exist in a vacuum, and they don’t only exist now. The QWERTY layout is an interface that, over the past 135 years, has become culture: it exists across many domains, anywhere that text input goes into a machine, not just touchscreen mobile devices in 2013. It's what people expect when they have to or want to input text with their hands. Sure, the original technological reasons for that QWERTY layout— to prevent jams in the physical mechanism of late-19th-century metal typewriters — no longer exist. But what does exist, and has for well over a century, is the cultural expectation that keyboards equal QWERTY.
So, do you take that fact into account when designing a solution to this problem — or ignore it? There's no "right" answer, but the Fleksy approach seems less likely to fail completely, because it doesn't seek to shrug off all that cultural weight that QWERTY has. If the real design problem being addressed is, "How can we make soft-key typing faster?" then you might wonder, "what slows people down when typing on soft keys?" Is it ergonomics or something mechanical — a feature of the system? Or is it an outcome of those ergonomics? What slows me down when I type on a touchscreen isn't the lack of haptic feedback or suboptimal key arrangement. What slows me down, really, is the outcome of compensating for the limits of the system on glass screens — that is, my own error-correcting behavior: I have to stare at the keys to make sure I'm pressing the right ones, move more slowly, or back up and correct what I mis-typed. So if this manual error-correcting behavior is what is slowing me down in this context, perhaps the solution is not to redesign the keyboard into a wholly-unfamiliar-but-somehow-technically-optimized arrangement, and ask me to learn it, even though this new learning will not apply to any other manual text-input task I'll ever encounter — but simply let me keep doing what I already know how to do, while relieving me of that error-correcting burden. Keep the QWERTY — the cultural artifact I'm already an expert user of — but add software that minimizes my error —so I don't have to slow down. This is what Fleksy aims to do.
Granted, KALQ's alternative layout is a logical reaction to the fact that, when you try to solve the ergonomic problem (splitting the keyboard into two pieces that live on either side of a device's screen, easily accessible by your thumbs), some of QWERTY's advantages simply break — so there was no choice but to rearrange the keys in order to commit to that ergonomic solution. In light of Fleksy's approach, though, I just wonder if that tradeoff is really worth it.
And Fleksy doesn't work perfectly yet either — not even close. But that design approach somehow seems more human-friendly, in the larger context of keyboard usage. It's to their credit that both Fleksy and KALQ's creators have not simply conjectured from armchairs about what would, could, or should work: they've put in an impressive amount of research into identifying and implementing their respective solutions. Still, that research — and the solutions it suggests — derives from asking very different questions about what this typing problem really is.

Can an App Steal Your Credit Card Data?

Eric Larson1 day ago

Thieves are now using an app, in conjunction with near field communication (NFC), to swipe credit card information by waving their phones at close proximity to a victim's wallet or jacket, according to a recent CBC News report. The process takes only a second, and because of its swipe-and-grab nature, it doesn't leave any evidence.
The report didn't specify exactly which app was being used, but it did mention the phone in the study was a Samsung Galaxy S III.

SEE ALSO: Is Your Twitter Password Strong Enough?

What's important to note is that the credit cards in danger here are only those that use NFC for payment, like MasterCard PayPass or Visa payWave, which allow customers to tap their card to make quick purchases. You can contact your credit card company to see if your card is NFC-capable.
Watch the video above to learn more

Android Tablet Market Share Nearly Matches the iPad

The worldwide market share of Android tablets is just a few percentage points below that of Apple's iPad, new research says. Meanwhile, Windows tablets have carved out a significant but "niche" market in their first fill quarter being available.
Android tablets make up 43.4% of the global tablet market, while iOS-based ones (including the iPad, iPad 2 and iPad mini) represent 48.2%, according to data from Strategy Analytics. The 4.8% gap isn't negligible, but it's much less than 28.9% difference from the same period in 2012.
Two important caveats: The data reflects only the tablets sold during the quarter, not how many devices exist in the market. It also counts tablets shipped to vendors, which isn't the same thing as what is sold to consumers.

SEE ALSO: 4 Predictions for Tablets in 2013

Other analytics companies report on actual usage of tablets, based on examining data from websites that track what kind of devices access them. In those studies, the iPad is consistently dominant: Chitika reported last December that for every 100 impressions from an iPad, just 4.88 come from the next most popular tablet, Amazon's Kindle Fire.
Nonetheless, the data point to Android tablet sales advancing considerably. The introduction of a new class of devices — led by Google's Nexus tablets and Samsung's Galaxy line — as well as improved software in the form of Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" have clearly had an impact.
Strategy Analytics also points out that when "white box" tablets are considered, which are tablets bought from a supplier and then rebranded and modified with lower-cost components, Android's market share jumps to 52%. Those tablets are generally from brands few people in the West have heard of (Calsen, for example) and serve a different market than the typical tablet consumer.
As for Windows tablets, they captured 7.5% of the market in the first quarter, which includes both Windows 8 and RT models. That adds up to about 3 million tablets sold. "Very limited distribution, a shortage of top tier apps, and confusion in the market are all holding back" Windows tablets from doing better.
Do you think 2013 will be the year Android tablets take away the iPad's crown as king of the tablet market? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Leap Motion Delays Pre-Order Ship Date

You'll have to put aside those dreams of a Minority Report-style interface for just a bit longer. Leap Motion, the pint-sized technology that can turn an average desktop or laptop into a gesture-controlled computer, is not shipping to customers on May 13 as previously promised.
Now, those who ordered Leap Motion device early can expect them on July 22. In a letter to press on Thursday, Leap Motion co-founder and CEO Michael Buckwald, said, "After a lot of consideration, we’ve decided to push back the date and will now be shipping units to pre-order customers on July 22nd. This is not a decision we take lightly.
“This is the first and only delay there will be. It's the right decision and will yield a beautiful product," Buckwald told Mashable.
Buckwald said that the now 80-person Leap Motion has already built and delivered thousands of devices to developers and probably could have made the original ship date. "But it wouldn’t have left time for comprehensive testing," wrote Buckwald. Leap Motion plans on completing testing in June.
“As a company we always said we would not release the product until it met our expectations and in this case our expectations are extremely high,” Buckwald said in an press conference following the announcement.
The company will also open up testing to some people outside the development community.
"This will come in the form of a beta test that will start in June. We will give the 12k developers who currently have Leap devices access to the feature complete product including OS interaction (today developers only have access to the SDK). We will also invite some people who are not developers to join the beta test."
Hardware will not be affected by the results of the beta testing. Leap Motion’s Buckwald said they have "600,000 units today in three different distribution center that we could ship today. It’s all on the software."
The delay comes just two months after leap Motion announced its pre-order delivery schedule and less than a month after it made a splash at SXSW 2013 in Austin, Texas. That was where Mashable got to test drive the rather remarkable computer interface technology.
Leap Motion and HP also recently announced their plan to embed the technology inside upcoming HP products.

Image courtesy of Leap Motion

Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 Screens Compared: It's a Tie

One of the most important features on any smartphone is its display, since it's how the user experiences every single app, piece of content or message via the phone. So how does the screen on the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S4 fare? One display expert decided to find out.
Testing a pre-production unit from Samsung, DisplayMate's Raymond Soneira found that the large, high-res screen of the Galaxy S4 is a "major" upgrade from its predecessor, the Galaxy S III. In comparing it with the iPhone 5, however, he found the two phones each had strengths and weaknesses, declaring the contest "a tie."
The Galaxy S4 boasts a 5-inch full HD display with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. That adds up to a dense 441 pixels per inch (ppi), but there's a catch, says Soneira. The screen is a PenTile display, which means it doesn't have as may subpixels as an LCD, instead letting pixels "share" subpixels for displaying some content so as not to lose apparent resolution.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S4: Best Android Phone Ever

PenTile technology works very well for videos and photos, but when it comes to things such text — where precise pixel placement matters more — edges can sometimes get fuzzy. But that doesn't happen on the GS4, Soneira says, simply because the pixel density is already so high.
"There are 312 red and blue subpixels per inch, which is only a few percent lower than Apple'e benchmark 326 ppi iPhone retina display," he wrote. "Visually the Galaxy S4 PenTile display delivers excellent visual sharpness across the board."
The screen on the Galaxy S4 uses OLED technology instead of the more common LCD tech found on the iPhone 5 and most other phones. Samsung is the world's leading supplier of OLED displays in phones, and it shows, Soneira says. Although OLEDs typically aren't as bright as LCDs, the test found the GS4 to perform well in high ambient lighting, 25% brighter than the GSIII. It was about 15% less bright than the iPhone 5's display, though.
Although the test found the iPhone 5 to be "significantly" brighter than the Galaxy S4, Samsung's flagship has better screen uniformity, darker blacks and — notably — much better brightness off-angle. Viewed from the side, the iPhone 5's brightness drops 60% at just a 30-degree angle whereas the GS4's decreases just 22%.
You can check out the full write-up, along with comparison tables, over at DisplayMate.
What features in a smartphone screen matter to you most? Let us know in the comments.

HTC One Comes to T-Mobile April 24

T-Mobile has finally revealed the launch date for HTC One on its network: April 24. Answering questions from several Twitter users about the HTC One, T-mobile simply replied it will be launching the LTE version of the device on April 24.

HTC's Android flagship sports a unibody aluminum chassis, a 4.7-inch, full HD display, a 4-megapixel camera with an "UltraPixel" image sensor, a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU and 2GB of RAM.
And if you trust this report from TmoNews, the One will also support Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile's network.
SEE ALSO: Why HTC Is Betting on 'UltraPixels' for Its New Flagship Phone
Coupled with T-Mobile's recent dramatic change in strategy, in which the company got rid of cellphone contracts altogether, the HTC One could be an alluring proposition for many customers. And, if you're in the opposing camp, T-Mobile also recently started selling the iPhone 5 as well.
Are you excited to see the HTC One in T-Mobile's roster? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Image courtesy of HT

New SAMSUNG Phone Can't Match The Competition

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is easily the most hyped phone of the year.

There was a Broadway-style launch event took place at Radio City Music Hall. The announcement made the front pages of newspapers around the country. People were drooling.

Now, a month later, the Galaxy S4 is here.

I've been using the Galaxy S4 for about a week. In many respects, it does live up to all that hype and is definitely one of the best phones you can buy today. But it's still falls short of its chief rivals, the iPhone 5 and HTC One, at least from a design standpoint.

Click here for photos of the Samsung Galaxy S4 >

The Hardware: So Much Plastic

Perhaps the most polarizing feature of the Galaxy S4 is its design and build quality. A lot of people criticized Samsung when it decided to make its new flagship phone out of plastic, and rightfully so. The Galaxy S4 simply isn't as beautiful or as fun to hold as the HTC One and iPhone 5.

And it almost feels cheap by comparison. The entire phone is covered in creaky plastic, not solid metal and glass. Just take off the flimsy back cover and you'll see what I'm talking about. It almost bends in half. Whereas the iPhone and HTC One designs scream quality, the Galaxy S4 design feels at least two years behind. It looks nearly identical to last year's Galaxy S III, with only a few minor tweaks.

Steve Kovach/Business Insider

The flimsy back cover on the Galaxy S4.

Now is the plastic horrible? Is it a deal breaker? Is the Galaxy S4 a total dud because there's no metal on the body?

Nope.

There are some benefits to owning a plastic phone over a metal one, and some will find the plastic construction a good thing, not a drawback. The Galaxy S4 won't scratch as easily as metal phones, and the plastic makes the phone feel slim and lightweight.

And there are plenty of other things to love about the hardware, most notably the screen, which is easily the best physical feature of the Galaxy S4.

At five inches, the Galaxy S4's display is bigger, sharper, and more impressive than the one on the iPhone 5. It can also play HD video, another feature missing from the iPhone. And a bigger screen doesn't mean the phone itself is so huge you can't hold it. Samsung was able to increase the Galaxy S4's screen size but still keep the phone's body nearly the same size as the Galaxy S III. As a result, the phone has a remarkably thin bezel, and the display feels like it's floating in your hand. Gorgeous.

The Galaxy S4 also has a removable battery and a SD card slot for extra memory, two features many manufacturers are starting to leave out of phones nowadays. Battery life is pretty good too. You'll easily be able to make it through a day with moderate use.

In the end, the hardware is all about tradeoffs. You get one of the best screens available on a phone, a removable battery, and expandable memory, but it's all encased in a plastic shell. I enjoyed the look and feel of the HTC One a lot more than the Galaxy S4, but it's all a matter of personal preference.

More Features Than You Can Count

The Galaxy S4 is still an Android phone at its core, meaning you get access to all of those great Google features like a robust selection of apps and games along with Google Now, a voice-powered assistant that's much better than Siri on the iPhone.

But Samsung has modified Google's basic Android operating system with a bunch of whiz-bang features of its own. In fact, there's so much stuff packed into this phone, that Samsung had to create a special settings menu just so you can toggle everything on and off.

This is how you toggle all the extra features on and off.

Normally, I wouldn't spend so much time on these features, but it's a big part of how Samsung is trying to differentiate the Galaxy S4 from other phones. It spent a few million dollars putting on that Broadway-style show to introduce them, after all.

There's way too much in the Galaxy S4 to go over without boring you to death, so here's an overview of the most important stuff:

• Air View: This feature lets you hover your finger a centimeter or two over the phone's display and view extra information or drop-down menus in apps. I found it the most useful in the email app, which lets you hover over a message in your inbox and get a quick preview of what it says. But it doesn't work with most apps, only a few that are made by Samsung and the specially designed Flipboard app. And it's still not as instant as actually touching the screen. There's a noticeable delay from the time you hover over the screen and when the action actually appears.
• Air Gesture: When you switch on Air Gesture, you can scroll through photos in your gallery, browse websites, or answer incoming calls by waving your hand over the screen. Air Gesture was one of the most talked about features when the Galaxy S4 was first introduced, but it also happens to be one of the most impractical. I could only think of one scenario where waving your hand over the screen is better than actually touching it, and it's the example Samsung gave me –– Air Gesture is great if you're in the car and you need to answer the phone without looking.
• Smart Stay: Smart Stay uses the Galaxy S4's front-facing camera to detect when you're looking at it and prevents the screen from going dark. Out of all the extras in the Galaxy S4, this is by the most useful. It solves a real problem with smartphones and tablets (How many times has your phone's screen gone dark while you were in the middle of reading an article?) and it's a feature you should always keep switched on.
• Smart Scrolling: You've probably heard that the Galaxy S4 has a special eye-tracking technology used for scrolling. That's not entirely accurate. Like with Smart Stay, Smart Scrolling can detect when you're looking at the phone. You then tilt the phone forward or backward to scroll through pages. But smart scrolling didn't always work well for me, and like Air Gesture, I found it easier just to touch the screen to navigate the old-fashioned way. There's no real advantage to tilting your phone to scroll.
• Camera: The camera software is really impressive, packed with a bunch of clever shooting modes that are easy to navigate to. (A lot of smartphone cameras tend to bury their extra modes.) My favorite mode is called Eraser, which can automatically detect people moving in the background and remove them to create a nearly perfect image. I also like Animated Photo, which lets you create your own GIF-like images. Other standard shooting modes like panorama and HDR are included too.

Air View on the Galaxy S4.

Got all that?

There are several more goodies hidden in the Galaxy S4's software, but hopefully you get the idea. Samsung has packed its new phone with more doodads than any one person could ever use. Some of them are useful, some of them don't work properly, and some of them are just plain gimmicky. But that's also part of what makes the Galaxy S4 an appealing phone –– it's versatile and completely customizable, able to adapt to your needs whether you're a smartphone pro or a novice.

All those extras are there if you want them, yet hidden if you don't.

Is It Worth The Hype?

Make no mistake about it, the Galaxy S4 is a great phone, and easily one of the best you can buy right now. You get an amazing Android experience on a big, beautiful display.

As long as you don't mind a bunch of plastic, you'll be perfectly happy with the Galaxy S4.

But is it the best phone? No. You're still much better off with the iPhone 5 or the HTC One if you like Android.

Pricing and launch dates vary by carrier, but you should be able to get the Galaxy S4 for around $200 starting this week. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular will be the first US carriers to sell the phone.

GOOGLE GLASS & SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 have already been rooted

Two hot bits of tech are in the rooting news today, with amusing stories of Google Glass and Samsung Galaxy S4 hackery.

First, the Google Glass “Explorer Edition” may have only been in anyone’s hands for a few days, but they’ve figured out a way to root the ol’ facehugger. The thing isn’t even in stores yet, and hackers have already gotten their grubby little sausage fingers into its Android OS. (For more information on Rooting, check out our Rooting How To and Best Rooting Apps.)

Jay Freeman, aka Saurik, is a legend in the iOS hacker community. In an interview with Forbes, he credited fellow hacker B1nary with finding the Android 4.0 exploit he used to crack Glass. The technique entails tricking the device into thinking’s it’s an emulation, as opposed to real hardware. This opens up all the permissions, and achieves root access, since emulations are only used for testing.

Freeman isn’t even the first to do it – another hacker named Liam McLoughlin did it a day earlier. This might be good news for those worried about Google’s ability to remotely deactivate Glass if you try and sell it.

In related news, “drbliss” of XDA Developers has reported that, as long as you’ve got a U.S. model, or any model with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, you can root your Galaxy S4 with the old Motorola exploit called “Motochopper.”

First, make sure you’ve got the most recent Samsung USB drivers on your device. Then, download the Motochopper archive. Next, if you’re on Windows, you’ve got to run the supplied run.bat batch file. If you’re on OS X or Linux, it’s the run.sh Shell script. Again, none of this will work on international variants of the device with Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa chips.

Here’s a really important warning if you’re going to do this: the Galaxy S4 currently doesn’t have any custom recoveries or stock images to help you navigate the menus while toying around with your rooted phone, so fixing it could be a serious problem if your tinkering ends up bricking or soft-bricking the device. That said, developers will almost certainly take care of the issue before too long.

Iron Man Mark VII iPhone 5 case pictures & hands-on new

Phones, Iron Man, iPhone accessories, iPhone cases, iPhone 5

Why should Tony Stark have all the fun? He whizzes about in his high-tech armour, saving the world and everything, but why shouldn't you have a slice of the action?

Well, gadget specialist Brando offers one way you can at least dress something you own in Iron Man armour – as long as you own an iPhone 5, that is.

The Iron Man VII iPhone 5 case is modelled on Stark's armour from the second movie. It's chunky. Very. And has a couple of interesting features, bar being protective for your device.

Firstly, in the chest plate – which appears on the rear of the case – the circular light will actually glow whenever you use the LED flash, being connected reflectively to that specific area of the phone. It renders it useless as a flash, but looks cool.

The other part of the case that's effectively “interactive” is that you can lift the corner flap, where weapons would be stored on the suit, to reveal the camera lens.

That's essentially it in terms of features, but you don't really need bells and whistles to be noticed when you pull this bad boy out in the pub. It's heee-uge. And, we have to be honest, pretty plasticky.

So for these reasons, the Iron Man case won't be for everybody. Hardcore comic book fans will love it. They'll love waving it about in front of other comic book fans' grinning faces. Others, not so.

The Iron Man Mark VII iPhone 5 case is available from Brando for $49. You will be able to import it to the UK, but remember that you'll need to pay extra in shipping and possible customs fees.

Best Samsung Galaxy S4 accessories - 2013

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is undoubtedly going to be the pride and joy of many a trouser pocket from its official UK release date of 27 April. But keeping that phone feeling fresh and scratch-free means investing in a decent case. Thankfully, with Samsung such a hot brand at the moment, and its new phone the most sought after handset on the planet (probably), accessories extend way beyond that.

So then, what sort of toys should you be looking at to go alongside your Galaxy S4 when it arrives? Read on to find out everything you need for your swanky, new Samsung Galaxy S4.

Cases

Let's start with the obvious: a case. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a big 5-inch 1080p display, which while being protected by Gorilla Glass 3, might not come off so well in a fight between screen and pavement.

Tech21 Impactology cases

Tech21 has put together a range of tough cases for the new Samsung phone. Starting with the Impact Snap Black and White, which retails for £19.99. The Tech21 impact reduction technology inside basically pushes impact force away from the phone if you drop it, making it nice and safe in the case, without the need for a massive plastic wraparound.

The cases also include the Impact Snap with Cover for £24.99 and the rather cool-looking Impact Mesh, which is clear around the edges with an orange band. They will all be going on sale from 26 April ready for when the Galaxy S4 arrives.

Case-Mate barely there

We already have the tough case box ticked with Tech 21, so now on to something a bit more stylish. The Galaxy S4 is designed to be light and pocketable, so a good case shouldn’t add too much to the form factor of the phone.

Case-Mate’s Barely There range includes two cases, one in aluminium, which fit as close as possible to the phone while providing a good amount of protection. Both will go on sale from the end of April. The conventional Barely There is £14.99, the aluminium one £19.99.

Belkin Micra Folio case

Making a decent alternative to Samsung’s own brand flip case (shown below), but throwing in a bit of wallet functionality for good measure is Belkin’s Micra Folio case.

The whole thing is wrapped in soft-touch material, with a flip cover on the front that features a pocket in which to store cards and cash. A microfibre lining sits on the inside of the cover to keep your screen clean.

V-Moda Vamp Verza

This one is a bit of fun more than anything, although we can see it being a hugely useful accessory for the summer, especially if you intend to take your handset to the park to provide music.

You better get saving though, because V-Moda’s Vamp is $600 (£395). It includes a full amp and even a digital to analogue converter. It fits into V-Moda’s Vamp Metallo case, combining the two into an awesome portable hi-fi.

Samsung Galaxy S4 S View cover

For those who don’t fancy going third party, Samsung’s own S View cover is a good option. It features a letter box at the top of the front cover through which you can see part of the Galaxy S4’s screen.

The phone will actually recognise when you have the case on and subsequently display important information like time and notifications, through the relevant letter box. It also keeps the front of your phone scratch free, but doesn’t offer quite the level of drop protection as bulkier cases.

Speck SmartFlex Card

Speck has built up quite a heritage for keeping your gadgets safe over recent times. The SmartFlex card will wrap around your Galaxy S4, while theoretically doing away with the need for you to carry about a wallet.

On the back of the case is a clever slot, which you can use to store things like bank cards inside. The case also comes in a wide variety of colours and looks just as good as anything else that Speck has one offer. Alternatively there is the SmartFlex View, which has a built in stand in the back so you can prop the handset up.

Cygnett Icon

One for the trendy types, Cygnett’s Icon case uses a Keith Haring style print on the back to seperate it out from the usual black, white and see-through cases. It won't, however, keep your phone quite as protected as the competition, as the case only really covers the back of the Galaxy S4.

If you fancy a touch more screen protection, Cygnett has the WorkMate, which is as colourful as as Championship football team’s kit. It also has a proper bumper on the front, so should stop the screen from getting damaged if you drop it.

Headphones

Android phones are starting to get their own set of audio accessories, or at least increased compatibility with devices. This means you can enjoy best-in-class audio tech alongside your new Galaxy S4.

Ultimate Ears 6000

One of the big draws of the UE 6000 is that they are fully compatible, microphone and all, with Android handsets. Being battery-powered noise cancelling cans also means you get great sounding audio even on planes and trains.

The Ultimate Ears have a design scheme which is in keeping with that of Samsung’s. Gloss white and black matches nicely with the new colourways on the Galaxy S4, making the headphones a bit of a complementary product for your new phone. The Ultimate Ears are £140.

Bowers & Wilkins P3

Another colour-matched set of headphones, the Bowers and Wilkins P3s come in black, white and a soon to be launched blue. They also sound fantastic and are nice and compact, coming with a great carry case to keep them protected in handbags or rucksacks.

B&Ws P3s cost around £170, but for that you are getting some top sound quality and build. They even have removable headphone cables in case the set you have breaks.

SteelSeries Real Racing 3 Gaming headset

If there is one app that is really going to show off the graphical prowess of your Galaxy S4, then it's Real Racing 3. We are talking about near-console quality gaming, all wrapped up in an app that is free to download. Okay, so there is some freemium shenanigans going on, but hey, if you can afford a Galaxy S4 then in-app purchases should be the least of your worries.

The SteelSeries 3 headset is designed specifically with RR3 in mind. They ship with a mini jack on one headphone so you can connect another set and share audio with a friend. There is also an in-line microphone for hands-free calling. The RR3 headphones cost £99 from the SteelSeries website.

Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay H6

This is most definitely the pricey premium option, but for those who can afford it, the H6s offer top notch quality and design. At £329 they aren’t cheap, but then B&O has spared no expense. The leather for example is top quality New Zealand leather, which looks like it might last forever.

Audio is top notch, if a little light, but these headphones are geared towards classical music, rather than the bass heavy tracks a set of Beats headphones prefers. The aluminium on either can is also a nice touch.

Docks

For many, the Galaxy S4 is replacing an iPod or iPhone. This means some sort of speaker dock will come in particularly handy if you fancy taking your music further. The Galaxy S4 uses a micro USB connector, which should mean you need only a USB port on a dock for the phone to work.

Philips Fidelio AS851

Philips has taken proper care of Android users with its range of Fidelio audio docks. The AS851 has a clever Flexidock, which can adapt to allow you to place virtually any Android phone into it.

This means your Galaxy S4 will fit snug in the Fidelio, rather than dangling off it attached with a cable. It’s a minor point, but with something as premium as the SGS 4, you really want your dock to match its quality.

Idapt S2

How about a dock that works with both iOS and Android devices, so you can plug in your Galaxy S4, or visiting friends hook up their iPhones? That way everyone gets a chance to play their music at parties.

The Idapt S2’s thinking is that you can never have enough connectors. As such, it comes with a micro USB connector, as well as a 30-pin Apple adapter or Lightning, should you be so inclined. The S2's pricing starts at £159. 

HTC One - Camera Review

When a smartphone shouts about its camera as being something special it turns a lot of heads. We've already seen and reviewed the HTC One and love it as a smartphone. It's an ace device. But what of its "Ultrapixel" camera - is it really as "ultra" as it proclaims? We've spent a week living with the HTC One and used it as a camera - with some of the obvious smartphone content-sharing features of course - to see whether it switched us on or off.

'Ultrapixel': HTC's megapixel marketing

Megapixel is a term used to describe one million pixels. Ultrapixel - the way HTC describes the One's camera - is a marketing term; a brand name with the goal of attempting to upsell the megapixel.

Any claim that the One has a 4-ultrapixel camera means, in reality, that is has a 4-megapixel camera. Nothing more. But the crucial difference is that those "pixels" are each larger than most smartphone competitor models - often twice as large - because there are less of them on the same size surface area. That makes the One more effective at capturing light which is useful for a couple of key things: reducing noise - that mottled, colour-flecked nastiness that you sometimes see in images - and potentially increasing dynamic range for a better black-to-white range.

Low resolution

The concept is theoretically sound and we were expecting great things. But the problem is the camera has a mere 4-megapixels of resolution. That's about a third the output offered by most compact cameras, or half the number compared to, say, the iPhone 5 and plenty of similar smartphone competitors. These higher-resolution models have their own issues, of course, by having more resolution than is really necessary to the detriment of quality.

But has HTC forgotten that resolution plays a key function? Think about the logic of standard definition versus high definition - click on BBC One, then BBC One HD and admire all the news readers' crowsfeet in extra detail - and it speaks for itself.

Greater resolution opens up potential for greater detail. Of course there are all kinds of things that get in the way of reproducing full resolution - lens sharpness, low-pass filter diffusion, bayer array colour calculations, signal amplification, individual companies' processing methods and that sharpness is, in part, perceptive and based on processing methods. These points combined can ultimately make for a less than perfect result, increase image noise and heighten processing artefacts.

Still, resolution is crucial. You wouldn't go out and buy a one-megapixel camera because it's not really useful for much. And here's the next thing to think about: the HTC One's 16:9 camera sensor offers up the full four megapixels of resolution only in that "widescreen" format, just like a movie still. Many photographers will shoot at a 3:2 ratio and, in doing so, will sacrifice yet more resolution - it's cut to 3-megapixels, or a further 25 per cent loss - and introduce an effective shift in focal length too.

To explain that last point: the HTC One has a 28mm medium-wide lens without an optical zoom. By cutting away the outer edges of a shot in either the "regular (3:2)" or square (1:1) crops the impression you'll get is that less fits into the frame - you won't be able to fit as much into the shot without stepping back, which gives an equivalent longer focal length.

Sometimes you will want to zoom in on further away subjects so that they fill the frame yet more, but without an optical zoom it's not really possible to do so. Technology dictates - at least at present - that an optical zoom on a smartphone would be too sizeable and expensive. It just wouldn't really work. The answer? Digital zoom.

But when we think about what digital zoom is, it becomes apparent why you won't really want to use it. All the HTC One can do is crop into the sensor size. Imaging you had a sheet of paper with an photograph on, but only wanted to have your best mate's face from the centre of that shot in the frame. Get out those imaginary scissors and cut it down to size - that's great, sorted, but now you have a much smaller sheet of paper. Stretching it back up to the original size would mean each dot that makes up that image is also stretched considerably - by up to four times its original size - and that makes everything look soft and lacking in detail.

This is exactly what the HTC One does. When zooming in by 4x - to provide a greater-than-112mm focal length equivalent - images are upscaled poorly and really aren't nice to look at. It's a predictable outcome given the sensor dimensions and resolution - and one that any given manufacturer will have to deal with.

But here's the thing, other companies have also thought outside the box before. The Nokia 808 PureView, for example, has a 41-megapixel sensor with "pixels" the same size as those in an iPhone 4S because the sensor is physically so much larger than in any other smartphone. Here digital zoom is used but provides an effective zoom solution without being disruptive to image quality - there's no need to upscale as resulting images still have a usable output size.

But the 808 failed. It just wasn't commercially successful, ran on an out-of-date operating system and its camera - despite having the best sensor we've seen in a smartphone - had plenty of room for improvement when it came to the software and processing side of things.

What we think HTC ought to have opted in for is a half-way solution - it has used a physically larger sensor size with double the resolution but still in keeping with its larger-than-competitors' "pixel" size ethos would have ticked plenty of boxes. But with physical sensor size comes physical device size, and the HTC One, unlike the Nokia 808 PureView, is a trim, delicate slice of smartphone.

As a camera replacement

Using the HTC One as a camera doesn't feel much like a camera. Without wanting to sound too "duuh" it's obviously a smartphone - that's the way it's been designed and that's the right way to approach such a device.

But if HTC had included a physical exterior shutter button we think holding the device steady would have been made easier - as it stands the overall thinness of the product doesn't lend itself well to keeping a decent grip with one hand, and you sure wouldn't want to drop this pricey kit.

READ: HTC One review

The touchscreen - which can be used to position the focus point and, in doing so, the metering - is incredibly responsive and the large size makes for a glorious preview which, in many respects, walks all over standalone compact cameras. This is how the camera menus are controlled, however, so you'll need one hand to hold the product and the other to tap the screen for focus, shutter and other more detailed controls. But the layout and depth of controls don't lend well to dedicated camera use.

Controls aside, among the biggest problems we had with the One is that it tends to expose for highlights which can cause silhouetted shots in all kinds of situations and the flash isn't anywhere near bright enough to counter that in daylight. It's a problem that can be addressed partially by the +/-2EV exposure compensation - if, that is, it wasn't buried in the unnamed "…" menu and required scrolling down to it on each visit.

The fact such controls - including ISO sensitivity, white balance, sharpness and more - are included is a great thing, but then full manual controls are omitted. Not necessarily the clincher in buying a camera or a smartphone by any means, but aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual controls would each have their own clear uses, even if they were dressed up into more consumer-accessible "portrait", "sport/fast action" and other scene mode options.

There are notable benefits to using a device such as the One which has a speedy processor at its core. The One can snap away shots at a rapid rate, with the likes of Best Shot's auto-select method or Zoe's three second mini-movie capture (which can be used to extract stills from later) each being of great use for casual capture. We like.

Above all else it's about the pictures. The One's resulting images are okay at best - among plenty of problems there are some high points too.

It's the improvement to signal-to-noise ratio that the sensor's larger pixels brings to the table and so, at higher ISO settings, the One's shots are cleaner than near rivals such as the iPhone 5. That's without a doubt.

But the One does its damnedest to avoid using the high ISO settings most of the time. Instead it'll happily snap - sometimes unhappily for the resulting images - at 1/20th second at, say, ISO 200 instead of 1/40th second at ISO 400, for example. We can see why, it's because the lower ISO settings are so much more preferable. Rise to ISO 300 and above and image noise in shadow areas is clearly visible.

Then it's back to the resolution conundrum again: scale a competitor's shots down to 3 or 4 megapixels rather than 12 megapixels and it helps "hide" some imperfections. Snap a four-figure ISO shot with the HTC One and it'll definitely show up less image noise compared to its major rivals - but there's not enough detail to substantiate its worth as a "better" image. In short: the benefits are marginal because resolution isn't high enough.

Even at the lower sensitivities we found ISO 100 shots to present some sloppy processing: jagged edges in blown-out highlights, processing artefacts comparable to a compact camera of a greater resolution, colour fringes - those overlapping purple edges you may have seen in images at full size before - and a lack of biting sharpness from the lens combine a series of negatives that can't be ignored. As we've mentioned before it's exposure that's the One's most obvious downfall, plus the exterior lens often comes in contact with the hand which means it gets greasy and dirtied all the time and further softens images - you'll need to keep it clean and clear for the best results.

On the HTC's 4.7-inch screen any imperfections - exposure aside - are not as distinguishable as at full size on a computer monitor, and herein lies an argument that rests in HTC's favour: most users will just use images at small scale, often just on the smartphone itself, where larger resolutions aren't going to have much of an impact. Indeed a lot of users may not care less whether their smartphone camera is high resolution, they might not even know - so long as it can shoot in low-light conditions and deliver good enough results. The One does have that point wrapped up, or at least it does for its 4.7-inch display.

There are other fun elements within the interface too: the inclusion of filters means Instagram-like exposures can be made in black and white, negative, pop-colour, vignette and all manner of other options. Not great for everything, but impactful nonetheless, and post-shooting adjustments and edits can be made too.

Close-up or "macro" shooting is also very impressive. Slip the camera right up to a subject and it has no problem snapping in focus from just a couple of centimetres away. That's a benefit of a small sensor and lens combination right there.

The One major benefit

Okay, so there's more than one benefit to using the One as a camera, but that play on words was too much to miss out on. The thing that makes the HTC One camera great is its connectivity.

It almost goes without saying that a smartphone is most people's hub to the world; their portal to sharing and consuming news, pictures and the like. So when it comes to outing pictures from the One to the internet there are plenty of options. Mail it, Facebook it, tweet it - the world is your oyster. It's immediate, it's easy and it's this kind of feature that cameras are slowly trying to compete with. Try as they might, none is capable - short of the Samsung Galaxy Camera - of competing with that immediate and easy sharing capability.

READ: Samsung Galaxy Camera review

We've already touched upon Zoe too which, despite its girly name is short for zoetrope - a device which produces the illusion of motion from a series of still frames. The One is obviously far more advanced than such ageing tech, but Zoe and its associated galleries have a big impact on the way pictures can be stored and viewed. The mini-movie Zoe clips play back in a flick-book-like fashion in the gallery section for added impact, and the ability to open and edit photographs all from the phone is something most cameras aren't anywhere near to doing as yet.

Battery life, too, lasts for plenty of time. There's no popping spare batteries in either - it's simple USB-to-device pairing and, bosh, you're ready to go.

It's all this smartphone wizardry that sets the One apart from a camera and that's something that can't be overlooked. But then other smartphones offer the majority of such benefits too.

Verdict

The HTC One is a great device on the whole that we're very fond of, but try to think of it as a dedicated camera and is it better than one? No, not at all.

Poorly measured exposure, so-so quality, limited resolution and a digital zoom you'll want to avoid are just some of the shortcomings. And while high ISO shots might well outshine their smartphone peers in terms of revealing less image noise, the limits of the One's resolution do, to some degree, knock itself out with one "ultra" blow which counters much of that low-noise benefit.

Marketing is a clever tool, but in this instance it's hype. The HTC One's camera isn't as ultra as its name suggests by any means. What makes it cool is the ability to apply filters, share direct from the device wherever you are, use Zoe and burst shooting, arrange galleries, and shoot for a long time. It's the smartphone's connectivity elements that make the camera viable - and while it's far from a camera-beater we suspect many owners will be happy with what it can do.

Great smartphone? Yes, about as good as they get. Great camera? 'Fraid not.