Author Archives: GEEK!

Google Chrome being unresponsive or unusually slow? Here’s a fix!

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In recent weeks I’ve been finding my favourite browser, Google Chrome, walking on thin ice. It used to be a seriously speedy browser dancing from page to page… OK, cut the fairy tale. Nonetheless, it was getting increasingly slow performing basic tasks like opening new tabs and launching video playback. It even seemed to cause mouse lag when multiple tabs were open.

Nonetheless, I was fiddling with settings and finally seem to have found a reasonable solution. It seems hardware acceleration has been a relatively new feature for Chrome (available from early 2014-ish). but many seem to be reporting this has led to Chrome becoming slower rather than faster.

Try turning it off using the instructions below and see if it makes a difference.

  1. Type chrome://settings into your address bar. Alternatively, click on the Google Chrome customize button (far top right button in Chrome with the 3 lines, then click Settings)
  2. Scroll to the bottom and click Show advanced settings…
  3. Scroll all the way to the bottom and find the System section. Untick Use hardware acceleration where available. Chrome will tell you it’ll need to restart, so do that by clicking restart (or closing Chrome fully and reloading it)

Try browsing to some sites now or opening some new tabs. I noticed an immediate improvement myself, but let me know if it makes any difference for you.

Mpow Cheetah wireless earphones review – bargain sports earphones?

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Minimalistic packaging is something I always like to see – easily recyclable and no cut-yourself-when-you-open-it nightmares here!

PROS:

  • Nice fit to the head, even if it takes a little while to get used to
  • Handy functions such as phone number readout
  • Minimalist easy-to-open recyclable packaging
  • Available in a variety of colours
  • Bluetooth 4.1 spec

CONS:

  • Audio quality a little lacking, poor treble and bass in my view
  • Dimwitted mapping of buttons

Rating: ★★★★☆

Price at review: £16 – buy from Amazon

Over the past few years I’ve tried and tested a number of wireless earphones and headphones. Many of them are very much the same – great idea, but poor design and average audio quality. I picked up a set of the Mpow Cheetah wireless earphones last week with the hope that these might be slightly different. Their design very much interested me because if you ask most sports earphone users, their number one complaint is that they fall out of the ears. Here are my thoughts.

The earphones arrive in firm but simplistic packaging which is nice to see – no annoying and wasteful plastic inserts or anything like that. Inside you’ll find the earphones, together with two extra sets of earbuds bring a total of three wearable sizes (small, medium, large), a micro-USB charging cable and some basic instructions and warranty information.

Setting up the earphones is very easy. Simply switch them on by keeping you’re finger pressed on the multifunction button – keep the button pressed until they beep to confirm they’re in pairing mode. Then grab your phone or other bluetooth device and pair the two devices up. Once that’s done, you’ll get a nice audible confirmation from the headset and you’re ready to go.

In terms of functionality, I was impressed with the wide range of functions that the headset can perform. As well as being able to play music through the headset, you’re also able to skip tracks, adjust volume, and even take phone calls with the device’s built in microphone.

There are one or two fundamental flaws though. First of all, the microphone that’s built in is nothing to shout about. The microphone just isn’t in the right place to catch your voice effectively enough to use as a long term handsfree device – it’s not really the device’s fault as no comparable wireless headset would be able to put the microphone close enough to your mouth that you’d get good feedback. It’s OK for the odd phone call here and there, but I wouldn’t use it all the time for that task. On the other hand, the device will read you the number of the person that’s calling when your phone rings which is a handy extra feature.

The second flaw I’ve found is a little more dimwitted. You can skip tracks and adjust volume by using the forward and back buttons on the right earpiece. You tap the buttons to adjust the volume up and down or hold the buttons to skip forward or back. However, those two functions are alternately placed on the device – so the button that turns the volume up is the same button that skips back a track – you’d think it would make sense that the volume up button would skip forward and vice versa. Small niggle but it’s irritating nonetheless.

I did really like one little feature though. As the device uses a recent Bluetooth specification, it can do things like tell your phone the device’s current battery charge level. A small feature, but useful nonetheless.

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The device can report battery charge level to your phone’s notification icon area – see the top right of this image.

In terms of sound quality, I found it wasn’t much to shout about. There are a number of reviews (particularly on Amazon) which give mixed feedback about the audio quality and I, for one, can’t help but feel it’s a little disappointing. Fair enough, if you’re going to use the device for it’s intended purpose (running, most likely), it’s probably not going to hugely bother you whether they sound amazing. However, when using them in a less active environment, I found that the audio quality was fairly flat and that both the bass and treble were lacking. For a £16 pair of wireless earphones, don’t expect the world, but I still couldn’t help but feel I’d tried £10 wired earphones with better audio quality.

Overall, they are a decent set of earphones with a reasonably good fit to the head (it takes a little getting used to but does result in a good fit) with handy functions, but leaving a little to be desired in terms of audio quality. A good buy for £16, but I’d spend a little more if you’ve got the budget available.

Buy from Amazon

Review: Urban Armor Gear Scout Folio iPhone 6 case

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Phone cases are often a really difficult issue for me – trying to find a case at the right price which is durable and designed with the usability in mind is often tedious.

I recently managed to get my hands on one of Urban Armor Gear‘s latest offerings for my iPhone 6. They have a very large selection of cases for most recent phone models and they offer you a wide variety of case types. Being a bit obsessed with keeping my phone’s screen scratch and dirt free, I opted to go for their iPhone 6 Scout Folio case.

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The case arrived very quickly direct from the US having ordered directly from UAG – I was very impressed that it got across the pond to my UK address in around 5 days!

The case itself looks really well built and certainly worth the approximately £25 it would cost here in the UK. My iPhone fits very snugly into the case and doesn’t move around at all.

(Screen protector is NOT included)

When you place the phone into the case, you immediately notice the thickness of the strong rubberised material around the phone. It certainly gives the impression that the case would withstand drops even on to nasty surfaces like stone.

With regards to the folio part of the case, it covers the front of the phone well and a fairly strong magnet keeps the case closed. For me, I perhaps would have liked to have seen the magnet slightly stronger – as when I drop tested the case myself from around 5 metres the case did open when dropped. A button popper might have been a slightly better choice in my view. Nonetheless, because of the thickness of the material surrounding the device, the device was well protected regardless of whether the case opened or not.

The folio cover also comes with a card slot which really impressed me. Many of my debit and credit cards are now contactless meaning I can make micro payments without needing to enter my PIN or insert my card into the reader. The design of this case made this feature so easy to use and meant I could leave a single card in the case just for contactless payments. The card is also easily removable if you need to use it for conventional transactions.

All ports are easily accessed (see the photos above) which is a vital plus point for me. I don’t think the case would fit very well into a dock connector, but that’s very commonly an issue with most cases.

Overall, I was very impressed with the case and certainly feel that its a strong, reliable case that gives a very high level of protection. If you work in the sort of environment where your phone is likely to get abused through drops and knocks, this is certainly a very good range of cases to consider.

Lenovo Miix 3 10″ Windows 8.1 Tablet – Quick Review

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So in the latest roundup of tablets on the market right now I managed to pick up a Lenovo Miix 3. This new tablet range announced late 2014 adds to the growing range of low-cost Windows tablets that are available.

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As you can see from the slideshow, it’s a 2-in-1 tablet that can be used in a number of forms – docked with the keyboard, reverse docked as a stand, closed to act as a case, and finally of course detached as a standalone tablet.

PROS:

  • Two FULL SIZED USB ports. No more Micro-USB to USB adapters – you’ve got two USB ports ready to use on the keyboard dock. Don’t expect to be charging devices from them for any extended period of time, but they’ll be ideal for syncing your iPhone or whatnot. Uncertain whether they’re USB 2 or 3 at this point.
  • Full 1080p display (1920×1200). To be fair, it looks absolutely fantastic having that kind of pixel density on a screen that size.
  • Decent solid keyboard rather than touch keys – makes it much easier to type emails or longer documents.
  • Micro-HDMI and Micro-SD connectors built in – often standard on Windows tablets these days, but nice to see.

CONS:

  • Battery takes a while to charge – probably about 5-6 hours from flat to full, although I’ll need to run a proper benchmark on it.
  • Display brightness isn’t terribly high – it’s absolutely fine in indoor situations but I’d struggle to get on with it outdoors especially considering the rather reflective display.

Buy now – Amazon

[ENDED] WIN! £15 to spend on Amazon.co.uk

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It’s back! Win £15 to spend on Amazon.co.uk with GEEK!. Simply fill in the form below for your chance to back a £15 Amazon voucher.

To enter, simply fill in the form below and like GEEK! on Facebook – it’s that simple. You’ve got until midnight on Saturday 28th February 2015 to enter – rules are at the bottom of this post as normal!

Good luck!

This competition has now closed. Congratulations to Amanda Wright who won this time.

Competition rules:

  1. To have a chance of winning, you must like GEEK! on Facebook (click the link above and then “Like”) and then fill in the form above.
  2. You must be a UK resident and at least 13 years of age to enter this competition or claim the prize.
  3. You can only enter this competition once. Multiple entries will not be counted and may result in disqualification.
  4. You must supply valid and correct information in the competition form when filling out your entry. Failure to do so will mean we can’t contact you if you win.
  5. No purchase is necessary.
  6. The competition closes at 23.59hrs on Saturday 28th February 2015. The winner of the competition will be notified by email within 14 days of the competition closing (although GEEK! will try to issue the result as quickly as possible after competition closure).
  7. Each entry will be assigned a number and random.org will be used to find and verify a winner. Our result is final – no discussion or debate will be made.
  8. GEEK! reserves the right to check that the Facebook page was liked when finding a winner.
  9. By entering you agree that, if you win, your name may be published on GEEK!.
  10. If the winner does not claim their prize within 72 hours of being alerted, a new winner will be found with random.org.
  11. If, for any reason, the prize becomes unavailable, it will be substituted with another prize of equal or greater value. No cash alternative will be offered.
  12. GEEK! and Alex Ward Web Services will not use any information gathered from this competition for any reason other than finding a winner to the competition.