Technology News

key specifications

• Evaluation Price: £139.99
• 7 inch screen with a resolution of 1,280 x 800
• Android 4.2

Down with the kids

A 7 inch tablet is perfect when you want something you can take almost anywhere. Budget tablets like the Acer Iconia One 7 at around £130 offer even more accessibility as they’re not devices you’re afraid of breaking.

It might not be a Nexus 7 smasher, but the One 7 looks like a solid little tablet for the kids.

SEE ALSO: Best cheap tablets

Acer Iconia One 7: Design

Color is what really sets the Iconia One 7 apart from much of the competition. It’s available in a range of light shades, 10 in all, that make ordinary black tabs as boring as a service manual.

The brighter ones are eye-catchers, but the Iconia One 7’s build is otherwise pretty simple. The back is made of hard plastic with a grippy embossed structure. It doesn’t have the soft finish of several other tablets, including the Nexus 7.

However, it is fairly slim and light – 8.95mm and 330g. This isn’t a tablet that requires two hands to hold. There’s also a memory card slot, something you don’t get with a Nexus 7.

Acer Iconia One 7: screen and features

However, the Acer Iconia One 7’s screen is a few notches below the best. It’s a 7-inch IPS panel with 1,280 x 800 pixels. While it’s not super sharp, it’s an IPS screen, so it doesn’t experience the serious contrast shifts seen on some of Acer’s previous budget tablets.

Colors are a bit weaker than the Asus Memo Pad HD 7, which is a shame. They look a little dim and the contrast is less than great. However, let’s not forget that this is a very cheap tablet.

The core specs are pretty modest too. The Iconia One 7 features a dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, the same one used in some versions of the Asus Fonepad.

It’s not a very powerful chip, but it will be enough to play high-end 3D games. You might just be missing out on a few graphical effects that you would get with a high-end GPU.

The Iconia One 7’s interface is fairly similar to vanilla Android, but for some reason it sticks to Android 4.2 rather than the latest Android 4.4. We’re not sure why – its brother, the Iconia Tab 7, has Android 4.4.

Along with all the core Android features, you get a bunch of Acer apps and some “recommended” third-party apps preinstalled. It’s a little overboard as you only get 8/16GB of internal storage, but you should be able to uninstall at least some of it.

There are two other major compromises with the Iconia One 7 – the cameras and the battery life.

Some ultra-budget tablets choose to have a camera or none at all. But the One 7 has two. However, both are not of particularly good quality. The front is a VGA camera, the rear is a low-end 2-megapixel camera. You will not make masterpieces with this.

I have a feeling Acer decided to include them because the tablet is aimed at a fairly young audience who aren’t sophisticated enough to care too much about camera quality.

Perhaps the more serious issue is battery life. We haven’t been able to test it yet, but the Iconia One 7 is expected to only last seven hours. The Nexus 7 lasts a few hours longer in most conditions, and the iPad mini even longer.

First impressions

7 inch tablets have a tough time these days. It’s hard to recommend many when the Nexus 7 can be bought for under £150 these days. The Acer Iconia One 7 is not a Nexus distractor, but the given bright case should please the kids.

Next, read our roundup of the best tablets

How we test tablets

We thoroughly test every tablet we test. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the tablet as our primary device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as our main tablet during the period

Verified against recognized industry benchmarks

Ongoing real tests

Tested with various games, apps and services

The 2014 Call of Duty game will be announced in May, according to a new report.

Activision is expected to officially release the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise next month, according to a new report from PSU.

Apparently the game is being developed under the codename “Blacksmith”, but whether that is related to the game’s official title is currently unknown.

When Activision launches the first COD game developed by Sledgehammer Games next month, it would be around the same time as last year’s Call of Duty Ghosts announcement, which lends a little more weight to this latest report.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was developed by Infinity Ward with a little help from Sledgehammer games, but this title is being developed entirely by the latter.

According to a leak from an industry insider and a mention on a developer’s LinkedIn profile, the game appears to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 rather than a new Call of Duty title.

Earlier this month, the first Blacksmith screenshot of Call of Duty 2014 surfaced, showing a highly detailed character.

The next Call of Duty game marks the beginning of a new three-year development cycle between Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward and Treyarch.

It will also be the first COD title to be developed first for next-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles, with current-gen editions as a secondary development goal.

“Of course, anyone who made a cross-gen game over the past year had to deal with the console transition year, the technology of the next-gen platforms was still coming into focus and changing quite a bit during the development process,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.

When the game is announced next month, don’t expect it to be released before Q4 2014 as is the usual COD release cycle, but Activision will undoubtedly give us plenty more details at E3 in June.

Read more: Best Games of 2014

We all might soon be enjoying movies in a whole different way; with DreamWorks boss Jeffrey Katzenberg proposing that films move to a “pay by the inch” system.

Well, that’s not as rude as it might sound at first. As film download and streaming rates continue to increase and the time between theatrical release and digital releases shrinks, Katzenberg has hinted that films will soon be sold at prices dependent on the screen size of the device on which they are viewed.

Additionally, the head of DreamWorks has claimed that films will soon be available for digital download within just 18 days of their first theatrical release.

“I think the model will change and you won’t pay for the availability window,” Katzenberg said of the changing film industry.

“A movie comes out and you have 17 days, which is exactly three weekends, which is 95 percent of the revenue for 98 percent of the movies.”

During a conference on corporate leadership in the US, he added: “On Day 18, these films will be available everywhere and everywhere, and you’re paying for the size.

“A movie screen costs $15. A 75 inch TV costs $4.00. A smartphone costs $1.99. This company will exist all over the world. When that happens, and it will happen, it will reinvent the enterprise of film.”

For those of you worried about spending more money to watch movies on your Smart TV, no worries. According to Katzenberg, this new film model won’t be introduced for another 10 years, by which time we’ll all have 150-inch home theaters with 8K projection, right?

The DreamWorks boss has yet to detail how film publishers plan to ensure cheaper smartphone downloads aren’t simply ported to the larger screens at home.

Continue reading: Best TVs 2014

About: diversity

The LG G3 leaks are coming tight and fast with new LG G3 images appearing online; presents the revised design of the upcoming phone.

With confirmation earlier today that the phone is heading towards a May 27th reveal, the newly leaked LG G3 images have once again shown off the handset’s refreshed design, with a dual LED flash coming into the mix alongside updated rear volume controls was thrown.

Images of the LG G3 that have surfaced on the Ortud forums show the handset in a pair of oversized rubberized cases, so we can’t see exactly what the back of the phone will look like.

What is visible, however, is that the phone’s rear-mounted volume/power controls have been refined, with a more pronounced power button to match previous leaks. In addition, the phone’s IR receiver has been relocated to make room for the expanded dual LED flash.

Another novelty on the back of the phone is a mysterious sensor in the lower left corner. Although the LG G3 has been widely rumored to house an integrated fingerprint reader, the snapped-in sensor looks more like a heart-rate monitor to us. We should find out for sure when the handset launches on May 27th.

On the front, the G3 has revealed, like the LG G2 before it, has an oversized screen with a really narrow bezel.

Although the phone’s specs have not been discussed in the latest leaks, recent rumors suggest that the rival Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 will be powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM and 16 GB of internal storage will end up.

The phone’s party piece seems to be its display, however, with a 5.5-inch QHD panel said to be shot at a stunning 2560 x 1440 pixels.

Continue reading: Samsung Galaxy S6 release date

Sony has announced that it still plans to release a free version of DriveClub for PlayStation Plus members.

After confirming DriveClub’s October 10 release date, Sony says the free edition of the driving game is still a work in progress.

When DriveClub was originally announced, the developer stated that there would be a free but slightly modified version of the game for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Despite the game’s repeated launch delays, it looks like Sony hasn’t given up on those original plans, a Sony representative told CVG.

Back in July, Sony detailed the differences between the free DriveClub and the full digital/physical edition of the game.

“Yes, the PS Plus version will be exactly the same as the full version, except that it may be missing some assets like cars or tracks that will be found in the full version. However, the online multiplayer, asynchronous challenges, and single-player campaign will all be present in the PS Plus version,” Sony said in a Q&A session.

Sony’s goal in launching a free PlayStation Plus version is to ensure the game launches with a strong user base, which could be a pretty smart move for the PS4 maker.

“The PS Plus version gives us the largest open community from day one. This game is all about socializing.”

Of course, if you want those missing tracks or cars, Sony offers an upgrade option between versions.

“You could download the full version and then decide you want to convert that to the full digital version, then you can pay an amount of money and everything else will be delivered to you.”

DriveClub will be available exclusively for the PS4 in the UK on October 10th, a year after its initial delay just weeks before its originally expected release.

Read more: Best PS4 Games

OnePlus has announced the OnePlus One public release date for mid-June.

If you don’t feel like smashing your smartphone to enter the OnePlus contest and win one of 100 of the phones, all you have to do is wait until June for it to be available for purchase.

OnePlus announced general availability for its first smartphone in a blog post, which also revealed that OnePlus’ version availability will be staggered.

“After our product announcement, we realized that a lot more people wanted the One than we originally anticipated. Over the past few days, we’ve been feverishly adjusting our production schedule to ensure that as many people as possible can buy the One as quickly as possible,” OnePlus’ Carl said in a forum post.

The OnePlus One Silk White 16GB version will be available for the first batch of invitees from mid to late May, with a larger batch of 64GB Sandstone Black models coming in early June.

There will be a slew of other OnePlus One models later in June, and the company states, “People who want it should be able to get an invite in June without much trouble.”

The OnePlus One is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz and 3GB of RAM.

It sports a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD display and a 13-megapixel rear camera complemented by a 5-megapixel front-facing snapper.

The 16GB model costs £229, but the 64GB model is just £269, which is considerably cheaper than flagship alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8.

Read more: OnePlus One vs Oppo Find 7a: What’s different?

The HTC One M8 Prime could launch later this year as a premium alternative to the original HTC One M8.

According to a new post from a notorious tech tipster @evleaksHTC could prepare a premium version of its brand new flagship.

“Forget the ace. What you’re really waiting for is the codename M8 Prime,” read the tweet.

To be honest, despite the usual accuracy of @evleaks rumours, we’re not sold on the thought of a premium version of the HTC One M8.

We can put the rumors of a Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime with an all-metal body and 2K screen behind us, but how could HTC improve the quality of the HTC One M8, which already comes with a uni-body aluminum casing.

We figured HTC might launch the M8 Prime with a larger 2K QHD resolution display and possibly a better-resolution camera, boosting the current dual-sensor 4 UltraPixel rear camera.

The Taiwanese company could even introduce the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, but when you combine these three it’s practically a brand new flagship.

We’re only speculating at this point, but could the M8 Prime be another name for the M8 Max? This would then match the HTC One Mini and HTC One Max launch lineup offered for the original HTC One.

Despite the larger screen and fingerprint scanner, the HTC One Max’s spec sheet didn’t live up to the standard set by the flagship smartphone.

Maybe then HTC will make a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact for us and make sure the M8 Max matches the hardware of the One M8 but increases the screen size.

While we’re not convinced by this latest rumor, as usual we’ll keep our ears to the ground and update you with any new information we find.

Read more: HTC One M8 vs Samsung Galaxy S5

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Interface and Android

As part of the Kindle experience, Amazon has developed a custom user interface for its Kindle Fire tablets. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 runs Android, but the Kindle interface is so different from the look of Google’s vanilla OS that you might not guess unless someone told you.

The home screen is a scrolling conveyor belt to digital content you’ve recently accessed, whether it’s an app, game, or book. The idea is that most of the time, you can access what you’re looking for with just a flick through.

The other content of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is organized as tabs across the top of the screen. This includes the web browser, your apps and games stash, and the Amazon Apps Store.

You don’t get access to the Google Play Android Apps Store with the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, nor do Google’s own apps – Amazon wants to go its own way with the Kindle Fire tablet series.

The custom Amazon Appstore doesn’t have quite as many apps or games as Google’s own store, but the Amazon name has ensured that it still has a healthy crop. There are now relatively few gaping holes in its lineup.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 offers most of the big games and apps you’d get with a Google Nexus 7, but if you’re used to Android in its pure form, day-to-day navigation takes a little getting used to.

Rather than sitting at the bottom like Android Jelly Bean, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9’s main navigation bar sits on the right edge of the screen and is designed for right-thumb use. Yes, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 hates left-handers – we couldn’t find a way to switch the menu to the left either.

While mastering the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 software requires a bit of patience, it’s still reasonably accessible. The user interface also works better here than on the 7-inch version, giving the navigation tabs more room to spread out.

However, there is a serious problem. It’s just not fast. Compared to a tablet running Android 4.1 or 4.2 Jelly Bean, there are irritating little pauses between transitions that make moving around the UI tedious.

It’s not due to a lack of performance, because the reasonable TI OMAP dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU and 1 GHz RAM should be enough to make the tablet fly. It’s more due to a lack of optimization and that the software is said to be based on a previous Android version. The Android operating system only got really fancy with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which introduced a number of speed improvements as part of Google’s “Project Butter” optimization project. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does not benefit from this. It also performs horribly when not connected to the internet, as so much of the content displayed is streamed directly from the internet, rather than relating to what’s actually on the tablet itself.

However, jump into an app or game and the performance is much better. It has the grunt to play top 3D games like Real Racing 3. You just need a bit more patience to wait for the tablet to access the thing.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 – Music and Video

Although you can install tons of apps and games with the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, Amazon really wants you to use the tablet to access Amazon’s own services. This is the Amazon bookstore, his music store, the video store and the newsstand.

These services combine some big brands. The book store is Kindle’s, the music store is the same MP3 treasure trove you’ll find on the Amazon website and the film hub is LoveFilm, which was acquired by Amazon in January 2011 for a hefty £200m.

Amazon won’t let you ignore these services too easily, as they all get irremovable shortcuts on the home screen. But they’re all pretty excellent, so we don’t mind that too much.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 can also play your own content. Each section of the tablet has cloud and device tabs. The latter lets you play your own music and videos, which you can drag and drop onto the tablet’s internal storage using a desktop computer.

However, the codec support is limited. So if you want to play files you downloaded from the internet, you probably need a third-party media player app. However, several free ones are available on the Amazon Appstore.

How we test tablets

We thoroughly test every tablet we test. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the tablet as our primary device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as our main tablet during the period

Verified against recognized industry benchmarks

Ongoing real tests

Tested with various games, apps and services