SoundHound

Here you can see the widget on the right

 So after playing about with the Samsung Galaxy S2 I decided to try out some new apps. I originally set about searching for “Shazam”, a song recognition app that has often been given rave review and you often hear spoken about. Whilst searching for it I managed to find an app called “SoundHound” a completely different song recognition program that was free and promised things such as unlimited tags. As it was free and very highly ranked on the Android market I decided to give it a try.

After downloading the app I tried it on a few tracks and quickly realised it worked well, it was recognising the tracks within 15 or so seconds and getting it right pretty much every time (the only failure it had was when it failed to hear the music due to it being too quiet). To use the app we really don't need to do much at all so here's a literal step by step.

1-When a song is playing we need to open the app, we can either do this by going through the app screens or using a shortcut/widget.

2-Press the large button on the app that says “Tap Here”

3-Give the phone a few seconds to take a sample

4-Wait for the reply from the app

The app will recognise a large number of tracks and often very quickly, though where the app really comes into it's own is it's ability to then find things like the lyrics of videos for the songs you have found. The app, whilst also available in a paid format, is one of the truly exceptional free apps on the android market and is also currently available on iTunes.

This is an example of the screen after it has recognised the track, showing the inbuilt google links to both the lyrics and YouTube, two of the features that make the App such an excellent one. If you've ever wanted to know what song it is you're listening to then use this free app, it's really an exceptional tool.

Reasons to download it:
Free
Large Library
Great additional links
Quick to recognise tracks
Easy to use

...excitement over the Samsung Galaxy S2...

With my handset arriving in the next 14 hours I've had to devise a small list of what I want to do with the device first...so here we go:
Film my beautiful girlfriend stripping in glorious HD- An obvious choice but also the best way to check out the video ability.
Watch bbc iPlayer- Yet to have a phone that's been able to do this so it's a feature I can't wait to use, and I'll be making the most of my 3GB total internet allowance!
Go to the beach and try out the camera- Living just 5 minutes walk from the beach this seems almost the best way to check out the 8mp camera.
Try out the office software- As a writer this was one of the most appealing things about the phone and allows me to work with out the need for my laptop

I'm sure there will be more but this is it for now.

How to get the best upgrade deals

When it comes to mobile phones we all want the best deal we can get. When it comes to the end of a contract and we are being hassled by our provider to upgrade with them calling a few times a day we often don't quite know what to do. Do we snatch and take the first offer they provide and think that we've got a good deal with a network that have done well for us? Do we say no and wait for them to come back to us with an improved second offer? Do we we shop around and see the best offers available and take the best that's on offer through the general channels? Do we call the cancellation line and threaten to take our custom elsewhere?

Well the actual answer is none of them. What we need to do is look at the options that are available but don't try to jump the gun, don't take any offer until you've weighed all the options that are available. What you need to find is a deal that you like the look of, whether it's with your current network or not, you need to find a deal that is open to all customers. When you have found a deal like this you should wait for the sales team to contact you from your current provider and see if they can match it, usually they can unless you've seen a genuinely amazing deal. From here you can choose to take it, though if the company can match the deal you've seen then decline it, they can certainly under-cut themselves.

The following day you need to call up the cancellation line of the company you are with and request your “PAC” number. The PAC number is your Porting Authorisation Code, or the number you need to transfer your number to another network. When you request this you are generally passed to the “retentions” department, this is the section of the company that will be more flexible than the people calling you. The people that call you are the “Sales team” and are trying to sell you a deal, they aren't given a lot of flexibility the retentions team are trying to keep you and will often bend over a bit more. If when you talk to the retentions team they fail to offer a much better deal then just leave them with something along the lines of “I've seen a better deal”.

Over the following few days the company will generally call back again and now you will see the company offer some of their best deals. The company will beat the offers made by the original sales team though may not manage to match the retention offers, this is effectively them trying their hardest to keep you and will often be the most flexible that the company will offer.

Sometimes the company may also have a web relations team (most notably Vodafone who's team is really excellent and deserve all the praise they get). These are often worth contacting (before you request your “PAC” number) as they can often offer deals that are actually better than the retentions team. The team aren't on any sort of commission and aren't taking a cut for themselves so won't “hike” up the price to cover themselves so are worth a try. Again if you want to go this way you really must know what the competition are offering (and you may need to provide them with a link so make sure you're online whilst talking to them) to get the best deals.

Whatever you do, do not take the first offer from the sales team, they are often unable to, or unwilling to match the best offers available from some of the other companies. This is because they ARE on commission and will be trying to pocket some money themselves and won't be flexible with you. Just remember this when you try to upgrade and you will almost certainly save money via the retentions teams.

Some quick tips:
-See what the competition can offer
-Aim high
-Don't take the first offer
-See if the company has a web team
-Request you PAC number (but don't use it straight away)
-Check online, in store and in as many places as possible
-Only accept an offer YOU are happy with

The changing faces of Mobile phone deals

When I did my last article on the best deals available online for the top 3 smart phones I'll admit I didn't have a really great look around. What I did manage to stumble on was an awesome deal for the Samsung Galaxy S2 on allmobiles.co.uk, the deal (no longer available) was pretty much unbeatable and offered the following:
500mins, 5000 texts and 500mb all for £26 a month for 2 years. This deal gave you the phone for free and even the Web Relations team for Vodafone were unable to match it. The brilliance of the deal seemed to be too good to keep open and the deals gone now less than 24 hours later. They have been replaced by some other similar deals on the site but none are even close to it.

An example of the sites new deals include the following
500mins, 5000 texts and 500mb and an ipod shuffle all for £26 a month for 2 years...and a £89.99 up front payment. Although the free gift is nice it's actually only worth £39.00 (the price of the item from Tesco) meaning you will be paying £50 for the phone. This deal looks to be a noticeable disappointment considering the how good the deal had been 24 hours earlier. Another point regarding this deal...why would you want an ipod shuffle as well as the phone? The phone it's self has a pretty amazing media player and the shuffle is...well a bit turd.

If you are still looking to get a Samsung Galaxy S2 (and I can't see why you wouldn't want one to be honest) there are great offers available, some even come from allmobiles.co.uk though make sure you look through all the available options. As with all phone deals take a look through the likes of all the networks (Vodafone, O2, 3, T-Mobile, Orange and any small ones) as well as shops such as Phones 4 U, Tesco, Carphone Warehouse and the online retailers including allmobiles.co.uk, mobiles.co.uk and Dialaphone.co.uk.

If you a due an upgrade have a look at all the available deals and see if your company can match the deals that are online, sometimes they will attempt to beat them even if the offers themselves are short lived ones.

Some of the best mobile phone deals around

I'm currently looking at an upgrade of my phone contract and after spending the better part of 2 days looking for some of the best “normal” deals on the market here is what I've found folks.

iPhone 4
The phone that promised to reinvent the mobile industry is still one of the hottest handsets. Although 3 seem to have some of the best deals for the phone iPhones the one I liked the most was with Vodafone and was offered by the Carphone Warehouse. For £35 a month you can get 900 minutes, 3000 texts and 500MB of mobile internet as well 1 GB of Wi-Fi (through BT Openzone) and this comes with the phone coming for free for 24 months. This deal was possibly only surpassed by those offered by 3 which include a 5000 texts, 500 minutes and 1GB of mobile internet for £35 a month. This deal sees you needing to £29.00 up front for the handset though it's still a solid deal.

If you don't like the iOS then you are almost certainly going to be interested in the Android system. The top 2 current Androids are the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Sensation and although you would have though you'd have been paying an arm and a leg for them you can still get solid deals on both handsets.

HTC Sensation
The HTC Sensation is the next step forward for the HTC brand which is simply becoming one of the worlds leaders in the market. The cheapest deal I've seen this on is the £25 a month for 24 month deal that comes with 100 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB and is offered through Phones 4 U. The better deal however is their £30 a month deal for 24 months which has 600 minutes, 3000 texts and 500MB. The deal is usually £35 a month though for some reason Phones 4 U are offering it at a reduced price saving you £120 over the course of the contract. Both of these deals see the handset coming for free and so you are getting a top whack phone on a very good deal.

Samsung Galaxy S2
The new standard bearer for Samsung and Android is, like the Sensation, a really top quality phone and again there is a lot of good deals flying around. The best I could find was £30 a month for 24 months via Tesco in a deal that gives you 700 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB of internet. Again the handset comes for free and the deal is an excellent one.

Depending on which of the three leading phones you want you should be able to get a solid deal on them. If you are looking to upgrade take these deals into account as they will almost certainly help you negotiate an upgrade deal.

Some more playing with the HTC Wildfire Camera

As with all the recent shots these were just taken with the effects of the phone, mostly with the Solarize and Negative effects, though some of them are pretty cool. This one is of the front of a car with the glove compartment being the most obvious part of the picture. The air vent really stands out as looking particularly awesome though.

 These were some really dull and boring green leaves outside of the car taken with the Solarize effect. The leaves went from dull and boring to bright, colourful and rather brilliant to be honest.

 This was almost the same image as above taken this time with the sepia effect. The image uses the lighting from above nicely to give the leaves a brown effect that looks old and worn. It's one of the few Sepia pictures I've taken that I've actually quite liked.

I think, though I may be wrong, that this was taken with out an effect and is again the leaves from above. As you can see the leaves aren't exciting and really did need sprucing up a little bit.

No effects picture of the sun on a lovely sunny day. This was basically taken as a test picture before taking some of the other sun pictures.

 The sun in black and white. Not the best picture of the sun though you can see the huge draining of the colours from the image, the sky and the leaves mainly.

 By the time this "Aqua" picture was taken the clouds had started to come across and hide the sun though it still seemed like a nice image due to the way the sun has decided to hide. Sadly it's really a bit boring and didn't have the artistic feel to it that some of the others do.

 Here is one of my favourite "sun" pictures, it's the sun solarized and it gives off some really cool looking effects. The sky has turned to a pinkish colour, the clouds, despite only being a light coverage, look angry and the sun looks like an explosion in the sky. It's just...beautiful!

 This is the sun negatived, it's not quite as as awesome as the solarized version but still pretty fun and artsy looking. The sun has become dark whilst the leaves have become light in a weird juxtaposition.

The final image, this one saw the sun hiding completely behind the clouds and as a result the light was kind of killed and as a result the sun just looks like a blob. It's a pretty awesome image in my eyes but others may think it sucks.

How to set a different theme on your Samsung Wave Cell Phone

 As with all the guides we start with the home screen the press the menu button the phone to open up the menu. With this guide in particular try and remember what the home screen looks like as it'll look very different by the end of this piece.

 From the menu screen you need to click on "Samsung Apps", it's in the top right hand of this image, though for some users it will be in a different place depending on how you like your menu screens. As with the homescreen this will look pretty different after you've set a different theme.

 In the Apps menu you need to either "search" for a theme or click category and find one. This guide will be done via the Category option as it makes this easier and more simple.

 The category screen looks something like this, you need to scroll down to find "Theme" as can be seen below.

 As I'm a cheapskate I've gone for the ones that are "Free"and picked a few to try. From here they may end up on a menu screen and need installing as well as downloading (though it seems not all of them do need installing).

 After you've downloaded your themes you will need to go back to the menu screen and then enter the settings menu (see left) from here you need to click on "Display and light" and open the the menu's in there.

 In the "Display and light" menu you need to click on "Theme" and you'll find the themes you've downloaded. By default there is only the "Default theme" though after you've downloaded a few more themes you'll be able to select one of those.

 This is the screen that will show all your themes, as you can see I've only actually downloaded 2 on to the phone (and kept the default) so my options here are quite thin though. One of these options is is "cyberpunk" which is what you'll see on the screenshots below which are hugely different to the way the screen looked to begin with.

 

 This is the new homescreen with the "Cyberpunk" theme set, as you can see the homescreen image is different and the icons at the bottom have also changed. Even the icons on menu scree have mainly changed as you can see in the image below. To change the theme back you can easily go back to the "Display and light" menu and select the default one or any other ones.