The term AMOLED is used to describe a certain display technology commonly found in mobile devices. Less affectionately known as Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Display, AMOLED screens tend to be extremely thin and use less power than other screens that we see on Android devices.

Each pixel that makes up an AMOLED screen creates its own light, meaning that phones that utilise the technology don’t require a backlight.

Variants of the AMOLED technology are starting to appear in the mobile market, with Samsung using their Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED Plus and HD Super AMOLED in Galaxy S2, Droid Charge and Galaxy Note devices.

The technical bit

An AMOLED display consists of an active matrix of, primarily, OLED pixels that omit light upon electrical activation. Thin film transistors (TFT) are placed behind this layer of pixels, with roughly two TFT’s controlling a pixel. Having the right amount of TFT’s controlling the pixels keeps the electrical current flowing to each pixel working.

APK

The .apk file format is used to distribute and install apps on to your Android device. Compiling an .apk file consists of packaging your app and all its related certificates and resources into one file.

Android Market

The Android Market is home to the thousands upon thousands of apps we download everyday. The growth of the market has been remarkable, and we celebrated the 10 billionth download only 2 months ago.

Over 190 countries have been busy downloading from the Android Market, and recent stats show that South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are the most app-crazed countries.

Pocket Casts

Podcasts are an excellent source of entertainment and education, and running them on the right app is crucial. Pocket Casts lets you stream or download podcasts and will automatically retrieve new episodes as soon as they are available. It looks great and works exactly as it should.

MyBackup Pro

Backing up your Android data is crucial to ensuring continued productivity and MyBackup Pro lets you backup ‘all’ of your data to an online server or an expansion card. Backups can be scheduled and the entire process is invisible once you have set it up.

Anti-Virus Pro

The threat of viruses to mobile devices is increasing all of the time and it should be common sense to take some precautions. Anti-Virus Pro will protect your phone or tablet and not intrude on your daily tasks. It can even undertake full backups of your data.

SPB Shell 3D

There are many apps that will change the way an Android smartphone looks and works, but few go to the extremes that SPB Shell 3D does. It looks incredibly polished and adds much functionality that will help you use your device more efficiently.

SlideIT Keyboard

The standard Android keyboard doesn’t work well for everyone and this is why SlideIT Keyboard is a great alternative. You never need to take your finger from the screen and with practice, you can be achieving quicker data input speeds than ever before.

Quickoffice Pro

There are often not enough minutes in the day and any tool that can make you more productive is worth considering. Quickoffice Pro brings desktop-level functionality to the mobile world and supports all of the latest Office document file formats.

Imagine Publishing has launched a new digital-only, Multi-Touch ebook, iCloud For Beginners, specifically designed for Apple’s iBooks 2. Featuring slideshows, interactive images and more, it is one of the first ebooks of its type in the world.

Using iBooks Author’s revolutionary Multi-Touch technology, iCloud For Beginners teaches everything users need to know about iCloud, the free new back-up and sync service. From how to set-up your free iCloud account to sharing your information across your Apple devices, the ebook uses cutting-edge technology to deliver enhanced, easy-to-use tutorials.

“At Imagine, we’re always excited by cool new ways to deliver our world-leading content.” said Editor In Chief Aaron Asadi “iBooks Author is another great opportunity for us to create more products we love for a whole new type of audience. It’s this sort of game-changing innovation that makes us do what we do. ”

“With the speed that the publishing industry is changing, there’s nothing more exhilarating than grabbing hold of new technologies and seeing how we can get the most out of them to serve-up the content we’re so passionate about” added Ross Andrews, Head of Design “What could be better than going from saying ‘we should try that’ to a fully published product in just a few days? It’s hard to think of a more exciting time for the industry.”

iCloud For Beginners is available now on iTunes and iBookstore worldwide for just £0.99 in the UK and $1.99 in the US.

Imagine Publishing is one of the UK’s fastest-growing multimedia content producers. Formed in May 2005, Imagine now publishes 20 regular print magazines, 30 digital apps, 25 websites and thousands of articles every month in the technology, videogames, photography and knowledge/science markets. An Imagine magazine is purchased every ten seconds.

T-Mobile has unveiled a new phone plan it is calling ‘The Full Monty’ – the UK’s first truly unlimited plan.

The plan launches on 1st February with four different price points, promising users an all you can eat service with no faiar use policy.

The two-year plan starts at £36 per month, for which you’ll get your choice of phone, including a free Samsung Galaxy S II or a 16GB iPhone 4S for £99. The top price of £61 per month includes a free 32GB iPhone 4S.

Huawei may not be a well known name at the moment, but the company has serious plans to build brand recognition over the next few years. The Chinese manufacturer’s strategy revolves around well-specced devices with good build quality and very competitively priced. As the first part of that strategy does the MediaPad represent the arrival of a major new name in mobile?

Visually the MediaPad might represent the closest thing we ever get to a seven inch iPad. From the front and the sides it is virtually indistinguishable from the iPad 1.

From the rear it seems to take a few cues from the HTC Flyer, with its unibody aluminium chassis broken up only by plastic sections at the top – to house the camera module, and the bottom, with a removable panel where you can insert your microSD and SIM cards (there is also a non-SIM version of the device available, while the device will also be available in the guise of the Orange Tahiti).

There are no buttons on the front and only volume and power buttons on the top horizontal edge. Along the right edge, in landscape mode, are ports for HDMI, microUSB and charging. The latter is important; the MediaPad will not charge via microUSB.

Along the opposite edge are twin speakers. We found these to be awkwardly placed as it is almost impossible not to obscure one of them with your palm when holding the device to watch a video.

The screen on the MediaPad is very impressive. The resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels gives it a pixel density of 215ppi, higher than pretty much any tablet of any size on any platform. By default, though, it is set to run in standard resolution, 1024 x 600, and you need to switch to the higher res mode in the settings. This makes the icons and text smaller, and there was a small hit on the device’s speed as well.

The IPS display has wide viewing angles, and the images it produced were bright and crisp.

The MediaPad was responsive throughout, with the only issues coming from the idiosyncrasies of the Honeycomb OS itself, such as the peculiar UI design that sees the back and home buttons in the bottom left corner of the screen, and the apps button in the top right corner when logic states they should be alongside each other at the very least. Huawei has now confirmed that the MediaPad will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Similarly the main performance concern came with the browser, which is slow when scrolling large pages, and tended to be very laggy when using the keyboard. This is not uncommon on Honeycomb devices, and the far superior performance of both Opera and Firefox on the MediaPad showed that it was indeed a Honeycomb issue here as well, rather than a problem with the hardware.

There are dual cameras on board. The rear one, with shoots five megapixel stills, was slow and produced mediocre output – we’re still far from convinced that tablets even need cameras, especially at this quality. More useful was the front camera for video chat.

The MediaPad runs an unskinned version of Honeycomb, which Huawei has chosen to supplement with some additional software. This includes a useful office suite for editing Microsoft Office-compatible documents, as well as some games.

The ubiquitous Angry Birds is here, along with a couple of Gameloft offerings, including the Asphalt 6 racing game that needs a near 600MB download before you can actually start playing. The Aldiko ebook reader is also pre-installed, and the Kindle app is only a download away if you prefer. At the size of a paperback book the MediaPad makes for a fantastic eReader.

A good range of video formats is supported in the video player as well, and while we did encounter some audio sync issues with a couple of our test videos the tablet also served well in this area. Google services apart, however, there is no on-board content store.

As a device with few design features in the hardware, and a plain version of its OS for the software the MediaPad suffers from the same problem that a lot of Honeycomb tablets do: it lacks its own identity. And as a result it feels expensive, even as its mid-range price point. Even so, it is among the best seven-inch Android tablets we’ve seen to date, and has plenty to offer anyone looking for a more compact but well built device.

The South Korean company has racked up a total profit of £2.9 billion for the last quarter of 2011.

Figures from Strategy Analytics suggest that Samsung’s range of Galaxy phones have been a major factor in the profits, with the Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note being two of the more popular devices of last year.

Strategy Analytics report estimates that a staggering 36.5 million Samsung handsets were sold in the last quarter of 2011, leaving them just behind Apple’s figure of 37.04 million handsets, and well in front of third-place Nokia’s 19.6 million handset.

Fast forward a few months and the next phone which has been making a lot of headlines is Sony’s new device, and its first away from Ericsson. On initial inspection, the Xperia S looks gorgeous, and with its UK release fast approaching, we decided to compare both spec sheets to try and figure out which device has the edge, on paper.

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Screen and display

Both the Xperia S and Nexus are big devices, with the Nexus measuring in at a monstrous 4.65 inches. The Xperia S isn’t too far behind, measuring in at 4.30 inches. There’s an ongoing debate on whether we really need 4 inch screens on our phones, but there’s no denying the quality that these sort of phones bring.

Phones such as the RAZR, Sensation XL and even the enormous Galaxy Note all sport screens over 4 inches, and every one of them looks superb, so in that sense, maybe bigger is better. Display wise, both phones utilise a 720 x 1280 resolution, which should make everything look crisp and clear.

Camera and video

We were slightly letdown by the 5-megapixel camera on the Galaxy Nexus, images tended to be slightly grainy and colours were quite muted. To be perfectly honest, there hasn’t been many camera we’ve been overly impressed with on Android devices, although the news about the camera on the Xperia S is very exciting indeed.

Having more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better images, but with 12-megapixels and 1080p video recording, we can’t help but smile. There has been a few shots taken from the Xperia S floating about on a few sites, and we urge you to go take a look as they look brilliant!

Processor and power

Thankfully, both phones have plenty of juice under their belt, but which one is packing more? The Samsung Galaxy Nexus clocks in with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, which is by far from slow, and our experiences with the device have shown it to be extremely nippy. Sony’s new device, however, seems to have got a bit further, packing in a mighty dual-core 1.5GHz processor, which should satisfy even the most power hungry apps.

Gingerbread vs Ice Cream Sandwich

One of the biggest talking points on both devices is regarding which version of the Android OS they’re running. The Nexus was famous for being the first device to utilise Android’s latest update, Ice Cream Sandwich, which promised, and delivered a lot.

The same can’t be said for Sony’s Xperia S, with the new device being shipped with Android’s 2.3 (Gingerbread) update. We’ve got no quarms with the Gingerbread, and it has been a great servant to the majority of the phones we’ve looked at in recent times, but even with the promised 4.0 update happening later this year, we’re disappointed.

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On paper, both devices are brilliant, and really showcase what the Android OS is capable of. There’s a lot of similarities between the devices, but with the details we’ve been given, the Xperia S currently looks like it’ll be setting the standard for the rest of the Android phones to follow in 2012. We can’t wait to get our hands on it, and write an updated comparison between the devices at a later date.

The app has a variety of categories that you can look through, all of which include picture references or, in some cases, videos. The subjects the app covers is vast; ranging from attracting the attention of a rescue team to sharpening a knife, all are as comprehensive as the one before them. Each category tackles a variety of possible situations and potential problems regarding the categories subject.

There are a selection of stories included in the app that highlight the importance of safety techniques, and how to react in the face of danger. Each story highlights a specific safety technique, which is then expanded on at the end of the story.

Once you have looked through all the categories, of which there are many, you can try out a quiz, which tests out all areas of the app. We had particular difficulty trying to distinguish clouds, it’s incredibly difficult! The app has been designed well and is functional enough to use. There are some issues with loading times, especially with the embedded videos, and the sound quality on the videos is also on the poor side.

Although the SAS Survival Guide won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, it is a great source of valuable information if you are a keen traveler or spend a lot of time abroad. And even if you aren’t big on traveling, the app itself is a riveting read and expanding your knowledge can never be a bad thing!

On the back of a sturdy looking pair of headphones are 2 speakers, both adding a lot of weight and width to the overall size of the product. The sound quality that comes from the headphones is superb, although you can really feel the weight of the headphones after a prolonged period of time.

Using the small control panel that comes with the headphones, you can then switch to speaker mode. This plays the music through the speakers, but the sound quality is a lot more ‘tinny’ than what we’d have liked. For the price, you won’t find a better pair of headphones, but you will certainly find a better pair of speakers.

Overall: 7/10

Price: Free

The ever-popular Financial Times has finally made in on to our Android devices. The app is, as you would expect really, offering the latest financial news from all over the world. Your homepage is filled with the latest news, and a series of tabs line the top of the page indicating different sections you can go to.

As well as the latest finance news, the app comes with a Life & Arts section as well as the latest market data, and even a currency converter. There’s a search function allowing you to look for specific articles – or a specific author as well.

Although the Financial Times app is free, there is a choice to subscribe to it to receive newsletters and a few other features, although we aren’t sure if £6.49 is justifiable. We also have a problem with the video content within the app, as it is painfully slow to load.

The Financial Times is a quality newspaper, but we’re not too sure if many people would stump up for the subscription that they’re keen to push through this app.

Overall: 3

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Daily Mail

Price: Free

Following on from the success of the website, the Daily Mail Online has released their very own Android app. When opening the app, you’ll be greeted with the latest headlines from around the world. Scrolling left and right between screens will allow you to view other headlines, as well as associated articles.

On the bottom of the screen there is a list showing the different topics that the app covers. All the sections that are on the website are present on the app; including the Femail and You sections.

Articles are extremely fast to open and pictures look great. At the bottom of each article, there is a list of associated articles that you can take a look at. You can switch between articles and sections by simply shaking your phone – or by swiping your finger on the screen.

We were really pleased to see the Daily Mail finally get a decent app. The app has been expertly designed, and the various gesture features are a nice touch. In terms of reading the news on your Android device, this is one of the best experiences we’ve had.

Overall: 4

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And the winner is… Daily Mail

We liked both apps, but found that the Daily Mail app was smoother to navigate, and didn’t charge a hefty subscription fee that will put a lot of potential readers off.