Steve Litchfield

Readers may well be aware that I'm partial to some 1970s Hawkwind. But there's one period of time, around two years from 77-79, where the usual people in, people out the door got a little silly, complete with multiple tours, multiple line-ups, three studio albums arranged in the 'wrong' order, and even a complete change of band name! So, in an effort to get my mind round all of this, I'm drawing on personal knowledge and remembrances of the time (I was in my late teens), press clippings, album sleeve notes, extended CD editions, plus most importantly  Joe Banks' excellent Hawkwind 70s history , to put everything into a strictly chronological list. Here's what happened and (as best as I can tell) in what order! Early January 1977 : Recording sessions for an album at Rockfield Studios, with Adrian Shaw in the band for the first time on bass. The rest of the band is Dave Brock, Robert Calvert, Simon House, and Simon King, of course. 28 January 1977 : Recorded i...

It's a fair cop. I was wrong about Apple's AirPods. But also right, at least up until the last year or so. Bear with me... I'd always hated the circular plastic outer-ear Apple headphones - they came with every iPod and early iPhone and they sounded tinny and awful, plus they weren't comfortable in my ears for extended periods. So I always refused them and went to third party headphones. Apple then redesigned them to be more 'sculpted' - which mostly helped the comfort issue. But not the audio. Then they went wireless with AirPods, which looked a little stupid (and still does, to some extent, even years later), plus the audio issues remained, at least compared to the competition. But... we come to the third generation of AirPods  (roughly £170 as I write this). They're sculpted, so adequately comfortable now. The long stalk is now shorter so they look marginally less stupid (plus so many people wear them that they don't stand out so much in 2023). And, b...

I recently declared that a phone needs to be lifeproof to be... well, Steve-proof, and that this partly means a decent degree off waterproofing, for use when it's raining (this is the UK!) and for surviving the occasional dunk in washing up water or similar. Which largely precludes the use of 'folding' phones, as in devices which unfold along their length to reveal a mini-tablet. However, there are some subtleties here, if we look at specifications and review materials. So I thought a brief table might be helpful. Device Official IP rating Notes Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 IPX8 No official dust rating, though brushed hinges seem to keep most dirt out in JerryRigEverything tests. Oppo Find N2 none Advertised as 'dust and water resistant'. So OK for use in the rain, for example, but it won't survive a dunking. Vivo X Fold 2 none Teardowns have shown water gaskets and various protections, so again probably fine in the rain, even down the be...

Time after time I hear myself on-air complaining about a late or missing update to a smartphone. In the grand scheme it doesn't matter that much, surely? Why should it matter to a phone user whether their device is on 'March 2023 Android security' or err... 'April'? Or indeed 'February'? Well, it normally doesn't. Certainly most phone users have no awareness of the security status of their devices.  The security-smart answer is that users need protecting from themselves. All operating systems have some bugs, some vulnerabilities, due to their complexity, and exploiting (and fixing) these is a perpetual game of 'whack a mole' played between hackers and software developers.  But if a serious vulnerability is found in Android OS then simply going to a booby-trapped web page or being tricked into downloading and installing something dodgy, let alone knowingly downloading 'cracked' commercial apps and games from the dark web, then the phone ca...

Yes, yes, manufacturers usually quote durability specs (materials, IP rating, etc.) when advertising their phones, but for me it comes down to a certain minimum - if a device is man enough (or, I guess, woman enough!) to survive real world daily use. So, for example, I have my iPhone 14 Pro Max. It: has a stainless steel chassis has 'Ceramic Shield' glass is IP68-rated for dust and water, so is essentially waterproof to the nth degree, you can wash it under the tap or in the bath if it gets dirty is encased in tough clear TPU (and belt-holstered ) Then, to one side, the other smartphone I'm captivated by, the Microsoft Surface Duo, two displays, 360 degree hinge, and so forth. Amazing potential for productivity, a folding tablet in the pocket, effectively. It: has two Gorilla Glass Victus displays, with Gorilla Glass backs has no IP rating, thanks mainly to the 360 degree hinge mechanism and likely ingress of dust and water can't be cased due to the need to fold closed ...

I did want to plug my friend Juan Carlos Bagnell's YouTube video here, as I'm essentially repurposing his bullet points, but in written prose rather than on camera! You see, the move to larger camera sensors in smartphones has been something I've been tracking for one and a half decades . And in each case, sensors getting larger has been a very.good.thing . Except that good 'ol physics, the same physics I've been touting as a benefit as sensors have gotten larger and more and more light is being gathered, and photos have thus got better even in dim lighting conditions - that same physics has meant that the trend has passed a tipping point and we're now starting to see real world issues in real world phones. Too shallow depth of field Starting off with something that's perhaps subjective, since it depends on exactly what you want your phone to photograph. But a larger (1") sensor means a larger aperture feeding it light, and the larger the aperture, the...

The story so far... I can't live without a belt case for my PDA/smartphone/whatever. Really. I've tried, and I kept leaving it behind. And don't talk to me about pockets - these are fine when I have a jacket or coat, but I find today's giant phones uncomfortable in a trouser front pocket. I'm clearly in a worldwide minority here - maybe I'm just too slender!  So belt case it is. And my go to for the last decade has been PDAir - I won't link to their web site because it's effectively dead now. Either coronavirus or just market forces or mis-management caused their demise. Which was a great shame, since their slender vertical belt pouches were/are perfect for me. Here's an early sample, from 2013 for the Lumia 1020: Since then I've managed to get half a dozen (gradually larger) PDAir belt pouches and these have done my various Android and then iPhones right up to date. In each case, I like to have the phone in a slimline TPU case (for grip) and the...

Now, don't get me wrong, the camera on the Surface Duo is pretty bad. By modern standards (take it back to 2008 and it would be doing well). Though in fairness, Microsoft never pitched the Duo as a consumer phone and only ever talked about its one camera, above the right screen, as suitable for video/Skype?Team calls. However, I've talked about 'GCam' before - essentially Google's Pixel Camera software extracted from updates and adapted for other phones. This combines images taken fast, one after the other, to reduce noise and improve detail (plus other enhancement tricks). It was created originally for the Google Glass project. This original wearable had such a tiny (and thus relatively 'bad') camera that Google called on the software expertise of its imaging department to work miracles, pulling usable images from digital soup. So, unsurprisingly, it can work wonders too on the unspectacular camera hardware of today - in this case, the aforementioned Surfac...

(Originally published by me on AAM , I'm including it here for wider interest and in case the All About servers go down.) Many have bemoaned the death of Continuum circa 2016, with Samsung's DeX taking up a lot of the slack, albeit in the Android world. And then we have the Microsoft Surface Duo pair of devices, ostensibly without a desktop interface but I hope to prove in the video below that the very nature of USB 3.1 (here over Type C), along with a landscape-first device like the Duo and a capable standard lapdock, means that 90% of the functionality you'd expect from a 'desktop' interface is in fact taken care of automatically. See what you think. The video is captured zoomed in a little, for framing reasons, plus it's almost impossible to get everything in focus all the time at such close range, so do forgive production quality - you'll easily get the gist: Watching this back a year later, it occurs to me that I didn't demo all the things you can p...

You'll have seen my previous review of the rather wonderful 140W GaN charger from VOLTME ? This is from the same people but rather than mains-driven, this is a totally mobile, and wireless-focussed solution for iPhones (and Android phones that are, perhaps with case help, MagSafe-compatible). The idea of a MagSafe power bank isn't new, of course. I also have the Apple version, pictured below with the MagPak 5K - the Apple one is very slightly smaller and lighter, but has significantly less capacity (2920mAh at 3.8V compared with 5000mAh, etc.) and features.  Now, this VOLTME accessory doesn't have the Apple magic in terms of inserting its charge status into your iPhone widgets, but aside from this, there's no reason not to consider this a direct replacement for the Apple version.  It's finished in a lovely soft touch plastic, in a variety of colours (I was sent purple because it was the first one off the production line, apparently!) The styling matches the MagSafe ...

The specifications war in the charging world never ceases to amaze me. And this is the next step, for 2023.  Freed from the shackles of users charging via whatever came in their phone or laptop's box (since they often don't have anything), third party power solutions have prospered in recent years. I hadn't heard of VOLTME before but I'm impressed by this, the highest rated mains charger I've ever owned. Especially with the (bulky) UK three pin plug variant here, this isn't the smallest charger on the block, but given the capability I think some bulk can be excused. It's a shame, mind you, that the mains pins aren't a bolt on for international travelling, i.e. have UK or USA or EU mains pins on adapters which can be snapped on - as this would qualify as a perfect travel companion. Oh well. So we're essentially talking a 'home office' or perhaps domestic travel gadget, one accessory that can charge up to three things at once and with substanti...

I have a very peculiar attitude towards protecting my crown jewels. No, not those , but my smartphone, full of my stuff, signed-in sessions, and secrets. Though the exact device isn't critical, it's currently an iPhone 14 Pro Max, which comes with stainless steel chassis and 'Ceramic Shield' glass. So it's pretty damned tough on its own. (If it was an Android flagship, especially from Samsung or Google, then we'd be looking at aluminium and Gorilla Glass Victus, so still reasonably strong.) The traditional holder of one's smartphone is a pocket, but I find this to be both uncomfortable and impractical, especially when sitting down - try getting a phone out of a jeans pocket when in a car etc. (And don't even mention the unmentionable - keeping a phone in a back pocket, at risk of robbery and destruction.)  So, at the risk of seeming horrendously unfashionable (I don't care any more!), I keep my phone in a slimline vertical belt holster (made by PDair...

Now this is embarrassing. I've bought and sold and then rebought the same accessory two or three times. And it's this one, from Microsoft, designed originally around the time of Lumia's, so 2012 ish, but with a view to working across all three(!) mobile platforms (now only two, of course). Bluetooth keyboards have gone into and out of fashion over the years, but they're definitely still relevant, thanks to the use of tablets and 'phablet'-style large-screened smartphones, where a wireless full size keyboard can turn the device into a mini-laptop. Microsoft's offering is still ultra-premium, has a few unique features and is worth looking out for, not least having full size keys and yet folding to pocket size without needing hinges and any moving parts. (Well, so there must be a ribbon cable of some kind embedded in the tough textured body, but that's about it...) I'm aware that revisiting this accessory so long after first release means that availab...

So. Mum died about eight years ago, aged 75, and then my dad died at the end of 2021, aged 83. A pretty normal timescale for my parents and for that generation. But, amidst a house full of 80 years of mainly err... junk odds and ends (that took months to sort through), was my mum's prized photo collection. It spanned four bookcases and comprised 100 albums, beautifully indexed and numbered, each with roughly 100 photos in. So 10,000 photos in all to do something with. (one of the few of my 'dad on a cliff path' that I actually kept. He's IN the photo, not a dot on the horizon!) There is no way I wanted my own house to inherit 10,000 physical photos, so the big sort out commenced. Despite taking over a man day, the process turned out easier than I'd expected. You see, in this collection, there were a huge number of: landscape shots of the Cornwall and Devon cliffs and coastal path, usually in grainy gloom flower beds from public gardens visited - so many flower be...