THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED

Thank you for all of your entries, the winners of the competition will be announced on Monday 14th May! We’ll be giving away more great products soon!

We’ve just teamed up with MEElectronics, the guys behind the brilliant RX11-BK headphones, to give you guys a chance at winning a pair of the brand new MEElectronics RX12 Sound-Isolating In-Ear Headphones!

Style meets substance with the RX12 Rhythm Series in-ear earphone. Combining a tangle-free flat cable, sleek form factor, and two-tone color scheme with great sound from the proprietary dynamic driver, the RX12 offers enhanced bass and a clean sound at an affordable price.

The Rhythm Series in-ear headphones produce rhythmic, spacious sound with added warmth and plenty of bass invigorating your music. The RX12 replaces the RX11 in the MEElectronics lineup.

FEATURES:

• Spacious sound with powerful bass
• Tangle-free flat cable design
• Flush-in-ear design is sleek and comfortable
• In-ear design provides passive noise cancellation
• Compatible with iPod, iPhone, MP3/CD/DVD players, computers, and all devices with a standard 3.5mm jack

MEElectronics, being the great company they are, have given us three pairs of headphones to giveaway, and all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is follow the simple instructions below.

How to enter:

1. Like Tech-Reviews and MEElectronics on Facebook
2. Leave a comment on this Facebook picture

And that’s it! Just two simple instructions and you could be in with a chance of winning a pair of the brand new RX12 headphones from MEElectronics!

This competition is open to UK residents only.

The competition ends on Friday 11^th May at 5pm.

The winner will be announced on Monday 14^th May at 9am.

Good luck!

If you’re looking to purchase an Apple iPad, there are a few things you need to consider. Are you going to really notice the Retina Display, use the upgraded 5-megapixel camera or use the new 4G connectivity? If you answered no to any of those, then you might want to take a look at this guide on choosing the right iPad.

First off, why do you need an iPad at all?

Well, the iPad has been around for a few years now and offers a lightweight and easy-to-carry alternative to carrying around a MacBook.

Also, with the ability to download thousands of useful applications, which can range from games to productivity applications, the iPad is becoming a very popular device that could potentially replace your MacBook or laptop.

Obviously that would depend on what you use your laptop for, but with Apple’s new iPhoto application, even things such as graphic design are becoming much easier to do whilst using a tablet.

What are the differences between the first-generation iPad, second-generation iPad and the new iPad?

Well, to put it simply, not much at all really. The first-generation iPad is still a brilliant device that runs extremely well.

The only features that it lacks, when compared with the new iPad, are things such as the Retina Display, it weighs a little more, the design is different and the hardware is slightly less impressive than the new iPad’s.

However, even the first-generation iPad has specs that are better than some newer tablets; it still features a 1GHz single-core processor, 256MB of RAM and is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB options.

If you’re not too bothered about gaming and would just be using your iPad to be browsing the web, checking email, playing the odd game of Angry Birds, then the first-gen iPad would be a great choice.

If you’re interested in all of the above, as well some slightly hard-core gaming and graphics editing, the iPad 2 is where it’s at. A new design, dual-core 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM are what have been changed here.

With the exclusion of the of new iPad’s Retina Display and quad-core graphics (the iPad 2 features the dual-core SGX543MP2 GPU, which is the same one that’s found inside the iPhone 4S), the iPad 2 is pretty much a new iPad. And seen as though the CPU has not changed, from the 1GHz dual-core processor found in the iPad 2, you won’t see any performance increases at all really.

With all of this in mind, you might be asking “Why would anyone buy the new iPad then?”

Well, even though the hardware upgrades in the new iPad aren’t too impressive, it still has a lot to offer including a 5-megapixel camera, capable of recording in 1080p HD, an improved battery to cope with the Retina Display so you still receive 10 hours of battery life, quad-core graphics for even more impressive gaming and 4G capabilities (only really useful for US customers at the moment).

So, if you’re actually going to be using the camera on the new iPad (which is actually very impressive compared with the iPad 2’s very poor 0.7-megapixel camera), be playing a lot of graphics heavy games and would actually prefer an insanely high-quality display, then you might want to consider purchasing the new iPad over the iPad 2.

However, we’d recommend purchasing the iPad 2 for now and waiting until the fourth-generation iPad next year, which should feature a whole new design and some very impressive hardware upgrades.

You can check out what we thought of the new Apple iPad by reading our review here.

Take a look at the next couple of pages to find out more about the pricing for the Apple iPad 2 and new iPad on UK networks.

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED

Thank you for all of your entries, the winner of the competition is Amy Marie Clark! Congratulations! We’ll be giving away more great products soon!

From listening to your favourite playlists to streaming catch-up TV, a smartphone is now the perfect pocket-sized essential for entertainment on-the-go. With all this content available at your fingertips, you need access to plenty of data.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Three, the only network offering all-you-can-eat data on pay as you go and pay monthly, to offer one lucky reader the chance to win an LG Optimus 3D (available now for £449.99 on pay as you go).

Budding movie makers can try their hand at making 3D and HD videos, on the 4.3-inch display, to share with their friends using the phone’s 5 megapixel cameras. Plus, in-built social networks mean that you never need to miss your contacts’ latest updates.

With the ability to expand the default 8GB of storage to an impressive 40GB (up to a 32GB microSD card slot), you should have no trouble at all storing all of the HD videos, photos and music. You can also download applications to your heart’s content via the Android Market.

The LG Optimus 3D comes pre-installed with Android 2.2 (Froyo), but can be upgraded to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The winner will receive this new handset complete with £50 of Pay As You Go credit from Three, the UK’s fastest growing network (UK winners only).

To enter the competition, and to be in with a chance of winning a prize worth £500, all you need to do is complete these three simple steps:

1. Click the Facebook ‘Like’ button above.
2. Like the Three UK Facebook Page and Tech-Reviews Facebook Page.
3. Leave a comment on this Facebook picture.

Competition ends: April 5th, 2012 @ 5pm

The winner will be announced on April 6th @ 9am.

Unfortunately, this competition is open to UK readers only, but, for all of you guys outside of the UK, keep checking back because you’ll have many more opportunites to win some great prizes!

For high end publishing, the Pro version of the software comes with plug-ins for QuarkXPress and Adobe Design.

Here are some of the key features of ‘personal-edition’ of the software:

1. Easy Use Interface
2. Wide Range of Quality Fonts
3. Productivity and Compatibility
4. Optimized for high-end Desktop Publishing
5. Customizable
6. Comparison Chart

The mathematic equations created in MathMagic can be exported straight into Microsoft Word or Mac’s ‘Pages’ and a number of other word processing suites simply by drag and dropping. Their website is very useful and even includes a very informative 10-miniute video explaining the software and documenting tasks which can be carried out.

Upon starting up the software, it prompts you to enter a serial key (which you get after purchasing the software). Once registered the main program opens up for you to fulfil your needed task.

Although the program looks and feels rather complicated, after a short time spent playing around with it, it becomes entirely natural and difficult equations can easily be created.

For more information about the software and to watch a 10-minute video, visit this site.

I have tried many file recovery applications before, with no luck and simply being £50 or so out of pocket, so trying Data Recovery Guru I was slightly sceptical. However, they offer a free trial, which allows you to trial the software before by scanning your hard drive and showing the files that can be recovered. Moreover, if you’re not totally satisfied with the application they claim to give your money-back 100%. With nothing to risk, I decided to give Data Recovery Guru a try.

I tested the application by using it over a 30-day period, deleting files as I went a long and noting what I had deleted. I then ran the application after the 30-days to see what could be recovered.

To try and recover the files the application scans through your whole hard drive, with over 400GB of data on mine this took a little while. Once the scan had started it begins to present the files I had deleted in a window similar to the default Finder. You can then begin analysing each file while the scan is still completing. Although the original filenames were not the same, you can quickly browse each of them with Preview and also check their file size.

Once you have found the files you wish to recover, you simply select the file and click “Recover”. A prompt will then open to ask you where to save the recovered file.

Unlike other data recovery applications, this really is a very simple application to use and does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s well worth giving the free trial a go. Visit Data Recovery Guru to learn more.

prMac is a press release service which specializes in news and services specific to Apple. By signing up to the service, which is free of course, you can begin publishing your press releases right away. Moreover, they also offer accounts for publishers and agencies to receive press releases right to their inbox as soon as posted, allowing you to be informed before anyone else.

For users wishing to launch a new application or Apple-related service, prMac is golden. Each press release is distributed to over 674 media partners, through rss feeds, automatic submission, email lists, well-known apple news sites and news groups. Better yet, if you haven’t got the skills to write a top press release, prMac offers a service to write one for you!

Of course, this brilliant service does have some costs involved. Although you can begin posting press releases right away, for free, in order to get the most out of the service you can choose one of two packages:

Extended Distribution

• Same Day Distribution (Immediate)
• News Agency Distribution
• Google News Inclusion
• Social Media Aggregation
• Release Syndication
• RSS/XML Inclusion
• Ping RSS Aggregators
• News Groups Inclusion
• Listing on prMac Channels List
• Improved Placement
• Subscribed User Email (prAlerts)
• Emailed Reports

Extended Distribution with video news releases

• Professional Video News Release
• Inclusion to Leading Video Networks
• News Agency Distribution
• Google News Inclusion
• Social Media Aggregation
• Release Syndication
• RSS/XML Inclusion
• Ping RSS Aggregators
• News Groups Inclusion
• Listing on prMac Channels List
• Improved Placement
• Subscribed User Email (prAlerts)
• Emailed Reports

Now, considering prMac’s massive amount of media partners and contacts, you might think these packages are expensive. But you’ll be surprised… the Extended Distribution package is priced at only $19.99 and the service with video releases is priced at $77.95! Advertising typically costs £100 upwards on any one website for a banner, so this price really is an absolute steal.

For anyone wishing to launch a new Apple related app or service, I thoroughly recommend you check out prMac. Given the minor costs involved and the features this service offers, 5 stars from me easily.

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED

Thank you for all of your entries. The winner of the competition is Chris Lee, Congratulations! Sorry to those of you who didn’t win, but we’ll be giving away some more cool prizes soon in our Christmas giveaway!

It’s competition time again here at Tech-Reviews.co.uk! This time we have an Andy Pad Pro Android tablet to giveaway to one lucky reader!

“With additional features over the standard Andy Pad, the Andy Pad Pro features a built-in memory of 16GB which can be expanded up to 32GB with one of our SD cards (soon available as a separate purchase). This memory can be used to keep everything from books, films, music and photos at the tips of your fingers.

The Andy Pad Pro is 18g lighter than the standard Andy Pad and its slim design no problem makes it perfect to slip into a school bag or briefcase. With an additional purchase of an HDMI cable, you’ll be able to play HD videos and films through the Pro onto your television, plus the included headset allows you to listen to videos or music in private.

For the best in gaming the Andy Pad Pro supports 3D vector games, has 5-Point multi-touch and an accelerometer for motion control. The 7 inch SensaTouch screen is also sure to be a benefit when gaming and generally using the Pro: it transforms electronic signals from your fingers into swipes and selections, allowing even the slightest movements to be recognised.

The Andy Pad Pro also features a powerful Wi-Fi chip, to automatically search out available free networks and enable chats, emails and browsing possible on the go. For extra connectivity, the Pro is fitted with Bluetooth technology so you can pair with a range of devices (such as headsets and controllers).

In addition to the front facing camera, a rear facing camera allows you to capture images on the go. A (real-time tested) battery life of up to 6 hours makes the Andy Pad Pro ideal to use during long journeys or commutes.”

Specifications:

• 16GB Memory
• Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
• Two cameras
• 3D Games
• 5-Point Multi-touch

How to enter

To be in with a chance of winning the Andy Pad Pro, just follow the simple instructions below.

1. Share this article on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ using the share bar to the left of this article.
2. Visit the Tech-Reviews Facebook page here and Like it.
3. Visit the Andy Pad Facebook page here and Like it.

And that’s it! Simple!

This competition will end on Friday 18th November at 5PM GMT. The winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on Monday 21st November at 9AM on Facebook, Twitter and the website.

Good Luck!

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED

Thank you for all of your entries, the winner of the competition will be announced on Tuesday 11th October! We’ll be giving away a AndyPad Tablet next!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This giveaway is sponsored by SPECK. A big thanks to them!

Since I joined the Tech-Reviews team I was on 1,800 subscribers and I have shot up to 2,000 in no time, we’ll be doing a competition every time a milestone is met on the Tech-Reviews gadget channel.

So what’s up for grabs? All of this.

There are altogether 8 products are for grabs, but Rhys is also chucking in a pair of Radiopaq Duo headphones too! There will be four winners altogether and each winner will get two items.

How to enter?

At the top of the page you will see the video of me announcing the giveaway, you have to watch this video and do a few things on the page, firstly…

1) You have to subscribe to the channel {click here to subscribe}

2) You then have to Like, Thumbs up and Favourite the video. EASY.

3) You HAVE to comment on which product you want most, and then the second most product you want. (example: 1:Radiopaq Headphones  2:MadCatz T-Shirt)

4) You then have to follow these three people on twitter:

Brandon Saltalamacchia (Me): http://twitter.com/#!/iambrandonuk

Tech-Reviews.co.uk: http://twitter.com/#!/TechReviews_UK

and Speck for sponsoring the Giveaway: http://twitter.com/#!/speckproducts

AND YOUR DONE! Its as easy as that!

The giveaway will end on October the 8th and the winners will be announced on the YouTube channel on the 9th.

A big thanks to Speck for sponsoring the giveaway!

This tutorial is done using a 3GS, however the steps for all iPhone models are pretty much the same.

Buy a replacement iPhone 3GS screen glass and tools

eBay is your best bet, I got my kit for just £5.50 which includes the screen glass, adhesive pads and all the tools you need to carry out this tutorial. Just make sure you check the sellers feedback for people who have also bought the kit, there are some bad replica screen glass’ available.

How to fix your iPhone 3GS cracked screen

1. Remove the two screws from the bottom of your iPhone. These are located next to the dock connector, remove these with a mini Philips screwdriver and make sure you put them in a safe place. Labelling which screws are for what is a good idea.
   
2. Lift the iPhone screen away.  Using the plunger you got with your kit, place it just above the home button and carefully try and lift the screen out from the casing, you may need to use a tool to prise it out from the sides, but be careful doing this as you can damage the seal.
   If your kit doesn’t contain a plunger, put a mini screwdriver or other tool between the screen and rubber and try to lift it out. This method is not recommended, as it’s very easy to damage the rubber seal.
   
3. Lift the screen back from the iPhone casing, be careful, as it’ll still be attached.
   
4. Disconnect the cables. There are three cables to disconnect from the iPhone itself; these are numbered 1,2 and 3 (number 3 is hidden below number 2). Number 1 and 2 cables are easy to remove, simply lift them out from their connectors using the wedge tool.
   
5. Be careful removing number 3. Number 3 is a little more difficult to remove and you can damage your iPhone if done incorrectly. It’s clamped into place, in order to remove it you need to release this clamp. To do this, slide the wedging tool or another plastic apparatus underneath the cream-coloured clamp and flip it up 90 degrees. This is the clamp released. Be sure to flick the clamp back down to prevent it from getting damaged while we replace the iPhone screen.
   
6. Remove 6 Screws. Three of the screws are located on one of the metal frames sides, two on the other side and one is located in the top right.

   

   
   

7. Prise the LCD screen out from the frame. Once the screws are removed you can use a wedge tool or small screwdriver between the LCD and glass frame to separate them.
   
8. Remove the cracked and broken iPhone screen glass. This is probably the toughest part of the tutorial, removing the glass. I would recommend using gloves for this step unless you want small shards of glass in your hands. Best way to remove the glass is to forcefully push it out or smash it even more with a screwdriver so it’s easier.
   
9. Clean the iPhone frame up. Make sure you remove ALL the left over adhesive residue and pieces of glass from the frame. A heat gun can help with this, but be careful not to melt the plastic frame.
10. Apply your new iPhone screen glass. With your kit you should have some double sided tape cut to size or adhesive, carefully apply this to the frame making sure you don’t cover any of the sensors or buttons. Reapply the new screen glass to this, pushing down to ensure it is located perfectly and is secure, give it a couple of minutes to set if using adhesive.Reassemble the iPhone. In the methods we took it apart, do these in the reverse order.
    • Attach LCD frame back to glass frame, secure with 6 screws.
    • Lift the clamp and slide number 3 cable back in, reapply clamp. This can be tricky, straighten out the cable by pushing down on it with a wedging tool while holding number 1 and 2 cables with your thumb and then slide it into position.
    • Reconnect number 2 and number 1 cables. This is simple, you just need to push down on them so they slot into their connectors.
    • Put the screen back onto the phone. Insert the screen from the top (where the screen is connected) and close it at the bottom. It should fit comfortably; now push down to make sure its in position.
    • Secure the two remaining screws in the bottom.

    

11. Job Done! Well done on replacing your iPhone 3GS smashed screen, now that you’ve probably saved about a £100, go buy yourself a pint!
    

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED

Thank you for all of your entries, the winner of the competition is Toby Wainwright! We’ll be giving away a AndyPad Tablet next!

Once again we’ve got another great competition for you lucky readers,this time we’re giving away a Cyborg R.A.T 7 Gaming Mouse (Albino Edition) – courtesy of Mad Catz.

To enter the competition its simple, just answer this very simple question:

How many paw scratches does the Mad Catz logo have?

Go to the Mad Catz website if you need help.

Entry Requirements

• Become a fan of TechReviewsUK and UKMadCatz on Facebook
• Follow TechReviews_UK and MadCatzUK on Twitter
• Reply with your answer in our Community Forum (registration is free and quick)

The winner will be picked at random on 30th September 2011 5:30pm GMT.