Have you ever seen a movie villain using an iPhone? The bad guys are prohibited from using any Apple product on camera.
The company says its products should only be shown "in the best light, in a manner or context that reflects favourably on the Apple products and on Apple Inc.”
For decades, big tech brands have been using product placement in movies and TV series. Most companies employ someone to work with Hollywood movie studios to get their products on screen.
It works - brands that we recognise in drama and fiction are particularly striking. You always notice what phone or laptop the protagonist is using.
The emphasis on branding might explain the incongruent lack of phone cases and broken screens in movies. There'd better be a pristine Apple logo on that phone.
A few other pet peeves of ours:
> When the phone is lit up on the home screen, whilst the actor is on a call.
> Extremely loud typing clicks and notifications that don't match the operating system being used. Also, when it beeps to end a call.
> The photoshop edit that puts an old school messaging interface onto a modern device, with odd colours and bubbles all over the place.
> The overly formal, blunt and concise dialogue on phone calls and text messages. No one ever says "bye" either.
> Hackers using a MacBook. Furiously smashing keys for a few seconds to break into a government database.
> Flip phones in modern movies - unless they're burners of course.
> Characters searching on Bing.
Do phones in movies make you cringe sometimes?
Thanks for reading!
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Pay day is at the end of the month. Fuel is £1.80 per litre. Food prices could skyrocket. Gas and electric bills will increase by up to £300 next month. National insurance is going up too.
Money is really tight right now. We could all do with a winning scratch card.
We expect to see more people choosing to live with a cracked screen, instead of getting it repaired. Also, less people will upgrade to the newest iPhone 13 Pro, or Samsung S22, and will instead opt for an iPhone 11, or 12, or Samsung A-series phone. Alternatively, people may choose to continue using their current phone, and switching to a £10/month SIM-only deal.
For those on a budget, here is what we would advise, and how we can help.
Consider a mid-range smartphone. The slightly older and/or cheaper devices are perfectly adequate for most users. We have not made any recent technological leaps with smartphones that justify dropping a a ton of money on an upgrade.
If you have an iPhone 7 or 8, that you'd like to keep using, but the battery doesn't get through the day - just get the battery replaced. It costs £29.99, and takes less than an hour. This might keep your phone going for a couple more years.
If you need to get your phone repaired before pay day - use Klarna. Buy now, and pay in 30 days with no interest or fees. This is available on our website.
Sell your old device. If you've recently upgraded, don't leave your old phone in a drawer. Turn it into cash. It's certainly not going to gain value, so selling it on is a great way to make something back on your upgrade. If you don't want to sell privately, we buy phones - even if they are broken.
If you need any help or advice with the options above, give us a call on 01275 390655, or visit our store in Portishead.
The average smartphone user has 40 apps on their phone. Younger users are at the top of the curve, with an average of 67 apps.
It's estimated that there is more that 3 million apps available, on either the App Store or the Google Play Store. You don't have time to go through them all, so you don't know what you could be missing.
Today, we present you with three underrated software nuggets that you absolutely should download.
what3words - Easily identify a precise location. The app is simply a map of the world, divided into 3x3 metre squares. Each square has a unique combination of three words in it. You can share or search for words to find an exact location. This can be used to meet up with friends, guide people at an event, or help emergency services and car breakdown services find you. Using three words is a lot easier than sharing coordinates. The app works offline, and allows you to save key locations.
MacroFactor - A science-backed nutrition tracker, bought to you by Stronger By Science - a well respected name in the fitness industry. You may have used MyFitnessPal or Cronometer for tracking your food intake. MacroFactor takes it to the next level by using smart algorithms which make dynamic weekly changes to your plan, so that you can reach your health goals. The app makes it easy to log and track your diet and progress in detail and with accuracy. There's tons of options and customisation, which allows you to choose between low-carb, keto, performance, or balanced diet preferences. MacroFactor was released last year, and is constantly being updated, developed and improved. This app costs $5.99 per month.
iNaturalist - A nature app that helps you identify plants and wildlife. Do you ever see something cool in nature, but have no idea what it is? Simply whip out the app and snap a photo of a plant or animal. A community of over 400,000 naturalists and scientists will help you identify the species, and share some information about it. By recording and sharing your observations, you'll create research quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.
Enjoy the apps, and have a great week.
Thanks for reading!
See Our Blog for the latest industry news, tech tips, company updates, and anything else we feel like writing about.
Just to give you guys an idea of how much iPhone screens cost before the Chinese manufacturers develop an aftermarket screen.
This is a reclaimed screen, which means it is used, in good condition, original, removed from a device. Unfortunately Apple do not sell new screens to other companies. If you have the option, a genuine pull is usually your best bet.
Either way, you might want to reconsider going caseless on one of these.
The eagerly awaited Galaxy S22 series is now available (at Samsung, not Talkback Comms, sorry). We here to review it though.
The S22 Ultra offers somewhat of a revival to the discontinued Galaxy Note line. This 6.8 inch powerhouse of a device builds off of the Note 20 Ultra from 2020, with it's built-in stylus, and flattened aluminium top and bottom.
A much improved design in our opinion. Squared-off edges, and no more big fat camera bump. Samsung have done a good job of making a giant device look so sleek.
Insane display: 500 pixels per inch, 120HZ refresh rate and 1750 nits peak brightness - which is enough to blind a small child.
Quad rear camera: 108MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x and 10x telephoto; 40MP front-facing. We don't really care for camera specs anymore. Every current flagship device takes photos that look better than real life anyway.
It has a 5000 mAh battery, which should last 40-50 hours with normal usage. It takes an hour to charge at 45W, which isn't too bad, but is nothing on some of the Chinese manufacturers.
We start off at £1149.00, and climb to a cool £1.5k for the highest spec option - 1TB storage, 12GB RAM. The S21 Ultra had 16GB of RAM, so we've gone backwards here for some reason. But It's still more than you could ever need.
You get a free set of Galaxy Buds Pro (RRP £219.00). No need to drop another two hundo on premium Bluetooth earphones.
Samsung have promised five years of software updates and support. We like this. It gives people confidence that their device will remain current for long after they buy it.
