The book I read to research this post was The Samsung S4 Manual The Complete Galaxy S4 Guide To Conquer Your Device by Daniel Forrester which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book is written in an easy to understand way and although it's only 68 pages certainly covers all the basics with this smartphone. The processor is a quad core 1.6 GHZ so is only a small upgrade on the S3 but the memory has gone from 1 GB to 2 GB and the software is much more efficient so the phone is much faster at doing things. It has a rear 13 MB camera and a front 1.9 MB camera and has technology incorporated to let you take several shots and combine them into 1 photo and also there is a built in eraser app that lets you remove moving objects from the background if they are a bit blurred for example. It runs the Android 4.2.2 operating system called Jelly Bean. I think as updates become available you can upgrade that as time goes on as with most smartphones. The case and the bezel to this phone are smaller but the screen is actually bigger which does mean things like the keyboard might take a bit of getting used to as they are bigger than the previous version. I did see a review of this phone in a technology magazine and it was rated as the best smartphone available. I enjoyed reading this book and I know it's quite a new phone but there doesn't appear to be that many books and ebooks available about it although I am sure that will gradually change.

The book I read to research this post was British Railway Signalling by Alan Williams et al which is an excellent book which I bought from a local secondhand bookstore. This book is probably not one that anyone is likely to see for sale so I focus on railway signalling rather than reviewing the book. Currently in Britain they are changing the old fashioned signally methods to computerized regional railway control centres like at Crewe & at Saltley near Birmingham. A lot of things like the types of signal used remains unchanged however. At one time when a train passed a signal it stayed on go until just before the next train arrived then would signal that a train had passed as that train passed. There was an accident however when due to ice the signal couldn't go back to stop so now the signal always go to stop until it needs to go to go. Black & yellow signals indicate distance and black and white signals indicate whether the way is clear or not. If the signal is in a horizontal position it's unsafe to proceed and vertical indicates it's safe. On an ordinary line a train will have to stop if a train has gone by in the last 5 minutes or slow down if in the last 10 minutes. Of course this would tend to be where routes converge. Similiarly if you are at a station the signals will go to a vertical state if the train is within 5 minutes travel time. On single stretches they used to give a driver a token to indicate he was the only user on that track and that token would be handed in at the end of the single stretch. Only 1 driver at a time would have a token. The token can take many forms but generally is shaped like a key and comes out of a special machine.

The book I read to research this post was A Newbies Guide To Nexus 7 by Minute Help Guides which is fairly short but a very good book which I downloaded from kindle. I have done a couple of posts on the Nexus 7 at my technology blog at

http://scratbagroberts.com

This is my computing blog but I thought this is a relevant subject for this blog too. The Nexus 7 is a digital tablet which is much cheaper than the current leading tablet the iPad by Apple but has a similiar amount of processing power and on the whole does away with some of the more superfluous features like a sim card in favour of wi-fi & bluetooth which it still uses but also is very cheap for a tablet especially with the features it has. It generally needs a wi-fi network to do things like install apps via your computer or a wireless hotpoint. It's worth mentioning Google were giving away $25 away in the form of a voucher if you joined Google Play for you to download apps and I know currently give away 1 paid app free every day. It's worth noting Google remove any apps that get a lot of negative reviews but don't check them as such like Apple do with the Appstore. It's best to check reviews prior to downloading an app to make sure it's value for money.

The Nexus holds a charge for 300 hours, lets you watch 9 hours of video & lets you read a book for 10 hours when fully charged. It has a 7 inch screen measured diagonally. You can watch video in high definition. I noticed in a technology magazine that rated digital tablets it was 2nd behind the iPad and it has the latest form of the Android Operating System 4.1 and as new features are rolled out you can update that via a wireless connection to the internet. This book keeps it simple & I think was a free or very cheap download but I think if you want something more detailed on the Nexus I would recommend the book Google Nexus 7 For Dummies by Dan Gookin.

The book I read to research this post was Digital Disruption by James McQuivey which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book looks at a growing trend in marketing for businesses where they are becoming more focused on pleasing customers above else. At one time what dictated the markets was the scale a company could manufacture something on and the price but now we are getting into a level playing field where a small company with a good product can compete on equal terms. This is scary for big companies but also you can compete using social media and with a small budget but still market a product successfully. The book mentions an author of thriller ebooks priced at 99 cents called Amanda Hocking who is making more than many established authors. Also a 12 year old boy who is writing iphone apps from the software development kit or SDK and got his parents to pay the $99 to sell them on itunes but who is making a nice profit and for him his age is a bonus because many youngster buy his apps. I enjoyed reading this book although it is only around 150 pages but I think was only free or quite cheap on kindle. Of course many people start using computing as a hobby and then move on to developing a product and marketing it. This means that the competition a well established company faces can come from anywhere not just within the industry. We are also seeing products that have always demanded a high price losing a few features and a product that is still quite good being marketed at a much lower price.

The book I read to research this post was The HTC Guide which is a very good guide which I bought from a local newsagents. This guide is probably only available in Britain and is published by Android Magazine although hopefully even if You can't buy this guide you will find this post interesting. The company HTC formed in 1997 and has been at the forefront of Android smartphones from the start. The current really popular one is the One X but they were also given the first Google named franchise with the Google Nexus One which was also very popular. There are some 600,000 applications available for Android smartphones and many of them are free. We are seeing the price of smartphones come down to a reasonable level a process we saw with mobile phones in general some years ago. With these smartphones they do far more than just place phonecalls and also do MMS & SMS messaging, skype, integrating with social media and even do video calls either directly or via your wireless network. Skype is good because you can download the program free of charge and can call other skype users free of charge. There is even an integrated office program called polaris and there are also alternatives you can download like one called write. You can download or rent movies,listen to internet radio, download podcasts and even read ebooks many of which are free and open source. One program I'd particularly recommend is spotify where you get a free download but then for £9.99 per month can access a huge catalogue of music albums over the internet. They seem to have most of the latest albums and their catalogue is enormous and particularly good for niche music.