12/12/2012: HTC pen a sponsorship deal with UEFA, O2 set to raise prices and they got into trouble with regulators, Blackberry L-Series devices caught on video and much more!

HTC and UEFA agree a sponsorship deal.

   At the moment HTC is having a bit of a hard time of it. They're One series has become diluted, despite the company saying they would focus on a core set of devices, but they seem to have a few tricks up their sleeve to make it all smiles again. Today they have announced that they will have a three-year deal with UEFA, which is Europe's Footballing authority.

   This will mean that HTC will have their logo plastered across match tickets, broadcast credits and match photographers' jackets. We expect HTC will have some pitchside adverts too! The Taiwanese company also promised to give customers access to match footage and archive broadcasts.

   Peter Chou, who's HTC's CEO, said: 'Football elicits so much passion around the world and we are excited to partner with one of the leading sporting brands in the world. We’ll be working closely with UEFA to offer football experiences to all fans in addition to providing a richer overall mobile experience.' We would like to see some dedicated apps which are exclusive to HTC devices, but that might be a push too far!

   UEFA's general secretary, Gianni Infantino, said: 'I am pleased to welcome HTC to the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League family. Through this partnership UEFA and HTC will promote European club football to a worldwide audience and bring new opportunities for our fans to engage with the competitions. We value the support and commitment of HTC and anticipate their involvement with these competitions will increase the profile of their brand on a global scale.

   This seems like a worthwhile investment from HTC and this will definitely get them a lot of brand exposure in European countries at the very least!
Via MobileToday.

O2 in trouble with ASA and possibly with you!

   UK carrier O2 has found themselves in a spot of hot water today after their misleading claim that prospective iPhone 5 buyers get their 'pre-order [to O2] before 4pm the day before launch, we'll get it to you on launch day'. What they didn't make clear is that there was a limited amount of stock and once those 'pre-orders' were exhausted it was a 'standard order' and so you would have to wait up to three weeks to receive your phone.

   The Advertising Standards Authority thinks O2 was a little out of line here and they've "ordered that the claim must not again appear in its current form and that the distinction between pre-orders and standard orders must be clarified" for next time.

   If you weren't affected by the first issue above, then every O2 customer is about to be affected by this second announcement. "From 28 February 2013, your line rental will go up by 3.2 [percent]. That's in line with the current rate of inflation as at December 2012 when we made the announcement."

   It's never popular when carriers utilise this small print in people's contracts. But, this will mean that if your contract is currently £15.50 a month contract then it'll soon be £16 and your £31 tariff will shoot up to a penny short of £32. O2 has calculator on its website so you can find out the damage!
Via ITProportal and TheInquirer.

In other news:

• RIM's upcoming L-Series device has been shown off on camera today after Tinhte showed off a set of pictures last night! They've made the video below for your viewing pleasure!
  Via Crackberry.
  
  
  
  
  
• Google's Eric Schmidt has today been on stage at The New York Times' Dealbook conference today, and he's made a bit of news concerning the company's big broadband effort, Google Fiber. Schmidt said that Fiber "isn't just an experiment, it's a real business and we're trying to decide where to expand next."
  Via Engadget.

• Google has released an update for their Currents app for Android. There's a lot of new things in this release including:

* Edition sidebar - quickly access your editions within categories such as business, sports, etc.
* Fast scan - Vertical swipe to scan an edition, horizontal swipe advances to next edition
* Edition-section chooser - Choose “Customize” to filter out sections
* Unread marks - Read stories are marked. (Setting to hide)
* Breaking stories - ranked by Google News. Links to full length content.
* Saved stories - star for future reference
* New catalog design
* Widget

Via AndroidPolice.

•  The WSJ has again tipped Apple to make a TV, they've written a hugely detailed report on why they think it's back on the cards! You can check it out here!

• The research firm Informa has tipped budget smartphones to make up 52% of the market by 2017! This demand would be driven by emerging markets and would see phones costing less than $150 becoming the norm. This would be bad news for companies profits as it would turn the market into a more quantity focused affair!
  Via CNet.

• Sky has updated its Sky+ app for iOS with on-demand listings something which will allow your iPad or iPhone to a remotely control film and boxset downloads that get sent to your Sky+HD box. You can scroll through the Sky TV On Demand catalog and queue the things you want to watch while people in the house are playing with the box itself!
  Via Slashgear.

• Acer has released a slightly beefier version of their recent Chromebook. This time they've kept the screen and processor but they've bumped storage up to 500GB's from 320, doubled the battery size to 5,000 mAh pack and they've add $100 to the price tag so this one will set you back $300! You can find full details here!
  Via Slashgear.

• Dell will officially be ceasing smartphone production from today! The company was famous for their huge (at the time) Dell Streak 5! But, from here on out Dell will stay committed to their computers and Windows based tablets. There's still the possibility that Dell is still looking at Android, but don't get your hopes up too much guys!
  Via PhoneArena.

And finally, this is Russia's finest new smartphone called the YotaPhone. It's an interesting new phone it's got a Gorilla Glass 4.3-inch 720 x 1,280 LCD display on the front, a 200dpi E Ink rear display with the same same size and screen protection on the back. There's also a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB of RAM and there's a minimum of 32GB of non-expandable storage. On top of that there's LTE, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 720p front-facing camera! This certainly looks like a fantastic device and we love the implementation of the eInk screen, it'd be great for the cheeky notification readings as it's always on!

Via Engadget.

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14/11/2012: Skype password vulnerability fixed, RIM announces voice over BBM, Xoom and Nexus S won't get Android 4.2 and more!

Microsoft confirms and quickly patches a Skype password vulnerability.

   We all know and love Skype for it's free, easy and reliable video calling and IM services, but today a password vulnerability came to the mainstream having cropped on on a Russian forum two months ago.

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26/06/2012

BBM on BB10 leaks!

   With a whole host of information trickling out of Canada about RIM's future plans for their Blackberry smartphones, we have some news today which concerns one of the platforms most popular features, BBM. 

   The messaging system will of course be carried forward into to currently unreleased and QNX-based, BB10 operating system. The picture above points to how the device will look and again the L-series device is shown on the right hand side above.

   There's also a choice of colour schemes as you can see to the right. The colour scheme can be changed to your preference or just to save battery! A small change to the colours from white to black can reduce the battery consumption by about 25% and it's reported to be possible to save up to 75% just by changing a few other colours on OLED screens!

   So BB10 is starting to take shape, but will you be on board when it officially launches in the fall or are you going to be splashing out on a new iPhone, Galaxy S3 or something else before that time comes around.

In other news:

• Firefox for Android has officially left beta complete with a host of performance optimisations and other general improvements!
• Bing maps had added 165TB's of new images to their mapping to make sure you never get lost!
• Facebook has quietly ended support for their controversial 'Find Friends Nearby' option which was always slightly 'dodgy' if you get what we mean!
• The Nokia 808 Pureview has gone up for sale on Amazon UK for the lofty price of £499.98 or about 770 of the finest American Dollar. If you really must have the undisputed best cameraphone in the world then you're going to have to cough up!
• HTC has released the new HTC Connect as a direct challenger to Apple's lauded Airplay functionality.
• And finally, it has come to light that Microsoft had access to their OEM partners plans for Windows 8 before they went ahead and produced their Surface tablets, so obviously they weren't up to scratch!

   

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25/06/2012

RIM planning to separate and sell off Blackberry?

    There's been some interesting news today with regard to RIM and the future of their ailing Blackberry smartphones. The UK newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, has suggested that RIM is considering splitting up the BlackBerry business and selling off the handset manufacturing arm. The sources have claimed both Amazon and Facebook are potential suitors. Although, details of any possible deals are very near and far between, and the newspaper offered no sources in its report; RIM is also said to be weighing the possibility of using the messaging division to act as a standalone business, if that would boost performance.

   This would be a very interesting progression if this did happen and the buck doesn't stop with Facebook and Amazon rumours. Microsoft have also announced their own brand tablet just last week, so it is possible they want their own hardware department too, although they have categorically denied any plans for making their own Windows Phone for the moment.

   If there's any progression on this news then you'll be the first to know!

RIM's BB10 Plans!

   It looks like RIM have stolen the news today, with the second bit of news being that the company plans two of devices.

    The news has been sourced by N4BB and they claim RIM is readying the full-touch BlackBerry L-Series, complete with a 768 x 1280 display AND the BlackBerry N-Series, which will have a QWERTY keyboard and a 720 x 720 display. So good high resolutions on both counts here.

   The L-Series, which you may  previously have heard of under its codename of “London”, is very similar to the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device we saw earlier in the year.If the specs are to be believed the device measures 55mm wide and has a super good 356ppi screen.

   The N-Series was codenamed “Nevada” and is said to be 52-53mm wide, with a square screen with a 330ppi resolution, which is 6 pixels per inch less than an iPhone. The first model in this particular series is rumoured to use an OLED panel, but future devices might opt for LCD instead, something which would bring down the price noticably.

   If you can't wait for these new Blackberry's, then you could reportedly expect to get the L-Series as soon as September 2012. The N-Series, however, with that physical keyboard will have to wait until Q1 2013 at the earliest.

In other news.

• iOS 6 maps will have Yelp check-in built into it!
• Microsoft were asked directly whether they had plans to release their own brand Windows Phone, but for the moment the reply from Greg Sullivan, the senior marketing manager for Windows Phone, said, "No, we do not."
• AT&T's Galaxy S2 has finally got its Android 4.0!
• Two members of LulzSec have today pleaded guilty to hacking in a hope of reducing their jail time.
• Microsoft has suggested that they decided to built their own Windows 8 tablet because of a reluctance of OEM's to make devices for them!
• Latest iPhone prototypes are reported to be featuring NFC, something Apple will need to feature to catch up with Google's Android Operating System and to match Microsoft's plans for Windows Phone 8.
• The Galaxy S3 is projected to hit 10million sales at some point in July! Less than 2 months after it went on sale!
• Virgin Media have decided to best Three and T-Mobiles One and Full Monty plans with a ridiculously cheap deal which offers truly unlimited internet access from £21 ($33) per month. The new 'Virgin Media Premiere plan' also includes unlimited landline calls, unlimited text messages and 2,500 anytime minutes to mobile networks. But as always with Virgin you will have to be a current Virgin Media customer already to get that bargain price.
• And finally, Google TV will be coming to the UK in the very near future!

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