In Other News: 23/05/2013.

• HTC have explained why there's no MicroSD card support in the 'normal' versions of the HTC One but there is in the Chinese version. It's all down to those pesky LTE radios which take up the extra space. Seeing as they don't need as many radios in the Chinese version there's the room in the chassis for the SD Card slot, so it's all quite logical really!
  Via TechRadar.

• BB10.2 is being worked on at the moment and Blackberry's Michael Clewley, has revealed that the update will add support for unicode emojis, multiple alarms and level 1 notifications for emails. The SDK will be out in June and it will land on devices later in the year!
  Crackberry Via Engadget.

• Mediatek's General Manager confirmed to ITProportal that the company will release a 'global LTE offering' later this year. Hold your hats guys budget devices are going to be seeing a lot more LTE!

• Infinity Ward have confirmed that Call of Duty Ghosts will be coming to both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 3! Yay for the current generation support!
  Via Slashgear. 

• Twitter have started rolling out two-step verification to stop those hacks which we've been hearing so much about lately! If you're in the UK you can make use of the service assuming you have a phone on all major networks except for EE and T-Mobile, but you're good if you're on Orange! Full details on how to set it up are on Twitter's blog here!
  Via Slashgear.

• Sky and Virgin Media have inked a £49 million deal which will see the latter help the former with its network infrastructure over the coming 5 years!
  Via TheNextWeb.

• Rumours have surfaced today that Samsung will supply Google with high-end oled screens for Google Glass! Check out the Korean Times' article here!
  Via AndroidBeat.

• HP have raised their earnings outlook for the year after positive results which have been credited to the new input of CEO Meg Whitman. When she took over she promised more quality products and you can check out some of her results in consumer devices here, here and here!
  Via Reuters.

• Google Play magazines has been updated with a lovely new UI!
  Via Android Central.

And finally, Pheonix Devices have officially successfully funded their Kickstarter campaign to get Android apps on the WebOS powered HP Touchpad! The guys raised a total of $45,533 which was about $10,000 more than they wanted originally! The best way to announce the news is the way Pheonix did on Twitter! Full details on their plans can be found on KickStarter here.

GOOAAALLLLLL!!!!
— Phoenix I.C. (@phxdevices) May 23, 2013

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In Other News: 22/05/2013.

• Sony are reportedly considering an investors proposal to sell of the movie, music and TV units of their company in a bid to cement the company's financial position!
  Via TheVerge.

• Google Now has landed in Chrome for everyone! If you update your browser and point it to Google.com then you should see an option to click a microphone symbol in the search bar and there you have it!
  Via AndroidCentral.

• The guys over at CNet have got some new statistics which show how satisfied smartphone manufacturers are making their customers comparing 2012 and 2013. Apple still lead, but their lead over Motorola is now 4 points and Motorola gained 5 points and Apple lost two over the past year. Then come Nokia in third and all other Android manufacturers just before Blackberry on the bottom of the pile. Obviously this is just for the USA and so Nokia only sell their highest end smartphones whereas someone like Samsung offers a flood of devices at lots of prices, which will affect the results for them!
  Via CNet.

• Bang and Olufsen's CEO has sat down for a chat with PocketLint to discuss what the future holds for his company! It's an interesting read and is well worth checking out here!

• The Tizen 2.1 SDK has been released and you can check out all of the changes here!

• The Android app Ingress has received a huge update with changes which include notifications for "Portal under attack," "Portal neutralized," and "@<codename>" messages amongst many other enhancements!
  Via AndroidCentral.

• HTC's Asia CEO has left the company too! For more details on the company's exec crisis check out this post here!
  Via CNet.

• If you didn't pick up a Pebble smartwatch then you might be interested in the latested Kickstarter effort from Agent, which is similar, but more fashion focused! Check out the full details here!

And finally, Samsung's WatchOn app has been updated, but the app has seemingly revealed a bit more information than the company intended with added support for the Galaxy 'S4 Mega, S4 Mini and S4 Active'. There's a couple of new models we haven't heard of before and it'll be interesting to see what they turn out to be!

Via SamMobile.

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GameStick's UI and some extra games show up in a new promo video!

   A few weeks back you might remember that we reported that the Gamestick's creators PlayJam had decided to delay the launch of their product, firstly to make sure they had enough, which added about four weeks to the process and then they had to make sure everything was in good working order!

   Well their latest promo has turned up on YouTube and it would seem to us that the delay is definitely going to be beneficial to customers! It seems that the UI is now much more streamlined and smooth, although it still looks similar to the Xbox's interface, just like OUYA does too. There are also a few new titles supported now too! As you can see in the video below there's now games from Madfinger on board and that means Shadowgun! There's a few other things which will make you happier too; there's Hungry Shark Evolution, Blue Toad Murder Files, Grabatron and he hugely popular Smash Cops and the ever present Riptide!

   Does everything in the video look like it's going to be worth the extra wait? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and if you've ordered one are you excited?

Via PocketLint.

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GameStick update KickStarter backers: Release pushed to June.

   The second big Android-based Kickstarter project after the OUYA was the Gamestick. The Gamestick minds have just released their latest update on how their project is going and unfortunately there's not great news for everyone.

   PlayJam, Gamesticks owners have said that because they have had such a hugely positive response to their product:

"We now expect to complete mechanical tooling about 4 weeks later at the end of May. Then the units are assembled, tested and assuming there are no issues, packed prior to shipping to each territory. We expect to ship around the 10th June. The volumes are now too large for us to be able to afford to air-freight them, which was our plan, so now we are going to have to use sea freight to deliver them. That's going to take around 2 weeks. Then we have fulfillment in territory – which we estimate will take between 1 and 5 days depending on where you are located. This means we think the likely date of arrival of your hand crafted GameStick will be at the last week of June."

   This means that the device will arrive just in time to compete head to head with the OUYA which will be available to the masses at the start of the same month!

   Again the guys reiterated their deals with GameStop in the US and GAME here in the UK just to show that they are still working hard behind the scenes and given that these two have more than 5,000 stores between them, but they added: "We’ve now got 27 retailers around the world engaged and placing orders for our micro-console."

   It's not great news for backers, but if delays mean that the product arrives much more complete and perfected then everyone will be happier!
KickStarter Via PocketLint.

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OUYA's will be available from some big stores too!

   Ahh, the OUYA! It feels like an eternity since we offered our money in the hope we would have an Android powered games console which would double as a home entertainment system and anything else we could hack on to it, way back in August of last year! As the judgement day in March draws ever nearer everything is starting to fall into place and, dare we say it, OUYA is starting to look like a genuinely competent and forward-thinking company!

   This morning backers received an email saying that after KickStarter pre-orders have been fulfilled people will be able to pick up OUYA's from a few big stores. Normal customers will be able to buy the consoles and controllers from Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy and Target! 

   At then moment we're not sure whether those places will only have on-line availability or whether you'll be able to pick one up in a brick and mortar store. Either way, if you're genuinely keen you can pre-order an OUYA now from either Target or Best Buy and it'll cost you $99 for the system and one controller and then $49 for each additional controller! Only problem with that these pre-orders won't turn up until June, whereas KickStarter backers will get there's in March.

   If you aren't a backer then you can see the update which, as always, is also posted on the KickStarter page here!

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01/02/2013: Windows 8 market share after 3 months. The impact of war games on gun sales, PS4 news and much more!

Microsoft's Windows 8 only has 2.2% of the market?

   Since the release of Windows 8 we have seen a complete barrage of devices! There have been literally hundreds released running the new operating system, but there's not been too much of a big dent made on the market share front.

    The new OS has exactly 2.26% of the OS market share, which after three months doesn't compare too favourably with the market shares which Windows 7, at 44.48% and Windows XP at 39.51% hold.

   To be fair we are only three months after the release of the platform so we can only learn so much from these figures, but it's safe to conclude that Windows 8 hasn't taken the world by storm, perhaps because Windows 7 is such a good platform already people just haven't felt the need to upgrade.

NetMarketShare Via Slashgear.

The impact of war games on gun sales!

   Apparently Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Battlefield and any other war and shooting game series you can think of may well be having more of an impact on you than you think! According to an interview conducted by Eurogamer gun brands are very happy to have their guns included in the game because this will sooner or later transfer into actual sales of the weapons.

   It's somewhat surprising, from a British perspective, that playing video games can actually make you more inclined to buy guns from certain brands in real life. Although, it is in effect in game advertising and the real impact of this in-game exposure has been highlighted by Ralph Vaughn, the man charged with negotiating deals for the inclusion of Barrett branded weapons in games. He said:

   "It is hard to qualify to what extent rifle sales have increased as a result of being in games... But video games expose our brand to a young audience who are considered possible future owners."

   If you're interested in this subject we cannot recommend this article from Simon Parkin on Eurogamer, the source of this news, highly enough. It goes into fantastic depth and some of the reactions from games makers are somewhat concerning!

In other news:

• HP will be closing down their site in Ruesselsheim, south-west of Frankfurt, Germany by the end of October this year. This is reportedly part of a multi-year restructuring plan and it will unfortunately see the loss of around 850 jobs.
  Via Reuters.

• Sony's controller for the upcoming PS4 console will reportedly have a little touchscreen area for you to control certain games with. The whole thing will reportedly add in more social features too!
  Via TheVerge.

• Evasion are reportedly going to be releasing the first untethered jailbreak for iOS since May 2012 on Sunday! Check out their website on Sunday here and you can have full control of your device again!
  Via Slashgear.

• The Gamestick has had an insanely successful Kickstart and the funding wrapped up today with $647,658 raised in total. If you backed the project and everything goes nice and smoothly then you the first batch of units will be in people's hands at some point next month!
  Via Slashgear.

• Amazon have locked down an exclusive on the TV show Downton Abbey! This comes as Amazon and Netflix really try to step up their offerings!
  Via TheVerge.

And finally, the WSJ is reporting that Sony will unveil their plans for the next generation of Playstations on the 20th of February. Visitors will reportedly "see the future" at the event. The people the WSJ thinks are familiar with the matter believe the Playstation 4 will debut on February the 20th. We're not entirely convinced it will, but they will probably show off some details. It's only because the current PS3 debuted nearly two years after the Xbox 360, so it would be strange of Sony to shorten their product cycle so much compared to their nearest competitor! But, we'll have to wait and see!

Via WSJ.

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CES 2013: The Pebble Smartwatch gets demoed!

   It's been a fair few months since the Pebble Smartwatch popped up on Kickstarter and subsequently smashed through their $100,000 target to reach over $10 million in funding. Since then it wasn't all plain sailing, in fact there's been a couple of hiccups and a couple of pleasant changes for their 68,000 Kickstarter backers!

   Now though none of that matters as Pebble took to the stage at CES today and showed of the smartwatch everyone has been waiting for! The Pebble watch definitely doesn't look as clunky as the Sony Ericsson LiveView and fingers crossed that this won't have the same issues that device did keeping a connection either! The Pebble promises to sync effortlessly with your Android or iOS smartphone and it can offer you things like Facebook updates, text, Google+ and iMessages, music controls, and most importantly you can see the time.

   Just in case you needed a refresh, because the Kickstarter was way back in May 2012, the device packs a 1.26-inch backlit e-paper display which has a resolution of 144 x 168 pixels. There's also Bluetooth 4.0 radio, a vibration motor, an accelerometer and a compass. The device should be quite durable too because it's water resistant, so you won't worry about getting it wet when you wash your hands! If you're wondering how it can charge easily and be waterproof, well there's a cool little custom cable which enables that 

   The smartwatch is currently being produced in quantities of 15,000 a week, so Pebble will have all 85,000 pre-orders ready pretty soon! But, once you get your device that's not the end of the support. The company has pledge to update the device on a 2 to 3 week basis after its launch to give the device all the functionality that backers were promised when they pledged their Kickstarter money!

   Now that's all well and good assuming your phone can power the Bluetooth connection well enough. Pebble says that you shouldn't worry too much because in their experience it will only use somewhere between 5 and 10% of your phones battery. That sounds like a sacrifice worth making to us! 

   Kickstarter backers you will receive your lovely new device on or after January the 23rd! So not too long to wait!

   If you missed the show then you can catch up on the demo here! We know the video goes a strange colour at one point, hopefully that'll be fixed soon!

Via Engadget, Kickstarter, Slashgear and NYTimes.

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02/01/2013: The Galaxy S3's 'sudden death' issue may be nearing a fix! The GameStick hits KickStarter, iOS Jailbreaking updates and much more!

The Galaxy S3's 'sudden death': Fix coming soon!

   A couple of weeks ago we reported that Samsung Galaxy S3's were randomly dying; there is a thread over on XDA which details the problem and where people with the same issues have been discussing their issues. 

   It seems that Sammobile stumbled upon a post from Samsung Benelux to Tweakers.net which explains how Samsung is busily working to fix the ”sudden death” problem which a select number of the 16GB variant have been suffering from. 

   Samsung again advises you to locate your nearest Samsung Care Point if you've had this issue and they will make everything as good as new! Hopefully we'll have more details on the fix soon!

Tweakers.net Via Sammobile.

There's a new KickStarter option for Android gamers!

   In the middle of last year a little Android powered games console came to the market called the OUYA! It was insanely popular and smashed through it's backing target! Fast forward to the first week of 2013 and Kickstarter proudly presents to you the GameStick!

   This is a tiny HDMI dongle-based game console that is designed to offer perfect portability and freedom while also offering a wide variety of games which we will come to in a minute! The whole device centres around the 'plug in and play' attitude and ease of access also extends to games as well. The creators have roughly 200 titles optimised from the Google Play store already and they're currently working with another 250 developers from places like Madfinger, Hutch, and Disney. Because you get the games direct from the Play Store GameStick are saying you won't be spending any unnecessary extra money on the games if you've already paid for them for your phone and/or tablet.

   You can currently back this project as an early-bird for $69 which will earn you a device and a controller, or if you aren't so lucky you may have to cough up an extra $10 to secure your pre-order. You can check out all the options here andHDMI dongle and a prototype controller embedded below. 

Via Slashgear.

In other news:

• Earlier in the week the iOS jailbreaking duo of Installous and Hackulous announced that they would be closing their doors because of their 'stagnant' forums and the challenges of moderating big forums. That doesn't seem to be too much of an issue though because of the emergence of Zeusmos and Kuaiyong, both of which offer one-click installs of pirated apps which don't require your device to be jailbroken.
  Via TheNextWeb.

• Google has teamed up with Kia to offer Google Maps and Google Places in your shiny new car! The deal includes Kia's UVO system which will be updated to allow users to send directions from their smartphone or computer to the in car system. The Google Places feature comes in useful if you need to find your nearest dealership and you'll keep the current assortment of music, hands-free and voice recognition features which should give you a comprehensive in car experience!
  Kia Via Engadget.

• A supposedly new smartphone by the name of the Sony C530X (C5303) or HuaShan, has been caught showing its stuff on the GLBenchmark. The tests showed up a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T chipset with Adreno 320 graphics.The smartphone will also supposedly have a 720 x 1280 display with onscreen navigation buttons and Android 4.1.2 if the benchmarks proves to be accurate. We're not sure whether we'll see this device in daylight at CES, but it will most likely be here by the time MWC has finished in Barcelona this February!
  Via XperiaBlog.

• Nokia is planning to lock down their firmware site Navifirm. The news is not surprising as it's been slightly strange that Nokia has let anyone waltz in and take the pre-release software they wanted anyway! If you want your Windows Phone 7.8 action earlier we suggest you head over to the download site and yet the programme and the firmware you need before the end of January when the site gets locked down!
  Via WMPowerUser.

   

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10/07/2012

RIM claim to own the qwerty market and make interesting comments about Chinese production.

   “We own the QWERTY market" is the claim today from RIM CEO Torsten Heins. It is this confidence that helps explains the company's plans to produce a full-touch BB10 device before unleashing the qwerty's. Heins' exact words were "That’s why we’re targeting the full-touch market first.”

   RIM see this as a good opportunity to diversify and in a way this is a fresh start for the company and hopefully they will be able to produce modern and stylish phones which will change the company's fortunes. 

   As always the company is relying on their comprehensive messaging services to win through and we can expect to see both qwerty and touchscreen devices in short succession in early 2013!

   There was one other interesting tidbit from today's shareholder Q&A in Waterloo. Heins was asked why the company doesn't produce phones in China to save money and his response was that he doesn't want to risk software leaks and industrial espionage. We don't know if this is a genuine concern or not really. Noone else seems to have this sort of problem, well not since Nortel cleaned up their act.

In other news:

• Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has promised to leave no space in the market where Apple is unchallenged. They have pledged to fight Apple on the software and hardware front in a head to head battle. This could get interesting!
• Kickstarter is coming to the UK in the fall!
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has had it's source code released to he AOSP, so expect custom ROMS in the very near future!
• It's been reported today that Nokia had given Jolla patents surrounding Meego but Nokia has denied this has happened today.
• AMD has suggested there will be an 11% drop in revenue in Q2 2012, as Intel wrestles more marketshare off of the company.
• Microsoft have proudly boasted that they are collecting royalties from 70% of Android devices today.

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