01/01/2013: Ubuntu planning something 'you can almost touch', 'Do not disturb' not turning off for some iOS users, WebOS on Nexus 7s and much more!

Ubuntu count down to a January 2nd launch: Is it a touch-centric option?

   Ubuntu is always towards the top of the list when you ask people about the most popular Linux distributions available. Ubuntu's creator Canonical is also pretty on the ball when it comes to finding the next trends and keeping up with the times; Ubuntu for Android was a great example of this. 

   But, it seems that Canonical founder, Mark Shuttleworth, also has plans to offer their Linux-based OS for smartphones and tablets.  clued readers in on the company's plans to bring the OS to mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, to help familiarise people with the brand and their offerings. We can speculate that this is a realisation of part of that strategy because Ubuntu's countdown timer reads 'So close, you can almost touch it.'

   We'd like to see this turn out to be a touch centric version of Ubuntu which is compatible with desktops and the new touch optimised tablets which would offer a rival OS to Microsoft's freshly launched Windows 8! What do you think this announcement will be? Let us know in the comments below!

Via Engadget.

Apple's 'Do Not Disturb' feature not turning off for some users this morning.

   After last year's issues with alarms not going off in iOS, until January the 3rd when the issue 'fixed itself', there is another small issue some of you might be experiencing if you use iOS' 'Do Not Disturb' feature. 

   There's been reports on both Macrumors and Whirlpool forums so there are definitely some people who are experiencing this at the moment. One Whirlpool user wrote:

"Woke up this morning and the iOS Do Not Disturb featured which was suppose to be turned off at 6:30am was still on at 8am. Is this a bug or did Apple do this on purpose knowing everyone will be partying out late on new years eve and so gave a little bit of extra time to sleep on new years day :)."

   Some people have said that turning the 'Do Not Disturb' mode off and on again will fix it but if that doesn't work for you there might be some other work arounds which come to light in the near future and we'll update the post if we stumble across any!
Via Macrumors.

In other news:

• Amazon have explained the reasons for the Netflix outage on Christmas Eve which affected their customers in America, South America and Canada. The issue centred around the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) service which caused the outage. A 'handful' of the 'hundreds' of ELB's Amazon uses suffered an outage and those devices which tried to connect to these ELB's couldn't and so they couldn't access the Netflix service.
  NetflixTechBlog Via Engadget.

[Developing]

And finally, Google's hugely popular Nexus 7 tablet has had its very own taste of Open WebOS. The quad-core device seems to have a mostly unstable port so far, but at least wifi and the browser seem to be working pretty well. WebOS Nation said the developer, Simon 'morphis' Busch, behind this port managed to get this much running in his free week off from college, which is pretty good going if you ask us!  WebOS Ports has announced that they will build on this work and hopefully we'll see something working fully at some point in the new year.
Via WebOSNation.

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Pheonix announce WebOS for Android.

   Pheonix have been quite an enigmatic entity since they announced themselves as saviours of WebOS earlier in the year. We weren't sure if the company was planning to build new WebOS hardware or whether they were working on a software solution to bring OpenWebOS to those who wanted it.

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02/10/2012

HTC announce the One X+.

   After a couple of leaks earlier in the week made this one of HTC's worst kept secrets in a while, the company has officially confirmed their brand spanking new One X+. 

   The comparisons to the Sensation XE have been acknowledged by HTC themselves, but it's a great attention-grabbing colour scheme and it certainly looks great to our eyes!

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14/09/2012

Is HP getting back into the smartphone game?!

   So what happens when you drop a couple of billion dollars on a fledgling smartphone operating system, make a couple of phones and a tablet with it and then fire sale the lot? Well if your name's HP you might realise you made a little mistake! 

   For HP, a company that specialises in computers, they need to make sure they utilise their brand recognition in other markets. HP's CEO Meg Whitman realises this and today she's said that HP is planning to release a new smartphone as an entry level device in emerging markets. She told Fox Business news that “We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device”. She made sure not to specify when the phone would be available and she made sure she said this one wouldn’t be a rush-job.

“We are working on this. In the end, I would love to be able to provide all the way from the most fabulous workstations … to desktops, to laptops, to our tablets and convertibles, all the way to the smartphone. But we did take a detour into smartphone, and we’ve gotta get it right this time. So my mantra to the team is “better right, than faster than we should be there” so we’re working to make sure that, when we do this, it will be the right thing for HP and we will be successful.

My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device. There will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet or a PC or a desktop, they will do everything on a smartphone, we are a computing company we have to take advantage of that form-factor” Meg Whitman, CEO, HP

   The main conundrum here is what OS the phone will run; will the company make the most of their Open WebOS platform, that they've been busy open-sourcing, or will the fall back on Microsoft and run Windows Phone? On a personal level I hope it's the former!

In other news:

• Wii U up for preorder in the UK from Amazon. It'll set you back £249 at Amazon for the Basic model, which houses 8GB of storage, and £299 for the Premium model, which increases that to 32GB and throws in few little sweeteners too! Head over to Amazon to guarantee yours!

• And Yes the Wii U will be getting Black Ops 2!!!

• Apple will ship you a Lightning adaptor with your new iPhone 5 purchase and if the rumours are to be believed then you'll also get the ability to be a USB host with the new port!

• While we're on the subject of the iPhone 5, if you haven't pre-ordered already then you won't be getting your delivery for at least another 2 weeks. In fact the initial batch sold out within an hour, sorry guys, this is the case worldwide by the way!

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01/08/2012

Nexus 7 gets a good set of accessories.

   By now many of you hardcore techies will be rocking Google's latest and greatest, the Nexus 7. But, until now, there has been a distinct lack of accessories, something both Asus and Google has been keen to change.

   The UK retailer, MobileFun, has said the arrival of a host of extras is imminent and the options are looking good!

   There's the rotating case (right) which will set you back £27.95 ($44), while the non-rotating counterpart will be £22.95 ($36). The folio case will be £39.99 ($62) and the top of the range Bluetooth keyboard case will be £79.95 ($125). And an official screen protector will set you back £14.95 ($23). All in all, a great range of options for a great device!

In other news:

• Apple has been reported to be the world's biggest computer shipper again. But their numbers are somewhat skewed by the inclusion of iPad's in that category. But, a great achievement nonetheless.
• On the contrary analysts have predicted Microsoft's Surface tablets will sink when they arrive later in the year. Cost and lack of a 'wow factor' have been cited as the main reasons.
• The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has managed to avoid Apple's injunction in the USA and will stay on sale!
• The Japanese mobile tech giants have joined forces to take on Qualcomm and TI in developing wirelessly-enabled smartphone and tablet chipsets. The group involves Fujitsu, NTT DoCoMo, NEC and Fujitsu Semiconductor have created 'Access Network Technology Limited'. The new partnership promises "industry-leading communications platform products" and they aim to reduce the reliance on foreign-made wireless components.
• Raspberry Pi, the little device designed specifically for hacking, has received a port of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This is great news for those planning to run a home sound system or something similar off of the device. As well as this ICS is a great foundation so we can expect Jelly Bean will be up and running in no time!
• 1 million people signed up to Microsoft's new Outlook.com email service in under 6 hours! It'll be interesting to see whether the number of constant users remains as high.
• HP has said OpenWebOS will not be coming to current devices because it needs a processor that supports Linux Kernel version 3.3. Fear not Pheonix and other WebOS groups are on the case!
• TAT founder abandons RIM well before BlackBerry 10 launches, deciding to opt for more start ups instead of sticking with RIM.

And finally, do you want to see the evidence Samsung was blocked from using in their current court case with Apple. Judge Koh blocked the company using it as evidence, so instead Sammy released the evidence to the press to show how they didn't copy the iPhone and how 'fundamental fairness' had been ignored in stopping this bit of evidence coming to court. We think the image speaks for itself even if both the Judge and Apple are annoyed now!

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Editorial: Why WebOS does have a future!

   Finally, WebOS has a future; it was announced WebOS would be maintained as an open-sourced platform. This is precisely the reason why the platform will have a relatively successful future, even if it doesn't grow to become the biggest ecosystem in the world.

   For anyone who has ever used the platform they will know it is simply a pleasure to use; it's fun, it's interactive and it's nice and simple. Lets start with the fun aspect; WebOS has gestures and they are great. swipe up to minimise an app and then just flick it off the screen to close it. It is just such a nice satisfying feeling and there's something about interacting with a screen that is fun and makes the whole process more immersive, which is exactly the reason I would much rather use my tablet to browse the internet than use my laptop. (This is also where the Blackberry Playbook excels; it's just fun to use.) This fun aspect is something the OS has over Android and even iOS.

   Secondly, WebOS is going Open Sourced so anyone can use it, so maybe a manufacturer will pick it up and make a couple of devices for it and we'll see how they sell. But, even if that doesn't happen WebOS will run on the Linux kernel so the OS can be utilised by enthusiasts and undoubtedly it won't be long before there is a commonplace dual boot option for WebOS/Android devices. This will grant us the possibility to mess around with WebOS on ourAndroid tablets and phones and it may gain some traction from the custom rom community. After all, Linux does always have a small group of enthusiasts and WebOS can always be kept alive by them at the very least. 

   But, sometimes people just get bored; just like Android has surged into fashion, it might surge straight back out and WebOS can assist iOS and WindowsPhone fill the potentially gaping hole left in the market the hypothetical crumbling of Android marketshare.

    Hypthesising aside, WebOS has already quite clearly influenced RIM and their QNX/Blackberry Playbook OS with the flicking apps of the screen to close them, touch sensitive gesture areas, to name but a few.

   Either way I really wish WebOS the best, Palm really made a great operating system and it's such a shame that Palm and HP both failed the software, but hopefully there is still a future.

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