29/01/2013: Apple announce 128GB iPads to compete with the Surface Pro, BB10 in polls and the ZTE Blade C! Plus much more!

Apple announce the iPad will be available in 128GB models!

   Apple has only traditionally offered their devices in 16, 32 and 64GB versions, until today! Today the guys from Cupertino revealed that a new larger capacity iPad, with the same specs as the current fourth generation devices!

   It's interesting that Apple has chosen to bump up the storage offerings at this exact moment. It may well have something to do with those 128GB Surface Pro's which are right around the corner, but we doubt Apple would ever admit to that. We're not entirely sure those are head-to-head devices either, iOS isn't quite OSX and the Surface Pro tablets offer fully fledged Windows. Not to mention the Surface Pro tablets make the smaller storage options for iPads look relatively cheap too!

   But, nonetheless people always ask for extra storage and now we have it! You can get the 128GbB Wifi-only iPad for $799 (£639) or the 3G one can be yours for $929 (£739). Are you interested? Let us know in the comments below!

   

The press release is available here.

BB10 looks good according to poll.

   Everyone's looking forward to seeing exactly what RIM will be showing off tomorrow and if a poll of American's from YouGov and Bite Interactive is a representative one then quite a fair few other people are looking forward to the release of the operating system too!

   According to a poll of 1,127 adults who were told about the known features of the upcoming BB10 handsets nearly half of the participants found at least one of the improvements compelling and a total of one in eight said they would happily consider buying a BB10 device. With this last stat we're not sure whether it's a good or bad one really, but one in one hundred people polled said they have firm intentions to pick up a BB10 device right from the off. 

   The main issue people are concerned with here is that consumers are already invested in either iOS or Android and Microsoft already know how hard it is to get people to change their OS after attempts to push BB10. What about you? Are you interested in picking a BB10 phone up or will you try to pick up a cheap Playbook to get your BB10 fix?
Via PhoneArena.

In other news:

• Samsung has today acquired NeuroLogica! They're a company that specializes in medical imaging! Things such as manufacturing portable computed tomography (CT) scanners and other medical instruments! This investment is part of Samsung's plan to become one of the world’s leading medical equipment companies by 2020!
  Via Slashgear.

• HTC have called a press conference at 3pm on Tuesday 19 February! This means that the guys from Taiwan are going to try to get a little jump start over the rest of the competition who will be demoing phones during MWC itself! The event will take place simultaneously in New York, but we're not currently sure who will be where!

• The Nexus 4 is in stock in select stores around the world at the moment. Germany, America and Canada have them and the bumpers in stock, we can't imagine that'll last too long though! Get going!
  Via PhoneArena.

• YouTube may soon be charging you to watch certain channels and shows on the website. According to Adage, Google are going to trial it on around about 25 channels! A Google spokesperson said, "we have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models. The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform."
  Via TheVerge.

• XBMC have released version 12 of their media center software. The update now means that there is full support for Android and the Raspberry Pi so you can get this running on any of those new USB Android computers. There's a tonne of new features as well! You can get check out the full details on XBMC's website here!
  Via Slashgear.

• Google now have a few details about North Korea's road on Google Maps. We're not sure if this has something to do with Eric Schmidt's recent visit to the country, but there's still no Street View and we'll be surprised if we see that any time soon!
  Via Hothardware.

And finally, ZTE will soon be releasing their new Blade C on the world. This will be the third in the series which you might know better for being called the Orange San Francisco's! According to UnwiredView the device will arrive with a 4 inch WVGA display, 3G, 3MP rear camera, Bluetooth 4.0, a dual-core 1 GHz MediaTek MTK 6577 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, and a 1,600 mAh battery. This isn't a bad set of specs for a phone which will cost somewhere in the range of $112 off contract (That's €84 or around about £72).

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24/01/2013: Lenovo could be the suitor for Blackberry hardware if RIM sell? New apps and some shots of the Huawei Ascend P2? Plus much more!

Could Lenovo be the suitor for RIM's Blackberry business?

   We saw this post over on Bloomberg earlier today and we've not heard anything in quite a while which would make as much sense as this would.

   The other day we heard that RIM could be tempted to sell off their Blackberry hardware arm if the launch of BB10 isn't 100% successful. It's hard to argue that that wouldn't make sense, there's no point sustaining part of business which isn't profitable and this is a very real possibility at the moment. So when we saw Bloomberg report this quote from Lenovo's Chief Financial Officer, Wong Wai Ming, we were instantly intrigued. He said:

 “We are looking at all opportunities -- RIM and many others... We’ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders.”

   If you think about it Lenovo purchase IBM's Thinkpad computer line and it would completely make sense if they could do a similar job here and we have no doubt that they could make this equally as successful!

   What do you think? Is this a possibility? Obviously there's a lot of ifs and buts, but we can see it happening!
Via TheVerge.

In other news:

• There's a new app called Condom Size for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like! It offers you an interactive measuring tool to find out the actual length and girth of an erect penis. The idea is that this will give you the best size condoms specifically for you! If you're interested then you can get it here!... We can't believe we actually just covered that app!

• Pebble have released their apps for Android and iOS! Hopefully your watch will be arriving in the post in the next few days if you backed them on Kickstarter, so everything is all set! The Android app is here and the iOS one is here!
  Via Slashgear.

• @EVLeaks have today shown off what they think will be the Huawei Ascend P2! They think the device will come with a 1080p display and a host of other high end features! We'll let you know when we hear something official! It'll probably be during MWC though!

Huawei Ascend P2: first press shot of the 1080p flagship: wp.me/peL1j-lYF
— @evleaks (@evleaks) January 24, 2013

•  Google have revealed they are still working through the portfolio of devices Motorola were already working on before Google got hold of them! So another few months yet before we see the real fruits of Google and Motorola's partnership!
  Via Slashgear.

• If you still haven't got it yet then Temple Run 2 for Android is now available! You can get it here!

And finally, we saw this advert earlier on our Twitter feed and we had to show you! We're not sure how many of you guys were born in the '90's but we were and Microsoft has captured what we remember from our childhood amazingly with this little ad. Unfortunately the nostalgia isn't quite enough to tempt us back to Internet Explorer, but we did have a cheeky little play with it after seeing the ad, so the ad did it's job!

We know Nokia and Apple both released their earnings reports! They'll arrive in separate posts soon!

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14/01/2013: Huawei to create an 8-core processor to rival Samsung and retake 'world's thinnest smartphone title! Apple cut component orders, but it's not the horror tale some are telling and much, much more!

Huawei set to join Samsung's Octa-core party and retake 'world's thinnest smartphone' title!

   Huawei are causing quite a stir at the moment: not only are they offering a great line-up of phones, but they also seem to be going after the high-end as well and punching with the famous old big boys from Korea, Japan and America. 

   So with Samsung's demonstration of ARM's big.LITTLE processor still fresh in our minds, Huawei's Richard Yu took to Engadget's CES stage one last time to dish the dirt on Huawei's plans for the future. Yes, Huawei will also being challenging Samsung in the octa-core department in the second half of this year, but we're not currently sure whether they will be using their own HiSilicon K3V3 chipset or whether it'll be a new one, either way Engadget says it will be made by TSMC.

   But, that's not all! During CES we saw Alcatel take away a title that Huawei claimed for the vast majority of last year, with their Ascend P1 (pictured above): 'the world's thinnest smartphone manufacturer' and now Huawei want it back. So keep your eyes peeled at MWC because a new device will be coming to Huawei's P series which will beat out Alcatel's brand new One Touch Idol Ultra! Yu also revealed that the device will come housed in a metal body, so not only will it be uber thin but with a little bit of luck it'll also be quite the looker too!
Via Engadget.

Apple cut orders for iPhone 5 parts in December, but it's not necessarily the bad news which is widely reported!

   Apple's iPhone 5 launch was received with a huge fanfare, they shipped over five million devices in the first weekend of the devices availability! But, it seems that of late things haven't been all plain sailing, after Apple reported asked "Japan Display Inc, Sharp Corp and South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd to roughly halve supplies of LCD panels from an initial plan for about 65 million screens in [the] January-March" period.

   This prompted Apple's shares to fall just over 4 percent to $498.20 at the close of play today, down from $520.30 on Friday evening on the Nasdaq, because of a report from the Wall Street Journal covering news which landed in December. Nonetheless, some analysts have said that there has been a 'weaker than expected demand' for the iPhone 5 and this may have something to do with the issue, but then again Apple sold record numbers on the first weekend of sales so we think it's quite likely that loyal customers picked their new devices up then, instead of throughout the year.

   The Wall Street Journal, however, explains that this might not be an issue of demand, like some people are making out. Instead, Apple may have over-compensated and made larger than normal orders for components immediately after the devices launch, because of the initial popularity and the "concerns about manufacturing difficulties with some components such as screens", an idea put forward by Sanford Bernstein analyst Alberto Moel. We're inclined to go along with this argument because Apple uses a lot of custom parts so it's in their interests to have too many than not enough!

   Either way, one of Japan Display's plants will likely have to reduce their output by up to 80% from their output between October and December, according to the Nikkei reports and Sharp's own facility which is solely dedicated to producing iPhone 5 LCD panels will lower production by around 40%.

   So that's the reality now but, according to Forbes this is a natural progression in the product cycle, which would support the large initial order theory. UBS' Steve Milunovich said to Forbes that:

   "In December, we reduced our iPhone 5 estimates by 5 million a quarter due to the 30% production cut being reported out of Asia. At that time, our analysts estimated that March quarter iPhone 5 production would be 25-30 million and 4/4S 3-5 million. How much of the reduction was a result of inventory rebalancing vs. lower demand was unclear, but the cut was greater than seasonal so we took the conservative route."

   So yes there has been a cut in orders and we're not sure why this is, but at the moment it's not a cause for concern and neither Apple or their suppliers has come forward to offer an explanation, but Apple's Q4 earnings report will be in soon and that will probably clear up the situation!
Via Reuters, WallStreetJournal and Forbes.

In other news:

• Baidu and France Telecom have teamed up on a new mobile browser for emerging markets. The browser, which launched today, will hopefully help France Telecom's plans to satisfy the steady stream of people moving to 3G devices and Baidu wants to give this movement a little push along! The browser is available in English and Arabic and it is currently available for Android smartphones running on France Telecom's operator Mobinil in Egypt! We assume it is just this browser which will be pre-installed in phones, but we'll let you know if we hear more!
  Via Reuters.

• RIM's shares jumped up as much as 11% today because of the excitement surrounding their BB10 release at the end of the month and the lack of competition from CES. The latter was expected, but it seems investors are a bit more confident BB10 can turn things around! The OS also saw 15,000 app submissions in the last 36 hours as developers were offered $100 per app submission and the promise of some BB10 hardware if you submitted a lot of apps!
  Via Reuters and CNet.

• According to Anandtech Acer is readying a display with a resolution of 2880x1620 pixels. The 15.6" (ish) screen will basically be a challenger to Apple's QWXGA+ display, but instead of having Apple's 16:10 aspect ratio it will employ the 16:9 ratio instead. Thankfully it's not just a race for pixels, the display will be IPS and apparently it is a very good offering! We look forward to seeing it in a laptop near you soon!

• AppStats have published some research showing that Instagram lost more than half of it's users recently, probably something to do with the whole 'policy change issue', but there hasn't been much of a resurgence! Facebook on the other hand is reported to have lost over 600,000 users in December if you believe the Guardian!
  Via Slashgear.

• Samsung's Galaxy S range and it's three phones has now shipped over 100million devices! 40 million of those are Galaxy S3's and we expect by this time next year the company will hit 150million if the Galaxy S4 turns out to be everything it's cracked up to be!
  Via Slashgear.

And finally, the lovely little tablet pictured below is the Asus MemoPad (Forgive us for not capitalising it in the right places!). It's a 7" tablet designed to compete with Acer's new Iconia B1-A71! So on the inside you've got Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a 1GHz VIA WM8950 CPU with a Mali-400 GPU, 8 or 16GB of internal storage, 5GB of Asus WebStorage, 1GB of RAM and a 1MP front-facing camera which can manage 720p video! You'll have your normal range of connections, although there's not infrared port on this guy! On the outside you have a 10-point multi-touch LED-backlit display with 1024 x 600 resolution, 140-degree viewing angles, which can also manage 350-nit brightness. The whole thing will run for about 7hours on the 4270mAh battery. The RRP is $149 USD so it will be very much a budget device!

The full press release is available here.

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10/01/2013: RIM to offer 6 BB10 devices and 3 US carriers will offer them! Nokia Q4 results look good! Amazon announces AutoRip and much more!

RIM confirm at least 6 BB10 devices at different price points are coming as US carriers confirm they'll offer them!

   RIM's Chief Marketing Officer, Frank Boulben, gave away some interesting details when he agreed to an interview with Fierce Wireless at CES.    

   Boulben explained how RIM was planning to offer at least six new phones running BB10 this year each of which will target a different market segment. We already know quite a bit about the first two which will be come along at the end of this month through all of the leaks! Boulben's exact words were:

"We intend over time as we transition the portfolio to have a full range of devices."

   He also confirmed that BB10 phones are currently being tested by 150 carriers around the world, which is a heck of a lot of people that will have the opportunity to pick up one of these phones when they launch! He even went as far as saying that “They [the carriers] very much believe that we can be the third platform.” We're sure Nokia and Microsoft might have something to say about that (See the next article below!). 

   If you're an app conscious sort of person then fear not as RIM will have a pretty impressive 70,000 apps for you to download from day one! These devices also try to satisfy both consumers and businesses and as such they will be the first smartphones to offer new features like BlackBerry Balance, something which allows you to separate business and leisure apps!

   The second part of this story is that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all have plans to carry the BB10 range even if it's slightly tentative at the moment! 

   Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said “We’re hopeful its going to be a good device... We’ll carry it.” AT&T were considerably more hesitant saying that they would offer the device, but more to keep upgraders happy then to attract new customers. Their CMA David Christopher said, “It’s logical to expect our current [BlackBerry] customers will have the best BlackBerry devices to choose from in the future.” T-Mobile seemed most positive, but that might just be their CEO, John Legere's personality coming through! He said, “We’re extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a successful product... our business customers are extremely interested in it.” Again the 'un-carrier' wasn't convinced it would be popular with consumers!

   Nonetheless there is currently 79 million of you out there rocking your Blackberry's so RIM is confident that people will pick up a BB10 phone when they're ready to upgrade! What do you think? Excited about the launch? Let us know in the comments below!

Via Reuters and Fierce Wireless.

Nokia announce better than expected Q4 results: 4.4 million Lumia's left the shelves!

   With the future of RIM just a few weeks away we come to Nokia, a company who has already pledged their future to Windows Phone, for better or for worse. So with Windows Phone 7 the operating system wasn't really ready for the prime time. It launched without basic features like copy and paste, but these were added later. But, with Windows Phone 8 Microsoft has offered up a relatively well rounded experience, so with that surely Nokia will have sold more devices?

    In the first but of good news coming out of Nokia HQ in quite a while the sales of all their smartphone ranges are looking good. The Smart Devices unit of Nokia saw net sales of 1.2 billion euros and a total of 6.6 million devices were sold. Out of that two thirds, or 4.4 million were Lumia smartphones. Nokia shifted a total of 15.9 million units, 9.3 million of which were Asha full touch devices and 2.2 million were Symbian phones, apparently people are still buying them! Nokia's CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, did say that Q4 was the “last meaningful quarter for Symbian” sales, which is no surprise really.

   Despite a good Q4 for Nokia, they do expect things to be slightly worse in Q1, something which is a 'seasonal trend', which is business speak for everyone spent all their money over Christmas! That news wasn't enough to put investors off, as Nokia shares rose 16% following the release of "better than expected" perfomance!

   Have you got a shiny new Lumia in your hands? Does Windows Phone even interest you? Let us know in the comments below!

Nokia Via PhoneDog and IntoMobile.

In other news:

• Google is now offering all Play Store publishers the opportunity to reply to comments on their rating system! This should help make the reviews more accurate and fairer, perhaps stopping people who have a vendetta against certain apps!
  Via AndroidCommunity.

• ZTE are rumoured to be working on a new phone with an insane screen! If the rumours are to be believed then there will soon be a ZTE Nubia Z7 will have a 6.3-inch display with a jaw-dropping resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels! The rumour doesn't stop there either, the device will supposedly have an 8-core processor! We would've been inclined to believe it was possible until we saw that there's also meant to be a Mali-T658 GPU, 16MP camera, 4,000mAh battery, 128GB of storage, an LTE radio and it's supposedly running Android 5. The only bits we find hard to believe are the 128GB of storage and Android 5, but you never know we wouldn't put it past ZTE if they wanted to do it!
  Via PhoneArena.

• There's also been the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus announced. We've chosen not to cover it because it is identical to the standard Galaxy S2 apart from the fact that there's NFC in the battery and it's running Android 4.1.2 with the Nature UX. If you're interested in finding the full details of the device head here!

• Google's Eric Schmidt and ex-New Mexico governor Bill Richardson have returned from North Korea. The pair failed to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, who is currently being held in North Korea for showing tourists across their boarder, but he is said to be in good health, despite the pair not actually meeting him. Schmidt left Korea by requesting that they consider opening up the internet and embracing technology before they find themselves in a world which they cannot catch up with! You can see the full details here!

• It's been suggested that Europe's biggest carriers could be planning to create a European super-network which would reduce the price of your roaming antics! Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's parent), along with France Telecom (owner of Orange), Telecom Italia and Telefónica (The people behind O2) are apparently “intent on exploring the idea." This sounds like a cool concept, but don't expect this to happen soon, if at all, because there will be a lot of European red tape around something like this!
  Via Recombu.

And finally, how about this for a pretty sweet idea [UPDATE: Idea that is now a reality!]... Amazon is reportedly exploring offering the possibility of automatically adding a digital copy of the physical CD's you purchase from them to your Amazon Cloud Player! This will cut out the tedious process of ripping and uploading your songs to the web-based service and basically will make the whole process a lot easier!

CNet's reported that Amazon is currently thinking about the option of retrospectively adding the songs from your past purchases to this arrangement too, which would be great for us! We're pretty pumped to see Amazon do this and it'll be a feature which Google Music won't really be able to challenge! If you're interested in finding more details then click over here for the full run down from Amazon!

Via CNet.

   

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05/11/2012: Samsung rebrand rumoured, iPad sales from the first weekend and more!

There's a huge Samsung re-branding rumoured!

   Today the Australian news company aptly named, ChannelNews, has said that their sources have received some reports from Asia that  Samsung is planning an impressive overhaul of its brand and marketing in time for CES 2013!

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11/10/2012

Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini finally official.

   This lovely little device, ladies and gentlemen, is the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. It became officially official in Germany today after tonnes and tonnes of leaks in the past week. Which, incidentally  turned out to be totally correct!

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03/10/2012

RIM release Playbook OS 2.1!

   RIM and their Playbook in particular are interesting entities. The Playbook's themselves are great little devices and they are selling extremely cheaply at the moment. But, RIM has also had a good track record with their updates too! Every time the company has promised some improvements they have arrived, if slightly late a couple of times.

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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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25/09/2012

The news in brief:

• RIM has announced that carrier testing for their BB10 devices will begin in approximately A months time. So the company is on for a 2013 release! The company has also announced that they will have native support for Twitter, Facebook, Four square and many more social platforms from launch!

• Google has announced that any work on a version of iOS6 maps until they get a special invite from Apple to do the work. Eric Schmidt said it was up to Apple whether the iPhone 5 and other devices would get Google maps. Schmidt said that Google would "welcome" Apple's cooperation but said that "we have not done anything yet" to prepare a new version, so looks like you'll have to make do with iOS maps guys.

• Apple A6 teardown reveals the chip has a dual-core CPU and a tri-core GPU configuration.

• Apple have also announced today that scratches on their aluminium backed iPhone 5 are 'normal' and should be expected. Are you going to let Apple sell this excuse to you as a sign of uniqueness?

• Today some of Samsung's Galaxy series of phones, particularly ones which had been 'Touchwiz-ed' were found to be vulnerable to a simply html code which would automatically reset the phone. The issue currently affects the Galaxy Beam, S Advance, Galaxy Ace, and Galaxy S II. However, the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus, which runs stock Android, is not susceptible. Neither is Samsung's latest beast, the Galaxy S3. “The USSD code issue in the SGS3 is patched, and has been for some time” TeamAndIRC said. “Current i747 [AT&T Galaxy S III] and i9300 [European Galaxy S III] firmware are not vulnerable.”
  
  Samsung has yet to comment on 'dialer-gate' but good things come to those who wait! We'll keep you updated.

• The Samsung Galaxy Note II is launching in the UK on October 1st.

And finally, here's a lovely little video from RIM explaining why they love their devs! It's kinda catchy!

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16/08/2012

Lenovo remain indifferent to Microsoft's Surface tablets. Pledge to compete!

   Acer have today been made to look like a complaining little brother by Lenovo. The latter finally commented on Microsoft's Surface tablets and they don't seem to be too bothered at all. 

   The company's CEO, Yang Yuanqing, voiced his opinions on the company’s latest earnings calls, saying, “Although we don't like Microsoft providing hardware, for us, it just adds one more competitor." And we're inclined to agree with Lenovo here and it should spur companies on to up their game instead of complaining about it!

   The only thing to mention is that if Microsoft's RT Surface tablets do come in at $199 like the rumours suggested yesterday, then that may slightly peeve all OEM's not just Acer, but it might not even come to that, only time will tell!

RIM sets their screen resolutions for BB10 handsets and it's finally good news!

    Recently RIM CEO, Thorsten Heins, has had a bit of a hard time; he's in charge of a company whose handsets are starting to look outdated and lacking ideas. But, the promised land of BB10 pledges to change all of that. Last week Heins stated the company is in the polishing stages of the BB10 creation and that the devices are completed. Since then we've had word that the company is getting ready to take two “nearly complete” prototype devices to carriers in an attempt to persuade them to carry one or both devices at launch.

   Now Tim Neil has taken to the company’s developer blog to inform folks that upcoming full-touch devices will have Galaxy S3 matching screen with 1,280 x 720p displays, while QWERTY phones will be rocking with 720 x 720 screens.

   So if you're a developer and you want the chance to crack business phones get to work on them resolutions!

 Via IntoMobile!

In other news:

•  Sony have released their latest eReader; it's elegantly called the PRS-T2 eReader and when it's available it'll set you back $129.99.

• If you happen to be a lucky resident of China then you will soon be able to purchase the new Xiaomi Phone 2. This wouldn't normally make the news but the device has a quad-core Krait, a 4.3″ 720p IPS, and Jelly Bean! And the price? About $314!!!! Insane! Shame they're not heading west anytime soon.

• Samsung's monster phone, the Galaxy Note, has been a huge success for the company. It turns out they managed to ship 10million of them since the phone's release!

• Kaspersky Labs has reported a tripling  of Android malware in Q2 2012 alone!

• Nokia and Microsoft have scheduled a Windows Phone event for September 5th, new Windows Phone incoming!

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14/08/2012

Microsoft Surface just became the hottest tablet around?

   When Microsoft announced their own brand 'Surface' tablets the whole tech community stood back and said 'finally, we might have something competitive from Microsoft here'. But, it wasn't long before there were grumblings as suggested retail prices put the tablets in the ridiculously overpriced bracket which was previously only inhabited by Apple. Noone is prepared to pay the price of an Ultrabook for a much less capable tablet.

   Today everything above may have changed. The reason, we believe, is the Nexus 7. Google and Asus' new $199 tablet may just have pushed Microsoft to make their pricing similarly competitive in a bid to get Windows 8 powered tablets into your hands! The rumoured price for the RT versions of Surface tablets is $199. 

   That price point would be great, people would buy it. But, it's hard to say for sure whether this rumour is legitimate or not. Obviously it makes sense but this is Microsoft we're talking about here and given the reception from OEM's to Surface tablets already, it's hard to see this one coming to fruition.

    Then there are other things to consider; Microsoft is using an expensive metal chassis on the tablet, it'll have that smart looking keyboard add-on and this is where things start to go against the $200 price rumour.

   If Microsoft does release their tablets on October 26th for $200 then we'll be first in line to buy one, but something is stopping us getting our hopes up!

In other news:

• Toshiba has announced today that they won't be shipping any tablets with Windows RT on board. Instead the company will be focusing on the fully-fledged version of Windows 8, which is probably a smart move!

• Without Windows 8 being released some memos have suggested the next update for Windows 8 will be codenamed 'Blue'. At the moment we're not sure whether this is a whole new OS upgrade or just a service pack, either way it'll be landing in October 2013, exactly a year after Windows 8 is released!

• RealPlayer for Android has been released from it's Beta and is quite probably the best media player on the Play Store right now.

• Samsung's Galaxy S3 has now been slated for a Jelly Bean update on the 29th of August. Apparently the update is ready to go and Samsung is just holding out for the Galaxy Note 2 to be released before issuing this update! We'll see if GSMArena's source got this one right, fingers crossed!

• Apple vs Samsung: The International versions of the Galaxy S, S II, and Ace have been axed from the case after the Judge decided that because these devices are not on sale in the USA that they are not relevant. Did you hear that sigh of relief from South Korea?

• There's been quite a few news stories around the web today that Apple has been laying off staff who have been with the company for less than 6 months. In many cases employees had just completed training before facing the axe. Ohh and if you were promised a promotion (and pay upgrade) both of these may well have been cancelled. We're not sure how widespread this is and whether there's something strange going on here but this is confirmed in the UK Apple Stores and we're not sure if similar things are going on elsewhere and similarly we don't know why? 

• According to Gartner worldwide phone shipments have decreased 2.3% in Q2 2012 compared to the same period from 2011. Apparently the huge anticipation from the upcoming iPhone may have something to do with it, but maybe that double-dip recession may have  something to do with it too?

• RIM has confirmed they are ready to talk to all comers about licensing BB10. Whether they'll have any takers remains to be seen.

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02/08/2012

Apple strikes back at Samsung's leaks!

   A couple of days ago Samsung posted some 'banned evidence' to numerous media outlets around the world. Both Apple and Judge Koh were not amused but Samsung argued, very well in fact, that they had every right to publish their evidence because it was independent and didn't affect the courts ruling in any way.

   Apple has subsequdntly demanded that its design patents be considered valid and considered infringed as a suitably harsh punishment for Samsung’s evidence leak yesterday. They went as dar as telling the court that ruling in the Cupertino firm’s favor is the only message Samsung will understand. “Apple requests that the Court issue sanctions granting judgment that Apple’s asserted phone design patent claims are valid and infringed by Samsung” the company wrote in its response, effectively asking that the outcome of the trial be decided because of Samsung's “strategy of delay.”

   This from the outside is seemingly ridiculous. It seems that both the Judge and Apple are going all out to spite Samsung when there is very little evidence to nail Samsung's coffin with. In fact the opposite is true; Apple are suggesting that to punish Samsung the evidence which refers to Apple 'copying' Sony designs be removed from the case. To my understanding the whole thing is a farce and I personally hope Samsung get a good outcome from this case!

In other news:

• Facebook have today announced that they have about 83 million fake users (spam accounts and pet accounts?!). That's a lot of fakes about 9% of the company's user base in fact, that probably won't help the stock price!
• Over the weekend Thorsten Heins, RIM CEO, met with the Times newspaper here in the UK. One of the details the company mentioned was that they are "investigating" the possibility of licensing the upcoming new platform, saying that "we're working with the financial advisers to see if we do this where it would take the company." It'd be interesting to see if anyone would take RIM up on the offer if they did commit to this strategy!
• Samsung’s developed speedy new SD cards that'll supercharge smartphone storage in the near future.
• Sharp has confirmed that the first shipments of the iPhone 5's screens will start in this month!
• Nokia has been having a tough ride lately. An unfortunate consequence of this is more layoffs. This time the bad news is happening down under; Aussie Qt staff are facing the chop and the company is looking to sell off assets.
• Sony has had another terrible quarter; Q1 2012 saw income down 77% as gaming, mobile and TVs sales have dived.

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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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31/07/2012

Sony planning a Tablet S refresh!

   Mobiflip has today outed a new Sony Xperia Tablet. The picture above shows that the device is essentially a Tablet S refresh; sporting exactly the same iconic wedge design of the Tablet S. 

Looks like Microsoft's Surface tablets has a bit of an influence too!

   This time, however, the tablet is set to be slimline and splashproof, complete with Tegra 3 and a 9.4-inch 1280 x 800 display. The new tablet will be 11.85mm at its thickest point according to mobiFlip‘s premature documentation. This would overall add up to a 42-percent trim down, Sony claims, and this one will be made of aluminum rather than plastic!

   On the camera front there's an 8-megapixel main camera which is paired with a 1-megapixel front facing camera, and there’s also a docking stand with three USB ports and an HDMI connection. Sony also throws in a clever Guest Mode, which allows for a separate interface – with limited access to apps and other data – for visitor use of the tablet, while keeping full Ice Cream Sandwich functionality locked away.

   Interestingly the presentation also includes projected pricing; $449.99 for the 16GB model, rising to $549.99 for the $32GB, and $649.99 for the 64GB. The carrying cover will be $59.99 ($20 more for the leather version) and the keyboard cover will be $99.99.

   As for docks, the Dock Speaker will be $119.99, the Docking Stand $99.99, and the Cradle $39.99. A Simple Stand – propping the tablet up at a choice of three angles – will be $24.99. The HDMI cable will be $29.99 and the USB Host cable $19.99.

   When this device launches we'll see if it's possible to get a review to compare with the Tablet S and see if it's a worthy successor!

Sony's update saga.

   Sony, Sony, Sony... What're we going to do with you eyy? 

  Today we've been told not to rule out Jelly Bean updates coming to any of their current devices. This news has come after they said their 2011 line up, which includes the Arc S and Mini Pro, would not be getting the update! Apparently we shouldn't rule out the possibility of these devices getting Jelly Bean just yet; the company said;

“We are actively investigating Android OS upgrades for all devices, but in the meantime, our Ice Cream Sandwich rollout for Xperia S and 2011 Xperia smartphones continues as planned.”

   So there we have it. Don't give up hope just yet! The only thing we know for certain at the moment is that Sony don't know what they're doing just yet! The company is still in the midst of their ICS rollout so you can't blame them for not being entirely sure yet! We do expect their most recent crop of NXT devices will be getting updates, but probably early next year!

In other news:

• Nintendo needed their 3DS XL to do a good job on the sales front. Initial tips look good with the device reportedly shipping 200,000 units in the first 24 hours after it's launch!
• RIM are reportedly cutting 3000 jobs on August 13th, sorry guys, the company just can't stop the rot.
• Microsoft has integrated Facebook tagging into Bing search results.
• Samsung is reportedly working on a new 11.8″ 2560×1600 tablet.
• Samsung‘s product lead has lashed out at Apple‘s design patent case, describing the jury trial as “fighting over rectangles” and "defying common sense" and to be honest we have to agree!

And finally, Microsoft has launched Outlook.com as a Gmail competitor! It looks eerily familiar!

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30/07/2012

Android updates: LG, Sony and Acer's hands.

   Android updates; the bane of many geeks lives! Some companies have good records in updates; Samsung, Acer and HTC are considered 'good' with updates. Other companies are slightly lacking with their track records.

   Today some of these ideas have been reinforced. The first company, Sony, we did cover briefly last week when they announced that they would not be providing Jelly Bean updates to their 2011 phones, like the Arc S and the Mini Pro. Sorry guys.

   But, rest assured you're not alone! LG is just as bad as Sony, if not worse. LG's Canadian arm stated that versions of the Optimus 2X (the world's first dual-core phone!) and the Optimus Black would not receive an update to Android 4.0 ICS. This news coming in spite of a universal statement from LG promising the arrival of an update! There's no news on whether this will be the case for all international versions of these phones, but a precedent has now been set!

   The good news here though is that Acer has publicly said that some of their Iconia range of tablets will get Jelly Bean. Yes they said 'some' and so a few tabs will miss out, but some is better than none!!! When the company outs a full list of updates, you guys will be first to know!

In other news:

• T-Mobile USA's Galaxy Note is available starting August 8th for $249 on a two-year contract.
• Intel has promised that $699 ultrabooks are on the way!
• Mountain Lion becomes OS X's most successful version yet with 3 million downloads so far.
• Microsoft's Surface tablets have been slated to arrive on October 28th at the same time as Windows 8 is officially released.
• Apple has been placed on China's Consumer Association “company integrity” blacklist, we're not sure what this will mean, but it's an interesting reflection of the world we live in!
• Apple's supposed Twitter investment has apparently fallen through!
• And finally, RIM's upcoming Playbook 10"er has supposedly been snapped and the leaked picture is below!

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24/07/2012

Has MobileFun outed the design for the next iPhone.

   It really is that time of year again folks; iPhone rumours are front and centre of every tech website at the moment. And today MobileFun have helped add a bit of fuel to the fire, with their 'leak', from secret sources, of the new cases for the forthcoming iPhone.

   The changes that the new cases show are; a taller version of the current iPhone but keeping exactly the same width, a new connector port and the headphone jack moved to the bottom of the phone.

   And the main thing, it's a case for a 4 inch phone! So finally Apple will be joining in with the big boys with a bit of luck!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 banned throughout Europe.

   Samsung got a little bit of respite last week in the British courts after the judge ruled that Apple would have to apologise and publicly state that Samsung didn't copy the iPad with the 10.1" Galaxy Tab.

   But, it seems that as far as the wins for Samsung have gone, with German courts today ruling that the 7.7 did copy the iPad. But, as you can see there's a slight conflict here; British courts have ruled that there was no infringement, whereas European courts went a different way. Today's sales injunction is in direct conflict with a UK court ruling earlier in July. 

   This seems to be so confusing for all parties; not even Samsung knows where they stand at the moment! We don't think this will impact Samsung too badly even if the ban does stand because the Tab 7.7 has such a high price and low demand. The company has said to Slashgear today that they would like to point customers in the direction of the Galaxy Tab 2 (the 7incher) because of the lower price point and more support! Win Win!

In other news:

• Samsung's court dates with Apple may cost the North Koreans $2.5 billion if the South Korean's are found guilty of wilful IP infringement!
• Apple has claimed that the design of the iPhone and iPad is worth an extra $24 per device! An interesting claim but that's what's been filed with the Californian courts.
• And to conclude the Apple news; the company is reported to be working on some revamped designs for the companies iPod touches and nanos!
• Android is supposedly lacking in developer interest by 16% when compared to iOS according to IDC.
• RIM has promised a sneak peak at BB10 for their most loyal and dedicated customers.
• The LTE packing BlackBerry PlayBook is due on July 31st for $550!
• Talking of LTE, the UK rollout has been pushed back again! OFCOM has announced the auction of spectrum won't begin until 'early 2013'! Talk about holding us back for no apparent reason!

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