In Other News: 17/05/2013.

• Over in the United States the carrier Sprint have bought a few sets of spectrum and a few customers from US Cellular. The deal sees Sprint gain 420,00 customers throughout the Midwest and sees them gain 20MHz of spectrum in places such as Chicago, South Bend, Indiana and Champaign, Illinois.
  Via PhoneArena.

• BT have announced that there are now more than 5 million wireless hotspots across the UK and Ireland which are up and running and giving people internet access! It's no wonder they have grand plans for the network!
  Via IntoMobile.

• Vodafone in the UK have announced the latest in their range own self branded mobiles phones. The Vodafone Smart III is another budget handset which this time offers relatively clean Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a 4-inch WVGA that's 480 x 800p screen, an unnamed 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and there's a nice 5-megapixel rear camera for good measure. This isn't anything revolutionary, but for £95 without a contract you could do worse, it looks solid too as you can to the right! You can get full details here!
  Via AndroidCentral.

• The website of the Financial Times has been hacked by people claiming to be the "Syrian Electronic Army", an infamous hacking and activist group, supposedly supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. the FT's website has had headlines changed to read "Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army" and tweets have been sent from the FT's Twitter account saying "Do you want to know the reality of the Syrian 'Rebels?'" and a link to a video was offered too.
Via Reuters.

• Fitbit have updated their wrist accessory which tracks your activity today to support the Galaxy S4. A lot of people have been complaining about the relatively small amount of devices which the accessory supports but the is another feather in its cap!
  Via Slashgear.

• Kaspersky have teamed up with Qualcomm to offer OEMs a discount if they preinstall their phones with Kaspersky's antivirus solutions for Andorid phones and tablets! This is a great deal for Kaspersky and should see their software on a lot more phones in the future!
  Via IntoMobile.

• There have been updates to both Angry Birds Seasons and Pudding Monsters for Android released today. Both updates bring new levels and challenges!
  Via AndroidCommunity.

And finally, Nvidia have opened up pre-orders of their Shield handheld for everyone who lives in US and Canada! Check out the tweet below if you're looking to pick one of the devices up!

We've opened up our #NVIDIASHIELD preorders across the board. Get yours today: ow.ly/l8H9K
— NVIDIA Tegra (@NVIDIATegra) May 17, 2013

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22/08/2012

New iPad incoming? Apple asks for triple the presentation space!

   Today some of MacRumors trusted sources have said to them that Apple resellers in Europe are being asked to increase the display space devoted to the iPad in their stores. This could mean a number of things; Apple wants the iPad to sell better, they want a larger presence in store, but most of all it shoudts "incoming iPad announcement".

   Apparently Apple has given re-sellers a deadline of September 12 to increase their iPad display space, just in time for a certain announcement date that Apple has scheduled! One of the sources specified that Apple has asked for resellers to triple the amount of space reserved for iPads. But, others disagree claiming Mac Pro and Mac Mini displays are the first on the chopping block in order to accommodate this shift.

   Since originally printing the rumor, MacRumors has changed their post saying that this shift in display space has occurred because Apple resellers have devoted only a small amount of space to the iPad and it’s one of Apple’s biggest sellers so they simply want to push the tablet more. September 12th will reveal all!

Everything Everywhere sell Three some spectrum!

   Yesterday Everything Everywhere got confirmation that they will be able to roll out 4G services on their existing range of spectrum and Huawei is hard at work installing 4G receivers in EE's 2G base stations. Everyone was slightly taken aback by the decision because it secured a monopoly period of about a year for the company.

   It seems that Three might have one little reason which helped convince OFCOM that this was a good move. That reason is that EE has sold Three two spectrum 'channels' and the statement below from Three's CEO, Dave Dyson, shows what this will mean to Three.

 “Acquiring this spectrum will more than double the capacity available to customers on our network.  We have seen a huge growth in data consumption with average mobile handset customer usage now more than 1.1GB per month. 

Three has led the market in the significant growth of mobile data consumption and the shift to consumer use of smartphones to access the internet.  New spectrum, supported by further committed technology spend, is a clear signal that we are committed to maintain our lead as the network built for the mobile internet.”

    This is 1800MHz radio spectrum that's been sold but there's one rather important condition. The sale briefly raised the possibility of the UK having competing 4G networks this year until EE crushed that dream by failing to relinquish the bands until September 2013 so Three's statement seems slightly excitable given the short term possibilities.

   The European Commission has already demanded that Everything Everywhere sell off this spectrum as a condition of the Orange and T-Mobile merger. This is pretty negligible to EE because the company is so huge that the network has hold of almost half the UK mobile radio spectrum. So EE offered to sell off two 15MHz-wide blocks before the 4G mega auction, which it has now done, but it won't let Three take possession until the last possible moment required by the EC: September 2013 for two 10MHz blocks, and September 2015 for the rest.

   What do you think is the 4G monopoly a bad thing or will it spur the others on to offer compelling alternatives when their time rolls round?

In other news:

• Microsoft is currently seeking new Beta testers for an upcoming update to their Xbox 360's!

• Our readers from the USA will have seen the news that T-Mobile USA will be offering unlimited internet and we can now confirm the service will be available from September 5th.

• Another interesting bit of news is that we expect Verizon Wireless to offer their customers the next round of Windows Phone 8 devices because everyone needs that third alternative option!

• Amazon's next Kindle tablet has hit the FCC along with the name 'Firedock', unfortunately all we Vknow is that the device will have the usual set of connections that every tablet has, but as soon as we hear more you will be first to know!

• Dell announced today that its profits in the second quarter of this year fell 18% from the year before. That means profits of $732 million something which prompted an after hours stock price dip. Dell's stock is currently down by 4.28% to $11.81 after hours, with the stock finishing the regular trading day at $12.34, only a 1.75% decrease. At least Dell is turning a profit!!!

• An unnamed Verizon employee has told TechCrunch that Verizon has blocked all employees from taking vacations between September 21 and September 30. This move was apparently made in anticipation of the new iPhone's launch.

• The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has received a software update today and it brings a bump to Android 4.0.4!

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