YouView explain where they are: Android app, Internet television and how they're doing!

   YouView are a UK company which offer you subscription free TV and all you really need is to buy the box and hook it up to your internet and you're good to go. With such a simple solution it's not too much wonder than the  box is being labelled as the "fastest growing TV product in the UK."

   YouView's CEO, Richard Halton, said that the system s now live in more than 400,000 homes in the UK and about 2.2 million video streams are viewed each week. That includes an average of 3 hours of week of on demand TV per box and about 60% of the users make the most of the OnDemand services which are offered on the platform.  YouView don't have exact details on which providers offered how many of those boxes, but TalkTalk said that they've installed 230,000 so that means the rest are BT and other sales of the boxes.

   Halton was keen to emphasise that this is only a good start, he said:

"We are far from resting on our laurels … If launching was crossing the start line, this is the first marker."

   YouView have confirmed that there will be support for internet TV channels coming to their set top box! The company said that this will give the company a massive boost from their current line up of 70 live TV channels which they offer already. YouView did say that initially the TV channels will be offered through BT and TalkTalk so you'll need to be a customer of one of those companies initially and don't worry you can get both HD and standard definition TV shows from these providers.

   There will be a software update for the YouView boxes which will add in the availability this summer and the hope is that it will be ready for BT's new sports offerings! After this integrating update there will be another one in autumn this year which will add pause, skip and record features.

   YouView also confirmed where they are with their Android app. Obviously mobile devices are vital to television offerings these days and the company already has an app for iPhones out in the wild, but YouView have said that the Android app will have the exact same functionality as the iPhone app and it will be available in "the next couple of weeks". The app will be optimised for the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Ace, Nexus 4 and HTC One S and it should work on any device with Android 2.3 or greater!

Via PocketLint (1), (2) and (3).

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Vodafone UK delay 4G roll out until September!

   At the moment those of us living in the UK have very little choice when it comes to mobile 4G networks! The only choice is EE who rolled out their network on some spare spectrum at the end of last year. Everyone else is said to be busy working to make their 4G networks too, but Three have already said that it's not a priority and now Vodafone have delayed their 4G launch until some time around September! 

   Vodafone's delay is interesting because the company were one of the biggest spenders in the 4G auction, coughing up £790 million earlier in the year. You can see who else spent big in the chart below!

   Vodafone explained that the thought process behind delaying the 4G launch was that the 'end of summer' launch would give the company the best chance to make sure everything is ready and that it will give the company the best marketing opportunities in the remaining time!

Vodafone's chief exec, Vittorio Colao, said:

"We are convinced our own 4G will be better performing... We want to be able to launch it when it's really ready. End of the summer means when there is going to be a good commercial window for launching it."

   We'll have to wait and see if Vodafone can deliver and more importantly if they can offer us some compelling price plans to make the most of the new network!
Via TheGuardian.

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Samsung Galaxy mega set to arrive in the UK in July for £460!

   The Samsung Galaxy Mega was never going to be a phone which appealed to everyone. The 6.3" screened variant might be too big for a lot of people, the 720p resolution might not be enough for some people and then we didn't initially know the price of this thing.

   Today the guys over at Clove have posted up some information on their blog which reveals just how much this phone is going to cost and their post reads:

"With a 6.3” display the Galaxy Mega will not appeal to all but for those of you who are looking for something of this size, then we can confirm that we now have a price and an estimated arrival time.
Set to be available in both Black and White, the Mega will be priced at £383.33 excluding VAT or £459.99 including VAT.
First stock of the I9205 16GB model is expected in July, the exact date for which is still to be confirmed."

   That £460 will buy you a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, a 3,200mAh battery, 16GB of internal storage which is expandable with cards up to 64GB, 4G LTE and that 6.3" 720p TFT LCD display!

   Well there you have it guys, if you really want a giant phone then it might be better to consider the Asus FonePad which although is nowhere near as powerful in the processor stakes also has a huge screen as is less than half the price at £180!
Clove Via Twitter.

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Virgin Mobile UK announce VIP plans: Unlimited everything for £26 or £15 sim-only!

   If you live in the UK at the moment then things are starting to get quite interesting in the mobile arena. On the one hand you have all the big mobile networks getting ready for 4G launches, unless your EE and you already have a head start, networks are trying their best to work out how much data people actually need without overloading their systems and at the same time prices are pretty reasonable, especially if you go SIM-only!

   That's what we've got here today, a new set of mobile contracts from Virgin, the MNVO who piggy backs on T-Mobile's [Read: EE] network! The first set of plans are just for Virgin Media customers and they all come with phones in their pricing. On the basic side of things you can get 200 minutes, 500 texts, 500MB data and unlimited calls and texts to other Virgin customers, as well as phone insurance thrown in for £7.50 for 6 months and then £15 a month after that, otherwise you can go for unlimited everything including calls to 0800, 0845, 0808 and 0870 with the insurance thrown in for £26 a month, which is a stellar deal. Shame it's only for Virgin Media customers really. There's two other contract options in the middle of those which you can see here!

   These plans are joined by a set of 30 day rolling contracts which you can see below, but these are open to everyone! The highlight of which is the £15 per month deal which gives you unlimited allowances for everything! You can get them here!

   One thing to point out is that your data usage is unlimited, but it does not include tethering and Virgin's Terms and Conditions on the contract say that if you sign up to it now then you will been considered to be an excessive user if you gobble down more than 3.5GB of data over a month which will result in your speeds being slowed to '384kbit/s downstream [and] 200kbit/s upstream' until the end of the month!

   These are pretty good deals and the SIM-only deals main competitor is T-Mobile's Full Monty plan which is reduced to £16 a month now and then!
Via PocketLint.

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EE flicks the switch on more UK towns: Smaller towns getting coverage now!

   If you live in the UK then EE are still your only option for 4G LTE data services. The rest of the mobile networks will be on their tails soon enough, with everyone except Three confirming that they'll be rolling out the services this year and O2 have just signed a deal which will see BT manage their 4G service!

   With that in mind EE have announced another round of places which now have access to their 'Superfast' network. You can now use their services if you live in:

 "Aylesbury, Berkhamsted, Billericay, Blackpool, Brentwood, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Lytham St Annes, Marlow, Pontefract, Thame and Windsor."

   Two of those places Billericay and Brentwood are in Essex and we would say they're medium size towns. Which means that EE feel that they're at the point where they can start pushing their network outside of the main towns and cities!

   As for coverage EE proclaim that they've now showered half of the UK's population with 4G radio waves and by the end of June the company plans to have another 18 towns up and connected, with the ultimate target of 70% coverage by the end of this year!

   It'll be interesting to see how far EE's head start got them when other people start turning on their own networks through the coming months! Are you covered by EE or are you still in a frustrating wait? Let us know in the comments below!
Via AndroidCentral.

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EE announce their latest figures: Things are looking pretty good!

   EE run the UK's first 4G network; we already know that they're a tad expensive, but they're speed tests seem to be pretty impressive too! So it's interesting to see just how many people wanted to and subsequently did sign up to the new network and that's exactly what we've got an update on today through their Q1 earnings call!

   EE have said that they now have 318,000 customers using their 4G network since the network was up and running a mere five months ago and there's now more than 1,600 medium and large businesses using EE for their mobile services, which is pretty darn impressive!

   With that solid start already under their belt EE want to continue their growth through to the end of the year and they're targeting one million users by the end of the year along with having double-speed 4G up and running in 10 cities by the end of June and an overall 4G coverage of 70% of the population by the end of the year!

You can find full details on EE's results here!
Via Coolsmartphone.

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YouGov reveal how 'quality Android tablets' affect Apple's market share.

   The tablet market is still very young, the first generation iPad was released three years ago and since then the tablet market has exploded. People have tried 3D tablets, they've tried 10 inch tablets, Microsoft has thrown in their 11.6" Surface tablets and Asus even made a 18.4" desktop tablet which dual-boots Android and Windows 8! 

   So there's been a heck of a lot of experimentation, but one form factor which has hit the sweet spot has been the 7-8" arena and the other area which manufacturers have had success is by offering well built devices.

   YouGov have today reported that consumers now perceive Android devices as 'equal in quality' to the iPad and that these devices are starting to cut into the 'premium' tablet niche which Apple carved out themselves.

   The guys acknowledge that Apple is still the main player in the arena, but that also noted that the company saw their share of the market cut by 10% from Q1 2012 to the same time this year. That doesn't mean that sales of iPads went down, in fact it was the opposite, but other companies started selling more devices too and that ate into Apple's market share.

   According to the YouGov report Samsung has grown their market share by 150% in the past year, coming up from 4% to 10% of the market. Similarly the Nexus 7 has had the, 'most impressive' launch picking up an impressive 8% of the market in 10 months! Amazon's 7" slate the Kindle Fire is now also 5% of sales here in the UK too, so that's seen very impressive growth too! The graph below gives you a better idea of how things have changed!

   The one thing which YouGov highlights as being good news for Apple is how resilient the iPad mini has been to these new tablets. At the moment that device accounts for 4% of the market and it consistently scores higher in the overall satisfaction polls than its Android rivals in eight of nine quality attributes which YouGov uses.

   On a different note the research from the company now shows that nearly one in every five people own a tablet (18%) and that's up 5% since just after Christmas last year!

   All of this has lead the company's Consulting Director of Technology & Telecoms, John Gilbert to say that:

 “With a growing market, greater competition and falling prices, Apple was bound to lose some share.  However, it is not simply a matter of inexpensive products flooding the market.  It seems that Apple no longer has a monopoly on the “premium” share as other brands emerge with near-equal satisfaction scores. Given the market’s current expectations and considerations in purchasing tablets, we anticipate Apple to lose additional share throughout the coming year to Samsung, Google and Amazon.”

   What we want to know is what devices you've got? Have you got a tablet or do you want one? Are you one of those people who bought an iPad or did you pick up one of these new 'quality' Android devices? Let us know in the comments below!
YouGov via PCPro.

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In Other News: 17/04/2013.

• Google has finally told developers that from today they're, "now able to upload screenshots of your app running on 7″ and 10″ tablets to the Google Play Developer Console," something which gives people with tablets these pictures instead of the phone screenshots. It seems that Google is finally turning to their Android eyes towards tablets as Google I/O approaches! Check out the AndroidDeveloperBlog here for more information.
  Via AndroidBeat.

• Samsung appear to have delayed the UK launch of the Galaxy S4, unless you pre-ordered the device! The delay is only a day, so you can pick it up on Saturday instead of Friday! The Inquirer spoke to the Samsung store in Stratford and we're not sure if the issue is wider than that at the moment.
  Via TheInquirer.

• T-Mobile UK are in trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority for their use of 'unlimited' to define the internet on their Full Monty tariff. The ASA took issue with the way the company insisted on peer-to-peer limits during 8am and 2am each day. At the moment T-Mobile are excluding tethering from the plan for new customers!
  Via PCPro.

• Amazon have announced that they will be extending the availability of their app store from the seven countries they currently operate it in to nearly 200 in the coming months! Now where's that Amazon phone got to?
  Via TheVerge.

• Calling all Sony Xperia Tablet S owners! Get yourself ready if you live in America, Canada or South America because tomorrow morning Sony will unleash an OTA for your device which will give you Android 4.1.1 Jelly bean at long last!
  Via AndroidPolice.

• Microsoft and Hon Hia, the parent company of Foxconn have penned a new licensing deal for Android and Chrome OS devices! There can't be too many more people who Microsoft needs to sign up any more!
  Via PhoneArena.

• Sony Mobile have announced that the latest software update for the Xperia V has fixed all of the past 'sleep of death' issues which owners have experienced in the past.
  Via XperiaBlog.

• FunnyOrDie have posted a new mockumentary about Steve Jobs. The show is aptly named iSteve and there's not much to it other than the desire to make you laugh. If you're interested in the show you can check it out here!
  Via IntoMobile.

• Nintendo have confirmed the spring update for the Wii U which was promised wil arrive next week!
  Via Engadget.

• HTC's new flagship, the One, has been getting fantastic reviews from around the web, but it seems as though one person won't be giving it full marks! The review device for one person has developed the strange issue which we see below. It's not known whether the issue affects more than just this single device, but for the moment we'll assume it's an isolated incident!
  Via LandofTechnology.

And finally, what can you do if you have 10,000 iPhones and a fair bit of free time? Dominos! The video below is a pretty cool stunt!

Via Twitter.

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Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 priced and available in one store in the UK!

   Samsung's new phone-cum-tablet, the Galaxy Note 8.0, can now be yours if you're a resident in the UK, but you have to have a relatively specific set of circumstances to get one. The only model currently available is the 16GB WiFi-only model and that will set you back £339. The best bit though is that the Samsung Experience Store in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, is the only place you can get one.

   There will be wider availability over the next few weeks, but for the moment if you want an 8" tablet with a stylus then your new Galaxy Note 8 will come with some freebies up until April 15th! This includes £20 worth of Samsung Learning Hub credit, a months worth of free access to Samsung Music Hub, a two-month subscription to The Times and a few other treats too! The full press release is embedded below.
Via Phandroid.

GALAXY NOTE 8.0 AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW FROM THE SAMSUNG EXPERIENCE STORE
Free content and services bundle worth £60 available with every purchase from 15th April for a limited time
5th April 2013, London, UK: Samsung Mobile UK has today announced that customers in the UK are now able to buy the Galaxy Note 8.0 from the Samsung Experience Store at Westfield Stratford City with other channels to follow. Ultra portable thanks to its 8″ screen size, the Galaxy Note 8.0 comes pre-loaded with a suite of new content and services worth over £60, at no extra cost to the customer*.
The new mid-size tablet, together with a suite of intuitive features and an evolved S Pen, gives you the ease of using a traditional pen and paper with speed, efficiency and accuracy. Features include a suite of S Note templates and tools that allow you to create, edit, manage and share documents, as well as seamless multi-tasking thanks to Quick Command, continuous text input and Multi-Window View which means the portable 8″ screen can be split and used to access a number of live applications at the same time.
A range of S-Pen apps, including Paper Artist and Photo Note, mean you can be creative wherever you are, whether on the commute to work, on holiday or sat on your living room sofa. The new Reading Mode makes it easier to read e-books, magazines and newspapers as you can optimise the settings to create the most comfortable reading experience, plus you can annotate, highlight, cut and paste text.
For a limited time from 15 April 2013*, the Galaxy Note 8.0 will also come pre-loaded with the following content and services;
A £20 voucher to spend in the Samsung Learning Hub
A Two Month Free trial subscription to The Times newspaper worth £32.00
AVG Anti-Virus Pro
Access to the Samsung Music Hub for free for 1 month
Need for SpeedTM Hot Pursuit
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2
50GB Drop Box free for 2 years

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Google Play Giftcards land in the UK: Available at Morrisons and Tesco!

   Today Google has officially announced that gift cards for the Play Store are available and they've teamed up with Tesco and Morrisons to offer the cards initially.

   At the moment if you have a look at outlets which have the cards available, there's a nifty little checker here, then you may notice that your local supermarket won't have them available right from the off, instead the places stocking the gift cards will grow 'over the coming weeks' until 'all UK branches of Tesco and Morrisons' have them!

   Google is currently offering the cards with three different amounts of credit on board, there are £10, £25 and £50 options available! There's nothing too high tech here, you basically scratch off the label to reveal a code, and from there you type the code in on the Android or web version of the Play Store and there you have it!

   The vouchers can be spent on anything apart from hardware in the store, which shouldn't be too much of a problem, if relatives know you want a device just remind them that the cards won't be an option!

   We don't have any word on whether Asda, Sainsburys, Waitrose, Spar or One Stop will start issuing these yet, but where Tesco and Morrisons lead we would expect at least Asda and Sainsbury's to follow soon after!
Via AndroidCentral.

   The full press release is embedded below:

"Google Play gift cards now available in the UK
We're pleased to announce that Google Play gift cards will be available in the UK from today [Wednesday, March 6 2013].
Gift cards make it even easier to buy apps, games, books, movies, music and magazines from Google Play, Google's one-stop-shop for all your digital entertainment needs.
Over the coming weeks, gift cards will go on sale in all UK branches of Tesco and Morrisons.
The gift cards will be available in denominations of £10, £25 and £50, and can be redeemed against digital contntent purchases on Google Play, including music, magazines, books, movies and apps.
With Google Play, you can buy books, apps, games and music, and rent or buy movies, on the device of your choice – be it a computer, Android phone or tablet. All of this entertainment is available across multiple devices – buy a book on the web, for example, and it's instantly available on your phone or tablet.
Consumers can access, purchase or rent this digital content in a variety of ways:
On Android devices: Android phone and tablet users can click on the Google Play store app to shop for books, movies, apps, games, magazines, devices and music. All content can be "pinned" to the device for offline use without a data connection;
On the web: Users of Chromebooks, PCs, Macs and all other computers can access their digital content online through the web version of Google Play (play.google.com).
And now users can pay via Google Wallet or by redeeming a Google Play gift card."

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In Other News: 28/02/2013.

• HTC have confirmed that their brand new HTC Sense 5.0 will be coming to last year's range of phones! On one of their Facebook posts HTC said:

"HTC will be offering upgrades to some of its existing devices in the next few months, including global variants of HTC One X, One X+, One S and the HTC Butterfly. Also, note that some features enabled by the new HTC One hardware will not be available in the software updates." Facebook Via PhoneArena.

• The prices of the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 have been released in the UK! The former will cost £169.99 and the latter will be £299.99 from SIM-free and Unlocked from Clove. For more details about the handset click here!

• OUYA have confirmed that devices will start shipping to Kickstarter backers from the 28th of March!
  Via Twitter.

• You might not know Sir Robin Jacob by name, but he was the judge who forced Apple to 'apologise' to Samsung via UK newspapers last year. Well it turns out that his accusation that Apple were lacking 'integrity' is somewhat ironic, because he has a new employer. His new place of work is Samsung! He's now going to be helping advise Samsung on other cases around the world. We know this won't have implications in the case, but it doesn't quite sit right in our mind!
  Via Engadget.

• Nokia probably won't be releasing a device with a physical keyboard at any point in the near future! In their interview with Slashgear they revealed that the main sticking point is on the size of the audience that this would attract! For more details head to Slashgear here.

• The Raspberry Pi is now a year old! Well the device went on sale on February the 29th so because we can't celebrate it until the next leap year today will have to suffice! Happy birthday guys!
  Via V3.

• For those of you who wonder about how valuable government secrets are there is a war of words amongst the world's governments at the moment and the latest to chime in is China's government who have revealed that two of their military websites, including that of the Defense Ministry, were hit with 144,000 attacks a month through last year! That works out to 394.5 attacks each and every day, or 16.4 attacks an hour! China attributed two-thirds of them to the US.
  Via Reuters.

• Samsung has told CNet that they are aiming to double their tablet sales this year! It's a loft but realistic goal given their relatively small presence in that market at the moment!
  Via CNet.

• Here's another leak from @EVLeaks, the tweet embedded below offers all the details you need to know!

Huawei Ascend Plus for Tracfone: 1.0GHz, 4" display, 4GB storage + microSD, 5MP, ICS twitter.com/evleaks/status…
— @evleaks (@evleaks) February 27, 2013

And finally, HTC have announced that they will be touring the UK to promote the brand new HTC One! It's an interesting concept and we're not sure if it will entail more than standing in a shopping sensor with a load of phones on display, but we'll wait and see! There's a full route plan embedded below!
Via Twitter.

Click to enlarge.

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Should we be worried about mobile data slowdown?

   A recent report from Deloitte has revealed that owners of Android, Windows Phone and iOS devices consume somewhere around about 35 times the amount of data that a normal phone user would use! This statistic in and of itself isn't too concerning because people with feature phones don't use much data at all, but this statistic becomes concerning when you hear that wireless traffic will supposedly increase 50-fold by the time we reach 2016!

   With this sort of increase in usage Deloitte predicts using our phones won't be the same enjoyable experience it is at the moment. They explained how mobile networks might develop 'rush hours' in much the same way our roads do, in some cases this already happens to your home broadband!

   This sort of network usage would mean that us consumers would often need to give it two or three goes before our phones connect to the people we're calling, we can expect a similar increase in the number of dropped calls we get and when it comes to browsing speeds, they'll plummet and in some cases we might not even be able to load up web pages on the go! Deloitte said:

"In the worst situations, download speeds may be under 1Mbps for lengthy periods of time, making video streaming impossible and even web browsing difficult."

   With that sort of speed we can kiss goodbye to playing the latest YouTube sensation to our friends or downloading an update to Temple Run 6 on the go!

   Hopefully, the new 4G networks will be able to help ease the problems which Deloitte predicts because they're a lot better at managing bandwidth efficiently and they help provide faster speeds.

   Deloitte think that for the foreseeable future that:

    "Demand for wireless bandwidth will likely attempt to outstrip these improvements in supply for at least several years... Major metropolitan areas in some geographies should expect to see continued deterioration in end-user experience."

   In some cases though governments have seen had some kind of solution to this problem. In some cases governments are freeing up some radio spectrum to help ease these sorts of concerns. Here in the UK our 4G auction has literally just got under way! This sort of action is quite rare though and in some cases governments ask that the purchasers of spectrum put their new airways to more specific users: things such as wireless broadband for rural areas are part of the agreements!

   We can see that this could be a problem in some places, but we're not entirely convinced it will be quite as bad as Deloitte predicts, especially not here in the UK and we can't see there being too many issues in either the rest of Europe or North America, but we'll have to wait and see though! Let us know what you think in the comments!
 
Deloitte Via BBC.

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1/10/2012

Google overtakes Microsoft to become World Tech Giant No.2!

   We all know that the tech world is incredibly competitive and the big hitters come and go, we can look to people like RIM and Nokia for proof of that. But, at this moment in time Apple is the clear leader, being the most valuable company in the world, period. But, behind them and just in the tech sector we have you're everyday names; Google, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T and the list goes on.

   But, today we heard that Google now has over $249 billion in market cap which means they are now more valuable than Microsoft, which fell to around $248.8 billion today.

   While not important for much more than that, it does perhaps reflect where investors think technology is heading as the power of the internet continues to grow. But, Microsoft will remain an incredible powerful company for the foreseeable future irrespective of their market worth!

Barnes and Noble gives Nook Simple Touch GlowLight discounts!

   Most of you bookworms out there probably have an Amazon Kindle eReader by now. But, there might be a small portion of you who have opted for a Kobo, Sony or even a Barnes and Noble reader instead? If you fall into none of those categories and you're looking to purchase a new good quality one then B&N might have the answer for you!

   Barnes and Noble have chalked $20 off the price of the eReader, bringing it right into line with Amazon's Kindle at $119. 

   But, the company isn't happy with just a reduced price but the company has been explaining how the NOOK Simple Touch will actually be better value for money. They point out that their device includes an AC adapter, whereas Amazon only put a microUSB cable in the box for the Kindle Paperwhite. If you want a proper Amazon adaptor well that's $9.99 on top, but you don't need it, you could use any standard MicroUSB charger.

   There's also them pesky ads to consider. The Nook eReader won't have any, whereas Amazon's offering will, unless you chalk up another $20 to get rid of them too! So maybe you can have a second thought if you are looking for a shiny new eReader for Christmas.... It's not too early to be thinking about that is it?!?!

In other news:

• Nokia and Oracle have inked a deal which would see the latter integrate the formers Mapping solutions into their products, particularly for custom geo-location work in Enterprise servers!

• Sharp has announced they are beginning productions of 5" 1080p screens for upcoming smartphones!

• Samsung's Galaxy Note II is now officially on sale in the UK! And there's a drop test just below.

• Apple is facing an EU investigation after they have 'continually' ignored EU law. The company has been advertising their products with a 1 year warranty, when EU law stipulates that those sorts of products should have 2 years. The investigation will decide if Apple was intentionally trying to get customers to purchase AppleCare. If they're found guilty then there will be a lofty fine!

And finally, HP have unveiled their ElitePad 900. It's a stunning bit of kit that includes an Intel Clove Trail processor and 2GB of RAM inside a 1.5-pound brushed aluminum case! It's absolutely stunning. There's a picture and a video for you to marvel at below!

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03/09/2012

Is this the new Nokia 'charging pad' and are those NFC headphones?

   Last week we saw two leaked devices from a Twitter account called Evleaks and it seems that the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 weren't all the account creators have got their grubby mitts on! The photo above is supposedly a picture of the upcoming wireless charging stone that will grace Nokia's new Windows Phone 8 devices.

   On thing that's quite noteworthy is that the image above features both the Lumia 820 and the 920, so it would seem that Nokia has made a smart move here and created an accessory that'll work with more than one of it's line-up! Another bonus is that this technology complies with the Qi standard so just in case the Nokia accessory is extortionate, there might be an influx of viable alternatives soon!

   Wireless charging was one of the most popular components of the Palm/HP phone line before that got the axe last year and we are certainly hoping that Nokia will be able to make this stick this time!

   Nokia's second leaked product is a group of NFC connected headphones. So no wires here and they're made by Monster and yes, there is the same collections of insanely bright colours! These will be called Nokia Purity Pro wireless stereo headsets, catchy name eyy?

   This essentially confirms that Nokia will be installing their new WP8 devices with a little NFC chip, which will pair the headphones and phone. Once paired, the Purity Pro headphones use Bluetooth for streaming audio, and also function as a hands-free kit for calls. There’s active noise cancellation on board, which uses a combination of technologies to smooth out not only persistent ambient noise but percussive noise too, such as knocks and bumps.

   Both noise cancellation and Bluetooth are turned on and off by folding and unfolding the headset. These things will go on sale in Q4 and look away if you've got a limited budget as these things are priced at €299 ($376).

Samsung investigates their factory conditions and has some findings for us!

      There's been quite a lot of concern in the tech world lately around device production and the unfair hours, child labour and dangerous conditions for workers. People and the big companies have started to see for themselves the impact their contractors terms of work have had on people.

   Apple was the first to take steps to ensure their contractors workers had better welfare, perhaps spurred into action by an explosion caused by a build up of aluminium dust in one of their iPad producing factories. Tim Cook has since implemented measures that protect workers from working for too long and ensuring that their workplace will be safer.

   Samsung has yet to go under the same microscope, but back in August there were allegations flying around that Sammy's contractors were forcing workers to go about their jobs in harsh conditions. Naturally Samsung dispatched a crack team to get to the bottom of their case.

   Samsung's findings didn't appear to be too bad. What they did find were statutory overtime expectations and the threat of fines for misdemeanors like turning up late, the former shouldn't really be there. On top that there were poor working conditions, and HEG Electronics did not conduct health screenings for employees. But, the China Labor Watch organization claimed to have discovered at least seven people working at the plant who were under the age of 16, Samsung didn't find the same issues on the days it investigated. Which is good news for HEG because Samsung has a very strict rule that they will not employ child labourers and would terminate HEG's contract immediately if they were.

   Samsung has now said they will push on with the inspection of 100 more sites just in case HEG has been moving their child labourers around to dodge Samsung officials. We'll have to see how the comprehensive inspections go! But, it's good to see Samsung are genuinely concerned for their workers!

In other news:

• Nokia's dominated the news today with leaks left, right and centre but their much anticipated Lumia 920 PureView will reportedly only pack an 8MP camera with the PureView tech as a small bonus, which is slightly disappointing if you ask us!

• It's been reported that Asus will be delivering a 3G version of the popular Nexus 7 tablet in the very near future!

• Sony has been widely praised for managing to roll out ICS to their 2011 line up of phones, but unfortunately UK service provider O2 has put the handbrake on the ICS roll out for the Sony Xperia ray, arc and neo! The company claims that the update negatively impacts performance to such an extent that they'd rather see the handsets remain on Gingerbread. What do you think about this unlocked device owners and O2 customers alike?

• Cambodian police have today arrested ThePirateBay co-founder, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, after he failed to report for his year-long jail sentence in Sweden as ruled in February. Cambodia  today confirmed to AFP that there is no extradition treaty in place with Sweden, instead they said "we'll look into our laws and see how we can handle this case."

And finally, have Apple redesigned their headphones for the upcoming iPhone 5 and will they look like this?!?!

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17/08/2012

Amazon recruits 5,000 UK corner shops for new delivery option!

   For once it's not mobile phone or tablet news that gets the big story here on TTF. This time it's Amazon and a rather big announcement for our UK readers. Most of us here in the UK shop on Amazon for cheap books if your a student, birthday and christmas presents if you're a parent or maybe you shop there because you need something to splash the cash on.

   Either way you probably get the item delivered to your house, but then you're not always in are you and the lovely postman puts this little red slip through your post box saying you weren't in (shocker) and that you have to go to your local depot at obscure times to collect your parcel. 

   Well, Amazon has heard the problem and has enlisted the help of local shops for a new scheme called CollectPlus. At the moment the scheme is in the trial phase, but it's widely expected to pass with flying colours. Essentially at the check out you will pick CollectPlus, choose your shop to deliver to and a couple of days later you can pop in on your lunch break and get your parcel. Perfect!

   Obviously this scheme has those people who work 9-5 firmly in mind because everyone knows the hassle of trying to collect undelivered parcels when you work! This will let you collect them at lunch or, if your shop is open late into the evening, the chance to pick it up after work!!!

   And if it turns out you don't like your item simply take it back to the shop and CollectPlus will return it! It's such a great idea it's hard to believe no ones thought of it before! This is definitely something useful for UK residents and hopefully we'll see it very soon!

Lenovo announces the LePhone K860 with a well ticket spec sheet!

   The image above is a picture of the upcoming Lenovo phone K860 "Music Phone" LePhone. On the surface this thing is looking like a not so little beast!

   On board there's a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos 4412 chip, Mali-400MP GPU, 5-inch (1,280 x 720) display, 1GB of RAM and all of this inside a 9.6mm-thick chassis which makes this one pretty little device. On top of these there's an 8-megapixel snapper with support for 100 frames continuous shooting and 1080p video recording, in addition to the 2-megapixel camera around the front.

   Just in case you were worried all of those would kill your battery you need not because Lenovo will supply you with a 2,250 mAh cell to help keep you going. This will all be running on Android 4.0.4 too!

   Unfortunately we don't currently have any word on price or availability, but in the meantime Samsung might have something coming to take your mind off of this one!

In other news:

• The guys over at XDA have once again done what HTC deemed impossible, by creating a version of ICS (Android 4.0.4 to be precise) for the Desire HD. This is a ROM built off the official ROM for the Incredible S. Head over to XDA if you need some Sense 3.6 in your life!

• Acer has managed to push themselves into the positions as the world's third biggest computer manufacturer! And with such an honour comes a very small little profit; $14.5million to be exact. Not much but a lot better than most!

• If you're as hyped about Black Ops 2 as we are here at TTF then you'll be needing some BO2 customised Turtle Beaches for all your sound whoring. If that's the case and you feel an upgrade is required then head over to Engadget to get the round up on the incoming releases!

• And just in case we needed any more confirmation that Windows RT tablets would be a cheaper option, Lenovo's , David Schmoock, Senior VP of Lenovo's North American division, said to Bloomberg that full-on Windows 8 tablets would set you back between $600 and $700, whereas ARM-based Windows RT slates would sell for $200 to $300 less. "RT will play in consumer and retail at very aggressive price points," he said.

• Twitter has begun locking down their API by giving unofficial Twitter apps 100,000 unique user tokens and for any app that exceeds that will require special permission from Twitter themselves. Twitter obviously wants to push you to use their official app the same way you use Facebook's own app. This one might not be for the best though.

• Sony has explicitly denied that there will be any price cuts on their PS Vita console inside 2012, sorry guys no cheap christmas presents here!

• Google Play giftcards are on the way! If you're a US reader your local Target or other similar store might have a box of them ready to go! Look out for more news as it happens!

• Sony have started pushing Android 4.0 to Xperia P owners, if you've got an Xperia U or another NXT series device hold tight there's more of that sandwich coming soon.

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