24/02/2012

Google announces 'do not track' in Chrome.

   There's such a huge drive for internet privacy at the moment and Google has just added some more flames to the fire. They have added a 'do not track' button to their Chrome browser which will prevent them from collecting information about you. Some people really don't care about this sort of thing, but you probably should. People don't want companies to be able to trace you, when you know little or nothing about what they're collecting about you. 

   I have all my services with Google and I can tell by their targeted ads that they know exactly what my interests are on the internet which in some cases is useful for this blog but then when I think about it at other times I can't help but think they shouldn't know quite so much. But, then if I want random ads popping up I can change my privacy settings without too much hassle, but it is all personal preference.

Microsoft set to rebrand Zune and Windows Live and a new Office suite leaks.

    Two of Microsoft's most recognisable 'brands' are set to be rebranded with the coming of Windows 8, although we don't know what they're going to be called yet.

   As well as this Microsoft's Office 15 software has a touch interface so it looks like tablets are really going to be pushed BIG when Windows 8 finally hits later this year.

Nokia tops the Windows Phone sellers.

   So only a couple of months into the partnership and Nokia has been officially announced as the biggest selling windows phone vendor. They've managed to capture 33.1% of the Windows Phone sales already and the quote from Tom Kang from Strategy Analytics explains the rest. It looks like things will only get better with the introduction of further phones from Nokia.

“Nokia’s Microsoft smartphone growth during the quarter was achieved partly by capturing market share from HTC. This is a challenging development for HTC because it is also losing ground to Samsung in the Android segment. HTC is now at risk of being caught in a pincer movement between two giants of Samsung in Android and Nokia in Microsoft, and HTC must move with urgency to address the problem” Tom Kang, Director, Strategy Analytics.

In other news:

Netflix have cancelled their deal to create a Blackberry app and have decided to make one for the PS Vita instead, Ouch!

Tim Cook admits Apple have too much money in the bank! They only have $98million sitting around doing nothing.

The rumour mill suggest Samsung is planning to launch a bezel-free phone this year!

Apple might be about to drop the their traditional proprietary connector for a smaller version to free up space within their devices, but the chances are their new connector will be proprietary again and will be launched as an innovative new feature if I know anything about Apple.

Read More

23/02/2012

Google set to replace Motorola CEO Jha.

   It is being reported left, right and centre that Google are going to replace Sanjay Jha (CEO of Motorola) as soon as the merger between the two companies successfully completes. The idea is to replace him with someone from within Google who can help execute Google's vision for Android with a hardware team.

   There has been a lot of talk of Google making the next Nexus device with Motorola, but if the launch date for Android 5 Jelly Bean really is this summer then that does seem somewhat unlikely.

The Original Asus Transformer starts getting some ICS love.

   After yesterdays outcry about the horrific possibility that the the OG Transformer might have to wait a whole month for some Android 4.0 love, the update started rolling out in Taiwan and Singapore this morning.

   AND the news gets even better; Asus have announced that the USA customers will receive their OTA tomorrow too! Good news all around really and it'll be even better if they've managed to cure the random reboots that most ICS touting devices have suffered so far. Don't us Samsung device owners wish Sammy were like Asus?

In other news:

ZTE is set to announce 8 new smartphones at MWC in a huge drive to secure a place as the worlds third biggest smartphone vendor behind Apple and Samsung.

Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor isn't a quadcore with a companion core processor anymore, it is officially known as a 4plus1 chipset. Although, it seems that the companion core is the best way to describe it but 4plus1 is a bit more catchy I admit.

Samsung has officially sold 20million Galaxy S2s and it beat the original Galaxy S to that milestone by 7 months!


Everything Everywhere has announced that they will be rolling out a small LTE deployment in the UK by the end of 2012.

Read More

22/02/2012

Hi guys, I couldn't get around to making a post yesterday because of other real life commitments but here is a solid round up of everything you need to know and I have focused on an interesting pair of announcements in detail.

• Blackberry Playbook finally gets OS2 and the ability to play Android apps along with it!
• An Apple TV refresh is imminent because stock has started to run dry at all outlets.
• The Transformer Prime's Bootloader Unlocker has been released. [edit: and just like that the Transformer Prime gets clockworkmod recovery working].
• Microsoft filed an Antitrust complain with the EU because Motorola is attempting to secure royalties for it's online video patents relating to H264 videos.
• The PS Vita officially launches in the UK.
• LG have teased the Optimus 3D cube which is a minor update to the Optimus 3D and will still only run Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
• Google planning 'smartglasses' for the end of 2012.
• Nokia Pureview camera phone tipped for MWC.
• Intel confirms Motorola is a key member of their official Intel for Smartphones launch.
• Fujitsu confirms they are going to offer a Tegra3 phone in Europe with a 12+MP camera.
• Kim Dotcom granted bail in New Zealand.
• Verizon has a massive nationwide 4G outage and 3G has been hit too for a small amount of customers.

Google and Adobe pledge to bring Flash to Linux.

   And just as Flash begins to decline as a mobile platform Google has decided to stop in and give those of us who rock a Linux variety as our environment of choice a glimpse of the platform.

   It is reported the pair will work closely together to bring a single API plugin that will allow Flash to run and it's code named 'pepper', which kinda sounds sweet don't you think?

Sony quietly rebrands it's newly purchased mobile division.

   So without even a whimper the Ericsson branding has gone forever from Sony made phones. The rebranding officially began yesterday evening and will spread across all related sites soon.

   The old sonyericsson website now directs you to Sonymobile.com, it's quite sad for those of us who remember buying their first exciting phone (the W550i, remember the one that twisted open) from Sony Ericsson.

   Either way we must move on and Sony will undoubtedly help us do that with its announcements at MWC next week.

Read More

20/02/2012

SkyGo comes to Android.... Finally!

   After a devilishly long wait Sky has finally manage to code SkyGo for Android, BUT and it's a very big but, the service is available to only a small number of devices. The devices which have been blessed with the wifi only streaming service are;  HTC Desire, HTC Desire S, HTC Desire HD, HTC Incredible, HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S II. So it's bad news if your device isn't a big seller. The official line is that the app only works on Android 2.2 and 2.3, however the interweb has had some rumours that people have got it to work on SGS2's with the leaked 4.0 ROMS. 

ZTE has some nice looking Android 4.0 goodies.

  

   It's not just LG who got itchy feet and couldn't wait for MWC to leak out their phones. ZTE has outed pictures of of two phones; the PF200 (right) and the lower-budget N910 (left). The former of these is the most exciting prospect with an unspecified 1.2Ghz processor powering the device along with a 4.3" qHD screen, 8MP rear camera and a front camera capable of 1080p, which is expected to be a 2MP unit.   The handset supports MHL (HD output), DLNA and a NFC chip thrown in for good measure.

   The N910, is a bit of a different entity with a 800x480 screen, a 5MP  rear-shooter and again a 1080p capable front camera and a 1.5Ghz processor. 

   ZTE has specifically said these are the first in a long line of LTE enabled devices they have planned for this year. It looks like they're really trying to up their game, now we just need to see a few Dual and Quad core processors running around the ZTE production lines.

Android 5 Jelly Bean to have a Desktop mode?

   So A few weeks ago I outlined what I thought the future of phones was.... And somewhat amazingly maybe Google thinks the same!

   Slashgear has reported that there may well be a Desktop interface that Android will have for when phones are docked into a bigger screen, in much the same way high-end Motorola phones do at the moment.

   If this is true, it is very exciting and we may see the start of a revolution, but Google does pretty much own Motorola and they have the patents for this so if it takes off it'll be interesting to see how Apple plays it with this one. Keep it locked here to stay updated on this as we here more over the coming months.

Read More

19/02/2012

LG out the Optimus Vu to challange the Galaxy Note.

   A week before MWC begins LG has tried to steal a march on the rest of the crowd and get some attention focused on it's newest smartphone, the Optimus Vu. Most people have perceived this as a direct challenger to Samsung's Galaxy Note Phablet (Phone/tablet)/

   Although, LG has gone for an interesting design on the Vu; it looks almost square because of it's 4:3 aspect ratio. The screen itself is a 5" IPS display capable of 650nits of brightness and it has a pixel count of 1024x768. Another interesting addition is the fact you can use a stylus on the screen in exactly the same way as the Galaxy Note.

    Android 2.3 is being pushed to the screen (although an ICS update is promised within 3 months) by the 1.5Ghz dual core processor which has LTE functionality built in. The 2080MaH battery should be more than enough to get you through the day unless you're a really heavy user.

    And for those of you into your photography the Vu follows the current trend and offers a 1.3MP front facing camera and a rear 8MP camera. But, I have a feeling we may see phones that trump this in the coming few weeks.

   We can expect to get some video of the phone in action at MWC next week.

Just an aside.

   If you enjoy reading the blog and you have an android phone download the app (the link is top right) and if there's any problems with it not working on your phone send me a message and I will do everything I can to fix it for you. Hopefully I will be able to get the app on the market in the coming weeks!!

   And thank you for reading the blog!

James

Read More

17/02/2012

Angry Birds Space is about to land!

   Yep, there are two horrible puns on the screen above you, reading back over them has actually shown me how painfully bad they are, but they're the best I've got. The story here is that one of the most popular gaming franchises is gearing up for its 'biggest launch since the original game' and the big reveal is pegged for the 22nd of March, so if you're like me and just have to get 3 stars on every level, it looks like we'll have plenty more entertainment coming our way!

Kindle Fire successor tipped for Q2.

    Those of you out there without your iPad or Kindle fire or Transformer Prime, or any other tablet for that matter, may be tempted by Amazon's rumoured follow up to the Kindle Fire.

The successor is rumoured to have a 8.9" screen, which arguably is a perfect sweetspot for a tablet. We just have to hope the pricing on the follow up can be as appealing as the original Fires'.

Read More

16/02/2012

Fujitsu lining up to challenge the Transformer Prime?

   Today an intriguing roadmap from Fijitsu has leaked out; the main focus of attention has been on the image furthest right. That appears to be a 'new detachable performance slate' and that is exactly why it's interesting; Transformer Prime eat your heart out. 

   Now, the thing I want to find out is whether this will run Android or Windows7/8, either way it'll be an interesting addition to the market if it doesn't get dropped from the roadmap between now and September.

Android 5 'Jelly Bean' rumours begin already.

   With still only 1% of Android devices running any variety of Android 4.0, the Jelly Bean rumours have begun. The 'supply chain rumours' are that Google is going to drop Android 5 in Q2 of this year, a mere 6 months after Android 4 was released! 

   The reason for this is said to be that Google is going to release the operating system so that it has more features of the company's Chrome operating system built in and also the added benefit of having a simple Dual Boot option with Windows. This could be an incredibly useful option to have a low power operating system to twin with Windows 8 for when them highly powered slates start popping up towards the end of the year.

   It seems that if this was to actually happen it would be an incredibly intelligent move on Google's part positioning it perfectly for the Post-PC world, but those of us with a non-nexus phone are going to be extremely frustrated; Motorola yesterday pegged it's 4.0 updates for Q3, so it is anyones guess if or indeed when 5.0 updates would arrive.

HTC's new naming scheme? And Tegra3 phones!

   HTC has been a leaky company lately with so many pictures, ROMs, specs and everything else Android related. But, it seems we now know what HTC's hero range of devices for the first part of the year. Pocketnow has said that what we knew as the Quadcore Endeavour will be know as the HTC One X. The simple but effective naming scheme will be extended to the previously rumoured Ville which will be known as the One S. There obviously may be more phones incoming under that brand, but we'll have to wait until MWC to find out more about them.

   And secondly, Nvidia has said that not only will the their be one Tegra 3 phone but there will be 'many', is MWC shaping up to be the event of 2012's superphones?

   One other little gem is that HTC is preparing a Moto style 'soak-test' for it's ICS update for the Sensation and Sensation XE, but it is strictly limited to Europeans! But, ICS is on it's way Sensation users!

Read More

15/02/2012

Motorola to give the Atrix some ICS love.

   That lovely graphic just above is confirmation that Motorola will be rolling out a little dose of Android 4.0 to the slightly ageing Atrix. Those of you tied into a 2 year contract with the device will be pleased to see that Motorola is coming through on the 18 month update promise and keeping the phone relevant towards the end of it's lifespan. The only thing remaining to be seen is when Moto can push this update out.

Samsung planning a 10.1" Galaxy Note?

   Ok, so we thought the Galaxy Note looked a bit silly at 5.3" as a phone but, unless this is a bad typo by Sammy, it looks like they have plans to go bigger... much bigger. The picture above suggests that they are planning to announce a 10.1" version of the phone. Somehow I can't see that being accurate unless they want you to carry round the tablet and they offer some sort of wireless earpiece to go with it so it wasn't utterly ridiculous to be holding a full size tablet to your ear. Somehow I think this is a new Tab 10.1 with S-Pen support but it may carry the Galaxy Note name and it will just be a tablet instead of a phone.

HTC to launch music streaming service?

   Here comes a pretty big rumour; HTC are planning a music streaming alternative to tie in with their Beats branding and challenge the likes of Pandora and Spotify.

   That would certainly be a huge differentiator to the rest of the competition. Although, it's currently unclear whether the service would be a subscription based one like Spotify or whether it will be offered free, like Nokia Music to encourage people to pick up one of the companies phones. It looks like HTC's music equivalent to HTC Watch will be announced at MWC at the end of the month.

Benchmarks out an LG Tegra3 superphone.

   That picture just above, ladies and gentlemen, is proof of a yet announced LG superphone running on a Tegra3 processor and is likely to be this years flagship from LG, in just the same way as the Optimus2X was last years. Unsurprisingly, the phone is rumoured to be called the 3X.... original. 

   According to MoDaCo's sources the phone will have a 4.7" 1280x720p screen along with 1GB of RAM, 2000MaH battery, as well as NFC and 2 cameras, coming in at 8 and 1.3MP respectively. The processor is rumoured to run at 1.5Ghz when it's running on one of it's cores and when it switches to multicore power for the more intensive tasks it'll be running at 1.4Ghz.

   Again, we can look forward to this phone coming out to play on the MWC floor.

Read More

13/02/2012

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 announced.

   Today Samsung outed a decidedly mid-range tablet, the Galaxy Tab 2, finally offering an 'upgrade' to the world's first Android tab. The Tab 2 retains the 7" inch form factor and will run Android 4.0 on that 1024x600 screen. The tablet will feature a 1Ghz dualcore processor of an unspecified variety, which is twinned with 1GB of RAM. On top of this the slate will have two cameras, both slightly disappointing, the front facing camera has a VGA sensor and the rearing facing camera has a 3MP sensor, again reinforcing the mid-range specs of the device. Samsung has announced you will have a choice of 3G and Wifi varients and all of this will become available in March in the UK and around the world later. That is if you don't want either the 7.7", 8.9" or 10.1" tabs that are already available.

The EU approves Googlerola.

   Motoroogle or Motogoo or whatever you fancy calling 'it', 'it' is one step to becoming officially recognised worldwide, because today the EU joined the American DOJ in approving the merger. Jaoquin Almunia, from the European Commission, stated that the deal was approved because it 'does not itself raise competition issues'. Now it's just China, Taiwan and Israel are left to convince.

HTC leaks continue.

   Yesterday there was the incredible-esque leak and today a ROM for the yet-unannounced Endeavour handset has revealed part of its spec sheet. And HTC really has followed through on it's promise to make phones with better specs. The ROM has revealed a 1280x720p 4.7" screen, a quad-core Tegra 3 processor supposedly clocked at 1.5Ghz and 8MP rear-facing camera and a front facing camera but we don't know the quality of that shooter yet. There's also meant to be Beats Audio, NFC and 1GB of RAM and all of this pushing a Sense 4.0 version and Ice Cream Sandwich. Hopefully HTC can conjure up a beautiful handset to go with the specs.

Iran cracks down on internet freedom.

  Iran has been filtering the internet for years but in the last month it has gone considerably further. Bloomberg has today confirmed that since February the 10th Google's encrypted search, email, YouTube have joined Microsoft's Hotmail in the banned pile. There is, at the moment, no indication that this ban will ever be lifted which is a terrible shame.

Sony considering the Vita OS for Smartphones.

   Today Sony has announced that the overwhelmingly positive views of the PS Vita's OS has led them to consider it for Smartphone release. Sony has been talking about a fully-integrated solution lately and this would obviously be a key part of this, although for the moment they're sticking with Android too. Sony exec, Mr Matsumoto announced;

“[Translated:] We considered room for development in various directions including OS for smartphones from the beginning. For gaming consoles, the best hardware only must be considered to elicit top performance – but because we wanted the operating system to be scalable, we built this system from scratch with communication functions on mobile telephone networks from the outset. The touchscreen interface elements do not correspond exactly with a smartphone or tablet at the moment, but scalability makes it a possibility in the future.” – Matsumoto.

Read More

11/02/2012

Another Eurocom beast announced.

   You see that beastie above, that's the Panther 4.0. This monster of a laptop features a 17.3" screen which can include your preference of a matte, glossy or 3D screen, each running a pixel count of 1920x1080. With regard to the graphic prowess you have to choose one from the GeForce GTX 580M, Quadro 5010M or Radeon HD 6990M graphics. These can be twinned with up to 32GB of RAM and 4 Terabytes of Sata 3 storage space. All of this muscle adds up to a hefty 12.1lbs and your budget will have to match your arm strength too, with the base model starting at $2649 when this thing launches in March.

Acer CloudMobile gets outed by its good looks.

   Acer definitely isn't giving up on smartphones just yet and their latest foray into the Android wilds has produced the CloudMobile. The company has announced the phone pre-MWC this year most probably because of the phone winning the iF mobile design award for 2012. This phone also has some solid specs to compliment its looks. There is a 4.3" HD touchscreen, a Dolby branded speaker system and this 10.3mm thick phone is wrapped in it's own 'Sleeve DNA' shell. Pocket-lint expects this phone to be running Android 4.0 at launch, as well as being well integrated with Acer's cloud-based systems.

An ICS running HTC pops up.

   Those little pictures up there, courtesy of PhoneArena reveal a HTC phone running Android 4.0 and HTC Sense 4.0 on top. The boot up screens feature some Verison branding and there's LTE onboard so no prizes for guessing where this phone is heading. The spec sheet has us believe there's a Dual-core Snapdragon clocked at 1.2Ghz under the hood, as well as Beats Audio support and an 8MP shooter, placing this solidly in the upper-mid range for the coming year. The styling on the back of this phone does suggest it could be a next generation of the Incredible line of phones but perhaps this is just a prototype, MWC will reveal all.

Read More

3 Day Summary

The Big 3 Day Summary.


Apple stores get protester visits.

   Apple stores worldwide, well Stores in London, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Sydney and Bangalor, will come under siege today as people challenging Apple's ethics are set to pop in and visit the outllets.The protestors aim is to make their opinion known about how Apple and it's suppliers treat employees out in the Far East. Apple insisted last week that they 'Care about every worker in their supply chain', and even if that isn't true the online petitions and store sit-ins will help sway Apple's attention to this problem.

Nokia N9 gets a tiny bit of the Ice Cream Sandwich.

   The beautiful Nokia N9, has today received a barely working, but none the less booting version, of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The NITDroid guys have previously been very successful in coaxing the N900 to run Android and this related project is well on its way to equalling that achievement.
   If they can get the build fully working N9 fans will have the best of both worlds; the beautiful Meego software running and the infinite supply of apps that Android would provide them with. Although, perhaps a Playbook-esque Android app player would kill both birds with one stone? But, either way this is a hugely exciting project.

Googlerola deal set for US approval?

   It seems that over the pond the Department of Justice is set to approve the deal on February the 13th. The Wall Street Journal did however mention that both the US and EU have concerns about how aggressive Google will be with Motorola's patents and how fair the terms of future licence agreements will be. But, the reality is that if Apple and everyone else is going to hound every penny out of other people for every little detail, why can't Google do the same?

HTC set to adopt some Nvidia chips.

 

  HTC is looking to utilise some of Nvidia's Tegra 3 chips in it's upcoming phones, if Digitimes sources are to be believed. Last year HTC relied solely on Qualcomm chips and this gave it a huge disadvantage in the race for Dual-Core because Tegra 2 phones were released far before Qualcomm caught up, which also put HTC at a disadvantage. 

   There are rumours HTC's first 'Hero' device of the year will be the HTC Edge which is expected to look like the picture above left. The second rumour is that HTC is looking to release a new tablet this year too, however it is unclear whether or not this will run on the Tegra 3 chipset.

Samsung passes on MWC: No press conference.

   Just in case anyone needed any more convincing the Galaxy S3, is definitely not coming at MWC 2012, nor is anything else of major note by the look of it. Samsung has come out and told PCMag that it will be keeping on the DL (down-low) through MWC this year, but they said their will be product reveals none the less. Samsung is rumoured to have a new tablet, possibly with a 2560x1600 display, a few new phones and an outline of where it plans on taking Tizen, now that Nokia has given up with Meego and Samsung has been passed the reigns by Intel.

Dell's Streak Pro D43 gets outed.

   The guys over at Engadget have been lucky enough to have a little looksie at Dell's and the world's first Baidu Yi power smartphone. They have said that this little beasty features a Super Amoled Plus qHD screen which is covered by a sheet of Gorilla Glass, a non-removal battery and all that in a 10.3mm thick shell, which makes this phone a little bit of a porker but nothing too hefty. 

Deals of the Week.

   HTC EVO 3D: 

   The Evo 3D is still available for £249 from ASDA, which is the last place I'd expect to look   but I can't knock it for that price.

http://direct.asda.com/HTC-Evo-3D-Android-Mobile-Phone/008718410,default,pd.html

   Blackberry Playbook:

   This isn't a deal really but the playbook is by far the best value tablet available at the moment, with the 16GB version available for £169 from the Dixons/Currys/PCWorld group, remember them Android apps are on their way this month!

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-p100-16wf-playbook-tablet-pc-16-gb-10647929-pdt.html

   LG Optimus Black:

   Last years first Dual-Core phone really is going cheap, it's been available on Ebuyer for a penny short of £200, which is still a great deal.

http://www.ebuyer.com/255075-lg-optimus-black-sim-free-unlocked-smartphone-lgp990-agbrbk

   T-Mobile annouce the Full Monty:
   Finally someone has deicded to challenge 3's One Plan.Here's a brief comparison of what each of these plans give.


T-Mobile Full Monty

Three's The One Plan.
Annoyingly Three don't offer a nice little table, well not that I could find, like T-Mobile did, but Three offers it's customers.
2,000 any network minutes
5,000 Three-to-Three minutes
5,000 texts and All You Can Eat internet for £25 (Sim only)

Read More

06/02/2012

Siri is only on iPhone 4S for a reason! Sorry iPhone 4 owners...

   iPhone 4 owners sorry but there's a reason why you aren't allowed Siri. It's all been kindly explained by  Linley Group analyst Linley Gwennap who's explained that there is in fact a noise reduction system on board from a company called Audience. This noise control system is one reason why the A5 chip is so physically large and is almost certainly the reason 3GS and 4 owners haven't and won't receive their dose of Siri, sorry guys.

The German government recommends.... Google Chrome.

   The war of the browsers now has the voice of governments chiming in and again Microsoft's Internet Explorer is not the browser of choice. Instead, Germany's federal agency for information security, the BSI, has recommended we use Chrome to keep ourselves safe. The quote reads as follows;

 “This [sandbox] protection is implemented most consistently in Chrome…[and] similar mechanisms in other browsers are currently either weaker or non-existent.”

   Good stuff Google, hopefully the free promotion will convince that 51% of the German population that to come to the shiny side.

HTC knows what it's doing wrong.

   HTC has been proactive and very open about having a bit of a bad winter and they really are making sure everyone knows, that they know, that they know how to fix it. Clear enough? They have come out and acknowledged that their phone winter line up was too bulky, not attractive enough, not high enough spec-ed and they (especially LTE phones) just didn't quite have the battery power they should have had (Razr Maxxx inspired quote anyone?). But, their CEO Winston Yung knows he can fix it for the coming year and it shouldn't be to hard to address them complaints especially with their build quality second to none

Read More

Editorial: Why WebOS does have a future!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More

02/02/2012

White HTC Sensation and Android 4.0 incoming.

   HTC looks as though it's shaping up to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, the Dutch branch of the company has annoucned, via its Facebook page, that a white version of the Sensation will be available on the 1st of March, because there is a lot of love for white phones at the moment.

   The second announcement is that an OTA update for the original Sensation (read: black) will be 'coming soon'. So will the Sensation be the first phone to get a bump to Android 4.0 outside of the Nexus family? If the videos floating about on the internet are to be believed the answer is yes and the update will look decidedly like the current version of Sense that runs on top of Gingerbread, but we'll have to wait and see what HTC can conjure up.

Google to launch 'Bouncer' to protect the Android Market.

   Yes we've all heard the scare stories about how malware will infect our Android phones and tablets and secretly deceive us as a legitimate app and then laugh at us as it sends secret text messages to premium rate numbers in our sleep. But, hopefully, all of that is about to change because Google will be implementing 'Bouncer' which will scan apps for malware as they're submitted to the Market to hopefully try to prevent the majority of harmful apps reaching the Market in the first place. As an extra measure all apps will be run on Google's cloud-based servers to check for any dodgy behaviour too. So in theory this is a good plan and will hopefully keep the people who refuse to read permissions safe from harm.

PSN down..... again.

   PS3 owners, it's down again, sorry you're going to have to give up another 6 hours of COD gameplay because Sony will be taking the PSN down for some more maintainance. But, if you log into online gaming before the start of the maintainance you can keep gaming all through the night tonight. But, on the plus side you're not paying a yearly subscription so what can you expect really? Yes, I have an Xbox so I do always feel a smidgen of satisfaction when I hear this terrible news, but it's only banter....

Android fragmentation?

   Google's latest Android stats are in and they're not looking too good for the amount of devices that are 'up to date'. Only 1% of devices are running Android 4.0, which is hugely disappointing 2 whole months after the latest OS launched. But, Google has no urgency to force other companies to update because this is fragmentation according to Google. On the plus side most devices are now running 2.3 Gingerbread which is a solid OS in it's own right.

Apple overtakes LG as 3rd biggest mobile phone vender.

   The table above doesn't really need much explaining. The bad news is really for LG; they have suffered a huge marketshare loss and have been well and truly trumped by the astonishing growth of Apple with the huge success of their iPhone 4S. The surprise for me personally was that ZTE are only 0.6million devices behind LG in terms of shipments given how huge a company LG is. 

   You may also notice there's no HTC, which is mainly because they focus almost exclusively on Samrtphones and therefore aren't in the top 5 unit movers because they aren't selling any featurephones.

Read More

01/02/2012

Samsung are keeping us waiting for the Galaxy S III.

   Let all of the rumours of the Galaxy S3 cropping up at MWC at the end of February desist because Samsung has come out and officially stated that the SGS3 won't be making an appearance next month. Maybe Samsung thinks the Galaxy S franchise is big enough to warrant it's own event and with 1 in 10 of the Korean population owning a Galaxy S2, that belief may very well be the case.

 There is also the fact that literally everyone else in the mobile game (except Apple of course) will undoubtedly have something to announce and the Galaxy S3 might not be able to steal the headlines if Sony, LG or Moto have something to say about it. So this seems like a wise move from Samsung, hope they make it worth the wait for us! We have a final deadline of June for the announcement but hopefully they won't wait half a year to launch the European version.

Blackberry Playbook will soon officially run Android apps.

   Everyone mark your calenders, RIM's hugely discounted tablets is (finally) about to hit the app jackpot after a year or so of promises. The exact date is scheduled to be the 6th of February. So if you're on the look out for a cheap and solid tablet the Playbook may well become a lot more appealing and with the latest round of price cuts still in effect it'll only cost you £249.99 for the 64GB version, with the 16GB and 32GB costing £169.99 and £199.99 respectively from the Currys/Dixons/PC World partnership.

MegaUpload files lifeline!

   After the carnage and utter fear struck into MegaUpload customers and other file sharing companies by the seemingly conclusive closure of  MegaUpload by the American authorities, people who have files saved on MegaUpload's servers have been granted a potential reprieve.

   The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have started exploring options for the saviour of legitimate law abiding customers files. MegaUpload's previous server, Carpathia, has reiterated that the company has no access to any of MegaUpload's accounts or files, but they have already agreed to preserve it for another 2 weeks while a deal with the DOJ is brokered. EFF's statement on the matter reads as follows;

   '“Megaupload, of course, had many lawful customers … Yet those people were given no notice that they might lose access to their data and no clear path to getting their property back. Setting aside the legal case against Megaupload, the government should try to avoid this kind of collateral damage, not create it.”

   We hope for all the legitimate customers the EFF can find a way to help them out, although it is no easy task for them to get access again.

Windows 8 tablets better than Android?

   Today there's been suggestion from ARM CEO, Warren East, that Windows 8 has an advantage over Android when running on ARM based processors. His reasoning behind this is that Windows has brand recognition already whereas Android tablets haven't quite taken off in the same way Apple's tablet has.

   Although, he airs on the size of optimism and rightly points out that it took a couple of years for Android phones to take off, so Android tablets may well replicate that success.
   Microsoft may have some luck in the tablet sector if they can get docks to boost the picture onto big screens and so proliferals can be plugged in, so the tbalet acts as a 'preoper' computer as well as a tablet, like i suggested in my 'Future of mobile phones' editorial, Windows could become very popular on tablets. Although they will have that arch enemy, Apple to worry about, but if they try to tackle Apple's 'post-PC' nonsense with a clever ad campaign it should be easy enough for them to gain some traction.

Read More