Archive for January, 2010

By January 27, 2010 Read More →

Live Updates From The Apple Event

I am gonna attempt to post updates as and when they happen at the Apple Press Event which is rumoured  to be launching the new Apple Tablet. This won’t be an easy job to do on a blog site however I would urge you all to press F5 every so often to ensure you get the latest updates on this post.

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Event Items:

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REFRESHING FREQUENTLY:

 

17:56 GMT The event will begin in 4 minutes, people have been told to silence their phones

18:05 Announcing the iPAD!

18:15 Looks just like the leaked images. Has iPhone style interface with more space

18:18 E-mail demo: Looks very much like iPhone OS version of e-mail

18:22 virtual keypad is half screen size in height and full length, In widescreen mode, the iPad shifts the homescreen

18:24 Built in ipod; more BobDylan music being played, Being reffered to as BIG iPhone

18:25 New Calendar lets you switch views and easily tap on events to see more detail. Contacts application address book resembles an actual book.

18:26 iTunes built in – device handles zooming on maps very easily, not struggling at all – Youtube in HD format Videos show cover artwork when you want to select things rather than just text

18:30 hardware: 1/2 inch thin, 1 1/2 lbs, 9.7″ display, multitouch. 1GHZ Apple A4 chip. 16-64GB of flash storage. Chip developed by Apple. WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, 30-pin connector – battery life: Apple can get 10 hours of battery life.

ipad2

18:33 Can run all iPhone apps unmodified out of the box: Can run pixel for pixel accurate black box in the centre of the screen, or pixel double to run the apps in full screen. Facebook can run in the centre of the screen with a glossy frame around the image. You can hit a 2X button to scale application up to full screen.

18:38 iPhone SDK now supports development for the iPad. every iPad comes with the app store on it

18:40 Gameloft one of first devs to work on it, Mark Hickey of Gameloft. N.O.V.A. on iPad.

ipad

18:43 price is speculated $699 (I’ll have one please!)

18:45 Electronic Arts. Has over 40 titles already in the store – processor handles games so quickly not jerky at all "Building for the iPad is a little different — it’s kind of like holding an HD display up to your face. It’s really cool."

18:52 Chad Evans from MLB.com — "We were excited to build something for the iPad. We had to create a whole new experience for this display."

18:54 Back with Steve Jobs – ibookstore integrated to get e-books, most books to retail at $4.99 You can turn pages slowly – really fast animation between flicking pages, iBooks use the epub format

18:59 iWork office suite to be included, new items designed spec for iPad (spreadsheets look great)

19:08 simple to use word processor, menu’s built for ease of use

19:11 the virtual keypad changes dependant on the app being used

19:13 Actual price confirmed to be $829 (for 64GB 3G) – still quite good!

19:14 Steve Jobs: "Now I’d like to talk about wireless networking. Every iPad has WiFi… but we’re also going to have models with 3G."

19:15 Two awesome plans for iPad owners. The first one gives you 250MB of data a month for $14.99. "We have an unlimited plan for just $29.99 a month."

19:16 Free use of AT&T wifi hotspots throughout the US "So how do you turn this on and manage it? You can activate this right on the iPad. And there’s no contract  it’s prepaid."

19:18 International deals by June and uses new GSM micro SIMs

19:20 iPad 3g’s are unlocked

19:21 "And just like we were able to meet or exceed our tech goals, we have met our cost goals… iPad pricing starts at $499." Wifi – 16GB $499 – 32gb $599 64gb $699, WiFi & 3G $629 for 16gb, $729 for 32gb and $829 for 64gb

19:22 "We will be shipping these in 60 days. 3G models will ship in 90 days."

19:23 "We’ve got some really great accessories. First one is a dock. You know the slideshow I showed you? When it’s in the dock you have a great picture frame. We have another dock that’s interesting… the keyboard dock."

19:30 Some demo videos playing, probably drawing to a close.

19:38 Yep we’re all done. Will have some official photos and specs etc. when we can!

 

 

The offical Apple iPad press release is now live on site.

Posted by: John

Posted in: Press Releases
By January 27, 2010 Read More →

HTC Says Windows Mobile and Android both to stay

HTC’s CEO Peter Chou yesterday said, when delivering the company’s Q4 2009 figures, that even with a 30% year on year sales rise caused by the Nexus One they would be sticking with the Windows Mobile Operating System as part of their portfolio.

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“We continue to believe both Windows Mobile and Android offer unique experiences to different consumer segments in their respective ecosystems”

This news came on the same day that we posted news of the HTC Diamond 3 and will I’m sure it will prove to be music to WinMo users ears.

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Speaking directly about the partnership with the Google Brand Chou said:

“Our partnership with Google on the Nexus One shows our strength in innovation. It’s very good for our brand”

The data released by HTC shows that they shipped a staggering 11.7 million mobile phones in 2009 without breaking it down by phone or by operating system.

htc-logo

Looking back at the history of HTC and seeing how they have developed from a company who manufactured devices only for other company’s / carriers under the name Hong Kong and Taiwan Computer Corp. into a market leader under the brand name HTC (no abbreviation) and their own mobile’s makes for really interesting reading. Have a look at a profile on the company if you have some time.

Posted by: John

Posted in: News
By January 27, 2010 Read More →

Nokia X6 – Comes With(out) Music

For those of you that wanted the Nokia X6 but just found it a little bit out of your price range then this post will come (maybe) as great news.

Nokia have now confirmed that they will be releasing a Pink on White, Black on Black and Yellow on White X6 without the “Comes With Music” subscription.

Excluding the fact that it has no “Comes With Music”, the biggest difference from the original X6 is the size of the internal memory. The Original X6 came with 32GB and the new version comes with just 16GB (massive drop).

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Original X6 in the Blue on Black Colour Variant

Not to fret over the memory size though as it’s expected there will be a significant price drop when it’s released later this quarter with the WH-500 headphones instead of the WH-701 headphones that came with the original X6.

This new variant of this Nokia favourite will also feature the new Ovi Maps with free drive and walk voice guided navigation as well as the Michelin and Lonely Planet guides.

Matt has already played with the original X6 so why not have a look at the Unboxing Video before making your mind up

Posted by: John McKenzie

Posted in: News
By January 27, 2010 Read More →

Answers to all Apple tablet questions will be known today!

It will be 6PM in London, UK, when the launch event of Apple will start today. While during the launch event of iPhone in 2007 nobody knew for sure whether this product will revolutionise anything, this time things are different: thanks to huge success of iPhone and iPod touch and their app store, now everybody expects that Apple’s product will be revolutionary…

Posted in: Phones
By January 27, 2010 Read More →

Apple tablet already confirmed?

Whether this was an ‘accidental’ leak or something well orchestrated by Apple I guess well never know but in a TV interview with CNBC yesterday McGraw-Hill’s CEO confirms that their textbooks will be on the Apple Tablet and it will be an iPhone OS based machine. When asked about rumours that their textbooks will be on the Apple tablet, Terry McGraw responds:

"Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now — we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific."

An iPhone OS based tablet? As much as I like the iPhone OS I’m happy that it works well on the relative small screen of the iPhone, I wonder how well that will translate to a larger screened device or if there are going to be a lot of advancements purely for the tablet form?

Other ‘news’ and images are appearing around the web, some seeming to be nothing more than badly ‘shopped images of other Apple products but another more convincing image seems to be circulating too:

apple_ipad_tablet

Above we see what is alleged to be the new Apple tablet. I wonder how many products in history have been so desired without even being seen?!

 

One thing’s for sure, this wont be the last post about the iSlate (or will it be iPad?) today! 🙂

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Laptops
By January 26, 2010 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast No 56

Web banner This week we managed to get another podcast out without the fatal technical flaws that saw last weeks output being obliterated from time and space. Andy and I have a chat about Windows Mobile 7, iPhone 4.0, the Palm Pre Plus and China SMS nightmare.

Direct Download

iTunes

RSS Feed

Posted in: Podcast
By January 26, 2010 Read More →

GSmart announces Android device

Being the clever clogs that I am, anyone that caught the Mobiletech Addicts special podcast at the beginning of the year may recall that I predicted that we would see Gigabyte G-Smart release some Android powered devices this year. Well sooner than expected we’ve already seen an announcement from Gigabyte about exactly that! 🙂

GigabyteGSmartAndroidsmartphone

The G-Smart Android Phone

 

The Gigabyte Android smartphone doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s part of the GSmart series – which, until now, included only Windows Mobile devices.

The new handset runs Android 1.6 (!), has a trackball and measures 103 x 54 x 13.4mm

 

G-Smart android phone specification:

  • GSM / GPRS / EDGE connectivity
  • 2.8 QVGA touchscreen display
  • Trackball
  • G-sensor (accelerometer)
  • Wi-Fi
  • GPS
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
  • 2MP autofocus camera
  • Qualcomm ESM7225 528 MHz CPU
  • 256MB RAM, 512MB ROM
  • MicroSD card support
  • 1500 mAh battery

 

We’ve reviewed most of G-Smart’s handsets in the past so I hope to be able to get my hands on one of these for review soon too! 🙂

 

Shame it’s only Android 1.6 though!

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: News
By January 26, 2010 Read More →

What has Apple got in store for us?

apple-logo Apple is expected to announce its latest must-have piece of kit tomorrow at an event in San Francisco and I’m sure by now you’ll know that almost everyone is expecting the big announcement to be that Apple are to release an all-new product called the iSlate.

Now thus far we have no real idea what the specs will be, how big it is what OS it will run etc. but we’ll know for sure this time tomorrow. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the event for sure and will post news as I get it.

The question I have is where does such a product sit? Apple have a successful mobile device and a range of laptops so do we expect that the new iSlate will fit somewhere between the two?

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Laptops
By January 26, 2010 Read More →

Gigabyte GSmart Android appears

 

Gigabyte-GSmart-Android-smartphone

In our first podcast of the year, Matt from TracyandMatt.co.uk correctly predicted that Gigabyte would adopt Google’s Android OS and slap into on the G-Smart. They did.

The Gigabyte Android smartphone doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s part of the GSmart series – which, until now, included only Windows Mobile devices.

The new handset runs Android 1.6, it has a trackball and measures 103 x 54 x 13.4 millimeters. Mobile-review has some photos of the device:

Posted in: Phones
By January 26, 2010 Read More →

HTC Diamond 3 AKA HTC Obsession

wmpoweruser.com have today published the specs of the HTC Obsession. The device is rumoured to be sporting a 3.7 AMOLED screen and will be coming to AT&T and T-Mobile in the USA later this year. Lets hope the UK follows shortly.

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HTC

 

They have also been told that the device may ship as early as June 2010 which would be nice, if true, as it is allegedly going to be released with Windows Mobile 7!

Here’s a quick run down of the believed specs:

  • CPU: Qualcomm QSD8250 1GHz
  • GSM HSDPA
  • Device Size: 112 x 56 x 11.7 mm
  • Memory (RAM/ROM): 512MB/512MB
  • Internal Storage: 4GB
  • External Storage: MicroSD (up to 32GB)
  • Screen Size/Type: 3.7-inch capacitive AMOLED “Multitouch Supported”
  • Camera: 5.0 Megapixel AF with flash; HD 720p video@ 25fps
  • Video Support: Windows Media Video (WMV), MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) H.264, DVR-MS4
  • Audio Support: Windows Media Audio (WMA), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC-LC), FairPlay DRM, MP3 (.mp3)
  • Battery:  Removable 1230 mAh
  • Talk Time: Up to 10 hours
  • Standby Time: 240 hours
  • Internet Use: 6 hours (3G), 7.5 hours (WiFi)
  • Video Playback: 7 hours
  • Audio Playback: 24 hours

 

Sounds pretty sweet doesn’t it? Fingers crossed HTC or Microsoft will have further news at Mobile World Congress next month.

 

Posted By: James

Posted in: News
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