Tracy and Matt

HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, has today unveiled the new HTC Desire 600 dual sim, the first mid-range handset to offer HTC's latest Sense 5 experience; HTC BlinkFeed and HTC BoomSound, most recently launched as part of the award-winning HTC One. Taking full advantage of Android Jelly Bean, the new model also offers super-fast quad-core performance, while the advanced Video Highlights feature enables maximum creativity at a more affordable price tag.

"People rely on their smartphones every day to be their news channel, email inbox, social network and music player," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "The HTC Desire 600 dual sim combines speed and easy multitasking with the truly innovative HTC BlinkFeed home screen. The result is an affordable mid-range phone that sets the standard for its class, keeping the busiest user up-to-date at a glance and offering them the power and range of features to switch between work and play."
A smartphone designed to keep pace with life

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The newest hot Android tablet from Samsung might be coming pretty soon. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 just got its press pic leaked. We also have some intel on specs for the device. Here's the industry speculation at the moment,

• Wi-Fi, 3G and LTE versions
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 8-inch 1280 x 800 pixels display (could be better at time of launch)
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• 5MP rear camera
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Dual-core 1.5GHz processor
• 1.5GB of RAM
• 16GB of internal memory
• MicroSD card support (up to 64GB)
• 4,450 mAh battery

As you can see, the specs aren't spectacular, but perhaps the price will be competitive because of that. If they can price it below a certain point it could put the squeeze on the Apple iPad Mini. We will keep you apprised if something more concrete comes out.

Posted by: Gareth

Expansys have told us today that the monster Samsung Galaxy Mega is due to arrive in the UK in July. At this stage an exact date and price cant be  confirmed but as soon as we have them we'll let you know.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a versatile device that combines the convenience of a smartphone with the impressive power and viewing experience of a tablet. At 6.3-inches it's the perfect device for those customers who need an incredibly capable smartphone with a little something extra.

With a 1.7GHz dual-core CPU and a stunningly large 6.3-inch HD display with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution the Galaxy Mega is anything but small and compact. But despite its large frame the Mega is still ultra thin and light, making it easy to hold and operate with one hand. The large screen with landscape mode support offers a great viewing experience for all your video content, web browsing or reading.

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Two of the hottest Android smartphones on the market at the moment are the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. Both released at about the same time and both firmly at the top end of the market being flagship devices for their respective manufacturers.

These devices have polarised opinion. On one hand the HTC fans are rubbishing Samsung's latest attempt while those preferring the S4 are doing the same of the HTC One. I'm constantly being asked which one I prefer or which one I think someone should buy. That's a pretty big question and as I've only had my Galaxy S4 for a couple of days it's one I'll address later.

However, as there are many questions regarding the performance of these two devices I thought it would be interesting to run the same benchmark on both devices at the same time to give some indication. Bear in mind though that the benchmark score isn't the be all and end all, many other factors should be considered but we'll talk about those another time.

For now, check out the video below to see which phone comes out on top, the results may surprise you!

 

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We all know that Samsung's Galaxy S3 was one of the most popular phones last year and with the launch of the new Galaxy S4 just a few weeks ago Samsung are hoping that they've come up with another winning formula.

There really is no denying that the specification of the S4 has it sitting firmly at the top end but there's also the top end price tag to match, costing in the region of £575 for the entry-level 16GB model all the way up to as much as £800 for the 64GB model. The prices are quite eye-watering.

However that money does buy you quite a lot from a 5" Full HD Super AMOLED screen to the quad-core CPU that challenged the performance of almost everything else on the market.

This week, thanks to the folks over at Clove Technology, I've finally got our hands on a retail Samsung Galaxy S4. This is one handset that I have been looking forward to being able to play with to see how it compares to the HTC One that I now use as my primary device.

Initial impressions are that this is an awesome phone, great screen and slick performance but the build quality lets it down with a plastic design that doesn't really match the specification and price tag which in comparison to the HTC One is just a bit of a let down not to mention very similar to the S3 of which I made the same complaint.

Those buying the 16GB model may also be disappointed with the amount of available memory that they have to play with, just 9GB out of the 16 is left for the user to store their apps.

However, the negatives above aside, the S4 performs really well, is thin and light and as mentioned already, has an awesome AMOLED screen.

Check out the unboxing and demo video below for more.

 

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Google has been mentioned at Google I/O this year. Although not specificly in the keynote, they announced some cool new things for the service. First, Google is now sending out the latest Android 4.2.2/Jelly Bean to Google TV. This is a welcome upgrade and should get GTV users excited. Additionally, they are also sending out the latest version of Chrome as well. Now browsing on your Google TV should be even faster than before.
That's not all. Google also announced they plan to bring updates to Google TV on a much more timely basis, specifically stating "weeks rather than months." Here's a quote below from the Google TV developer's blog G+ account with all the details,

Quote:

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Over the past few months Google TV has gathered momentum by launching powerful features for our users such as the highest quality voice search of any TV product and strong manufacturer adoption of the platform. At Google I/O, it's time to talk about developers and enabling them to bring more great experiences to TV.
Today, Google TV is moving to the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean, 4.2.2), and we've refactored Google TV so that our TV OEM partners can update to future versions of Android in a matter of weeks rather than months. For developers, this means you can build TV experiences using the latest Android APIs, including the NDK.
Today Google TV is also moving to the latest version of Chrome, and from now on Google TV benefits from Chrome updates on the same six week cycle that you've come to expect from Chrome. In Chrome on Google TV, we've added support for hardware-based content protection, enabling developers to provide premium TV content in HD within their web apps.
Google TV-powered devices in market will start to receive updates in the coming months, and we expect to see new devices launched later this year. If you are attending Google IO, please check out the "Android: As seen on TV!" session and stop by the Google TV Developer Sandbox area.
https://developers.google.com/tv/

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LG has already updated some of their new Google TV equipped LG HDTVs with the newest Android 4.2.2 version. Above is a video of the TV with the new update.

Posted by: Gareth

Archos, the little French company that did, is currently  preparing to launch another Android tablet that is easy on the wallet. Featuring a wave of uninspiring specifications, the tablet sets itself apart from the rest with Archos' signature approach to Media consumption. The inclusion of Xenon in the title does not, however, apply to a flash technology for the camera.

 

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There have been many complaints on tech blogs and forums about the amount of free storage on Samsung's new Galaxy S4 but it seems to have got to the point now where the issue has hit the radar of mainstream media, appearing as an item on BBC TV's Watchdog programme last night.

The issue surfaced almost immediately after the launch of the S4 just a few weeks ago with many new owners copying files and apps from their old S2 or S3 and running out of space, despite the advertised space being the same as the previous model.

As it turns out, on a 16GB model only around 9GB is actually free for the user to store their own apps and media. That's pretty bad!

In a statement to CNET, Samsung said users have the option to add more memory with a SD card, something its rivals the HTC One and iPhone can't do.

For the Galaxy S4 16 GB model, approximately 6.85 GB occupies the system part of internal memory, which is 1 GB bigger than that of the Galaxy S3, in order to provide a high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers.

Although the S4 does indeed have an SD card slot allowing for additional storage space it's not possible to install apps on the memory card so this leaves it useful for music and video only.

Interestingly Samsung have hit out at the iPhone and the HTC One in their statement saying that neither of the competitors have micro SD card capability, however, neither of the competitors use almost half of the available storage just for the OS!

 

Posted by: Matt