Tracy and Matt

Google officially announced their new Google Play Store update. The new version 4.0.25 update is designed to be more colourful and easier to use with larger text and a cleaner interface. The new changes work on both phones and tablets providing an easier to use experience. Google is taking a Card-like approach, just like the with Google Now. Here's a quote with Google's statement from their blog,

Quote:

Whether you're in the mood to listen to Justin Timberlake's new album, read Harlan Coben's latest bestseller or discover a new game to play, you want the experience of finding and making your purchase to be quick and easy. Today we've started rolling out a redesigned Google Play store on Android phones and tablets that is simple, clean and - most importantly - helps you find great entertainment, fast.
The new design focuses on bigger images that jump off the page. Similarly themed content is grouped together so you can hone in on a magazine to read or an app to try. As you move down the page, new recommendations continue to appear so there is always more to see and explore. We've also simplified purchasing so you can breeze through checkout and get to enjoying your movie rental or other content.
The redesigned Google Play store app starts rolling out today for Android phones and tablets running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above. People around the world should see it over the next few weeks. Get ready for a simpler Google Play.

A little Googleing for the Play apk will allow you to try it out before it's release.

Posted by: Gareth

EE is doubling the speed and capacity of its 4G network, doubling the average speeds for 4GEE customers to more than 20Mbps and future proofing the network.

Double-speed 4G will roll out to ten existing 4G cities by summer - Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. The improvements will be automatically available within existing plans to new and current customers.

EE has set a target of reaching one million 4G customers by the end of 2013, and stated its aim to always offer the fastest network in the UK.

9^th April, 2013 - EE, the UK's most advanced digital communications company, is doubling the speed and capacity of its 4G network. The arrival of double-speed 4G, which enables lab speeds of 130Mbps, will boost headline 4G speeds to 80Mbps plus, and double the average speeds for 4GEE customers to more than 20Mbps.

EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum bandwidth dedicated to 4G, from 10MHz to 20MHz. This will give 4GEE customers increased capacity, and access to some of the fastest mobile speeds in the world, reinstating the UK as a leader in mobile and digital communications.

EE is forecasting mobile data traffic to grow by as much as 750% in the next three years alone. Increased speeds and capacity are vital for mobile operators to continue to deliver a consistently high quality experience. EE is committed to always having the fastest network in the UK.

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While there has been plenty of promise surrounding the launch of the new HTC One, the new smartphone's camera has left quite a few people puzzled.

This is because whereas the typical flagship smartphone on the market today comes complete with a 13 megapixel camera, the HTC One is instead packed with a 4 megapixel camera.

Such a large drop has naturally led to people querying whether they will be missing out if they opt for this device over one of its many rivals. After all, while owners will be able to improve the aesthetic appeal of their new phone by getting their hands on a range of excellent HTC One accessories - Mobile Madhouse already has a great selection on hand to celebrate the new smartphone's launch, highlighted by its wide variety of quirky cases - there will still be the issue of the standard equipment not quite being up to par.

Symon Whitehorn, a former Kodak executive who is now the director of special projects at HTC, has attempted to quell such arguments in an interview with Computerworld.

He acknowledged: "We think of it as a forward-looking step. It's allowed us to do a lot more things with the camera than we'd otherwise have been able to do - the first one being the low-light performance, which really is quite special. You get this absolutely natural tone. The camera takes pictures the way you see them, the way you see your moments."

Mr Whitehorn also stressed that there is a time and a place for cramming lots of megapixels into one device, with larger gadgets usually perfect for utilising this strategy with great results.
However, he believes that trying to get more megapixels into a smartphone's camera while reducing the size of its sensor, as well as the entire size of the device, is having a detrimental effect on the quality of a phone's photos.

"For 99 percent of what people do with their images, they actually don't need the high megapixel count. We'd rather give them the sort of performance that is real-world usable," Mr Whitehorn added to underline that more does not necessarily equal better.

Posted by: Matt

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.

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Rumour has it the next generation of Nexus 7 would still be from Asus and would likely come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor instead of the current NVIDIA Tegra processor. A new report from Reuters confirms a lot of the speculation. According to their sources, the new Nexus 7 will again be made by Asus and will launch in July of this year. Furthermore, the new tablet will be coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon instead of NVIDIA tech. Here's a quote with more info,

Quote:

The latest version will have a higher screen resolution, a thinner bezel design and adopt Qualcomm's chip in place of Nvidia Corp's Tegra 3, which was used in the first Nexus 7s released last year, the sources said, declining to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
In a blow to Nvidia, Google weighed both U.S. chipmakers' processors but finally decided on Qualcomm's for power reasons, one of the sources added.

If this report turns out to be accurate, it probably doesn't come as a surprise. NVIDIA is great at making powerful processors and GPUs but Qualcomm is just flat out better at building a more power efficient product right now. Additionally, there is speculation Google is planning a price drop for the tablet to just £149.99(ish). Right now their pricing plans are in flux and they may stick with their current plan, but if there is a price drop it will likely be an attempt to increase sales of the Nexus 7 to put even more market pressure on Amazon and Apple. Here's another quote with more of the details:

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O2 will extend its "Chargers out of the Box" environmental initiative to the flagship HTC One mobile handset. This is the first time a network and manufacturer have collaborated to sell a flagship smartphone without the charging unit.

The all new HTC One will be sold with a USB-to-micro-USB cable, which can be used with existing chargers that have a USB input or with a PC USB slot. Any customers who need to buy a standalone charger unit can do so in-store or online at a discounted price.

In October 2012, O2 and HTC created a pilot scheme in which an HTC handset was sold charger-free. Of all customers buying the handset, 82% did so without taking the handset. The success of the pilot has given both businesses the confidence to apply the initiative more widely.

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The guys over at Expansys dropped me a line today to let us know they have a great selection of bargain SIM free smartphones ranging from just under £200 and all under the £300 mark. If you fancy some phone shopping check out the links below:

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Posted by: James