Gareth is back with another round up of the most interesting news of the past week. This week the Huawei Ascend P7 launched, some iPhone 6 renders pop up, the Archos GamePad 2 gets unboxed, Asus and Lenovo announce a few Chromebooks and Spotify gets scammed…
The LG Chromebase is now available to pre-order in the UK. Amazon lists the recommended retail price of the all-in-one Chrome OS PC as £279. It has an estimated dispatch time of 1-3 months. Two versions are on offer: a white version is currently listed at £269 while a black model can be bagged for a little less at £268.
The LG Chromebase is also based around a 21.5-inch IPS display, notably one without touch functionality, at a matching resolution of 1920×1080, and is powered by an Intel Celeron 2955U paired with 2GB RAM and a 16GB SSD.
The first Bay Trail powered Chromebook to hit the market, the Asus C200 and C300 are official. Asus has made it official on their website. The two models have the same specs except for the screen size. The C200 is a 11.6-inch LED backlit HD glossy screen (1366 x 768) and the C300 has a bigger, 13.3 screen.
There are some confusion about the price at the moment. Some reports say that both models are priced $249. If you are getting a 13.3 Chromebook for $249, that is a sweet deal indeed. No word of UK prices.
Lenovo announced two new Chromebooks, this time for the consumer market. It has now been revealed their next in the Chromebook line up with N20 and N20p. The new Chromebooks have flexible displays you can rotate, and one model comes with a touchscreen. The display can be rotated back to allow the N20p to form a stand, or tent mode as it has now been internationally recognised. The N20 Chrome is similar to the N20p without touch operation and the flexible display.
In a USPTO application filed in 2012 under the title ‘Wearable Personal Information System’, Microsoft shows off their idea for the latest craze in health focused mobile technology, the smartwatch. The patent outlines how their device would feature a small detachable screen built that can be attached to fitness-related equipment. The device can also be used as a music player and alarm clock, as well as for messaging and telephone purposes. A watch from Microsoft is likely to feature its own operating system based on the Windows OS for desktop and Windows Phone.
The success of its Hudl tablet over Christmas has been confirmed by the that Tesco is set to launch not one but two new devices. A Hudl branded smartphone alongside an evolutionary update to the Hudl tablet from last year.
The smartphone is not expected to appear until the end of the year however it will keep the Hudl branding. Oddly, the BBC reports that the phone will run Android and be of a comparable specification to the Samsung Galaxy S5. Much like the Hudl tablet this phone will come preloaded with Tesco services, including Blinkbox video streaming and Tesco shopping apps. The addition of these bundled apps will allow Tesco to “aggressively priced” a higher-end smartphones.
In addition, Tesco also confirmed that the Hudl 2 could arrive as early as September. The first incarnation of the low priced, Archos built, 7-inch tablet sold around 550,000 units since launch before Christmas and was not only applauded for it’s low cost and higher than expected specifications but the ability to pay with Clubcard points helps many families justify having one.
No specifications or prices for either the Hudl phone or Hudl 2 Tablet have been confirmed at this point.
ZTE have been busy recently and today have announced that their latest ZTE Blade L2 will be available in across Europe later this year. No word on an exact date as yet but the Blade L2 looks like a great mid-tier device. The handset is the latest and most stylish handset to come from the affordable and highly popular Blade series that has already received millions of global sales.
Today, ZTE celebrates the introduction of its latest mobile phone, ZTE Blade L2, in Europe. The ZTE Blade L2 is already ranged in countries including Spain, Greece, Germany, Slovakia and the UK and will be rolled out globally later in 2014. The ZTE Blade L2 is the latest and most stylish handset to come from the affordable and highly popular Blade series that has already received millions of global sales.
Featuring an elegant design with a 5” touch screen and white exterior finish, the Blade L2 not only delivers on style but also packs a powerful performance with its 1.3GHz Quad-Core processor. Thanks to its narrow frame design, the ZTE Blade L2 looks and feels even slimmer than its 8.9mm effective thickness.
Like its popular predecessors in the Blade series, the Blade L2 offers a superior photo experience, boasting a 5MP camera which includes a number of different settings from continuous shot and panorama to anti-flickering as well as a multi angle view that can easily be turned into 3D animation. To make sure that users get the perfect photo, the camera functions also include autofocus, flash, self-timer, face detection and ZTE’s Smile Shot. The ZTE Blade L2 also includes a 0.3MP front camera for self-portraits and video-calling.
Mr. AO Wen, General Manager of ZTE Handset European Operation Office, said, “At ZTE, it’s no secret that we pride ourselves on the affordability of our smartphone handsets that makes smartphone technology available to everyone. We’ve had huge success with our Blade series to date in Europe, and we’re excited to introduce the latest edition. We’re confident that the ZTE Blade L2 will offer our ever-more discerning customers across Europe a stylish and high performance device at the right price.”
The 5” large screen offers a superior experience for browsing, watching movies and previewing photos taken with the 5MP camera. Preinstalled with Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook and Twitter, the ZTE Blade L2 enables people to easily share their memories with friends and family at just the touch of a button.
According to some new intel which popped up this morning, Samsung is gearing up to launch a new line of Galaxy Tab S tablets later this year. These new Android tablets will supposedly feature higher end specs than current models, including features like:
Of course, as we have seen in the past, a high-end tablet doesn’t necessarily translate into sales or success for Android. For the most part, it’s the cheaper alternatives which have flourished in Android tablet-land. Everything depends on how aggressively Samsung prices these gadgets.
Gareth is back with another round of news from the UK mobile phone and tablet scene. This week Acer debuts new devices in New York, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is unboxed, the LG G3 leaks and the first image of the Amazon phone arrives.
Windows Phone is joining the Smartwatch mob. Wellograph are releasing a Windows Phone 8.1 compatible smartwatch with a sapphire crystal display. The Wellograph watch features a heart rate monitor, activity tracker, and running watch.
The official app will be optimized for Windows Phone 8.1, and syncs directly to the Wellograph watch, transferring all data over Bluetooth. The Windows Phone app will utilise the operating system’s most unique feature Live Tiles, allowing users to see information such as total steps and exercise score directly on the phone’s Start screen. The company will make an official Wellograph app for Windows Phone 8.1 available alongside both an iOS and Android app.
Nick Warnock, president of Wellograph, Inc says
We’re excited to be bringing Wellograph to the millions of users who love and enjoy their Windows Phones. Wellograph represents the first fitness tracking device dedicated to Windows Phone users and we’re committed to supporting our customers using the growing platform.
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