Archive for November, 2011

Pre order the Galaxy Nexus from Three

The new Galaxy Nexus, available for pre-order from Three today, brings together the best Android software from Google and the best hardware from Samsung. It will be available in Three stores and from Three.co.uk in the next couple of weeks.

Android fans will be delighted to know that the Galaxy Nexus will be the first device in the UK to launch with the very latest version of Android, 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. Ice Cream Sandwich includes the latest innovations in Android software, including Face Unlock, which uses facial recognition to unlock your phone, and integration with the new Google+ social network.

The Galaxy Nexus also features a true 4.65″ HD resolution screen (1280×720) with Samsung’s new HD super AMOLED technology. This allows for stunning video playback, HD gaming and vibrant pictures. HD super AMOLED means that your content is visible outside even in the brightest of conditions and has amazing viewing angles.

With a 1.2Ghz dual core processor delivering superfast graphics and increased power efficiency, slim line design, front and rear cameras, this metallic silver device is set to impress. The Galaxy Nexus also supports HSPA+ and RX diversity, so when Three’s HSPA+ network upgrade is completed at the end of the year, using the internet on the phone will be even quicker.

Galaxy on Fire 2 goes free and Valkyrie Add-on exclusively available for Xperia PLAY

For the first time ever, the award-winning sci-fi trade shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 is available for free, exclusively for the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY. Also first time on the Android platform, Xperia PLAY users can purchase the add-on Valkyrie.

Fishlabs Entertainment, one of the world’s leading independent mobile games developers, finally releases the first add-on for its popular action-packed space trader Galaxy on Fire 2 on Android: As of today, Galaxy on Fire 2 – Valkyrie is exclusively available for the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY smartphone on the Android Market via in-app purchase for £ 2.99. Furthermore, all gamers who own an Xperia PLAY device will also be able to download the award-winning sci-fi epic Galaxy on Fire 2 for free until January 1st, 2012.

More details and a video below:

O2 begin London 4G trial

O2 has begun a 4G LTE trial in London. The trial will be available to around 1000 individuals, which will run until June 2012, and will offer speeds of up to 150 MB per second on the spectrum used.

Over 25 4G sites will go live across London this month, covering a combined area of 40 square kilometres, between now and summer 2012.The network will stretch from Hyde Park to The O2 in Greenwich and has been carefully designed to cover key areas of the capital, including Canary Wharf, Soho, Westminster, South Bank and Kings Cross.

The network will enable O2 to provide a mobile internet experience comparable to the fastest landline fibre home broadband connections, unlocking a wealth of services including high speed corporate LAN access, high-definition film and music streaming, mobile online gaming and high-speed access to social networks. At these speeds, the time to download a 500MB file could be as fast as under one minute, compared to over 5 minutes on 3G.

Samsung Omnia W available at Play.com

If you are in the market for a new Windows Phone sim free then the Samsung Omnia W may be a contender. Play.com are now showing the device as available and in stock for £339.99. In terms of Windows Mango devices we do not yet many to choose from here in the UK. Currently your only other options are the Titan and Radar from HTC.

The Omnia W sports a 1.4 GHz processor, 3.7 Super AMOLED display and a 5 megapixel camera.

We are yet to give this one a test drive so please don’t ask for our opinions. It looks pretty good though.

You can see the Omnia W full spec below:

Orange San Francisco II more than rumoured!

Everybody’s favourite budget smartphone and runaway success on Orange is getting a sequel. Engadget spotted the device on the operator’s own Help & Support page, the San Francisco II features an 800MHz ARM11 processor, 3.5-inch WVGA TFT display, a 5 megapixel rear camera and 512MB of onboard memory. The ZTE-built black slab gets the upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Engadget appears to mention it comes pre-loaded with both Ovi and BlackBerry Maps for navigation however that might cause you to scratch your head a bit given the Android flavouring. You can try an find it yourself however all links to the source post on the Orange site are dead.

Posted by Gareth

A fine selection of devices available now on Vodafone PAYG with Freedom Freebees

All of Vodafones pay as you go phones come ready for customers to take advantage of great value Freebees, which include a choice of free minutes, text and web access or international calls www.vodafone.co.uk/freebees. Every pay as you go customer is also automatically opted-in to Freebee Rewardz.

Every time a pay as you go customer tops up as little as £5, they’ll receive a text giving them a voucher code. They can then go online to ‘grab’ an instant reward or bank them as ‘grow’ points, to save up for something bigger. www.vodafone.co.uk/rewardz

Customers can choose from a wide selection of rewards including big name discounts from brands such as Thorntons and BLOCKBUSTER, music downloads and free minutes or choose to take a mystery reward, which could be anything from a smoothie maker to an iPhone. Alternatively, customers can collect points towards vouchers and experience days.

HTC Edge to boast Tegra 3?

New details about HTC’s first quad-core powered phone, the HTC Edge, have surfaced. Rumour has it may launch in April or May of 2012. The new release timeframe falls in line with HTC’s typical spring product cycle for handsets which make their debut at Mobile World Congress in February.

Most competitors are planning Quad-core phones for 2012 like Motorola, LG and Samsung. We speculate at least one next-gen phone at CES. Even if the HTC Edge is not the first quad-core Tegra 3 phone to hit the market, there’s no denying that it will be a game changer for HTC. In the past HTC has partnered closely with Qualcomm, but the late launch of Qualcomm’s dual-core S3 chip forced HTC to be one of the last Android manufacturers to release dual-core powered devices.  Recent numbers show that HTC performed very well over this year, but we expect HTC wants to stay in step with the competition next year in order to improve its market share even more.

Most of the HTC Edge’s rumoured specs are still holding up, but some new details point out that the phone’s thickness could be reduced to 8.8mm and the 4.7-inch 720p S-LCD 2 display will be optically laminated, which bonds the panel to the fascia glass to improve visibility.

Posted by: Gareth