Archive for 2011

By November 28, 2011 Read More →

Best Buy to close stores on January 15th

best_buy_logo

We mentioned just a couple of weeks ago the demise of Best Buy here in the UK. The joint venture between Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse has failed to make expected  profits and the company will close its eleven UK stores on January 15th.

The good news is that Best Buy will have a closing down sale so expect some bargains in the coming weeks.

To our valued Best Buy customers, vendors, suppliers, and friends,
We’ve loved bringing our passion for the latest and greatest technology to Britain over the past 2 years, and have always had the utmost appreciation, respect, and commitment to the entire UK marketplace, our customers and stakeholders.
However, as you may know, based upon the outcome of our employee consultation, we intend to cease retail trading at our Best Buy UK branded stores & website by the 15th January 2012.
We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.
We are still committed to making sure your needs are well served up until our closing and beyond. Our on-going services are described in the "Customer Notice" and in our stores.
We’re also committed to on-going global relationships with our many vendors and suppliers, and appreciate your patience as we work to contact each as soon as possible to discuss our plans for the future.
Should you need to talk to us before then, please do not hesitate to call us on 0800 380 00 00. As a vendor or supplier, you are welcome to get in touch with your Best Buy relationship contact at any time.
We look forward to completing all of our remaining business together in the most respectful and professional manner possible.
Many thanks from everyone at Best Buy UK.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Press Releases
By November 27, 2011 Read More →

Samsung Galaxy Nexus benchmark

Galaxy Nexus-main Earlier this week I got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and recorded a pretty long unboxing and demo video. Normally, as part of the demo video, I include a quick run through using Quadrant to benchmark the relative performance of a new device and this time was no different.

I commented in the video that I was surprised that the benchmark results were not much higher given that the Galaxy Nexus has a dual-core CPU. However, as several viewers pointed out Quadrant is not optimised for the new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system so the results were somewhat queued.

In order to resolve that and to give a fairer representation of the speed I decided to record another benchmark video, this time using AnTuTu Benchmark, this gives a far more realistic benchmark and to see how that compares to another device we’re running up against the XPERIA Arc which has a 1GHz single-core CPU.

Check out the video below to see how the Nexus does!

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By November 26, 2011 Read More →

Everything Everywhere open new store in West London

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Everything Everywhere will soft launch a new concept store in the White City Westfield shopping centre in west London this weekend before its official opening on Monday.

The store (pictured), is the 20th EE branded store to be opened in the UK and a former T-Mobile store,  will be the first to offer a dedicated in-store service team to support customers needs and sports a new store design to support these needs face to face.

Like the other EE stores across the country it will sell both Orange and T-Mobile products.

All 18 staff at the new store, which is the second largest EE branded store in the operator’s estate, have been trained prior to the opening with a particular focus on the technology, service and product needs of customers.

This focus is further reflected through a dedicated “lounge zone” where customers are able to sit with store staff who can explain how products and services work.

Posted in: News
By November 25, 2011 Read More →

BlackBerry 9790 launches in Indonesia and causes chaos

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The BlackBerry is already massively popular in Indonesia (6 million users) and the launch of the latest Bold, the 9790 has proved this. With the first 1000 people being offered a 50% discount on the 9790 the people of Jakarta came in their thousands.

Police and officials were prepared but it apparently caused chaos and brought traffic to a stop. When rumors that the device had sold out spread the crowd went a little crazy and it is reported that several people fainted.

I cant see this happening here in the UK!

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: News
By November 25, 2011 Read More →

Introducing the T-Mobile Vivacity

Screen Shot 2011-11-25 at 10.15.08

T-Mobile today announced the launch of the T-Mobile Vivacity – a great value, stylish Android smartphone ideal for enjoying multimedia on the move. The T-Mobile Vivacity will be available exclusively in T-Mobile stores, on the online shop and via telesales from today.

Running Android’s Gingerbread 2.3 OS, the T-Mobile Vivacity offers a winning combination of eye-catching design, essential multimedia features, as well as offering great value. A vivid, high resolution 3.5″ WVGA TFT capacitive screen is perfect for web-browsing, viewing pictures or watching movies. The latest 3G+ and Wi-Fi support lets you access the web whenever you want – ideal for on-demand browsing, or downloading apps, and uploading social networks on the move.

A 5.0 Megapixel camera allows you to capture life as you go, and, with support for up to 32GB Micro SD cards, you can enjoy favourite photos, movies and music, wherever you are. Built-in GPS functionality also allows you can keep track of your location, and offers the ability to add your location to Twitter and Facebook updates.

Available in sleek black or white variations, the T-Mobile Vivacity fuses advanced multimedia features with a truly premium look and feel – providing leading style that more than matches its impressive performance – all at a great value for money price point.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices, Everything Everywhere said: "The T-Mobile Vivacity gives you everything you want from a smartphone. It offers the latest Android software, a large, high resolution touchscreen display and a stunning design – perfect for anyone looking for premium performance and great value for money.”

The T-Mobile Vivacity is available free on a £10 per month, 24 month plan or for £99 on Pay As You Go.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Press Releases
By November 25, 2011 Read More →

SwiftKey X price drop

SwiftKeyX-2.2-DvorakDark

If you are an Android user chances are you may well have tried some alternative keyboards to the stock one. If you have not tried SwiftKey X before this may be a good time to do so as prices have been slashed for this weekend.

Starting Black Friday, you’ll be able to buy SwiftKey X for smartphones at $1.99 / £1.25 / ?1.49, and SwiftKey Tablet X for tablets at be $2.49 / £1.75 / ?1.99.

You can download the applications from Android Market and Amazon Android store in the US, and Android Market across Europe and the rest of the world. (http://www.swiftkey.net/download)

The offer is for this weekend only, starting Friday 25th November 2011 and ending midnight Monday 28th November.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: News
By November 25, 2011 Read More →

Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi Hub, now available on Three

three-wifi

Three have just announced that they’ve made their new Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi hub available in stores from today.

The new Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi hub allows people to turn their existing mobile broadband dongle into home Wi-Fi so they can connect all their Wi-Fi devices or share their connection with partners, friends or family.

The Wi-Fi hub allows up to five Wi-Fi devices to connect so if you have a tablet, handheld games console or smartphone as well as your laptop, or someone you want to share your connection with, it will bring a whole new range of possibilities to what your dongle can do for you.

Most USB dongles* are compatible with the Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi Hub, including Three’s $2 which offers speedy download rates of up to 5.9Mbps. The dongle’s HSPA+ capability means that speeds will increase to up to 21.1Mbps as Three continues its rollout of the $2.**

David Kerrigan, head of mobile broadband at Three said, “The Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi hub is another valuable internet solution from Three that will complement our great offering of dongles. Existing dongle owners will now find that they can share the benefits of their mobile internet connection with even more of their gadgets like tablets and games consoles, without any fuss.”

The Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi hub is available for £39.99 from Three Stores and three.co.uk. Dongles are sold separately, and available on a 1-month rolling contract from as little as £4.99 for Three’s standard dongle or £19.99 for the HSPA+ compatible Premium Dongle.

Key features include:

  • Creates a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five devices
  • Supports dongle speeds up to 21 Mbps
  • 88mm x 66mm x 25mm
  • Available in black
  • Mains powered
  • 30 Meter range

* The Mobile Broadband Wi-Fi Hub is compatible with the Huawei E122, E1550, E156G, E169, E1750, E1820, E353u, E367u, ZTE MF112 and MF627.

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Phones
By November 24, 2011 Read More →

Telefónica Digital and RIM announce NFC payments with BlackBerry smartphones

rim-logo

We all know that more and more smartphones are shipping with NFC capabilities, however the use of NFC is somewhat limiting. RIM in Spain are now testing NFC wireless payments and I would imagine this will roll out to other countries in due course.

You can see the the full press release below.

Telefónica Digital and Research In Motion have announced a pilot program of the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry smartphones.

In collaboration with local banks and retailers, Telefónica will roll out the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry to 350 employees at its headquarters in Distrito Telefónica, Spain. Those taking part in the trial will be able to make payments in a simple, easy, safe and convenient way by simply tapping their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone against a reader. Employees that are part of the NFC pilot project will also be able use their BlackBerry smartphone (in lieu of a security card) to gain physical access to the Telefónica headquarters office.

The Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry currently supports the following NFC-enabled smartphones: BlackBerry Bold 9900,  BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380, all of which run the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system.

Posted in: Press Releases
By November 24, 2011 Read More →

Nokia Lumia 800 unboxing video

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The Nokia Lumia 800 is the Finnish companies first Windows Phone to go on sale. To say that Nokia are rather proud of the handset would be an understatement and if you ask me they have a right to be proud. The device is beautiful. As well as looking good it is powered by a 1.4GHz processor, runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, sports an 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and and shoots video in 720P HD.

The device will be available in three colours over the coming weeks however initially it is just the black variant you can buy. The device is available now at all the usual places and I have a sneaky suspicion it may do rather well.

You can see our unboxing video below along with the Lumia 800’s full specs and of course we will have a full review in due course.

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By November 24, 2011 Read More →

O2 teams up with House of Fraser

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O2 has announced its first bespoke targeted marketing campaign for House of Fraser, a leading UK premium department store group, encapsulating a range of O2 services. This is the first time that O2 has combined and integrated different services to deliver a mobile campaign that is part of House of Fraser’s wider marketing mix for their Christmas activity. A portfolio of O2 Media services, including Priority Moments and real time location reach have been combined with O2 Wifi to deliver personalised targeting for O2 customers around the House of Fraser brand, which is focused on delivering an innovative consumer experience.
One element of the campaign will see 11 House of Fraser stores across the UK offering all their customers free O2 Wifi. Customers will benefit from full access to the internet, while House of Fraser will gain aggregated rich customer insights and data. Already above the line, as part of O2’s own advertising campaign to support it Priority Moments service, House of Fraser will also offer O2 Priority Moments customers a £15 gift voucher when they spend £40, until the end of January 2012.
The bespoke O2 service has been designed to offer House of Fraser a comprehensive marketing solution in the run up to the vital Christmas period that not only drives footfall, brand awareness and loyalty but also increases incremental sales and drives purchase decisions around specific offers and promotions.
Alongside this, O2 Media’s real time location services will be used to direct consumers into House of Fraser stores by offering a range of promotional activities. O2 Media will also be sending out rich media messages, such as pictures and videos of in-store fashion shows and products. Further messages will be sent to consumers directing them to House of Fraser’s own department store app, the latest development in their multi channel offer, which also provides information on deals, offers and planned in-store activities.

Posted in: Cameras
https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/surgical-face-masks