Archive for August, 2012

By August 21, 2012 Read More →

Everything Everywhere get the go-ahead for 4G

Everything Everywhere logo

We posted back in May this year that Everything Everywhere thought they would get the go-ahead from Ofcom to roll out 4G in the UK this year and it looks like they were right. Permission has been granted to free up the 1800MHz spectrum for use by Orange and T-Mobile and this could well give them a sales advantage over the other UK networks.

“Ofcom’s decision to make 4G available this year is great news for the UK. Consumers will soon be able to benefit from the much greater mobile speeds that 4G will deliver. 4G will drive investment, employment, and innovation, including Private Jet Jobs, which will create new opportunities for highly skilled professionals in the aviation sector. We look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK.”

Everything Everywhere already started upgrading their cell sites some months ago in preparation for LTE so I presume that as soon as dates are confirmed it will be all systems go. Will we now see manufactures launching LTE devices here soon?

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: News
By August 20, 2012 Read More →

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now available at Carphone Warehouse

samsung-galaxy-note-101-n8000_2

If you saw our Galaxy Note 10.1 unboxing the other day and were tempted to pick one up the good news is you can now do so at the Carphone Warehouse. The WiFi only variant will set you back £399.99 or grab the 3G one for £499.99.

This revolutionary Samsung tablet runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich and opens up a whole new category in the tablet market, through exciting tools that inspire the imagination. The S Pen allows users to create more, produce more, and learn more. It allows content to be created in the most natural way possible, by replicating the precision and versatility of pen and paper.

The innovative S Pen stylus re-writes the rulebook; allowing ease of creative express and bringing ideas to life. Users can draw, sketch, design or produce slick documents on a much larger 10.1″crystal clear screen.

Until this Thursday (24th August) Carphone Warehouse is also offering the original 5.3″ Samsung Galaxy Note for the fantastic price of just £21 per month on T-Mobile. The handset is available in black, pink or white.

Both deals available now at Carphone Warehouse stores, online at www.carphonewarehouse.com or by calling 0800 925 925.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Press Releases
By August 20, 2012 Read More →

TfL Shelves Mobile Tracking System Project: Why is it a Setback?

Navigation-gps-satellites As discussed on the UK blog on mobile phone tracking trackingmobile.co.uk, the announcement that the TfL is actively considering using a mobile phone tracking system brought in a lot of cheers and excitement amongst those who have been actively propagating the implementation of this system and have been quite excited about its future potentials. However, a spokeswoman later announced after the start of the Olympic Games that the TlF has decided to shelve the proposal only saying that they did not go ahead with it. The London Olympics were a major event that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and provided a great opportunity for the administrators of the city to showcase that London is still amongst the finest cities of the world, celebrating its legacy as the  former capital of the largest empire the world has ever seen, despite a lot of setbacks over the past many years.

What speculators had expected was the introduction of a GSM based system which has been used widely by government authorities from around the world in the past. Mobile phone tracking software have been developed for basic level use in the past, however, it has also been used by intelligence agencies from around the world. A very basic level technology has also been used by animal welfare organizations and zoologists during experimentation and detecting the migratory patterns of various animals. While the idea of uses might sound very divergent, but it goes on to say that this technology has a lot of potential for growth considering its very wide scope.

At the end of the day, the implementation of this system could have had highlighted the fact that London remains one of the most advanced cities of the world and allowed experts to review the reach of the system itself. This would have helped them overcome any shortfalls and London itself could have been the first cities to establish such a system which is expected to be used widely in the future by major cities for managing their traffic problems. In fact, Beijing is already considering using such a system for better management of the traffic there, and would soon introduce a mobile surveillance system to ease congestion.

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Editorial
By August 20, 2012 Read More →

Have mobile phones made the landline redundant?

In the last decade, mobile phone use has outstripped the use of landlines in a similar manner to email’s conquest of physical mail. However, the advantages of mobile phones over landlines are not as clear cut as one might imagine.

Mobile Benefits
The most obvious reason that mobile phones have surged ahead is their convenience. The ability to make or receive calls wherever you are, using a dedicated handset and payment plan, removes the need to wait by the phone, use expensive payphones or share a line between a whole household or business.

Other benefits of mobiles tend to come in the form of non-vocal functions. Although some landline-based phones can process text-based communications, mobiles are streets ahead in this field. Texting is one of the most widely-used forms of communication in Britain, particularly among the under-25s, and the ability to send and receive emails and social networking communications instantly is also a huge bonus, as well as being particularly vital for those who are deaf or have other issues with standard telephones.

Landline Positives
There are still several reasons why it is useful to have a dedicated landline in your home or office. Being able to plan to calls with the appropriate materials to hand to make notes, reference previous communications, or access a calendar or clock during a call when making arrangements for meetings or deadlines are all useful arguments for having a dedicated phone line. You can also arrange to have your landline in a quiet space, something that is often sadly missing when making or taking mobile calls on the move.

In addition, fixed phone line costs are now generally very low, especially if deals that include evening and/or weekend calls are taken into account, so a landline can be a money saver for people who make lots of voice calls. Landlines are also more likely to allow free or low-cost use of numbers with special prefixes such as 0800 or 0870, allowing companies to subsidise clients’ contact with them. Companies who utilize a business phone service have reported lower business costs than those who didn’t.

Because landlines are not usually accessible 24/7 in the same way as mobiles, they can free you from some of the tension that many people have of being “on call” all day, every day. Answering machines for landlines are usually relatively inexpensive and can be customized in terms of allowing various types of messages or callbacks. They are also very reliable, because they are not dependent on your service provider forwarding messages.

In short, landlines are by no means redundant; rather, they have become useful for specialist tasks for which mobile phones are not so effective and for those occasions when economy is more important than ubiquity.

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Editorial
By August 18, 2012 Read More →

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 unboxing video

samsung-galaxy-note-101-n8000 With screen sizes ranging from 5 inches through to 10.1 inches Samsung, thanks to it’s Note and Tab range, seem to have a tablet size to suite everyone.

This week Samsung sent me over their new 10.1″ Note to have a look at. Unlike the Tab range, the note come with a stylus-like S-PEN allowing handwriting and drawing on screen.

The specification looks decent overall. a 1.4GHz quad core CPU and Mail GPU coupled with 2GB RAM and either 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage. The screen res is also pretty decent at 1280 x 800 pixels which may be far less than the iPad, with the same size screen, but is high enough for 720p video playback.

Check out the video below to see more.

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By August 17, 2012 Read More →

Galaxy Tab & Galaxy Y bundle from Carphone Warehouse

ban_phone_tablet_deal This week, the super money saving “Smart Deal” from Carphone Warehouse is the fantastic combination of the Samsung Galaxy Y and Samsung Tab 2 7″ W-Fi enabled 8 GB tablet.

The Samsung Galaxy Y and Samsung Tab 2 7.0 are available for free on a tethered deal to new customers and upgrades from today until Thursday 23rd August, for the incredible price of just £15.50 a month*. This deal is exclusively available with Carphone Warehouse on Orange and T-Mobile networks.

The compact and neat Samsung Galaxy Y is a full-featured smartphone with a sharp 3″ touchscreen display and a 2MP camera. The Samsung Galaxy Y’s Social Hub lets you access all your social networks, instant messengers and emails together in a single place, making sure you can keep an eye on your updates all at once.

Weighing just 345g and with a screen measuring just 7 inches, the Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a perfectly portable tablet, great for watching your favourite films, catching up with friends on Skype, social networking, web browsing and playing your favourite games.

Powered by the latest Android software, the Samsung Galaxy Y and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 will give you access to 600,000 + apps in the Google Play store and a huge selection of exclusive Samsung-only apps.  You’ll also have access to movies, music and the world biggest e-book collection.

The Carphone Warehouse Smart Deal of the Week is available in store, online at www.carphonewarehouse.com or by calling 0870 087 0870.

*24 month contract applies

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: News
By August 16, 2012 Read More →

JUMP is working for Phones 4U

phones4u

Phones 4u today announces the success of its nationwide roll-out of JUMP (‘Just Update My Phone’), with one quarter of overall sales on the top selling handsets taken out on the flexible contract, which enables consumers to upgrade their mobile phone as often as every 6 months.

After an initial trial period, JUMP has been available in all 640 stores nationwide since 1st June 2012. The response from consumers has been extremely positive: one quarter of all sales on the latest handsets are JUMP contracts; one in five eligible consumers have already ‘JUMP’ed and upgraded their handsets to newer devices; and 98% of these traded-in older devices at the time of upgrade.

Alistair Firth, Director of Customer Experience at Phones 4u, said: “We’re delighted at the initial response to JUMP. In some stores, JUMP contracts account for up to two-thirds of all contracts being sold, with uptake around London, Birmingham and the surrounding areas doing particularly well.”

So far the highest selling handsets on JUMP contracts are the newly launched Samsung Galaxy SIII (51%) and the iPhone 4s (40%) validating the research that indicated that for customers looking for the very latest devices on the market, flexibility around being able to upgrade to the next latest device when its available is very important.

Firth continues: “The initial results support research conducted prior to our trial, which found that some people have been frustrated by 18-24 month contracts and want to get their hands on the latest devices sooner. We’ve found this particularly true with early adopters from the younger age ranges, with results revealing a peak for customers aged around 21 taking out JUMP contracts.  We will continue to work hard to ensure that we always have the very latest smartphones available within our JUMP range for this particular audience”.

Differing from other flexible offerings on the market, JUMP doesn’t require any upfront fees at the point of upgrade and customers own their handsets rather than lease them. For the added flexibility of being able to upgrade as often as every six months, customers will only need to pay an average added monthly cost of £2.99 – £3.99, dependent on the original JUMP contract chosen.

 

Posted by: James

Posted in: Press Releases
By August 15, 2012 Read More →

HTC One S named ‘European Media Phone of the Year’ by EISA

htc-one-s_01_2

HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced that its acclaimed HTC One S has been named ‘European Social Media Phone of 2012 – 2013’ by The European Imaging Sound Association (EISA). This is the second time that HTC has received this accolade after winning the same category last year with the HTC ChaCha.

Florian Seiche, President of HTC EMEA said, “Delivering the most personal consumer mobile experiences is a primary focus for us as at HTC – the ability to connect people and enable them to share content socially via their smartphones quickly and easily is something that consumers want to enjoy everyday. We’re delighted to be honoured with this award for a second time and would like to thank both EISA and our customers for their continued support of HTC.”

A unique association of 50 special interest magazines from 19 European countries, EISA is the world’s most prestigious multimedia magazine group. Every year, the editors-in-chief from all EISA members meet to decide which products analysed in their publications during the year deserve the coveted EISA Award.

The ‘European Social Media Phone 2012-2013’ recognises ingenuity in social media integration, networking and a handset’s ability to connect multiple social networks simply, while making sharing content and social interaction just as easy.

For more information on HTC One S please visit: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-s/. For more information on EISA and the award selection process please visit: http://www.eisa.eu/.

 

Posted by:James

Posted in: Press Releases
By August 15, 2012 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 181: Crank Yanker

Web bannerGareth and James talk about major high end phone news. James plays with a new bit of hardware from Blackberry and Gareth finds a good value Nexus 7 alternative.

Posted in: Podcast
By August 14, 2012 Read More →

LG Optimus 4X HD available to pre-order from Phones 4U

4X HD

If you have been waiting for the LG Optimus 4X HD it is now time to get your orders in with Phones 4U. In addition the first 50 people to preorder the 4X HD from Phones 4u, including upgrades, will also be given a pair of tickets worth £100 to see Cheryl perform live this Autumn

The 8.9mm slim Optimus 4X HD includes 16 GB internal memory, runs on the latest version of Android OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and comes in both black and white. Besides the smooth and fast performance, the Optimus 4X HD boasts an 8 megapixel BSI (Backside Illumination) Sensor camera with LED flash.

Advanced multimedia features are delivered with  LG’s new User Experience (UX), Optimus UI 3.0, which includes QuickMemo.  QuickMemo allows users the ability to jot their thoughts and ideas on any screen and share it instantly with friends and family, without having to open a separate application. The Optimus 4X HD comes with Media Plex, which combines a range of functions to enhance image and video playback such as Fingertip Seek and Live Zooming. Media PlexT also includes Time Catch Shot this allows the user to select and save the best shot among the images taken just before the shutter button is pressed.

Available to preorder from Phones 4u today, the LG Optimus 4X HD will available in black at Phones 4u stores and online from 27th August, FREE from £26 a month on a choice of networks.  The white colour variant will follow shortly after.

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