Author Archive: Gareth

Unusually high suicide rate linked to iPad

Tomorrow will see a lot of major news papers will be reporting on the working conditions surrounding the latest must have device, Apple’s iPad. With the pressure on to deliver a huge amount of devices to satisfy demand the Telegraph added the following earlier today:

In the lobby of Foxconn’s headquarters in Hong Kong, a group of around two dozen protestors laid mannequins to rest and conducted funeral rites. "We are staging the protest because of the high death rate [at Foxconn], with an abnormal number of workers committing suicide in the past five months," said Debby Chan, a spokesman for the Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour group.

The latest death comes just a day after Foxconn admitted that it had paid "insufficient attention" to the well-being of its workers and promised to hire over 2,000 therapists to offer counselling to its factory workers.

It’s a harsh reality for the larger corporations to realise the profit they expect, and at what cost? We will keep a close eye on the investigation.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini pre-order

The little phone that we think will be quite big is about to hit the market it appears after being pushed back time and time again. Mobiles.co.uk are taking pre-orders for the heavily modified but attractive Android handset on both Orange and Vodafone. The Pro version is available only to register interest in for the time being.

iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models ship

Apple has begun sending out shipment notifications and shipment tracking numbers to UK customers who’ve pre-ordered iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models.

[Source]

Introducing Android 2.2 Froyo

Google have put out a video showing off the attractive features of Android 2.2. Covering speed, browser, market and API updates, there is much to get excited about. The Push notification is quite excited and Apps on SD card is oh-so welcome. The oft rumours wifi hotspot is confirmed making this exciting feature of the Evo 4G common place amongst those device that will receive the 2.2 update, eventually. Auto updating will be a pleasure. Overall it’s a nice update with plenty of added extras. Check out the video after the break:

HTC Wildfire coming to Virgin Media

On our last podcast James mentioned he had a little go the HTC Wildfire, a new Android 2.1 handset that’s similar to the HTC Desire but a little smaller and less impressive. The phone has been unveiled by HTC just the other day and it looks like there are already carriers lined up to get it. Such a carrier is Virgin Media in the UK although we don’t have any actual pricing details and precise arrival dates yet.
The HTC Wildfire will come with a 3.2-inch QVGA touchscreen display, a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 3.5mm headphone jack, 512MB ROM, 384MB RAM, GPS and aGPS, up to 32GB of storage space and 3G support.
The phone isn’t that impressive when compared to the HTC Droid Incredible or the HTC EVO 4G but it’s definitely going to be a great Android phone for those of you not willing to spend a lot of money on a brand new handset. What Android phone would you buy if the HTC Wildfire is not for you?

Samsung Wave pre-orderable at Vodafone

A phone demoed that this years Mobile World Congress was the Samsung Wave now available to pre-order from Vodafone. Something of a powerhouse of a phone that was capable of running Need For Space [Insert name of game here] at quite a smooth pace was one thing that caught most people eyes. The other was that it was presented with Samsung’s own operating system, Bada. Likely to be a big seller, the Wave does however feel somewhat indeterminable from several other phones on the market, mostly from Samsung.

The Eken M003 appears

As we mentioned in the last podcast the Eken M001 will be arriving soon at a rather attractive $100 price tag. It has be bigger brother however. Whereas the M001 features 7 inches of LCD viewing space, the M003 is an 8-inch device that also runs Android and pretty much functions like a tablet with WiFi-connectivity. At $240 a piece it’s cheaper than the Apple iPad albeit with a much lower built-in storage, which is readily addressed using SD cards of up to 32GB. For more information about the EKEN M003, click the link below or watch the video after the break. Video after the break:

Pre Plus and Pixi Plus arriving on O2 in a week

Introducing the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus phones, coming to O2 on May 28.

The Palm Pre Plus, with its handy slide-out keyboard, really lets you enjoy the business of living. Keep all your apps open and connected. Get business and personal email in one place, answers at your fingertips with universal search, and never miss a thing thanks to notifications.

The Pixi Plus gives you a fixed keyboard as well as a touchscreen, so you can text, IM and email in an instant. Watch videos. Browse your favourite websites. Stay in touch with friends. And personalise your phone with interchangeable back covers.

Whichever you prefer, both are amazingly powerful yet simple to use, making it easy and fun to stay connected and ahead¹, and both organise all your contacts and calendars into one place so you’re always up to date.

And you can run your favourite apps – like Facebook^®, Yell.com, RadioTime and Grooveshark – on Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. With over 1000 available and more added each week, chances are you’ll find the ones you want.