Author Archive: Gareth

Red Dwarf app launches

On the 21st birthday of the cult TV series, the official Red Dwarf Soundboard App is now available from the App Store. The app means iPhone and iPod touch users can now carry the sounds of the Red Dwarf crew around in their pocket, as the rest of us are forced to endure them.

There’s no less than 32 iconic audio clips from the TV series, letting users re-live the classic lines over and over again from, you guessed it, "smeg head" to " smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast".  There’s also a slideshow of stills for when the audio gets tired, which we reckon will be about 45 seconds after you download the app.

The Red Dwarf Soundboard App is available for £1.19 from the App Store.

Handy Shell v2.0 now available for S60

Paragon Software have released version 2.0 of Handy Shell, a replacement stand-by screen for your S60 smartphones which provides huge levels of customisation and interaction over and above the regular active stand-by screen on your phone.

Based around four different views of your device, the app is called up with the menu key, and takes over the S60 interface for a much more customisable experience. A number of plug-in modules are available including a new “Photos” view for instant access to your media. This sits alongside the existing plug-ins including weather and contacts.

Also added in the new version is the “3D Cube” spinning system for fast access around the four views (each of them is one side of the cube); this is one of the improvements added for touch devices. Read more at Paragon/Epocware.

Via

Nokia X6 Available Now on Orange

Nokia’s first capacitive touch screen phone, the Nokia X6 is now available on Orange through Phones4u. The media powerhouse comes with 32gb of storage and unlimited music downloads with the Comes With Music service from Nokia.

A long standing compliant about Nokia devices to date is that they use the less sensitive resistive screen technology, but now that has all changed with the X6. Read a full review at Techradar.

Expect to pay £35pm with a 2 year tie in or buy direct form Nokia for £449. As ever, shop around and you can pick it up for £400.

N900 on Contract with Vodafone on 7th Jan

If you’ve been waiting for the N900 to hit the streets with a network subsidy, then mark January 7th in your diary as Vodafone has confirmed they will be the first to stock the device.

If you cant wait that long, then Carphone Warehouse are also offering the N900 with a Vodafone contract online from Boxing day. Expect to sign up for a 2 year agreement at £35pm to get the phone for free, or you can stump up £50 upfront and only pay £30pm.

If Vodafone isn’t your thing then the word is that Tmobile and O2 will be offering the device in March. Of course you can buy it direct from Nokia if your one those funny people that don’t like signing up for 2 years, shop around and you can pick it up for £449.

O2 doing 4G in Slough

On O2? Don’t have a decent connection in your area? Then you are going to love to know that O2 is trialling 4G in Slough. The town most famous for …The Office will be not be able to use the network yet since there are no 4G phones on the market as yet. Have a read at the full story below:

You might still be struggling to get a 3G signal on your smartphone, but O2 and mobile modem maker Huawei have just successfully demonstrated a 4G connection — the first in the UK.

LTE stands for ‘Long Term Evolution’ and it’s an enhanced version of the current HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology that most 3G smartphones and USB 3G modems are currently based on.

The best PDF reader for iPhone now available in FREE Lite version

Normally it costs only $0.99 but if you are a total cheap skate and you don’t want to spend any money, then free Lite version is now available with 5-files limit what might be more than enough for many people…

Press-Release. SPB Software Sums Up for 2009, Delivers Results for the Survey, Celebrates with a Big Sale

SPB Software, a leading maker of mobile applications, announces the results of the sixth annual SPB Survey. This year the survey was held from November 17th till December 4th, and was meant to capture user preferences and build up a combined report that would identify the changing user profiles, mobile device expectations, brand loyalty and the handset use cases.
Some of the figures we’ve found and the trends we’ve discovered were of particular interest, with some of them being really curious. For instance, 45% of respondents their current smartphone is at least the sixth smart handheld they’ve ever owned. Another surprising thing for us is respondents’ age. Last year’s survey was mainly taken by people aged under 30 while this year the focus had somewhat shifted – 45% of the respondents were between 31 and 45. Much less surprising is the Top-10 of the most popular devices: it includes 6 HTC smartphones, 2 Apple devices and the popular Samsung Omnia.

Vodafone drops the HTC HD2

Those folks who are annoyed that the HTC HD2 is not hitting Stateside, we feel your pain. It’s getting harder to get the HTC HD2 in the UK. Have a read at this:

Sources believe the operator is preparing to focus on the Apple iPhone

Microsoft release Bing for iPhone

Microsoft have continued with their strategy of releasing applications for the iPhone, this time they have released a mobile version of the Bing search engine.

It looks pretty but when I was taking a few screenshots and playing with the application it crashed quite a few times, especially using the voice search, typical!

You can try it out for yourself as it is available now for free in the App Store via this link.