News

ZTE say they pose no threat to the USA

We mentioned yesterday that ZTE and Huawei had some issues with their equipment being ‘security’ safe in the USA. Today ZTE have responded with the following statement:

October 9, 2012 – ZTE today reiterated its support for its Trusted Delivery Model and renewed its commitment to work with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Committee), government agencies, and the private sector to address all cyber security concerns.

ZTE has set an unprecedented standard for cooperation by any Chinese company with a US congressional inquiry. ZTE has presented the Committee with ample facts that demonstrate ZTE is China’s most transparent, independent, globally focused, publicly traded telecom company. ZTE is listed on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. The company already is recognised as a Trusted Delivery Partner by 140 governments and 500 network carriers.

ZTE’s equipment is safe for US telecom infrastructure. In its Fourth Recommendation, the Committee encourages companies to offer “more consistent review by independent third-party evaluators of their cyber security processes.”  The Committee has credited ZTE with advocating a solution, based on a Trusted Delivery Model, in which the telecom vendor transfers hardware, software, firmware, and other structural equipment elements to an independent third-party threat assessment laboratory with US government agency oversight.

Angry Birds Star Wars coming soon!

Posted by: James

Could ZTE and Huawei have problems in the USA?

Over in good old America a congressional panel has allegedly said that both ZTE and Huawei pose as a national security threat and in a report to be published later today they wish the companies to be banned from mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. It said the firms had failed to allay fears about their association with the Chinese government and military.

Now we all know that ZTE and Hauwei are huge in the electronics world and a U.S ban could have a massive effect on their business. I’m a bit reluctant to go into the in’s and out’s of the politics but we will of course let you know of any further news on the subject.

Source: BBC

Posted by: James

The James Bond Sony Xperia T now available at O2

If you want to be like James Bond then head on over to O2 as they now have the Sony Xperia T in stock which features in the new Bond film Skyfall.
You can pick up the Xperia T from free to £179.99 on Pay Monthly and £429.99 on Pay & Go.

Introducing the new Sony Xperia T, as used by James Bond in the much anticipated film release, SKYFALL – at cinemas October 26. It’s pre-loaded with SKYFALL content only available to O2 customers including the 007 ringtone, themes and screensavers. It includes SKYFALL images that are geo-tagged to the film’s locations. And as you’d expect from James Bond’s phone, it’s beautifully sleek and packed with state-of-the-art technology.

    .    The Bond Phone, exclusive to O2
    .    13 Megapixel HD camera
    .    Razor-sharp 4.6" HD Reality Display
    .    Full 1080p HD video recording
    .    Eco rating: 4.1

Posted by: James

The BlackBerry 10 Browser

Posted by: James

Mobile Choice Awards – The Results

The nation has been voting for their best loved tech in the Mobile Choice Awards 2012 and from where I’m sitting it is Android that seems to be the nations best loved OS at the moment. Well, from the people that voted anyway.

You can catch the full list of contenders and winners below:

Phone of the Year:

Samsung Galaxy S III – winner
Apple iPhone 4S – runner up
HTC One X
Nokia Lumia 800
Sony Xperia S

Tablet of the Year:

Apple New iPad -winner
Nexus 7 by Asus – runner up
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
Sony Tablet S

TomTom now available for Android – Well, some devices

You can now download TomTom for your Android smartphone, however at present there is a slight glitch depending on what phone you use. While the app looks great, if you have a device with a screen resolution of up to 800×480 / 854×480 then it is not compatible. This includes many of the latest Android releases including the Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note 2.

I’m pretty sure the restrictions will be ironed out pretty soon but if you want to give TomTom a shot you can get the UK & Ireland map for £30.99 here.

Source: MoDaCo

Posted by: James

A Google U-turn

This has to be the most shocking news of the day, (if not the week and month). Apparently Google’s subsidiary, Motorola Mobility has completely withdrawn their ITC patent complaint against Apple. In case you missed it previously, Motorola filed a complaint with the ITC attempting to ban sales of a multitude of Apple’s products from sale in the United States. Supposedly, these products infringe upon seven patents held by Motorola. The case was under investigation for these claims since August 17th.

For whatever reason, Motorola asked the ITC to "terminate all claims in this investigation without prejudice," and adding that "there are no agreements between Motorola and Apple, written or oral, express or implied, concerning the subject matter of this investigation."

Right now, there is nothing but speculation as to why this might have been the case. Currently, there are only two theories that we have heard as to why this might have happened. One is that Motorola themselves somehow determined the patents were not actually being infringed and decided to withdraw the case before things made them look bad. The other is a much happier outcome, and that is maybe, just maybe, Google and Apple finally worked out some sort of licensing agreement and can begin to end the ridiculous patent wars. Wouldn’t that be great?

Posted by: Gareth

What does RIM have in store for us on the gaming front with BlackBerry 10

We all know that gaming has not been one of the strong points of owning a BlackBerry in years gone by. That is all going to change in Q1 next year when BlackBerry 10 is released. Finally the gaming experience will be as good, if not better, than on the likes of iOS and Android.

Recently at BlackBerry Jam Americas RIM gave a brief demonstration of what we can expect to see when the new OS launches. As you can clearly see from the video below BlackBerry users will at last be able to have not only the best communication tool but also a amazing gaming and media smartphone.

You can catch the video below and please let us have your thoughts in the comments section. Is BlackBerry 10 going to make you come back to the platform if you are now a iOS/Android or Windows Phone user?

HTC One X+ full specs

With the HTC One X+ just being announced you may want one quick and easy place to check out the full specifications and this it it.

The full specs can be found below and I must say, they do look rather impressive. In particular (although not really that exciting) I’m loving the battery size.

• SIZE: 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9mm
• WEIGHT: 135 grams with battery
• DISPLAY: 4.7 inch super LCD 2 touch screen, HD 720p resolution, with Gorilla® Glass 2 for greater durability. Optical lamination for superior sharpness, clarity and reduced light reflection
• CPU SPEED – NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 AP37, 1.7 GHz quad-core
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with HTC SenseTM 4+
• MEMORY – Total storage: 32GB & 64GB, available capacity vary, RAM: 1GB
• NETWORK – HSPA/WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz