News

Qantas to provide iPads for each passenger

As a fairly frequent flyer I was intrigued with this story when it hit the web earlier.

Australian air carrier, Qantas, are ditching their in-flight entertainment systems on many flights and providing each passenger with an iPad to pass the time. To me this seems like a great idea and I suspect this probably works out cheaper and easier than the bloated in-flight systems that most long-haul carriers use. How many times have you been on a flight where the screen doesn’t work or the buttons are broken?!

Now I am guessing that Qantas will be tethering the iPads to the seat somehow and at the very least having some branding on them to distinguish from those that their customers bring on board, maybe mounting them in the seat-back where LCD screens would typically be.

According to reports, the airline will put Apple’s tablet in all 23 of its Boeing 757 planes, making a total of 5,842 iPads. I hope they are getting a good deal on those!

Qantas has partnered with Panasonic to stream content wirelessly to the iPads from a central storage unit on the plane.

“We’re now looking at ways to evolve this technology platform even further with our partner Panasonic to bring new standards of in-flight entertainment to our customers,” said Qantas Domestic CEO Lyell Strambi in a statement. This could include the addition of internet access, live television, and the ability to order food, drinks and duty-free goods via the iPad.

Qantas’ total fleet size extends to a total of 137 aircraft with over 60 more on order so that’s a lot of iPads if it goes to the full fleet!

Posted by: Matt

Samsung Galaxy Beam now in stock at Clove

If the Samsung Galaxy Beam with its built in projector looks your cup of tea you can pick it up now at Clove. The device will set you back £426 sim free which is pretty expensive but the that projector could be a handy business tool. Running Android 2.3 and with 8GB of internal storage it may not be running the latest OS version but it still looks to be a pretty nice and unique Android handset.

Key features of the Beam are:

• Integrated projector
• Ultra-bright 15 lumens projection
• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 1GHz Dual-Core Processor
• 4″ WVGA Display with 480 x 800 Resolution
• 5 Meagpixel Camera
• 8GB Internal Storage

You can order the Galaxy Beam here.

Posted by: James

Apple to post online that Samsung did not copy them

Apple has been claiming that Samsung "slavishly copied" the looks of the iPad. However, it is proving tough to convince the courts. This is especially true for the U.K. Judge, Colin Birss. Bloomberg are reporting that this is the same judge that previously threw out Apple’s case against Samsung proclaiming that Samsung’s tablets were unlikely to be confused with Apple’s iPad because they weren’t "cool enough." He has taken things a step further in his final ruling and has ordered Apple to publicly state on their own website that Samsung did not copy them. Here’s a quote with some additional detail:

A U.K. judge ordered Apple Inc. (AAPL) to publish a notice on its website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t copy designs for the iPad.
The notice should outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets don’t infringe Apple’s registered designs, Judge Colin Birss said. It should be posted on Apple’s U.K. website for six months and published in several newspapers and magazines to correct the damaging impression the South Korea-based company was copying Apple’s product, Birss said.
The order means Apple will have to publish "an advertisement" for Samsung, and is prejudicial to the company, Richard Hacon, a lawyer representing Cupertino, California-based Apple, told the court. "No company likes to refer to a rival on its website."

Apple may have to stand in the corner for the rest of lunch break and possibly have to send a letter of apology to Mr. Samsung for being such a big silly.

Posted by: Gareth

Huawei drop off a monster tablet

As we discussed in the podcast, there are a number of companies that have gone head to head with Apple to try and rustle up a little piece of the 10.1″ action. Asus, Samsung, Acer and more have had their go with varying degrees of success however Apple’s iPad managed to hold it’s ground maybe only accruing the odd bruise. The only way that any of the tablet manufacturers have been able gain any success is by targeting the market Apple did not already occupy, smaller, cheaper and less powerful devices. Google’s new Nexus 7 seems to be positioning itself to put the squeeze on the iPad, but again, it isn’t really in the same class.

Maybe one of our favourite underdog’s could come along and steal the thunder from the bloated fruit. Huawei is that new combatant. They are set to launch their new MediaPad 10 FHD in late August for only $475 dollars, and it has some surprisingly beastly specs:

Campaign launched to stop mobile contract price increases

Which has launched a new campaign after they discovered that 70% of consumers don’t know that mobile companies are entitled to increase charges at any point they wish during a mobile contract. A complaint has been submitted to Ofcom with a view to contracts having fixed rates for the period. With all the UK networks now pushing customer towards two year if would certainly be nice to have fixed rates for the term.

Today sees Three implement an increase of 3.6% on many of its customers which with the financial state many people are in will have a knock on affect.

Which have stated that: We estimate that with around 10.5 million adults affected by these price rises so far, consumers have already spent nearly £34.5m extra on phone contracts. Over 12 months this could make up to £90m for mobile phone companies.

Let’s see what Ofcom say. It could get interesting.

Via: Sky News

Posted by: James

Fingers crossed for the HTC Vertex

HTC’s first foray into the Android tablet market didn’t set the world on fire. The HTC Flyer and the Jetstream, which was not released here in the UK, were hugely overpriced for their specs. Because of this, HTC stayed out of the tablet market for a while. However, now it seems that they are planning to attempt a return. A new device has appeared in Nenamark2 and Antutu benchmarks, called the HTC Vertex. Here’s the known specs at this time,

• 10.1" display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels
• Quad-core Tegra 3 processor
• 2MP rear / 1.3MP FF cameras
• Bluetooth
• Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (although this might change if the device is released late enough)

Ultimately, the success of this device will be in how aggressively it is priced. There are a ridiculous amount of Android tablets saturating the market right now, with the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire at the top of the heap. HTC has a large hill to climb to be competitive. In fact, since this was a leak, it’s entirely possible that this is a scrapped project considering their current financial situation.

Posted by: Gareth

Join the hunt for the Xperiabots

Just a reminder that the Xperiabots have escaped and Sony need you to find them. What’s in it for you? Prizes! If you find a Xperiabot, which could be anywhere in the UK or online, just take a picture of it or scan its QR code and upload the code to the Sony Facebook page. You could win Xperia NXT handsets, movie premieres, DJ sessions, gig tickets, and loads of other ‘money can’t buy’ prizes.

You can follow the action on Twitter and there is also a short video explaining about the Xperiabots here.

In addition you may want to keep your eyes peeled next week. We may just have a Xperia phone to giveaway ourselves.

Posted by: James

Upgrade to 76Mbps broadband from Sky

The prospect of super-fast broad band is so tantalising but if, like me, you are stuck with a slow broadband connection you may want to look away now.

Sky have just announced that they are to make up to 76Mbps broadband is available to new and existing Sky customers. However, you’ll have to live in an area covered by the fibre optic network (which I’m not grr)

The satellite broadcaster launched the product in April, but it was initially available only to new subscribers who did not already have Sky Fibre or Sky Broadband.

However, the company has now revealed that everyone can sign up for its fastest connection. "All our broadband products are open to all customers covered by Sky’s network," a Sky spokeswoman told ZDNet UK.

The up to 76Mbps proposition hit the market at the same time as Sky’s up to 38Mbps product, with both of these packages supported by BT’s fibre-to-the-cabinet infrastructure.

More than ten million homes and businesses across the UK are currently served by BT’s fibre broadband networks.

The telecoms giant is aiming to increase this coverage to two-thirds of properties by the end of 2014 under its £2.5 billion national rollout.

Posted by: Matt

Win some goodies with the Sony Xperiabots

Starting next Monday Sony are launching a new campaign that will see thousands of ‘Xperiabots’ released around London and Manchester. They are the small robots featured in Sony’s TV advert.

If you manage to capture one of the Xperiabots you can win one of a range of prizes just by uploading the alpha numeric or QR codes to the Sony Mobile Facebook page. Simples.

The prizes on offer are:

• Latest Xperia NXT Series handsets
• Sony 4-Screen packages 
• Tickets to movie premiers
• DJ sessions
• Tickets to gigs etc

Make sure you head on over to the Facebook page and ‘like’ Sony Mobile.

Posted by: James

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 175: A Game of Cat and Mouse

Gareth is joined by James to debate the recent announcements of BlackBerry and the outcome of the Apple vs Samsung/Google in the patent war. There is an ingenious solution to all your problems with the Nexus 7 and cracking a competition!

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