News

Galaxy Tab & Galaxy Y bundle from Carphone Warehouse

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 23^rd 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

Acer A110 might be a Nexus 7 killer

The guys over at Coolsmartphone.com picked up on a little story from Stuff about a tablet Acer have mentioned in the past. Acer’s A110 tablet has  a 7? screen, Tegra 3 CPU and Jelly Bean confirmed to be on the way. We had prices from the US however with 8GB this is merely priced at £179 at launch. The one big spec that propels the Acer is that the tablet will have a microSD slot. That’s one of the two major options covered that many will have been holding back on buying the Google Nexus 7 tablet for. The Nexus 7 lacks both expandable storage and a 3G modem option. However, this does have a problem in that there is no guarantee of future updates to the Android operating system.

It looks like the budget tablet market has really been shaken by the Amzazon Kindle Fire and, more recently, the Nexus 7 and its open ground for the manufactures to get creative in. The Nexus 7 has set the benchmark very high and it will be fun watching to see just what company will surpass it.

Posted by: Gareth

HTC One X to receive update

News just in from HTC that the HTC One X is to receive its next firmware update today. This latest update will take the device to Android 4.0.4 (ICS) putting it on par with it’s arch-nemesis, the Galaxy S3.

HTC also state that there will be improvements to the Sense experience. I’ll be checking for updates on my One X shortly and will report back with findings!

HTC’s full statement:

As part of our ongoing commitment to ensure customers are receiving software updates that improve their user experience, we are pleased to announce our next upgrade for the HTC One X will be released on August 10th.

The primary update will include an upgrade to Android version 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), in addition to an improved Sense experience which will: enable the ability to map menu function to the ‘recent app’ key (improving visual presentation in non ICS apps like Facebook); improve tab management in the browser with a dedicated tab switching button and enhance camera capabilities such as white balance and continuous autofocus.  Furthermore, customers can expect enhancements to memory, platform stability and the overall browsing experience. Other improvements include a Single Sign-On for Facebook allowing user access across applications and browsers and upgrades to Beats audio, which reflect our dedication to providing an authentic sound experience.

From a developer perspective, we are expanding SDK support for Media Link and providing a framework for video call applications to achieve improved performance and quality.

Posted by: Matt

Issues with Kindle downloads

If you’ve just bought a Kindle book from Amazon and are trying to download it on you iPhone or iPad you may be confronted with a ‘Download Error’ message. It’s not a problem with your device, do not adjeust your set, you are not alone, this issue has been affecting the Kindle service for at least a day now and hundreds of users are complaining of the problem on Amazon’s Kindle support site.

It’s not clear if this is a worldwide or UK only issue but an email from yours truly to Amazon yielded the following response:

I’m sorry to learn that you’re unable to download the books to your Kindle for iPhone application.
We are aware of this issue, and we’re working on a solution. Once the issue is resolved, I’ll update you via email at the earliest.
Meanwhile, If you have any further questions, please contact us by using the following link and we’ll do everything we can to help you.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindlesupport
We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you and would like to express our gratitude for the patience you’ve displayed thus far.
I hope this helps. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

I’m not sure if the issue affects proper Kindle devices or is limited to apps. Can anyone confirm?

Hopefully they be able to solve this soon but over 24 hours since I first noticed is NOT good at all for their credibility.

Posted by: Matt

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