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BlackBerry 10 home screen and media player looking good

A few more images have leaked of BlackBerry 10 and they look pretty hot if you ask me. According to N4BB once the phone is unlocked you see the last four applications that were running. 

These images may not be final software but from the sneak peeks we saw at BlackBerry World things are looking up for RIM and this new OS could really get them back in the game in certain markets.

While we are on the subject of certain markets I took a trip to the local Verizon store in Orlando and I was astonished to see that they do not sell a single BlackBerry. No wonder BlackBerry sales in America are falling so rapidly. I just don’t understand why the carriers would not offer all operating systems. Weird.

You can see images of the media player below. A vast improvement over the current offerings on BlackBerry 7 devices for sure. I know I will get criticized for saying this but I am convinced that BlackBerry 10 will have a big dent on the iOS and Android market. The only concern I have is how many people will sign up to a two year plan with the iPhone 5 prior to BlackBerry 10 launching.

We would love to hear your thoughts either in the forum or in the Facebook app at the base of each of our posts.

Asus Padfone Delayed?

Seems like the anticipated Asus Padfone could end up being delayed. According to reports, the problem stems from a shortage of the Krait Snapdragon S4 chip from Qualcomm. The hybrid tablet/smartphone that is turning heads  was originally scheduled to launch sometime in April, although that time-frame is now debatable. There is no word on why Qualcomm is experiencing shortages, although there is speculation. One theory is that due to the new architecture for the S4 they are having trouble ramping up to high-volume production. The other is the on-going an rumour that Samsung will be running the S4 in the U.S. version of the new Samsung Galaxy S3, and they have bought out the majority of Qualcomm’s supply.

We will have to see how this one pans out.

Posted by: Gareth

Samsung Galaxy SIII

Predictably, Samsung Electronics today announced the third generation Galaxy S, the Galaxy S III, a phone so intuitive that it is able to recognise your voice and understand your intention. Sleek and innovative, this latest smartphone is packed with enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier: designed for humans and inspired by nature.

With the Samsung Galaxy S IIII, you can view content like never before on a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, whilst an 8MP camera and an 1.9MP front camera offer a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options so you can capture all moments easily and instantly. The Samsung Galaxy S III is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and full of intuitive technology, delivering a uniquely personalised mobile experience.

Andy Griffiths, Managing Director, Samsung UK and Ireland said: “Our aim with the Galaxy S III was to develop the best smartphone ever made, and by focusing on creating a unique user experience through superior hardware and enhanced usability we believe we have done just that. The device has been created by keeping in mind our daily needs and capabilities as human beings. Simple yet brilliant, the Galaxy S III is packed with smart features that enable it to understand and respond to our actions providing the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experience.”

Introducing Natural Interaction

The Galaxy S III’s main USP is that it enhances the interaction between the device and its owner. Smart enough to detect your face, voice and gestures, the Galaxy S III adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural user experience. With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the device recognises how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by using the front camera to identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

With ‘S Voice,’ an advanced natural language user interface, the Galaxy S III listens and responds to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, ‘S Voice’ provides powerful device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the Galaxy S III “snooze” – and it snoozes. You can also use ‘S Voice’ to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo – all through you speaking to the device.
In addition to recognising your face and voice, the Galaxy S III understands your motions. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number. With ‘Smart alert,’ the Galaxy S III will catch any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.

Easy and Instant Sharing

The Samsung Galaxy S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one person – it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. With the new ‘S Beam,’ the Galaxy S III expands upon AndroidT Beam, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another Galaxy S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from a camera or photo gallery.
With ‘AllShare Cast’, you can wirelessly connect your Galaxy S III to your television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. ‘AllShare Play’ can be used to instantly share any files between your Galaxy S III and DLNA supported tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. The ‘Group Cast’ feature also allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.

Human-centric Design with Uncompromised Performance

The Galaxy S III not only has features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design, with a comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form. Inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. The elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the Galaxy S III. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional colour options at a later date.

Thanks to its 4.8″ HD Super AMOLED display, the Galaxy S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile’s heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster connectivity, the Galaxy S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.
The Galaxy S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. It introduces ‘Pop up play,’ a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. Its 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take.

With the ‘Burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous frames, and the ‘Best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the Galaxy S III offers a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.
Mobile payment is also accessible with the device through advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The gaming experience is enhanced through ‘Game Hub’, providing access to numerous social games, whilst Video Hub brings users high quality TV and movies. Furthermore, Samsung Music Hub will offer a personal music streaming service. Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub will be introduced in select countries initially before being rolled out globally.
The Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in the UK from the Samsung Brand Store at Westfield Stratford City and all other retailers.

Posted by: Matt

Huawei MediaPad goes ICS

Just as they previously promised, Huawei, makers of one of the first Honeycomb tablets, the MediaPad, have just made the Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich update available to end users. The update will not go out OTA, but instead you will need to download it manually. It comes in at a hefty 329MB, but it does appear to be a stock version of ICS, which is greatly appreciated. Supposedly, installation instructions are inside the Zip download file.

Posted by: Gareth

Hands on with the BlackBerry Dev Alpha

Shortly after this mornings keynote at BlackBerry World us members of the press were invited to get hands on with the developer alpha device which all devs at BB Jam will receive.

As you will see in the following images the OS on board is essentially the PlayBook OS although the features are very limited. The handset is not a fully functional phone and its purpose is only to allow developers to create apps for the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 devices later in the year.

Please don’t take any notice of the hardware as this will not be a BlackBerry 10 handset. This one is purely a shell for dev usage.

While I am here I may as well tell you that from what I have seen of BlackBerry 10 at the keynote it looks to be absolutely awesome. Android and iPhone users: be afraid, be very afraid!

You can see the photos below:

BlackBerry World 2012– Day One

We are less than an hour away now from the BlackBerry World 2012 Keynote in Orlando where Thorsten Heins will take the stage and talk us through RIM’s vision for the next twelve months.

Will we see new devices announced? I wouldn’t have thought so but what we will see is BlackBerry 10 detailed which is what the excitement is all about. From speaking with a few RIM executives over the last couple of days we are due to see some really cool stuff.

Stay tuned later for more news.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry World 1-3 May

BlackBerry World 2012 kicks off on Tuesday in Orlando and we will be there to cover any gossip or announcements that are made.

As well as the BlackBerry World taking place RIM are holding a developer conference called BlackBerry Jam at the same time.  It is common knowledge that the developers attending will each be given a BlackBerry 10 Alpha device. What this is likely to be is a touch screen device running the PlayBook OS to allow devs to prepare apps for the new platform later in the year. I’m pretty excited about trying the OS on a device smaller than the PlayBook although I would image that many features will be disabled so it wont actually be a working phone.

What we will see though is RIM’s vision over the next few years and how they intend to revamp their popularity in certain countries.

Stay tuned over the next four days as we should have a slurry of interesting news for you BlackBerry fans.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry Curve 9320 spotted in the wild

Over in Vietnam the unannounced BlackBerry Curve 9320 has been making an appearance. The device looks more or less identical to the 9220 that was released in India last week apart from it has a silver bezel as opposed to the black one on the 9220.

The 9320 is the 3G variant that I am certain we will see here in the UK to replace the 8520 and 9300. The OS 7 device gets a boost in the camera department and now a 3.2mp with flash, compared to the 2mp in the 9220.

I would image we would see some official announcements from RIM very soon on this one.

Lets hope the PAYG prices are good.

Source

Posted by: James

Archos to build gaming tablet

The idea of gaming themed Android devices is nothing new, especially since we have the Xperia Play along with a few other Playstation Certified devices along with GameStop tablets with their controllers. The fact is mobile gaming is a huge industry already and it is still growing. Archos sees this and is planning on developing a gaming-centric Android tablet to cater to mobile gamers.

In an interview with The New Ecomiste (French), the CEO of Archos, Crohas, goes on to talk about the company’s troubles in the past and how it has revitalized itself through Android tablet sales. Crohas goes on to say that they are developing the first Android tablet that will essentially be a gaming console. What exactly this entails remains to be seen of course but Archos recent additional to their line of tablets happens to be sporting some pretty potent hardware.

We will soon be certified a tablet-type game console. A first. I strongly believe in this market segment. Moreover, the classic game consoles will disappear." – Crohas, CEO of Archos (loosely translated from French)

Crohas goes on to say that he believes the death of the home gaming console is inevitable. While we don’t believe that will happen, especially with new versions of the Xbox and Playstation already in development, we do see a large chuck on that market switching to mobile gaming down the road as mobile technology catches up and quickly at that.

It will be interesting to see what this gaming-centric tablet from Archos will come with in terms of hardware and special features making it basically a gaming console. Of course we could speculate which is always fun but with Tegra 4 on the horizon, it could be a safe bet that the chip could appear in this upcoming tablet.

Posted by: Gareth

Google selling the Galaxy Nexus direct

This one looks a right bargain. It is just a shame it appears to be USA only. Google are now directly selling the Galaxy Nexus unlocked for the attractive price of $399 for the 16GB GSM version

That price equates to £274 which for a unbranded, Android 4.0 device with a beautiful 4.65 inch Super AMOLED screen is super cheap.

Let’s hope us good old Brits get to take advantage of this great offer soon.

Click here for the offer.

Posted by: James