News

Sony Xperia S: teaser video

We have known about the Sony Xperia S for a good month or so now. The device is currently listed by ‘Three‘ as coming soon and whilst on their site I noticed a link to a teaser video of the handset which I don’t think we have posted before.

The Xperia S looks to be a real beauty. You can see the video after the break.

• Unique, stylish design
• 4.3" HD Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
• 12 megapixel camera with Exmor R sensor + HD video
• HD sharing with HDMI (cable in-box)
• Super-fast 1.5GHz dual core processor
• Huge 32GB internal memory
• NFC compatible

Angry Birds Space coming in March

Rovio has confirmed that Angry Birds Space will be released on March 22nd  and has NASA and National Geographic on board as launch partners for the game. You can see the teaser video below:

Posted by: James

Sony completes deal to but our Ericsson’s share of Sony Ericsson

The deal is done. Sony has parted with £871 million to buy out Ericsson and the company will now be know as Sony Mobile Communications with Bert Nordberg remaining as president and CEO.

Sony said in a statement: “Sony will rename Sony Ericsson “Sony Mobile Communications”, and further integrate the mobile phone business as a vital element of its electronics business, with the aim of accelerating convergence between Sony’s lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smart phones, tablets, TVs and PCs.”

“With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment.”

Now I can look forward to a Smartphone that looks just like my TV!

Posted by: James

BlackBerry Bold 9790 now available on Orange

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 has been on the ‘coming soon’ page of the Orange website for ages now. I just popped over to see if it was still in the same section and at last it wasn’t. You can pick up the 9790 for free with contracts starting at £31.00 per month.

You can see our hands on video with the BlackBerry Bold 9790 here or head on over to the Orange site.

You can see the full spec of the device below:

Plants vs. Zombies now available for BlackBerry PlayBook

At long last one of the most popular games for iOS and Android has hit BlackBerry App World today. Plants vs. Zombies will set you back a whopping £5.00 but for that money you will get hour upon hour of addicted fun.

Get ready to soil your plants in the hit PopCap game! A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and your only defense is an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to slow down, confuse, weaken and mulchify 26 types of zombies before they can reach your front door.

Each zombie has its own special skills, so you’ll need to think fast and plant faster to combat them all. But be careful how you use your limited supply of greens and seeds. as you battle the fun-dead, obstacles like a setting sun, creeping fog and a swimming pool add to the challenge. The fun never dies!

We will have a demo video up on the site in the next day or so.

Posted by: James

Going to the Arctic? Take a Samsung Galaxy S II with you

Samsung Electronics UK is proud to announce that its best-selling smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II, has prevailed in an independent test to ascertain whether phones can function in severe sub-zero temperatures. The endurance test conducted by Finnish magazine MikroPC, has verified that the Galaxy S II is able to function in temperatures ranging from 38°C to -20°C.

The technical review team at MikroPC tested 15 of the most popular mobile phones available to buy in Finland at the Weather Room, a scientific lab situated in the VTT Technical Research Centre at Espoo, Finland. This specialised research lab enables researchers to control the internal temperature, meaning readings can be altered to a fraction of a degree.

MikroPC discovered that the most weather resilient smartphone was the Samsung Galaxy S II, which functioned until temperatures reached -35°C. It was also the only smartphone to run smoothly when the temperature reached -30°C. While the Samsung Galaxy Xcover was not part of the comparison between the 15 most popular mobile phones, it performed just as well as the Galaxy S II.

The initial temperature in the research lab was set to 0°C, from which it was lowered by increments of five degrees until the smartphones being tested stopped functioning. One by one the popular smartphones gave into the cold; however, all five tested Samsung phones survived beyond -20°C.

A major contributing factor that causes smartphones to fail at sub-zero temperatures is the battery. When the temperature drops low enough, mobile phones register that its battery is empty, even if fully charged, and will not turn on.

For those willing to brave the cold, the Samsung Galaxy S II is the smartphone of choice for the arctic climate.

Posted by: James

ZTE Tania now in stock at Clove

You can now pick up the rather nicely priced ZTE Tania over at Clove.  After last weeks price drop it can be yours for £165.83 (£199.99 inc. VAT). Don’t let the price fool you though, its low price tag does not mean low quality.

Key features of the Tania include:

• Windows Phone 7.5

• 1GHz processor

• 4.3 inch display

• 5 megapixel camera with auto focus & flash

• 4GB Internal Memory

• WiFi 802.11b/g/n

• 3G/HSPA

You can order yours today by clicking here.

Posted by: James

A Love story: Google and Motorola Mobility

The Department of Justice gave its seal of approval to Google’s proposed takeover of U.S. cell-phone maker Motorola Mobility on Monday, just hours after European regulators also gave the deal clearance.

The $12.5 billion acquisition positions Google to move into the device market and potentially into more direct competition with companies like Apple.
Google wants to own the hardware to pair with its Android operating system for smartphones, and could use the acquisition to protect patents as well as to develop other devices such as home gaming systems.

“The combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android,” Google’s Don Harrison said in a blog post earlier in the day. “It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences.”

The European Union earlier on Monday approved the deal, which still needs the approval of regulators in several other countries, including China.

Posted by: Gareth

Facebook for Windows Phone gets updated

If you are a Windows Phone user and like to partake in a bit of Facebook action then good news for you today as the Facebook app is updated to version 2.3.

I just checked my HTC Radar and the update wasn’t available so it may take a while to reach us here in the UK but should be today.

• News feed performance improvements
• New panorama design
• New profile design.
• Banner Images
• Improved navigation
• Pages
• Groups
• View “likes”
• Feed filters
• Posting privacy
• Bug fixing

Posted by: James

RIM extends its PlayBook offer for developers

Research in Motion has been giving away BlackBerry PlayBooks to devs for a while now. Due to the overwhelming response they have now extended the offer so if you are an Android dev and fancy porting your app over to the PlayBook you have a little more time to do so.

We knew developers were excited about our latest BlackBerry® PlayBook offer for Android developers when we announced it two weeks ago. You asked that Native C/C++, HTML5, Adobe® AIR®, and Qt developers have a chance to participate and we answered by opening the offer to all developers.

Today was going to be the deadline for the offer – but due to the overwhelming interest in the offer, we’re extending it one more time. How much interest? There have been over 1,500 app submissions as of last Friday and over 6,600 new developers registered in the BlackBerry App World storefront.  We have teams working around the clock to approve vendor registrations and app submissions.  Because of the high demand, approvals are taking longer than normal – we appreciate your patience.

If you’re not a registered BlackBerry App World vendor, you now have until 11:59 PM EST on February 15, 2012 to register at http://appworld.blackberry.com/isvportal.

All vendors (new and existing) now have until 11:59 PM EST on March 2, 2012 to submit your application to BlackBerry App World.

Posted by: James