News

UK Apple Store offers worst prices in Western Europe

Idealo.co.uk has used its knowledge within the price comparison shopping industry to compare worldwide prices of the most popular Apple products . The results of the comparative analysis are quite interesting, particularly for British consumers.

Prices  from all 37 online Apple country stores for the Ipad 2, Macbook Air, ipod Touch, MacBook Pro and iMac were compared. Since the prices for some of the online country stores, such as the United States, do not include VAT, we compared the prices for each online country store both with and without VAT, based on each country’s tax rate .  

The cheapest online Apple store in the world is Malaysia. Its prices ranked the lowest when comparing prices both including and excluding VAT.

Apple stores in Brazil, Czech Republic and Thailand ranked as the three most expensive online Apple stores in the world. These online country stores ranked in the top three for most expensive prices both including and excluding VAT. The average prices excluding VAT for these three online country stores was 28 percent higher than the other online country stores.

More info and analysis charts below:

Sony is the self proclaimed champ of Android tablets

Sony claims that it’s distinctive Android tablets are leading the race to dominate sales in a crowded market. A company spokesman said that Sony’s products accounted for 26% of the UK market in October, the most recent period for which independent data is available. Sony also claims it has had a successful Christmas, but conceded that it was likely to have been beaten on tablet sales by aggressively priced BlackBerry Playbooks.

Wonder if they will learn anything from Blackberry on that strategy?

Posted by: Gareth

Google announces privacy settings change

Google look to be changing their privacy agreement, whether you like it or not. Google said on Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.
Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes. The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users, who are required to log in to Google accounts when they activate their phones.

The change to its privacy policies come as Google is facing competition for the attention of Web users. It recently disappointed investors for the first time in a couple of years, failing last week to meet earnings predictions. Apple,for the same period, reported record earnings on Tuesday that blew past even the most optimistic expectations.

Some said Google’s move is aimed squarely at Apple and Facebook, which have been more successful at capture people’s attention. A Google executive said in an interview that the company wants to create a much more seamless environment across its various offerings. Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy for product and engineering, wrote in a blog post.

If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.

Posted by: Gareth

Is this RIM’s 2012/Q1 2013 road map?

BGR has posted what they believe to be RIM’s roadmap for the coming year or so. Whether the details are correct or not we will have to wait and see but the details look promising. The devices I am actually most intrigued about are the two new Curve’s that BGR are reporting will launch this year. Could these be a successor and in the same price region as the Curve 8520 which nearly every teenager I see has? If so then RIM looks to retain those customers and a low end Curve makes sense to me. Although we now have the Curve 9360 and 9380 they are still a lot more expensive than the 8520 on PAYG/sim free and to be honest that device is a little dated now to say the least with it running OS 5.0, although still hugely popular in many counties including the UK.

Anyway, here is what BGR say we will see:

• RIM plans to introduce two new Curve smartphones within the next few months: the BlackBerry Curve 9230 and the BlackBerry Curve 9320. The 9230 will be an EDGE smartphone and the Curve 9320 will be an HSPA device.
• While we don’t have confirmation on the size, we have heard that RIM will introduce a new PlayBook tablet with 1.5GHz processor, built-in HSPA+ 42Mbps cellular data support and NFC around May or June.
• RIM’s BlackBerry London is still on track for a September launch.
• There is now another BlackBerry 10 smartphone in the works that will launch as part of RIM’s Bold series. The phone features a touchscreen display and QWERTY keyboard, and it is planned for a December release.
• A QWERTY slider running BlackBerry 10 has been talked about for the first quarter of 2013.

Posted by: James

Nokia Lumia 900 coming to the UK

Carphone Warehouse have opened up pre-orders for the Nokia Lumia 900, the device that was announced at CES with a U.S exclusivity to AT&T. Carphone Warehouse are showing the device as arriving in June 2012 so we have a little while to wait. Although pricing is not yet confirmed, as are which carriers will sell the handset, it looks to be a top of the range Windows Phone unless another manufacture announces something better.

The Nokia Lumia 900 has an amazing 4.3" screen ideal for videos and pictures, and an 8MP camera with a super wide lens for spectacular wide angle photos. It’s also capable of recording 720p HD video. The wide lens on the forward facing camera enables great video calls and there’s even built-in voice guided navigation and a music player that finds new music you’ll love.
Stylish and smooth iconic looks.
The 4.3" AMOLED screen of the Nokia Lumia 900 will really catch your eye. ClearBlack display technology makes colours vibrant, super clear and cuts out glare. The one piece body is stylish and sturdy and, along with Corning® Gorilla® Glass protection, the Lumia 900 is one hardy smartphone. Don’t worry about battery life either as there’s a giant 1830mAh battery built-in.

Apple’s lawsuit against the Galaxy Nexus

Apple appears to be up to their same shenanigans, and this time it is something that has been speculated would eventually happen. Apple just filed a lawsuit in the Mannheim Regional Court, claiming that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus violates a utility model by copying their slide-to-unlock motion. Here’s a quote from Electronista with specifics,

The iPhone designer alleged on Friday that the Android 4.0 leader violated a slide-to-unlock motion from iOS that was given the utility model status in Germany in 2006. Apple argued that it couldn’t use the model until now as other phones, even ones years old, were too new for the claim, look at this web-site if you need an attorney.

What is more interesting is that if you look deeper and “read between the lines” this is a new tactic for Apple. In the past most of their lawsuits have been aimed at minor customizations rather than directly at Android functions. This time, by going directly after a primary feature of Android 4.0, Apple is making a statement against Google themselves. This is further reinforced by the fact that the Galaxy Nexus uses a completely stock version of Android rather than one “tweaked” by the OEMs. It’s important not to dismiss this claims outright, because the potential is significant for Android if the court rules in favour of Apple.
Interestingly, this is the exact same court where one of Samsung’s counter-claims against Apple was recently lost. There is a hearing scheduled for March 16. Speculation is that Samsung will likely base their defence around claims of “prior art” from a company called Neonode, which dealt with phones briefly in the past. This is the same strategy that Samsung used against Apple in the Netherlands in 2011.
What really makes a person scratch their head on this one is that the way the Galaxy Nexus’ slide-to-unlock works is very “loose” compared to other phones in the past. Certainly, someone could swipe their fingers in a manner that is similar to what Apple is claiming, but that doesn’t mean they will do it all the time.

Posted by: Gareth

ZTE Tania: At last a budget Windows Phone

In case you missed it, I few days ago ZTE held a small launch event in London where they announced their latest handset, the ZTE Tania. Up until now ZTE have only released smartphones running Android OS but with the Tania that set to change as this puppy run Windows Phone Mango.

The Tania is set to be an ‘affordable’ Windows Phone and there really isn’t yet a packed market place when it comes to Windows Phone so it will be very interesting to see how well it does.

Personally I think it’s a good looking handset and it works well in white even of the noise on Twitter does call it a girly phone with a girly name.

Specs and the press release can be found below:

Vodafone teams up with Yoda

Vodafone UK has today (Wednesday 18 January) announced that it has signed legendary Star Wars character Yoda to appear in its latest adverts.

The 900-year-old Jedi Master will star in a number of TV ads to showcase Vodafone’s innovative new services to ensure that customers get the smartphone that suits them, are able to use it right from the start and then have the confidence to experiment with all its new functions and apps. The first ad premieres on Channel 4 between 8pm and 9pm tomorrow night. The TV ad is supported by a major outdoor and digital campaign that showcases services including RED Box, Data Test Drive, Tech Team and Buyback.

The 60-second launch TV advert focuses on RED Box, a service that automatically transfers contents from an old phone to a new handset. Yoda is seen enthusiastically attempting to use his power to help a couple with the daunting task of transferring numbers to the husband’s new smartphone. However, he soon realises that the Force is not needed, as Vodafone’s new RED Box service has already solved the problem.

Each TV spot has been produced by a team at Lucasfilm’s renowned San Francisco-based visual effects facility ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), with Tom Kane voicing Yoda’s CGI character.

You can see the advert below:

Angry Birds Seasons update next week?

It looks like Angry Birds Seasons will be updated very soon and according to the below video that was uploaded to Rovio’s YouTube channel they are will have a Chinese Year Of The Dragon theme. For 2012 the Chinese New Year is the 23rd of January so fingers crossed the update should roll out for iOS and Android very soon. Now, I wonder if the BlackBerry PlayBook will also get the update?

Posted by: James

Tizen to replace Bada for Samsung?

The word on the street is that Samsung are going to replace their mid range devices with the Tizen OS and not Bada as they currently do.

What on earth is Tizen you may ask. Well, to cut a long story short Tizen is an open source Linux based operating system integrating MeeGo, the Nokia rejected OS.

Samsung have said that the current Bada devices, which have been around since 2010, will be backwards compatible with Tizen and they will produce at least two new Tizen handsets this year.

Let’s see if they show anything off at MWC next month.

Posted by: James