News

BlackBerry PlayBook price drop

If you are in the market for a 7 inch tablet the BlackBerry PlayBook may well be worth considering. At most UK retailers you can pick up the 16GB model for only £169.

Worth baring in mind though is that at the moment you can only take full advantage of all its features if you have a BlackBerry Smartphone, but luckily here in the UK millions of you have.

The price drop is down from £399 so quite a saving. With version 2.0 of the QNX powered tablet software on the horizon we also mustn’t forget that Android applications will be supported soon.

If you are a regular reader of our site, or listen to our podcast, you will know I still love my PlayBook and it is my tablet of choice.

Why not pop into Carphone Warehouse, Currys, Dixons etc and see if you can get a test drive. I think you may be quite pleasantly surprised.

You can read our full BlackBerry PlayBook review here.

Posted by: James

Google Nexus S for a bargain price

The Nexus S may well now have been overshadowed by the Galaxy Nexus but if you are after some Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0, then Carphone Warehouse have the Nexus S sim free for only £199.95!

I picked one of these up a few weeks ago now and to be honest it has replaced my iPhone 4.  The Nexus S does come pre loaded with Gingerbread but the ICS update has already started rolling out and you can force it on anyway. Samsung made two versions of the Nexus S. One with a Super AMOLED screen and one with a Super LCD. I’m not sure which version is the one at CPW but either way it is a super deal.

If you are looking for a New Year bargain then I think this one is a real beauty. Go on, treat yourself.

You can see the full spec below along with our unboxing video.

Windows Phone Marketplace grows to 50,000 apps

While the Windows Marketplace is the newest major app store, it has managed to receive quite a hefty amount of developer support. At the moment, it’s still nowhere near the giants such as the Android Market or iOS App Store, but both had a jumpstart on Windows Phone. A more useful view would be to see how quickly that 50k milestone was reached – as it happens, the Windows Phone Marketplace got there in just 14 months, which is only beaten by iOS in the mobile app count race. In fact, the number of apps entering the Marketplace in the last 3 weeks has been almost twice that of the weeks before. Well done MS.

Post by: Vince

More on Nokia’s Lumia 900

We looked at the new Nokia Lumia 800 a few weeks ago and rumours of the Lumia 900 have been rife for weeks. Said to be a larger version of the Windows Phone 7 powered Lumia 800 but with a 4.3″ display coming in as the flagship WP7 handset.

No official news on the Lumia 900 as yet but a few new interesting tit-bits have surfaced of the last day or so. The chaps over at Pocket-lint have uncovered some interesting looking marketing material.

The leaked images, discovered just before Christmas were billed as the Nokia Lumia 800 coming in an array of new colours – yellow and white if you are interested.

However Pocket-lint believes, on closer inspection, that the marketing images found by French site MonWindowsPhone are in fact of the Nokia Lumia 900, not the Lumia 800.

Head over to Pocket-lint to see more.

Posted by: Matt

Blackberry Playbook dirt cheap

It seems the sales season is starting early! Both Carphone Warehouse and Currys are selling the Blackberry Playbook 16GB for an insane £169.00. In addition to the Sale-O-Rama Currys are giving anyone who picks it up £50 off voucher.

The 64GB version is £329 on the site, so if you were to buy the 16Gb for your granny then you could get a 64GB version for £280 and be a happy Elf.

Posted by: Gareth

Samsungs to get Ice Cream Sandwich

Samsung today announced that they will be updating a slew of Galaxy devices to Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich early next year. The ICS update is scheduled for Q1 of 2012 for the following devices:

• GALAXY S II
• GALAXY S II LTE
• GALAXY Note
• GALAXY R
• GALAXY Tab 10.1
• GALAXY Tab 8.9
• GALAXY Tab 7.7
• GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus

Samsung indicated that the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will get the update first, then the others will follow at some time within that quarter. They made no specific announcement of which territory will receive the update first. Considering that it is just a software update, you would think they could release them simultaneously, although that could stretch their servers thin.

Posted by: Gareth

Angry Birds arrives for the BlackBerry PlayBook

This one has been a while coming but good news PlayBook owners. Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio are now all in BlackBerry App World.

Priced at £4.99 each they are not cheap but they do bring hours of fun. I have already downloaded ‘seasons’ and I can say it is as smooth and fluid as on other platforms and feels great playing it on the 7 inch tablet.

This just goes to prove what a wonderful OS QNX really is.

You can see a few more screen shots below.

Festive BlackBerry bargains

I just popped over to the UK BlackBerry website where they have links for some pretty good deals on BlackBerry Curves, the 9360 and 9300.

The links are through various retailers/networks but the prices look pretty keen both on contract and on pay as you go.

You can pick up the BlackBerry Curve 9360 on PAYG for only £219 which is the cheapest I have seen it. Or alternatively contract prices start from  £20.50 per month.

Why not head over to the site here and maybe grab yourself a last minute Christmas gift?

You can see a few examples below:

Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook updated to v2.1

The latest update to Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet – version 2.1 – launched today in the BlackBerry App World. It now includes a much-requested feature from #TeamBlackBerry – Facebook Groups.

That’s right, listening to and incorporating your feedback on the application is very important to the Facebook app team at Research In Motion.

If you haven’t already downloaded Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet v2.1, you can do so by going to BlackBerry App World (keep in mind it may take up to 24 hours for the new version to appear for some users although it is showing up here in the UK). Let’s take a look at what’s new in this release, shall we?

Facebook for iPhone updated to version 4.1

If you are a Facebook user you may want to check your phone for updates. The most impressive feature, in my opinion, if that it now supports Timeline. If you are not aware of Timeline then just take a look at the screenshot to the right of this post. Essentially it will show your Facebook page in a new layout which although at first looks weird it is actually pretty cool.

Also included in the update:

– Access to Mobile Timeline on iPhone (if you already have a timeline). iPad support coming soon. Get your own timeline here: fb.me/tml
– Access to friend lists, subscribers and subscriptions
– Faster, better performance
– Photos are easier to view, upload and comment

Posted by: James