News

Orange Film to Go

We know that Orange are already kind enough to offer us Orange Wednesdays where customers can get into the cinema with a two for one offer. Well now Thursdays are a good movie day too as Orange have launched Film to Go. The new service will enable Orange customers to request a code via SMS, which will allow them to rent a movie from iTunes each Thursday. The movie needs to be watched within 30 days of download and like normal once you start watching the rental will expire after 48 hours.

How cool is that!

Click here to head over to the Orange Film to Go page for further details.

Posted by: James

HTC to launch 6 new handsets this quarter

Fantastic news if you are a fan of HTC’s phones as much as I am as earlier this week HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou, stated that the company will be launching between 6 and 8 new smartphones in this quarter.

That’s a whole lot of phones for any company to launch in one period so I cant wait to see what they have up their sleeves. We expect it will include a number of the rumoured handsets that we’ve seen over the past few months including the HTC Vigor, with it’s 1.5GHz dual core CPU and 720p display, and HTC Bliss, rumoured ‘ladies phone’, most likely.

We’re also hoping to see a few new handsets running Windows Phone Mango, there haven’t been any new Windows Phone devices launched for a while.

Reports also say that HTC will be steering clear of the lower end of the handset market concentrating instead on mid to high-end premium devices, something that HTC excels at. They don’t seem to be so good with the lower-end devices as even with limited spec the cost always seems too high.

We’ll come back with updates as we get them! I’m looking forward to a few more HTC launch events over the coming months! 🙂

Posted by: Matt

The new BlackBerry Smartphones – Which to choose?

Unless you have not looked at the internet in the last week or so you will be aware that Research in Motion are launching Three new BlackBerry Smartphones here in the UK in the very near future. All three are running the new version of the Operating System, BlackBerry 7 but the question is which one do you decide to buy.

To make things a little easier I just thought I would post what we know about the new devices in one place. That way comparing them and seeing which one will suit you best will hopefully be made a little easier. Of course, you do not have to rush your decision. We don’t have any confirmed dates for release yet although it is pretty certain to say that the Bold 9900 will be first. Dates are being left up to the carriers here in the UK so I would imagine that some networks will launch before others.

You can see the key features and photos of all three new handsets below:

BlackBerry App World 3.0 hits Beta Zone

If you are a member of the BlackBerry Beta Zone then good news. Team App World has been working hard on improving your BlackBerry app experience. BlackBerry App World 3.0 is now available in BlackBerry Beta Zone for BlackBerry smartphone users.

This new version has a totally new look to it, one that is overdue if you ask me. The home screen gets a brand new design with a dedicated search bar at the top of the screen so finding a particular app is only seconds away.

There is a new top-level channels in BlackBerry App World. Games and BlackBerry Themes are our two most popular categories, so they have been promoted to the Home Screen. Within these new channels, you’ll find another carousel of Spotlight Banners for featured apps, sub categories, and top 25 lists (“Free”, “Paid”, “Recently Updated”, and “New”).

The featured carousel has always been the first place to look for awesome new apps, – and it has been expanded in BlackBerry App World 3.0 to make it easier to find what’s new and what’s hot from the great universe of BlackBerry developers. Each month, you’ll see a fresh list of the best in BlackBerry apps, games and themes.

You can now quickly swipe between app summaries, screenshots, and reviews – all in one screen. Found an app you like and want to share it with the rest of #TeamBlackBerry? Instantly send to your Twitter timeline, Facebook wall, email, SMS, or to a BBMT Contact or Group.

Want to get your hands on BlackBerry App World 3.0? Head over to BlackBerry Beta Zone and sign up today (please note that you must reside in one of the BlackBerry Beta Zone supported countries where BlackBerry App World is supported in order to participate in the latest beta release)!

More screen shots can be found below:

HTC files Patent claim against Apple in UK

Just two weeks after Apple’s claim against HTC in the US was provisionally upheld by the ITC, HTC have now retaliated by filing a patent-violating lawsuit against the Apple with the High Court of Justice in London. If you want to learn more about the legal implications of a copyright violation, get some copywriting training online.

The exact details of the claim here in the UK are as yet unknown but certainly looks like a tit-for-tat exchange of claims.

It perhaps makes perfect sense that HTC would file here as the UK is the largest market for HTC in Europe.

One assumes that if HTC are successful here in the UK and Apple successful in the US, in respect of their individual claims, that the two sides would seek some mutual agreement to nullify the the effects on both side of the pond.

We’ll continue to watch this one with interest!

Posted by: Matt

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hitting retailers

Vodafone have it up for pre-order, with no prices listed, however Dixons have it ready for purchase including a list of prices for all the alternate models. Starting at £399 and rising, gradually to £659. The device has a number of different variants, wifi, 3G, Black, White, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB.

Prices aren’t terribly surprising and are priced at exactly that of the iPad 2. I guess this is a sensible move, however, given that most people pay a premium for Apple products it will be interesting to see if Samsung can capture a decent percentage of the market. I guess they can drop the prices and rally up a bit more custom in the months running up to Christmas.

Posted by Gareth

Some pics of the iPhone 5?

Probably is a fake but for now we’ll reserve judgement.  Apparently, on Thursday of last week two cases were revealed for the new generation of the iPhone, how exactly the case manufacturer knew the design is still unclear but they are confident enough in their prediction to start producing the cases ready for the new iPhone.

However, this week it appears Gizmodo, the guys who had the pre-production iPhone 4, posted the pictures below. The device looks real enough and in keeping with current design trends we are observing of Apple. It could, and more likely, be a self-referential joke by Giz to their situation with the iPhone 4 before it’s launch.

I have attached all the images below, including the fabled cases, for your judgement.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 in October?

As we ready our The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer review (for the second time) we find out that ASUS is thinking about their next generation Transformer could be out as early as October.

Not much detail was given on what this updated version of the Transformer will be packing. Speculation is that it will have a next generation quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and possibly the next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Ice Cream Sandwich is the convergence of Honeycomb and Android for smartphones. Ice Cream Sandwich(ICS) is set to work on all devices such as tablets, phones, Google TV devices, and more. With the success of their first Honeycomb tablet, Google might be giving ASUS early access to ICS as they did with Honeycomb for Motorola. Hopefully ASUS will continue to be competitive with pricing for this new device.

Posted by Gareth

Smartphone addiction taking over

More than a third of British adults who own a smartphone have admitted they are "highly addicted" to it and cannot bear to put it down, not even in the toilet.

Research for the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has found new evidence of how devices such as iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids affect our behaviour.

Smartphone users are more likely to have their phones switched on 24 hours a day and would wake up in the night to answer or use it.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have also lead to owners cutting down on their TV viewing and reading.

Six out of 10 smartphone users aged 12 to 15-years-old, or 60%, said they had a high level of addiction, compared to 33% with a regular mobile phone.

The Ofcom communications market report for 2011 says 18% of users will use their device in a theatre or cinema despite knowing it should be switched off – this compares to 10% of other mobile phone users. Facebook is taking up people’s time during the day.

The report also found evidence of smartphones blurring the divide between work and holidays with 30% regularly taking personal calls during working hours.

And using an iPhone or Blackberry at a social event or in the bathroom is also common. Almost half (47%) of teengers with a smartphone said they had used it in the toilet.

The top three activities used regularly by teenage smartphone owners were social networking, listening to music and playing games, with emails, internet surfing and social networking the most popular activities for adult smartphone owners.

More than a quarter of British adults, or 27%, are smartphone users, representing an estimated 12 million users, according to the Ofcom report.

The Apple iPhone is the most popular brand overall but BlackBerry or ‘Crackberry’ handsets are the most popular choice among younger consumers.

Are you an addict? I know I am.

Source: Sky News

Posted by James

Skype for iPad at last!

After a bit of a false start yesterday, first being then released and the removed from the App Store, one of the apps I have been most eagerly awaiting has been made available at last. I’m talking, of course, about Skype for iPad.

Previously the only way to use Skype on the iPad was to use the iPhone specific app. Whilst obviously this was workable it was, frankly, far from ideal as with other iPhone apps that run on the iPad it simply used display doubling in order to get it full screen.

Fortunately the new iPad app makes excellent use of the larger iPad display and working in a similar way to the mail app with a two-pane interface.

Looks awesome and works well even with the camera on the iPad 2. If you have an iPad then it’s definitely worth a look!

Posted by: Matt