News

Tesco to offer free Wi-Fi in stores

This sounds pretty good. Tesco are the first UK supermarket to be trialing free in store Wi-Fi. This will allow shoppers to browse the web on tablets and laptops while in the shop which could come in jolly handy if your wife/girlfriend takes as long shopping as mine does!

Many large supermarkets are prone to have black spots so another benefit here will be if you have a UMA enabled Smartphone.

A Tesco spokesperson said:

‘We are currently running trials for the new service in four of our stores and if it proved successful it will then be rolled out quickly across all our UK chains.’

Lets hope the other supermarket chains follow suit.

Posted by: James

Orange stocking the BlackBerry PlayBook

If you are looking to pick up the BlackBerry PlayBook you now have another alternative place to purchase one and that is Orange. The network sent me a text message to let me know and in addition they also currently have 20% off accessories at the moment.

If you get the PlayBook you more than likely want to grab a case for it to prevent those unwanted scrapes and scratched.

If the PlayBook is a maybe why not check out our extensive review?

Head over to the Orange store by clicking here.

Posted by: James

HTC open Negotiations with Apple

More news in the on-going saga of Apple vs HTC and today it would see a slight change of tone for HTC. Yesterday CEO Peter Chou took a fairly aggressive stance when asked about HTC’s intentions where Apple were concerned using words like ‘war’ when talking about smartphone dominance and saying that HTC ‘Will win’ the battle.

But today it’s a more diplomatic message from the HTC camp this time with a few comments from CFO Winston Yung. Yung say’s that this company, HTC, are willing to negotiate a deal with Apple over the current patent claims and added that ‘We have to sit down and figure it out. We’re open to having discussions’ and ‘We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable. On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out’

However, if HTC agree a deal with Apple then this does rather leave other Android OEM’s in a rather precarious position, after all it’s not just HTC that are allegedly infrindging upon Apple’s patents and if HTC choose not to make a stand this could spell disaster for the smaller companies that may be unable to to pay fees or to fight an expensive patent war.

Posted by: Matt

Post Tags: [HTC, Apple, Patent infringement, legal battle, tracyandmatt.co.uk]

New Blackberry’s to be announced today

A day after RIM announced they are going to cut 2000 jobs they have also teased us about new devices that should be announced today.

Last night on their Twitter account BlackBerry said the following:

‘You got it! New #BlackBerry devices are coming w/ or new OS, BlackBerry 7! Check back tmrw 4 deets on #BB7FanNight ^CH.’

They also published a teaser on Facebook too:

‘Hey Team BlackBerry, what’s shiny, new and social all over? We want to tell you all about it. Can you guess what it might be? Tune in tomorrow for details!

From various leaks we know a Torch 2 is on the cards as well as a Touch screen only Blackberry. Or could it be the new Curve? Either way we should find out later today at some point.

We will of course bring you any press releases as we get them.

Posted by: James

Get triple minutes with the BlackBerry 9300 from Vodafone

In the market for a new phone? You may want to consider the BlackBerry Curve 9300 from Vodafone because up until the end of the month you can get yourself triple minutes with a new contract!

Before 31st July, 2011 you can make the most of this offer from Vodafone and get the BlackBerry Curve 9300 with 3 times the minutes you would normally get.  The phone is free on any contract from £20.50 per month or more so make the most of this limited offer this month and bag yourself a bargain.

With the Curve’s big keyboard and GPS, typing messages is easier and the 3G web connection makes web browsing and emailing as quick as on your PC. Designed with you in mind – you can also find all your music and websites faster with the media keys and new trackpad.

Click here to view the offers and sign up.

Posted by: James

RIM correct ComScore statistics

Last week ComScore announced OS smartphone growth in the UK from the period May 2010 to May 2011 but it looks like they got it wrong when it comes to the BlackBerry smartphone.

RIM have been quick off the mark to correct the mistake that ComScore made in relation to BlackBerry smartphones sold here in the UK in the above period. RIM have released the following statement:

ComScore estimated that RIM had 3.591 million  BlackBerry subscribers in the UK at the end of May 2011 when in fact RIM’s UK subscriber base at the end of May 2011 stood at just under 7 million subscribers.

RIM is committed to providing its customers with the very best BlackBerry experience and is proud to be the UK’s #1 smartphone brand*.  RIM has experienced strong international growth, with 67% of revenue in Q1 FY12 derived from international markets.  The UK plays an important role in RIM’s international growth along with other countries in EMEA, such as the Netherlands, South Africa, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where BlackBerry also holds #1 smartphone positions*.

GfK data May*

· UK: According to GfK Retail and Technology, BlackBerry was the number one smartphone vendor and number one prepay smartphone vendor in UK in May 2011. The BlackBerry® Curve 8520 was the best selling prepay phone in the UK.

· Netherlands:  According to GfK Retail and Technology, BlackBerry was the number one smartphone vendor and number one prepay smartphone vendor in the Netherlands in May 2011. Over the month, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 was the best selling prepay phone in the Netherlands.

· South Africa: According to GfK Retail and Technology, BlackBerry was the number one smartphone vendor and number one Contract Mobile Phone and Smartphone vendor in South Africa in May 2011. Over the month, the BlackBerry Curve 8520, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and the BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 were the best selling smartphones in South Africa.

· Saudi Arabia: According to GfK Retail and Technology, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 was the best selling smartphone in Saudi Arabia in May 2011.

· UAE: According to GfK Retail and Technology, the BlackBerry BoldT9780 was the best selling smartphone in UAE in May 2011

Posted by: James

HTC Vows to Win Fight with Apple

As we’ve reported a few times over the past few weeks, HTC’s fight with Apple is going to get messy. We’ve already heard that Google are likely to get drawn in to the battle and will be in HTC’s corner but the ITC have provisionally ruled in favour of Apple’s claims on two items.

HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou has made a number of bold statements over the past few days with such sound bites as “We will win” and the claim that HTC has been making smartphones long before Apple.

In speaking to the BBC Mr Chou said "We have enough patents to make a stand," He added that the "war" for smartphone dominance should be fought in the market place and not the courts.

The ITC’s finial decision will be made at the beginning of December. The decision will be made by a panel of judges rather than just one as per the prelim.

"What it means, we started making smartphones before him… (Apple) We don’t want to copy anyone; we want to be a premium product. This world, this market is very big… is for all of us. Nobody should tell other people to leave and we should compete in the market place, let consumers decide… rather than in court."

Personally speaking, I like both HTC and Apple products and accept that neither are perfect but I cant help feeling that Apple’s claims against HTC merely validate HTC’s presence in the market and puts HTC’s name in the same headlines as Apple. A win here for HTC will be a valuable one!

Posted by: Matt

iOS 5 beta 4 lands, updates OTA

In keeping with previous fortnightly updates Apple have made the latest Beta version of iOS 5 available to members of their developer programme. Unlike past updates this latest, beta 4, is the first to be made available via the over-the-air (OTA) update system which iOS 5 promises.

If you tried earlier today you’ll have found the OTA update giving nothing but an error message: ‘Unable to check for Update’. However later this afternoon the OTA update seems to have started working. I’m currently downloading on my iPhone 4 as we speak. However the OTA update doesn’t appear to be the most efficient means of delivery. It has been ‘downloading’ for the past 3 hours whereas downloading the update through the traditional method from the developer site took far less time.

There’s a full list of changes to be found on the Apple dev site but the headline items are so far:

• The aforementioned OTA installation support
• Video content in all applications and websites should now be AirPlay-enabled by default
• Wireless syncing now works with Windows

I’m hoping that the stability of iOS 5 is improved in this release!

Posted by: Matt

Archos G9 tablets get priced

Whilst they are all priced in that currency that’s Americaland like to use this give us a bit of an idea of what to expect from the devices. The last generation of Archos tablets were a little disappointing when it came to the build quality with numerous returns. This incarnation might be priced a little higher but the high specs might mean that some cuts have to be made in the quality of the manufacturing process.

They are certainly good looking and the idea of a 1.5GHz dual core processor is on top of the rest of the market.

Archos 80 G9

• 8 GB – 1 GHz $299
• 16 GB – 1.5 GHz $329
• 250 GB – 1.5 GHz $369

Archos 101 G9

• 8 GB – 1 GHz $369
• 16 GB – 1.0 GHz $399
• 250 GB – 1.5 GHz $469

Posted by: Gareth

Lenovo Ideapad and Thinkpad announced

While Lenovo does not have much experience with Android, it has managed to bring some good quality Honeycomb tablets to the table. These tablets are sporting some good specs, whilst not being anything particularly out of the norm, as well as bringing some good Android tablet options for both the general consumer and the businessman.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Specifications

• Android 3.1 Honeycomb
• 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor
• 10.1-inch screen (1280×800)
• Internal Storage: 32 GB

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

• Android 3.1 Honeycomb
• 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 10.1-inch screen (1280×800)
• Internal Storage: 16/32 GB
• Enterprise Ready
• Full-sized SD Card slot, full-sized USB port, and mini HDMI port

Posted: by Gareth