News

Pre-order the ZTE Skate from Clove

It was only last week that Matt and I attended a press event in London hosted by ZTE where they announced that ZTE branded devices will be on sale here in the UK in the near future. The chaps at Clove already have the Skate available for pre-order and at only £249.99 (inc VAT) this one looks like a real bargain. This price is still to be confirmed nearer the time and a release date is not until September but I think this huge Android device is going to do real well.

Of course we will see the ZTE Skate sooner as it is coming to the Orange network but renamed as the Monte Carlo. We are yet to see what Orange will do in terms of a custom UI but if you want pure vanilla Android then you may have to wait for the sim free version.

Either way it is great to see ZTE pushing brand awareness. I think they are here for the long run.

Features of ZTE Skate:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 800 MHz processor
• 4.3" capacitive touchscreen
• 800 x 480 resolution
• MicroSDHC up to 32 GB
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• 5 MP camera with autofocus and flash
• aGPS and Google Maps
• 126 x 68 x 11.3 mm

Posted by: James

OS X Lion goes on sale along with a new MacBook Air and Mac Mini

I guess the post title here steals it but this afternoon, after what seems like a long delay, Apple released OS X Lion through the App Store for all to download. The great thing about what Apple have done here is that they are offering Lion for a little over £20 and furthermore you can install it on more than one Mac, as long as it’s yours.

We’ll look at some of the new features of Lion at some point soon.

Also today the Apple Store was updated with new MacBook Air and Mac Mini models. As expected both now have the new Thunderbolt ports and Sandybridge. Processors now start at with 1.6GHz Intel core i5 up to quad core 2.0GHz i7 in the top of the range Mac Mini.

Even more surprising though is the price, the entry level MacBook Air is down to just £729.60 while the Mac Mini starts at £476.40.

We’ll have our hands on these for review VERY soon too!

Posted by: Matt

Carphone Warehouse to target business customers

The Carphone Warehouse are having a purge on signing up business users by targeting local sole traders and SME customers with what it claims is the widest range of phones, tablets, networks and tariffs available.

As well as the networks standard business tariffs, CPW will also offer there own business tariffs which will either be unique to them or cheaper than competitors. And to top things off they will offer a price promise as well as a 14-day coverage guarantee. With the added bonus of Carphones ‘Walk Out Working’ service it seems that small business users really could benefit from visiting Carphone Warehouse to discuss the options available.

We should see some ‘dedicated business areas’ being trialed in stores later this year.

Posted by: James

Google+ app for the iPhone available

Many of us have now got acquainted with Google’s new social network, Google+, but I am sure I am not alone in finding it slightly frustrating that it is only Android users that get a proper G+ app. Well not any longer as the iOS app has been given the go ahead from Apple and is available to download for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I have only just downloaded it so a little early to give much of an opinion but it looks good.

I am sure we will do a little review in the coming weeks.

Click here from your iPhone to download.

UPDATE: The app has already had an update so make sure you have version 1.0.1.1809

Posted by: James

BlackBerry PlayBook gets an update

The BlackBerry PlayBook gets a software update pretty often but this one has some nice new features I thought are worthy of a mention. This new version, OS v1.0.7, brings us BBC News and BBC iPlayer web icon (shortcuts) which will be pre-installed. Sure it would be nice to see proper BBC apps one day but to be honest as the Playbooks web browser is so awesome it doesn’t really matter.

As well as the BBC gubbins the below features are also added in this update:

Improved connectivity & productivity with the BlackBerry Bridge application

• Enhanced Support for Saving Attachments – The BlackBerry® BridgeT app offers you more flexibility around where and how you save attachments for viewing and editing. You can now save an attachment to a removable SD card, or to your BlackBerry smartphone’s internal flash memory.
• ZIP Attachment Support – The BlackBerry Bridge app now gives you access to ZIP files received as an email attachment. While bridged, you can now download a zip file from an email to your smartphone SD card and then extract compressed contents for viewing or editing on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Google to stand with HTC against Apple patent claims

As it has been widely reported, HTC’s share price has fallen considerably following the ITC’s preliminary decision to uphold Apple’s claims that HTC have violated a number of it patents with technology used in several HTC smartphones currently on sale.

However, for HTC it would seem help is at hand from Google. During Google’s Mobile Evolution conference held in Tokyo chairman, Eric Schmidt, delivered a speech wherein he said that Google would support HTC against Apple and that he was confident that ‘HTC would ultimately prevail over Apple.’

Following the statement HTC shares have recovered somewhat this afternoon.

If the ITC’s final decision goes against HTC it could lead to the sales of HTC handsets being blocked in the USA and, by association, spells big trouble for all manufacturers that use Android OS on their phones.

Desktop SMS for Android Beta available.

Koush has recently been working on a solution for making our lives easier when it comes to sending and receiving SMS messages on multiple devices. They just released an application entitled DesktopSMS. You can choose to use the service via Gmail or via Gchat or both as well as others:

You can use your favourite IM client (Beejive, Trillian, etc) or email client to send text messages from your phone number!

• Step 1) Install Desktop SMS on your *phone*.
• Step 2) Install a chat client or use gmail on your desktop PC or tablet (like a XOOM)
• Step 3) Have a friend send you an SMS, and respond from your desktop PC or tablet!

This is an open beta, so be prepared for bugs.

Although the app is now available for you to try, it is still in an open BETA status. Which means there might still be some bugs to work out. @Koush will be all over making this flawless and wonderful, have no fear of that.

If you want to get going with this app, go check out his site app.net/desktopsms and get the install needed to get going.

Posted by: Gareth

iUsers gives iPad multiple user profile support

If you share you iPad with one or more other people then you’ll know that there is nothing more annoying than when they alter all of your user settings and move your icons.

There is a solution right around the corner though as iUsers creates multiple user profiles and adds a log in button to your iPad. It sets aside an area for each users preferences and app data so you each can have their own unique setup.

There is just one drawback though. In order to use iUsers you must have a jailbroken iPad and download the app through Cydia. Probably not ideal for the masses perhaps.

I’d love to see this released though the Apple App Store but I fear there is little hope of that, there is more chance that Apple will add the functionality natively than that.

If you want to see iUsers in action check out the video below.

Windows Phone powered ZTE phone images leaked

A few days ago James and I went to an event in London where ZTE announced that they would commence selling their phones here in the UK SIM-free under their own brand name rather than through carriers.

The new phones that ZTE are going to launch here, ZTE Skate, ZTE Libra and ZTE Tureis, are all running Android. In fact I don’t think I have ever seen any ZTE handset running anything other than Android.

However! There have been a number of leaked images of a certain ZTE phone running Windows Phone thought to be one of a few new devices to be running the new ‘Mango’ version of Windows Phone.

According to a post on NEOWIN:

Dr. Luo Zhong Sheng, General Manager of Mobile Communications at ZTE gave us a better look at the upcoming ZTE device that will also be running Mango out of the box. The image he posted on Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) seems to be quite a lot different than the image taken at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 last week. He also mentioned that whilst ZTE produce Android devices already, he believes Windows Phone will eventually outperform Android in terms of market share.

We look forward to seeing what ZTE have in store for us!

Posted by: Matt

HTC are in Violation of Apple patents say ITC

Earlier this week news broke that Apple were suing HTC again over alleged patent infringements. Apple approached the US International Trade Commission complaining that a number of HTC’s phones, including the EVO 4G and HTC Flyer used technology for which Apple owned the patent.

The gears turn quickly at the ITC it would seem as they have already ruled in favour of Apple. A judges initial determinations was that HTC are indeed infringing upon two of the ten patents that Apple filed a claim over. The ITC must now make a final ruling on the complaint but if they rule again in favour of Apple this could lead to a number of HTC’s handsets being banned from sale in the US.

HTC have already said they would appeal against the decision:

HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision," said Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC. "This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings.

If Apple are successful in this case it could have much further reaching consequences for manufacturers that use Android on their devices and indeed for the platform as a whole.

One of the complaints deals with the “ability to scroll, zoom, and rotate content on a screen, while the last references "portable computers."

We’ll watch this one closely!