News

ALK release CoPilot Live Premium for iPhone and iPad

We’ve reviewed CoPilot in the past and have been impressed with its user interface, map views and general map accuracy. I’ve been using the UK version in my iPhone for some time and have the USA version on my iPad 2 for those trips abroad.

Today ALK got in touch with me to let me know about their latest version of the CoPilot Live, the new Premium edition which includes new features such as Personal Routes, Active Traffic and social network integration so you can check in with Facebook places via the app.

What’s more, for the next 7 days you can get 50% off the already low price making UK & Ireland maps just £14.99 for unlimited use and the European maps version for £29.99.

More details of the new features follow. Head on over to the App Store to download.

Microsoft ‘charging forward with Nokia’

According to a statement made by Microsoft’s Steve Balmer the company is ‘Charging forward with Nokia’. This sound bite was from the Imagine Cup 2011 conference held on 8th July.

Mt Balmer goes on to talk about the next version of Windows Phone 7 and the next generation of phones running WP7 that will ship towards the end of this year. We’re looking forward to see what Nokia and Microsoft have in store for us and to testing the first phones released as a result of the partnership.

You can see an extract from the speech below or head over to Microsoft.com for the full thing.

HTC to unlock bootloaders from August

I’m sure you’ll remember the statement that HTC’s CEO Peter Chou made back in May about reconsidering their position on looking the bootloaders on their Android phones. This was good news for anyone wanting to load customer ROMs on to their handsets as it makes the process a whole lot easier and reduces the likelihood of ‘bricking’ the phone.

In an update made via their Facebook page (see below) HTC announced that they are going to provide an unlocked bootloader for the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D some time during August. They will do this via a series of firmware updates.

The HTC EVO 3D will go on sale here in the UK during the same times frame so we wonder if it will ship here with an unlocked bootloader or will require a later update?

Research from Protect your bubble shows that Dance fans are most at risk of losing their mobile at festivals this year

Protectyourbubble.com, the gadget insurance specialist, has found that 1 in 4 festival goers will lose something. Dance fans are the worst with over one in 10 losing their mobile at a festival (12%), despite 43% owning an expensive iPhone.

Protectyourbubble.com polled Wireless Festival goers, quizzing music fans of the different genres to find out how likely they are to lose their phone and other items. Hip Hop fans, though losing their mobiles slightly less (9%), place themselves at the most risk, with 29% bringing along BlackBerry’s and over 70% admitting to not having any mobile phone insurance cover at all. 84% of the group also confessed to drinking over 7 pints of lager at a festival, placing their gadgets in even bigger danger. Twice as many gadgets are lost from ‘drunken incidents’ (56%) than through being stolen (21%) or dropped (12%).

Pimms-drinking Pop fans are the most likely to look after their gadgets with them half as likely to have their phone stolen and one in three (35 per cent) having specific mobile phone insurance cover. They also bring the least money with most (61%) bringing under £40 to a festival compared to Dance fans who flash the cash with 15% spending well over £80 on the day. On average people spend £54.65 at a festival.

Rock fans are the most loyal fans with 32% travelling over 100 miles for the day. They are also the most likely to leave their iPhone at home with 29% bringing cheap ‘dumb phones’ to a festival with them. They are the most likely to lose other items at a festival though, with 8% losing their shoes and 5% losing their girlfriend or boyfriend.

Warning over Facebook video calling scam

Earlier this week Facebook announced a tie-up with Skype that’s resulted in a video calling service, for full video chat, within the Facebook web interface. I haven’t tried this out yet but I’m looking forward to doing so.

However, since the announcement a raft of scams relating to the video chat service have plagued Facebook. These fake applications within Facebook are nothing to do with the official service but instead offer the promise of video chat but are, in fact, rogue ‘apps’ asking you for access to you personal information, permission to post on your wall and read your posts!

So just a word of warning, if you see a post on your wall or in your profile saying ‘Enable Video Calls’ or similar avoid it like the plague! If you’ve already succumbed to the temptation then head in to your settings and revoke privileged access to the naughty scammers!

Posted by: Matt

BlackBerry SDK update

If you are a BlackBerry developer or it is something to are looking to pursue then the following news from RIM will be of interest.

RIM has announced the availability of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK v 2.1 for BlackBerry Smartphones. This update comes shortly after the introduction of the BlackBerry® WebWorksT SDK v 2.1 for Tablet OS [http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/06/blackberry-webworks-sdk-tablet-os-version-2-1/] and brings similar functionality and APIs to the BlackBerry® Smartphone OS. 

The new capabilities that WebWorks developers can now leverage include NTML & BASIC Authentication support, Camera API, Top Banner Indicator API, Enhanced Push APIs and improved rendering speeds for some applications. The APIs enable web developers to deeply integrate with the BlackBerry Smartphone OS and thereby build feature rich apps that offer more immersive and interactive end user experiences. Other benefits developers can derive from the new application functionality and APIs are better app monetization, diversified development approaches, support for standardized security and better integration with the widely popular BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) Social Platform.

Developers can learn more about the new APIs at http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/07/blackberry-webworks-sdk-smartphones-v2-1 and can download the latest WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry Smartphones at http://us.blackberry.com/developers/browserdev/widgetsdk.jsp.

Posted by: James

RIM are not struggling on this side of the pond.

Despite sales of BlackBerry Smartphones being on the decline in North America it is encouraging for us BlackBerry fans to see that in Europe, the Middle East and Africa things are going the other way. The below statement was tweeted by Research in Motion the other day and it looks like they are pretty proud of themselves.

“BlackBerry continues momentum across EMEA with 1 Million+ new subscribers added in less than 3 weeks,”

I am seeing negative articles daily across the web and this just goes to show that although our friends over in America are ditching BlackBerry for the likes of Android and iOS, RIM are still generating new customers. With 13.2 million BlackBerry Smartphones being shipped in the last quarter RIM are far from doomed. Don’t get me wrong, I do agree that the devices they are producing are lagging behind the competition and the sooner they can show us a Smartphone running QNX the better. Until then I shall still be carrying my trusty BlackBerry.

Posted by: James

Swype on Jailbroken iPhones

If you’ve been following the iOS jailbreak scene you’ll no doubt know that iOS 4.3.3 has now been jailbroken on the iPad, iPad 2 and iPhone 4! Now we can debate the legalities of the jailbreak and the reasons why you might want to do that with your phone but there is no denying that there are some really cool applications out there available through the unofficial sources that just wouldn’t be allowed in the app store.

One such example of this comes to light today where some clever soul, hacker Andrew Liu, has managed to port the popular Android keyboard alternative, Swype, to iOS.

Now I would absolutely love it if Apple would allow these alternative keyboards, especially on the iPad where there is plenty of room for an extra row of keys for the numbers.

For a demo of Swype in use on the iPhone, have a look at the video below.

Facebook confirms Skype video chat

We reported a few days ago that we suspected that Facebook would be adding a full video chat service thanks to some kind of partnership with Skype. Today Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg confirmed all the speculation and confirmed that video chat will soon be added to Facebook.

For now the video chat feature will be limited to a one-on-one service but in the words of Mr Zuckerberg

…it was likely that other "premium" Skype functions would be added in future.

Premium services could include team or group video conferencing or maybe video voicemail? We’ll keep you updated on this story as it develops and look forward to testing the new service out!

Posted by: Matt

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9″ delayed

The original 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab was a pretty big success. The 10.1" counterpart, whilst meeting with good reviews, seems to be suffering from a few hardware flaws when subjected to prolonged use. However, now we hear that the 8.9" version will be delayed for a few weeks. Samsung are not saying why yet but a Samsung spokesperson was quoted to have said:

Those who are eagerly awaiting the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, must still wait a bit. The official date is delayed by a few weeks in mid-August.

There are rumours Samsung are experiencing display panel shortages. Funnily, Samsung haven’t had a problem swapping out display panels in devices during the manufacturing process in the past.
Whatever the reason we have our fingers crossed that the device will be delayed the minimum amount of time possible as it looks set to be one of the more exciting devices coming our way.

Posted by: Gareth