News

ZiiLab’s Jaguar tablet look good on paper

The Computex tradeshow is about to start in Taipei and Ziilabs has put together a couple of Android based tablets they’re calling Jaguars. This family of Honeycomb tablets is built specifically to showcase their new ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 StemCell processors and they’re hoping manufacturers will take notice.

The tablets will come in 2 flavours, a 7-inch (1024×600) and 10.1-inch (1280×800) displays with both featuring front and rear facing 5MP cameras. But the real bread and butter is in Ziilabs’ StemCell processors. Both are based off of  the ARM Cortex A-9 platform and come in a dual-core (ZMS-20) and quad-core (ZMS-40) flavors. Would be interesting to see these tablets running some high-end benchmarks.

Posted by Gareth

White Sony Ericsson Xperia Play available on O2

If you are on O2 and have been waiting for the Xperia Play to be released then today is your lucky day. The device is the White variant which looks pretty tasty.

On contract you can pick up the device from free, depending on the contract. PAYG is £429.99 which isn’t cheap but is inline with many other flagship devices.

You can view the full details here.

Posted by: James

Nokia E6 available fro pre-order

Nokias new front facing QWERTY handset, the E6, is now available to pre-order from the Nokia website. SIM-free for £349 is a pretty attractive price for this new Symbian power house which will ship with Nokias new ‘Anna’ update pre installed. If sales of the previous ‘E’ series phones are anything to go by this one should do very well.

• Quick facts

• Real QWERTY key pad
• Ultra-crisp touch screen
• Create, edit and share Microsoft office docs on the go
• PDF reader
• Real time work and personal emails
• Auto sync email with your Microsoft Outlook account
• Chat to your business colleagues with Microsoft Office Communicator
• Free lifetime walk and drive GPS navigation with turn-by-turn voice guidance
• Pre-loaded with apps for Facebook, Twitter, business, maps and more
• Live social networking feeds direct to your home screen
• Customise your home screen with one touch shortcuts to your favourite apps
• Unbeatable battery life
• 1000s more apps for work and play available for download from the Ovi Store

Posted by: James

Brits spend 11 hours 48 minutes per day staring at a screen!

New research out today reveals that Brits now spend more time per day staring at screens (11.8 hours) than sleeping (7.3 hours), due to the explosive growth of tablet computers, smartphones and e-readers.
In the esure home insurance ‘Square Eyes’ poll, 61 per cent of the participants reported withdrawal symptoms if they cut down on their screen use or did not have access to one of their screens.  Frustration was the most common symptom reported (36 per cent), followed by restlessness (26 per cent) and feelings of isolation (17 per cent).
The average Brit spends three hours per day watching TV, 4.7 hours in front of computers and 1.2 hours looking at their phones.  More than two thirds (69 per cent) of Brits say that they regularly ‘multi-screen’ by using more than one piece of technology at the same time, such as using their phone while watching television.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Arc Android update rolling out

Android 2.3.3 has started to roll out on the Xperia arc and PLAY. The update brings a number of improvements and fixes, as well as Sony Ericsson’s ‘Facebook Inside Xperia’.

Optimizations and fixes include:

• Battery performance
• General software stability
• Wi-Fi stability
• HD Video recording performance (Xperia arc)
• Touch responsiveness

Full details on this update and how it is being rolled out are available on the Sony Ericsson product blog: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2011/05/26/update-on-facebook-inside-xperia/

Posted by: James

The giant Vodafone truck that can charge 2000 handsets at one time

If you’ve been to a festival or large open-air event, you will know that keeping your mobile phone charged can be a potential nightmare.

Solutions have come in the form of independent companies setting up camps and charging festival-goers to power their smartphones so that they could remain contactable and use them to snap photos of their favourite bands.

However, one truck looks set to change all that.

The Vodafone VIP recharging truck is heading to 11 festivals this year, offering Vodafone customers with the opportunity to charge their mobile devices, completely free of charge. The 44 tonne vehicle can charge 2,000 devices at any one time (as quickly as it would at home) and is expected to charge over 72,000 mobile devices this summer alone.

If you’re a Vodafone customer at a festival and you own an Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or Nokia device, this is what you need to look out for. For more information about the events it will be available at visit http://vodafone.co.uk/vip.

Pretty cool. You can see a few more photos below:

HTC ChaCha shipping 6th June

The guys over at Clove have posted on their blog that the HTC ChaCha will be shipping on June 6th. If you fancy getting a pre-order in you can do so by clicking here.

Features of HTC ChaCha:

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 800 MHz processor
• 2.6? 320×480 touch screen
• 5MP Autofocus camera with LED flash
• Front facing camera
• 512MB memory
• QWERTY keyboard
• Unique Facebook button

Posted by: James

Win a BlackBerry PlayBook

With the UK launch of the PlayBook just a few weeks away now RIM are kindly giving away ten of the new tablets. All you need to do is head over to uk.blackberry.com and sign up for email updates. Ten lucky people will then be picked to win a PlayBook.

If you are looking to pick up a PlayBook when they are released you can do so at the following retailers:

• Carphone Warehouse
• BestBuy
• phones4U
• Dixons
• Currys
• PC World

Our full review of the PlayBook will be online this week so pop on back and see what we think of RIMS’s first tablet.

Posted by: James

WP7 Mango update could contain 500 new features

Speaking at the Japanese Microsoft Developers Forum today, CEO Steve Ballmer said that the forthcoming ‘Mango’ update will contain 500 new features. Holy smoke!

What those features are we will have to wait and see but remember that we are attending a Windows Phone 7 event tomorrow in London for a preview.

Our man Phil will not only be attending the press event but also a round table discussion afterwards. I’m not sure if the table will actually be round though!

Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for some updates of what we can expect to see from Windows Phone 7 in the near future.

Posted by: James

Windows Phone 7 Preview Event

If you currently use Windows Phone 7 or are looking to get one in the near future we should have some interesting news on Tuesday.

Microsoft have invited us to a VIP preview event in London on May 24th. But what are they going to preview you are probably asking yourselves.

Well we don’t know what they are going to show us so it is guessing time. Personally I think it can only be one of two things. The first being a preview of the new features and improvements in the forthcoming Mango update. Or secondly some new phones although I would put my money on option one.

Anyway, we will have the news for you after the event so keep your eyes peeled.

Posted by: James