News

Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Launch Event

If you are in London this Thursday and fancy a go of the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Play that we unboxed recently then you are in luck. The launch event is open to the public and sounds rather fun if you ask me.

Be one of the first to get your thumbs on the Xperia PLAY, the ultimate gaming smartphone.
Get down to Sony Ericsson’s pop-up Xperia PLAY Rooms and for one day only you’ll be able to immerse yourself if your favorite gaming worlds…explore the forest, avoid the burning helicopter, check out the racing cars and try out the new Xperia PLAY phone.
Free Admission
Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult

You can find all the details here via the Facebook event page.

Enjoy.

Posted by: James

Sony Ericsson X10 to get Gingerbread

On the Sony Ericsson blog Rikard Skogberg has announced he work on a planned upgrade for the Xperia X10 to Android 2.2.3, Gingerbread. Great news, as last we spoke to Sony Ericsson about the X10 there was no comments, I guess they must have been thinking about it and could say for definite, No. The downside is that Rikard also outlines that there will be no upgrade plans for the X10 Mini, Mini Pro or X8. Bit of a shame. obviously they have been working on 2.3.3 for the new line of phones and realised they could retro-fit the X10. Nice to see. Check after the break for the whole blog entry from Rikard:

iPad 2 day!

Today is iPad 2 day here in the UK and in 24 other countries throughout the world. Our friends across the pond have had theirs for a few weeks already and for me the excitement has been building as I have seen the positive reports come in from users in the US.

The Apple Store was updated during the early hours of this morning so you can order an iPad 2 online from today. This includes free delivery and engraving. Not sure what the delivery times are yet.

For those of you that cant wait any longer to get your hands on the iPad 2 you can go along to your local Apple shop and wait in line from 5PM today. Not sure what the queues will be like or how many each store will have but we’ll be reporting back when we find out. Tracy and I will be at the Cambridge store later today.

Hands up who’s queuing?

Posted by: Matt

BlackBerry OS 6.1 to be a major overhaul, arriving this Spring

RIM have let us know that the inevitable update to BlackBerry’s OS 6 will be coming this Spring, and a sneak preview of what’s coming will be shown off at BlackBerry World in May. Perhaps even more exciting than an imminent  update is that RIM are calling it a ‘major upgrade’ over what OS 6.0 currently offers on the Torch 9800 and Bold 9780. Some may have dismissed OS 6 already, but for those of us who do use it, we all know there certainly are things that can be improved.

That’s more or less what we know at the moment, but hopefully we can share RIM’s excitement when this rolls out – stay tuned!

Posted by: Vince

Pre order the Motorola XOOM

Looking to get the Motorola XOOM? Well if so you now head on over to Currys, Carphone Warehouse or PC World and get your pre order in now.

The XOOM is priced from £499.99 for 32GB model.

· First to market with Google’s Android tablet specific software – Honeycomb 3.0

· A super-fast dual-core 1 GHz processor which is twice as speedy as any tablet currently on the market

· Adobe Flash Player 10.1 providing unrestricted access to Flash sites, videos and games

· Access to most of the whopping 150,000 apps available through the Android Marketplace, with more tablet specific apps being added everyday

· HD display – rendering movies in 16:9 format

· Tabbed browsing, bookmark sync, and more for a desktop-like web experience

· 5MP rear-facing camera with dual LED flash that captures video in HD

· 1GB of DDR2 RAM memory

If you missed our demo video with the Motorola XOOM you can view it here.

Posted by: James

Smart cover for iPad 1

Here’s a cheeky little video for all of you who want to look like they have an iPad 2, or more realistically, want a swanky case but don’t want to have to buy the expensive accessory of the iPad 2 to get it. These guys have the solution:

Smart Cover for iPad 1 from Studio Neat on Vimeo.

Posted by Gareth

Jeeosuite Public Beta for BlackBerry

As the title suggests Jeesuite’s beta app is now open for the public to download. I have had this one for some months and it is well worth a look.

How would you like access your BlackBerry via Wi-Fi and able to do the following from your PC/Mac web browser?:

• Check files on your BlackBerry
• View your calendar
• View emails, memos, photos and browser bookmarks.
• Take screen shots

I have save the best features until last. If you misplace your BlackBerry you can set off an alarm to help you locate it. In addition you can even send a message to the device which may come in handy if a robber gets it!

Jeeosuite is free to download. You need to register and once done you will be sent a link for the app and then desktop instructions.

You can find Jeeosuite here.

Screenshots can be found below.

Samsung announce the Tab 8.9″ and a revised 10.1″

Over in the United States today Samsung announced two new tablets. The first is a re-work of the 10.1 that was announced at MWC but his time thinner and lighter.

The 8.9 Tab sits in the middle between the the 10.1 and the original Galaxy Tab which was the 7 inch version.

Both the new Tabs run Honeycomb with TouchWiz 4.0 and are thinner that the iPad 2. I can only presume that after the iPad 2 was released Samsung decided to shave some millimeters off the dimensions rather swiftly.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available on 8 June for $499 (16GB version) or $599 (32GB version). The old, thicker version of the Tab 10.1 is still on course to hitting Vodafone stores outside the US so it hasn’t been canceled. We are yet to learn more about the availability of the two devices, but we can confirm that the thicker version won’t be coming to the US.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 should launch early this summer for $469 (16GB version) or $569 (32GB). Not sure if or when we will see the 8.9 this side of the pond.

The Tab 8.9 may not fit into a pocket, but its screen has the same resolution as that of the larger Galaxy Tab 10.1 @ 1,280×800 pixels. That should make the 8.9 screen pretty sharp.

Posted by: James

Want to buy a wireless network?

There is an upcoming auction of the so-called fourth generation, or 4G, spectrum. The last time Ofcom held an auction, for 3G in 2000, it raised a record £22.5bn for the UK Treasury – well before the rise of smartphones that are now so prevalent. The auctions due to happen in 2012.

The additional spectrum to be sold off should mean faster speeds for downloading data to phones. Ofcom says the auction is equivalent to three quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today. The actual parts of the spectrum being sold – at the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bandwidths – will be parts of the wireless spectrum historically used by analogue TV, which is being switched off as digital is rolled out.

Cheques books at the ready then!

Note to Matt – I have 90p in my piggy bank, should we club together and buy it?

Posted by: Gareth

Apple confirm iPad 2 UK pricing

We knew that the iPad 2 would go on sale on Friday 25th March here in the UK and the time that you can go buy in-store (if you want to queue) is set to be 5pm. No word yet on pre-order or reserve for in-store collection though but I’d say given that we’re now so close to launch day it’s pretty unlikely.

Firm UK pricing has also been announced today and you can see the matrix below (note prices inclusive of VAT).

Posted by: Matt