News

HP not to carry on making Palm smartphones

It looks like we may not see many new Palm phones in the future I am afraid.

HP’s CEO Mark Hurd spoke yesterday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Technology conference and what he had to say was not encouraging.

Hurd reportedly said that HP isn’t going to ‘spend billions of dollars trying to get into the smartphone business; that doesn’t in any way make any sense.’

To add insult to smartphone injury, Hurd continued ‘We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well.’

So what many of us thought would happen is going to happen. It looks like HP bought Palm purely for the WEB OS and that is what they will roll out within millions of HP products. Having the WEB OS on handhelds is not a bad thing as it is a great OS. It’s just a real shame that it doesn’t look like the OS will be implemented into many smartphones, if any.

Is this foolish of HP? I think so. With the right hardware and right OS we all know that it can be an extremely profitable business. Just look how far HTC has come on over the past few years.

Although not massive Palm fans both Matt and myself have both owned Palm devices in the past and we will be sorry to see the company disappear from the smartphone market.

Posted by: James

Leaked picture of the BlackBerry Curve 9300

With the BlackBerry Pearl 3G set to arrive in the next week or so I just stumbled upon a nice article over at crackberry.com. A secret spy has managed to get hold of some pictures of the next generation BlackBerry Curve, the 9300.

The main change I can see here is the chrome bezel around the outer edge. This is not present on the curve 8520 (and 8530 in the USA). The BlackBerry Curve 9300 is believed to retain the lower res 320×240 display which is a shame but it will come with Wi-Fi and 3G as standard and that is a big bonus.

The device is clearly in its early stages as the screen shots below shows it with 256MB of memory vs.. the 512MB newer devices are getting. Also this device is running version 5.0 which will hopefully be upgraded to BlackBerry 6 in time for an official announcement.

Motorola announces the FLIPOUT

I’m not sure what Motorola’s fascination with adding the Flip-name to recent devices but in a press release today (which you can see in full below) they came out to announce the Motorola FLIPOUT, their latest flippy handset to feature MOTOBLUR as seen on the Dext here in the UK and the Droid and Cliq in the US.

Motorola are sensibly sticking with Android for this new device and it will ship with 2.1.

It’s a rather unconventional looking design but does it remind anyone of a certain strange Nokia device that we see a few years ago?! I’m interested to see ho robust the mechanism will be on this new device.

Launch date is said to be Q2 of this year so that means sometime this month basically. We’ll obviously do our best to get our hands on one as soon as we can!

BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 get priced at Vodafone

I am hoping we will get to see the BlackBerry 9105 in the next week or so. Vodafone will have it for sure and it looks like the device will be free from £25 per month on a 24 month contract. Good news for the phone but not so good for the contract length.

The price of £25 per month is the same as you would expect to pay for a BlackBerry Bold 9700 and frankly I am not surprised. The 9105 has the same power as the 9700 just in a different form factor.

I have a sneaky suspicion this new BlackBerry is going to sell rather well.

Unboxing video and review will be here soon.

Posted by: James

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S will be with us soon

Recently the high end Android focus has been on other manufactures but Samsung are back with the I9000 Galaxy S which we hope to have our hands on in the next week or so thanks to our friends at Clove who will selling the device.

The I9000 Galaxy S is Samsung’s flagship Android device. The Galaxy S not only runs version 2.1of Android , but packs a feature set sure to rival that of any other Smartphone.

So what sets this handset apart from other Android devices on the market? First of all there’s the 4″ SUPER-AMOLED, touch-screen display. This new Super AMOLED technology developed by Samsung not only produces an amazing picture, it also saves on battery life, making the I9000 Galaxy S ideal for media playback and in-car satellite navigation.

iPad cases from mobilefun

Our friends over at mobilefun were kind enough to send us a couple of iPad cases this week to give a test drive. One being a kind of skin type case and the other being a more traditional fold over one similar to what I have had in years past for pocket PCs.

Which type of case you use with your iPad really comes down to personal preference. I would however suggest you have one. Scratching the iPad will result in tears I think!

The FlexiShield Skin case, as you can see below only offers protection to the outer edges and the rear of the iPad. Before I used it I thought to myself that I did not see the point of it but once the iPad was inside the skin I soon changed my mind.
The green colour case I was sent would not be my first choice of colour, or second, or third but the case does have some benefits apart from being able to change its appearance. Apart from the obvious benefit of offering protection the first thing I noticed was that it made the iPad feel a lot safer to hold. The naked iPad is rather sleek on its rear and although not slippery it’s brushed metal is very smooth. The FlexiShield skin case gives some extra grip which I felt offered some reassurance.

The only downside I can see is that if you use an iPad dock you will need to take the iPad out of the case.

iPad on sale in UK today!

So how many of you are planning to go and queue at your local Apple store today in a bid to get your hands on the much coveted iPad? Anyone reading this waiting in line?

Tracy, James and I have had our iPad’s for about a month or so now and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we love them. I rarely use my Macbook when I am out and about now, the iPad can do much of what I would otherwise use a laptop for, in fact I’m sitting on the sofa right now writing this post from the iPad and my recent HTC Smart review was written entirely on the iPad! And emails from James and Tracy almost always bare the phrase ‘Sent from my iPad’ in the footer.

If you care to share your insights in to the stock levels at local stores etc. then please comment over on the forum.

To those of you that have already been lucky enough to pick up your iPad; are you delighted with your purchase? Which model did you opt for and what apps did you buy already?

We’ll have more accessories and app reviews on site soon too. My must-have at the moment is the camera connection kit. I love being able to look at my just-taken photos on the large screen.

Enjoy playing with your new toys over the long weekend! 🙂

Posted by: Matt

Samsung team up with Vodafone once again

Following on from last years launch of Vodafone’s own 360 OS, the Samsung I8330 will be the successor to the Samsung H1, aptly named the Vodafone 360 H2.

Device specs are rumored to be pretty good with a Super AMOLED touchscreen, 8MP camera with LED flash as well as full HD video recording. Powered by a 1Ghz processor the Vodafone 360 will sport all the usual high end features such as GPS, Bluetooth and HSDPA.

The word on the street is that the H2 should be in your local Vodafone store in June or July although we have no official word from Vodafone at this point.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the original 360 H1. Not because of the hardware but I just couldn’t get over excited by the 360 software. Lets hope this one is more up my street.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry 9800 with OS 6

Here is some double bubble for you BlackBerry fans out there. theberrryfix.com have posted a great video of the BlackBerry 9800 slider running OS 6. 

As I have said before this new BlackBerry slider seems to be nicer each time we see it and now we can definitely see no clicking of the screen (like the Storm) things are looking even better for the device.

OS 6 appears to run smoothly on the 9800. The screen looks to be extremely sensitive and the OS reacts immediately to screen taps. A good sign all round.

Check out the video demo below and please feel free to air your comments on the forum.

Dell Streak to launch exclusively on O2

Dell and O2 today announced that the Dell Streak will launch exclusively on O2 early next month, bringing the internet, entertainment, easy turn-by-turn navigation and thousands of Android Market apps to customers looking for a big screen experience without having to carry a laptop around.

Available in early June through O2 stores and online at www.o2.co.uk and www.carphonewarehouse.com, the Dell Streak features a 5 megapixel camera, fast processor, built in Wi-Fi and can easily connect to a range of social networks.

"The Dell Streak is a bold new class of product, something we wanted to bring to our customers first," said Steve Alder, O2’s General Manager Devices. "This means we can continue to offer our customers a range of the very best devices to make their lives a bit easier."

"The Dell Streak hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets," said Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions Group. "Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect, and navigate their lives."

O2 will be enhancing the Dell Streak experience with its intelligent network, great value tariffs and award winning customer service. This includes O2 Gurus in O2 retail stores and smartphone specialists in customer service to help customers get the most out of every product and service.

Pricing and tariff information will be released ahead of launch.