News

Google Glass illustrated

A gentlemen by the name of Martin Missfeldt has created a useful infographic on the full concept and functionality of Google’s Project Glass. His hard work helps illuminate some of the interesting details of the upcoming tech. After seeing some of the videos in action and checking out this infographic, Google Glass is much more exciting. Using Wii style avatars it seems reminiscent of the augmented reality seen in the PC and console game Deus Ex: Human Revolution (or even the original Deus Ex PC game). If Google Glass can create just a portion of the usefulness of the in-game concept, then it really could be the next big revolutionary technology to change the way we do things.

Posted by: Gareth

Facebook home launch day

Posted by: James

O2 launches new tariff allowing customers to get the latest phone whenever they want

O2 today announces the launch of O2 Refresh, the first 24 month tariff to decouple the cost of the phone from the cost of calls, texts and data. O2 Refresh has been designed for customers to get a new phone at any time, without having to pay out their airtime contract. Instead, customers simply pay the remaining balance for their phone and then start afresh.

When a customer signs up to O2 Refresh, they choose a Phone Plan and an Airtime Plan. By signing up to and paying separately for their phone and airtime, customers are given complete transparency, while paying the same overall as they would on a standard 24 month Pay Monthly tariff.

For those customers who want a new handset before the end of their contract term, O2 Refresh enables them to pay off the remainder of their Phone Plan and end their Airtime Plan with no termination fee. To make it even more affordable to get the latest smartphone, customers can trade in their old mobile for cash using O2 Recycle, getting up to £260 to put towards their new phone.

Mobile Tech stealing PC thunder

Industry analysts have been remarking on turn if the tides for the PC industry for quite some time now. Yesterdays market numbers (from two different studies) paint a stark picture revealing why people are making these predictions. The first quarter of this year saw the worst PC sales decline in history, as PC sales dipped down a whopping -14% (as you can see in the chart). Here’s a quote with more of the details:

Asus Fonepad gets date and price

The final release date and pricing for the Asus Fonepad has been revealed. The smartphone/tablet hybrid will launch for £179.99 ($275 USD) and will be available for pre-order at retailers like Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and Sainsbury’s April 12. The final ship date will be April 26.

Posted by: Gareth

Great news for EE 4G customers

EE is doubling the speed and capacity of its 4G network, doubling the average speeds for 4GEE customers to more than 20Mbps and future proofing the network.

Double-speed 4G will roll out to ten existing 4G cities by summer – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. The improvements will be automatically available within existing plans to new and current customers.

EE has set a target of reaching one million 4G customers by the end of 2013, and stated its aim to always offer the fastest network in the UK.

9^th April, 2013 – EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, is doubling the speed and capacity of its 4G network. The arrival of double-speed 4G, which enables lab speeds of 130Mbps, will boost headline 4G speeds to 80Mbps plus, and double the average speeds for 4GEE customers to more than 20Mbps.

EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum bandwidth dedicated to 4G, from 10MHz to 20MHz. This will give 4GEE customers increased capacity, and access to some of the fastest mobile speeds in the world, reinstating the UK as a leader in mobile and digital communications.

EE is forecasting mobile data traffic to grow by as much as 750% in the next three years alone. Increased speeds and capacity are vital for mobile operators to continue to deliver a consistently high quality experience. EE is committed to always having the fastest network in the UK.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 now available to buy from the Samsung Experience store in London

Samsung Mobile UK has today announced that customers in the UK are now able to buy the Galaxy Note 8.0 from the Samsung Experience Store at Westfield Stratford City with other channels to follow. Ultra portable thanks to its 8″ screen size, the Galaxy Note 8.0 comes pre-loaded with a suite of new content and services worth over £60, at no extra cost to the customer*.

The new mid-size tablet, together with a suite of intuitive features and an evolved S Pen, gives you the ease of using a traditional pen and paper with speed, efficiency and accuracy. Features include a suite of S Note templates and tools that allow you to create, edit, manage and share documents, as well as seamless multi-tasking thanks to Quick Command, continuous text input and Multi-Window View which means the portable 8″ screen can be split and used to access a number of live applications at the same time.

A range of S-Pen apps, including Paper Artist and Photo Note, mean you can be creative wherever you are, whether on the commute to work, on holiday or sat on your living room sofa. The new Reading Mode makes it easier to read e-books, magazines and newspapers as you can optimise the settings to create the most comfortable reading experience, plus you can annotate, highlight, cut and paste text.

A New Nexus 7 inbound?

Rumour has it the next generation of Nexus 7 would still be from Asus and would likely come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor instead of the current NVIDIA Tegra processor. A new report from Reuters confirms a lot of the speculation. According to their sources, the new Nexus 7 will again be made by Asus and will launch in July of this year. Furthermore, the new tablet will be coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon instead of NVIDIA tech. Here’s a quote with more info,

Quote:

The latest version will have a higher screen resolution, a thinner bezel design and adopt Qualcomm’s chip in place of Nvidia Corp’s Tegra 3, which was used in the first Nexus 7s released last year, the sources said, declining to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
In a blow to Nvidia, Google weighed both U.S. chipmakers’ processors but finally decided on Qualcomm’s for power reasons, one of the sources added.

If this report turns out to be accurate, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise. NVIDIA is great at making powerful processors and GPUs but Qualcomm is just flat out better at building a more power efficient product right now. Additionally, there is speculation Google is planning a price drop for the tablet to just £149.99(ish). Right now their pricing plans are in flux and they may stick with their current plan, but if there is a price drop it will likely be an attempt to increase sales of the Nexus 7 to put even more market pressure on Amazon and Apple. Here’s another quote with more of the details:

What? No chargers from O2

O2 will extend its “Chargers out of the Box” environmental initiative to the flagship HTC One mobile handset. This is the first time a network and manufacturer have collaborated to sell a flagship smartphone without the charging unit.

The all new HTC One will be sold with a USB-to-micro-USB cable, which can be used with existing chargers that have a USB input or with a PC USB slot. Any customers who need to buy a standalone charger unit can do so in-store or online at a discounted price.

In October 2012, O2 and HTC created a pilot scheme in which an HTC handset was sold charger-free. Of all customers buying the handset, 82% did so without taking the handset. The success of the pilot has given both businesses the confidence to apply the initiative more widely.

Looking for a bargain SIM free smartphone? Here’s some beauties

The guys over at Expansys dropped me a line today to let us know they have a great selection of bargain SIM free smartphones ranging from just under £200 and all under the £300 mark. If you fancy some phone shopping check out the links below: