For months we have seen rumour upon rumour regarding the next-generation Kindle-Fire HD products. Now Amazon decided to quell all of the speculation and innuendo with a full, official reveal, albeit Stateside only for the moment. One of the most surprising new additions to the line-up is that they have revamped their “skinned” version of Android and now have their own name for the customized OS. They call it, Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito.” We will do a separate article with more details on this new development.
In the mean-time, here’s the full skinny on their new tablet products.
Several years ago, most smartphone manufacturers all began to adopt a standardised charging connector for their phones. The connector to win out was, of course, the microUSB and that can now be found on the vast majority of phones now sold, with one significant exception, Apple.
Apple have always had their own proprietary connectors, starting with the 30 pin connector first seen back in 2003 on the 3rd generation iPod’s. Apple stayed with the dock connector until they released the iPhone 5 in September of last year and switched to the Lightning Connector. The change from the 30-pin connector to Lightning caused a bit of a stir and rendered existing iPhone/iPod accessories all but obsolete.
One of the reasons Apple stuck with the dock connector for so long is that those 30-pins aren’t just for sync and charge. Not only does the connector include USB and serial connections but also video out and audio in/out. This is perhaps one of the main reasons for Apple not heading down the mini or microUSB road.
The BlackBerry brand name has long been associated with the best in physical QWERTY keyboards on their devices, this theme hasn’t changed regarding the Q10 their flagship in this category and now I have their ‘cheaper’ option, the Q5, for review.
This will no doubt be more desirable for the younger generation because on contracts at least it is a lot cheaper than the Q10 but will this smaller and cheaper smartphone stand up to the standards that the Q10 has set?
Well, to find out the answer to that and other questions you may have you will have to read the rest of our BlackBerry Q5 review…
There has been a lot of talk about the HTC One Max with plenty of leaked images and ‘news’ of the device. However, many sources now indicate that the new device that’s set to take the flagship position win HTC’s range will see a October 15th launch date.
With so many of their competitors bringing out large-screen and phablet devices it makes sense (no pun intended) for HTC to bring their own large slab phone to market too. Looking vertically the same as the HTC One, the HTC One Max is said to be sport a large screen of at least 6 inches, have the same ultra pixel camera as the HTC One, BoomSound speakers 2GB RAM and will use the Snapdragon S4 Pro chip featuring a quad-core processor, clocked at 1.7GHz.
Further rumours now surround the One Max as additional leaked images now appear to include a fingerprint scanner on the rear which is likely to be similar to the one now featured on the latest iPhone 5S.
The One Max, previously know simply by its T6 codename, also appears on Teena, an FCC-like telecommunication regulatory authority in China.
October 15 seems set to be a busy news day as the date has also been set by Apple to officially announce the new iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2. There’s also said to be an HTC press event next week which would further reinforce a release date in the coming fortnight.
Well cover more of the HTC One Max as soon as we get the skinny from HTC themselves.
More HTC One Max news can be found over at cnet.com
Nokia have been in the news quite a lot recently with Microsoft buying their mobile unit and the popularity of the Lumia 1020, could it be that Nokia are beginning to bounce back?
The answer could well be yes if the Wall Street Journal’s sources are to be believed. According to them, Nokia will be releasing 6 new Lumia phones, running Windows Phone 8 and possible some other more entry level S40 based devices.
Perhaps the most interesting though is the long-awaited Nokia tablet, code-named “Sirius,” that is also expected to be announced alongside this raft of new smartphones. This is likely to be called the Nokia Lumia 2520, and will take the form of a 10.1-inch Windows RT device.
The product blitz to be unveiled in Abu Dhabi Oct. 22, will include several Lumia smart devices that run Microsoft’s Windows phone platform, and lower-end devices based on Nokia’s S40 software, these people said. Nokia’s first tablet device will also debut, and will run Windows 8 software.
Gareth and Matt are here with another UK update on the mobile front. This week we talk about the roll-out of iOS 7, the aborted roll-out of BBM for Android and iOS and Matt’s Desire 500 hands on…
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HP are back on with their Android tablets. Not too long ago HP shared they would be bringing out some new Android tablets, and they have delivered big time. They have officially launched four new Android tablets. The Slate 7 HD, Slate 7 Extreme, Slate 8 Pro and Slate 10 HD. Here’s a quote with a breakdown of specs:
It looks like the rumours of an October launch for Android 4.4 KitKat are true. The German team of developers working on KitKat confirmed on their Facebook page that the new Android OS would be coming in October. It seems fitting that zee German Android team leaked an October launch of a chocolate flavoured Android OS.
This pic was posted with the following:
Confusion! The new Android is KIT KAT. But does not taste like that.
Shares this with your friends, if you’re still hungry it.
Tasty!
Tesco have debuted on the tablet market with an Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean tablet titled the Hudl. At a low price of £119 the tablet looks set to even give the Nexus 7 a run for it’s money with the promise of pretty decent specs and a rather attractive form.
Packing a 1.5Ghz quad-core processor, 7-inch screen at 1440 x 900 pixels, cameras on the front and rear and something in the region of 9 hours battery life. GPS is there alongside a Micro HDMI port for video output and even Bluetooth 4.0. It will come with 16GB of storage and microSD slot. Nothing indicates 3G or 4G variants right now.
Tesco has filled the tablet with their own offerings for media consumption, such as BlinkBox Movies, BlinkBox Music and Clubcard TV. The two former apps are relatively well established with Movies offering over 10,000 films in its library, while Music boasts a collection of over 10 million tracks. In addition Google’s service are included and the Play store.
About three weeks ago HTC announced their latest device to have the Desire name attached to it; the HTC Desire 500.
The Desire 500 bring the Desire range up to date with the user interface, HTC Sense 5.0, and features taken straight from the newer flagship models and rolling them in to a much more modestly priced device.
The specification isn’t bad either, a Quad Core 1.2GHz CPU and 1GB RAM, 8MP camera and 1.6MP front-facing camera. There’s even a dual-SIM version available too.
The 500 comes in Lacquer Black and Glacier Blue variants.
Check out the unboxing video below where you can see the Desire 500 in a little more detail and also see the benchmark results.
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