It was only last week that Matt and I attended a press event in London hosted by ZTE where they announced that ZTE branded devices will be on sale here in the UK in the near future. The chaps at Clove already have the Skate available for pre-order and at only £249.99 (inc VAT) this one looks like a real bargain. This price is still to be confirmed nearer the time and a release date is not until September but I think this huge Android device is going to do real well.
Of course we will see the ZTE Skate sooner as it is coming to the Orange network but renamed as the Monte Carlo. We are yet to see what Orange will do in terms of a custom UI but if you want pure vanilla Android then you may have to wait for the sim free version.
Either way it is great to see ZTE pushing brand awareness. I think they are here for the long run.
Features of ZTE Skate:
- Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- 800 MHz processor
- 4.3" capacitive touchscreen
- 800 x 480 resolution
- MicroSDHC up to 32 GB
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- 5 MP camera with autofocus and flash
- aGPS and Google Maps
- 126 x 68 x 11.3 mm
Posted by: James
I guess the post title here steals it but this afternoon, after what seems like a long delay, Apple released OS X Lion through the App Store for all to download. The great thing about what Apple have done here is that they are offering Lion for a little over £20 and furthermore you can install it on more than one Mac, as long as it’s yours.
We’ll look at some of the new features of Lion at some point soon.
Also today the Apple Store was updated with new MacBook Air and Mac Mini models. As expected both now have the new Thunderbolt ports and Sandybridge. Processors now start at with 1.6GHz Intel core i5 up to quad core 2.0GHz i7 in the top of the range Mac Mini.
Even more surprising though is the price, the entry level MacBook Air is down to just £729.60 while the Mac Mini starts at £476.40.
We’ll have our hands on these for review VERY soon too!
Posted by: Matt
The Carphone Warehouse are having a purge on signing up business users by targeting local sole traders and SME customers with what it claims is the widest range of phones, tablets, networks and tariffs available.
As well as the networks standard business tariffs, CPW will also offer there own business tariffs which will either be unique to them or cheaper than competitors. And to top things off they will offer a price promise as well as a 14-day coverage guarantee. With the added bonus of Carphones ‘Walk Out Working’ service it seems that small business users really could benefit from visiting Carphone Warehouse to discuss the options available.
We should see some ‘dedicated business areas’ being trialed in stores later this year.
Posted by: James
On this weeks show we talk about the our Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review, the excellent BlackBerry Bold 9900 video that James recorded last week, and the surprise ‘leak’ of Nokia See Ray. Oh, and Matt has a rant about the Apple vs HTC story.
We also have a special guest, Dan Carter from Coolsmartphone.
Gareth is still away this week so there is a bit of mayhem but James and Matt manage to keep Dan’s bad language under control.
First everyone thought it would be last week, then the weekend but now the rumours suggest that OS X Lion will go on sale tomorrow afternoon here in the UK. According to tweets we received from individuals claiming to work for Apple retail stores there will be a temporary scheduled closure of stores at 4:30pm tomorrow (20th July) so that displays and advertising can be updated. After which time Lion will be available through the App Store and, we expect, the new MacBook Air will also go on sale.
I’ll be in London tomorrow afternoon so will be heading over the Regent Street store to see what’s going down. I’ll be here with a report soon after. Lets hope everyone is right this time!
Posted by: Matt
Many of us have now got acquainted with Google’s new social network, Google+, but I am sure I am not alone in finding it slightly frustrating that it is only Android users that get a proper G+ app. Well not any longer as the iOS app has been given the go ahead from Apple and is available to download for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
I have only just downloaded it so a little early to give much of an opinion but it looks good.
I am sure we will do a little review in the coming weeks.
Click here from your iPhone to download.
UPDATE: The app has already had an update so make sure you have version 1.0.1.1809
Posted by: James
The BlackBerry PlayBook gets a software update pretty often but this one has some nice new features I thought are worthy of a mention. This new version, OS v1.0.7, brings us BBC News and BBC iPlayer web icon (shortcuts) which will be pre-installed. Sure it would be nice to see proper BBC apps one day but to be honest as the Playbooks web browser is so awesome it doesn’t really matter.
As well as the BBC gubbins the below features are also added in this update:
Improved connectivity & productivity with the BlackBerry Bridge application
- Enhanced Support for Saving Attachments – The BlackBerry® BridgeT app offers you more flexibility around where and how you save attachments for viewing and editing. You can now save an attachment to a removable SD card, or to your BlackBerry smartphone’s internal flash memory.
- ZIP Attachment Support – The BlackBerry Bridge app now gives you access to ZIP files received as an email attachment. While bridged, you can now download a zip file from an email to your smartphone SD card and then extract compressed contents for viewing or editing on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
As it has been widely reported, HTC’s share price has fallen considerably following the ITC’s preliminary decision to uphold Apple’s claims that HTC have violated a number of it patents with technology used in several HTC smartphones currently on sale.
However, for HTC it would seem help is at hand from Google. During Google’s Mobile Evolution conference held in Tokyo chairman, Eric Schmidt, delivered a speech wherein he said that Google would support HTC against Apple and that he was confident that ‘HTC would ultimately prevail over Apple.’
Following the statement HTC shares have recovered somewhat this afternoon.
If the ITC’s final decision goes against HTC it could lead to the sales of HTC handsets being blocked in the USA and, by association, spells big trouble for all manufacturers that use Android OS on their phones.
So, it takes a large company like Gameloft to put together the more ambitious graphical titles. Love them or hate them Gameloft have an impressive line up.
As with many of their games Star Front is an obvious copy of a bigger game on another platform. Just as Modern Combat borrows from the Modern Warfare games in the Call of Duty barrel and Shadow Guardian has an uncanny resemblance to Uncharted on the PlayStation, Star Front conjures up a familiar feeling of the Star Craft games on the PC. Whilst one could say this lacks imagination other will be pleasured to play their favourite games on the go.
Right from the word go Star Front looks good, and feeling a lot like the Star Craft 2 it mimics.
Blimey, yet another product announced from Acer. This time a Notebook with some pretty impressive specs.
Users’ needs evolve and computers must adapt to them. Work is only a fraction of all the activities we carry out with our laptops; multimedia watching and creation, entertainment and gaming make up the other big part.
Acer, always in tune with users’ needs, developed the Acer 5755 to be perfect for unforgettable entertainment, perfect for everyday computing, perfect for smooth multitasking. Combining excellent graphic capabilities and optimal processing power, these laptops can easily handle everyday tasks.
The Aspire 5755 take advantage of the second generation Intel® Core processor family, delivering smart performance that adapts to users’ needs and dynamic processing power for music, gaming, videos, movies, photos, social networking and other demanding mainstream applications. Thanks to Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and heightened media capabilities, these laptops offer smart performance and advanced graphic capabilities for smoother content creation and enjoyment. What’s more, they combine superior computing power with energy efficiency.
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