So the iPad is arriving in UK Apple shops today for a handful of people to get. By the time you read this the first person will have gotten theirs. Causing outright panic in Belfast this morning scores of people lined up outside the Victoria Centre to be first to get it, and by scores I mean … 3.
Oh okay. Should be enough for everyone then.
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
We mentioned this little device one before, a long time ago, but it seems some folks are managing to get their hands on it. I know I’m excited by it as a little games machine that can do what you really want from emulators. Packing a full qwerty keyboard on a DS sized device with a touchscreen and a capable D-pad affair sounds like it will cover all manner of platforms. But then again it’s not just about the games.
A summary from a review reads quite nicely:
Overall: Although let down a little by the build quality issues, as a gaming handheld and computer: it’s great. Technically speaking, it’s a nicely spec’d machine and I can’t wait to see what it can do when the software catches up. Well done, OP team!
Check out a quick video after the break:
Palm, Inc. today announced that the Palm® Pre™ Plus and Palm Pixi™ Plus phones will be available in the UK on O2 from 28 May. They will be available from free in all O2 stores and online at www.o2.co.uk.
“We are excited to bring Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to the market for O2 customers,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “With the choice of these two new Palm webOS phones, customers across the UK can stay connected, so they never miss a thing.”
With a slider keyboard, a large touchscreen and a high-performance processor, Pre Plus is Palm’s full-featured Palm webOS™ phone. It’s designed for people who want an easy-to-use phone with advanced features to help manage the different aspects of their lives, both personal and professional. The keyboard makes for quick and easy typing, while the unique gesture area provides a sleek look and intuitive navigation. Customers also get 16GB(1) of storage (~15GB user available) for applications and media. Pre Plus comes with the Palm Touchstone™ Back Cover, so it’s compatible out of the box with the revolutionary inductive Touchstone Charging Dock (sold separately).
Acer has announced the Stream, an Android 2.1 smartphone with a new 3D user interface. The interface provides information on the lock screen so that you don’t have to unlock the device, much like we have saw years ago on the Palm Treo Pro (and were pretty impressed by). Acer says the Stream is a high-end multimedia smartphone that’s optimized for watching movies and browsing the web. It comes equipped with a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, HSDPA 7.2Mbps 3G connectivity, 512MB of RAM, a 8GB microSD card, and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Certainly something to keep an eye out for since Acer’s price tag is usually £100 less than the competing HTC or Samsung device. Check the video and press release after the break:
T-Mobile wants to be the network of choice for Android smartphones, T-Mobile head of postpaid devices Richard Hynes told delegates at the Fonehouse conference. The operator is launching four new Android handsets in the next quarter – including the HTC Wildfire – as part of its plan to grab share of the Android market this year.
Hynes said: ‘Our key strategic imperative first and foremost is to be the network of choice for Android.’
He said T-Mobile would leverage the legacy of the G1 to build its Android share. Launched in October 2008, the G1 was T-Mobile’s most successful launch, making over 110,000 connections.
‘T-Mobile is the operator with the highest base of Android customers, with 23% of market share. We want to build on that legacy,’ Hynes told delegates.
The operator is looking to create ‘a family’ of Android devices this year, said Hynes, adding that it has ‘high hopes’ that the HTC Wildfire will perform at least as well as the HTC Desire, which he said had outperformed all expectations.
On the back of the announcement yesterday regarding Orange pushing £100 Android devices it looks like Everything, Everywhere, the future mega-network of Orange and T-Mobile, should be somewhat Android focused.
The Samsung Galaxy Portal has been around for some time now, however we have only just managed to get out hands on one running Android 2.1. We didn’t feel it would do it justice reviewing the original 1.5 version we had and unboxed.
The Galaxy Portal is clearly a follow on from the Galaxy that I reviewed last year. That one was not great in my opinion so it will be interesting to see if the Portal is an improvement.
Read on to discover the verdict.
JKKmobile.com has had some hands on time with the Dell Streak. At 24mins there is a lot of coverage from what we had learned over the last few days. The build quality seems high, which isn’t really a surprise as Dell usually has a good record for this. There’s plenty of bits and bobs on the device to play with whilst not being particularly oversized. Compared to the Archos 5, which has the same sized screen it’s pretty big. Android looks beautifully smooth here and the interface is a little different to the typical we have seen and seems nice. Check the video after the break.
Orange is targeting the mid range of the market with own-brand Android smartphones at £100 price points. They will launch one device from Huawei in June and one device from ZTE in August, across the Europe. More devices will follow later in 2010, with up to four launching in the UK.
Orange is aiming for 50% of its mobile portfolio to be Smartphones by 2013, with ‘affordable’ smartphones driving that growth. Currently Smartphones make up 15% of the Orange portfolio.
This announcement will be interesting to see unravel as the Orange is positioning itself to be the premium side of the T-Mobile/ Orange merger. Also getting Android into the hands of the masses will see something of an Android explosion if successful.
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