Press Releases

EA SPORTS FIFA 12 launches on Xperia Play

Today EA SPORTS FIFA 12 launches as an Android exclusive on Sony Ericsson’s flagship gaming smartphone the Xperia PLAY. The title is free from today and available via the handset’s games widget.

Fans can expect improved gameplay depth, authentic commentaries, updated teams from the world’s top leagues, and all new replay systems and stadium designs to enhance the FIFA experience.

As well for all the people interested on attending to the Qatar World Cup, let me tell you that you must be vaccinated  by then, if not you will not be able to watch the matches.

“Our vision is to create the most authentic FIFA experience that fosters one of the largest football communities on the planet,” said Glenn Roland, VP, EA Interactive, New Platforms and OEM. “By introducing FIFA to Xperia devices we’re able to give fans yet another compelling opportunity to play no matter where they are, anytime, anywhere.”

FIFA 12 joins a strong roster of titles the publisher has brought to Xperia PLAY in 2011, including leading franchises like Battlefield and Need For Speed. A number of these titles are currently available for free download as part of Sony Ericsson’s ‘Get In The Game’ limited-time Xperia PLAY promotion. FIFA Soccer 12 itself will be available as part of this promotion until early 2012.

“This year, we’ve partnered with EA to bring some of its best titles to Xperia PLAY for an unmatched mobile gaming experience,” said Tim Harrison, Head of Content & Strategy at Sony Ericsson. “FIFA is a huge franchise that appeals to football fans around the world and a real highlight in a successful autumn and Holiday season of bringing great content to Xperia PLAY.”

You can view the game trailer below:

Nokia Lumia 800 in Cyan is now available to buy at Vodafone

The Nokia Lumia 800 combines easy social networking, fast web browsing and a high-quality camera, as well as some unique Nokia services to further enhance the Windows Phone experience, including Nokia Drive and Nokia Music.

The Cyan version is available free on £36, 24 month price plans, (including 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of mobile data, as well as 1GB of BT Openzone Wi-Fi access).

New and upgrading pay monthly customers will benefit from Vodafone Data Test Drive which lets them use as much data as they like, for whatever they like, for three months so they can fully explore what their brand new Nokia Lumia 800 has to offer. They can also get up to £270 for their old phone with Vodafone Buyback.

Customers lead busy lives and may not wish to wait for their phone to arrive at their home. They can choose to collect their new Nokia Lumia 800 in a store convenient to them – Vodafone will let them know when it’s there. When they come to collect it, customers can have all the contents of their old mobile transferred to their new Nokia Lumia 800 using Vodafone’s innovative RED Box.

Head on over to the Vodafone shop for more details.

Posted by: James

Nokia announce the X2-02

Here is one for you music lovers. Today Nokia launches the Nokia X2-02, a great music phone with Easy Swap Dual SIM, allowing you to easily manage your costs while staying connected to your friends and family.

With an internal FM antenna, MP3 player, dedicated music keys, recording capability, an in-built loudspeaker for music playback, and 32GB of memory space, the Nokia X2-02 lets you store and play thousands of songs. The Nokia X2-02 also offers a special audio processing feature that brings you the clearest sound you’ll find at this price. And its “Play via Radio” feature allows you to record songs directly from the radio, and then share playlists through your home music system, your car, or with other mobile phones.

Easy Swap allows you to manage your costs by moving easily between as many as five SIM cards using a dedicated SIM manager – and you can swap SIM cards without having to turn off and reboot your phone. Use the dedicated SIM manager key to manage up to five SIM settings and give each SIM card a name.

The Nokia Browser makes it easier, faster and more affordable than ever before to access the Internet, compressing web pages by up to 90% so that they download quicker and keep data costs low.

SkyDrive gets simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management, HTML5 upload, other updates

Today, Microsoft  announces the release of an upgrade to SkyDrive.com to address key feedback as a part of an on-going set of investments in SkyDrive. The release includes simple app-centric sharing, particularly for Office documents; Powerful new file management features; HTML5 uploads and CSS transitions in Internet Explorer 10; Photo improvements including geo-tagging support; Support for more file types like PDF and RAW; and performance improvements across the board.

Significant work has been undertaken to improve the way in which sharing works on SkyDrive.com in a number of areas. Single files can now be shared easily rather than entire folders, and sharing options have been embedded directly into the Office Web Apps such as Word and Excel meaning that users don’t need to leave the document they are working on in order to share documents. Sharing with users of other email services is now as simple as sharing with Hotmail users, and files can be shared easily on Facebook or LinkedIn.

You can see more info and a video below:

Motorola Mobility Unveils MOTOACTV in the UK

Burn more calories, beat that personal best and train even harder with MOTOACTV, the new device marrying fitness and music from Motorola Mobility UK Ltd. MOTOACTV is a lightweight, wearable fitness performance tracker and smart music player in one – it’s the equivalent of having a professional fitness instructor and your favourite DJ helping you train at all times. MOTACTV will be available starting December 1 from Sweatshop, the UKs leading running retailer.

Whether your goal’s the completion of a fun run, marathon, or everything else in between, with this site you’ll be able to check out the music you perform to best. You will be able to track your workouts over extended time periods, set goals and even create workout competitions with your friends via MOTOACTV.com. With MOTOACTV’s easy to navigate touch-screen display you can instantly launch a new workout or find that one song you’ve been dying to hear.

“Motorola has created a new category of smart device that support your active lifestyle with the addition of MOTOACTV,” said William Ripley, general manager, Companion Products EMEA, Motorola Mobility. “Workout smarter without using multiple devices or even wires, with the first multi-activity music and fitness tracking device with the brains to push you beyond your limits.”

“We are thrilled to announce that Sweatshop are partnering with Motorola Mobility to bring MOTOACTV to our UK customers,” said Nick Pearson, managing director of Sweatshop UK. “This is the most exciting product in the sports device market for years, and Sweatshop will help our customers get the most from it. We believe MOTOACTV can deliver real benefits to the training of our customers, whether you’re an experienced marathon runner or somebody looking to get fit.”

RIM Announces BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – The Next Generation Enterprise Mobility Solution for BlackBerry, Android and iOS Smartphones and Tablets

Research In Motion (RIM) today introduced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – the Company’s next-generation enterprise mobility solution and RIM’s entry into the multi-platform Mobile Device Management (MDM) marketplace. Building on years of leading enterprise mobility management solutions from RIM, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will simplify the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry, Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems.

“We are pleased to introduce BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – RIM’s next generation enterprise mobility solution – to make it easier for our business and government customers to manage the diversity of devices in their operations today,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console. It provides the necessary management capabilities to allow IT departments to confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organisations.”

Ice Cream Sandwich coming to LG’s Optimus range

Over on their Facebook page LG has confirmed that Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich will be initially available for the following high-end LG smartphones which were introduced this year: the Optimus 2X, the Optimus Black, the Optimus 3D and the Optimus LTE.

We are also continuing to evaluate the ICS OS to determine whether it is compatible with the functionality, features and performance of other LG smartphones to make the ICS OS available on as many LG smartphones as possible.

In December this year, the forthcoming upgrade schedule and additional specific models for the ICS OS upgrade will be posted on the LG Mobile Global Facebook page (www.facebook.com/LGMobile).

Good news!

Posted by: James

Best Buy to close stores on January 15th

We mentioned just a couple of weeks ago the demise of Best Buy here in the UK. The joint venture between Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse has failed to make expected  profits and the company will close its eleven UK stores on January 15th.

The good news is that Best Buy will have a closing down sale so expect some bargains in the coming weeks.

To our valued Best Buy customers, vendors, suppliers, and friends,
We’ve loved bringing our passion for the latest and greatest technology to Britain over the past 2 years, and have always had the utmost appreciation, respect, and commitment to the entire UK marketplace, our customers and stakeholders.
However, as you may know, based upon the outcome of our employee consultation, we intend to cease retail trading at our Best Buy UK branded stores & website by the 15th January 2012.
We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.
We are still committed to making sure your needs are well served up until our closing and beyond. Our on-going services are described in the "Customer Notice" and in our stores.
We’re also committed to on-going global relationships with our many vendors and suppliers, and appreciate your patience as we work to contact each as soon as possible to discuss our plans for the future.
Should you need to talk to us before then, please do not hesitate to call us on 0800 380 00 00. As a vendor or supplier, you are welcome to get in touch with your Best Buy relationship contact at any time.
We look forward to completing all of our remaining business together in the most respectful and professional manner possible.
Many thanks from everyone at Best Buy UK.

Posted by: James

Introducing the T-Mobile Vivacity

T-Mobile today announced the launch of the T-Mobile Vivacity – a great value, stylish Android smartphone ideal for enjoying multimedia on the move. The T-Mobile Vivacity will be available exclusively in T-Mobile stores, on the online shop and via telesales from today.

Running Android’s Gingerbread 2.3 OS, the T-Mobile Vivacity offers a winning combination of eye-catching design, essential multimedia features, as well as offering great value. A vivid, high resolution 3.5″ WVGA TFT capacitive screen is perfect for web-browsing, viewing pictures or watching movies. The latest 3G+ and Wi-Fi support lets you access the web whenever you want – ideal for on-demand browsing, or downloading apps, and uploading social networks on the move.

A 5.0 Megapixel camera allows you to capture life as you go, and, with support for up to 32GB Micro SD cards, you can enjoy favourite photos, movies and music, wherever you are. Built-in GPS functionality also allows you can keep track of your location, and offers the ability to add your location to Twitter and Facebook updates.

Available in sleek black or white variations, the T-Mobile Vivacity fuses advanced multimedia features with a truly premium look and feel – providing leading style that more than matches its impressive performance – all at a great value for money price point.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices, Everything Everywhere said: "The T-Mobile Vivacity gives you everything you want from a smartphone. It offers the latest Android software, a large, high resolution touchscreen display and a stunning design – perfect for anyone looking for premium performance and great value for money.”

The T-Mobile Vivacity is available free on a £10 per month, 24 month plan or for £99 on Pay As You Go.

Posted by: James

Telefónica Digital and RIM announce NFC payments with BlackBerry smartphones

We all know that more and more smartphones are shipping with NFC capabilities, however the use of NFC is somewhat limiting. RIM in Spain are now testing NFC wireless payments and I would imagine this will roll out to other countries in due course.

You can see the the full press release below.

Telefónica Digital and Research In Motion have announced a pilot program of the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry smartphones.

In collaboration with local banks and retailers, Telefónica will roll out the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry to 350 employees at its headquarters in Distrito Telefónica, Spain. Those taking part in the trial will be able to make payments in a simple, easy, safe and convenient way by simply tapping their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone against a reader. Employees that are part of the NFC pilot project will also be able use their BlackBerry smartphone (in lieu of a security card) to gain physical access to the Telefónica headquarters office.

The Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry currently supports the following NFC-enabled smartphones: BlackBerry Bold 9900,  BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380, all of which run the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system.