Press Releases

Sony Ericsson Warms Up Fans for UEFA Champions League Final

As part of Sony Corporation’s existing agreement 2009-2012 with the UEFA Champions League, Sony Ericsson, official mobile handset of the UEFA Champions League, is offering two exciting pre-match competitions to warm up football fans ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2011 on 28 May. 

Football fans in London will be able to win football related prizes and get closer to the game by utilizing their smartphones ahead of the pinnacle of European club football, showcasing the capabilities of the Sony Ericsson Xperia range.

Sony Ericsson is launching two foursquare activities on the day before the Final, helping to build fans’ excitement ahead of the game and giving one lucky fan the chance to watch their favourite team at the UEFA Champions League Final Wembley 2011 at the famous ground:

Great Sony Ericsson Shirt Off: fans must find a Sony Ericsson football team through foursquare as they move around London over eleven different locations on the day before the Final.

Once these hotspots are revealed, fans must race to find the player, check-in and if they get there first, the player will reveal one of eleven exclusive prizes on the inside of his shirt.

Exclusive Badge: On 28^th May, fans across Europe must try to unlock the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Footy Final Badge. Every fan that unlocks the badge between midday and midnight at Sony Ericsson Football Hotspot at Wembley Stadium will be entered into a draw to win tickets to the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco.

For more information please go to http://4sq.com/lQO14M.

Posted by: James

Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale to deliver the UK’s first live customer trial of 4G high speed broadband technology

Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale have today announced a collaboration that will see the first live trial of next generation 4G LTE¹ high speed broadband to customers. The live proof of concept trial is the first of its kind in the UK and will see the two companies sharing their fixed telecommunications and mobile technology to provide high speed wireless broadband to customers in rural Cornwall.

· Trial to showcase the benefits and potential of 4G LTE¹ mobile technology for customers

· The collaboration will see mobile and fixed broadband coming together for the first time in the UK 

· The field trial will be launched in Cornwall, and will be the first of its kind in the UK to involve customers

HTC Desire S in red – now available exclusively on Vodafone

The HTC Desire S in now exclusive to Vodafone in a vibrant red colour. The device boasts a slim and stylish design shaped from a single piece of aluminium, making it feel more solid than the HTC Desire – and lighter too. 
This new Smartphone has an impressive 3.7″ touchscreen; a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front and a 5-megapixel camera at the back able to shoot HD video with full SRS surround sound. 
The HTC Desire S has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor inside and is powered by Gingerbread, Android’s latest Smartphone operating system.

If you missed our full review of the HTC Desire S you can read it by clicking here.

Looks pretty nice in red don’t you think?

Posted by: James

Acer ICONIA SMART next generation Smartphone wins Best Choice and Design & Innovation awards at Computex 2011

Acer ICONIA SMART perfectly combines the capabilities of a tablet in a smartphone format: a huge 4.8″ widescreen with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a super cool chassis. Its revolutionary design, characterized by a stretched out, thin and slightly curved shape, makes it a fascinating device that will not go unnoticed. Surely enough, the ICONIA SMART captured both the Best Choice and Design & Innovation awards at Computex Taipei, the most influential global IT event held in Asia.

Each year, the jury of the Best Choice awards selects Taiwan’s best ICT products in the overseas market. While the Design & Innovation awards, organized in cooperation with world-leading industrial design institution iF Design, honor products that stand out through excellent design. Their evaluation criteria include degree of innovation, design quality, choice of materials, environmental friendliness, functionality and brand value, among others.
Acer ICONIA SMART’s full metal body, enriched by subtle wavy patterns, conveys a sense of timeless elegance. What’s more, it offers a perfect fit in your hand thanks to its smoothly curved back and minimal width (64mm). This truly innovative device is perfect for fashion addicts or tech savvy people looking for the latest and cutting edge technology available ensuring superior browsing and excellent multimedia entertainment.

WP7 ‘Mango’ update due this Autumn

Microsoft today previewed the next major release of Windows Phone, code name “Mango,” through a series of media events around the world. “Mango” will deliver more than 500 new features to push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet.  The Mango release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall; More details on device update timing will be provided closer to availability.  Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets.*

“Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” said Andy Lees, President of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “With Mango, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort.”

 

Orange and Vouchercloud to offer mobile customers exclusive special offers

Orange today announces the launch of a new partnership with Vouchercloud, which will give pay monthly and pay-as-you-go customers access to eight exclusive discount offers every month, straight to their pockets. Orange mobile customers can access the discounts through the Vouchercloud iPhone app or via the Vouchercloud website.

With more and more people counting on discount offers and vouchers to treat themselves when money is tight, Orange has teamed up with Vouchercloud to reward all mobile customers with great discounted offers on treats, such as a day out with the family, beauty treatments and shopping, tailored just for them.

Orange customers will be entitled to a minimum of eight exclusive special offers at any given time, and these offers will be updated monthly to make sure there is always something new and exciting to experience at a bargain price. Vouchercloud is already used in over 5,000 retail chains and leisure outlets across the country, and the May offers for Orange customers include Habitat, Malmaison, Headmasters and Fitness First.

Spencer McHugh, Brand Director at Orange UK, said: “We are joining forces with Vouchercloud to show our appreciation to all of our mobile customers with a series of extra special deals – designed exclusively for them. As the first company to launch a free iPhone, and Android smartphone app offering a huge number of location-based discounts (with Windows 7 to follow shortly), Vouchercloud was the perfect partner for Orange’s latest reward scheme. This is just one of the many innovative ways we strive to reward Orange users, and feel this partnership ticks all the boxes to deliver even more incredible savings to our customers.”

Greg Le Tocq, Managing Director, Vouchercloud, continues: “More people than ever are redeeming vouchers so that they can enjoy the latest shopping and leisure experiences at discount prices, so it makes perfect sense to offer people these deals straight to the palm of their hands. We’re excited to be offering Orange customers great deals exclusively, where they can access money-saving gems in a matter of seconds.”

To learn more about Orange and Vouchercloud, please visit http://www.orange.co.uk/more/vouchercloud for more details.

Posted by: James

AR.Race – A customisable individual or multi-player race for the AR.Drone

AR.Race is a race game, downloadable for free on the App Store that allows  1-4 pilots challenge each other on the same circuit. Inflatable items, 2 pylons with a finishing line and a donut, are also available to add spice to the race.

After activating the Bluetooth of the iDevice, each player has to connect via wi-fi to the AR.Drone and launch the AR.Race application. Once the number of pilots is decided, five game levels are available, with or without the use of the inflatable items.

Additional Information: players can choose to activate a piloting assistance option enabling the AR.Drone make high speed turns.

Orange and Barclaycard introduce ‘Quick Tap’

Orange and Barclaycard today launch ‘Quick Tap’, the UK’s first contactless mobile payment service which allows consumers to make purchases on the high street using their mobile phone for the very first time. The landmark launch means that from today, in addition to using contactless cards or chip and PIN, consumers can simply tap their mobile phone on a contactless reader at tills in over 50,000 stores to make purchases £15 and under.

This entirely new, secure and convenient way to make payments is an evolution of how people pay and follows previous payment milestones such as the move from cheques to cards.  Mobile payments will be accepted at stores nationwide including Pret a Manger, EAT., Little Chef, Wembley Arena, Subway, Wilkinson and McDonalds where contactless payments are currently accepted.
The service will be available to Orange customers who use a ‘Quick Tap’ enabled handset. Launching with a Quick Tap enabled version of one of Orange’s best-selling devices, the Samsung Tocco Lite, the Samsung Tocco Quick Tap will be available on pay as you go and pay monthly price plans, with more handsets expected to follow from a selection of leading manufacturers. Barclaycard, Barclays debit or Orange Credit Card users can transfer funds of up to £100 simply and securely onto the handset’s Quick Tap app, after which the phone is ready to make payments of £15 and under in a single transaction.
The user friendly payment app, which sits on the home screen of all Quick Tap compatible handsets, contains information such as electronic statements detailing Quick Tap purchases so customers can keep an eye on their spending and manage finances easily on the go.  To support the launch, Barclaycard is providing Orange customers with £10 cash added to their account upon activation, and 10% cash back on all Quick Tap purchases made in the first three months.

Tizi – Mobile TV just got more mobile

Equinux, developer of iPad, iPhone and Mac solutions, announces a new update for its mobile TV device, the tizi. The new tizi.tv 1.3 enables users to find local TV stations up to four times faster than before. It can now also store multiple channel lists, which can be accessed from various devices, eliminating the need for re-tuning. Additionally, a new in car mode automatically turns the tizi on as soon as it is connected to a USB source. The tizi.tv 1.3 update is available now for free download from the App Store.

Tizi.tv 1.3 is able to find stations four times faster through geo-matching to pin point a user’s location. By storing multiple channel lists directly on the tizi, users only need to tune the device once per location, so they can re-visit an area without having to re-tune their tizi. The stored channel lists can be accessed by various devices, whether connecting to an iPad, iPhone, iPod or Mac. Tizi.1.3 has been optimised for the iPad 2 to provide users with a better image quality. Additionally iPad 2 users can take advantage of the new VGA/HDMI-Adaptor to connect their devices  to projectors, monitors or TV sets turning any screen they come across into a digital television (DTT).

Following feedback from tizi users, equinux has made several changes to the device with a new firmware 3.0 update. The tizi now has an auto-stop recording function, meaning it will stop recording as soon as a TV show is over. A new sleep function will automatically turn tizi off at the end of the current TV show or after a specified amount of time. Additionally, the tizi.tv user interface has been refined, the volume control is now available on-screen, Superzoom in portrait mode will automatically change and stronger password protection has been added.

Price and availability

The tizi.tv 1.3 and firmware 3.0 updates are available now from the App Store for free. tizi users can also download the Mac software, The Tube, from the tizi.tv website for free. tizi is available for £149.95 through Apple Resellers and at www.tizi.tv.

Posted by: James

BlackBerry PlayBook Arriving At The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy

At last it looks like we have some pricing and a release date for the BlackBerry PlayBook here in the UK. Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy will be stocking RIM’s first tablet which they say will be in store on June 16th,

Pricing is pretty much as I expected with the 16GB at from £399; a 32 GB model will be available from £479; and a 64 GB model will be available from £559.

You can see the full press release below: