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Archive for March, 2011
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo has been slated for an April 1st release date (the irony) and even though many would expect a launch of the Pro version within the same time period, we’re hearing that the QWERTY version of the device, the Xperia Pro will not be shipping untila full two months later.
According to the Clove.co.uk, the Xperia Pro will not begin their travel from warehouses until the 1st of June. This will be a two months after the launch of the Xperia Arc, Play and Neo which will all hit retailers on the first of April. More importantly, the Xperia Pro will be fetching a higher price (you really didn’t expect a QWERTY keyboard to come free did you). According to said sources, the Pro will carry a price of £20 over its siblings. That means that the Pro should run a total of £420. But we should clarify that none of this has been confirmed by the boys at Sony, so it could turn out that some of the information is inaccurate.
Other than a touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard and a 1GHz processor, the Pro will carry an 8 megapixel camera on the rear that carries LED flash as well. Android Gingerbread 2.3 will be overlaid with Sony’s TimeScape UI and there is said to be 320MB of memory on board with the option to expand the total memory of the phone via a microSD card that supports card sizes of up to 32GB.
Lastly, we have no word on whether the Xperia Pro will be subsidized by any UK networks. But if the June 1st date holds to be true, that could explain why many are keeping quiet seeing that the date is a little less than three months away.
Source: Clove
Tags: Sony-Ericsson, Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Arc, Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Neo, Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-Play, Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Pro
Posted in Sony Ericsson Phones | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Do your loyalties belong to Apple and the iPad 2 or Android and the Motorola Xoom? If you picked the latter, you might be amused to find out that you can now pre order the 3G equipped Motorola Xoom tablet for no more than £600. Although the availability of the tablet is listed as “in stock” we highly doubt that the actual tablets will be delivered before the first week of April unless Carphone Warehouse knows something that we do not.
The 3G + WiFi equipped device can be bought with a free charging dock which is valued at £34.99. The Motorola Xoom tablet will run Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is the latest version of Android built specifically for tablets. The resolution of the device is pegged at 1280 x 800 with 10.1 inches of screen real estate and unlike the iPad or iPad 2, it comes with a 16:10 aspect ratio which should be perfect for viewing movies and the likes.
For output to a television there is HDMI out so you can mirror your furious racing games to any HDMI screen as long as you have a connector. The device also comes with a dual-core Tegra 2 processor that sports a 1GHz clock speed and 1GB of RAM for all the processing power you need. Lastly there is a 2 megapixel camera on the front for video conferencing and an 8 megapixel camera on the back that also supports the recording of 1080p video content at 30fps. Battery life is excellent and has been tested to last almost 8 ½ hours which is quite impressive for a device with such a large screen. Other minor features include Bluetooth 2.0, 16 and 32 GB flavors and microUSB slot for charging as well as a wireless keyboard.
Source: Carphone Warehouse
Tags: Motorola, Motorola-Xoom, tablets
Posted in Motorola Phones | No Comments »
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
We had heard back in February that due to manufacturing shortages of its own dual-core Hummingbird CPU, Samsung, might enlist the help of NVIDIA to provide chips for its Samsung Galaxy S II devices in non-crucial markets.
Today, NVIDIA has confirmed that. Speaking at ITProPortal, a spokesperson for NVIDIA revealed that not only would the LG Optimus 2X and Motorola Atrix receives the Tegra 2 treatment, but Samsung’s Galaxy S II devices would as well.
It had been originally speculated that Samsung would be using its dual-core Exynos chips for regional versions of the Galaxy S II line while leaving NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 platform for none region specific areas. However, it seems that the company’s in house chips might not be to par as of yet and as such the Tegra 2 will be substituting the Exynos for the time being until Samsung figures something out.
Other than the Tegra 2 processor, the Galaxy S II line will feature Android 2.3 Gingerbread along with a bigger 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen with TouchWiz 4.0 overlay and an updated 8 megapixel camera with a 2 megapixel front facing camera and HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, NFC and Bluetooth with storage options between 16GB and 32GB.
The devices are expected to hit retailers no later than the last week of March and if all goes according to plan, Samsung is looking to eclipse its milestone set last year for most cellphones shipped. With the features mentioned in this phone, we don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible for them to do so, but we’ll have to wait and see. Until that time, we’ll tell you the usual, continue saving for this device when it drops.
Source: ITProPortal
Tags: Exynos, Samsung, Samsung-Galaxy-S-II, Tegra-2
Posted in Samsung Phones | No Comments »
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
True to its word, Apple delivered the specs and release information for the next generation iPad, dubbed the Apple iPad 2. While the event was filled with media representatives from around the world, for whatever strange reason, no one was allowed to do video streaming and as such was stuck with pictures and text to update their respective news sites and blogs.
We’d like to tell you that there was a lot more delivered than previous leaked, but unfortunately that is not the case, but at any rate the company did a good job of following up with the blockbuster success of last year’s device of the year.
First of all, that mockup’s proved to be true, the iPad is a lot thinner than the previous generation. Call me ancient, but for some reason I did not mind the weight or thickness of the first generation model and for some reason I believe this one is a bit too thin for my purpose. But that is just me.
Apple has added a second color to the line, so not only will you be able to get a metallic finish, but there will be white available from day one, we’ll believe it when we see it.
Under the hood we’re dealing with an updated dual-core A5 processor which Apple claims is 9 times faster than the previous generation and a new dedicated GPU as well which handles gaming and multimedia at blazingly fast speeds. As expected, display remains the same so you’ll have to wait till next year to get that amazingly crisp IPS display with the insane pixel density.
Front facing camera is there (VGA quality) as well as a rear facing camera that shoots 720p content at up to 30fps though it is not known what the camera’s megapixel count is. Overall the device is 33% thinner and 8.8mm thick with a weight of just over 600 grams.
The new iPad will hit the United States on March 11th for the same price as the original (the original iPad is getting a $100 price drop starting today while stocks last) and AT&T and Verizon will be carrying both devices. A UK launch is expected between the 11th and the end of March so don’t fret and thanks to a proximity sensor and gyroscope, we’re sure you’ll be interested in waiting around for this device. Oh and did we mention you finally get 1080p output to your TV via an HDMI out cord?
Source: Apple
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPad-2, tablets
Posted in Apple Phones | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
HP announced version 2.2 of the webOS platform as well as version 3.0 which will power the TouchPad tablet and hopefully make it to webOS powered smartphones in the near future. But even with all this news, the second generation Pre is set for release on the UK’s three biggest networks.
The second generation device will feature version 2.0 of the webOS platform and not version 2.2 which will be powering the three new devices due out this summer. The Palm Pre 2 sports a 3.2 inch touchscreen display with multitouch support and a slide out QWERTY keyboard just like the first generation Pre’s. There is integration for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social networking websites and as usual you have access to the best multitasking platform on the market.
Rounding out the features are a built-in media player, 5 megapixel camera on the back (unfortunately no front facing cameras), HSDPA, WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Adobe Flash 10.1 with 16GB of internal storage. Sadly, for the second time, the SD card slot has been ditched in favor of design.
Look for the Pre 2 to be available on plans of £18.19/month or £22.98/month on a two-year contract with 300 included minutes, unlimited messaging and 500MB of data.
As for our thoughts, if you’re hell bent on getting a webOS device (and why not?) we’d hold our hard earned cash until we get some dates from HP on the Veer and Pre 3 which are expected to launch in the not so distant future and if rumors are correct, should be making a landing on our UK shores before the end of the year. Not only will the specs be bumped up to that of the current market offering, but it should feature webOS 2.2 as well.
Source: DialToSave
Tags: O2, Orange, Palm, Palm-Pre-2, Vodafone
Posted in O2 Phones, Orange Phones, Palm Phones, Vodafone Phones | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
In a little over nine hours, Apple will have an answer for the Xoom, Galaxy Tab 10.1, TouchPad, PlayBook, ASUS Slate and all the other tablet PC’s that are challenging its dominance. So far we are hearing rumors of what to expect from the announcement and though these are just rumors, the sources are credible and were right on for last year’s iPad announcement.
So far, we’re hearing that in addition to a thinner design, the device will be featuring a front facing camera. While early case mockup’s indicated that there would be a rear camera, many analysts are speculating that this will not be the case. You’ve been hearing this for weeks now so it probably goes without saying; don’t expect a high resolution screen from the device. That is being shelved for version 2.0 of the device and should come around with version 3.0.
The latest version of iOS will be doing the honors (4.3) and in addition to the set of new API’s and what not, we’re hearing that MobileMe will no longer be a paid subscription service but instead live in the free domain. Its features should also be greatly expanded so prepare to be angry for paying $99 for last year’s subscription.
Last but not least, we would expect that the target launch date of this device will be sometime in April to coincide with the release of all the other major tablets and seeing Apple has a great track record of releasing devices very soon after announcement, we wouldn’t expect this to be otherwise.
The Apple iPad 2 live event will take place in San Francisco at 6PM London time (10AM Pacific Standard Time). We’ll have the latest details for you than so be sure to stay tuned.
Source: Engadget
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPad, Apple-iPad-2
Posted in Apple Phones | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
If you’re like some others in the UK who have their service through the Vodafone network, you might have woken up yesterday morning to your service interrupted or off altogether. 2G, 3G, SMS and Blackberry services were some of the services to go and it appeared to affect a significant portion of the Vodafone UK network.
As for the cause of the interruption, the company has attributed it to a break in at the Basingstoke exchange center. The company refused to go into detail and has not elaborated as to whether a suspect has been caught or if it was an inside or outside job.
As of now, many of the services are back up and more services are expected to be up in the coming hours. So if you’re one of those affected by the break in, be patient as the company is working on restoring service. Vodafone claims that the estimate of affected customers is “a couple hundred thousand users.” If those estimates should prove to be true, it would mean that only a fraction of it’s user base was affected by the outage.
So what does this say, burglary can affect your cellular calls, and it might not be the best time if you’re trying to place an all-important emergency call when such an outage comes, as many customers of Vodafone’s U.S partner, Verizon experienced earlier this month when over 10,000 calls to emergency dispatchers were dropped.
Source: Vodafone
Tags: Verizon, Vodafone
Posted in Vodafone Phones | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
 Apple is currently experiencing an onslaught of Android devices thanks to manufacturers ramping up production, manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony. Even so, Apple has still remained at the top of the trend and even though they are no longer the leader in terms of sales, they are the main company directing the winds of change in the industry.
The Cupertino based company has been working behind closed doors on the next version of the iPhone which is set to be released sometime this summer. So far the company has remained quiet about it’s plans but many news organizations such as WSJ and All Things D have reported that Apple is working on three prototypes even though they do not suspect all will make it from the R&D department.
According to the reports, there is the regular iPhone 5, a QWERTY slider and finally a cheaper model. Thanks to Apple’s Tim Cook, the cheaper version has all but been confirmed, not for launch, but at least in consideration.
Here are the words of Tim Cook paraphrased by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi who had the pleasure of sitting down with the CFO concerning the rumors of a cheaper iPhone:
While Tim stopped short of explicitly stating that Apple would pursue a lower price iPhone, he did state that Apple was working hard to “figure out” the prepaid market and that Apple didn’t want its products to be “just for the rich,” but “for everyone”; he also stated that Apple “understood price is big factor in the prepaid market” and that the company was “not ceding any market.” Cook noted that Apple executives – including himself – had spent “huge energy” in China, noting that it is “a classic prepaid market.” He further noted that the handset distribution model was poorly constructed and that Apple would look to “innovate” and do “clever” things in addressing that market.
What does this mean? Well it is clear that Apple is clear on their intentions of challenging Android, Nokia and Blackberry on all levels, and not just the high-end line.
Source: Engadget
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-5
Posted in Apple Phones | No Comments »
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