The iPhone is a hugely useful piece of technology to have in your pocket. It can help organise your life in so many different ways. Just by itself, there is plenty of functionality there to make your daily goings on a lot easier. Without apps, however, you will never truly approach German levels of efficiency.?

Below is a selection of apps designed to speed up your life and take proper advantage of the tools that your iPhone can offer. Get downloading.?

Summly

The basic premise of Summly is a simple one - and within its simplicity lies its brilliance. Summly is a "simpler way to browse and search the web by automatically summarising search results, webpages and news articles" making it easy to find what you're after, quickly, and with all the useless gubbins cut out.

It works as a standalone app, or as an extension to your iPhone's Safari browser after following a few simple steps to get it up and running. The idea is, you find a webpage you want (or rather, it helps you find the page you want) and then, rather than wasting your precious time reading it all, it summarises the key points using a "patent pending summarisation technology" that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have apparently tested. Read More.

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 3/5

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LogMeIn Ignition

LogMeIn Ignition is an app that works in tandem with either Windows or Mac software (a free version or a pro version with added goodies) that lets you access your files when you're out and about - and even gives you direct access to your machine's desktops.?Setting up is easy - simply install the app on your iPad or iPhone (or both) and download the desktop software that you want direct from LogMeIn's website. It's then just a case of pairing up your devices using the log in procedure; you can also set a username and password for added security.

Once paired, your iDevice now has access to all of your PC's goodies (so all your programs and data) that you want it to, so long as that machine is turned on. If it's not turned on, Ignition even has functionality to boot it up, or awaken it from a nap.?Sure ?20+ for an app is a lot, but when you consider it's an app that basically turns your iThing into a functional PC then it's not really all that expensive.

iTunes: Link

Price: ?20.99

Rating: 5/5

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0870

With free minutes allowances constantly growing and more and more people ditching the landline for the mobile, those pesky 0870 and 0845 numbers remain a costly?nuisance.?Thanks to this incredibly useful anti-0870 app you can now circumvent expensive calls by using a suggested landline contact number. The application searches a database of around 13,000 companies to find 01, 02 or cheaper 08 numbers. It doesn't always get it right, but bigger companies often have a direct line contact number, in some cases helping you skip call-queues.

Simple but incredibly useful, if you are the sort of person who regularly uses their mobile as a landline alternative you could see the 69p outlay for this shaving a serious amount of cash off your phone bill. Read more

iTunes: Link

Price: 69p

Rating: 4/5

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Onavo

Onavo’s core functionality is based around shrinking your data to save you cash on roaming fees. That’s a nice idea considering mobile phone operators around the world are happy to charge you through the roof. And while in the UK most operators give you a reasonable deal on calls, it’s data that’s where they get you. In the US you can play up to ?5 a MB, so any way to save on that is welcomed.

Onavo works by installing a profile on your iPhone and then re-routing all your streaming through that. After you’ve set it up you hardly notice. Yes, pictures are degraded, but if it’s saving you cash we’re sure you can live without crystal-perfect images for the duration of your trip. The best thing about Onavo is that it is free and does nothing but save you money. As an app running in the background it is virtually indispensable should you plan on using your phone abroad.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

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MyHome

British Gas has come up with an app that, once setup, turns your home into a remote controlled power station. You can control everything, from appliances to your house alarm, using just your iPhone. The app also lets you monitor what sort of energy usage you are getting through and switch various pieces of kit off remotely.

The app works by using smartplugs and keyfobs to work out who is at home and what is switched on. These can then remotely control devices and even identify what is plugged in and draining power. Even how much power is being used. It takes a bit of setting up, but once done could save you quite a bit of money and help keep your home secure.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

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Posted

Do a lot of work with eBay? Or do you send a lot of postcards and packages? This is the app for you. It is designed to help you manage and track parcels using delivery companies and couriers. You just need to enter tracking numbers or scan barcodes if you are sending packages and the app should do the rest.

Once you have packages entered, estimated delivery times and wether or not the recipient has received the parcel will appear in the app. Push notifications are also now supported using iOS 5 which practically turns your phone into a full-on mail management device. If you wondering what companies are supported then check out the app’s page in iTunes. Virtually every continent and major provider is covered for.

iTunes: Link

Price:?0.69p

Rating: 4/5

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Spark

Battery keeps running out right when you dont want it to? Spark is the app for you. Like Onavo, it runs silently in the background, keeping a close eye on the battery level of your device. Once things get dangerously low, then Spark will send an email out to selected contacts informing them of your near battery dead situation.

The other hugely useful application of Spark is for worried mums. The alerts sent out when you have low battery are location based, so you should at least get the last known wherabouts of your teenager should he be avoiding you. Simple and easy to setup, Spark uses virtually no battery and shouldn’t clog up too much iPhone power either. Good stuff

iTunes: Link

Price:?0.69p

Rating: 4/5

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O2 Priority Moments

O2's take on location-based deals arrived today in the form of Priority Moments, an app specially for O2 customers that grants them access to some pretty juicy offers. Everything from Yo Sushi! to Halfords has got involved in the deals setup, with significant savings to be made on items such as food and shopping.

Fire the app up and you will be asked to enter your mobile phone number, seconds later a text will be sent with a code that grants you access to the service. Enter this and you are through the login process. From there on out it's a relatively simple setup, tapping "me" allows you to shift your shopping preferences up and down so you get notified of deals relevant to you. There is a list of all the "moments" nearby that gives you an overview of deals. Careful, things can get pretty tempting. Once you tap on one you are given a map with a more specific location, along with exact details of the offer. Read more

iTunes: Link

Price:Free requires O2 subs)

Rating: 4/5

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Remarks

Readdle is back with yet another note-taking app, this time in the form of Remarks which it describes as a new way to "write down your thoughts, capture ideas and information, annotate documents and outline notes anywhere from university class to sofa at home". Remarks is an app that treats whatever is on screen, whether that be a PDF file, an image or simply an empty text file, as your notepad. You can do with it what you want.

You can add typed notes with several font options, you can hand-write notes using a varied selection of virtual pen and pencil types (with different thickness), you can highlight, you can chuck in shapes or arrows and you can insert pictures. It's simple to use your finger but it's obviously designed with styluses in mind (we used the Griffin Crayola one). Read more

iTunes: Link

Price:?2.99

Rating: 4/5

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Ubuntu One Files

Before you panic, you do not need to have Ubuntu - nor any version of Linux - installed on you PC in order to use Ubuntu One and the Ubuntu One Files app. This is a service that is, and has been since its launch, open to anyone who can access the internet. What this app offers is mobile phone access and syncing to it. Ubuntu One gives anyone who signs up 2GB of free online space to insert whichever kinds of files they wish. All very nice. Naturally, you can upgrade that for more room but doubtless you can figure that one out for yourself, should you get hooked.

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Installing the Ubuntu One Files app on your phone means that you can sync whatever’s up there in your cloud with your Android mobile. In fact, as soon as you open it up for the first time, it will offer to upload your handset’s photos to Ubuntu One and to do so every time you snap a new one. Naturally, you’re welcome to drill down and select exactly when you’d like that to happen and whether over mobile broadband or Wi-Fi or both. Beyond that, you’re welcome to upload any other file type manually. Definitely worth a crack. Read more

iTunes: Link

Price:Free (subs required)

Rating: 4/5

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Opera Mini Browser

Opera works slightly differently from the native Safari browser on iPhone. It uses servers in a land far far away to pre-load websites and then push them out to your phone. The theory is that this speeds up web page loading times. But wait, there’s more. It also does all sorts of clever things with the way you can browse the internet. A data usage meter for example, will show how much data you are saving while browsing the internet.

On top of this there is predictive typing and one-tap page favouriting. Opera Mobile, the app’s bigger brother, doesn’t shrink down websites to save on data. Instead it is the whole shebang, HTML 5 packed pages and all.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

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Dropbox

We'll waste no time in telling you that here at Pocket-lint we love Dropbox's simplicity. The app works by letting your share files quickly across computer, iPhone or iPad. You get full access to Dropbox folders on your mobile, meaning you can access documents, videos and music.

The application also allows you to email out files and even upload photos straight to folders. Not hugely complex, it is designed more for speed than looks. Best app for getting files between iDevices? You betcha.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

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Thetrainline.com

Covering the entire UK rail network, thetrainline.com app is said to be easy to use and offers a start-to-finish route planning feature, using station search by name or on a map showing the user's location and nearest rail stations. The "Next Train Home" function gives users stations and departure times from their current location anywhere in the UK to their stored home destination, while there's also up-to-date Tube information, that can be saved for offline access.

There's also some Twitter integration with the option to tweet other passengers about their journeys. Thetrainline.com explains: "It brings travellers together in sharing thoughts or sharing taxis! This quirky - and likely popular - function has a pre-loaded # tag specific to the users' trains, so it's simple to engage other passengers and spice-up the long trek home!"

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

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Tags: Phones Apps iPhone iPhone apps Features

Best iPhone utilities apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

LG may just have the answer to Fragma's prayers, as the Windows Phone 7 touting LG Miracle has been leaked all over the internet.

The Miracle isn't likely to take on the likes of the HTC Titan or Nokia's top end Lumia smartphones - the spec sheet suggests a mid-level entry device.

It is said to be packing a 4-inch WVGA NOVA display, which should sparkle somewhat, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 8GB of storage, a 5-megapixel rear camera that can shoot 720p video and a VGA front-facing webcam.

It's purported to boast 14.4Mbps HSPA connectivity, 5.0GHz-capable 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC too - which is a bit of a curve-ball as NFC isn't supported by the platform yet.

We haven't seen an Windows Phone 7 action from LG since the OS launched in October 2010 and the LG Quantum (or Optimus 7Q) and the Optimus 7 hit the shops. With the Mango update giving Microsoft's platform the shot in the arm that it needed, it will be nice to have a major player back on board.

LG looks like being busy over in Barcelona at MWC at the end of the month. We were also recently treated to a teaser of the LG Optimus Vu, a 5-inch Android device set to take on the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Don't call it a comeback...

Update: A load of shots of the purported WP7 handset in the world have turned up online. It's also being referred to as the LG Fantasy E740.

Read

Tags: Phones LG LG Miracle Windows Phone 7

LG Miracle picture and details leak originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:40:05 +0000

The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the biggest gadgets of 2012. With its predecessor topping the Android charts in the previous year and pretty much sweeping up all the best mobile phone awards it could find, it’s of little surprise that the world has its ears like a safe cracker to the web for news about the next member of this highly acclaimed super-smartphone dynasty.

Naturally, it’s our job here at Pocket-lint to sweep up any such tidbits of information and mould them in our experienced grip until we have a fully formed model of what we all expect the Samsung Galaxy S III to look like. Whether that turns out to reflect what the real phone shapes up to be remains to be seen, but read on to find out the shape of things right now according to the Samsung Galaxy S III rumours.

Samsung Galaxy S III release date

It all began just one month after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II when the president of Samsung’s mobile division, J.K. Shin, told the Dow Jones Newswires in an exclusive interview: “Samsung may launch a third version of its Galaxy S smartphone in the first half of next year after launching a second-generation version called Galaxy S II last month.”

Now that “may” might have sounded a shade wishy-washy at the time but we only had to wait until the 11 October 2011 for our next glimpse into the future when Phandroid.com received a leaked slide of the Samsund roadmap which featured none other than the Samsung Galaxy S III at the top of the tree. There were no dates along with the information but, with around six months to go, a Mobile World Congress 2012 launch wasn’t a big stretch.

But a big stretch it turned out to be by the end of January 2012 when Pocket-lint reported via Sammyhub and the Verge that what looked to be nailed on seemed to be suffering from delay. According to a well-trusted source group called “people familiar with the matter”, Samsung had been planning an MWC 2012 launch but there were issues which meant the timescale had been set back to a “before summer” release and that could have been about trying to reduce the long gap before users in the US got to buy them, as occured with the SGS2 arrival.

“We are still reviewing several options when to launch, so we'll let you know when it's decided,” was the official line at the time from Samsung’s head of Global Marketing, Younghee Lee, as he more or less made the handset official for the very first time.

All the same, it wasn’t until Samsung dropped a memo into Pocket-lint’s inbox a few days later on 1 February 2012 that we knew for sure that MWC 2012 was simply too soon.

"The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product." was the word and the current anticpated arrival time for the Samsung Galaxy S III is May 2012.

Samsung Galaxy S III screen

The Galaxy S II had a whopper of a display when it arrived and Samsung even inched it out a little further for the LTE version, so one might expect something similarly grand for the Samsung Galaxy S III screen.

According to the leaked information on Phandroid.com in October, that’s exactly what will be happening with 0.1” addition taking the total to 4.6” on the diagonal. The same rumour talks of a much expected upgrade in the actual technology of the screen too. First it was Super AMOLED, then the SGS2 made it a Super AMOLED Plus and then the Galaxy Nexus came out with a 720p Super AMOLED HD. Apparently the Samsung Galaxy S III will have a Super AMOLED Plus HD. What this means in real terms has not been said but, in practice, it’s either going to be a 720p or 1080p resolution.

The only other story so far on the matter came from Samsung itself. Just after CES 2012, the company produced a video with its new product launch triumphs fresh from the show and some bright spark with the pause button at the ready spotted a large, but not Galaxy Note style, mobile device seven minutes in. What we see is a broader mobile with virtually edge-to -dge screen across its width and even less black along the top and bottom than you currently get on the SGS2. It looks great. The chances are, however, that it’s some kind of mock up but one never quite knows.

Samsung Galaxy S III camera

Again, it’s really, so far, only October’s leak that’s given us anything to go on in terms of the Samsung Galaxy S III camera. The word on the slide shot is that the 8MP rear-facer is going to be upgraded to a 12-megapixel backlit sensor which should improve performance under low light conditions as well as up the resolution. What’s more is that the sensor is apparently the same size as one you’d find in a compact at 1/2.3" and that might have some very interesting optical improvements so long as the lens put in front of it and circuitary behind it are up to scratch. That’s also if the leaked photo happens to be true, which looks a bit less likely when you notice a couple of typos.

The possible mock up in the post-CES promo video gives us another potential clue as far as the front-facing camera goes and that’s only to say that it’s in the same position as before. One would hope to get a little more resolution than the VGA version in the SGS2 but more on that when we hear about it.

Samsung Galaxy S III processor

The Phandroid.com roadmap listed a?dual-core 1.8GHz Exynos 4212 chip backed up with 2GB of RAM as the engine room of choice for the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone. On the one hand, the memory seems about right but, what with Tegra 3 and quad-core processors looking to rule the waves in 2012, the Exynos 4212 seems a touch short.

Indeed, according to a report in Androidandme.com in November 2011, it will, in fact, be an all-new?Exynos 4412 system-on-a-chip instead. The Exynos 4412 is still based on an ARM Cortex A9 CPU architecture but comes with four cores running at a 1.5GHz clock. The GPU attached is said to be a?Mali-T604 GPU with a 5x faster factor than previous Mali chips and up to, again, four cores to work with.

Samsung Galaxy S III form factor

Form factor-wise, while the Phandroid.com rumour reports Samsung taking a step away from the squared-off candybar shape to disentangle itself from any iPhone infringements, the more interesting information is in the February 2012 story from Korean publication ETnews. The suggestion here is that the Samsung Galaxy S III will be just 7mm thick, thanks to?printed circuit boards, connector parts and chips that are 10 to 20 per cent thinner than conventional units. That would make it 1.9mm thinner than the SGS2.

Samsung Galaxy S III connectivity

The Phandroid.com report from October 2011 stated that the Samsung Galaxy S III would come equipped with both NFC and LTE connectivity. That certainly makes sense, given that two of Samsung's recent top phones have included these standards, so there's no reason why the company would deprive their upcoming flagship model of them either. The question for UK users, of course, is whether we'll see the LTE version this side of the Atlantic?

Samsung Galaxy S III software

With Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich the latest version of the Google Mobile software for the first part of 2012, it's pretty much a cert that that's what will be adorning the Samsung Galaxy S III. The variable is the UI on top and, although there's been no word either way, the obvious choice is whatever the latest version of Samsung's TouchWiz is. Currently, it's TouchWiz 4.0 as released on the SGS2, so either that or an all-new TouchWiz 5.0 would make the most sense.

Samsung Galaxy S III pictures

So far, the Samsung Galaxy S III has been kept pretty well under wraps. For visuals, the two images we have to go on are from the post-CES 2012 promo video and the roadmap from Phandroid.com. The best bet would be to take both with a pinch of salt but it’s probably the latter which we’d hope to hold more truth. What the slide suggests is that the Galaxy S III will be less boxy than the previous models with a larger curve at the bottom and soft keys much more like the Galaxy Nexus.

Doubtless we’ll get more blurry shots and leaked images as we get closer to launch.

Samsung Galaxy S III price

There’s been no word on the Samsung Galaxy S III price for the time being. One would expect it to come in at under the cost of the iPhone, as is usual for top Android phones, but not a huge amount less. Naturally, bigger and better technology is going to drive the price up but the original ?499 PAYG/?40pm contract release tag of the Samsung Galaxy S II would seem like a decent guide.

Samsung Galaxy S III review

Expect plenty more coverage as we get closer to the release date and a full and thorough Samsung Galaxy S III review once we've had a chance to get Samsung’s latest top super-smartphone for 2012 into the Pocket-lint labs.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy S II Samsung Galaxy S III Features Android Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Samsung Galaxy S III: Review of rumours, features, pictures and specs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:11:00 +0000

If you ever needed evidence that the mighty can fall, then take a look at Nokia. A firm that was unstoppable until the iPhone was launched, it has since faltered and stumbled at every step. Or so it seems to some commentators. Perhaps the firm ignored the Sony Walkman lesson of "you can be big one year, and insignificant the next" but it certainly fell victim of it.

Symbian, the firm's pride and joy for many years - the N95 was a magnificent phone - was never really able to keep up with the iPhone and Android handsets. Nokia floundered with resistive touchscreens when everyone else knew capacitive was the only way. But these mistakes are, thankfully, in the past. And with the Nokia 7000 we have one of the very few remaining handsets with Symbian 3 installed, and probably one of the last ever made.

Beautiful hardware

We don't think there's much arguing that Nokia has improved its hardware design every year. The 700 is a lovely device. It's small and thin, clearly aimed at those who want to chuck their phone in a pocket or bag and forget about it until they want to make a phonecall, or send a text message.

The build quality is every bit as impressive as any of Nokia's Lumia phones. The solid feeling of quality here means that you won't want to put it down. It feels so lovely in the hand, the weight is right, and the size, while small, seems to work for the phone.

On the top of the handset, you'll find a mini USB socket and heaphone jack. Along the right-hand side, there are silver buttons for volume, unlock and the camera. These are all pretty small, and our man-hands found them a struggle to operate properly.

On the front, you'll see a trademark Nokia green phone, red phone and a back button, which takes you to the home screen. The green button brings up the call list, while the red backs you out, allows you to select a profile, or turn the phone off. We miss this simple clarity in modern phones. Another nice feature the iPhone destroyed!

One thing we note, is that the Nokia 700 comes with NFC. This is an interesting decision on a phone that feels like it's aimed at low-end users. People who aren't too interested in the high-tech. The benefits of NFC won't be known for a while, in theory it would enable you to share contacts with friends, pay for a paper and chocolate bar at your local shop or travel on the Tube. The reality is, none of that really works.

What's in an operating system?

Make no mistake, Symbian is a very good OS. It may not have been well suited to touchscreen handsets, but when things were driven by keyboards, it was more than adequate. And don't forget, there is pretty much nothing that the iPhone can do that you couldn't also do with a good Symbian phone. The N95, for example, was far more advanced than the first generation iPhone which followed it. But advanced doesn't sell phones, easy-to-use does. And while Symbian has improved, it's still often clunky.

Menus, for example, have always been weak on the OS, and there's still problems, even in this generation. It might have once made sense to put the ringtones in something called "profiles", but it doesn't really any more. And as much was we love the idea of profiles, one for work, one for home, it just doesn't reflect the way most people use phones any more. Most people just want to set their ringtone, and use it for all occasions. The only profile most people use, outside the normal one, is "silent".

In the settings menu too, "apps" are referred to as "installations". Sorry, what? That makes no sense at all. We could go on about things like this for a while, but we won't. Let's just say, the Symbian menu terminoligy and layout is a bit of a dog's dinner, and move on.

And in some ways, the OS doesn't matter much to the target audience. Remember, this phone is aimed at low-use people, rather than power users.

That said though, there's lots here for people who want a capable smartphone. For example, there is good, email support. Adding Gmail is no longer a slog, or an activity that needs it's own app. You just add it via your email shortcut. There's lots of presets too, so most big email providers are covered. You can add Nokia Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and Exchange ActiveSync. We were using an Orange SIM too, and the phone gave us settings for Orange email - neat, and not something the iPhone does.

Praise be, a capacitive touchscreen

The 700's screen is beautiful. Very bright, and incredibly vivid. That's thanks to the 3.2-inch AMOLED display, which offers 229ppi and a resolution of 360x640. The touch aspect of it is a little more problematic though. While it mostly works well, and is very sensitive, we found sometimes it wasn't good at recognising that ?we were trying to scroll, which resulted in a lot of accidentally opened apps. It's not a showstopper, but it will take some getting used to.

We also did find that the screen was a little on the small side. Typing though, was mostly fine, despite its size, we never struggled to much to get the right letters - certainly no more than we do, even with bigger screens.

Camera

Despite a 5-megapixel sensor, we were not that impressed with the photographs that it produced. There's no auto-focus here, although the camera uses some clever electronic trickery to make sure photos do look well-focused. But whatever it does, it didn't impress us, producing lacklustre photos that were almost always too soft, unless you were outside in very bright sunlight.

Video is supported, and the camera can record at up to 720p. Certainly, this is good enough for YouTube, and we can't see owners of this phone directing movies on it, so no major complaints here either.

Apps

The apps situation on Symbian isn't brilliant, but there's still enough to keep casual users pretty happy. We use TweetS60 for our Twitter client, but there's no proper Facebook app in the Nokia app store. There is, however, an app that you can download from facebook.com. And this is something that will be foreign to Apple users, and slightly odd to Android owners. In fact, Nokia apps were always available outside an app store, because when the N95 ruled the sea, there was no centralised location for them.

And if that sounds confusing, don't worry - in practice it's simple. It probably won't come up all that often, but quite why Nokia doesn't include a Twitter and Facebook client is entirely beyond us.

Pre-installed comes an iPlayer, which isn't an app, but a link to the BBC site. It's the most pointless load of nonsense we've ever seen. A Virgin Media app lets subscribers access TV and such, it's a proper app too. Which is nice. There's also a program that lets you watch Paramount trailers. It is almost as pointless as the iPlayer, but at least it's actually an app, not a weblink.

Music

As with all modern phones, the 700 has a decent music player. There's a coverflow-style interface which allows you to flick through the cover art for your albums. It works really well, and it's one of the fastest and most impressive we've seen.

Music playback is good too, it's nice and flat, which means good headphones will sound very clear and detailed. The only slight problem is that the EQ settings are quite poor, there's not a massive amount of difference between them, and the "bass boost" setting just muffles everything.

Still, flat sound allows you to customise what you're hearing with the headphones you use. If you want more bass, grab some of Dr Dre's ludicrous "Beats" headphones, and prepare to upset your eardrum.

The 700 has a microSD slot too, which means you can add up to 32GB of music and photo storage to your phone. That's pretty cool, especially in a phone that's so tiny. Can someone remind us again why this isn't possible in the massive Samsung Galaxy Nexus?

A lovely little phone

Mrs Pocket-lint has been living with an HTC Wildfire S for a while now. To be honest, we don't think she really likes it. She has her email set up on it, but no data on her mobile contract, so she can only pick it up when on our home wireless. It is her that this phone is aimed at. And indeed, when she saw it she said: "Ooh, can I have it, I like the look of that."

And that's that, as you might say. There is a market for this device, it's a large one too with probably millions of people who want a phone that does email, but doesn't have all the messing about of Android. And while we moan about Symibian being complicated, it's actually never really essential for a novice to ever enter the settings menu. The phone will work out of the box, without you configuring a single thing. You can't say that about Android, which requires 20 steps be undertaken before you can even use the phone.

The Nokia 700 might not suit advanced users, but it's beautifully built, simple to use and it makes and receives phone calls with aplomb.

Verdict:

The 700 isn't perfect, but it's a reasonably likable phone. If you're app mad, then you'll want to avoid it. If you're looking for a good, solid phone, then it's probably idea.

The screen is small though, so bear this in mind if you're a bit fat of finger. It is bright and detailed though, so there's little to worry about when it comes to interacting with the phone. The battery life is superb too, which will be important for the?target?audience, and the music player is a nice touch too.?

If nothing else, the 700 proves that Nokia is still a great brand, producing great hardware. Symbian is much improved these days, but it's still a little clunky, and the app situation is still something of a mess.

Tags: Phones Nokia Nokia 700

Nokia 700 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:45:43 +0000

Pocket-lint has just had word from Acer that the Acer CloudMobile smartphone has received the iF design award 2012, in recognition of outstanding achievement in design.

Bravo indeed.

Except, we're not sure that we've ever heard of the Acer CloudMobile. But we're told that the device, which Acer describes as its flagship smartphone, will be officially unveiled at the end of February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and will be available in Q3, 2012.

There's no detailed spec-sheet although we're hearing that it is running Android 4.0, has a 4.3-inch HD display, Dolby sound, and is less than 10mm thick.

According to its makers the Acer CloudMobile is the first smartphone to offer AcerCloud technology, and it "enhances mobile productivity by providing seamless document management".?

That's all we know for now, although we're chasing more info. We will, of course, be reporting live from Barcelona come MWC show time so you can check back on Pocket-lint for all the news and analysis from the mobile expo then.

Tags: Phones Acer Acer CloudMobile MWC2012

Acer CloudMobile Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone set for MWC launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:42:00 +0000

With just over two weeks to go before all the smartphone makers play their early 2012 hands over in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, a mystery HTC device has popped up online.

Like an orphaned puppy at Battersea Dogs Home, the handset has no name, but what we do know is enough to get excited about.

For a start, it's running Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.0 chucked over the top - just like the much leaked HTC Ville.

Its spec-sheet isn't quite on a par with the Ville however, although it is still quite impressive. We're apparently looking at a dual-core 1.2GHz powered smartphone with 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, a front-facing VGA camera, LTE connectivity, an AMOLED display and Beats Audio.

On the bottom are four capacitive buttons, as opposed to the three found on the Ville, and the back panel makes us think this could be something Incredible; either a follow up to the Incredible S, or the next iteration of Droid Incredible.

We are warned that the leaked handset is a prototype though and possibly not the finished article, so it may be a bit different come launch time.

Pocket-lint will, of course, be out in Barcelona in force covering all the MWC news as it breaks so be sure to check back during the show for comprehensive coverage from HTC and all the other big players.

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Tags: Phones HTC Ice Cream Sandwich Rumours

New HTC Ice Cream Sandwich device pictures leak originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:06:00 +0000

If you're the type of person that gets bored of your phone easily and always wants a latest model in your pocket then Phones 4u may have the solution with its JUMP contract.

JUMP stands for Just Update My Phone and, although still tying you in to a two-year deal, allows you to switch your phone every six months if you want to.

You won't get a brand new handset for nothing every-time, rather get money off of it by trading in your old handset. You can get the initial handset free though, depending on what deal you take, Phones 4u will simply add ?2.99 - ?3.99 to the top of your monthly fee to get you involved and guarantees that a phone taken from them will be worth a minimum of ?100 for a year. You can also chuck in up to two more handsets you may have lying around to bring down the price of the upgrade.

You are then essentially taking two agreements out - one with the network for all your minutes, texts and data and one with Phones 4u for the device itself.

"We conducted extensive research prior to the trial and national roll-out to inform the?JUMP?model and ensure it truly met consumer needs," said Alistair Firth, director of Customer Development at Phones 4u.

"We discovered 18 to 35-year-olds don’t want to return a handset on a leasing model. This is because they are used to keeping handsets as part of their mobile phone contract. They hold concerns over losing data or voiding the warranty if they customise the phone, and worry about paying a surcharge if the phone is damaged.

"We used these findings to help shape the?JUMP?offering and believe it offers the best flexibility and benefits of any deal currently available on the market."

Ernest Doku, tech expert at uSwitch.com, added: "For those tech-obsessed enough to want to upgrade frequently – and willing to pay extra each month to keep up with the smartphone Joneses – the?JUMP?tariff is an option worth considering.

"Hopefully, this deal marks the start of more flexible contract options to come, as there are very few mobile phone customers who relish the prospect of using the same handset for two years."

JUMP?has been trialled since May 2011 in 100 stores. The national rollout is now under way and the offering is expected to be available in all of Phones 4u’s 586+ stores, via Phones 4u online and via Phones 4u telesales by May 2012.

Tags: Phones Phones 4u

Phones 4u JUMP launched for phone addicts originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:21:00 +0000

HTC?has dated when some of its current Android powered phones will be getting Google's latest version of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich.

The announcement comes via the company's official Facebook page and states that the roll out will begin at the end of March.

Android smartphones to be first in the queue to getting the Android 4.0 upgrade are the HTC Sensation?and?HTC Sensation XE, followed soon thereafter by the HTC Sensation XL.

"HTC has been working hard to get its Ice Cream Sandwich?upgrades ready, and we’re excited to announce that?our first round of ICS upgrades will roll out by the end of March for the HTC Sensation and?HTC Sensation XE, followed soon thereafter by the HTC Sensation XL," says the phone maker. ?

There is also hope for HTC EVO 3D,?HTC Incredible S,?HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD owners, with the company confirming that although they won't be getting the ICS update in March, they will be getting the update at some point in 2012.

"In addition, we can confirm Ice Cream?Sandwich upgrades will be coming later this year to the?HTC EVO 3D,?HTC Incredible S,?HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD. Stay tuned for more updates on Ice?Cream Sandwich releases in the coming weeks," adds HTC.

We will keep you posted.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Sensation HTC Sensation XE HTC Sensation XL HTC EVO 3D HTC Incredible S HTC Desire S HTC Desire HD Ice Cream Sandwich Android

HTC dates Ice Cream Sandwich update, Sensation models get it first originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:04:00 +0000

So you have an iPhone. You like to consider yourself part of the modern internet connected world. But can you send an email while learning English? Or do your expenses and record a podcast? Only the best app users truly can. Getting quicker with your iPhone isn't difficult, nor is pushing more productivity tasks through it particularly tough.?

But where to start? Below is a list of choice cuts from the app store that we believe to be the most useful apps out there for productivity. So get reading, get downloading and get faster.?

Dynamic English Lessons

Super-simple to use, this app brings a little bit of fun to the whole process of learning; rather than delving too deeply into the intricacies of the English language it aims to bring a run-down of some common phrasal verbs.?This focus on phrasal verbs should allow for their practical application in a variety of scenarios; something that is addressed in this app.?On loading up the Dynamite English Lessons, you're confronted with four sections at the bottom, including Settings, Dictionary, and the one we're interested in, Categories.

These categories are split into sub-headings which include Leisure, Travel, Dating and the like. Tapping through will then start your process of learning, bringing up sentences with the verbal phrases missing; it's then your job to fill them in via two multiple choice scroll wheels at the bottom.?As you complete more phrases from the various categories, phrases will be added to the dictionary section; so there's a real incentive to keep going. Complete them all, and you'll also be rewarded with an X Rated category - just how saucy it is remains to be seen. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: ?0.69

Rating: 4/5

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ExpenseMagic

The beauty with ExpenseMagic is that it turns what is a boring process into a simple one. You simply snap pictures of your receipts, tickets or anything else you want the boss to cough up for and it does the work for you.?Not by using image tracking tech like we've seen in apps like Evernote or Business Card Reader, but by having "trained bookkeepers" do all the work for you. Tthey will even work out the VAT details for you. Your receipts get processed within a few hours.

The app itself is free, and allows you to bring in other elements such as attaching a receipt to a diary event from your calendar, but for every 20 receipts you want processed, you'll need to cough up ?2.99. You'll get 5 for free when you start.?If you're overseas on business the app will use the GPS function of your iPhone to see where you are and adjust the currency and you can even choose to have all your expenses put into one single claim form that can be automatically emailed to your employer once a month. Read More

iTunes:?Link

Price: Free

Rating: 4/5

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WorkSnug

The idea behind this simple but effective app is to connect mobile workers to the nearest places to some work done. Anyone who works remotely will know, only too well, the panic that sets in when dashing around the streets from coffee to pub in desperate search of Wi-Fi so that you can get on with some graft. That's where WorkSnug Pro comes in.?All you need to do is point the camera in front of you and the app will overlay a series of GPS-tagged pointers to tell you where the nearest work-friendly places are, whether that's coffee shops, pubs or libraries.

All listed locations have been rated for their atmosphere, noise levels, power points, Wi-Fi and - crucially - the quality of the coffee. You can add your own reviews for the places you visit so that it becomes a network that's updated by the community that uses it. It even includes an integrated decibel meter so that you can take your own readings to add to your review. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

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Mint.com Personal Finance

Mint.com is all about your money - it’s a service which aggregates all your online bank accounts into one manageable place. Instead of having to log in to four different company systems, you enter all your details on set up and leave Mint to do the work for you each time you want to take a peep. It’ll deal with your savings, credit cards, mortgages and anything else you’ve got and put all of them and their transactions into one online statement. And, like all the best things on thenternet, it’s free.

The service uses bank level security and will also warn you if it suspects fraudulent activity on any of your accounts, but it doesn’t stop there. If you want to be super organised, you can create a budget. That’s because the website can categorise and display exactly what kinds of things you spend your cash on. So, it’ll let you know just how much you waste on expensive take out coffee. Off the back of that, you can make a new cash flow plan for yourself and the service will even make suggestions of where you can cut down your expenses as well. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

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Evernote

Evernote is a simple enough idea. It’s a cloud-based filing system for notes. It’s a giant, searchable, back pocket with dividers. The phone, pad or desktop app - however you want to use it - allows you to take notes as pictures, written notes, audio notes or you can just upload a file. You give each one a title as you do so and you’re welcome to tag them too. Once you’re done, you hit upload and off they go into the cloud as if you’ve just attached a magical helium ballon. That’s probably how they’d show it in an advert, anyway.

While it’s a good service from a laptop, it really comes into its own on your mobile phone. You can take a photo of something you see that inspires you when you’re out on the hoof, or perhaps a Christmas gift idea or maybe just a ticket confirmation number or something you’ll need later. It’s not hard to think of times where it comes in handy, you just have to remember that you have this service in your pocket in the first place. Best of all, of course, it’ll cost you nothing to try it out. Make sure you do. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

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Documents to Go Premium

Documents to Go (DTG) is a, quite frankly, brilliant office suite that will turn your iPad into a rich office-based machine, without clogging up your precious hard-drive space with files.?Because, although you can store documents locally on your iPad's memory, DTG works best when you bring in the cloud - and that's why it's worth forking out for the premium version.DTG is compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and you'll also be able to view images, iWork files and PDFs as well.

With Word, Excel and PowerPoint you can edit files and there are all the formatting options that you could possibly wish for, you simply have to scroll through them on the toolbar at the bottom. Holding your finger down on a button gives you a text explanation of what it will do, so you don't need to guess.?Packed to the rafters with handy features, Documents to Go is a fantastic app and we highly recommend it. Less than ?12 is a bargain for what you get with the premium version, although there is a version without cloud support for just ?6.99. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: ?11.99

Rating: 4/5

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Diacarta Planner

This one should help anyone who suffers from a lack of organisational skills as it's a simple way to plan and visualise your day - say a big hello to Diacarta.?This very neat planner is designed to enable the user to visualise his or her day by choosing icons that match with the things you'll be doing. You basically start off with a clock to which you can add said icons, thereby creating a handy at-a-glance reminder.?Here you can see the initial clock face, your day a blank slate ready to be filled with exciting and interesting things. By tapping on the + tab you can add a variety of different icons, which number around 50 and you can also add notes to each one or just enter text if none of the symbols matches your activity.

It's also possible to swiftly set up future events with the calendar and everything seems to work as it should.?In our play we found it all very straight forward, although it isn't perfect as there doesn't appear to be the ability to import from you existing calendars. That said, it is quite possible that particular functionality could come at a later date. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: 69p

Rating: 3/5

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UCAS-Track

Applying for a university place is a rite of passage all graduates have to go through. The UCAS system can be a little confusing, and as it is not renowned as being one of life's more pleasant experiences this iPhone app is here to help.?Features of the app include an at-a-glance view of your choices along with a comprehensive FAQ section. There's also a description of key dates outlining the UCAS application cycle so you know what to do and by when.?Applicants can track all their UCAS applications, with a detailed view of each choice including course details, start dates and of course most crucially, conditions and replies.

This free to download app will also enable you to see which universities have rejected you, before you go into that must-try-harder-pot that is clearing.?Finally, security-wise, UCAS promises that your info is held securely and can only be accessed by entering your personal ID, username and password. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

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Xobni Smartr Contacts

Sure its name has been written in a world seemingly devoid of grammr but hey, if it makes things smartr then we are all for it. The app launched on Android back in 2011 and continues to grow in popularity. The iPhone launch however is what really matters here. Existing in either a free to use or paid for form, Xobni intelligently amalgamates all your contacts into one place.?

Smartr by Xobni from Smartr & Xobni on Vimeo.

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The paid-for version of the app, which costs $7.99 per month, can scan and add any new contacts made through email inboxes to your phone. The BlackBerry version for example managed to bump us all the way up to a staggering 6000 contacts virtually instantaneously. Saves you keeping a lengthy email history on your phone, should you need to go fishing for a phone number or someone's details.

iTunes:?Link

Price:?Free

Rating: 4/5

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Evi

Don't have an iPhone 4S yet? Desperate to constantly question your smartphone for useless information? Evi might be the thing for you. Pegged as a serious rival to Apple's current offerings, it is apparently capable of recognising speech and natural language and coming back with correct search results.?

The best thing about Evi however is that it fills a rather significant hole in Siri's UK functionality. It can use maps and locations to find out about local businesses. The app can integrate with the likes of?Yelp, Google Places, Parkopedia and TopTable, making it a highly formidable location tool. The speech recognition is also top notch and easily on a par with what Apple manages.

iTunes:?Link

Price:?Free

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Phones iPhone iPhone 4 iPhone apps Apps Features

Best iPhone productivity apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:53:00 +0000

It hasn't exactly set the music-streaming world alight, so it should come as no surprise that Research in Motion is trying to push BBM Music by offering up to six months free access.

The service, first announced in August, allows BBM users to get access to up to 50 music tracks for ?4.99 a month with the facility to swap 25 of those tracks a month, every month.?

Hoping to offer something different from Spotify, which is also available on BlackBerry, BBM Music also allows users to share their musical choices with up to 500 BBM friends meaning, in theory, you could get access to 7000 tracks in total on and offline.

Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI are all on board so there are plenty of tunes to choose from - more than 10 million, in fact.

BBM Music has also seen an update to version 1.1 bringing in Facebook and Twitter contacts as possible music friends, giving you a better chance to access more music.

The free trial (six months in the UK, four months Stateside) is available to new BBM Music users only.

Tags: Phones BlackBerry RIM BlackBerry apps BBM Music

BBM Music now available free for six months originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:23:00 +0000

There are enough high-profile fans of the BlackBerry to make something like this Porsche Design special edition make sense. From celebrities to CEOs, the BlackBerry still has quite a hold on people as a great communicator, whether for business or pleasure.

And this Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry is something special. But does it go far enough? Will this give you a BlackBerry experience that surpasses what you'll find elsewhere? Is this the BlackBerry handset you should be aspiring to own?

Design

RIM isn't known for design variation. Tracking the family of the BlackBerry handsets, not a huge amount has changed over the past few years. The same could be said of Porsche automobiles, but both the Porsche and the BlackBerry are rather iconic in their design.

The Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981, however, really brings some class to the tried and tested Bold formula. Where the standard Bold blends in with the rest of the BB crowd, the P'9981 is distinct and individual and really stands out in a sea of similarity.

Whether you like it, or not, will be a case of personal taste and we've come from a position of thinking it was brash and offensive, to one where we love the look and feel. You know it's special and so does everyone you show it to.

Hewn from stainless steel, it's still instantly recognisable as a BlackBerry thanks to the split face offering a full QWERTY keyboard below the display. The finish is very good in most places. The keyboard feels right, the phone looks right from every angle. Where the metal gives way for the display you have wonderful distinct clean design lines.

But as much as we love the design, it's design where this phone also suffers. The back is plastic and finished in leather, although it feels substantial enough when in place it doesn't attach especially well to the back of the phone.

Like many devices, it uses regularly placed plastic tabs to hold it on, but on our sample it was all too easy to pop the back off by accident. Grip the phone wrong and you feel the back detach. Porsche cars have a reputation for letting the back-end go so we're wondering if it is some sort of in-joke.

The second point is the positioning of the convenience key. This is a useful button, which you can program to open an application of your choice - the default is to launch the camera. It is positioned in the right edge, exactly where your hand would be if you use a two-thumbed keyboard technique. On more than one occasion we were furiously typing emails, only to find we’d launched the camera.

Aside from the overly large box that the phone arrives in, you also get a matching dock. This too is finished in steel and leather and features a soft light to guide your Porsche phone in at night for refuelling. It's a convenient bedside stand and we like it a lot.

This being a dressed-up BlackBerry Bold, the keyboard is one of the most important elements. At first we weren't sold on it, as the alternative characters are much more difficult to see than on the regular Bold. This isn't helped by the decision to move away from the tried and tested black background, but the backlighting certainly helps make things clearer once you start typing.

Although the design is sharper, and the cut across the individual keys is sharper and more defined than on the Bold, that action isn't too different. Given a couple of days with the phone, we found that using it became second nature. Despite the changes, it's only really the occasional moment when you're left looking for a colon that it causes a problem.

Hardware

Internally, there is less to talk about, especially if you've read our BlackBerry Bold 9900 review. You get a 1.2GHz processor, 768MB RAM and 8GB of internal memory. BlackBerry has been kind enough to include a 16GB microSD card too, so you should be well provisioned for storage.

The screen too, is the same as the original Bold. It is a capacitive touchscreen, with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. That sounds low in modern terms, but at only 2.8-inches, it gives you an impressive 287ppi. It will render fine detail crisply and there is punch and vibrancy to the colours, but it's let down with a flaky touch response.

We're convinced this is nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with the software, more on which later.

Around the back of the phone you have a 5-megapixel camera, supported by an LED flash. This is lacking in modern terms, not because of the pixel count, but because it is fixed focus. This sets it behind other smartphone cameras in terms of results, which aren't as sharp as we'd like. Given good conditions you'll get snaps acceptable for sharing, but the inability to focus on close detail is irritating.

The camera also offers you HD video of the 720p variety. Again, focus is fixed so it's not as adept as some rivals, although this is less of an issue in mobile video capture. The results are average, a little noisier than you might expect, but perfectly acceptable for casual use.

The external speaker is surprisingly good and loud. It lacks bass, obviously, so isn't great for music, but plug in a pair of quality headphones and the results are good too. The external speaker is in the bottom of the device and surprisingly it isn't devastatingly muffled when you park it on the dock.

There is a set of Porsche Design headphones in the box, which offer an in-line mic, but we weren't taken by the quality of the audio they offered and were easily surpassed by the Klipsch headphones we tried instead.

The ear speaker is loud enough and we had no problems hearing callers, although that neatly designed angular top edge can be a little uncomfortable against your ear in long calls. We also found we could hear our end of the conversation being repeated through the ear speaker during a call, although this might be a problem limited to this device.

Software, apps, performance

So far the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 has hit most of the right markers. The hardware looks powerful on paper, the cameras are okay, but not fantastic, and the design and keyboard are mostly without issue. But a phone hangs on the software performance, which governs the user experience.

The theme applied to the Porsche Design handset can be switched off if you don't like it, although it is nice to have something a little different. But what it loses is in the app icons. All the native app icons have been stylised and in the process it all become rather generic, so it's more difficult to spot the app you want in a flash.

But this customisation only applies to the native and preinstalled apps, not those you then download, so it does end up being something of a mishmash.

Starting with the positives, the BlackBerry 7 OS that the P'9981 sits on provides a great communication experience. BlackBerry's integrated messaging system and universal search make it easy to find what you're looking for and managing a busy email life is certainly easy. It's mostly conversant with things like Google accounts, although it will stumble with multiple calendars - Google Sync will resolve that for you though.

The combination of touch and type works to a point. You can quickly select an icon or tap a link, which is better than scrolling across the optical trackpad to make things happen. But on many occasions, like trying to press a button at the bottom of the display, the screen doesn't respond. When people are becoming familiar with a silky smooth and refined touch experiences elsewhere, BB 7 feels a little rudimentary.

We won't go into more detail of what RIM needs to do to move the OS forward, but we will stop to talk about the topic du jour: apps. They have redefined the mobile experience and the BlackBerry, while offering many and varied applications, finds itself without some of the biggest names.

There is no Skype, for example, no Netflix, no BBC iPlayer and some of the core apps, such as YouTube, merely redirect to the mobile website. The App World app itself isn't great and whenever you come to download and install new apps, everything else grinds to a halt and often begs for a restart.

The browser, although vastly better than previous BB versions, is no match for Android or iOS. Pinch zooming doesn't work well at all, scrolling can be slow and jerky, even if pages load quickly enough.

The result is that no matter how well you dress your BlackBerry, the experience is very much the same. If you spend your time working through emails sitting in the back seat of a Phaeton, then you probably won't care. The core BlackBerry services are well integrated and run without a hitch - except Maps, which is as good as useless. If you're the sort of person who whiles away time on the train with a little casual gaming, or catching up on last night's TV, this isn't the phone for you.

And finally…

The last word goes to battery life. With a 1230mAh battery, the P'9981 struggles to make it through a busy day. Like the Bold 9900, we found that the P'9981 needed to be charged every night. This is slightly out of character for a BlackBerry handset, as most of the rest of the range will easily make it through a day. At least you have that dock to park it on, so you don't need to fiddle around with cables.

Verdict:

It might sound like we've been rather harsh here, but there's no escaping the fact that the P'9981, Porsche Design or not, it still a BlackBerry at its core. Where it excels with communication features, it lacks with entertainment refinement. Whilst the app offering is there, it isn't anything like as exciting as you'll get on Apple or Android.

You couldn't say the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 was good value for money, but then you couldn't say that about a Porsche either. A VW Beetle will get you from A to B comfortably and effectively, but people still go out and buy the Porsche Cayman. But this is a little like buying your Cayman with a 1.2-litre Beetle engine: it has the looks and it will get you there, but not like a Porsche should.

We can't say the P'9981 is any worse than the Bold 9900 in terms of performance. It has the same positives and the same negatives. Together they offer the best performance in the current BlackBerry portfolio, if that's the phone you're after. With a price of €1475 ?(?1234) ?it will never be deemed good value for money, but then what Porsche is?

Tags: Phones BlackBerry BlackBerry Porsche Design P9981

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:04:00 +0000

It's been a white phone crazy 2012 so far with pale handsets falling from all angles like heavy (and expensive) snow. But what good is a white handset when it comes to showing your love? No good at all we say, pink is what the ladies like.

So it's great timing, with less than a week to go before Valentine's Day, for the pink Samsung Galaxy S II to land in the UK. Carphone Warehouse is offering the purty phone for free on deals ranging from ?25 to ?31 on Orange, O2 and Vodafone.

It's not the first time we've seen a pink handset hit the shops in time for the big romantic day though. Last year Research in Motion unveiled a "Fuchsia Pink" Curve 3G. But if your lady is like Mrs Pocket-lint and isn't so keen on RIM-action, then she'll no doubt be ecstatic to receive a Galaxy S II instead.

For those who have been exclusively hanging out in caves, with no access to the outside world, the Samsung Galaxy S II features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and, with a waistline of only?8.49mm,?is a super svelte machine.

You can get your pink version now, direct from Carphone Warehouse.

Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy S II Carphone Warehouse

Pink Samsung Galaxy S II arrives in time for Valentine's Day originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:57:00 +0000

All the clues are pointing towards Nokia giving the Symbian OS one last high-profile outing; with the N8's successor likely to be the much leaked Nokia 803.

We first got wind of the supposed Nokia Belle handset back in December when a user manual turned up and now we've got some extra details to add to the rumour round-up.

BGR is reporting that a "trusted source" has the readies on the new handset and that we could be looking at a smartphone packing "the largest camera sensor" ever.

The Nokia N8, if you remember, wasn't exactly a smash-hit for the Finnish company but its camera skills were, and still are, pretty much unrivalled. It features a 12-megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss optics and a xenon flash, and is capable of 720p video with continuous AutoFocus at 30fps.

If the Nokia 803 eclipses that, it will be a seriously spec'd camera phone giant.

It's also rumoured to be packing a 4-inch AMOLED display with a HDMI-out port, microSIM support and NFC skills too.

So, quite a swan song for Symbian although come the murmured May release - will anyone really care about ringing the Belle?

Tags: Nokia Nokia 803 Phones Symbian Nokia Belle

Nokia 803 to be last throw of the Symbian dice? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Bored of white phone releases yet? No? Well that's good then, as we've news of yet another one coming your way courtesy of the HTC Sensation XE.

The HTC Sensation XE launched back in September, packing Beats Audio and an ambition to sail the HTC flagship. And now, if you're a fan of the paler side of tech, you can grab it in white. Clove has the new colour option listed as due for shipping on 20 February for ?408.

With a hardware set to rival the Samsung Galaxy S II, and a claim for the Android heavyweight championship, the Sensation XE has impressed us with its super speeds thanks to its 1.5GHz dual-core engine and crisp displays courtesy of the 4.3-inch qHD screen.

There is also an 8-megapixel camera on the back, a VGA one up front and it is capable of shooting 1080p videos. Running Android 2.3.4 with HTC Sense 3.0 over the top, it comes boxed with either an 8GB or 16GB microSD card.

There has been an absolute barrage of white handset news as of late including the white Samsung Galaxy Note, the white Nokia Lumia 800 (and 900), the white Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the white Motorola RAZR and the white HTC Sensation.

It's funny when you think about all the problems Apple had releasing just one white phone not so long ago.

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Tags: Phones HTC HTC Sensation XE Clove

White HTC Sensation XE landing 20 February originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:51:00 +0000

There have always been white smartphones, but it really feels as if every manufacturer is jumping on a bandwagon at present. Not least Samsung, which has recently announced that a white Galaxy Nexus is on the way (13 February) on the back of the release of this, a white version of its 5.29-inch screen-sporting behemoth of a phone/tablet combination, the Galaxy Note.

The innards are, of course, identical to the black (listed as blue) device we reviewed on its release at the beginning of November 2011. It has the same?HD Super AMOLED touchscreen,?1.4GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of storage with a microSD memory card slot for further expansion of up to 32GB, and 8- and 2-megapixel cameras front and back respectively.

However, this time the entire casing is white. Very white. Very white indeed.

Perhaps the most surprising element of this is that the back is gloss white, whereas the original model was matt - mottled, in fact. We suspect that this is done so as to avoid it becoming murky and dirty too quickly, with the shinier plastic being easier to wipe clean.

In contrast, the S Pen pressure-sensitive stylus has a matt finish, and could become grubby with constant use. That's not to say it will, however, as we suspect most people to use the Note as a massive phone or internet browser more often than a drawing or, ironically, note-taking device but it's worth pointing out - noting, if you like.

So that's about it. Apart from the aesthetic differences, there's very little else to discuss. From putting both models side-by-side, we have to say that we prefer the funkiness of the white edition, but could see ourselves favouring the black (blue) one just because it's less likely to be marked or look tatty when pulled out in a business meeting.

It's really horses for courses. And we certainly welcome the choice.

The white Samsung Galaxy Note is now available in the UK from multiple retailers. The cheapest we've seen it online (SIM-free) is ?525.

Tags: Samsung Phones Samsung Galaxy Note Android

White Samsung Galaxy Note pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:32:00 +0000

The original Reckless Racing was a straightforward piece of smartphone gaming addictiveness. Based loosely on Radical Racing, a retro classic, it is a top down racer with an emphasis on drifting and crashing.?

Reckless Racing 2 sees the series return to form in a much improved guise. In depth car customisation, loads of new tracks, improved graphics and an even better drifting setup, reckless racing 2 is one of our favourite gaming apps on the iPhone.

Reckless Racing 2

Platform

iOS, Android

Price

?2.99

Where

Market/iTunes

Graphically RR2 is a bit of a stunner. It boasts big bold bright colours and car models which look nearly as good as that of Real Racing's. The top-down view also lets you get a good view of all the on screen action as you bash around the track.?

The game is a very simple one at its core. Just go forwards and back, drifting around corners as quickly as you can. You will find you pick up gold in most of the early races doing just the above. Later on however and you are going to need to go into all sorts of customisation in order to build a car quick enough to take the win.?

This is where Reckless Racing really gets fun as the level of control you have over the car's driving is pretty extensive. The more you play, the better you get at nailing exactly how you want the thing to drive. By the end you will be zooming round tracks in one constant powerslide.?

At ?2.99 the app is a tad more expensive than most, but it is worth the outlay for those who take mobile gaming seriously. Near Infinity Blade quality graphics and a good few hours worth of gameplay to get stuck into make it a worthy of a place on your phone's home screen.?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Apps App of the day

APP OF THE DAY: Reckless Racing 2 review (iPad / iPhone / Android) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Motorola kicked off 2012 by announcing the arrival of both the?Motorola Defy Mini and Motorola Motoluxe budget Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)?handsets, and the latter is landing in the UK this month.

The Motorola Motoluxe has a 4-inch touchscreen display. The resolution isn't exactly high-end but, for a handset that is likely to appeal to the limited purse-strings of the tween market,?480x854 is none too shabby either.

In the engine room is a single-core 800MHz?processor?and there's 512MB of RAM on board so this should be plenty for basic app running, listening to music and watching back a bit of stored video. Over the top of Android is the MotoSwitch user interface so there's plenty of social network fun built-in.

It features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and an LED flash and boasts a funky illuminated lanyard slot that gives a different colour indication depending on whether you've received a text, missed a call or have an email waiting.

There's a front-facing camera for video calling too and its?1400mAh battery offers up to 6.5 hours of talk time or 19 days of standby time. It will be available in?liquorice?or white colour schemes.

No pricing of network availability as of yet but it is definitely hitting the shops this month. We'll let you know when we know more.

We've already seen the Motoluxe in the flesh, so be sure to check-out our hands-on photos.

Tags: Phones Motorola Motoluxe Motorola Android

Motorola Motoluxe February launch for the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:14:00 +0000

LG has teased its latest Android smartphone, the LG Optimus Vu, by way of a bizarre promo video that doesn't really tell us anything other than the device's aspect ratio.

It is said to be a 5-inch screen, so will automatically go up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note, even with a somewhat squarer display.

The video gives us no other specs for the Android device (check out the virtual buttons) but luckily Datacider.com has the lowdown on the phone it says was once known as the LG Optimus Sketch. And it also has what it is claiming as a photo of the device in the wild.

Apparently, we're looking at a model number LG-F100S/LG-F100L, which will come with a stylus - like Sammy's Note.

The resolution is purported to be 1024x768 on an IPS display and it's said to be powered by a Qualcomm APQ8060 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. There's an 8-megapixel camera mentioned, 8GB of storage and Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity.

Running Android 2.3 at the moment, we'd expect some Ice Cream Sandwich action by the time the Vu goes official. Probably in a couple of weeks over in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress.

Read

Tags: Phones LG LG Optimus Vu

LG Optimus Vu to take on the Samsung Galaxy Note (video) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:10:00 +0000

Nokia?has announced that it will be making a white version of the Nokia Lumia 800 which will be going on sale at Phones 4 U in the UK in March and Pocket-lint was of course on hand to have a gander and snap a few shots ahead of the official release to the UK public.

The new version of the phone is identical to the black, cyan, and magenta versions of the Windows Phone 7 smartphone albeit with a glossy rather than matte shell.

That glossy shiny white look means that it will show up smudges a lot easier, but will also still sparkle when it catches the light - something the black, even the Lumia 800 Batman edition, fails to do.

Like the cyan, magenta and black Lumia 800s that are already available in the UK, the phone packs a 3.7-inch, WVGA 800x480 AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel camera boasting Carl Zeiss optics and a f2.2 aperture lens.

It is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM, and it has 16GB of storage (and 25GB of SkyDrive storage). The white finish is a result of its smoothly crafted polycarbonate unibody.

To celebrate the launch of the white Lumia 800, there's a new White selection on Nokia’s music service, Mix Radio, featuring music from the likes of White Stripes and Barry White.

Available to pre-order from Phones 4u now, the Nokia Lumia 800 in white will be available on contracts starting from ?20.50 a month. It will ship in March.

For American readers, although the Lumia 800 in UK only, the US only?Nokia Lumia 900 is also expected to be available in white?following a gaffe by Nokia on their Facebook page showing the new AT&T exclusive phone in white even though it hasn't been officially announced as yet.?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7 Microsoft

White Nokia Lumia 800 pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Remember Windows XP? We certainly do. Think back to the days of noisy hard-drives and floppy disks clicking away. Have a guess what sort of power was inside the average PC back then?

Take a peek at the Windows XP system requirements and you might get an idea. The whole OS itself takes around about 1.5GB to install, needs just 64MB of RAM to run and a whole 233MHz of CPU power to kick the operating system into gear. This now seems like nothing, but think back to what you could do with Windows XP. At launch it was a formidable piece of software and has been used as a standard PC OS up until very recently.

Compare this with a smartphone's current hardware setup. All that power in your pocket starts to seem a bit unnecessary. Sure, browsing the web is quicker and gaming looks a lot better, but do we really need a quad-core processor sat in our mobiles, or even a dual-core one?

In the past three years or so there has been a drastic jump in the amount of processing power seen in phones.?When Apple announced the original iPhone in 2007, no one could have guessed how successful it would be. The market was a relatively stable place dominated by a select few manufacturers. The problem was that the smartphones available just weren't that smart. Apple stopped everyone dead in its tracks with an unparalleled user experience and highly innovative piece of hardware design. The competition needed something to compete with it and out came Android.

From the outset Android was a fundamentally power hungry OS. It likes to have lots of processing speed and RAM to keep running along smoothly and it was Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform that was the first to step up and provide it. Like a PC compared to a Mac, it's become a spec-fest: the more, the merrier.?

Couple that with the fact that, to market Android handsets properly, manufacturers needed to pick at something that Apple couldn’t compete with and it quickly became speed that would define a handset’s success. The Google Nexus One was the starting gun and it hasn't stopped since.

This will be the year of the quad-core smartphone. Will that bring anything new to our mobile experience? We doubt it. Sure, things might get even faster, but Android is still Android, iOS still iOS and apps are still apps. Games might look better, cameras might get more resolution, we may even finally see WP7 get some multi-core action on the go.

The problem is that none of it will make much difference to the fundamental smartphone experience, short of making handset batteries run out quicker. Google Maps will get us to the same place fine on an old Android phone as it does on an iPhone 4S. We can play Angry Birds just the same on both and even send an email as quick as the network will let allow.

The core smartphone experiences aren’t governed by the amount of power you have available. They are driven by the applications designed around them. Dropping the obsession with power makes coding for multiple handsets easier and results in something as slick and easy to use as Windows Phone 7.

Like the megapixel battle in both compact cameras and feature phones before that, speed has become the new USP for smartphones with processor cores the latest battleground. Just as 16 megapixels was ultimately useless without a high grade lens in front of it, loads of cores are pointless without very demanding apps. These just aren’t commonplace and those which do exist bring virtually no benefit to the base smartphone experience.

Android and iOS could do with taking a leaf out of Microsoft’s book, as bizarre as that may sound. Dropping the focus on power and shifting towards creating a rich user experience based around the fundamentals of a smartphone would be of benefit to everyone. Concentrate on the areas that count and we could have?more interaction between handsets via technologies like NFC; ease of connectivity and a more reliable battery life, the last of which is going to be the only thing can derail this runaway train. When battery technology simply can't keep up, the mobile makers will have to turn its attentions elsewhere.

All the time that manufacturers are trying to outsell each other they are looking for ways to draw customers into their hardware and nothing is easier than whacking a great big processor inside and saying it's the most powerful phone you can buy. It's certainly an easier sell than trying to push a top end user experience through advertising.

In the end, of course, the public will get wise to the what it's being told is the new black. Just as your cameraphone's megapixels became less relevant, so this game of processor Top Trumps will eventually give as it creeps towards the ridiculous - something that looks likely for 2012. But if you're thinking that that will be the end of the silliness, then think again. With pixel density and screen size shooting up, it's your mobile's display that's fast becoming the next battleground, and where it goes beyond there is anybody's guess, but we're pretty sure it won't be something as practical but unsexy as battery life.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Android ios WP7 Features Comment

Aren't smartphones fast enough? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:58:00 +0000

Ladies and gentleman, it's the news that you've all been waiting for. The follow up to one of the most successful phones in Samsung's history has just been made official.

That's right.....the Samsung Tocco Lite 2 is hitting shops in March.

What? What phone did you think we were talking about?

The Tocco Lite 2 takes the reins from the original Tocco Lite, a handset that was sold 30 million times around the world, and runs with them.

Runs with a proprietary OS with Samsung TouchWiz Lite thrown over the top. And runs with EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 connectivity. Okay, okay - so it's probably not going to be running very fast sans-Android (or even Bada) and 3G connectivity, but it's likely to be cheap as chips (from a chip shop, not an upmarket gastro-pub) and it packs plenty of social features to keep its target tween market entertained.

Features include Samsung’s communication service ChatON, which boasts integration with Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk.

Hardware-wise, it has a 3.0-inch QVGA TFT LCD display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and space for a microSD card (you'll need it - on board storage is a paltry 20MB). As well as ChatON, there's a wealth of other youth-friendly software on board too, including a music player and the Opera mini browser.

Out in March, there's no word on pricing just yet. We'd suggest betting low.

Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Tocco Lite Samsung Tocco Lite 2

Samsung Tocco Lite 2 lands for social tweens originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Among all the excitement on Monday with the news that Nokia Lumia 800 would be hitting the shops, all dressed in white, it almost went unnoticed that Nokia posted a promo picture of the Lumia 800's bigger brother - the Nokia Lumia 900 - also sporting a sparkly white chassis.

Almost.

For a few eagle-eyed Engadget readers pointed out the picture to the US tech site (they had noticed the front facing camera); one that is still hosted on the Nokia Facebook page.

The new Windows Phone 7.5 phone sports a 4.3-inch display and a bigger battery than the Lumia 800. Virtually identical to the 800, with a polycarbonate case, the phone is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor and comes with 8GB of storage.

The Lumia 900 is tipped to hit US shops next month and a UK release for June has also been touted.

Let's hope that if it does land on this side of the pond that the white version is an option. It sure is purty....

Read

Tags: Phones Nokia Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia Lumia 900 also all-white originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:13:00 +0000

Before Microsoft bamboozled us with its vision of the future, Gorilla Glass maker Corning blew our socks off with its A Day Made of Glass video.

The YouTube phenomenon (17 million views and counting) gave us a glimpse of the world of tomorrow and was so attractive because it all seemed so possible, as many of the technologies on show have already been developed and are just waiting to hit our homes and streets.

And now we've had to spend another 5 or so minutes with our jaw on the floor as A Day Made of Glass 2 has been released.

According to its makers, the sequel "extends the ideas, applications, and interfaces introduced in the original video into new arenas – including healthcare and education – continuing the story of how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world".

According to us, it's just bloomin' brilliant. How can you not love a bit of AR Jurassic Park action, or the fact that a doctor can literally drag a patient's brain around?

There's also an extended version of the video that gives a bit of extra detail on the technologies used in the action.

Mind-blowing stuff, we're sure you'll agree.

Tags: Corning Home Cinema Phones Tablets Video

Corning's A Day Made of Glass 2 gives us a window into the future (video) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Zeon Tech, the company behind the forthcoming iPhone-activated Tardis and R2-D2 Smartsafes, is to release a rival to the iCade Jnr, an arcade cabinet for the iPhone and iPod touch. Called the iAppCade, the new device differs in several key areas, the most notable being that it doesn't connect to an iDevice via Bluetooth.

Instead, the mini coin-op machine casing works a bit like an iPhone dock: just insert your handset and away you go. It will automatically work with dedicated games without the need for a complicated setup period.

Essentially, movements on the eight-way joystick or either of the two buttons equate to presses on the lower half of the device's touchscreen using a capacitive material and, as?the play screen is 4:3 in aspect ratio, you can't even see that going on.

"As I use one half of the screen as the control interface, the other half is used to display the game," says Steve Carpenter, the designer of the iAppCade.

"I designed a case that would fit the iPhone, have buttons and joysticks for playing the game.?I then coded a test game for the iPhone and set the screen to roughly half the available screen space. By chance this was around the 4:3 aspect ratio that real arcade cabinets use. Fitting it all together resulted in a small but proportional?cabinet with a 4:3 screen, 8-way joystick and dual buttons!"

It results in a cabinet that doesn't require power, nor sucks the life from your device like Bluetooth can.

However, there is a downside to this proprietary method of control. On launch, there will be only a few games on the App Store that are compatible - Blasteroids, Pinger, BlockBuster and Invaders from Outerspace - all variations on classic arcade titles. But developers are working on more and the iAppCade will play HTML5 games online for multiplayerbattles and user generated games.

Additionally, as we secretly spied at the unveiling of the prototype during London's Toy Fair in January, the cabinet is also completely compatible with MAME4all, the arcade emulation software that's barred from the official App Store, but still available on Cydia for jailbroken iDevices.

The iAppCade is coming in Q2 (around summertime) and will cost a mere ?14.99. A larger version for the iPad is also on the cards, if its diminutive forerunner proves successful.

Tags: iPhone iPhone accessories Phones Zeon Tech iAppCade Zeon Tech iPod Touch iPod touch accessories iPad accessories MAME4all ToyFair2012

iAppCade iPhone arcade cabinet works without Bluetooth (pictures) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:57:00 +0000

The Samsung Galaxy S III anticipation could soon be over with a May launch touted for the much speculated handset.

That's the word from Korean publication ETNews, which also reports that the next-gen Sammy flagship phone will be a super-skinny 7mm thin. That's not quite skinny enough to take the world's skinniest title away from Huawei and its Ascend P1 handset but will no doubt be slimline enough to ruffle a few feathers over in Cupertino.

The report says the smartphone will utilise printed circuit boards (PCB), connector parts and chips that are 10 to 20 per cent thinner than conventional parts, to keep its waistline thin.?

Last week a memo from Samsung dropped into the Pocket-lint inbox stating that "the successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product".

There's a raft of rumours surrounding the S III online and, if they all ring true, then we're in for a monster device. We're not too sure, though, how Samsung is going to fit both a quad-core and a dual-core ship inside.

?

?

?

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Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy S III

Super-skinny Samsung Galaxy S III coming in May originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:04:00 +0000

There aren't many people who would argue that staying in shape is important, and an increasingly popular pastime for many. So mobile phone companies are keen to appeal to active sorts with phones that can help them in their pursuits.

Sony Ericsson markets the Xperia Active as a splash-proof, shock-proof handset that offers everything you need in a phone - if you're someone who loves being outside, running, cycling or just walking over hill and dale.

Design

The Xperia Active is a fairly small handset, a tiny bit bigger than a credit card in width and length. It is, however, quite a chunky monkey, with a depth of 55mm, it's quite a fat phone. It's a decent weight too, at 110.8g, but we doubt that's too heavy for most people.

Included in the box are a set of pretty comfortable, in-ear headphones, a lanyard of sorts and an armband, to wear the phone in when you're out for a jog.

Nokia fans of old should also rejoice, for the changeable rear cover is now available on Sony Ericsson phones. The Active comes with two in the box - one black, one white - and there are limited editions of this phone that come with different designs. The phone also has orange trim, which as orange lovers, we're very keen on. We're sure some will hate this, but it does have a strangely sporting feel to it.

In terms of software, we're looking at a slightly tweaked version of Android. This is good, because on this smallish screen (3-inches) it's preferable to have a custom UI, to make the most of the screen. Here, Sony has "hot corners" which each have a shortcut to one or more apps. By default, SMS is in the top left, activity apps in the top right. The bottom right is the dialer, while the bottom left holds the address book.

The app tray is a slight customisation too, but we like it, because it retains the Android look, while making the most of the screen. Very sensible, very slick. Certainly nothing here to upset Android fans.

Camera

The 5-megapixel camera is a nice surprise. It produces lovely, sharp photos which have more than enough detail to please our HD-loving eyes.

They aren't the most vibrant or saturated colours we've ever seen, but we'll take accuracy over vibrancy any day of the week. Plus, if overblown colours are what you're looking for, you can always tweak them later in a photo app. In fact, we tried this, and the Active's images are surprisingly well suited to tweaks like this.

So all in all, we rather like this little camera. It's better than on most small phones, and more than enough for happy snapping out and about.

Keep fit

The main fitness part of the Active is an app called MapMYFitness - although on the Active, it's called iMapMyFitness+. It's a fairly comprehensive little program, and quite easy to use. You can manually enter details of exercise, as well as track where you go using GPS.

There's an online portion too, and there you're able to check out what people near you are doing, and what runs there are completed locally. There are all sorts of tools for nutrition tracking, and you can also import exercise from other devices.

The only thing is, you don't need to have an Xperia Active to download this free app, and the Sony Ericsson pre-installed version still has adverts too, so the company hasn't sprung for a premium version for people buying this phone. Still, that doesn't change the fact that the app is good, and will hopefully help keep you motivated.

You also get an app called WalkMate, which keeps track of the number of steps you've taken. Walking can have a huge effect on the fitness of a normal person, so we're quite pleased to see this here. There's a goal you can aim for, and it's good to see, as you can just fire-up the app and forget about it. Although, the app itself does warn that it increases power consumption. Again, there are free pedometer apps in the market, so this in itself doesn't add much value over a normal Android phone.?

As part of its rugged design, the Active also supports "wet finger tracking" which sounds perverse, but is quite clever. Many capacitive touchscreens are driven crazy by wet fingers. And, if you're excerising, there's much more chance that you'll be mildly moist during your workout. So the Active can compensate for that when you're using the touch screen. Sadly, it's not actually all the brilliant in practice. We found that moist fingers worked okay - although not as well as dry fingers - but add any real water, from say, rain, and it all goes badly wrong, with random apps starting an inability to control the phone accurately. A shame, but for us, not a deal breaker.

One feature we do, very much like is the Ant+ sensor support. If you have a compatible activity sensor ?- Garmin, for example, offers them for use with its equipment sports watches. Ant+ sensors come in lots of different forms, from bike speed sensors to pulse rate monitors.

Also included in the pack, and part of the fitness capability, is the arm case for the phone. You slip the handset in to it, and then a clear window on the front allows you to see and control the phone while you're out running. It's okay, and the phone fits reasonably well, but we found that the screen wasn't easy to control through the plastic cover, and the whole thing was a little too loose in the case to reliably ensure the screen was touching the case enough to control.

Our iPod Touch fitted better, and the touchscreen worked properly through the plastic too. Whoops!

Music

Music is a huge part of exercise, for most people. Without it, after all, running becomes such a soul crushing hate-fest that quickly becomes as depressing as the torrid state of the banking system and our ever-corrupt politicians. Happily, the Sony Ericsson is pretty good in this regard. Sony has a customised music player, which works well on the smaller screen of this device.

Our biggest concern really, is that with music being such an important part of fitness phones, the inclusion of only a 2GB memory card seems a little mean. When we work out, we like to have a lot of tunes to choose from, and 2GB hardly provides that. Sure, 16GB microSD cards are cheap as chips these days, but when you're paying for a phone, it seems like a nice perk to get a good chunk of included storage. The phone itself adds an extra 1GB of capacity, but only 320MB is user accessible.

The supplied headphones are decent enough - a little bit better than most pairs that come with phones. They sit in the ear well, and should keep out a fair bit of external noise, and they're certainly among the most-comfortable we've used.

Battery life

Once again, small phone generally equates to a small battery, and that's true here. It's not a catastrophe, but at 1200mAh, it's not the most powerful battery you can get. We used our phone with data off for most of the time, because we were using a pay-as-you-go SIM from Orange, and that increased our battery life. It still wasn't brilliant though, and you'll need to keep this phone topped up when you're near a power socket.

Verdict:

The Xperia Active is an interesting phone. We took too it pretty quickly, and while it isn't the sort of phone that we would probably buy, if you want something tough, water resistant and designed for workouts, then this is really an ideal phone.

It's a little bit too expensive to replace an MP3 player, but if you take exercise seriously, it's the same price as a Motorola ACTV, for example, and offers you a full mobile phone too boot. So perhaps it could be a second phone for people who like specific tools for specific jobs.

Do bear in mind though, that there is nothing here that you couldn't get on ANY android handset. The fitness app is free to all, via the market - although support for heart rate monitors is a nice extra, and one you don't get on many phones. Of course, monitoring your heart rate is singificantly less important to most people than tracking how much exercise they have done.

Judging this phone as a phone though, and we're very happy with it. The battery is good enough, especially if you're a light user and the rugged design is good for those who are accident-prone. We just can't help but like it, to be honest.

Tags: Phones Sony Sony Ercisson Sony Ericsson Xperia active

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:58:43 +0000

White stuff is flying in from all angles and we're not talking about the snow. No, it's a tech based blanco blizzard. After Samsung announced the official availability of the white Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the white Nokia Lumia 800 has also been unleashed.

"The story of the Nokia Lumia is one of reduction and purity," says Nokia's colour and material designer Tiina Aarrasshe. "White is the ultimate colour of reduction. It’s also perfect for emphasising the black polished screen. If you stand a white Lumia 800 on a table the body almost disappears, and the black screen seems to lift up and float."

Indeed it does, although we think the images may have had more Photoshop action than a Madonna GQ cover.

Like the cyan, pink and black Lumia 800s that are already available, the phone packs a a 3.7-inch, WVGA 800x480 AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel camera boasting Carl Zeiss optics and a f2.2 aperture lens.

It's powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM and it has 16GB of storage (and 25GB of SkyDrive storage). The white finish is a result of its smoothly crafted polycarbonate unibody.

To celebrate the launch of the white Lumia 800, there's a new White selection on Nokia’s music service, Mix Radio, featuring music from the likes of White Stripes and Barry White.

Available to pre-order from Phones 4u now, the Nokia Lumia 800 in white will be available on contracts starting from ?20.50 a month. It will ship in March.

Coolest Lumia 800 yet? Almost, but it's not quite as awesome as the limited edition Batman handset that we got hands on with recently.

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Tags: Phones Nokia Lumia 800 Nokia

White Nokia Lumia 800 now official, coming to the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:03:00 +0000

A long time ago in a Galaxy far away there was a phone that was all set to be the third Google-branded Nexus instalment. That phone, you may recall, leaked several times under the guise of the Google Nexus Prime.

Alas, the Nexus Prime wasn't to be, as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus came forth and stole official Google status when it was announced in October. And now, just in time for Valentine's Day (there's nowt more romantic than a t?l?phone blanc, right?), the white Galaxy Nexus is set to hit shops.

The Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display technology at 720p resolution and a 1.2GHz dual core processor. It's just 8.94mm thick, with a minimal 4.29mm bezel around the edge and features software navigation buttons, a first for Android smartphones.

Its Ice Cream Sandwich d?butante also has a redesigned 5-megapixel camera that boasts panorama mode, 1080p video capture, zero-shutter lag and image effects.

Samsung's Simon Stanford said: "After much speculation, we are pleased to announce the availability of the Galaxy Nexus white which follows the great reception the phone has received since it was launched back in November.

"One of the things we at Samsung pride ourselves on is the choice we offer customers, and we’ve enjoyed huge success to date by introducing white variants of our most popular models to our product portfolio."

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, in white, will hit shops on 13 February.

Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy Nexus

White Samsung Galaxy Nexus lands 13 February originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:43:00 +0000

Huawei is slowly building a name for itself. If you haven't yet heard it, you will in the next year or so. For a start, the firm has the world's slimmest smartphone in its CES-announced Ascend P1 S. And it seems committed to making the move from backroom hardware - Huawei equipment runs mobile networks the world over - to the customer-facing side.

The Ideos X3 is a budget handset, which you can pick up online for around ?130. It's got Android 2.3.4 installed as well as a 3.2-inch screen. It's small, light and clearly aimed at people who care more about having a phone, than having the latest and greatest phone.

Design

To look at, the X3 is much like other Android handsets, while managing to pull off something a little different. For example, there's a home button - a physical one rather than the capacitive type - and three touch-sensitive controls for "back", "menu" and "search" functions.

There's not a massive amount different here from any other budget smartphone. There's a headphone jack at the top - a great location for this - along with a power button and, on the right of the handset, a volume rocker switch. On the bottom, there's a USB socket for charging and data transfer.

To access the battery, you slide the back of the handset down, and the rear plastic case detaches. Inside, there's a microSD slot, to take cards up to 32GB and, as you would expect, a full-sized SIM socket. The battery is a 1200mAh pack, which will provide quite modest standby times.

Overall, it's not a bad-looking phone, it's not super-sexy, nor is it a minger. You're looking at middle of the road here.

Customisations

Huawei has approached the Android customisations with similar gusto to Samsung. Indeed, it's app drawer looks very similar to the one in the Korean firm's TouchWiz. It's nice enough here, and certainly isn't a visual disaster.

Huawei has built-in a 3D effect when you flip from one home screen to the next. This is entirely unnecessary, but it does make the phone look quite different. It works fine too, and there's no extra stutter or lag introduced by its presence.

In the status dropdown, there are controls for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, data and auto-rotate. These toggles are really handy, and we're always pleased to see them. They look nice too, Huawei has done a good job of keeping everything subtle and in keeping with the Android OS.

You get some custom apps too. For example, there's a data monitor system, called Smart Traffic, that asks you what your monthly allowance is, and then warns you when you get near to it. It also - and we like this a lot - puts a reminder in your status and notifications dropdown. Very cool.

Huawei also includes something called "Streams" which is a social media timeline that can include updates from your friends via Twitter and Facebook. This is much like any similar app on any platform. It can be interesting to casual users, but more-devoted fans of social networks will find it adds little to the existing apps for those services.

The screen

Visually, the screen on the Ideos X3 is quite nice. It's not the most detailed we've seen, but it certainly is good enough for most purposes. There's more than enough brightness, and the auto-adjustment of the backlight seems very capable. Adjust it manually to maximum, and you'll have enough light to see the screen even in bright light.

The resolution is 320x480, and that gives you 180ppi on the 3.2-inch screen. Not the best technically, but it looks absolutely fine. There are no problems similar to those on the HTC Explorer either, where moving text gets very blurry.

The problems come, not from the panel though, but from the capacitive screen. In our testing, we found that it was often confused by swiping. Single taps were fine - although we had the devils own job typing on the Huawei supplied virtual keyboard - but swipes often went wrong.

We noticed this most when trying to scroll down the app tray, or in the Android menu system. We'd be trying to scroll, but the inevitable finger lift and reapplication would cause the system to think we were tapping. It seems clear that other phones must deal with this differently, as it's the first time we've really seen this problem this severe.

Camera

The built-in 3.2-megapixel snapper is nothing to write home about. It works though, and it's fuss-free. There's no autofocus and the camera app itself is a little basic, but it works and there's a digital zoom - although you'd be mad to use it, there's just no point. The X3 can shoot video too, although you won't be blown away by the results.?

Power

This is certainly not a phone for the power user. It has a 600MHz Qualcomm CPU and just 256MB of RAM. This is very much an entry-level phone, and one for people who have never heard of Angry Birds or Tiny Tower.

Interestingly though, in day-to-day use, the lack of ooomph isn't a massive problem. Web browsing, for example, is snappy enough. And the screen makes it easy enough to read pages. Scrolling around also presents no problem, honestly, we've seen more problems from higher-powered devices.

Battery

Despite it's modest capacity, the 1200mAh battery did fine for us. We used the phone all day, and with modest use, occasional web checking, push email and phone calls, it lasted easily. You'll see more drain if you're out-and-about and we tested it mostly on Wi-Fi, which is less of a power hog than using 3G constantly.

But as this phone is aimed at the Smartphone refusniks who has been forced in to the 21st century against their will, it will probably be more than enough to see them through. Hopefully though, this plucky little smartphone will soon get them addicted to all manner of modern mobile apps, and they'll be looking for the next step up.

Verdict:

We like the X3. It's not the fastest phone, but its small size, decent screen and more than acceptable call quality is enough for the casual user. More advanced owners might find the touchscreen tedious, but you could certainly live with it.

If you make huge numbers of calls, or end up using the Internet a lot, you might also find the low-capacity battery doesn't last very long. But overall we wouldn't really expect too much more from a cheap, entry-level phone.

Tags: Phones Huawei Huawei Blaze Huawei Ideos X3

Huawei Ideos X3 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:39:00 +0000

In what is believed to be a UK first, London's Kensington and Chelsea College?is to offer budding photographers a photography course with a twist. For there won't be any SLR action going on; the course, called "iPhoneography" is, you guessed it, centred on teaching fanboys and girls how to take good pictures with their Apple handsets.

Richard Gray will be taking the course and he says that "all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind".?

"With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool," he said. "It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images."

The course will focus on the native camera app, teaching students camera basics such as composition, colour and use of light. There will also be editing lessons too, as well as sessions on specialist third party apps such as Instagram, ShakeIt, Hipstamatic and Photoburst.

Mr Gray told BBC News: "The iPhone is revolutionising photography. It allows you to take a photograph and then process it and and post it online while you are on the bus on your way home."

Android phones aren't allowed at the moment but the course could grow to include them in the future. For now, it's iPhone only and you will need your own handset.

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Tags: Phones iPhone Apple Photography

iPhone photography course on offer for 'appy snappers originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:36:00 +0000

A promotional video, starring Microsoft senior vice-president and Windows Phone product manager Joe Belfiore, has been leaked to the chaps at Pocketnow.com leaving them no choice but to tell us what the company supposedly has in store for Windows Phone 8.

The promotional video - supposedly aimed at Nokia employees to gee them up into an "awesome" frenzy for the next iteration of Windows Phone - has actually given us a fantastic insight, if true, into a host of new features we can expect in the next version of Windows Phone, the Windows Phone 8.

The new operating system update, to be dubbed Apollo, will supposedly see several hardware spec changes to the Microsoft?mobile operating system.

Those changes include support for multicore processors (think Qualcomm S4), four new screen resolutions presumably for the bigger screen phones like the HTC Titan and Titan II, and the ability to expand a Windows Phone's memory via removable microSD.

Other specs will include NFC support for contactless payment, with Belfiore reported to be "placing specific emphasis on 8's push into contactless payments".

The "wallet experience," as Pocketnow says he calls it, will have the "capability to be carrier-branded and controlled, either by a secure element on the SIM card or utilising hardware in the phone itself. In addition, tap-to-share capabilities will reportedly work across multiple platforms, allowing desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones to all share content."?

The video also supposedly details that Windows Phone 8 will include many of the same coding features as Windows 8 with developers being able to use most of their code when porting an app from desktop to phone.

If that's the case that is likely to be a big draw for programmers who are already developing apps and features for Windows 8. Either way, it is going to help Microsoft convince developers that developing for its platforms is going to be considerably easier than it is currently.

That move to a more symbiotic relationship will also stretch towards a more dedicated companion application to align with what is already available via the Mac Windows Phone connector software, or for older Windows Mobile users; the return of ActiveSync.

"The Xbox Companion app, currently found on Windows Phones, will see a partner client on Windows 8. Skydrive support promises seamless sharing of data between devices; Belfiore gives the example of instantly having one's music collection available on a newly purchased Windows Phone, without the need for a PC sync," reports the site. ?

Also improved, in the heavily detailed report by Pocketnow, is a reworking of the camera and photo elements of the operating system:

"Also mentioned is support for app-to-app communication, as well as a revamped Skype client that hooks directly into the OS, letting Skype calls behave almost identically to regular, non-VoIP telephony. The camera will now be based around so-called lens apps: Microsoft provides a basic camera interface that can either be skinned by OEMs or overlaid with viewfinders from third-parties. Belfiore gives the example of a lens app that combines burst mode with smile detection to capture a perfect portrait shot," says Pocketnow.com.?

Other elements include Windows Phone 8 actively attempting to give Wi-Fi connections precedence, going so far as to connect to carrier-owned WLANs automatically when in range.

Talking to other journalists in the industry, Pocket-lint has no reason to believe the video isn't legit. Sadly, Pocketnow hasn't posted the video for us to hear it from the horse's mouth.

Microsoft is expected to make an announcement on its future Windows Phone plans at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. Pocket-lint will be in attendance at the show, to bring all the latest news, including any announcements from Microsoft, as it happens.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones Microsoft Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 8 detailed by Joe Belfiore in leaked video originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Now, stick with us, because this might sound like the most technical opening to a news story in the history of Pocket-lint but it is a pretty big deal in the evolution of mobile phones: Qualcomm, working alongside Ericsson, has successfully completed the first voice call handover from an LTE mobile network to a WCDMA network using Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC).

We told you it sounded complex.

It really isn't though and simply hints that we're heading to a complete LTE (or 4G, if you prefer) future for mobile.

The successful test means that networks using a single chip - Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 - are able to switch a user's call seamlessly to a WCDMA network when using VoLTE (voice over LTE, an internet-powered voice call) if it leaves the LTE network's coverage area. And there's no need for smartphones to use separate LTE and 3G radios and modems.

"As LTE networks are deployed alongside 3G networks, the ability for multimode 3G/LTE mobile devices to connect to different network technologies will be an important part of providing the best possible mobile voice and data experience to consumers," said Cristiano Amon, senior vice-president of product management, Qualcomm.

"Qualcomm is committed to the successful deployment of LTE networks worldwide in conjunction with 3G networks, and the milestone we've achieved with Ericsson is another step towards making VoLTE technology a commercial reality."

This might still read as overly technical but it is a massive step towards a complete 4G solution for users. By the time the UK finally sees some LTE love (possibly this year, probably next) we should be well on our way....

Tags: Phones Qualcomm LTE 4G

Qualcomm voice over LTE test hints at a complete 4G future originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Sony Ericsson has announced an expanded global strategic alliance with Billabong. Yep, Sony Ericsson - not Sony. And the first fruit of the new partnership will be....an Xperia active Billabong Edition. Now we see, the deal was obviously put in place before the big split.

"The partnership is an expansion of our long-term relationship with Sony and an extension of an Asia Pacific alliance developed with Sony Ericsson in 2011," said Scott Wallace, Billabong's International vice-president of strategic partnerships and new media.

"Our customers are very tech savvy and their top interests include music, photography, social media and, of course, action sports. Each of these interests can be captured or experienced through the Xperia active and we are working on some exciting apps and accessories that should add to the user's experience."

There will be more Billabong content on Xperia devices going forward than you could shake a skateboard at, including the Billabong Live app and an exclusive surf game, Billabong Surf Trip, for Xperia Play handsets.

The Xperia active is a compact little smartphone designed with the types of people who enjoy a bit of sporty fun - hence the hook-up with Billabong.

Its Android 2.3 handset (ICS coming apparently) is both dust proof and water resistant. And when we say water resistant we don't just mean that it can be used in the rain - the phone can be kept under 1m of water for 30 mins and even boasts wet-finger tracking so it still responds when either the screen or a user's fingers are wet.

Hardware wise, it packs a 1GHz processor has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and auto-focus that is also capable of 720p video recording and a 3-inch Reality Display with Mobile Bravia Engine.

Tags: Phones Sony Billabong Sony Ericsson Xperia active Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Xperia active Billabong edition surfs in originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:11:00 +0000

When it launched in the first half of 2011, we at Pocket-lint were so impressed by the HTC Sensation that it was awarded the coveted "Hot Product" tag. So imagine our excitement when we found out that, not only will the Taiwanese company be releasing a white version of the handset, it will also come a-rocking with Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

It's around an eight, or maybe an eight and a half, on the excitement scale in case you couldn't quite imagine it.

The white HTC Sensation with the latest Android OS will launch on 1 March and could well be the first device from the Android heavyweight to be packing ICS.

Although the Dutch source of the Sensation-al news also indicates that "the update to Android 4.0 soon for all aircraft in the Sensation series available", which we think is Google Translate's way of telling us that the Sensation XL and XE will be getting the update in due course too.

Back in November HTC announced that the majority of flagship HTC phones would be getting the update in early 2012 - listing the entire Sensation lineup, as well as the HTC Rezound, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G.

That promise is almost bearing fruit....

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Tags: Phones HTC HTC Sensation Ice Cream Sandwich htc se

HTC Sensation white edition with Ice Cream Sandwich coming in March originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:25:00 +0000

While we all get over the disappointment, and recover from the shock, that there will be no Samsung Galaxy S III unveiled at MWC (it still pains us even to write the extra I) it's understandable that we'd clutch at straws for even a glimmer of new Samsung device news.

But there's no need for us to make a fuss out of nothing, which is what the web seems to be doing after a device labelled "Galaxy S 2+" showed up on the An3DBenchXL's benchmark database boasting a 1.5GHz CPU.

Sure, Samsung may unveil an upgrade for the original Galaxy S II - but haven't we already seen one? Sure we have. In fact, we've seen a couple.

First up was the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, which Pocket-lint had a play with over in Berlin at IFA back in September - a phone which took the processing power from 1.2GHz on the original to 1.5GHz (and subsequently hit AT&T as the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket). And then there was the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE - a phone that added 720p resolution to the Galaxy gig.

The benchmark results indicate a smartphone with a 800x480 display so it's probably just a version of the S II LTE rather than the HD one. It will be running Android 2.3.4 when it lands.

So while we wouldn't be surprised to see a Samsung Galaxy S II Plus on show in Barcelona, an already existing device with a new name isn't going to help us in our period of S III mourning. Some new Galaxy Tabs might though.....

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Tags: Phones Samsung MWC2012 Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE Samsung Galaxy S II Samsung Galaxy S 2 LTE

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus all set for MWC unveiling originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:37:00 +0000

A British university student has designed a phone that stands out from the usual array of black, grey or white plastic numbers - by building it out of bamboo.

The Bamboo phone is called ADzero and was designed by 23 year-old Middlesex University student Kieron-Scott Woodhouse

There's no hardware of software details for the ADzero other than it's "Android powered" and is "approximately half the weight of an Apple iPhone, while boasting a larger screen" - all the emphasis seems to be on the design itself. Quite rightly so though, it's a gorgeous looking piece of kit complete with a unibody design crafted from a single piece of four year-old organic bamboo.

"The whole experience so far has been incredible and completely unexpected," said Kieron-Scott. "Completing my final year and working has been challenging, but my course and the project complement each other well and it’s a great start of my career. I can’t wait to see my mobile phone in shops this year."

The Bamboo ADzero was originally set for China only but will now hit boutique stores in the UK as well. No release details as of yet - we'll keep you posted.

Tags: Phones Bamboo ADzero

Bamboo ADzero phone shoots in originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:08:00 +0000

It looks as if those rumours regarding a Samsung Galaxy S III no-show at Mobile World Congress were on the money after all. A memo has just popped into the Pocket-lint inbox from Samsung stating:

"The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product."

In January The Verge cited our old pals "people familiar with the matter" as saying that Samsung had originally planned to announce the handset at MWC but had decided to delay the news. This statement from Samsung looks like being the official confirmation of that.

The Korean company will, of course, be over in Barcelona showing off some new toys but the long-awaited Galaxy S II sequel looks as if it will have to wait for another day.

The memo states that "Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012 and that it "stays committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world".

Good news and bad news then. The bad is obvious - the good is that at least we've confirmation for an announcement sometime before the end of June.

Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy S III MWC2011

Samsung Galaxy S III MWC no-show confirmed originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:16:04 +0000

Bored of your currently BlackBerry? Want something a little more iPhone or PlayBook looking? Then you might just be in luck if a new image of the next BlackBerry 10 superphone is real.

The render, which has turned up on BlackBerry site Crackberry.com claims it to be the UK flagship of the next generation of BlackBerry phones that are promised to be with us later in the year.

Dubbed the BlackBerry London, although it doesn't look anything like the previous "London" leaks that we've seen before, the new phone will supposedly be heading to the UK according to the report and be the "Ultimate Communication Device" for those still looking to keep it BB.

The London, which incidentally isn't to be mistaken with two other models, the "Laguna" and "Lisbon" that are in development for the US market targeting AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, will also feature "rich specification - hardware and software" according to the supposedly leaked presentation slide.

Other buzz words used on the slide next to the render include "content story" and "dramatic shift in UI experience" making us believe that this is more of a designer pitched wish list than perhaps a final hardware design that we will see in the shops come Christmas. This after all is only a graphic render of a phone rather than actual hardware.

Not surprisingly, the "ooh isn't it exciting" one-pager doesn't mention any specs, however that hasn't stopped Crackberry speculating that it will be coming with a 1.5GHz dual core processor either from Qualcomm or Texas Instruments. As a benchmark the PlayBook, the company's tablet, features a 1GHz processor.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry BlackBerry London RIM

BlackBerry 10 superphone image leaked originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:51:00 +0000

The forthcoming HTC Ville has made a 3-minute video debut online, revealing a great deal about the incoming Android 4, Sense 4 handset.

Although the specs have previously been rumoured and we've seen images of the new Android handset, the video leaves little to the imagination.

First up you have the design. It looks a lot like the renderings previously released, although this being an HTC handset, there aren't too many surprises as the company tends to stick to the same designs.?It certainly appears to be slim though, and using the typical unibody design with inserted panels top and bottom to ensure good reception and allow access to the internals.

All the connections appear to be in normal places, the standby and 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, volume on the right and Micro-USB on the left.?Perhaps more interesting is the three touch controls across the bottom of the phone, losing the menu button, as per Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus.

This is a new version of HTC Sense too. The details from the software information later in the video reveal it to be HTC Sense 4.0 and Android 4.0.1, so it looks like HTC are making the right moves in software too.

HTC Sense 4.0 appears to have dealt with one of our biggest bugbears and that's the antiquated homescreen dock. Now you have two shortcuts either side of a central app tray button, very much like stock Android 4.

Diving into the settings, however, you get to see a nice panel effect rather than a straight list and the animation looks kind of cool. There are obvious differences in the app tray too, so it looks like HTC have run in some changes as you'd expect. Whether these are for better or worse, we'll have to wait until we can do an HTC Sense 4.0 review ourselves.

Fortunately we also get to see the hardware information page which reveals the HTC Ville to offer a 4.3-inch QHD (960 x 540) display, 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 8-megapixel main camera and VGA front camera and Bluetooth 4, all of which sounds like a respectable load-out.

We also catch a glimpse of Beats Audio settings in the menu, but there is no Beats branding on the back of the phone, we suspect because this is a pre-release sample. Indeed, the watermarking on the wallpaper reaffirms this, and also means that HTC can probably trace exactly who filmed and leaked the handset - they also reveal a phone number and the device IMEI too…

The HTC Ville is likely to be HTC's "mid-range" device launched at MWC 2012. If rumours are to be believed we will also be seeing a larger Android device, the HTC Edge/Endeavour, but we suspect it will offer a similar operating system to what is on display here.

We will be covering all the action from Mobile World Congress 2012 in February, so be sure to tune in for all the official announcements as they happen.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Ville Android MWC2012 Video Rumours

HTC Ville shows its Android 4, Sense 4 face (video) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:58:00 +0000

If any further proof was needed that Research in Motion is losing its grip on the professional market and aiming its handsets squarely at the "yoofs" then surely the launch of The Bold Team is it.

A bunch of cartoon superheroes, The Naff Team, sorry - The Bold Team - are "bravely stepping out of 2011 and into 2012 filled with unlimited possibilities". Exactly. We're pretty sure we can put our fingers on the context of The Bold Team's aims.

RIM has seen its share price fall by over 75 per cent in the last year following a number of underwhelming product launches and, what the Financial Times describes as, "a series of management missteps and earnings shortfalls".

We think perhaps The Bold Team represent new CEO Thorsten Heins. Or at least one of them, probably Trudy Foreal - The Authentic - who is "Not afraid to call it as she sees it".

The Bold Team are based on new year's resolutions made by New Yorkers using the #BeBold hashtag to state their aims and objectives for the new year. We're just not sure they have the super powers needed to turn the Canadian company's fortunes around though.

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Tags: Phones RIM Research in Motion BlackBerry

RIM hopes The Bold Team will come to BlackBerry's rescue originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:26:17 +0000

What are our phones going to look like in 10 years time; see-through displays, Star Trek-style tricorders? Ton Brand from the GSMA - the organisation that promotes standardisation between mobile networks - has a pretty good idea.

As programme director of Embedded Mobile, Brand is at the forefront of smartphone and tablet technology, constantly guessing the way the market will head in order to help create a better trade and consumer experience.?With MWC 2012 just around the corner, we asked him what he saw as the future of mobile phones and just what we might find in our hands not just at the end of this year but in years to come.

"The mobile operator community is conventional. 99.9 per cent of their turnover, up until about three years ago, was purely consumer handset driven. From a growth point of view, now, they’re lucky if they get maybe 110 per cent but that is it. They can’t grow any further."

The point Brand makes is one of saturation and it's this commercial problem that has so far shaped the pressure for smartphone advancement. Operators have needed to look for new ways to sell devices to consumers who already own a mobile phone. So, to expand, networks have had to look into different ways of tempting them, be it with new devices outside of the smartphone or a rapidly sped up tech rollout in hardware that’ll have you itching to upgrade the mobile you already own. For Brand, whereas until recently it's been all about the former, the answer may now lie with the latter, with tablets, dongles and data plans the key to expansion.

"Nothing is going to happen in a given location anymore; you have things happening in a car, in a home, you’ve also got connectivity in education."

The problem is that this has created a slightly confusing environment for the consumer; a burden of choice where it is difficult to pick up any piece of communications hardware without feeling buyer’s remorse. Staying on the cutting-edge can only occur for a few months before your shiny new phone or tablet is replaced by something better, let alone if you made a "poor choice" to begin with.

"Choice is always good for the consumer, provided it isn’t confusing. I think a lot of people, when Android came around the corner, thought that there were going to be three platforms.

"There is no single Android platform," says Brand, referring to the different "skinning" each manufacturer applies. "More standardisation would be better."

So, what of the public's need for that cutting edge and is it something realistic and sustainable any more??Consumers are becoming extremely demanding about what sort of hardware they are given access to and tech jargon, like the "Plus" in Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen in the Galaxy S II, for example, seems as much a way to get one up on owners of the original, than to get more enjoyment from the handset.

"We all want very, very good touchscreens" says Brand. "In two years time AMOLED will be surpassed by something better. I don’t think this will slow down either, the only thing that could is how quickly we miniaturise and how quickly battery power can keep up with demand.

“It’s the same as what we saw with computers. There is more computing power and that means we want to do more, and while we are doing more we expect more, so that is how it evolves.”

Brand’s point is that consumers are in danger of getting into a situation of over-demand where the want for new technology cannot match the amount of power required and, more importantly, the cost, something which current rumours surrounding the?iPad 3 reveal. A better screen means bigger batteries which then adds a 30 per cent production cost to the device, which is then turned back round to consumers. Add in the desire for LTE and it looks like the future for overnight phone charging is bleak, as is even our chance of affording it.

Japan already implements a system where you can give your handset some juice in train stations and corner shops, mostly out of the increased pressure all its smartphone tech has put on phone power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the likes of 4G technologies will push those in the West over the same precipice quite yet.

"The market adoption rate of rollout of LTE is going to be a lot slower," predicts Brand. "Networks will focus their LTE deployments in urban areas because that is where they need the capacity."

The final major change Brand expects to see with our smartphones and tablets in the coming years is the way they are used in education. Coming off the back of Apple’s highly ambitious iBooks 2 launch and its dealings with major education publishers in the US, the tablet could become a new way to teach.

"Tablets in general are going to dominate the way education is rolled out. There are going to be winners - it could be Apple, it could be Android."

"If you look at it from a developing market point of view, it’s going to take years for it to trickle down into developing markets. That’s where we are going to rely on very basic methods; notebooks with mobile connectivity, SMS type services, feature phones."

If schools' relations with tablets were to truly take off, we expect they would remain the preserve of only the wealthiest establishments for a good while. The alternative is to do what Android has done with the smartphone market and make decent enough technology highly affordable.

"Somebody is going to come up with a cheap Android tablet and win the education battle."

So the moral of the story? If we don't take care to reign in our insatiable thirst for cutting edge technology, the smartphone we end up with in a few years time might not make it through the day on its own battery and even if it did, it would cost far too much to?realistically?own it.?Whether it's the first ?1,000 mainstream smartphone or the mobile that needs a full charge once an hour that slows us down, only time can tell.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones GSMA Tablets iBooks 2 Apple Android MWC2012 Features Interviews

The future of your mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Remember the Nokia Lumia 900 that was unveiled over in Vegas at CES? Sure you do. You probably also know Nokia has yet to announce the launch of the LTE packing handset outside of the States, despite Carphone Warehouse suggesting it could land in June.

But it could be that us Europeans get a slightly different model - perhaps the Nokia Lumia 910, as detailed on a Dutch retail site.

Originally, the handset was listed with a note saying it was coming soon, although this has been updated now to say that Nokia have yet to come clean with the details.

Spec-wise it's listed as the same handset that was unleashed in the city of sin but with a 12-megapixel camera instead of the 900's 8-megapixel one.

We're not convinced the listing is genuine, to be honest, but we do feel that Nokia may chuck in a little bonus to make up for the lack of 4G fun should that handset make a European bow. It's MWC soon though, so no doubt we'll find out a bit more.....

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Tags: Phones Nokia Lumia 910 Nokia Lumia 900 Nokia

Nokia Lumia 910 detailed in Dutch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:41:00 +0000

If you ever dreamed of landing a job with Apple in Cupertino and getting to work on the next generation iPhones and iPads - don't get your hopes up too high.

And that's because, even if you get a job at 1 Infinite Loop, chances are that you're going to be working on more of an iPhoney than an iPhone 5, 6 or 7.

In Adam Lashinsky's new book - Inside Apple - the Fortune writer and Fox commentator claims that once you make it through the tough interview process of the world's largest tech company, you still have to prove your loyalty. And this, he claims, often involves working on things that don't actually exist.

Speaking about his claims at a conference at LinkedIn's HQ Lashinsky stated: "People are hired into dummy positions where they are not really sure what it is they're doing. Even though you've been through this rigorous process they still don't know if you can be trusted."

A former Apple employee at the session backed up the claims saying: "A friend of mine who's a senior engineer at Apple, he works on, or did work on, fake products - I'm sure - for the first part of his career, and was interviewed for nine months. It's intense."

So the next time you find what looks like a new iPhone in a bar in California be aware that it's probably not the real-deal. Still, it would likely fetch a pretty price on eBay.....

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Tags: Phones Tablets iPhone iPad Apple

Fake iPads and iPhones produced by Apple originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:13:34 +0000

The smartphone figures for 2011 are in. Lots of them, in fact, and they don't all correlate exactly. But we'll ignore that and declare Apple the winner. Actually Samsung. Or maybe Research in Motion. Definitely not Nokia.

Let's start at the very beginning....

First up is the shipment figures from Strategy Analytics. It states that in 2011, global smartphone shipments (not sales, remember) hit 488.5 million; up from just under 300 million in 2010 and with 155 million of these occurring in the final quarter of the year.

Juniper Research says that the global shipment figure is actually slightly less; around the 470 million mark with 149 million in 2011's final three months.

In terms of manufacturers Strategy Analytics has Apple as the winner for the quarter - 37 million shipments compared to Samsung's 36.5 million - as does Juniper (Apple 25 per cent, Samsung 21.7 per cent).

But Samsung is the overall winner for the year with 97.4 million shipments compared to 93 million from its Cupertino based rival (Strategy Analytics).

"What about Nokia?" we hear you cry. Not good news on both fronts we're afraid. SA says yearly figures down from 100.1 million to 77.3 million (smartphone shipments, nothing else) and JR says the Finnish company's smartphone shipments were down 31 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter.

But wait a minute, despite Juniper saying that Blackberry shipments were down 0.7 per cent for Q4, RIM has stated that "the latest results from data firm?GfK show that BlackBerry was the #1 selling smartphone in the British market for the second year running...grabbing 26.3 per cent of December sales and averaging 27.7 per cent through 2011."

We know shipments and sales are two different beasts but this is clouding the water somewhat, especially given that RIM also states that its global subscriber base grew 35 per cent year-on-year in December to 75 million.

Our head hurts now and our abacus has fallen apart. We may regret saying this but we're going to need to see some more figures (preferably sales ones) before deciding who actually took the title....

Tags: Phones Apple BlackBerry Samsung Smartphones Mobile phone industry

Apple wins the 2011 smartphone battle, or perhaps Samsung, or maybe RIM... originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:43:07 +0000

The Samsung Galaxy is an ever expanding one, proven once again with yet another handset gaining officialdom - the Samsung Galaxy S Advance.

The S Advance is the phone that you may have read about on the gossip grapevine over the weekend after its model number, i9070, went and leaked all over the web.

Sammy has come clean with all the official details now though and, although this isn't a handset that's going to cause an ripples at the smartphone top table, it looks to be another solid mid-level entrant from the Korean company.

Packing a 4-inch Super AMOLED display (480x800) the S Advance is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor with 768MB of RAM. There's a 5-megapixel camera around the back, a 1.3-megapixel one on the front and network connection speeds are good - HSPA 14.4Mbps.

On-board you'll find Android 2.3 with TouchWiz thrown over the top and get all the Samsung goodies that you'd expect such as ChatON, Find My Mobile and the Samsung Hubs.

"The Galaxy S Advance adds to the successful track record of the Galaxy smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung's Hub services," said Samsung's JK Shin.

No word on pricing as of yet but we do know that it will be hitting Russia next month February, after which it will hit Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China.

Tags: Phones Samsung Galaxy S Advance Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S Advance hits officialdom originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:05:56 +0000

T-Mobile is introducing a new mobile phone and data plan that it claims is unique to the provider. Called The Full Monty, it offers completely unlimited calls, texts and Internet access with no fair use restrictions.

The new plan will be available from 1 February (Wednesday) and starts from ?36 per month, which offers unlimited data, texts and calls to other T-Mobile customers, with 2,000 minutes worth of calls to other networks. At that price, you can also get yourself a free 8GB iPhone 4, HTC Sensation XE or Samsung Galaxy S II, or pay an extra ?99 for a 16GB iPhone 4S.

At ?41 per month, the next step-up plan also offers completely unlimited calls to other networks, a BlackBerry 9900 for free or a 16GB iPhone 4S for ?29.

?46 per month is unlimited everything, with a 16GB iPhone 4S now free, while the maximum package, at ?61 per month, offering a 32GB iPhone 4S gratis or a 64GB iPhone 4S for ?29.

When we asked Ben Fritsch, head of propositions, T-Mobile UK if unlimited, in fact, meant a large data cap he stated that it was truly unlimited."There's no fair usage cap," he told us. "And you can use it for tethering as well."

There's free, unlimited, Wi-Fi on offer too through T-Mobile's hotspots and BT's Openzone. There's even an Android app launching making it easier to get on board without having to consistently logging on. No word on an iOS app as of yet.

Existing T-Mobile users can upgrade to the new contract at any time, but without a handset thrown in.

You can find out more at?www.t-mobile.co.uk/TheFullMonty.

Tags: T-Mobile Phones Tariffs T-Mobile The Full Monty iPhone Android BlackBerry

T-Mobile to introduce The Full Monty tariff - all you can eat calls, texts and data originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:53:00 +0000

The rumour-mill is awash with Samsung Galaxy S III murmurs, following a couple of reports suggesting that the future flagship smartphone from the Korean company was facing a delay.

The Galaxy S III grapevine seemed to suggest that the next big Sammy Android instalment would be getting a February unveiling at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Not so, says The Verge though who cite our old pals "people familiar with the matter" as saying that Samsung had originally planned to announce the handset at MWC but has now decided to delay the news.

It will still be out "before summer" say its sources and the delay could be down to the long wait that the Galaxy S II endured after it was announced at MWC 2011 - it didn't hit the US until September.

The trouble is, all these reports have overshadowed the fact that, as it stands, the Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't actually exist. At least not officially. All we've got is some heated rumour mongering and a quote from JK Shin, president of Samsung's mobile communications division, from last May in which he hinted a third-gen Galaxy S would arrive.

But Younghee Lee, Samsung's head of global marketing has given the murmurings some added weight, with an official indication that the phone is coming, even if she didn't say when. When asked to comment on the delay reports following the company's latest earnings call she said:

"We are still reviewing several options when to launch, so we'll let you know when it's decided."

It looks as if the rumours have basically forced an acknowledgement then. Lee could have said Samsung hasn't announced such a phone, or that it doesn't comment on speculation - instead she put more meat on the bones of a juicy rumour.

A UK Samsung source recently told Pocket-lint that plans for MWC are "being finalised at the minute". Definitely a case of watch this space then...

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Tags: Phones Samsung Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung Galaxy S III receives official recognition originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:53:00 +0000

One of the joys of Android is supposed to be customisation and yet few people even bother to change their wallpaper after unboxing their little darlings. One of the problems is that most of us have been scarred by our early live wallpaper experiences - the ones that were just a little too much for our?phones?to handle 24/7 back when the insides of mobiles weren't quite as chipped up as they are these days.

Fortunately, things are different nowadays. Android smartphones have harnessed much more bite with plenty of RAM and often a dual-core processor to help kick things along. So, today is the day you fight back and remember why it was that you chose the Google OS in the first place. Here are the best Android customisation apps around at the moment; all well worth a tinker.

LauncherPro

If you've got yourself a Android phone with a slightly annoying user interface on it - as basically most people who don't own Nexus or HTC Sense phones do - then LauncherPro is a superb way to iron out those creases in your experience. The launcher also happens to represent pretty much the ultimate frontier of Android customisation short of rooting your device altogether, so the app brings with it a certain amount of kudos too.

To really get the full out of LauncherPro, you need the paid version but the basic still brings you a far zippy home and app screen, a customisable and scrollable desktop dock, as many home screens as you like and all sorts of tweaks and tucks thereabouts. It might seem a bit overwhelming and possibly a touch pointless to begin with but going really granular will pay off in a big way once you get things just right. Not a quick fix but a very good one indeed.

Market: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 4.5/5

?

Zedge

Whether it be wallpapers, notifications or ringtones that you'd like to make your own on your Android smartphone, Zedge is a good place to start. Zedge is home to 32,996 of the first lot, 82,903 of the second and a whopping 537,828 of the last. That's a few to choose from and luckily you can break them down into categories or simply search by name and subject matter.

The bits and pieces of downloadable media are user generated but there's a fairly tight net from Zedge when it comes to copyright material. All the same, if you're looking for the theme tune to CHIPs, you'll probably find it. In fact, we just did. The only down points to this app are that there's a fair bit of dross (where those filters come in handy) and there's also some nasty banner ads that could dupe you into paying for things. Just stay within the app UI and you'll be fine.

Market: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 3.5/5

?

PhotoWall Live Wallpaper

Like most good apps, PhotoWall Live Wallpaper tells you pretty much what it does in the name. It's live wallpaper comprised of photos. Simple enough.?The fun comes in because it's your photos that we're talking about and there's all sorts of different settings to choose from in terms of how you'd like them to appear. They can fade in and out, they can be a pile of overlapping Polaroids or a puzzle of pictures or a wall; you will need the 69p upgrade pack to unlock some of these though.

PhotoWall will take photos from your gallery app, or even specific folders within it, but, given permission, it's also equally adept at rifling through either your Facebook or Picasa accounts as well. At some point, of course, you'll chance upon a picture that you don't remember or you'd like to take a look at in more detail, so all you do is click on it to open it up in its own right.?Yes, this app might hog a bit of your RAM but it's well, well worth it. Read more

Market: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 4.5/5

?

Koi Live Wallpaper

There's very little that's as tranquil as watching fish swim around a pond and Koi Live Wallpaper gives you the chance to do that wherever you go just by gazing into the screen of your mobile phone. There's not quite as many options as you get with My Beach HD below but your 69p investment still buys plenty of tick boxes and sliders.

You can adjust how many, what type of and how large the fish are; whether or not it's raining and how hard; the numbers of lillypads and flowers, and how big the rippling effect is when you tap the screen. Best of all though is when you double tap the screen to drop in some food and watch all your little friends come along for a nibble. Lovely stuff.

Market: Link

Price: 69p

Rating: 4.5/5

?

Beautiful Widgets

“Beautiful” might be pushing it a little far but, presumably, the marketing department over at LevelUp Studios didn’t think Nice Widgets would be as compelling.?Either way, what the app offers is, funnily enough, a selection of widgets for your desktop largely based around clocks and weather with the addition of little toggles for functions like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode and all that jazz.

There are widgets to suit every size from one square up to the entire screen and you can even choose what source your widgets take the time and weather from as well as how regularly they call home.The Beautiful (Nice) part of things comes in because you can download lots and lots and lots and lots of different themes so that you can change the background, the typeface and even the tone of your widgets with all sorts of pretty, scary, futuristic or whatever skins you're after. Read more

Market: Link

Price: 89p

Rating: 4/5

?

My Beach HD

My Beach HD is quite simply the very best live wallpaper we’ve come across so far. It’s not as factual nor interactive or even as clever as some, but it’s smooth, it’s beautiful, it’s detailed and, most of all, it’s fun.?Your 99p outlay buys you some beachfront property on a summer's day on what we imagine is a well to do spot of upstate New York. Not bad for a quid.

With it, you get any, all or none of a ball, bucket, cooler and drink, towel, umbrella, blanket, bonfire, bottle rocket, clouds, lifeguard chair and all sorts of other details that you can change including the weather, time of day, time of year and even a little sign which you can scrawl upon as you will. The possibilities are almost absurd. Read more

Market: Link

Price: 99p

Rating: 5/5

?

Colors

One of the big wow factors when the Nexus One arrived were those funky, interactive, live wallpapers that we could have spanning our desktops and secretly chewing through battery life and taking up precious RAM. So, eventually, these get a little dull and actually something more subtle and speedy becomes appealing.?Step in Colors by developer Tim Clark. Colors is a very simple look at wallpapers for Android. Like the name suggests, the app offers you a choice of plain colours. All you do is pick one and it becomes your wallpaper. Now, that sounds rather dull but there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

Firstly, there are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of colours to choose from. Secondly, they sort of all look brilliant, and thirdly - probably the part we like best - is that you can chop and change whenever you feel like it without having to search the Market and download another app.?Forgive the American spelling. Colors is still a fantastic app. Read More

Market: Link

Price: Free/89p

Rating: 5/5

?

Androidify

Ever wondered what the little Android mascot would look like in a nice suit? Or perhaps a dress? Or maybe even what he'd be like if he worse a bikini, had a bright pink afro, sported ballet shoes and had skinny legs??If you answered yes to any of these questions then it's clear that you're a very strange person. But you're also in luck, because with Androidify you can find out the answers to all of those wonders and more.

Androidify lets you can customise the little green robot (what is his name, does anyone know?) with an absolute wealth of styling options. You can dress and accessorise him however you want, and you can even change his body shape as well.?"Why?" you might ask. Well, so as you can post up your effort on Twitter of course - that's what everyone else seems to be doing anyway. Read More

Market: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 3/5

Tags: Phones Apps Android Features Android apps LauncherPro PhotoWall Live Wallpaper Zedge Beautiful Widgets My Beach HD Colors Androidify Koi Live Wallpaper

Best Android customisation apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:45:00 +0000

HTC Sense 4.0, the Taiwanese company's latest Android UI, is set to launch sometime soon, possibly with the rumoured HTC Ville or HTC Edge and mobile site PocketNow is claiming to have the low-down ahead of its release.

It has apparently had a play with a "non final build" of the software and, one of the biggest claims that it makes, is that the software will allow for 50GB of free Dropbox space. The massive allowance will sit as a virtual drive on a Sense 4.0 device apparently, with "deep integration" with other apps such as email.

Back in October, HTC announced that it had partnered with the cloud storage platform to offer 5GB of storage to all of its Android phones. So 50GB would be quite a step-up if the claims comes to fruition.

As well as the cloud space, PocketNow is stating that Sense 4.0 is a "step in the right direction" with "reduced visual clutter" and will bring in a new task switcher and an improved, more info-packing, lock-screen.

Universal Beats support is said to be on board, and the email client has been updated, described as possibly the "best-looking and most functional email client available for Android".

A bold claim indeed. We'll probably only have to wait until next month to find out - HTC is expected to unleash its new smartphone range over in Barcelona at MWC.

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Tags: Phones HTC HTC Sense Dropbox

HTC Sense 4.0 to boast 50GB of Dropbox space originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:31:38 +0000

Vodafone has announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is now available on its network.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is more an update to the BlackBerry Bold 9780 rather than just a thinner version of the Bold 9900. It features a QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad and a 2.45-inch, 480x360 touch display.

It boasts a Marvell Tavor MG1 1GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and 8GB of onboard memory - with an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32GB of additional storage.The OS on board is BlackBerry 7.

As with other phones from the Canadian manufacturer, the phone will come with NFC support. It also packs a 5-megapixel camera with VGA video recording, a 2x digital zoom, AF and a flash. Connectivity is Wi-Fi 2.4GHz b/g/n or 5GHz a/n, AGPS and 3G. Its measurements are 110 x 60 x 11.4mm and it weighs in at 107g.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is available from Vodafone for free on ?31 a month contracts that last two years. For that you'll get 600 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB of mobile data.

Tags: Phones BlackBerry RIM Vodafone BlackBerry Bold 9790

BlackBerry Bold 9790 lands on Vodafone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:56:00 +0000

The menu button on Google's Android is all but dead and is to be replaced permanently by the action bar. That's the message from Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com, who has posted an article advising Android developers to change their ways.

"Honeycomb removed the reliance on physical buttons, and introduced the ActionBar class as the standard solution to make actions from the user options immediately visible and quick to invoke," he wrote. "In order to provide the most intuitive and consistent user experience in your apps, you should migrate your designs away from using the Menu button and toward using the action bar."

The menu button has already been ditched on some Android devices, such as the Ice Cream Sandwich packing Samsung Galaxy Nexus and, going forward, Google wants just three buttons on offer; back, home, and recent apps.

The action bar, that will now see more, er, action is a dedicated area that identifies the options available to the user on specific apps. It sits up top and will mean that Fandroids will need to get used to a new way of interacting with their favourite apps.

If the tasks in hand are too much for the action bar to take, users will see an overflow button on the bottom bar (three dots in a vertical row).

"This might seem like splitting hairs over terminology, but the name action overflow promotes a different way of thinking," explained Main.

"Instead of thinking about a menu that serves as a catch-all for various user options, you should think more about which user options you want to display on the screen as actions. Those that don't need to be on the screen can overflow off the screen."

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Tags: Android Google Phones Tablets

Android kills the menu button, demands action originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:11:24 +0000

Sure, you've got a gallery app full of pictures on your mobile phone. Yes, you might even have the odd widget window on your desktop that connects to it too but, frankly, if you're not using today's App of the Day on your Android handset, you're not making the most of your snaps.

We know that live wallpaper is neither particularly exciting nor, for some, worthwhile spending your precious memory on but, trust good old Pocket-lint, today is the day we change your minds on that one. Meet...

PhotoWall Live Wallpaper

Platform

Android

Price

Free

Where

Step this way

Like most good apps, PhotoWall Live Wallpaper tells you pretty much what it does in the name. It's wallpaper - i.e. it covers the background of your desktop - it's live, so it moves, and it's called PhotoWall, so you can be pretty certain that this moving desktop background is, in fact, made of photographs of some kind. Simple enough.

The fun comes in, of course, because it's your photos that we're talking about and there's all sorts of different settings to choose from in terms of how you'd like them to appear. They can fade in and out, they can be a pile of overlapping Polaroids or a puzzle of pictures or a wall; you will need the 69p upgrade pack to unlock some of these though.

PhotoWall will take photos from your gallery app, or even specific folders within it, but, given permission, it's also equally adept at rifling through either your Facebook or Picasa accounts as well. At some point, of course, you'll chance upon a picture that you don't remember or you'd like to take a look at in more detail, so all you do is click on it to open it up in its own right.

Yes, this app might hog a bit of your RAM but it's well, well worth it.

Tags: Phones Android apps Wallpapers Android App of the day

APP OF THE DAY: PhotoWall review (Android) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:08:17 +0000

HTC's UK boss Phil Roberson has admitted that the Taiwanese company has perhaps lost focus by trying "to do too much", instead of focusing on the killer handsets that once made the brand the darling of the Android community.

Like the HTC Hero in 2009 or the Desire HD in 2010, Roberson wants the company to make waves with big product launches and to adopt a more qualitative approach.

"We had a fantastic year [in 2011], with 65 per cent growth year on year in the UK," he told Mobile Today. "But in Q4 we delivered a lot more products than in the past. Now we want to create more of a ‘Hero’ approach. We make great phones, but it is hard to do that when the portfolio is spread too much."

In Q4 2011 we saw no fewer than five new Android devices from the company, added to the 14 other Android HTC phone launches that year. Throw in three Windows Phone 7 handsets and you're looking at a barrage of HTC handsets.

"We have to get back to focusing on what made us great - amazing hardware and a great customer experience," added Roberson. "So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs."

It's fair to say that Samsung now holds the title as the Fandroid's champion but it is also a company that seems to announce a new handset every other week. Where Samsung differs though, is it is always clear what its star player is.

HTC, if it is to regain its crown, will have to take a similar approach.

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Tags: Phones HTC HTC Hero

HTC to focus on quality, not quantity as it searches for new Hero originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:49:00 +0000

The account books don't look too good over at Nokia Towers despite its well-received Lumia Windows Phone 7 range. The Finnish company has recorded an operating loss of €954 million, around ?800 million, for the last three months of 2011.

Net sales were also down year-on-year,? 21 per cent lower than a year earlier; from €12.65 billion to just over €10 billion. This time last year, Nokia was reporting an €884 million profit.

Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones in the period and 93.9 million dumbphones, a total of 113.5 million devices, which was down from 123.7 million units in the same period of 2010. The average handset selling price was €53, down from €69 a year ago.

All this, despite the fact that the company's CEO, Stephen Elop, announced that over 1 million Lumia handsets have been sold already and the company seeing Series 40 devices passing the 1.5 billion mark earlier this week.

"In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field," stated Elop. "And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing.

"And, while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012, and thus, it is my assessment that we are in the heart of our transition.

"In summary, with a strong balance sheet, our performance in mobile phones and the new excitement around Lumia, we are confident that we are on the right track to build long-term value."

Nokia has seen huge job cuts and a dramatic share price drop in the last 12 months. Elop has an incredibly tough job on his hands if he is to steer the sinking ship to safety.

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Tags: Phones Nokia Nokia Lumia 800 Nokia Lumia 710 Nokia Lumia 900 Stephen Elop

Nokia records £800 million loss despite strong start for Lumia range originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Phones 4u has announced it will be unleashing the LG Prada 3.0 onto the UK public on 27 January.

The third Prada and LG combo phone to be released packs a customised Android 2.3 UI designed by Prada itself, that features simple black and white icons.

Like a Prada model the emphasis is on thinness, it's only 8.5mm thick, but still boasts a fully-loaded dose of tech on the inside. The phone measures 127.5 x 69 x 8.5mm.

Although not being quite up there with the Android top dogs, the Prada phone is actually quite surprising in the power department, with 1GHz of dual-core goodness and 1GB of RAM to play with. Expandable microSD storage and an 8-megapixel camera complete the hardware package quite nicely.

Its screen is a 4.3 inch, 800x480, one and it boasts a high brightness 800-nit NOVA display. You'll get 1080p video capture and playback too. The only thing that looks a little suspect is the 1540mAh battery, which is perhaps a little on the small side.

The LG Prada 3.0 will be available from Phones 4u stores and online for nada on a ?31 a month contract, on a choice of networks, from Friday 27 January.

If you take out a contract on the?Prada phone by LG 3.0, to give it its official (ridiculous) moniker, at Phones 4u before the end of February, you’ll also get?12 months unlimited 4u Wi-Fi, a new partnership powered by The Cloud.

Tags: LG Phones LG Prada 3 Prada Phones4U

Designer LG Prada 3.0 hits the high-street at Phones 4u originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:12:30 +0000

One of the new features coming to the Sony Xperia S is NFC. NFC is great where you have an infrastructure that supports it, but what if you have no use for NFC?

Well, Sony (n?e Sony Ericsson) have put NFC to use in automating tasks on your new Xperia S phone. The system works through a series of tags, conveniently known as Xperia SmartTags.?

The idea isn't essentially new, but it isn't one that we've seen so readily supported in smartphones in the past.

The Xperia SmartTag is literally a little tag you can place where you want - you can stick it the wall, next to your bed, in the car, anywhere. The Xperia S will then be able to detect these SmartTags and react accordingly.?As the SmartTag needs no power, you can literally place them where you want.?

It looks like a simple system, from the time we've spent with it on the new Sony Xperia S. Some smartphones, such as HTC Android devices, will offer things dock modes that change the profile of the phone when you tell it to, or when slotted into the appropriate dock.

On the Xperia S, things are simpler. You simply place a SmartTag and then set the profile up using the menu on the phone. Then, using NFC to trigger the change, you simply have to touch the phone to the tag and that's it.?

So, for example, you could have a SmartTag in your car to turn on Bluetooth, turn off Wi-Fi, open Navigation, increase the brightness and so on.?

Other examples we've seen in action are to trigger music playback with a Bluetooth speaker and as a bedside clock, but as the set-up menu is fairly detailed, you can do what you like. It can't do everything, but as far as changing profiles - screen brightness, volume, opening applications - it can potentially save a lot of messing around.

For example, you could have a SmartTag by your front door so you can set your phone for when you go out running. You could have one at your desk at work to select silent and opening up Pocket-lint.com so you can follow all the gadget news.

Sony tells us that you'll be able to buy a pack of four SmartTags for around ?10, but that O2 will be supplying them with the phone if you take it from them.

However, you'll only be able to use a maximum of four SmartTags from Sony, so buying extra kits won't expand the system, as each red tag is identified as the same, for example.?

So, whilst we're all waiting to start paying for coffee with our phones, at least you can get automating and it's nice to see NFC being put to some use.

The Sony Xperia S is expected to land at the beginning of March and we'll be bringing you a full review as soon as we can. If you're interested in the Sony Xperia S check-out our hands-on with all the details and our first impressions.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Sony Xperia S NFC

Sony Xperia S NFC Xperia SmartTags explained originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:15:28 +0000

Android is a mobile OS that clearly appeals to geeks. And its appeal to those who like flexible, powerful phones that have a great selection of games and apps is clear too. But where does that leave the person on the street? The normal Joe, the man or woman who just wants a phone for phone calls and text messages?

And that's just the market that HTC is trying to captivate with its newest budget Android handset: the Explorer.

Design

At Pocket-lint we're not about putting people in to categories. But we think it's reasonable to say that the Explorer is aimed at older users, and possibly with a skew towards women. We say women because the screen is quite small, and smallish hands are certainly and advantage. Certainly, Mrs Pocket-lint likes the HTC Wildfire S, which is a very similar size and shape.

Indeed, there are many Wildfire S similarities. The shape is very similar, with rounded edges, ports in roughly the same places on both handsets and a very familiar size and weight - the Explorer is both thicker, and heavier though.

It's fair to say that the Explorer is the less desirable looking device of the two though. It's finished in cheaper, slightly rubberised, plastic and it just isn't as pretty as the Wildfire. It's not an ugly phone though, and it's compact design will make it popular with people who want a phone, but don't want to go on about it.

At the top are the power button and headphone socket. We like the placement of both. Side headphones are a pain in the pocket, and power switches should be in a standard place, as it drives us crazy trying to find them on each handset we use - a problem unique to phone reviewers there though.

On the right, are the two volume buttons, and on the left is simply a Micro-USB socket for charging the phone, or syncing it with your computer.

Screen

When we turned the phone on for the first time, we were actually a little stunned. The display is incredibly vivid and bright. Colours yell out from the LCD panel in a way that you usually only see on AMOLED displays. To our mind, the resolution looks better than it does on the Wildfire too, although the specs tell us the two are identcial. Either way though, this is a nice display that's easy to read and works outdoors too. It's not perfect though. Scrolling through menus renders the whole thing a blurry mess. When you stop scrolling, everything sharpens up and the display is very readable again. This means the phone won't be well suited to watch video on, and it can be a little frustrating when you're reading Twitter or trying to find something in a menu.

Overall though, the most important part of a phone is its display, and the Explorer doesn't let itself down.

It is, however, quite small, and that can be a problem for some people. We struggled a little with our sausage fingers, and sometimes made typing errors - the HTC keyboard isn't the best at auto-correct either.

We also found that, on some screens, there's just not enough information on screen at any one time. This is especially true of the dialer app, used to make calls. Here, the keypad takes up most of the screen, and there's no space left to see your list of contacts. You have to collapse the keyboard to get to that, and that's faff and extra key presses we don't need in our lives.

If you hate it, change it

One piece of good news though, is that if you hate an aspect of the Explorer, you can more than likely change it.

That dialer problem became tedious for us, so we installed a new dialer app from the market. And it improved things. We also like to get a new keyboard, and both Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich android keyboards can be obtained from the market too.

HTC Sense, though, is nice, and there are some good features that we've enjoyed using. It's version 3.5 too, so the lock screen is the latest version, with the quick shortcuts to various apps. We like that, and if you can remember to use it, it's a fast way to speed up using the device.

There are also the usual HTC widgets. There's FriendStream, which will show Twitter and Facebook updates to you. It's decent enough, but it's pretty pointless if you use the proper apps for those services.

You can also turn the phone in to a portable Wi-Fi hotspot too, which is handy if you want to browse on a tablet or PC without internet access. You will need to make sure that your phone contract allows you to do this though, and be mindful of extra charges you might incur.

HTC is obsessed with telling you what the weather is like too, so there is a widget and an app for that too. There's also a clock widget that features a weather forecast too. You know, in case you were uniformed about matters meteorological during your day.

Audio quality

Calls on the Explorer are loud and clear. This is a good thing, as some time with the Nokia Lumia 800 has told us that sometimes handset volumes can be a problem. You won't struggle to hear this one though, but at high volumes, there's a little audible rattle.

Switch to the speaker, and you'll find a loud clear sound too, that's easily powerful enough to use when you're on your own, and want to go hands-free.

Camera

There is little to shout about with the camera. It's a pretty limited affair, 3-megapixels, fixed focus lens so everything is out of focus at all times, and a very average video recording mode. But we've seen how people that buy these phones use the cameras, and it's mainly for making a nice wallpaper for the phone. And for that, it is fine.

There is one oddity though. The phone will let you take photos with no SD card in the camera. It even stores some images on its internal memory, but what it does not do is allow you to send them anywhere or access them through the gallery app, until you've put a card in. This is baffling, but SD cards are very cheap and if you want to use this phone to anywhere near its full potential, you'll need one.

It does also have the abilty to shoot video, but it's 480p only. That's enough for YouTube clips, and again, we suspect that's all it will be used for. Steven Spielberg will not be chucking his Arri away any time soon.

Battery life

The Explorer has one epic claim to fame. If you use it just for phone calls and text messages, and leave the overnight battery saver enabled whilst keeping it on Wi-Fi most of the time, you can get a lot of standby time out of this phone. We fully charged ours over Sunday night, took it off charge Monday AM and it's managed the last two days, three hours and three minutes on battery.

According to Android, it's been awake for a little over one hour in that time and the battery has 67 per cent left. That means, it's got at least another two days of standby left in it, if we carry on with our light usage.

So, if you're the sort of person that wants light internet use, but also wants an Android-powered handset with the ability to run a wealth of apps, this could well be the phone for you.

Verdict:

This might not be a phone for power-Android users, but it's a likable enough handset for most use.

It will certainly appeal to those who want a phone that can do more than their old Nokia thing that they haven't upgraded for years, and it should do so without scaring anyone making the switch. HTC has seen to that, with its trademark simple user interface and pretty design.

The battery is impressive, and we like the screen most of the time. Call quality is good, and that's what really matters on a phone like this, as it's likely to get heavy use. We worry for hardcore texters though, as they may not like the on-screen keyboard - easy enough to change, but unlikely to be high on the priorities of a potential owner.

All-in-all, this budget, compact handset has plenty to offer and we think it will find a lot of loyal users.

Tags: Phones HTC HTC Explorer Android

HTC Explorer originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Back in December HP finally made up its mind on the fate of webOS, stating that it would make the mobile operating system open source in the hope that it will live on by being used by companies looking for an alternative to Android or Windows Phone 7.

That ambition has now become a step closer to reality as the computer giant has detailed the roadmap for the platform that will eventually become known as Open webOS 1.0.

It all kicks off now with the release of a new generation of Enyo framework - an open source JavaScript lightweight app framework that supports WebKit, which allows developers to distribute their Enyo-based webOS apps across other platforms.

This will be expanded to Enyo 2.0 and 2.1 by April meaning the "write once, run anywhere" ethos will extend further; from mobile devices to desktop web browsers including Chrome, IE9, Firefox, and Safari. Open webOS 1.0 will hit officialdom by September.

"HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of HP. "This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."

It's certainly a far cry from completely ditching the one-time Palm platform, which looked on the cards not too long ago.

Whether the damage has already been done by HP in permanently damaging the reputation webOS remains to be seen though....

Read

Tags: Phones Tablets Software HP Open webOS webOS

HP Open webOS set for September launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:29:00 +0000

A source inside Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing plant that has traditionally built Apple devices over the years, claims that the production of the iPhone 5 is about to get under way. Considering that the iPhone 4S started production in April 2011, for an October release - a approximate six-month schedule - that would mean that the new handset will be due for a summer (June/July) release, and see Apple return into its normal launch pattern.

It is also claimed, by 9to5mac, that the whistleblower claims to have seen several sample devices that all differ from each other, so it is impossible to reveal which of them will be the final model (if any).

However, there are some things that are constant on them all, including a screen size that is over 4-inches. They claim that LG makes at least one of the displays, and that none of the handsets feature the teardrop style form factor that was "leaked" before the unveiling of the iPhone 4S.

They're not similar to the 4/4S either, though, with none of them featuring those models' trademark design. It is also pointed out that none of them are final versions, merely samples, as previously mentioned.

It is this latter fact that we at Pocket-lint worry about the most; if none of the samples seen are final models, how exactly does that mean that production has been started?

We're not the only ones to be wary of the source's claims either. John Gruber, from Daring Fireball, who has a reasonable record with all things Apple, disputes 9to5mac's revelation that "samples so far have been?symmetrical in thickness (also longer/wider)".

"Longer and wider? Sounds like bullshit," he posts on his site. "I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can’t see them making a bigger device."

Needless to say, there will be much more said about the iPhone 5 between here and its launch, summer or otherwise.

Read

Tags: Apple Phones iPhone 5 Foxconn

iPhone 5 production schedule suggests summer launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:54:53 +0000

These days it's all about Windows Phone 7 with Nokia. But there was a time when the Finnish company had all of its OS eggs planted firmly with another platform. And now, after 13 years, the 1.5 billionth S40 device has been sold.

The handset in question was a Nokia Asha 303 - a touchscreen device announced back in October 2011 - and it was brought by Mayara Rodrigues, a 21-year-old a Brazilian woman, in Sao Paolo.?

Mary McDowell, EVP for mobile phones at Nokia, said: "We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products.

"At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world - it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people's lives for the better."

To put the humongous figure in perspective - the amount of iPhones sold in its lifetime is around the 183 million mark and, even if you group iOS devices together, you're only looking at around 300 million. The Android device count is between 250 million and 300 million depending on whose figures you go on.

Series 40 has had a significant head start mind; the first phone - a Nokia 7110 - went on sale in 1999. The platform is still found on 12 devices sold by Nokia every second though, eclipsing the 4 per second iPhone sales that Apple achieved in the last quarter of 2011.

"The next billion," McDowell told the BBC, "will not come from rural areas, but from big cities and the very young. It is a scale business with relatively low research and development cost; so even though the average unit price is low, it's profit is still good."

Read

Tags: Phones Nokia Symbian Nokia Asha 303

Nokia Series 40 passes 1.5 billion mark originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

Ofcom recently revised its plans for dealing with the 4G spectrum, announcing its aims to bring coverage to at least 98 per cent of the population.

At the moment though, there's just a handful of people in the country with access to the LTE fun; a 1,000 or so O2 users trialling a network in London and 180 customers living in and around St. Newlyn East in Cornwall on Orange or T-Mobile - or Everything Everywhere as they are collectively know.

The dual-network has just announced that it is extending its trial until June, in partnership with BT Wholesale, to enable the companies to carry on investigating the application of 4G LTE in rural areas. This is obviously crucial ahead of the big roll-out in the next couple of years.

For the trial, conducted over 10MHz of test 800MHz spectrum, one of the objectives is to prove that the low frequency spectrum (such as 800MHz) is up to the task. At the moment, it is proving more than adequate; with average download speeds around the 7Mbps mark.

Tamasin Battell a triallist said: "Before the 4G trial, my fianc? and I were using a dongle, and downloading anything was impossible it was so slow. Now, we can watch on demand television and stream music.

"Better still, my fianc?’s sister in Australia has met her four month old nephew for the first time over Skype. The extension of the trial is a godsend for me, as I really don’t want to go back to the digital dark age."

Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere, added: "The roll-out of 4G will help drive economic growth and create jobs across the UK by making the economy more competitive, by enabling businesses to be more productive, and by allowing consumers to benefit from the latest mobile innovations.

"This trial has been key in investigating ways to rapidly bring 4G LTE to Britain, and Ofcom is helping us do the groundwork to accelerate the UK from laggard to leader."

A final decision on the way Ofcom wants the 4G spectrum handled will be made in the summer. Don't get too excited though because we're not likely to have widespread availability in the UK until 2015.

According to an Ofcom report published in December, the roll-out of 4G mobile services won't even begin until 2013/14. The spectrum auction was supposed to happen this year but is apparently being held up by legal wrangling.

Let's hope it all gets sorted soon....

Tags: Phones 4G LTE Orange BT T-Mobile Mobile broadband

Everything Everywhere 4G trial summer loving originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:20:00 +0000

The Internet is awash with claims that O2 is sharing customers' mobile phone numbers with websites. Twitter users are posting that, after checking with a site that examines data sent from their phone to webservers, that their phone number is clearly visible.

Pocket-lint has checked, using a number of devices, and all are exhibiting the problem. An Android Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch and an iPhone 4S both send their phone numbers to any website that cares to capture information from the headers.

Headers are sent along with every web page request, which is perfectly normal and usually nothing to worry about. When you visit a site, it may query your browser to find out information that helps it better display web pages to you. This data usually includes the type of browser and often information about the language you're reading in, and the web site you were referred from. It is how, for example, sites redirect you to a mobile page instead of the full version.?

However, what O2 appears to be doing is taking your phone number from its system and attaching it to this header information. Quite why it's doing this, we don't know as yet. We can think of some reasons, like allowing O2 customers to check their account information without logging in. But to pass such details on to the Internet at large seems absurd.

From our tests, other operators do not do this. But be aware that the likes of GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile both use the O2 network, and may also provide this information. It seems that T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin Mobile, Three and Vodafone do not suffer from the same issue.

Further testing, based on a suggestion made on the?thinkbroadband.com story, shows that using the O2 proxy bypass account removes your phone number from the header information. The proxy is used by O2 to reduce the cost of transferring large amounts of data via 3G. It compresses images, so web pages load quickly and uses less of your data allowance.

If you want to remove your phone number, and switch to the O2 proxy bypass APN until the firm fixes this leak, you need to enter the following in to your APN settings:

APN: mobile.o2.co.uk
Username: bypass
Password: password

O2 has stated that it is currently investigating the problem and we await the company's official word.

UPDATE: It seems as if O2 may have fixed the issue. When we visit the test site on our devices now, the number has vanished. Do let us know, however, if you are still experiencing the former problem.

Read

Tags: Phones O2 Online

O2 accused of leaking phone numbers online - we show how to plug the hole originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:37:00 +0000

Apple has posted its fiscal 2012 first quarter results, including how many iPhones, iPads and Macs it sold in the 14 week period ending 31 December 2011, and Pocket-lint has worked out some rather interesting and staggering statistics.

As the company sold 37.04 million iPhones in that time, we have crunched some numbers and can reveal that, therefore, the Cupertino giant sold over four of the devices per second worldwide. That equates to over 262 iPhones (4S, 4 and older) sold per minute.

It also sold 15.43 million iPads; over 109 per minute globally, 1.8 per minute. And 5.2 million Macs were shifted; almost 37 per minute, 0.6 of them a second.

The company's profit of $13.06 billion over the period means it made $1,542.42 every second of the 14 weeks.?Crikey!

Tags: Apple Phones iPhone 4S iPad Tablets

Apple sells over 4 iPhones a second, 262 per minute originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:47:04 +0000

Apple, under the leadership of Tim Cook, has reported record sales for iPhones, iPads and Macs in its fiscal 2012 first quarter which spanned 14 weeks and ended 31 December 2011. These sales have helped the company earn a record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion, with a net profit of $13.06 billion - more than Google's entire revenue for the same period.

In the same period last year the Cupertino giant reported revenue of?$26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, so this year's results show that the company has more than doubled its profit year-on-year.

This is in no small part down to the late release of the update to the iPhone, the iPhone 4S. Usually expected to launch in June, Apple's latest handset was delayed and eventually hit the market in October 2011, therefore impacting the fiscal 2012 first quarter.

It has been announced that the manufacturer sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter (including former models), representing a?128 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter (naturally). The company also sold 15.43 million iPads (111 per cent growth year-on-year) and 5.2 million Macs (26 per cent growth). It also shifted 15.4 million iPods, although that represented a 21 per cent decline year-on-year.

CEO Tim Cook is, naturally, in a buoyant mood over the results, and promises more to come: "We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," he said.

"Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

Apple iTV anyone?

Tags: Apple Tablets Phones iPhone 4S iPad 2

Apple posts first quarter results: More than doubles profit year-on-year originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:07:45 +0000

BlackBerry is in trouble. The founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie announced they were stepping down from their CEO positions, being replaced by Thorsten Heins. Sure they might all have awesome names, but RIM's performance is far from awesome, at least when it comes to handsets.?

The company continues to release hardware that's good, but never great. The PlayBook for example, its first real attempt at doing something different since the original Storm, was beautiful to hold but lacked many of the features needed to compete with other tablets. BlackBerry OS 7 feels very much the same, as does all the hardware it is running on. Hopefully all this should change when BlackBerry 10 is demoed at Mobile World Congress.?

Until then we have handsets like the Bold 9790, which like nearly every other handset in RIM's current line-up, features a great battery, sturdy build and a lovely screen. So why have we given it such a modest score? Allow us to elaborate.?

Typing is as easy as QWERTY

The Bold features everything BlackBerry is known for. A small is screen, responsive full keyboard and trackpad sat between four menu buttons. This is classic RIM territory and it's what they do best. No one is going to argue that any other handset currently on the market can offer a typing experience like a keyboard-packing BlackBerry.?

This means from the outset, it is fun to use for prolific texters, emailers and BBM users. Just don't go broadcasting things to too many people, we might have a riot. The hardware is entirely geared towards messaging speed. Even the little silver lines that break up each row on the keyboard make it easier to bash out messages at super-speed. The nice big space bar also stops you accidentally hitting other keys and needing to go back and delete unwanted letters.?

Having a 1GHz processor inside and 768MB of RAM allows apps to switch properly and load text menus very quickly. This all contributes to the speed at which you can splurge out emails and the like to your friends and contacts.?

Hard hardware

The 9790 is built a bit like a tank. This is a phone designed to be sat at the bottom of a handbag or kept in your pocket along with a set of keys. It feels like it could take several accidental drops before giving up the ghost.?

Around the edges of the phone is a silver plastic wraparound. It feels much cheaper than BlackBerry's aluminium effort in the flagship Bold 9900 and we imagine will rapidly get scratched. The matte plastic back, with silver RIM logo, is slightly better, but why not opt for the carbon fibre style slab on the 9900??

On the front is BlackBerry's usual shiny black plastic, which has the screen rather nicely recessed into it. Sat on top is a rather strange lock key, which, whilst being a nice design touch, actually feels worse than a standard button.?

The 9790 is nicely pocketable at 110 x 60 x 11.4mm and the 2.45-inch screen isn't so small that reading websites becomes a chore.

The front of the phone has the usual multi colour notification LED as well as responsive trackpad and buttons. On the right side are the volume and mute keys as well as a customisable convenience key, that defaults to a camera button. A headset jack is on the left and charger on the bottom. It's all laid out rather logically, works well enough and didn't cause us any issues or confusion during our time with the phone.?

The battery is typical BlackBerry territory. We left the phone for two days without touching it, received plentiful emails through RIM's servers and all sorts of Facebook and Twitter fun. It made barely a dint in the amount of juice still available. This is definitely the strongest point of the 9790.?

The Last point that needs to be made about the 9790's hardware is the camera. It shoots 640 x 480 video and takes 5 megapixel stills. After months of using iPhones and Galaxy S IIs, it looks bad. The 8GB of internal memory however means you can snap away?until?the cows come home.

Put me on display

BlackBerry actually has some of the nicest screen tech currently available. Despite having phones with such small displays, everything since the PlayBook has impressed us with balanced colours and rather decent viewing angles.?

On the 9790 is a 2.45-inch screen that has a 480 x 360 resolution. This gives it a pixel density of 246ppi, which is very nice indeed for reading text and looking at the web. Like RIM's other "all-touch" phones, the 9790 has a touch sensitive screen. This is quite frankly pointless for anyone with hands bigger than an 8-year-old as nearly your entire finger will cover the display. Using the trackpad is just a better alternative although it feels counter-intuitive compared to every other smartphone we have used.?

What we don't understand is why RIM can't produce something with all of its QWERTY expertise and a big enough screen to be able to control BlackBerry OS with an implement bigger than a toothpick?

Oh OS

BlackBerry 7 OS just isn't good enough. It completely shines when it comes to things like email and Twitter. Thanks to a newly improved Facebook app, it also does very nicely there too. In fact nothing else handles push notifications like RIM and we have enjoyed every moment of managing our work emails on the 9790.?

What we haven't enjoyed, is doing just about anything else. YouTube is too small to make watching a video enjoyable. The BlackBerry App World is devoid of nearly anything we really fancied downloading and having to use a magnifying glass and trackpad to browse the Internet.?

And why does the font used in every option screen look like it has come out of WordPad? We know that its a business orientated phone, but do we really need to feel like we are flicking through pages of a boring trade magazine when using a piece of technology. It's all just slightly tired, not bad, just boring.

Verdict:

You might conclude that we don't like the 9790. But that's not it at all. In fact we are just more disappointed at the mistakes BlackBerry has made with it. Yet again we have a phone with a lovely screen, great battery life, and a superb keyboard. All in a package and small enough to fit easily in our pocket. But this is rendered pointless by a few odd design decisions and an operating system that really needs an update.?

The classic BlackBerry form factor just doesn't work anymore in the world of big screen smartphones. We need a way for the QWERTY expertise to be incorporated into something with a display larger than a matchbox.?

That aside, if you are part of the social hardcore who likes to be constantly emailing and chatting with friends. This is the best value communicator you could possibly pick up. It grants you access to RIM's speedy world of push email and BBM, whilst not being so budget that it will fall apart in your rucksack.?

BlackBerry is going to need to do something as significant as Nokia did with the Lumia 800 if it wants to see its decline reversed.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry BlackBerry Bold 9790

BlackBerry Bold 9790 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Has the bottom fallen out of the 3D smartphone boom? Supermarket Asda certainly thinks so (or perhaps it doesn't, see update at bottom) as it is offering one of last year's superphones, the HTC Evo 3D, for under ?250.

"It’s a blockbuster phone at an amazingly low price," said James McMurrough, Asda’s mobile phone expert. "We’re constantly amazed at the features that are being built into the latest phones - and it’s incredible to think that one of the latest Hollywood techniques is now available at such a low price."

We think that's a nice way of saying: "We don't think anyone really cares if their smartphone has 3D capabilities so we're going to have to smash the price if we're to shift all the units we've got out the back". Although this is our interpretation of course, Asda in no-way said this.

Luckily, the Evo 3D is more than just a one-trick pony though. This smartphone stallion can juggle multiple apps at once and it comes with a well-developed 2D camera and camcorder. It’s fast and simple to use, makes the most of the HTC Sense interface, and only rarely lets the awkwardness of Android show through. Forget the patchy 3D tech - even without it this impressive high-end Android phone is worth a second look.

The HTC Evo 3D uses parallax barrier 3D tech, so no glasses are needed. It boasts a 4.3-inch qHD display, packs a 1.2GHz dual core Qualcomm processor, 1GB RAM and 1GB of internal storage. It's got dual 5-megapixel cameras on the back for 3D shooting and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera.

It's ?249.99 at Asda and is available at that price now. It runs Android 2.3 now but Ice Cream Sandwich is on the way.

Update: The supermarket giant has contacted Pocket-lint to say that it would argue that, by reducing the price, it is bringing the 3D technology to a wider market which, it says,? would accelerate adoption.?

"The other important point is that Asda are offering the HTC at this price from the outset," said a spokesperson. "It's not reducing the price to clear stock (thought they clearly expect it to sell well)."

That told us then.

Tags: Phones HTC EVO 3D HTC Asda

HTC Evo 3D hits the bargain bucket at Asda originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:34:00 +0000

What are the best iPad news and weather apps? The tablet is just about the perfect form for consuming stories as most have a big enough screen for pictures and video to play nice with the rest of the text. But proper news wouldn't be right without the weather at the end. Hence why we have thrown the two in together here.

The included weather app with the iPhone doesn’t ship on the iPad, leaving a nasty gap where your weather prediction once was. So, don’t expect to be dodging any raining picnics should you be an iPad only kind of guy. Then again, you could always just download some of these brilliant weather apps to fix things.

BBC News app

The BBC's app is a must for news hounds and an essential for any iPhone. Everything is jolly clear and is categorised into UK news, world news, politics, business, technology and sport. You can also stream the BBC news channel, which includes any news clips which have been embedded within stories.?Once you're in a story you can scroll left to right and vice versa to navigate - all of it feeling pretty snappy. Whilst there's also the option to share content through Facebook and Twitter if you should so wish.?

Using the edit function you can customise content and the clever chaps have also integrated a way of enlarging text if you're struggling to read anything.?Altogether then, a decent all-rounder and for free it's definitely worth a go. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

?

Weather HD

There may be better apps out there in terms of weather forecasts. There are probably apps with a lot more detailed and accurate satellite imagery. But you can bet your bottom dollar that there aren't any weather apps that look as stunning as Weather HD.?After setting your location you can get weather forecasts in daily or three hourly intervals with the forecast displayed with a superb, crisp looking video. The best of which has to be this rain forecast - the video is so crystal clear and is shot in such a beautiful way that the grass and rain drops almost look 3D.

If the forecast is for night-time then the videos are all shot at night. There's also various different videos for each scenario, so you won't always see the same one for cloudy etc. The time is displayed as well, so if you set your iPad on a frame, and left it on when you had friends over, then you'd have the sexiest digital clock/barometer going.?It's a simple but very effective app that kind of shows off everything that is good about the iPad. It's web connected, it's real time, it's easy to use and it just looks so damn cool. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: 69p

Rating: 4/5

?

Newspapers

News addicts have been begging for something like this for quite some time. The application acts like an equivalent of iBooks for just about every newspaper in the world. You can dip into filtered content selections from broadsheets and tabloids and pick at the front page content or delve deeper into stories.

The brilliant thing is being able to follow different news around the globe and see how each country covers it differently. At ?1.49 it is an incredible resource, even going as far as including local news. If you can speak more than one language, then we don’t think Newspapers can be beaten.

iTunes: Link

Price: ?1.49

Rating: 4/5

?

The Weather Channel

What could be better than real life sunshine? Virtual sunshine of course, in all its animated glory. Enter the Weather Channel’s app, which grabs the crown for the most overboard meteorological coverage we have ever seen.

This is something you could evade hurricanes with, or charter a flight to Timbuktu. You get a world map full to the brim with data, animated vistas for every type of weather and even hourly lists of every minute change.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

?

AP News

Reading through Associated Press’s normal news feed, no matter how current, is not a particularly enjoyable experience online. The new wire’s website lacks a decent user interface, partly because those using it need only the info in the stories.

The AP News app on the iPad changes this, creating a rich experience that allows you to interact with all of the wire service’s global coverage. Video plays smoothly and the location based news is a nice twist. The sticky note style front page is also a good effort from AP and makes it easier to navigate the heaps of stories posted every minute.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

?

Flipboard

Flipboard is your personal magazine. Even the front cover is unique for you. Because, as well as gathering news from a number of prominent sources, it also scours your Facebook and Twitter data and presents that info as well.

And we're not talking about pages and pages of your friend's monotonous updates, we're talking about a personalised magazine where the pages are made up of articles, videos and pictures already fetched from you from any links that appear in your social media streams. Read more

iTunes: Link

Price:?Free

Rating: 4/5

?

Reuters News Pro

Like Associated Press, Reuters suffers from a fairly boring website but all is cured with its iPad app. Nothing is lost in terms of content quality when transferred from online to tablet, it is just a much nicer thing to browse. The app is also very responsive and speedy, which is what you want when looking through the kind of content Reuters sends out.

If you're a banker that likes to bank all day, then the Reuters app also has all sorts of stocks and markets tickers sitting on the home page. Photo fans also get a nicely updated stream of shots which come in from Reuter’s top snappers.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Apps Features Apple iPad

Best iPad news and weather apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The Lytro camera that allows you to focus well after the moment you press the shutter button on your digital camera might be one of the most exciting innovations to happen to the world of photography since the first digital camera in 1975, however, to say that it is going to be included in the next iPhone or iPhone after that is stuff of make believe and wishful thinking.

In an extract from an upcoming book by Fortune magazine's Adam Lashinsky, called Inside Apple, Lashinsky talks about how the CEO and inventor of Lytro met with Steve Jobs before his death to talk about the new technology:

"The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, 'if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.' Ng, who is 32, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple."

That has immediately got the Apple blogs excited and desperate to write headlines along the lines of "Next Apple iPhone to get Lytro tech".

We don't deny that Steve Jobs met with Ren Ng before his death last year, but having played with an early prototype of the Lytro camera in San Francisco in 2011, just after the camera's launch, it is fair to say that the technology is far from ready to make it into something as mainstream as the iPhone let alone any smartphone based on what we've seen.

One day, yes; within the next 3 years, highly unlikely. Why? Frankly there are just too many hurdles to make it a reality right now.

The first is the size of the sensor and the lens needed to take the photographs in the first place. The Lytro camera, a rather strange rectangular shape, is smaller than your traditional compact. However, it isn't as small as a phone and it requires a large sensor shape and deep lens to garner all that information on fields of light. The shape and size just isn't smartphone form factor friendly. That's not to say it isn't possible in the future but, if they were that close to creating something for a phone, then why make the Lytro camera such an unusual shape?

Then there is the resolution of the photos themselves. Snap a picture with the Lytro and you get a 1.2-megapixel (1,080 x 1,080) snap and that is far below the current offering phone users are used to. That's a big drop in the quality stakes and one that many would unlikely want to opt for.?The Lytro's pictures are fun but they certainly aren't up going to be up to scratch with the 8-megapixel offering in the current iPhone 4S.

Even after you've got over all the technical difficulties, there is the social issue. Currently you can only share and edit Lytro pictures with the company's own software and own editing app.

That means no uploading to Facebook, no uploading to Twitter, no uploading to anywhere unless you created the dedicated software to do it. Now that's not implausible, but can you really see that happening overnight with the support of companies like Instagram, Flickr, and others? Here at Pocket-lint we can't see it until Lytro starts to become a force in its own right and more people have had a chance to use the system and for it to prove its worth.

Finally there is Apple itself. One of the biggest reasons we don't believe Lytro will be on the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 for that matter is the simple fact that Apple does not embrace new technologies.

Don't get us wrong, the iPhone is an amazing piece of kit, however nothing in the iPhone is new bleeding edge technology. There are faster processors, better cameras, better screens, better almost everything available on the market elsewhere and that's because the iPhone isn't about specs. It's about experience and it is about letting people enjoy the current tech in a great way rather than becoming a guinea pig for new, unproven technology.

Sadly Lytro, while amazing, is too new, is too untested, and ultimately too much of a pipedream at the moment.

Sorry Apple fans, waiting for Lytro to make it to the iPhone any time soon would be like waiting for scientists to create the unicorn.

Tags: Phones iPhone 4S iPhone 5 Apple Lytro Comment Features

Lytro in the iPhone, not so fast originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Kids like to keep things safe. They like Doctor Who. They probably have an iPod touch or iPhone.

So what better way to celebrate all that than with the Doctor Who Tardis Safe that will only open with a dedicated app and the right passcode?

Yep, that's right, you need to have all three to get in to your new security locker, but rather than using the latest cutting edge technology like Bluetooth, Wireless or NFC, the app works by sending a receiver a series of lights as if it was Morse code once you've docked the phone.

That also means that you can work it with Android handsets as the company behind the new gadget told Pocket-lint that there is an Android app coming as well.

The lack of expensive technology means that the safe will cost just ?19.99 when it comes out in the UK in June.

Those not too fussed about Doctor Who will also be able to get an R2D2 safe as well, however it is considerably smaller. It too will be out in June.

Tags: Toys Dad ToyFair2012 Star Wars Doctor Who iPhone Phones Android

The Doctor Who Tardis safe that you unlock with your phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:46:00 +0000

The Nokia Lumia 710 is seems to be pitched as the poor man's Lumia 800, but can that be right?

We've been testing the two Windows Phone 7?powered Nokia phones together for the last two weeks to see how the 710 really lives up to the flagship Nokia smartphone, and whether you really are getting second best if you go for the Lumia 710.

Design

If you like the rounded edges of the Nokia Lumia 800, the one piece design, the overall "different" feel and approach to the Lumia 800 then although it hurts us to say this, but this isn't the phone for you. Get the Lumia 800 and be done with it. The 710 isn't in the same league when it comes to design. That's not to say it is an ugly phone, but it is more "traditional" in its approach.

Slightly bigger, although lighter than the 800, the 710 comes with the same size 3.7-inch screen that dominates the front of the smartphone.?Rather than touch-sensitive buttons, you now have one large physical button beneath the screen that is spilt into three buttons. The buttons are the standard Windows Phone offerings of back, home, and search.

The side features volume keys and a dedicated shutter button for the camera, while the top offers a power button, a micro USB socket - that isn't covered like it is on the Lumia 800 - and a headphone jack. The micro SIM slot can be found inside, something you can access along with the battery because the Lumia 710 has a removable back cover.

It's the removable back cover that will also appeal to those that like to customise the phone as, just like you did in the 90s, you can swap out the cover and change the colour of your phone on a daily basis, if that's your thing.

Our review unit came with black, however there are a range of other colours available and planned including magenta and cyan. We've also seen patterned designs as well.

The Lumia 710 is by no means striking, nor is it the worst phone we've ever seen. It's built well, is solid, and most importantly, comfortable to use.

Insides

Strangely, from a core spec point of view - the processor and memory - the Lumia 710 is identical to the only other Windows Phone available from?Nokia; the?Lumia 800. That means you get a 1.4Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM to power your Windows Phone 7 experience. In our tests and having used the Lumia 800 extensively for the last three months, this is more than enough to enjoy the operating system and all that you can throw at it.

Whether it is playing games, loading applications, or merely surfing the web (the browser is hardware optimised) there's a plenty of power to go around.?On the connectivity front you get Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

So where have the corners been cut? Well for starters you only get 8GB of storage rather than 16GB as found on the Lumia 800. Then there is the screen quality, LCD over AMOLED, and finally the 5-megapixel camera instead of the 8-megapixel model found on the Lumia 800.

All that gives sucks the standard days worth of battery on a single charge, while we had no complaints or out of the ordinary praise for call quality either. As a phone the Lumia 710 acts as you would expect.?

LCD vs AMOLED

The single biggest difference you'll spot instantly when looking at the Lumia 710 is that it uses an LCD screen rather than a AMOLED one. That takes away the stunning visual impact you get from the Lumia 800 and presents you with a screen that is rather flat in its colour. The viewing angle isn't as great and in both the white and black themes of WP7, unless you are looking at it straight-on, there is a tendency to believe that the screen colours are somewhat under-saturated. It certainly isn't as vibrant.

Again that's not to say the screen is bad, it's just not as good as other Windows Phone handsets like the Super LCD-touting HTC Radar. What is instantly noticeable, however, is that extra .2-inch over the iPhone 4 and 4S. It really does make the Apple smartphone screen look small.?

Camera time

The Lumia 710 might only have a 5-megapixel camera with single LED but we were very impressed with its performance. As long as you are able to hold the phone still at the moment you press the shutter, you'll get good results regardless of light available. Failing to do so results in softer images, but then that's normally the case with many smartphone cameras. Pictures are processed immediately with little or no lag.

The success of the camera is down to the f2.4 wide-angle (28mm) lens that gives you plenty of room to play with. There is a digital zoom, but we would advise against using it.

Sadly, unlike the HTC Windows Phone 7 smartphones you don't get additional features like panorama or the ability to apply effects, but you can get panoramic apps like Pano and PictureLabs that will fill those gaps.

You also get 720p HD video recording.

App time, or not?

It's fair to say that apps aren't the strongest part of the Windows Phone 7 platform at the moment. But don't panic, because not only are there plenty of apps coming, but interestingly WP7 isn't as app-focused as the iPhone or Android. There are plenty of features built into the phone's operating system that means you don't need thousands of apps to let you do anything.

Nokia understanding this give you Nokia Drive; a very good turn-by-turn satnav app that will easily get you from A to B, Nokia Music; A free music service that will have you listening to the latest songs in seconds, and Nokia Maps; which is really just a better version of the phone's Bing maps feature.

There is also the promise in the coming months of Nokia Transport; a public transport planning app, Nokia City Lens; an augmented reality app to tell you which direction restaurants are nearby, and Nokia Pulse; a BBM clone that needs a few more people to sign up to Nokia phones to get it really work.?

That's Nokia, but we also know that there are new apps coming from Skype, supposedly Instgram, and many others, meaning that it is a winning rather than losing battle.

But as we said there are many times that you won't need a flashy app. Windows Phone 7 has been designed around hubs and those hubs do a good job of covering your basic needs.?The People hub is exceptionally good for keeping track of everyone be it via your own contacts, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, while the office hub will sort out your document needs.

So who is the Lumia 710 for?

There are three Nokia Lumia models at the time of writing, and this is the model that will appeal to those looking for a cheap phone with low monthly costs.

What makes the Lumia 710 so appealing is that you get a phone that isn't sluggish, like the equivalent Android offerings. As well as one that comes with some great apps out of the box like satnav and music, without having to pay for extra apps. TomTom for iPhone is ?50, and while Drive isn't as featured, it will certainly do for most.?

That should mean that the 710 does well when it hits the shops in February, and one that might help Microsoft lure those BlackBerry users away from their BB Curve.?After all we suspect that they won't be able to afford an iPhone 4S and might struggle to understand or get frustrated by Android.

Verdict:

The Lumia 710 isn't as nice as the 800 but then we know that it isn't supposed to be. This is about making Windows Phone 7 affordable, and on that front the 710 is perfectly pitched.

With the Lumia 800 around the ?35 price point on contract, we suspect that you'll be able to get the Lumia 710 for around ?15 - ?20 a month with the handset "free". That's a good price in anyone's books.?

The Lumia 710 is perfect at showing that you don't need to have powerful expensive specs to still get a phone that is enjoyable to use day-in, day-out.?It might not be as durable as the metal clad HTC Radar, but you won't be disappointed.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 Microsoft

Nokia Lumia 710 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:43:00 +0000

HTC?is supposedly set to launch the HTC Primo, a Beats Audio version of the HTC Rhyme?at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona according to new information leaked out by an "anonymous tipster" on Monday. ?

The new phone, says the secret source talking to Stuff.tv, will run Google's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, offer a 3.7-inch screen, and be powered by a 1Ghz processor with 512MB of RAM which means that HTC is aiming for the mid-tier with this one rather than flagship model. A 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD recording completes the package.

Those specs make the Primo a more "manly" version of the HTC Rhyme launched last year. If true it would sport the same sized screen and processor of the Rhyme, although carry less RAM which is a strange move. The Rhyme also carries a 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording.

Like the HTC Sensation XE, the new phone supposedly comes with Beats Audio, as well as you might expect from HTC following the investment last year.

With Moblie World Congress?at the end of February and Pocket-lint coverage all the latest news from the show, we shouldn't have long to wait to find out whether or not Stuff.tv's "anonymous tipster" was on the money or not.

HTC has told Pocket-lint that it doesn't comment on rumour or speculation.

For those paying attention, yes the image above is of the back of the HTC Sensation XE and not of the new phone.?

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Rhyme HTC Primo MWC2012

Is the HTC Primo a Beats Audio HTC Rhyme? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:16:00 +0000

The Nokia Lumia 900 is to come to the UK according to?Carphone Warehouse?who has put up a "coming soon" page detailing the new phone announced at the beginning of the month at CES in Vegas.

The new Windows Phone 7 phone sports a 4.3-inch display, a front facing camera and a bigger battery than the Lumia 800 currently on sale in Britain.

Of course, those who have been paying attention will note that Nokia has yet to announce the launch of the?Nokia Lumia 900?outside of the US without LTE support as yet.

That suggests that the company was probably planning on doing so at Mobile World Congress at the end of February, although Carphone Warehouse might have forced the company to change those plans with the company already asking customers to pre-register.?

A quick call to "friends" within the industry seems to tally up this information, although none were happy to go on the record at this time.?

Nokia has declined to comment.?

In an interview with?Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop,?at the show, he told Pocket-lint that "although initial sales of the 900 will be through AT&T with a contract, there are there going to be successor devices, different shapes, sizes, different configurations, of course."

Putting two and two together it more than likely that Carphone Warehouse has just let the preverbial cat out of the bag. Oops.

?

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones Carphone Warehouse Nokia Windows Phone 7 Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia Lumia 900 UK release in June, says Carphone Warehouse originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:52:00 +0000

We knew that LG would be releasing a second version of their Optimus 3D handset, because LG's Dr Noh told us so in September of last year.?

Now images and details have found their way onto Pocketnow.com, following the appearance of the new LG X3 handset on the same site.

The LG Optimus 3D 2, codenamed the CX2, is indeed a slimmer device judging by the images - just as Dr Noh had teased. It is said to be under 10mm thick, which should make it all the more pocketable.

Internally it is reported to offer a 1.2GHz TI processor, which sticks to the same supplier as the original Optimus 3D. The screen sits at 4.3-inches, offering a resolution 800 x 480 pixels, but said to offer the Nova technology that the Optimus Black did. This is a super-bright 700nit display, which should help visibility in bright sunlight, as well as giving the 3D a boost.?

But this resolution of screen does set it behind most rumoured flagship rivals, so it's really the 3D side of things that makes the handset stand out. The cameras look to be staying at 5-megapixels each and it's said to be launching on Gingerbread, which will no doubt be a disappointment for Android fans.?

Some, of course, might question LG's approach. With Nvidia powering some devices, Texus Instruments in others and different quality and types of display, there doesn't seem to be much parity between the models. The Optimus 3D is something of a niche phone and nothing suggests the upgraded model will be any different.

Again, with Mobile World Congress a month away, we can expect to see all LG's phones confirmed soon enough. It looks like we now know about a replacement for the Optimus 3D and the Optimus 2X.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG LG Optimus 3D 2 Rumours MWC2012 LG Optimus 3D Max

LG Optimus 3D 2, a thinner 3D Android phone incoming originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:16:00 +0000

The next generation of LG Android smartphone, going under the codename of X3, has been revealed, suggesting a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset and high definition display will be amongst the new hardware from the Korean manufacturer.

The details say that you'll get a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display at 4.7-inches crammed into the chassis that will only be 9mm thick. This will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, no doubt with the familiar LG skin sitting over the top.

In terms of cameras you'll have a typical 8-megapixel unit on the back and a 1.3-megaxpixel sensor on the front, which is par for the course for most smartphones these days.

The timing of this leak - which is yet to be confirmed by LG - is convenient in the run-up to Mobile World Congress, scheduled for the end of February and will see most of the major manufacturers reveal their flagship phones for 2012.?

Given that the vast majority of the chatter has been around HTC and Samsung, we're fairly certain these details are believable. LG launched their Optimus 2X with Nvidia Tegra 2 well over a year ago, but we know that LG are hungry for greater impact in the mobile phone handset market.

The Optimus 2X didn't have the best start in life, suffering from software problems and never enjoying the success that the Samsung Galaxy SII did. With what look like headline specs - including NFC - LG will be hoping to get the X3 off to a better start. You never know, perhaps they'll call it the LG Optimus 4X, which would fit nicely with the display, chipset, Android version, potential for LTE...

We'll bring you all the news from Mobile World Congress 2012 where we suspect we'll see LG launch a number of handsets, including the X3.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG LG X3 Rumours MWC2012 Android

LG X3 leak suggests predictable Tegra 3 and HD display originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:55:39 +0000

This might not be the first leaked image that we've seen of the supposed Sony Xperia Kumquat (or the Sony Ericsson ST25i Kumquat as it is also being called) but it's definitely the clearest.

The last image of the not-yet-official Android handset was a tiny glimpse of it amongst a line-up of other Sony handsets, with no indication as to just how similar looking it was to the Sony Xperia S.

Packing the same brightly lit notification bar along the bottom than the handset Pocket-lint got hands-on with in Vegas at CES, the Kumquat is said to be a touch thinner than the Xperia S though and the icon sizes hint at a lower screen resolution.

We've heard that it will be packing a 3.5-inch display and we've now got a suggested resolution of 480x854 (FWGA) to go with that. We'd already heard word of the purported 1GHz NovaThor U8500 CPU and the 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording skills.

The phone pictured here features the Sony Ericsson logo but it's likely to lose that by the time it hits officialdom - probably next month at MWC - to be replaced simply with a Sony tag.

Recently, we told you about a list of 11 as-of-yet unconfirmed handsets that will be coming from the electronics giant before 2012 is up.

The list includes the Xperia Nypon and the Xperia Kumquat, which we've heard murmurs of before, as well as the Pepper, The Tapioca, the Tapioca DS, the Hayabusa, the Atlas, the Mint, the Affm, the Lotus and the Olive.

2012 looks like being a busy year for the now-flying-solo Sony mobile division.

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Tags: Phones Sony Sony Ericsson

Sony Xperia Kumquat leaked picture hits the web originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:18:00 +0000

The joint chief executive officers of Research in Motion, the manufacturer of the BlackBerry, have resigned from their roles with the company's former chief operating officer taking their place.

Company founder Mike Lazaridis will become vice chairman and Jim Balsillie will take a non-operational role on the board of directors, while Thorsten Heins becomes the new president and CEO. Board member?Barbara Stymiest is the new independent board chair.

The moves come as investors have been calling for a major strategy change after troubling recent times for the smartphone firm. It was publicly scapegoated in 2011 during the UK riots, with BlackBerry Messenger being (perhaps unfairly) named as a?major form of communication for rioters. It suffered a major service outage, which hugely damaged its reputation. The PlayBook didn't sell as well as RIM hoped. And share prices have been dropping rapidly, leading some to believe that the company was even going to be put up for sale.

There is currently no suggestion that either Balsillie or Lazaridis were asked to step down, with the latter releasing a statement that he felt it was time for fresh blood to lead the company he founded:

"There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognise the need to pass the baton to new leadership," he said.

"Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now. With BlackBerry 7 now out, PlayBook 2.0 shipping in February and BlackBerry 10 expected to ship later this year, the company is entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond."

New boss Heins is equally confident about the future of RIM:

"BlackBerry 7 has been well received. We are very excited about PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10. [And] the reception of our products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was encouraging," he said.

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Tags: BlackBerry RIM Phones

CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie step down from RIM jobs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:03:00 +0000

A white version of the Samsung Galaxy Note will be available in the UK on Monday 23 January. Initially, the white design will be exclusive to the John Lewis Oxford Street, London branch and the first 100 sold will also include ?250 worth of music, films and ebooks. Further retailers will stock it from February.

"At Samsung we always want to offer our customers choice and are delighted to bring the Galaxy Note in white to the UK," said Simon Stanford, managing director, Samsung UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division. "The Galaxy Note is an innovative addition to the Samsung Galaxy family and a new category of device that consumers can’t get anywhere else."

Like with the conventional "blue" edition (which looks more black, to be honest), the white Galaxy Note comes with a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen that has to be seen to be believed. Pocket-lint was in awe of its image performance when we reviewed the former model back at the start of November 2011.

Other stand-out features include the touch sensitive S Pen stylus, a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), 8-megapixel rear camera (2-megapixel front), and a?9.65mm thin waistline.

No prices have been quoted yet, but the normal "phablet" currently starts at around ?430 for the 16GB model SIM-free.

Tags: Samsung Phones Tablets Samsung Galaxy Note John Lewis

White Samsung Galaxy Note hits stores 23 January originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:12:00 +0000

"As I look forward, right now the conversation is about beginning of momentum. We have a range of devices, we've got some unique applications, the developers are moving in our direction, we are seeing this accelerating momentum, and that is all good."

Those are the calm words of Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, to Pocket-lint at this year's CES in Las Vegas when we convinced him to squeeze a 30-minute interview into in his ludicrously busy schedule.

This time last year most pundits had written off Nokia. While hugely successful in the emerging markets, there was trouble at the top. The company's flagship phones weren't selling, stock was down, and Stephen Elop, the new CEO installed in September 2010, was probably wondering why he'd left Microsoft?at all.

Then came the, now famous, leaked "burning platform" memo that highlighted just how dire those straights were that the once great phone maker was in, and, if they didn't do something about it, that the company would be in some serious trouble indeed.?Elop had been parachuted in to save Nokia, to turn it around, to bring it kicking and screaming into the new era - the new ear that now sees fierce competition from Apple, Samsung and HTC.

Nokia's old sparing partners are all but dried up. Sony Ericsson has become just Sony, Motorola has been bought by Google and Palm has finally been closed. Not that that phases Elop.

"A year from now, I want the story to be a bit more about, OK, this third eco-system, it's in play, this is happening. There will be a big raging debate about it, but having a more balanced perspective that there is a third contender that clearly is in the game."

That's possible, Elop believes, because of the devices they are producing and releasing, and the products he knows they've got coming up. That and some help from a certain mobile OS with a certain large player in the tech world behind it.

Stephen Elop presents his vision at the Qualcomm keynote at CES

"Right now my senses tell me that people look at the devices and look at the ecosystem and say 'OK we see it, we understand it, we can now visualise what it means and we're impressed.' I am hearing that a lot, and I am pleased with that. We now need to go to the next step which is 'OK, we are seeing it built, seeing the growth in it,' and that's what we should be talking about a year from now. And of course I hope to be talking about the next wave of this, and the new products for that, and new services, so innovation constantly, we'll be talking about a year from now."

The products that will allow him to do that are the Nokia Lumia 800, already on sale in the UK, the Nokia Lumia 710, on sale in the US and due in the UK at the start of February, and the Nokia Nokia Lumia 900?announced at the show and set for launch in the US in March.

"We have not announced the 900 in other countries. One of the things you should notice though is that we clearly have a pattern of this rolling thunder of announcements one after another and what we are doing more and more is making sure that we are targeting specific devices and specific price points for specific markets."

This laser focus is something it seems Nokia followers should expect more of.

"For example," Elop tells us as the crash of a waiter emptying a large ice bucket in the hospitality suite next door breaks the conversation. Oddly?embarrassed?by the?interruption, as if it is his fault, he apologises and carries on. "In the US, one of the things that was actually one of the most important things we did with the?Lumia 900?was LTE support. LTE support costs. It costs in terms money for the radio, extra battery life requirement and so forth. LTE in Europe is not so important. It will be, but not today. We haven't announced anything specific, but clearly there is going to be a steady pattern of new devices and a full portfolio of capabilities in Europe and around the world. There is lots more to watch."

But it isn't just about launching new products and hoping that is enough. Elop believes, for Nokia to be successful, it will have to prove that it is very different from what is already on the market.

"Our first priority, always, always, is to differentiate our experience from Android and iPhone. That is job one, two and three quite frankly."

But what about Samsung, HTC, LG and others that also make phones? While the rumours continue that Elop is a mole for Microsoft and that the company is about to be bought by the creator of Windows Phone 7, in reality, for the time being, those remain just rumours and, with such strong guidelines, how can Nokia stand apart from the other companies that also use Windows Phone 7?

Nokia Drive, exclusive to Nokia Lumia phones is leading the app charge for the company

Elop believes services like the Nokia Drive app is a great start allowing them to stand apart from what is offered elsewhere in the market and the WP7 ecosystem.?

"With a Lumia you have access to the Nokia Drive application for free as part of the device. Whereas others have mapping and some other things, that full personal navigation device experience is something that is unique in our platform."

You'll note that Nokia Drive is an app, not an embedded feature and that's important to Elop, clearly worried that by tinkering too much with the OS will cause fragmentation. He believes he has it covered.

"I pick that example because it is one where there is a common platform for mapping on a Windows Phone device that everyone shares and we are actually contributing to that for everybody, but we still have the ability to build more on top. We want to be very careful that we don't do something that makes an application that someone else has built work on our devices but not on others."

Elop adds:

"We don't want that fragmentation introduced into Windows Phone because we are beginning to see how in a certain other ecosystem that fragmentation becomes a problem," Elop says knowing that we know exactly who he is taking about.

Of course it's not all just about apps, Nokia has said that it believes design will also help them stand out from the crowd - it is the first to launch a bright cyan and pink phone in the UK in a long time, although it's not a move it's opted for in the US with the launch of the Lumia 900.

"We work with our operator partner, in this case AT&T, and jointly there is an assessment done as to which colours will move initially and which ones won't," Elop says after a chuckle when caught off guard by our slightly fatuous question of why no Magenta (pink) Lumia 900 in the US.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we saw other colours at other times."

Elop turns his 900, cyan in case you're wondering, over and over in his palm between waving it around like a proud school kid. You like the cyan we ask?

"I do, actually. I like all the colours. One of the advantages of testing devices is that I get to see these crazy colours that the market hasn't seen yet, which is fun."

Stephen Elop carries three phones with him; the Lumia 900, the Lumia 800, and a competitor's device

It's the last he says on the colours, but it bodes well, especially if you are looking for something a little more exciting than black or white, the industry favourites.

But Elop also likes the black Nokia Lumia 800?as well - he carries both - and a third competitor handset so he can "learn". He might be the CEO of Nokia, but that doesn't mean he wants to isolate himself too much, it seems.?It's also a handy way for him to fend off our next question. Will those that bought the Lumia 800 feel cheated that the 900, a better spec'ed model, is about to come out less than 6 months later?

"No," is the quick response before Elop adds, "I will absolutely continue to carry an 800 because it is a beautiful device and I like the form factor and the size. The 800 is going to continue to sell in markets around the world for a great deal of time to come, so I think people should be very proud of the device they have because in itself it is a unique experience."

Consider yourself told.

Those perhaps more fickle will likely be excited by the news that, although initial sales of the 900 will be through AT&T with a contract, there "are there going to be successor devices, different shapes, sizes, different configurations, of course."

That, to us, reading between the lines, suggests that we will be seeing a 900 variant for other parts of the world in due course. The Americans don't get to have all the fun, just like the Brits didn't with the 800.

"As much as I don't like a customer saying 'hey I want that phone that's over there' I kind of like the fact that it was just a few weeks ago that people in the United States were writing me emails saying 'Why can't I get the 800 in the US?' Well, now you've got the 900, and people in the UK are going to ask 'Why can't I get the 900?' so a bit of excitement helps as well.

"The message we are trying to deliver is: 710, 800, 900, and there is going to be more."

The conversation moves on from phones to apps and the one sticking point opponents always bring up when compared to Apple and Android. The lack of them.?There might be 50,000 and counting but the operating system is still missing plenty of big names, like Skype.

Skype for WP7 was announced at Mix'11 but as yet to land on the OS - Image credit Long Zheng

Rumours are abound that we shouldn't have to wait long (our guess is MWC at the end of February) and it's something that doesn't seem to worry Elop either.

"I worry a bit less about that one, because I can imagine that the work is going to get done," Elop tells Pocket-lint as he fixes his stare on the Microsoft logo, but he doesn't slip off the hook so easily when we ask him to detail the app he most enjoys, and the app that he most wants.

"It's not an app but something that I love about Windows Phone. I am trying not to make this the sales pitch, but it is a sales pitch. It's the fact that I can hit 'Me' and all of my kids Facebook information, all the Twitter feeds, good, bad, different, whatever they are, it's all there. Similarly around People hub, 'hey Susan, let's have dinner, look at Susan, boom I've got it' and there, I'm not using an app, I'm not using Twitter, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and email, or SMS, but it is all packaged for me. I truly do enjoy that integrated experience.

"Only occasionally do I go as far going into the Facebook app or the Twitter app, because generally I don't need to. Now, in terms of apps that I enjoy, I am enjoying the new ESPN app, I am following my favourite sports teams to see what they are doing. I am all over the world in crazy time zones, so to be able to get access to that video feed or whatever is really good."

And the app that he most wants?

"This is a personal answer. I am a pilot, there are certain applications that have been popularised on the Apple platforms for pilots, both on the iPad and the iPhone that have really affected how people fly airplanes. Those apps aren't yet available on Windows Phone but, you know, I have a personal interest. We'll see how we do."

But Elop acknowledges that app choices aren't always easy to please.

"Who else in this room wants the pilot app? No one. Who else within the radius of our meeting room wants the pilot app? Probably no one. It's one of the long tail apps. Clearly we've got a huge focus on the ones that count for the majority of the interest and downloads and so forth. That's a place where both Nokia and Microsoft together, and in a co-ordinated way, are going after the applications to come to Windows Phone."

There is no doubting that Elop is a charismatic guy. Not as outwardly exacting as Jobs, nor openly as excitable as Ballmer, but still holds a presence in the room and one that you can see rubs off on to all those that he talks to, but charm only gets you so far. The cold reality of sales is what a CEO gets judged for at the end of the day. So, how well Nokia is actually doing at shifting the Lumia 800? As we suspected, we don't get the figures; just the vibes, and a little ducking of the question.

Ms Kao Nai Xiang in Taiwan becomes the first person in the world to buy the Nokia Lumia 710

"The first thing we look at, because this is more important than anything else, is how are the products being received by consumers? When they put them in their hand, when they begin to use them, how are they rating the experience; because, if we don't have the product right, then everything else is more difficult.

"We are very pleased with the reception we are seeing broadly. We look at something in particular called the net promoter score (NPS), which is essentially a person's willingness to recommend a Lumia product to a friend. It sounds like a very simple question, but actually many companies use it in a very scientific way. Because instead of asking do you like the colour, do you like the buttons, do you like the applications, would you recommend it to a friend, it tends to be an overarching measure of the quality of the experience and we have some good NPS scores that we are seeing from our early consumers."

Elop might not be talking sales figures or shipments, but he is on a roll detailing how all these factors have shown the problems ahead and how they can resolve that.

"Our primary challenge is to make sure that a consumer is aware of the products, understands how the user experience with the Live Tiles works and everything that makes Windows Phone what it is. We have to help them understand that and we have to get the devices in their hands. Everything we are doing is focused on reducing the friction in that process.

"The point is, we are educating consumers about the tiles, about that experience, because what is out there in the industry today, people are most familiar with, is a grid of applications and icons that don't do anything. They aren't used to things that are scrolling, that are alive, that are presenting information. So as we introduce them to that, we are confident then that we will see some good momentum. But it is still very early days."

If it sounds tough, that's because it is going to be. Samsung and Apple are both enjoying the same momentum, and, for Nokia to crack that, it's not going to be an easy journey. Will there be a tipping point in Nokia and Microsoft's favour? Will the company ever be able to rest once more at the top of the mobile tree? Elop isn't so sure.

"I don't think that day ever comes," he replies in a firm reminder.

"The minute we believe that we don't need to do that, I think that history would show that that's the minute that you then fail. I think that it is going to be constantly very aggressive in terms of marketing and positioning. Most importantly, very aggressive in the brilliance of the products we deliver, in the innovation. Already there is a tonne of work going on in Nokia to take everything we do several big steps further and we will keep doing that."

Tags: Phones Nokia Stephen Elop CES2012 Windows Phone 7 Microsoft Features Interviews Nokia Lumia 800 Nokia Lumia 900 Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, talks the competition and the future originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:57:00 +0000

CES wouldn't be CES if there weren’t companies out there breaking records. If corporations weren't lauching the biggest, fastest, thinnest or simply the first, then they wouldn't be happy. As it goes, neither would we.

With all the claims and counter claims as press conference follows press conference, it can be rather tricky to work out just who managed to crack and hold onto each accolade as the feats of engineering roll in. So, with our eagle eye, we've looked back down at all of our 214 individual pieces of coverage on the event and, now that the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Centre have finally shut and the counters and recounters have been satisfied, here are the the CES 2012 record breakers according to Pocket-lint.

Laptops

The whole show in Vegas 2012 felt like it was dedicated to laptops this year with every man, woman and dog digging up an Ultrabook to hold aloft to the crowd and swear an oath upon. If you want to take a look at them all, then check out our dedicated Ultrabooks of CES page, otherwise, read on for the ones that count.

THINNEST ULTRABOOK IN THE WORLD - Acer Aspire S5

Technically speaking, the Acer Aspire S5 was and still is the thinnest Ultrabook in the world but that's only because Samsung has refused to class the razor thin Samsung Series 9 laptop as an Ultrabook at all. Other than the S5's extremely slimline 15mm profile, there's the usual SSD storage, Intel Core processor and a choice between HDD and SSD in case you fancy defeating the whole purpose of having an Ultrabook. Read more

FIRST ULTRABOOK WITH THUNDERBOLT - Acer Aspire S5

Ok, perhaps not of such major importance and, again, it's only a record by virtue of the fact that Apple has decided not to bother with the Ultrabook title for the MacBook Air. All the same, the Acer Aspire S5 is the first Ultrabook to come with the high speed I/O port that is Intel's Thunderbolt technology. At up to 10Gbps transfer speeds with entire Blu-rays able to shift from A to B in under 30 seconds, it's a rather useful tool to have. Now all you need is something that's compatible at the other end.

THINNEST LAPTOP IN THE WORLD - Samsung Series 9

It might not be an Ultrabook but it's certainly a laptop and a bloody thin one at that. At just 12.9mm thick and with only 1.16kg in ballast to worry about, it's a waif of a machine. Throw in all the RAM, CPU and SSD mod-cons plus a 9.8 seconds boot up time (1.4 seconds from sleep) and a?HD+ SuperBright Plus screen with 160-degree viewing angle, and it just about manages to make laptops sexy again. Read more

TVs

You can normally bet your house on seeing either the biggest TV in the world at CES or the thinnest or, more usually, both. CES 2012 saw neither. So, what records did the AV world set in Vegas this time around?

BIGGEST OLED TV IN THE WORLD - LG 55EM9600?& Samsung OLED

OLED TVs have been around for a while now but commercial availability has been a tricky thing to find. All the same, both LG and Samsung look to have cracked it this year with the arrival of equally world record breaking 55-inch sets that should be up for sale by the end of the December 2012. Naturally, with pictures stunning and panels super thin, you can expect to pay an arm and a leg for them when they do turn up. LG hands-on | Samsung hands-on

BIGGEST ULTRA DEFINITION TV IN THE WORLD - 84-inch LG UDTV

Ultra Definition is the name that looks like will stick when it comes to selling the public the next generation in screen resolution. UDTVs are what's known as 4K2K (3840 x 2160px) and what's rather special about this one is that it works as one of LG's Cinema 3D systems too. In other words, it supports passive 3D with half the resolution coming to each eye. In effect, you end up with full 1080p 3D visuals without having to go with the bother and expense of alternate shutter glasses. Read more

FIRST TRANSPARENT TV - Samsung Smart Window

Imagine a world of see-through monitors, windows that are interactive and car windscreens that relay all the information on the screen rather than the dashboard beneath it.?Now imagine that, rather than the stuff of science fiction movies and pipe dreams, the technology that will allow this to become a possibility is going into production in just 20 days. Sure there are military and industrial versions of this kind of thing but this is the first time we've been inches away from the home of next Tuesday.?Read more

Printers

Hold your horses. Don't you dare skip this section. Yes, printers are the third most dull category of gadgets after fax machines and, worst of all, scanners but we wouldn't be writing a section of world record breaking printers if there wasn't something pretty sexy to say about them, right? Right.

FIRST HOME 3D PRINTER - Cubify

3D printing has been quietly around in the industrial sense for a while but now the ability to turn 3D computer designs into actual models by laying down layer upon layer of printed substrate will become a reality in the home as well. 3D Systems will be selling the Cubify 3D printer for $1,300 by the end of Q1 2012. Pretty soon you'll be able to scan in your own designs too. Read more

Tablets

We didn't see the crazy rush of tablets that we saw at CES 2011 just after Android Honeycomb came out but that doesn't mean that there were no significant moves in this space. When there's tablets involved, there's always records to be set.

FIRST TABLET WITH BUILT-IN JOYSTICKS - Razer Project Fiona

Project Fiona is a PC gaming tablet which is set to make up for all that's bad about flick 'n swipe. It's a?hybrid PC/tablet but with all the meaty titles thanks to the?Intel Core i7 inside. There's a full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch, a?3-axis gyro, a magnetometer, an accelerometer,?Dolby 7.1 surround sound,?Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 but, most importantly of all,?physical control options with integrated dual game controllers and ultra-precise analogue sticks. Read more

Phones

It's normally Mobile World Congress in February where most of the big phones news arrives but there's always one or two manufacturers that simply can't help gushing the goods a month earlier in Vegas. 2012 happened to see quite a few record breakers here too.

FIRST QUAD-CORE PHONE - Fujitsu Tegra 3 phone

With no official name yet, that didn't stop Fujitsu giving the world a taste of the first Nvidia Tegra 3 handset to arrive on the market. Details are light at the moment. We know it's an Android handset running 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, we know it's made by Fujitsu, we know it's got an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and that's about it. Follow the link for some nice shots of it running RipTide GP. Read more

THINNEST PHONE IN THE WORLD - Huawei Ascend P1 S

For a while, it looked as if Fujitsu had grabbed itself another gong by claiming the prize of the thinnest smartphone in the word with the ES IS12F at just 6.7mm, but the rug was pulled from under it with the arrival of the 6.68mm thick Huawei Ascend P1 S. It runs Android ICS, comes with?Dolby Mobile 3.0 a, 4.3-inch display with a 960x540 resolution, a 1800mAh battery and all sorts of other top line specs. Read more

HIGHEST RESOLUTION CAMERAPHONE IN THE WORLD - HTC Titan II

We'll forego the discussions of how much it actually matters for the moment. The fact remains that a 16-megapixel sensor represents the most pixel-packed there's even been on a smartphone before. Eight has pretty much become the standard on a top notch device but the Windows Phone 7 operating HTC Titan II has blown those out of the water. With a 4.7-inch screen,?1730mAh battery and 4G connectivity, that's not all that's impressive about it either. Read more

FIRST SMARTPHONE WITH OPTICAL ZOOM - Polaroid SC1630

Camera with a phone? Phone with a camera? It doesn't really matter. The fact remains that you can make calls, send texts, browse the web and play games on the Polaroid SC1630. It also happens to house enough space and photographic credentials for a?3x optical zoom lens offering a range of 36-108mm (in 35mm terms). There's also a 16-megapixel CCD sensor doing the work which equals that of the Titan II. Read more

Camcorders

Canon, Sony and Panasonic were probably the three who made the most noise in the camcorder space with their handycams all seeming to pack either Wi-Fi, 3D or both at CES 2012. However, it was someone else who led the pace in Vegas and will forever go down in the record books.

WORLD'S FIRST 4K CAMCORDER - JVC?GY-HMQ10

JVC has been working on a low-cost 4K resolution camera since 2007, and it seems to have finally managed to make it a reality.?The ?3,300 camera boasts an 8.3-megapixel sensor that produces video with a resolution of 3840x2160. That's very slightly less than a full-blown 4K digital cinema camera will shoot but it's over the resolution you'd end up seeing projected, digitally, at your local cinema.?The camera has a non-removable f/2.8 lens, which includes a 10x optical zoom, and you record onto SD card at a rate of 144Mbps. Read more

Gaming

CES isn't E3 but there were still a couple of interesting amusing developments in the gaming world at Vegas in 2012. So were any of them record breaking? Oh yes.

FIRST U.S. ARMY ENDORSED GAMING KIT - From CTA

Quite what the army get out of it is one thing (more recruits, a load of cash?), the point is that you can now strut about your living room putting your foes down the way Uncle Sam intended. The top of the tree has to be the Move-compatible assault rifle but there's also a backpack, on-ear headphones and even a headset with a throat mic to enjoy as well. Read more

MOST STORAGE ON A CHAIR EVER - X Rocker Pocket Chair

Ok, this one's a total guess but we were seriously impressed with the amount of gaming kit you could tuck into this $100 piece of furniture. It's more of a beanbag shaped like an armchair than anything but what's great is you can fit about the same amount of games boxes, discs, gamepads, guitar controllers, drumsticks, drinks and just about anything you could think of into the pockets, zips, holders and compartments on the sides as you can in an entire bookshelf and cupboards. Read more

Tags: Audio Phones Laptops CES2012 Features Tablets Cameras Camcorders Televisions Printers

CES 2012 record breakers originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:45:07 +0000

If you're still using an old iPhone, or an old iPod touch, and you're jealous of all your fanboy friends revelling in the iOS 5 goodies then help could be at hand.

The Whited00r 5.1 mod apparently plays nicely with all generations of the iPod touch and is compatible with any iPhone from the 3G onwards.

Whited00r is customised version of the real deal and brings multitasking, reminders, an iCloud like feature (powered by Dropbox), home-screen folders, Newsstand and custom home-screen backgrounds to ancient iDevices.

You'll no longer have access to the App Store and there's no Notification Center on board, but beggars can't be choosers after all.

According to its makers, Whited00r is the biggest community about iOS modding and firmware cooking in the world and it has a pledge not to use cracked software.

"Installing Whited00r you will get a fully optimised device, just in a few minutes, with a simple restore of your iPhone or iPod Touch," it says. "Your device will be fast and productive again. Whited00r is the best solution for your Apple device, both for power and inexperienced users."

As always with modding, air some caution as you're taking matters out of official hands. You can download Whited00r 5.1 now.

Read

Tags: Phones Software iOS 5 Jailbreak iPhone iPod Touch

iOS 5 on your old iPhone or iPod touch...kind of originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company's own phones.

"You'll starting seeing the word 'Nokia' on a map that you get from Microsoft properties over a period of time," Elop explained to Pocket-lint in an interview behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. "Even if you are on a BlackBerry device, who recently said they were going to start using Bing Maps."

The news will probably come as a shock to companies involved with Bing, such as Research In Motion who makes the popular BlackBerry smartphones.

"Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth," said Elop.

"In the time ahead, what you will see is, across all the Microsoft properties including Bing maps, more and more work will be done by Nokia."

Elop also told Pocket-lint that Nokia's deal to help Microsoft improve its navigation services is a way to protect the Finnish company and make sure the agreement wasn't as one sided as perhaps people currently perceive:

"We did that for important reasons as we had the better mapping assets so it made sense. But it also creates some balance in the relationship with Microsoft," he said.

-?Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, talks the competition and the future

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Bing Microsoft BlackBerry RIM CES2012

Bing Maps to get Nokia branding on all devices - including rivals' originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:49:00 +0000

Stephen Elop has told Pocket-lint that he thinks Google's Android operating system is too fragmented, a pitfall he wants to avoid with Windows Phone 7 and Nokia in the future.

Talking to Pocket-lint at CES in Las Vegas, the Nokia CEO said:

"We don't want fragmentation being introduced into Windows Phone because we are beginning to see how in a certain other eco-system that fragmentation becomes a problem."

Elop promised that although the company was looking to add exclusive features to its Lumia series of Windows Phone 7 devices, it would always make sure the shared apps still worked. The CEO, who famously wrote a memo describing Nokia as standing on a "Burning Platform", went on to tell us that the company's number one, two and three priorities at the moment are to differentiate itself from Android and iPhone.

"Our first priority, always, always, is to differentiate our experience from Android and iPhone. That is job one, two and three quite frankly," he said in the 30-minute interview.

How does Nokia plan to do that??"Our primary challenge is to make sure that a consumer is aware of the products, understands the user experience with the Live Tiles and everything that makes Windows Phone what it is," Elop said.

"We have to help them understand that and we have to get the devices in their hands. Everything we are doing is focused on reducing the friction in that process. The point is, we are educating consumers about the tiles, about that experience; because what is out there in the industry today, people are most familiar with a grid of applications icons that don't do anything. They aren't used to things that are scrolling, that are alive, that are presenting information. So as we introduce them to that we are confident that we will see some good momentum."

You can catch the full interview with the?Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop,as he talks the competition and the future.

.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Google Apple Android CES2012 Stephen Elop

Nokia CEO: Android is too fragmented originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:30:00 +0000

As promised in December Nokia has started the rollout of its second update for the Lumia 800, which amongst other things fixes issues with the phone's battery, and should hopefully reach handsets across the world in the next 2 weeks.

This comes after Nokia responded to complaints regarding the battery life of Lumia 800 handsets in December 2011, admitting there were problems despite the first update just weeks before. Promising a fix in the early part of 2012, the company has stuck to its word.

The issue itself related to users being unable to access the full battery capacity of their Lumia 800, meaning it would never reach full charge capacity and rendering the handset brick-like within a few hours.

The update version is number 1600.2483.8106.11500, although admittedly a bit of a mouthful, along with the battery fix it brings with it the benefit of improved Wi-Fi. The Nokia conversations blog states that:

"The update will not be delivered to every Lumia 800 simultaneously, but rather will be staggered over the next two weeks through Microsoft’s standard update process. This helps each owner get the update without any hitches. Around half of owners will get the update in the next seven days, with the remainder over the following seven days."

Users are already reporting updates coming to their phones and it also looks like unlocked handset are having some joy. Smooth updates and fixes such as this will do no harm to Nokia's image and with the Lumia 900 ready to hit shops in the coming months the Finnish phone giant's fortunes could be on the up.

Read

Tags: Nokia Phones Nokia Lumia 800 Updates

Nokia Lumia 800 second update rolls out: Battery improvements incoming originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:56:41 +0000

ZTE has announced the Tania, its first Windows Phone 7 powered handset. The manufacturer is known for its value for money Android phones and the Tania is the beginning of attempts at cheap WP7 offerings.?

Inside the Tania is a Qualcomm MSM 8255 1GHz Snapdragon processor, alongside 4GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM, all of which, from what we played with, makes for quite a snappy Windows Phone experience. The benefits of using Microsoft's operating system over Android on less powerful hardware become immediately apparent, as the whole setup feels slicker than the usual ZTE experience.

Build-wise, sat on the back of the Tania is a matte plastic cover, which feels good in the hand, as does the phone's weight which gives it a good stirdy quality. The handset is also nice and thin at 10.7mm deep, which whilst not being quite Samsung Galaxy S II territory, is enough for it to be extremely pocketable.?

Also slapped on the back of the Tania is a 5-megapixel camera. This is where the value approach to things becomes more apparent, as it doesn't cope quite as well with low light as some of the top end smartphones. The resolution is also slightly lacking. Without a proper play however we can't say too much more on the Tania's camera.?

The Tania's display is a particular highlight. The more we see WP7, the more we like it. Sure the Nokia Lumia 800 spoilt us with its rich blacks and excellent contrast, but the Tania is not far behind. At 4.3-inches there is plenty of size to get stuck into and the 800 x 480-pixel resolution is a nice touch too. The ambient light sensor sat on the front of the phone behaved as it should, which is nice as often on cheaper phones the screen can go all sorts of crazy under different lighting conditions.

The touch sensitive buttons below the display reacted nicely to our?incessant?tapping, as did all the physical keys sat on the side of the phone. In fact the whole design of the Tania is pleasing and doesn't really give away much to say that the phone is a budget offering.?

A single Micro-USB slot sits on the side of the phone, with the 3.5mm headphone jack placed on the top. It stops clutter and helps prevent confusion as to which button you are pressing on either side.?

Not much else we can say about the ZTE Tania other than that its nice to see a cheap Windows Phone 7 handset done so well. We think the OS is primed and ready to take on the budget Android market and phones like the Tania mean it deserves to do well.?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones ZTE ZTE Tania Photos Windows Phones 7 Microsoft

ZTE Tania pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:50:00 +0000

ZTE is launching its ZTE Tania Windows Phone 7 handset in the UK, looking to appeal to those who want to go Windows Phone without spending a packet.

The ZTE Tania was announced in China back in September 2011, but now joins the likes of Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG and possibly Acer, in offering a Windows Phone in the UK.?

The Tania offers a respectable 4.3-inch touchscreen with the standard 800 x 480-pixel resolution. But it comes in a slim body, only 10.7mm thick. There is a 1GHz processor sitting at the core and we'd expect an experience like most other Windows Phones.

It only offers 4GB of internal storage however, an as Windows Phone 7 won't let you expand this via external card like you can on Android, that's your lot, as they say.

Otherwise you'll find the ZTE Tania equipped with the latest version of Windows Phone 7, offering a refreshing smartphone experience and gaining popularity for it's clean and simple lines.?

The ZTE Tania will be available on contract at between ?10-20 we’re told, with Virgin Media and Go Mobile listed as retailers, along with a third unnamed "specialist" party.

Leila Martine, director of Windows Phone UK, said: "Having ZTE join the Windows Phone family is great news. Their expertise will be crucial in delivering Windows Phone to new and different customers. We look forward to continuing and developing our relationship with ZTE in the future".

ZTE should have more handsets to peek at during MWC next month, no specifics yet but we imagine another WP7 is on the cards. You can follow all the MWC 2012 action on our dedicated page.

Check-out our hands-on ZTE Tania preview right here.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones ZTE ZTE Tania Windows Phone 7 Microsoft

ZTE Tania brings budget Windows Phone 7 to UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:48:00 +0000

Online phone retailer Clove has detailed the pre-order plans for the white Motorola RAZR. It will be selling the pasty handset for ?430.80, contract free, from next month but you can put your order in now. You'll get a pair of folding speakers, worth ?20, thrown in as well.

Prior to CES and the efforts of Huawei and Fujitsu, the RAZR was said to be the "world's thinnest smartphone". It boasts gorilla glass and it is the first smartphone from the company to feature Motorola splash-guard; a nanotechnology coating in order to protect it from water spills and the like.

It runs Android 2.3.5 and is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. There's an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, with 1080p HD video recording skills, and a front-facing HD webcam for video conferencing. The display is a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD touchscreen one.

The white version isn't all-white, it just has a white trim around the usual greyish features.

As well as the RAZR, Clove has also priced up the Motorola Motoluxe and the Motorola Defy Mini. Both handsets are said to be hitting the store in late February / early March priced at ?258 and ?174.99 respectively.

Tags: Phones Motorola Razr Motorola Clove

Clove's Motorola RAZR pre-order is all white originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:24:15 +0000

If you thought that the Sony Xperia S and the Xperia Ion were going to be the only monster phones released this year from the recently divorced company then think again, because GSM Arena has managed to obtain a list of 11 as-of-yet unconfirmed handsets coming from the electronics giant before 2012 is up.

The list includes the Xperia Nypon and the Xperia Kumquat, which we've heard murmurs of before. The Nypon is said to the bigger of the two and is purportedly a 4-inch qHD Reality display packing handset with a NovaThor U8500-based chipset. It is said to have an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording skills as well.

The smaller Xperia Kumquat, also based on the NovaThor U8500, apparently features a 3.5-inch FWVGA Reality display and boasts a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording.

As well as the Nypon and Kumquat though, we have nine phones listed here that we haven't previously heard reference to. Those are; the Pepper, The Tapioca, the Tapioca DS, the Hayabusa, the Atlas, the Mint, the Affm, the Lotus and the Olive.

We hope these are codenames, otherwise it's obvious that the chap who came up with Xperia device monikers in the past worked on the Ericsson side of the building.

Stand-out model spec wise are the.....actually there are no specs so that's a dead end. But we do have some prices to go on. And, with the Xperia S listed at $590, we can expect big things from the Hayabusa at $632 and the Mint at $720.

All the handsets are supposedly Android. We await MWC for official confirmations.....

Read

Tags: Phones Sony Ericsson Sony Mobile phones MWC2012

11 unknown Sony smartphones coming in 2012 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:46:26 +0000

If there's one thing that geeks love it is Star Wars. If there's another, it is mobile phones. There are other things, of course, but those two serve as a legitimate intro into this story, which involves Vodafone recruiting Yoda, the Jedi Master, to front its latest advertising campaign.

In the new television ads Yoda is seen in every day scenarios, urging Vodafone users to "use the force" in situations where they don't really need to - such as switching contacts from one handset to another.

The first ad, set in a sushi restaurant, premi?res on Channel 4 between 8pm and 9pm on 19 January. We're also told by someone who worked on the commercials that we can expect to see the 900-year-old popping up at a hair salon and a bowling alley.

The adverts were filmed in November in London and each TV spot has been produced by a team at Lucasfilm’s renowned San Francisco-based visual effects facility ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), with Tom Kane voicing Yoda’s CGI character.

Danielle Crook, director of brand marketing at Vodafone UK, said: "Small things can mean the world to our customers – it’s why we have developed a range of simple services to help them feel confidently connected on the go. The campaign with Yoda shows that you don’t need to be a Jedi Master to unlock the power of mobile internet."

Tags: Phones Vodafone Star Wars Video Advertising

Vodafone feels the force with Yoda (video) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:55:00 +0000

Despite reports to the contrary, Samsung is not interested in a buyout of struggling Research in Motion; the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry devices.

It was reported earlier this week that the Korean company was interested in a complete takeover of the Ontario-based business with a price between $12 billion and $15 billion being touted. This led to a surge in RIM's share price, closing at $17.47 on Wall Street on Tuesday; an 8 per cent increase.

However, despite Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of the BlackBerry company, apparently "going hard after Samsung" in terms of a sale, the Galaxy smartphone maker has retorted, saying it is not eyeing up a deal. "We haven't considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM)," Samsung spokesman James Chung told Reuters.

Earlier this month it was suggested that RIM would be open to licensing its BlackBerry software, or selling parts of the company to ease its financial woes. BlackBerry Messenger is an incredibly popular platform, for example, and could be just what a company like Samsung or HTC needs to aid their quest for Android supremacy.

But with Samsung essentially ruling itself out, more pressure will be piled on to Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the co-chief executives. The management duo have indicated in the past that they are not looking for a sale though, and want to turn the company's fortunes around instead.

RIM has seen its share price fall by over 75 per cent in the last year following a number of underwhelming product launches and, what the Financial Times describes as, "a series of management missteps and earnings shortfalls".

Amazon, HTC and Nokia have also all been linked with a possible takeover as well.

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Tags: Phones Tablets Mobile phone industry BlackBerry Research in Motion RIM Amazon HTC Nokia Samsung

Samsung not interested in RIM takeover originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:01:00 +0000

There are now two BlackBerry Torch models in RIM's armoury: the 9810 we're reviewing here and the 9860 that we've previously reviewed. The 9810 is a slider phone packing a full QWERTY keyboard essentially the same design as the phone it replaces, the Torch 9800.

The 9800 was something rarity for BlackBerry when it launched, as the only other touch device on offer from RIM was from the ill-fated Storm family. Of course, the Storm has passed and we're left with two Torch models and touch across the range. But is this upgraded model a step up in experience?

Design

The 9810 is practically the spitting image of the 9800 forebear. It looks the same, feels the same and measures the same, save for some very minor changes, such as the colour of the controls under the display. It is a slider, with the display sliding upwards to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard of the tried and tested BlackBerry formula.

It's somewhat chunky by modern standards, weighing in a 161g and measuring 111 x 62 x 14.6. Given that this is a slider device, we're not too worried about the size as it slips easily enough into any pocket or bag.

What's more of a concern is one of the points that irritated us about the last edition of this phone and that's the screen lock button on the top of the phone. The action is so soft that it will easily unlock itself in your pocket. On a non-touch phone that's not much of a problem, but we've pulled the phone out to find it setting new appointments, browsing the Internet, and even having changed the language to Greek.

Given the design there aren't too many sensible locations to place the 3.5mm headphone jack. On the side it juts out, meaning that the Torch never really sits comfortably in your pocket. If anything, this device is a questionable choice for sliding into the hip pocket of your jeans, because you'll catch the headphones, unlock the device and email your ex in the process.

On our previous review sample we found that the sliding action of the screen gave us a little wobble on every tap. This didn't appear to be a problem on our 9810, but we did find the plastic back panel would creak. The 9810 won't win any prizes for build or design, but aside from the ridiculously soft lock key, we can't complain too much.

Those upgraded parts

We don't want to spend too much of this review talking about the older version of this phone, but let's just say that RIM have addressed some of the major points of concern from a hardware point of view. The screen sees its resolution bumped up to 640 x 480 pixels, a welcome step-up meaning this is a sharper Torch, but with rival platforms pushing higher definition displays, the 9810 lacks impact and sharpness.

The OS fits well on the display as the icons aren't overcomplicated so the lack of resolution doesn't really matter, but it does mean that browsing the Internet involves more zooming and images don't looks as sharp as they could.

But we find ourselves wondering if the new 1.2GHz processor and upgraded 768MB RAM make that much of a difference. Sure, you can now capture 720p video thanks to the extra power to crunch the captured data from the 5-megapixel camera, but it's not the hardware that's explicitly at fault, it's the software.

BB OS showing its age

For several years we've been remarking that BlackBerry OS needs to start stepping forwards. There are some great things, and a great heritage, behind BlackBerry, but the pace at which its rivals are evolving doesn't shine a favourable light on BlackBerry. But this isn't news. Where BB6 made a few visual tweaks, BB7 makes a few more, but not so many that you'd really notice.

We often found that we'd touch the screen to drag or scroll the tray of apps and found it wouldn't respond. Finger tracking isn't great and dragging and scrolling things like webpages isn't as smooth or successful as it should be. Too often we'd be heading off to an extraneous link, rather than scrolling. This applies in apps and menus too, so we'd often resort back to the optical trackpad, or keyboard shortcuts.

The way we use current devices now plays a part here. The fewer apps you have on your platform, the more people are going to need to use the browser to access online services. Although the browser is much better than it was prior to BB6, it still doesn't match those native browsers of iPhone or Android in daily use.

The biggest problem we had was stability; it would frequently fail or refuse to load a page and it would regularly freeze, rendering the phone unresponsive, so we had to pull the battery to get things going again. BlackBerry users are probably all-too familiar with battery pulls and upgrading the hardware in this model doesn't seem to have got round this problem.

Of course the jewel in the crown is email, and stepping into the BlackBerry world from regular Android and iPhone use reminds us of just how convenient and powerful the BB email system is. The speed, the searching the ease with which you can communicate via email is fantastic.

However, the keyboard on the Torch isn't a patch on the Bold keyboard, or even that of the Curve. It's slightly too recessed into the body of the base of the phone so it feels like a strain to use. The on-screen QWERTY keyboard is poor too. Where other on-screen keyboards will let your fingers fly, the BB keyboard seems to struggle to follow what you're trying to type, even on this relatively large screen. As such, it’s much better to use the compact keyboard in portrait, because it's relatively good at figuring out what you're trying to say.

BlackBerry Maps is rather antiquated and lacks the powerful search that Google Maps offers. Searching for a meeting location from the calendar returned no results; pasting the same details into Google Maps found the location quickly. Whilst on the subject of locations, it's also frustrating that not all synced calendar locations will be live links, depending on how you arrange your calendars.

When it comes to apps, of course, the BlackBerry isn't the best served. Most of our essentials are covered however, and you'll find your social networks present and correct, although the app design doesn't seem as impressive as other smartphones, and they lack that snap and immediacy contemporary smartphones offer. In many areas, the BlackBerry Torch doesn't stand up to its rivals, which is a shame.

Some positives

It's not all doom and gloom. If your primary interest is in communication, then the BlackBerry still does rather well. We've mentioned that the email experience is good, and it is. The universal inbox makes it easy to jump to messages and alerts, although it could do with more options. Being able to sign into your accounts and have information sync to your device is very welcomed, and even though it stumbled with multiple calendars from our Google accounts, that was easily avoided with the Google Sync app.

The connectivity is also remarkably good for servicing email, especially when re-joining a network, stepping out of the underground for example. BlackBerrys will pick up emails on the merest hint of a GPRS connection, something that not all smartphones will do.

The arrangement of the Torch does give you a sort of best-of-both worlds with its keyboard and larger screen. Smartphones with keyboards aren't as common as they were a few years ago, and this is in part testament to how good on-screen keyboards now are and how well mobile operating systems have been designed to incorporate intuitive control.

With the BlackBerry Torch you can, at least, use the phone in either mode. You can casually browse Twitter with it closed, re-tweet a message, then slide it open to use the keyboard, giving you plenty of space for text entry. Although the keyboard isn't as good as other BlackBerrys, you do get used to it after time.

You also get more screen space to enjoy media, although we can't help feeling that the other Torch, the 9860, was a better device for consuming video content.

The 5-megapixel camera on the rear is good enough. By that, we mean that it offers average performance for a smartphone. Shots in good light are reasonable quality, adequate for sharing online or sending to friends, but low light photos will be soft and noisy. Video capture is also pretty good too, with the new 720p offering noticeably better results than the 640 x 480 video of the past.

The battery life is also pretty good, perhaps because you're less likely to have so many apps looking to gobble data. We managed to get through a day easily in average use. After a day of heavy use, you will see it complaining towards the end of the day, but it out-performs many smartphones when it comes to endurance.

Verdict:

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 feels like an incremental step for RIM. The previous handset had obvious problems, some of which are addressed here, but we also feel that the 9810 is the phone the 9800 should have been. That sets this handset behind the times a little and that's certainly not helped by a user interface that lacks the consumer ease that you'll find in iOS, Android or Windows Phone 7.

That may all be set to change with the advent of BB 10, which should make an appearance at Mobile World Congress 2012. As such, we can't strongly recommend the BlackBerry Torch 9810 if you're interested in upgrading now.

If you're happy with the BlackBerry experience and value both screen space and a physical keyboard, then this style of device might be for you, but we'd suggest you bide your time and see what's coming next, before committing.

Tags: Phones BlackBerry Research in Motion RIM BlackBerry Torch 9810

BlackBerry Torch 9810 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Well, well, well... what have we here? If web based speculation (mixed in with a heavy dose of hype, hope and guess-work) is to believed - it's the Samsung Galaxy S III.

The unidentified phone turned up during a video that Samsung has published celebrating its CES 2012 press conference with highlights from the show.

Popping up just after the 7-minute mark, the handset can be seen in the palm of an actor making use of the Samsung viewfinder app.

Now, it's probably just a mock-up and looks more photoshopped than a Nuts cover girl with mysteriously missing nipples. However, with more handsets to choose from than one of those phone recycling plants - why would Samsung not just use an actual one rather than a dummy?

It looks pretty big, that's for sure - more like the 5.3-inch screen of the Galaxy Note than the 4.3 inches of the Galaxy S II's display. However, the front facing camera position is around the same place as the S II's.

The battery icon and top bar does not look very Android-like but it's possible that this is a reflection of the camera's screen, and therefore battery indicator, rather than the mobile device's.

Or, it's possible that we're all getting a bit hyped up over nothing. But can you blame us? With the Vegas jet-lag all but gone and CES now just a figment of our memory it's surely understandable that we're all getting a little excited ahead of Mobile World Congress isn't it?

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Tags: Phones Samsung Galaxy S III Samsung Samsung Galaxy Note CES2012

Samsung Galaxy S III caught on camera? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Three new Sony handsets have leaked courtesy of blurrycam, hinting at a duo of Android devices and a Windows Phone 7 device being unveiled at Mobile World Congress next month.

In terms of the Windows Phone device, it would mean a new manufacturer for the platform and the first time that Sony and Microsoft have teamed up since the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Windows Mobile 6.1 handset that launched back in 2008.

PocketNow has images of what it is claiming to be "some SE Windows Phone hardware" although it does state the images may be of an old scrapped project. The Sony Ericsson branding, rather than the solitary Sony, does kind of make us lean towards thinking this may be an old model that never came to fruition.

However, if we're to use that method to ruling out handsets then we'd have to discount the two unidentified Xperia handsets spotted in a group photo that GSM Arena got its hands on. It is claiming that the two smartphones could be the codenamed Xperia Nypon and the Xperia Kumquat.

The Nypon is the bigger of the two and is purportedly a 4-inch qHD Reality display packing handset with a NovaThor U8500-based chipset. It is said to have an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording skills as well.

The smaller Xperia Kumquat, also based on the NovaThor U8500, apparently features a 3.5-inch FWVGA Reality display and boasts a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording.

Obviously, these are pretty audacious rumours based on a couple of dodgy images but, with MWC just weeks away now, expect the smartphone and tablet rumour mill to step up a notch or twelve. This is just the beginning...

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Tags: Phones Sony Ericsson Sony Windows Phone 7 Rumours Mobile phones MWC2012

Three new Sony handsets leak ahead of MWC originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Acer launched the Acer Allegro Windows Phone 7 smartphone in France in October 2011. That made it the company's first foray into the the world of the popular Microsoft mobile OS and now there seems to be a decent chance that it will be arriving elsewhere after it was shown off to the public at CES 2012.

The tech specs aren't spectacular, but then they rarely are on WP7 handsets. The Allegro has?a 3.6-inch WVGA (480 x 800) screen, a Qualcomm MSM8255 1GHz processor powering the device, 8GB of on-board storage memory and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash for your photos.

The interesting feature, though, is the introduction of Fast Charge technology which apparently charges the device's 1300mAh battery 2.5x faster than other tablets and phones. Now, obviously, that's not to say that the battery life will be any longer. It won't. What it does mean is that, if you forget to charge it over night and only have time for a quick blast in the morning before you leave for work, you still might have just about enough juice to make it to the middle of the afternoon.

The Acer Allegro measures 11.6 x 5.9 x 13mm and weighs in at 126g. It's not particularly thin nor light but it does still manage to capture a certain amount of charm with a nice curved back surface. The screen is bright and clear and has a decent pixel density as a result of the small screen size into which that standard WP7 resolution is squeezed.

The?phone?costs €299 in France in black or white and, although there are no specifics about release dates or prices elsewhere, you can expect a similar swing tag if it does arrive in the UK.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Windows Phone 7 Acer Acer Allegro CES2012

Acer Allegro Windows Phone 7 smartphone pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:17:00 +0000

Sony, fresh from showing off a raft of new devices at CES, has teased another new arrival: Sony Dot Switch.

The 31 second teaser video shows a chap controlling a number of devices (or turning them on, at least) using a virtual white button on what looks like a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc phone.

He kick starts a gramophone, a TV, a confetti explosion and a robotic arm that unveils a mystery black device.

The device: a small black box, could perhaps be some kind of media hub or maybe some kind of proprietary network hotspot. Who knows? Well, we all will come 21 February - the date mentioned in the video (so too early for an MWC announcement).

We just hope it isn't a big let down and has nothing to do with the fugly remote control that the electronic giant demoed to Pocket-lint over in Vegas.

Tags: Phones Home Cinema Sony Sony Dot Switch

Sony Dot Switch teaser literally points at connected devices originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:14:00 +0000

We first got wind of the Motorola Defy+ JCB limited edition handset back in November, but now the soon-to-be Google owned company has firmed up the official UK launch details.

The Motorola Defy+ JCB Edition is available now, for ?259.99. Its makers call it the "UK’s favourite life proof handset" although you may want to check out Pocket-lint's comprehensive review before buying as our descriptions are a touch less complimentary.?

The Motorola Defy+ is an Android Gingerbread handset which is IP67 certified, meaning that it can take a bit of a kicking but still come back for more. The JCB version is designed with construction-types in mind and features a patented visco-elastic protective sleeve from JCB with re-entrant geometry.

It also has Push to Talk walkie-talkie features which should be handy on the building site.

It's water resistant, scratch resistant and dust proof and boasts scratch resistant Corning Gorilla glass. It's got a 1GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera, 2GB of storage and a 3.7-inch high-resolution touch screen display.

Victoria McManus, UK marketing director, Motorola Mobility said: "We’re thrilled to be working with JCB on this bespoke Motorola Defy+ device. The unique protective sleeve will pull on JCB’s years of expertise in the construction industry to help us reach a new audience who we know are in need of a life and work proof handset."

Tags: Phones Motorola Defy+ Motorola JCB Mobile phones

JCB limited edition Motorola Defy+ digs in originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:41:00 +0000

With so much announced at CES 2012, making sense of exactly when all of that gadgetry will arrive for the good people of the world to enjoy is a bit of a mess. So, we've created a master calendar for you - a bit like a Cliff Richard one we were given for Christmas where the Peter Pan of Pop is pictured in a set of dungarees with a pitchfork over his shoulder, only much better.

Before we start, just a touch of explaining to do. For those not in the know, tech companies and retailers tend to work in quarters. Saying a product is going to be released in Q1 for example, gives a bigger release window for something should any issues arise, which they often do. This way customers, traders and producers don’t get too irritated if dates slide.

So what does each quarter contain? Well, if you haven't "done the math", as the folk in America say, Q1 covers January to March, Q2 is April until June, Q3 July to September and Q4 October through to December. So, want to know what’s coming and when? Just scan below to find out. This list is by no means comprehensive, CES is just too big for us to grab everything, but all the majors are represented.

A

Acer Aspire S5 - Q2?

Acer’s second go at the Ultrabook game features clever hybrid HDD and SSD storage. The S5 is also extremely light at 1.2kg and just 15mm thin, an Ultrabook through and through then. Read more

Acer A700 - Possible March

Easily one of the most potent tablets we have seen so far, it had the show floor rather excited at CES with a 1080p display and a quad-core processor. The A700 represents the future direction tablets are going to take, with massive portable power wrapped up in the thinnest possible package. Read more

Acer Iconia Tab A510 - No date

The younger brother to the A700, the A510 still features a quad-core Tegra 3 processor but lacks the full 1080p display of its brethren. Still no slouch on the screen front however, sitting at 1280 x 800. Read more

Asus Transformer 700T HD - No date

With the same spec sheet as the Transformer Prime, this is already a pretty powerful tablet, Asus has just gone and upped the screen res to 1080p. Using full WUXGA resolution on a 10.1-inch display, the tablet will arrive with Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8 megapixel camera on the back. Read more

B

Bang and Olufsen Beolit 12 - Next two weeks

Part of a new sub-brand within B&O known as B&O Play, the Beolit 12 is about portability and quality, whilst looking as stylish as the company's usual products. Read more

C

Canon G1 X - February

What do you get if you cram a DSLR quality sensor into a portable compact? The Canon G1 X, that’s what. One of the longest running prosumer compacts available, the G series carries a pedigree quite unlike any other camera. Read more

Canon Legria HFM52 - April

Canon’s tiny Legria camcorder features 32GB of built in storage and a 10x zoom system. There is a lot packed into the pocket-sized Canon normally reserved for top level hardware including a proper HD CMOS sensor. Read more

D

Dell XPS 13 - Mid March

Dell’s XPS 13 is one of our favourite Ultrabooks set for release, in part due to the fact that it has a carbon fibre base, which is just cool. A lot is taken from the MacBook Air’s umm ... book, which is by no means a bad one when it comes to the world of portable laptops. Read more

F

Fujifilm X100 Black - February

Retro has always been cool. Even in the 19th century people were sporting the wares of the 18th, enjoying vintage sextants or whatever gadgetry was put to use back then. The X100 draws on this philosophy, but this time round it comes in black, instantly making it 100 times cooler. Read more

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 - No release date yet

Like the X100, the X-Pro 1 is another high-end compact system with vintage looks. Behaving slightly like Canon’s G1 X, the X-Pro 1 is a full interchangeable lens system with one of the most exciting viewfinders in photography right now. Read more

Fujitsu Arrows - No release

Like swimming? Like tablets? Well the Fujitsu Arrows is the one for you. Capable of being dunked in a bucket of water whilst keeping its 1GHz processor ticking along nicely, the Arrows is one of the toughest tablets available. Read more

G

GoPro BacPac - February

Controlling a GoPro has normally been quite a clunky affair. Stuck with just two buttons to setup and manage the whole camera, it has been nigh on impossible to manipulate the cam with it mounted. The BacPac changes this by adding wireless functionality. Read more

H

HP Envy 14 - March

Sure it isn’t the thinnest in the Ultrabook in the pack, but despite needing a possible trip to fat camp, it packs more tech than most. HP Beats Audio fun is thrown in, as is a decent Core i7 processor and 1600 x 900 resolution screen. Read more

HTC Titan II - No release date

The HTC Titan was one of the Windows Phone highlights of last year, it looks like the sequel could do the same in 2012. With a whopping 16 megapixel sensor and vibrant 4.7-inch display, it is one of the best WP7 handsets we have seen. Read more

Huawei Ascend P1 - End of march

Huawei came out of no where with this one, claiming the World’s thinnest handset title with the Ascend P1. Plenty of excitement on the spec sheet, including a dual-core processor, the Huawei could be a rather nice surprise. Read more

J

James Bond Blu-ray - Pre-order

After ruining our James Bond VHS collection in a rather nasty incident involving Sunny Delight, we are glad to be seeing our favourite spy make an appearance in 1080p. Like Star Wars of last year, it will be the first time we have seen a movie franchise this classic spin up our Blu-ray players and blast out our 5.1 systems. Read more

JVC GY-HMQ10 4K camcorder - No release yet

What comes after 1080p? At first we imagined it to be something like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then we realised it was 4K, which whilst not being an interplanetary space trip, is still pretty impressive. Imagine making something really really sharp, then making it sharper. This JVC camcorder can record like that. Read more

K

Kinect for Windows - February

We are still yet to see how exactly Kinect will incorporate itself into Windows, although we imagine a lot of it will be using Windows Media Centre. The release of the developer SDK in February should hopefully mean we see it used for something better. Read more

L

Lenovo K800 - 2nd half 2012

The Medfield smartphone was the first time we were to see an Intel processor in a handset. Using Atom technology, no one knows how quick the handset might be. We will have to wait until it gets itself launched for us to truly give the Intel tech a whirl. Read more

Lenovo IdeaPad S200 - June

So much Lenovo fun to be had at CES in 2012. The S200 is a maturation of netbooks, in pink. Think of it as the logical direction the conventional laptop would take but squash it down to 11.6-inch MacBook Air size. Not anywhere near as thin, but just as powerfull, the S200 is quite a laptop. Read more

Lenovo X1 - No release date

Lenovo’s X1 is a relatively new idea in laptop town, featuring two different processors to power two separate operating systems. The Qualcomm dual-core processor lets it boot up a Linux OS speedily for quick web browsing.?Read more

Lenovo S series IdeaPad - June

Lenovo went Ultrabook mad at CES, releasing two different series of the super slim laptops. The first, the S series, use dual-core processors and 32GB SSDs. Read more

Lenovo Y series IdeaPad - April

Like the S series laptops, the Y series IdeaPads are small and light, but feature a more multimedia-centric approach to design. They feature proper GPUs and a more hefty audio setup. Read more

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga - Second half 2012

The IdeaPad was Lenovo’s odd ball at CES, featuring a rotating hinged design that let you turn the laptop into a rather miniature electronic tent. Extremely light and with a bright glossy display, it could be a rather interesting laptop and tablet alternative. Read more

LG 55EM9600 TV - No date yet

Like Samsung, LG has upscaled its OLED efforts from last year and brought out an ultra-slim, ultra-bright OLED TV which at 55-inches and a rumoured $8000 is sure to be the reserve of the audio visual elite. Read more

LG Ultra Definition - Q4

CES is usually about televisions and this year was no exception. The LG Ultra Definition had us particularly excited. Partly because it is 84-inches in size, but mainly because it can run 4K2K resolution content, which from what we have seen, looks crazy good on a display this size. Read more

LG Z430 - Before March

Even LG couldn't keep itself away from the world of the Ultrabook, taking on the likes of its super size Korean competitor Samsung with the Z430. The real buzz with this one is its ability to take up to 500GB of SSD storage. Read more

M

Motorola Defy Mini - No release yet

Motorola is now a Google owned company, so you would expect to be seeing Android behaving its best on the company’s handsets. The Motorola Defy Mini is a budget phone from the leading handset manufacturer and should at launch please many of those avoiding the realms of the HTC Wildfire S. Read more

Motorola Motoluxe - No release

A beefy low end offering from Motorola, the Motoluxe has plentiful screen estate and a rather decent resolution. Savings are made via the 800MHz processor but other than that, there is really little else to indicate it's a budget phone. Read more

N

Nokia Lumia 900 - March

Nokia looks to have turned it all around right at the end of 2011 with the Lumia 800, easily one of the design highlights of the year. The Lumia 900, the bigger, bolder, American cousin to the same handset, should impress just the same. Read more

Nokia Lumia 710 - February

The value for money Windows Phone 7 handset that comes complete with all the potency of its bigger Lumia 800 and 900 brethren. Set for release with a decent selection of different colours, this will likely become the go-to budget WP7 handset of 2012. Read more

P

Panasonic DMC-SZ7 - March

Compacts need to be compact. The DMC-SZ7 adheres to this rule nicely, being just 21mm thin. The size sacrifice doesn’t mean a specs loss, there is full 1080p video and a 25-250mm zoom lens sat on the front. Read more?

Pure Sensia 200D - Q1

Pure has a pretty potent radio, if there is such a thing, with the 200D. Like an enigma machine from the future, it has a full size touchscreen that lets you control all your music listening needs. Read more

Panasonic VT50 - No release yet

Carrying a hefty plasma shaped crown for Panasonic, the VT50 will become the company's top television in their line up. It also looks damn smart as well. Read more

R

Razer Project Fiona - by end of year

Tablets might have more cores than a set of bins at an apple tasting, but without a properly powerful desktop processor will never be able to run PC quality games. Enter Razer’s rather mad Project Fiona, which uses proper graphics and Intel Sandy Bridge processors in a tablet. Read more

S

Samsung 55-inch Super OLED - Second half of 2012

Oh OLED TV how we adore you. So bright and beautiful with such rich colours, you burn our eyes with your glory. It isn’t going to be cheap, but there is no doubt this OLED display is going to be one of the best screens of 2012. Read more

Samsung Series 5 - Out soon

Samsung has kept its cutting edge position in the Ultrabook market with the Series 5. A highly desirable piece of kit, it has all the usual SSDs and Sandy Bridge processor. Things get interesting with the 14-inch model that comes with a 1GB AMD graphics card inside, a first for an Ultrabook. Read more

Samsung Series 9 900XB - No release date yet

This is the Ultrabook to go after, if it is indeed an Ultrabook. Think of it like the Windows equivalent to a top spec MacBook Air. It is one of the thinnest, lightest and best designed laptops set for release in 2012. Read more

Sony Bloggie Live - February

Flip died a bit of a death in 2011 leaving a significant gap in an admittedly dwindling market. Sony kept it interesting with the Bloggie Live, which can send video straight from camera to the Internet. Read more

Sony HX8 - No release date

A slightly mad television from Sony but an exciting one none the less. The definition of Wii-mote/childproof, it features a massive Gorilla Glass screen giving it a bezel free look. Read more

Sony Xperia Ion - Q2

An exciting one for the Americans, the Ion is to show up on AT&T with a 720p display and best of all, a 12-megapixel Exmor-R sensor. Looks like 2012 could be the year for the smartphone super camera. Read more

Sony Xperia S - March

Notice the lack of Ericsson in the name. The Xperia S is going to be Sony’s major punt into the smartphone landscape in 2012. Complete with HD just about everything, it is a flagship phone that Sony can be proud of. Read more

T

Tamaggo camera - Q2

The Tamaggo camera lives up to its Japanese name, which means egg, behaving like a 360 degree blob shooter. An unusual take on the standard shooter, the Tamaggo could mean an interesting shift for photography in 2012. Read more

W

Windows 8 - October

The new Windows OS is set to arrive in October, bringing a lot of the design lessons Microsoft has learned from its Windows Phone 7 handset. The Metro UI is looking smart already and will likely be perfectly suited to tablets when Windows 8 arrives. Read more

Z

ZTE Nvidia Tegra 3 tablet - No date yet

Ice Cream Sandwich and a quad-core processor? One a value for money tablet … yes please. This ZTE could be the tablet that brings Android tablets into the big game alongside Apple’s iPad. Read more

Tags: CES2012 Televisions Phones Mobile phones Cameras Compact cameras Camcorders

2012 Gadget Calendar: When you can get that new device from CES? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:32:00 +0000

If you've already got a Windows Phone 7 smartphone, or know someone that uses it, you'll no doubt already know about the really handy app by Microsoft called Local Scout.

Nokia?knows about it too, but feels it can do a better job than the people that have created the operating system by adding an extra twist:?Augmented Reality. Nokia City Lens, as the name suggest, will allow Nokia Windows Phone 7?smartphone users to use their phone's camera and the app to find the nearest 64 places based on the search they have done.

Users will either be able to search specifically for types of business or pick pre-suggested categories like fun or dining.

Those 64 places could be just around the corner or some distance away depending on where you are, but they pop up on your screen as you move around showing you how far away they are and in what direction so you can head off toward them.

Once you've found the place you are trying to get to, the app works in a very similar way to Local Scout giving you information, contact details and reviews so you can determine whether you want to go there or not.

Sadly the Nokia spokesperson we spoke to on the Nokia stand at CES had no exact idea as to when Nokia would be launching the Nokia City Lens app. We suspect it might be in March to coincide with the US launch of the new Nokia Lumia 900.

We will keep you posted.

Tags: Phones Apps Windows Phone 7 apps Windows Phone 7 Nokia Microsoft Augmented Reality

Nokia City Lens adds Augmented Reality to Local Scout on Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Nokia?is continuing to push dedicated apps for the Nokia Windows Phone 7 phones on the market, creating one for those that rely on public transport instead of the motor car to get around.

The new app, yet to be released but demoed for Pocket-lint at this year's CES?in Las Vegas, will focus on public transport and be called simply Nokia Transport. Users of the app will be given the option to select "from" and "to" points before the app then works out the best way to get from A to B.

In our hands-on demo we asked the app to go from the Las Vegas Convention Centre to the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

A quick check later and it came back with the results suggesting we take the city's monorail service. It then detailed how to get to the monorail, which station to get on at, how long to the next station and how long the entire journey would take.

It also, more importantly, included waiting times letting us that there was a train leaving in 3 minutes, 9 minutes and beyond, all in a scrollable interface that should make it very easy to plan ahead.

Once your journey has been created you are then able to pin that information to the Windows Phone 7 homescreen.

But it's not just suited for Las Vegas. A Nokia spokeswoman told Pocket-lint that the app will support over 46 major cities around the world including London when it eventually launches.

Sadly, the nice Nokia lady had no exact idea as to when that might be. We suspect it might be in March to coincide with the US launch of the new Nokia Lumia 900 though.

Tags: Phones Apps Nokia Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 apps CES2012

Nokia Transport app: Nokia Drive for buses and trains originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:32:00 +0000

The Droid range in the US on Verizon has always had a special place in many people's hearts. It might be big, it might be a tad on the ugly side, but it has a full QWERTY keyboard for those that still have a love for the hard button rather than touch button experience.

Pocket-lint got to experience the Droid 4 at the company's booth at this year's CES?in Las Vegas to see whether it is still worth the fuss four versions, or should that be verizons, on.

The original Droid was the phone that changed Android's fortunes in the US. Now, Verizon is hoping that it will get people excited about 4G and the fourth iteration lands in the US.

Here you get a Motorola RAZR?design but with the added extra of that slide out QWERTY keyboard. Thanks to efforts made with the RAZR, the Droid 4 claims to be the slimmest 4G slider phone yet, even though it comes with an edge-lit QWERTY keyboard that is comfortable, if not a little spongy to type on.

Those edge lit keys will help if you like typing in the dark. It's like typing on a backlit keyboard on a laptop; you'll notice it only when you turn it off and can't see the keys and then never be able to live without it.

Under all that external goodness, there's a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB or RAM and an 8-megapixel camera that can record 1080p video as well.

An HDMI output means that you can also hook the phone up to your TV, and enjoy videos on the big screen if the built-in 4-inch qHD screen isn't enough for you.

There will also be a Lapdock available, as with other recent Motorola handsets. However, we didn't get a chance to see that in action.

4G on Verizon is fast and the phone had no problem loading up the websites we asked of it at the show, even though we suspect with so many people mopping around it was working flat out behind the scenes to prove its worth.?

The phone also has a nano-coating which will repel water and make it resistant to those little water-based mishaps that befall us all from time-to-time. Sadly Verizon didn't let us pour our beer on it. We did ask though.?

Internal storage, for your stuff, is 16GB and there's support for microSD cards with capacities up to 32GB.?

As usual, and a currently annoying theme with new phones at CES this year, the Droid 4 will come with Gingerbread on launch but will be upgradeable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich later in 2012. Even though Google (nearly) owns Motorola - the company that has made the hardware here - the phone isn't getting any special privileges just yet.

If you are looking to upgrade from the Droid 2 because your contract is about to be ready for renewal and still want that QWERTY keyboard, this is still likely to be the phone for you.?Touchscreen only fans won't be tempted though.

The Droid 4 on Verizon is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks.?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Android Verizon Motorola Droid 4 Photos CES2012

Verizon Droid 4 by Motorola pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:12:00 +0000

An Italian company called I'm Watch was attempting to convince us at?CES?that we need a watch that can communicate with the smartphone in our pocket - giving us the latest details on the go.

Connected via Bluetooth, the idea is that the watch comes with a number of apps that allow you to access the Internet and therefore Twitter, your email, stock prices and other things without having to get your phone out of your pocket, instead just piggybacking on its data connection.

The watch itself features a 1.55-inch capacitive touchscreen display protected by sapphire glass. It weighs about 70g and even features a speakerphone and mic so you can talk to it Dick Tracy style.

Users will also be able to view images on it, although having done so, we have to say they are very small.?The I'm Watch runs a customised version of Android 1.6.

Starting at $349 there will be three different ranges to hopefully suit different audiences keen to wear a "smart watch".

The "Color Collection" will feature a range of bright colours (white, pink, light blue, red, yellow, green or black) while the the "Tech Collection" will have a greater focus on materials. There is a third range called the "Jewel Collection" with models costing up to $1000 and coming with a "high premium finish".

And yes, before you ask, it will also tell the time. In analogue and digital formats no less.

Tags: CES2012 Watches Phones

I'm Watch tells more than just the time originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:54:00 +0000