BlackBerry CEO expects to sell 'tens of millions' of the keyboard-toting Q10
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is not tempering his estimations when it comes to the keyboard-toting Q10 handset, telling Bloomberg he expects the new phone to sell "tens of millions" of units.
If true, this would see the Q10 outselling the touchscreen-only BlackBerry Z10 multiple times over. In the 3 months since its launch the Z10 has sold over 1 million units, but with its classic keyboard design, the Q10 is expected to fare better with BlackBerry faithful.
"This is going into the installed base of more than 70 million BlackBerry users so we have quite some expectations," Heins said.
Don't call it a comeback
For better or worse, BlackBerry has made headlines time and again in the opening months of 2013. It launched the new BlackBerry 10 OS alongside the Z10 handset in January, and announced musician Alicia Keys as the company's Chief Creative Director; despite the artist's continued preference for the Apple iPhone.The Z10 handset went on sale shortly after, first in the UK, where earlier reports suggested that the phone was selling out in many phone stores.
Following its release in the US, reports came in that the handset was being returned to stores by customers in high volumes. Some publications even ran articles suggesting that return rates exceeded sales in the weeks after launch, though Heins strongly denies this was ever the case, saying that BlackBerry's own data shows that returns are "better than with previous BlackBerry launches".
Perhaps most importantly, the company posted a profit for the final quarter of 2012 of US$98-million. This surprised a lot of financial spectators who still remember the US$125-million loss reported by BlackBerry for the same period 12-months prior.
Though this figure points to good things for the smartphone maker, it is important to remember that this profit is for a period before the Z10 launch. Heins is credited with making tough decisions within the company, including a 5,000 person reduction in the size of the workforce in an attempt to promote greater efficiency across the organisation.
Via Bloomberg
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Blip: Watch out for Watch Dogs coming to the new Xbox
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs is one of the most anticipated titles of the year, much the same way Microsoft's Xbox 720 is one of the more excitement-inducing consoles of 2013.
Should the two meet? The answer is undoubtedly yes, and the game maker may have just given us confirmation that Dogs will indeed find a home on the forthcoming console.
The Chicago-set saga is due out Nov. 19, and while it's pegged for specific systems like the PS4 and Xbox 360, Ubisoft revealed in a new trailer that it is "also coming on next-gen consoles."
No mention of the new Xbox explicitly, but we expect a Dogs demo to make its way to Microsoft's May 21 event or E3. Can't really think of any unannounced next-gen consoles worthy of the title....
More blips!
Bitten by the news reading bug? The only cure is to read more blips.- One small step for man, one giant leap for the Olympic torch
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- Taking sexting to the next level: Google Glass can take selfies in the shower
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Blip: One small step for man, one giant leap for the Olympic torch
The motto of the Olympics is "Faster, Higher, Stronger," and come November, one symbol of the international sporting event may take those words to the extreme.
The Russian Times is reporting that plans are being worked out to take the exact same torch run across the globe leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to the International Space Station via a team of Russian cosmonauts.
It may even make it on a space walk, though at no point will there be a live flame as such things is prohibited on the ISS. The Olympic committee is apparently on board with the idea, which would see the torch returning to Earth Nov. 12.
Fourteen thousand people are expected to carry the Olympic torch after its journey begins Oct. 7, but the space leg may be one of its more invigorating stops.
More blips!
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Unlike the world, iOS 7 redesign is said to be 'flat'
If you've ever had a favorite dish at a favorite restaurant suddenly change - there's a new chef, that one ingredient that made it extra special is no longer available - then a similar feeling may come with Apple's iOS 7.
9to5Mac spoke with several unnamed sources, all of whom have either seen or been briefed on the new OS, to glean what it could about the still-unconfirmed system.
The changes coming in the 7th iteration are said to be at once attractive to new iOS users and potentially alienating to those well worn to the platform.
Described as "very, very flat" by one source, another said the interface is sans gloss, shine and skeuomorphism (a design principle that takes cues from the physical world), elements distinct to current and past versions.
Yet another source spoke of 7 as having a level of "flatness" akin to Microsoft's "Metro" UI design for Windows Phone, meaning we could be in for a very different look to an old OS.
Flat (not) like a pancake
"Flat," 9to5Mac pointed out, could be a two-fold description, one that points to a simplicity of design that does away with the icons-imitating-life markings of skeumorphism (the yellow notepad of iOS Notes, the leather-bound trim in the Calendar app) as well as a more streamlined interface flowing through the entire system.Codenamed Innsbruck, iOS 7 is also said to replace Apple's native app icons with new looks and do away with the current designs of the tool bars, tab bars and other core interface features.
Before you go, "whoa," there's apparently no new learning curve associated with the changes.
One easement that might help lessen OS-shock is that while iOS 7 looks different, the core apps and system fundamentals - Lock and Home screen functions, for example - are mostly similar to what iOS owns right now.
Apple is also reportedly testing features to make content in information and system option panels (Notifications, etc.) more "glance-able," but it's unclear if these will end up in iOS 7 off the bat or are still in the lab, being hammered out for a later date.
7th heaven
The man behind the redesign is none other than Sir Jony Ive, overseer of software at Cupertino. Unlike former iOS head Scott Forstall, Ive is not a fan of skeuomorphic design, and he's got the the backing of CEO Tim Cook to move iOS's look in an industrial direction.Today's report flushes out theories we heard at the start of the month that the new OS' design may be polarizing.
"Ive's work is apparently making many people really happy, but will also apparently make rich-texture-loving designers said," Rene Richie of iMore said of iOS 7.
We should know much more come WWDC 2013, so sit tight, and perhaps decide which camp you want to sit in.
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HTC One's front-facing speakers coming to new budget handset?
Beyond its sleek aluminium chassis and its UltraPixel camera tech, perhaps the most lauded feature on the HTC One handset was its front-facing dual speakers.
Now it seems the Taiwanese company is hell bent on spreading this obvious-yet-innovative design feature to more smartphones, following the leak of a handset dubbed the HTC 608t today.
The leaked handset, which looks more like the HTC One SV than the newer HTC One flagship device, showcases a rounded plastic, rather than metallic casing.
However, front and centre are those Beats Audio-powered front-facing speakers, suggesting the company is definitely going with this calling card on future handsets.
Jelly Bean and quad-core too?
The HTC 608t (definitely not a final name) is also said to offer a 4.5-inch LCD display with a resolution of 960 x 540, while Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 is on board, according to the leak from Chinese site TENAA (translated).The leak also tips a quad-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, a 1.6-megapixel rear camera and 1GB RAM.
The leaked snap features a China Mobile logo suggests a launch in that region initially, so we'll have to wait for official release details before making assertions about potential launches in the west.
Just last month the HTC 606w showed up in China, which brings the UltraPixel camera tech to a budget handset for the first time.
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New photo, size questions add to Samsung Galaxy Note 3 mystique
The size of Samsung's rumored Galaxy Note 3 phablet has been a subject of much debate, and those keeping score can add a new column to their charts: 5.99 inches.
Previously the two most popular guesses for the Galaxy Note 3's screen size were 5.9 inches and 6.3 inches, but the latest hint of exactly 5.99 inches falls somewhere in between (though obviously much closer to 5.9 inches).
An article on the Chinese-language site news.mydrivers.com hinted at the screen size and shed light on some possible Note 3 specs: a full HD display, an eight-core Exynos Octa with a 2GHz A15 processor and 1.7GHz A7 processor, 3GB of memory, and Android 4.2.2.
The article, published Sunday, even has a photo for accompaniment, though as SamMobile pointed out, the bezel on the device shown next to the Galaxy S4 looks a bit big and the model number in the image, i9500, doesn't match up with the model numbers of other Note devices (N7000 Galaxy Note, N7100 Galaxy Note 2, etc.). With that, take the news with some grains of salt.
Lost in translation?
The original report is in Chinese, and admittedly Google is having a bear of a time translating.As a result, it seems something may have been lost in translation, as according to what we're seeing the original report appears to suggest that the Galaxy Note 3 will actually sport a 5.9-inch screen (which falls in line with previous Note 3 rumors) and not a 5.99-inch display like SamMobile reported.
On the other hand, for the moment we're more inclined to believe the unofficial Samsung blog than Google's often spotty translation service. The difference is basically imperceptible, but hey, those extra millimeters count.
Still, we've asked SamMobile to explain this discrepancy, but so far we haven't heard back.
Previous rumors have pegged the Note 3 with everything from a square metal body to an unbreakable flexible display, so until Samsung says something official, everything said of the next Note should be considered speculative at best.
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Samsung will throw four more tablets at the wall in 2013, says leak
Samsung unveiled a new 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3 this morning, but that news was quickly overshadowed by leaks of four additional Samsung tablets.
SamMobile reported today that the Korean company will add to its tablet lineup this year with a dual-sim Galaxy Tab 7.0, a Galaxy Tab 8.0, a Galaxy Tab 11 and an eight-core Nexus 11.
The site claimed to have learned of the new tablets when it received "Samsung's tablet plans for 2013," though it's unclear where the info came from.
But the new Android tablets would fit well with Samsung's strategy of coming up with dozens of poorly differentiated devices, throwing them all at the proverbial wall of consumers, and seeing what sticks.
Dual-sim and new sizes
First off on the list of rumored new Samsung tablets is the Galaxy Tab 8.0, an 8-inch 1080p AMOLED tablet with 5- and 2-megapixel cameras and a quad-core A9 Exynos processor.That one's not too exciting, but the further down the list we go, the more interesting these new Android tablets get.
Next is a dual-sim version of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.0. According to the report, the Galaxy Tab DUOS 7.0 will come with a 7-inch PLS LCD display, a dual-core processor and back and front cameras (3- and 2-megapixel), and it will be Samsung's first dual-sim tablet.
Moving on, a proposed Samsung Galaxy Tab 11 would up the size of the Galaxy Tab brand to a full 11 inches (trumping the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which could be discontinued, according to SamMobile) with a Super PLS display, 8- and 2-megapixel cameras, and a dual-core A15 Exynos chip.
The Nexus evolves
Finally, the report claimed that Google and Samsung may team up once again for another flagship Nexus device in 2013: the Nexus 11.Samsung apparently still needs to get approval from Google, but if it does then the Nexus 11 could be the world's first eight-core tablet, according to SamMobile.
It would come with an 11-inch Super PLS screen, 8- and 2-megapixel cameras, and an octa-core Exynos setup that involves A15 and A7 processors.
All four of the rumored new Samsung tablets will reportedly include microSD support, as well.
Given the nature of this report, there isn't any additional information available at this time, and Samsung and Google aren't likely to speak up until they're good and ready.
That said, Google IO 2013 seems like a good time, doesn't it?
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Sony Xperia SP hits Orange and T-Mobile on PAYG for just £249.99
The mid-range Sony Xperia SP has arrived on the Orange and T-Mobile networks in the UK with a pretty attractive pay-as-you-go price point.
The somewhat scaled back version of flagship Sony Xperia Z is available for just £249.99 from the networks, both of whom have stock of the device.
The affordable handset was unveiled last month with a 4.6-inch, 720p display, a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera and 4G LTE radio. Not exactly a lightweight by any means.
As XperiaBlog points out, T-Mobile's deal is slightly better as it does not require the minimum £10 a month credit top up.
Cheap at half the price
Earlier this month, Phones 4U made the device available on contracts through a host of the top UK networks, while Expansys has been offering the device for pre-order for £339.99.So why should be excited about the Sony Xperia SP? Well considering it's available for around half the price of the flagship Xperia Z, it's a pretty fab option for those unable to afford the top of the range device.
In a recent hands-on review, TechRadar's Gareth Beavis summed up his early verdict by saying: "With this spec list wouldn't look too out of place on a new flagship phone from another firm right now – and with a lower price, that's an ace notion."
Check back soon for a detailed, in-depth review.
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Updated: Best Android phone - which should you buy?
Best Android phone: 10 - 6
Our verdict on the best Android phones - constantly updated
It's a great time to buy an Android phone. Competition is at a fever pitch, with the HTC One and the Galaxy S4 duking it out for the right to be called the best Android phone - or the best selling Android phone, at least.As a quick primer, Android is Google's mobile operating system, its answer to Apple's iOS which powers the iPhone. Android really came into its own back in 2011, with Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich. The most current version is now, Android 4.2: Jelly Bean.
Yes, Google names its mobile software after desserts, and no, the software on every Android phone is not created equal; you'll also encounter software put there by manufacturers and service providers.
So if you're a tad confused, fear not. Our list of the best Android phones is here to help you navigate the somewhat splintered world of Android to find the perfect device for you.
It may seem like a two horse race between HTC and Samsung, but there are plenty of great devices running Google's mobile OS. So sit back and start scrolling, let's find the best Android phone for you.
10. LG Optimus G
We quite like the Optimus G. The specs are tremendous, and it manages to have a big display, quad-core processor and 4G LTE without terrible battery life.
However, the phone falls short of greatness due to a somewhat dated OS and carrier bloatware. We're glad to know that Jelly Bean is on the way, but having it out of the box would have been fantastic. On both the Sprint and AT&T versions the amount of carrier software that can't be uninstalled is egregious.
9. HTC One X+
The HTC One X+ is an excellent smartphone excelling in a number of areas and it's definitely worth its place among the great and the good of the mobile world.
It builds on a number of issues which arose with the original HTC One X, addressing storage concerns and improving web browser efficiency and the always reliable HTC keyboard - however the battery is still a bit of a sore point.
We urge you to give it a whirl in store, and while it may not have the fancy tricks of the Galaxy S3, or the cult following of the iPhone 5, it's happily rubbing shoulders with the big boys.
8. HTC Droid DNA
The Droid DNA is a very good, very big phone exclusive to Verizon. Its hardware is the definition of consistency, giving snappy load times and overall excellent performance.
The battery was merely ok, which is not surprising on a 4G LTE phone with a humongous screen, but better than other HTC devices like the One X+. Still, if you go easy on the media streaming, the DNA will get you through the day just fine.
A few flaws aside, the Droid DNA by HTC is one of the best deals. You can't get more performance for $199 than with the DNA - for now, at least.
7. HTC First
The HTC First, the so-called Facebook phone, isn't really the ultimate device for sharing on the world's premier social network. Instead, it's a not at all bad mid-range device, blessed with a stock version of Android 4.1: Jelly Bean and LTE service from AT&T.
Still, it's hard to recommend that your average user buy a device and disable its primary selling point, in this case Facebook Home.
In spite of that, we like that it's compact, durable and has great LTE service from AT&T. It could become the next cult Android device, and might even be the last decent dual-core handset that ever gets made. Sans Facebook Home, it's exactly the type of device we wish we'd see more often.
6. LG Nexus 4
Google and LG have worked together to bring to market a fantastic offering. Essentially, this is a handset with world class specs – yet it's at a price you'd expect to get a budget phone for.Sure, there are a few things that could have been done better, but the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Had it not been crippled by silly things like a paltry memory allowance and not-quite-there camera, we'd have recommended it immediately and given it a five star rating. But make no mistake – this is the best Nexus handset so far by a long shot.
Best Android phone: 6-1
5. Galaxy S3
The Galaxy S3 has had its flagship title stolen by the new Galaxy S4, but it's still a very worthy device. It's now going for just $99 with two-year carrier contract - that's pretty much bottom dollar for a quad-core device with a fantastic high-res screen and removable storage.
If don't want to spend the big money for an S4, or if you've found a really great deal on an S3, there's no shame in sticking with this fast, reliable and hardly dated smartphone. It's also going to get an update with a lot of the new S4 software.
4. Galaxy Note 2
Samsung has taken a product many people expected to sink, due to its sheer size, and made it work. The 6-inch Note 2 is faster, stronger, better looking, and more functional than its predecessor. Thanks to the increased screen size, it now takes the crown in our eyes as the perfect media player.
But keep in mind, it's also expensive, and the kind of handset that we think will struggle to find mass appeal. Yet it does almost everything it sets out to do perfectly, with grace, class and maximum functionality that if you're in the market for a larger smartphone or a small tablet, there really is no better device.
3. Motorola Droid Razr HD
The Droid Razr HD is a stylish and capable piece of hardware. It looks great in black or white, and feels nice thanks to its Kevlar backing and edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass. We have only the slightest reservations about it, simply because smartphones have become so very competitive at this price point.
There's nothing wrong with the device, except for a mediocre camera. It's just that competition is so stiff. At this price you could have one of our other favorite phones, the iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3.
The choice essentially comes down to personal preference. While we prefer the aluminum and Kevlar construction of the Droid Razr HD to the more plastic feeling construction of the Galaxy S3 and Optimus G, there is something to be said for quad-core power.
2. Samsung Galaxy S4
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a phone that we really, really like. It's slick, it's fast and it wipes the floor with the competition in so many ways. The 13MP camera is one of the best we've seen on a phone for getting that picture, with rich colors and texture.
But for a phone that's so quick to run through nearly every task we were a little upset to see how long it takes to load a gallery up. This problem is compounded with a microSD card, and the more stuff on there, the more the phone has to parse.
However, the Galaxy S4 is a great, great device re-inventing what it means to own a brilliant smartphone in a number of ways. The gestures are cool, with the touch-less experience amazing at times. In short, it's a wonderful phone you want to pull out of your pocket again and again and again.
Also, TouchWiz is getting a little complex now. The simplicity of HTC Sense shines through, and the HTC One is a superior device in many ways because the innovation is based on things users want. Where Samsung brought the ability to wave to move photos, the HTC One made the speaker better.
1. HTC One
As we said, this is the best HTC phone ever, without a doubt. But we'll go one better than that: it's the best phone on the market full stop.
We would caveat the recommendation by mentioning the One's poor battery life, as it will really depend on how you use the phone on whether you'll love it or hate it. There's no doubt that Samsung makes better phones for the power user, at least in terms of battery consumption, but they're also made of plastic, where the One is probably the most premium-feeling out there.
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Updated: CTIA 2013: what to expect from this year's show
We're heading back to the desert sun of Las Vegas for a tech show, and no, not CES.
Come May 20, we'll join thousands of journalists, exhibitors and eager attendees in populating the Sands Expo & Convention Center for four days of seminars, press conferences, interview hunting and exhibit floor meandering for CTIA 2013, the annual industry tech show.
We hit up MobileCon (hosted by CTIA) in San Diego last year, and though a name reversal may be in order, CTIA 2013's got a more mobile and consumer focus than the Southern California show.
While it's no Mobile World Congress, CTIA is the perfect place to take the pulse of the industry following the unveiling of a multitude of new mobile devices, including the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
We don't expect a large number of product unveilings, though there's always the chance someone could decide to surprise the crowd.
What we do anticipate is a load of news surrounding carriers, coverage, apps, accessories, NFC, and mobile commerce, plus the opportunity to go hands on with products making their first public appearance.
Oh yeah, and Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Lopez will both be there.
Here's all the latest we've heard about, and what we expect to see from, the show:
1. Sit-down with Sprint
Pull up a seat. It's time to talk Sprint.There's a lot going on with America's third place carrier, least of which are bids by two parties to purchase the company outright.
We plan to get to get a read on which way Sprint is leaning - Dish or Softbank, as epic a decision as Jacob or Edward - plus how the company plans to compete in the 4G LTE space when we have some one-on-one time with the company in the Vegas desert (OK, it will be an air-conditioned hotel, but you get the idea).
There's much more to come, but know we have it out to sniff what's up with Sprint.
2. This Digital Life
AT&T brought its home management and automation system, Digital Life, to life in 15 markets April 26, marking the first time the service is available for consumers.The carrier plans to bring D.L. to up to 50 markets by the end of the year, and we expect to hear a good amount about how these plans are progressing at CTIA.
Kevin Petersen, senior vice president at Digital Life, is giving a keynote speech during "Connections," a connected home conference within the larger CTIA umbrella.
Though it's not a flashy new phone, as connected homes become a greater part of the digital conversation (just look at CES 2013), we envision many more companies jumping on the bandwagon and offering service's such as this. We'll look for insights on the march towards a more connected life at CTIA, so stay tuned for more.
3. Verizon wants us to save the date
What's this in our inbox? A save the date invite from Verizon for May 22?"Join Verizon Wireless for a Special Announcement at CTIA," it read. Intriguing.
During MobileCon, Verizon reveled in it's 4G LTE dominance, and we wouldn't be surprised if the company took yet another opportunity to talk up just how many American's its high-speed network covers.
Another take is that we'll get word on a new product, with our hearts hoping it's Verizon's own version of the HTC One.
TechRadar will be there live, so tune in at 11 a.m. May 22 for more.
4. Deutsche Telekom talks T-Mobile
Thomas Kiessling, chief product and innovation officer at Deutsche Telekom - T-Mobile's parent company - is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech during CTIA 2013.Kiessling's job description alone is reason enough to want to hear what the PhD has to say: According to his bio blurb on the CTIA website, Kiessling is in charge of Group-wide innovation strategy, product development and corporate R&D. He controls DT's product portfolio and defines the amorphous Group's product roadmap.
Inviting enough, but we expect Kiessling to give us a little taste of T-Mo-related news during his speech.
The carrier only recently completely re-invented itself, doing away with annual contracts and offering premium phones at up-front affordable prices. Handsets like the iPhone 5 recently landed on its door step, and more - such as the Galaxy S4 and HTC One - are on the horizon.
As if it wasn't busy enough, T-Mo is also pushing 4G LTE out a steady clip and plans to blanket 100 million U.S. customers by mid-year, so we expect Kiessling to have many topics to talk about.
5. Sprint, AT&T and U.S. Cellular spill on consumer goods
Based on our MobileCon experience, carriers are more keen on talking up the enterprise side of things than the consumer side, but that's only on surface.Once they get chatting, carriers are quite willing to spill the goods on things that matter to the Average Joe.
We'll pin Sprint, AT&T and U.S. Cellular down to talk coverage, competition and upcoming devices at CTIA. In fact, Mary Dillon, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular, will be in the house, so we fully expect to get the low down on the smaller carrier's plans for growth. It intends to sell Samsung's S4, so you know this "little guy" has some big offerings.
We expect news from all of the above on how many Americans each is covering with 4G LTE, whether anyone is working on LTE Advanced, and insight into newly announced and still unrevealed devices.
Maybe we'll catch wind of the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6?
6. Sony elaborates on contactless ecostyem
Sony, which made a splash at CES and MWC, is heading to Sin City for CTIA, but plans to show a slightly different side of its business than mobile phones specifically.At the Sony booth, there will be plenty of near-field communications (NFC)/FeliCa enabled devices and products that fit into the lattice work of what it calles the "contactless ecosystem." FeliCa, by the way, is a contactless IC card that Sony developed for transactions that can be completed in approx. 0.1 seconds.
We'll see the company's NFC Dynamic Tag tech and the uses it has in both healthcare and wellness through a variety of OEM partner products.
We're anxious to see what Sony has in mind for this tech. Are we talking connected home, advanced transactions at various retail locations, improved healthcare and fitness, or a everything under the contactless sun?
Sony is sure to have plenty of answers.
7. American Express, Visa vent on NFC
Speaking of NFC, both Visa and American Express (through its Open proxy) will hit the Strip for some convention love, and we're gearing up to hear how we can knock down our credit card payments.Just kidding.
With the States' preeminent credit card companies occupying a chunk of exhibit space at a mobile-focused show, we can only expect some NFC and other mobile commerce-related announcements and products to rear their head.
At MobileCon we got an earful from industry leaders in the mobile commerce space on challenges facing mobile wallets, but what solutions do traditional credit card companies have to offer for a world that is increasingly mobile?
How can we keep sensitive information secure while also bringing greater convenience to our lives, particularly as a growing number of mobile devices adopt NFC tech?
We expect to find out all at CTIA.
8. Is your phone App-solutely secure?
As more and more of our personal and professional lives gets tucked away onto phones, tablets and laptops, mobile security is an inescapable concern. So how secure would you say your phone is? Or that app you used to pay your friend back for lunch?If we've gotten you a bit nervous, perhaps a trip to App-solutely Security: The State of Mobile Security, will make you feel better. Or maybe it won't. It all depends on the conclusions drawn at this half-day educational event. It kicks off at 1pm on May 20, with a cocktail reception to calm worried nerves to follow.
9. Qualcomm calms down while giving us an earful
Qualcomm and Vegas seem to go together like a bachelor party and bottle service - not well.The chip maker had a press conference it would probably like to forget at CES 2013, and thankfully its CTIA presence will be more subdued....we think.
Mass production of its 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor is supposed to get underway in May, and we don't think Qualcomm will miss the chance to quack about its chips in Vegas. Perhaps we'll even catch a whiff of when the 800 will start making it out to phones and tablets, and which ones will house it.
During MWC 2013, the company spoke at length about how its chips can help solve 4G LTE fragmentation in the U.S. and Europe, and we expect much of that dialogue to carry over into CTIA as well.
We just hope we don't see Big Bird running around.
10. Enter the iZone
Apple is ever the host, never the guest. It either puts on an event, or doesn't show up at all. So while you'd never catch an official iPhone presence at a CTIA show, there's always a plethora of booths hawking the latest case or accessory for the MacBook, iPhone, iPad or whatever iThing is coming down the pipes.This year, CTIA has officially acknowledged the abundance of Apple accessories in attendance by granting them their own section of the show. They'll all be corralled in the iZone, a 17,000 square foot shrine to some of the world's most popular mobile devices. CTIA already published a list of iZone denizens, which includes noted case maker Incase, maker of stylish phone and laptop skins DecalGirl, and screen protection mogul iShieldz, to name a few.
Obviously, these manufacturers aren't limiting themselves to just iPhone and iPad accessories. Maybe they'll already be selling straps for the rumored Apple iWatch?
11. The wonderful World of Tablets
Tablets have quickly become a common device for everyday life. They're a great way to read, game, browse the web or occasionally get some work done. But for as much as they already do for us, there are those that are looking ahead to see how tablets can do more, and remain secure while doing so.The World of Tablets will take place on May 22 from 11:30am - 5:30pm. Host Open Path products has already published a laundry list of subjects it plans to broach. Here are the ones we find most intriguing:
- Tablet strategies to increase productivity
- The rise of phablets
- Tablets and interactive television: The second screen revolution
- Consumer usage habits- What will they pay for?
12. Ashton Kutcher and J. Lo?
CTIA's suit and tie crowd may be surprised to learn that Ashton Kutcher, of "That 70's Show" fame, will be featured as a keynote speaker. Kutcher made waves in the early days of Twitter, beating CNN in a race to one million Twitter followers. More recently, he's taken on the meaty role of playing Apple founder Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic, not to be confused with the one Aaron Sorkin is currently writing.So Kutcher is obviously a modern dude who loves tech, but what does he have to offer the CTIA crowd? Perhaps a cautionary tale about thinking before you tweet? Kutcher had an awkward moment in November of 2011 when he tweeted "How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste," unaware that a Penn State sex abuse scandal was breaking. Obviously, he's apologized, and has since handed the keys to his Twitter account over to his PR team. We wonder what the man would suggest for those without PR hacks to give our tweets a once over.
Jennifer Lopez is best known for her role in 'Selena,' as a judge on "American Idol" and for that Grammy dress, but Jenny from the Block is also the chairman and CEO of Nuyorican Productions Inc., a film and television company.
OK, that may still be too "Hollywood" for the subject matter of CTIA, but Ms. Lopez is participating in a panel on the growth of Latino mobile use. She'll be joined by Verizon COO and Executive VP Marni Walden as well as Brightstar chairman and CEO Marcelo Claure. We expect some fascinating insights and ideas about new innovations - and how those can be shared by more people - to come out of the discussion.
13. A three-day AppWeek
Love apps? Of course you do. So make a visit to the Mobile Apps Pavilion in the middle of the CTIA show floor. For three days it'll be home to specialty app designers and their products. While that's a few ticks short of a week, we'll let them get away with it. They're promising a place to sit down, kick up your feet and watch demos of new and upcoming apps on big screen televisions.These aren't the typical apps you'll find on Google Play or iTunes, either. This is mobile software designed for internal use with government, medical, financial, entertainment and other industries. Pay a visit and you just might find the mobile designer your business needs, or get inspired for a new way to be productive on your device of choice.
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iPhone 5S may celebrate its independence in July
As we draw nearer to the start of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, reports of what the Cupertino company is bringing to the table have been escalating.
It just so happens that rumors about the iPhone 5S have been plentiful these past few weeks, with many sources pointing to the updated smartphone making a showing at WWDC.
We've already heard Apple may be readying the iPhone 5S for a summer launch, with some sources indicating the iPhone 5 successor is already well into production.
Those claims became a little more grounded today, when marketing materials for Japanese telecommunications company KDDI leaked possible pre-order and release dates for the iPhone 5S.
Summer blockbuster
According to the leaked documents for KDDI's "au" wireless service, pre-orders for the iPhone 5S will begin on June 20, with the smartphone arriving some time in July.The leaked info also indicated the iPhone 5S will feature a 13MP camera, a fingerprint reader, and iOS 7, which are all certainly specifics we've heard touted at least once before.
French website Nowhereelse.fr uncovered the paperwork, with AppleInsider pointing out docs like this are used by the staff at official carrier stores as cheat sheets of sorts.
The June 20 pre-order window certainly meshes with what we've heard previously, and fits in with the timeline of an announcement of the 5S at WWDC during the week of June 10-14.
Releasing the iPhone 5S relatively soon after the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 rather than later in the year would help Apple keep pace with its rivals, but rumors about iPhone release dates are about as common as the phone itself.
Until some more concrete evidence arrives, we won't wait for the summer winds to blow in the iPhone 5S.
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Sony sending slender Xperia Tablet Z to customers by May 24
If you fancy a super-thin, 10.1-inch Android tablet bearing the Sony brand, the company's online store is now serving up pre-orders for its latest and greatest.
On Monday, Sony's online store began accepting pre-orders for its latest 10.1-inch Xperia Tablet Z, available in 16GB or 32GB configurations with a promised ship date of May 24.
Starting at $499.99 for the 16GB model (available in black only), Sony bills the Xperia Tablet Z as the "world's thinnest tablet" at a mere 0.27 inches thick and weighs a little more than a pound (1.09 lbs. to be exact).
Powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 Cortex-A9 quad-core processor, the Xperia Tablet Z includes Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a full HD 1920 x 1200 "Reality Display" the manufacturer says is capable of sharper, more vivid images than previous models.
Exclusive bundle available
Users who need extra space have the option of spending an additional $100 for a 32GB Sony Xperia Tablet Z, which comes in your choice of black or white.The Sony Store is also offering an exclusive bundle for the 32GB white model including a free charging cradle, a $44.99 value (also available separately).
Sony has built a couple of bonuses into the latest Xperia tablet, including universal infrared remote functionality and the ability to withstand dust or even being submerged in as much as three feet of water for up to 30 minutes.
Thinner than a pencil, preorders for the Sony Xperia Tablet Z are now available from the Sony Store for an estimated May 24 ship date with free two-day delivery.
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OS X 10.9 to bring more iOS features to the desktop?
The release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion saw Apple move its Mac desktop more towards the iOS experience and, if rumours are to be believed, that trend is only going to continue with 10.9.
The new operating system will reportedly be bringing a lot more "power-user" characteristics that draw on some of the iOS core features.
One such characteristic is a new multitasking panel similar to the swipable menu found on iPhones and iPads when you double-click the home button, as well as the ability to pause background apps and run full-screen apps on different monitors.
Apple to the core
A new Safari browser is also expected, redesigned under the hood to improve overall speed and efficiency.However, it doesn't look as though the OS update, which we may see alongside the MacBook Pro refresh at WWDC 2013, will be a major overhaul like those we've seen in the past.
There's also no further word on whether Siri might be speaking up on OS X 10.9, though it's previously been reported that Apple is looking to bring the feature in to its Mac ranges.
Apple has codenamed the new operating system "Cabernet." Can we read anything from this? Perhaps it means the OS will get better with age. Or maybe it just means we won't have anything to "wine" about when we finally get our fingertips on it.
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Blip: Forget the Fail Whale, we're all about the nonsensical Success Loch Ness (monster)
Since Twitter gave its servers a good kick, the much-loved Fail Whale doesn't get much action these days.
So welcome instead the Success Loch Ness (monster) from the mind of Fail Whale creator Yiying Lu.
It's so cute! It grows out of a cloud! And lives in the sky for some reason! And doesn't make any sense! And there's really no need for it at all! But it really is so, so cute!
More blips!
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Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 - available in beta now as a free public download - works in a very different way to conventional image editing tools, with a complete, integrated photography workflow for importing, managing, editing and sharing your pictures.
It can't match Adobe Photoshop CS6's layers, masks, blend modes and other high-end image manipulation tools, but from the photographer's point of view, it still has practically all the enhancement and adjustment tools you need to make a good photograph great, together with some unique advantages.
First, all your adjustments are non-destructive - you can go back at any time to reverse, remove or re-edit them, and all the time your original images remain intact and unchanged. Second, it treats raw files the same way as any other, editing them directly and seamlessly with no conversion process required.
Third, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is a full-powered, professional image cataloguing tool that can organise and search tens of thousands of images using EXIF data, IPTC metadata, 'smart collections' and more. It's a million miles away from Adobe Bridge, which is just as simple, and very limited, folder browser by comparison.
With Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5, the crossover between Lightroom and full Photoshop CS is larger still, because Adobe has made major enhancements to one editing tool and added two completely new ones.
So let's take a look at these new tools and other new features in the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta, to see how well they work and what they can do for your photographs.
Advanced Healing Brush
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 already had a spot removal tool, which was fine for getting rid of sensor dust spots but not much good for cloning out unwanted objects. You could do it, after a fashion, by using multiple spots, but it was time consuming and only partially effective.Now, though, you can paint over irregular objects and leave Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 to find the perfect source for your repair. If you don't like what it has done, you can move both the area you're repairing and the source.
The Advanced Healing Brush works in two modes: in Clone mode it carries out a straight copy of the clone source, but the Heal mode is more effective because it attempts to match the tones and colours of the area you're fixing.
It's still not as controllable or, ultimately, as effective as the Clone Stamp or Spot Healing Brush tools in full Photoshop, but the Advanced Healing Brush is a lot closer and quite good enough for most repairs. It's another reason to stick with Lightroom for editing instead of migrating your photos to Photoshop and back again.
Upright
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 already had some rather good tools for correcting lens distortion, using custom correct profiles, and perspective distortion, using horizontal and vertical correction sliders.But the Upright tool in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is a different beast altogether. It can detect horizontal and vertical skew in your images and fix either or both with a single click of a button.
Often, with 'intelligent' tools like these, you find they fail as often as they succeed and you need the right sort of image for them to work.
Not this time. The Upright tool is spectacularly effective at correcting perspective distortion in all kinds of images - and if it doesn't find any, it leaves your picture alone.
Radial Gradient
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5's Radial Gradient tool is designed to help you focus attention on your subject. You use it to create an elliptical or circular marquee, then use the adjustment sliders to control the appearance of areas outside this marquee. You can think of it as a kind of highly customisable vignette control.In fact, the adjustments you get here are the same as those you get with the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush tools, so you can control the Exposure, Clarity, Saturation and more.
You can also invert the mask so that the adjustments take place inside the marquee rather than outside it, and use several Radial Gradients on the same image, not just one.
It does work well, but even with the masks's Feather adjustment pushed to its maximum, the transition between adjusted and non-adjusted areas is a little too sharp, especially when you see the images at thumbnail size.
Smart Previews
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 brings another important enhancement, though this one is not so obvious.You can now create Smart Previews that enable offline editing - in other words, you can keep your originals on an external hard drive (often the only option with large libraries), but carry on editing your photos even when this drive isn't plugged in. The changes are stored within the Lightroom catalog and can be applied to the full-size versions of your photo when it's convenient to reconnect the drive.
Video slideshow sharing
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 introduced new video tools, but in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 it's now possible to combine videos and stills in slideshows, together with music, and then export HD movie files for viewing on practically any device.You just drop the video in among the stills in the slideshow, then the stills play for the duration you've chosen in the slideshow settings, but the video clip plays in full.
Improved photo book creation
You can now add page numbers to your books, and it's much easier to add text to your Books via the new Text tab.The ability to create and save user templates looks like it could be equally useful. This enables you to create a custom design for your pages, then save it for reuse in the future.
Verdict
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 boasts some exciting new features that look set to boost its abilities as an image editor, a cataloguing tool and as a way of sharing and publishing your photos.We liked
The new editing tools are good, but the Smart Previews could prove the most valuable feature in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.We disliked
We would prefer less interface and more image. If you don't have a big, high-res display, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can feel cramped and oppressive.Final verdict
Most of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5's new enhancements are found in the Develop module, which means Lightroom advances even further into the space normally occupied by full Photoshop.You'll still need Photoshop CS6 - or Photoshop Elements 11 - for more advanced tasks, but now there are even more day-to-day image improvements you can carry out in Lightroom without having to switch to a different program.
Although Adobe is constantly adding to Lightroom's feature set and capabilities, the basic look and feel of the program has changed very little. If you have both side panels and the filmstrip open at the same time, for example, there's not much space left in the centre for the thing you're actually working on. It's not always quick at rendering thumbnails, either, if you need to scroll through large numbers of images.
There are a few limitations of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta then, but for a free public beta it also shows a lot of promise in its cool new features. We look forward to testing the final paid version of the software soon.
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Blip: S4 'Samsung Style' Gangnam rip off is awful and brilliant in equal measure
Samsung India is getting a lot of flack today for a largely ill-advised aging-pop-culture-phenomenon marketing-tie-in video-thing advertising the Samsung Galaxy S4 through the medium of Gangnam Style.
Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh belts his way through a Gangnam Style parody heavy on the S4 specs in front of a largely unenthusiastic crowd backed up by Psy animations and besequined dancers.
Just watch Singh's face as he reluctantly whips his suit jacket off like he's turning tricks. He doesn't want to be here, but those bills aren't going to pay themselves. So he licks his lips, takes a breath and gets stuck in.
It's endearingly awful. So much love for the marketing team whose best day at work ever was probably the one on which they got tanked and penned the lyrics shoehorning Samsung Galaxy S4 features into the K-pop dance hit.
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In Depth: Love Tetris? Then check out these iPhone and iPad block-stacking games
From the moment Tetris escaped its original home, an obscure Elektronika 60 in Moscow's Dorodnicyn Computing Centre, it became something of a phenomenon. There can be few games as immediately recognisable, addictive and enduring as the block-stacking classic.
Tetris originated from creator Alexey Pajitnov's childhood fascination with traditional puzzle toys, and the game's similarly elegant simplicity ensured it a place among gaming's greats.
Like other classics, it's easy to understand: pieces you can move and rotate fall into a well; make solid horizontal lines and they vanish; the game's over when the pieces reach the top. But also, Tetris is tough to truly master, allowing you to refine your technique over time.
The basic nature of Tetris also ensured that it found its way to countless platforms. The MS-DOS version spread Tetris to the west, but the true genius moment in Tetris history was in being bundled with the original Game Boy. The little monochrome version captivated the world; from that point on, there was no stopping it.
The Tetris juggernaut arrived on home consoles, handhelds, keychains and even the original click-wheel iPod. Of course, it's also found on iOS. EA's now had two cracks at bringing Tetris to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and the original effort wasn't convincing. A problem with Tetris from an iOS standpoint is the game's reliance on responsive digital controls as the game speeds up. On-screen swipe equivalents never stood a chance.
For the newer version of Tetris (69p, iPhone; £1.99, iPad), the swipe version remains as Marathon Mode, but we prefer One-Touch. This mode shows locations into which the current piece can fit. A timer counts down (and speeds up as the game progresses) and you tap a location to confirm, or tap elsewhere to get more options. Purists might baulk at such a radical departure from the original controls, but we reckon the iOS revision gives you the strategy of Tetris without the frustration of imprecise touch controls.
There's also the puzzle-oriented Galaxy Mode where you dig down through junk, although it's a touch too reliant on power ups to achieve the best times - and the power-ups are, naturally, bought with In-App Purchases.
With Tetris being so popular, it should come as no surprise the App Store's littered with clones, which are typically brazen in their approach, only occasionally doing something slightly different (for example, adding the odd non-standard shape), presumably in an effort to not be sued.
Therefore, we're only interested in block-stacking games that do something unique, rather like Dream of Pixels (£1.99, Universal). On the face of it, you might question our judgement, since Dream of Pixels looks an awful lot like an upside-down Tetris; in reality, it's Tetris in reverse, with you using the familiar shapes to take chunks out of a menacing cloud, which ends your game if it gets to the bottom of the screen.
However, what appears to be a cunning riff on Tetris in reality plays very differently, and interesting bonuses and game modes ensure Dream of Pixels is a must-have for action-puzzle fans.
Of the remaining titles in our selection, there's Tetris in the DNA, but also crossover with match games. The key differentiator from the likes of gem-swapper Bejeweled is that our choices all take place in an endlessly refilling well.
Some efforts simplify the basic block-stacking premise: Shibuya (69p, iPhone) has only a single column, and you must rapidly create chains of two or more like-coloured blocks.
Meanwhile, Unify (£1.49, iPhone) returns shapes that spin and move, but has them come at you from two directions. Fortunately, Unify's limited to stubby rectangles with two coloured pieces (a system Puyo Puyo fans will immediately recognise), and instead of forming complete lines, you're tasked with grouping four identically coloured squares, which subsequently explode. At first, this is simple, but once the game speeds up and gives you a half-dozen colours to track, it's like combining stripped-down Tetris with juggling.
Mini Meteors (£1.99, iPad) is equally frenetic, albeit in a different way. It's more or less a straight copy of the Nintendo DS title Meteos, with coloured blocks rapidly falling into the well. You arrange three or more in a row or column, at which point they abruptly ignite and take off, carrying the blocks above them. If the make-shift rocket is too heavy, it'll stall and fall, although you can give it extra power by rearranging the blocks in mid-flight.
If you're into more sedate fare, grab Slydris (£1.49, Universal) and Drop7 (£1.99, Universal). The former has you re-arranging lengths of horizontal blocks in a well. With each move, more fall from the top, and so you must think ahead and create chains that give you breathing space.
Drop7 demands maths skills along with spatial awareness and planning. Instead of shapes or blocks, you drop numbered discs into the well, and should the number on any disc match how many are in its row or column, it'll explode. That might not sound that straightforward, but Drop7 has the same pickup- and-play brilliance and tough-to-master sneakiness as Tetris, although it certainly gives a work out to a slightly different part of the brain.
Our final two games also take block-stacking away from the purely abstract, although they rely on letters, not numbers. SpellTower (£1.49, Universal) has rows of letters cleared by making words, Boggle-style. Tower Mode is laid back (a static grid and no pressure), but Puzzle Mode adds a new row for every word you create. By the time you get to Rush Mode and its relentless timer, you'll be yelling at the screen, demanding to know why there are so many unusable letters huddled together.
Still, it's good training for Puzzlejuice (£1.49, Universal), which doesn't stray too far from the truth when it states it will "punch your brain in the face". It merges Tetris and SpellTower with Unify's colour-matching - complete rows of squares and match coloured blocks to transform them into letters, which are removed by dragging out words.
Add power ups and you've got a creation that pays homage to Tetris, match games and word games, while merrily ensuring steam will shoot out of your ears at regular intervals. We're a little bit surprised the developer didn't bung some shooting and sports in there for good measure!
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Google Now arrives on iPhone and iPad
Google has just updated its Search app for iOS, which finally makes Google Now available for both iPhone and iPad.
The app is almost identical across both iOS devices, while following the style seen on Android when it debuted last June.
For those not in the know, Google Now pulls info from all of Google's services to provide you with information before you even ask for it. So it might remind you to take an umbrella with you if the weather forecast is bleak.
The info is displayed on little cards and in notifications which can be easily dismissed once you've been alerted.
We want it now
However, some of the features, including Activity Summary, Boarding Pass, Concerts and Nearby Events aren't available for the iOS version right now, though we expect them to appear in the near future.All you have to do to get Google Now on your iOS device is download Google Search from the App Store and then get playing.
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Will Microsoft's IllumiRoom bring the new Xbox to life?
Microsoft's living room concept, IllumiRoom, just took a step closer to reality and possible inclusion on the next Xbox with a brand new video showcasing several of the potential features.
The IllumiRoom has already been teased by Redmond, but now we're able to get a proper look at what the projector-Kinect device might offer Xbox gamers in the near future.
According to the voice behind the video, the concept could be developed into a "next generation game console". No points for guess which console they might be referring to.
So what does it do? Quite a lot, as it turns out. The main aim of IllumiRoom is to overlap the virtual and physical worlds, projecting a larger image that surrounds the TV screen and extends the field of view in games.
"The Kinect captures colour and geometry of the room, and the projector displays illusions around a television screen," says the video.
Your move, PS4
This also leaves IllumiRoom open to other nifty features, including the ability to make objects appear to fall out of the TV and into our lounges.According to the demo, IllumiRoom is "self-calibrating and designed to work in any living room", meaning that any furniture surrounding the TV won't be an obstacle for the projection.
All the features can also be combined with one another, allowing developers to make the experience as bizarrely immersive as they want. And if there's not enough info in the video for you, a research paper containing a few more of IllumiRoom's intricate details has also been put online.
We're expecting Kinect to be a big feature of the new Xbox so IllumiRoom would be perfectly timed to launch alongside the new console. Only time will tell, but we expect that Microsoft might reveal more at CHI 2013 in Paris tomorrow.
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Blip: Taking sexting to the next level: Google Glass can take selfies in the shower
Sexting is about to, ahem, come of age. Ruddy-cheeked human tech-testing machine Robert Scoble has confirmed that Google Glass can be worn and used in the shower.
Thank goodness he got his wife to take this picture, rather than just casting his own view downwards and snapping away with the futuristic specs.
View his original image on Google+ where you can also resist/indulge the urge to Report for Abuse as you see fit.
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Summer holiday app round-up: Last minute getaway tips
Summer's soon here and if you don't want to suffer the indignity of being stuck in the house with bored, screaming kids for the duration of the sun-friendly months ahead, you need to book yourself a last minute bargain getaway.
And the GALAXY Note II is, as ever, your friend in this most worthwhile of endeavours, with a welter of great apps that work a treat on its expansive 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen.
Here's our choice of the top ten best last minute getaway tips for your Note II this summer.
Hotels.com
Free
The latest update of this all-encompassing hotel search app is designed specifically with GALAXY Note II users in mind.
The app has been optimised for the phone's generous display, with a 'Draw a Search' function, which uses the handset's S Pen to personalise a specific search area.
Hover the S Pen over a chosen hotel to get exact details on room rates and availability, along with images of the accommodation. There's a huge range of options, with listings for more than 154,000 hotels in 200 countries. So wherever you end up going on holiday, this neat add-on will have it covered.
Flightboard
£2.39
This natty app is ideal if you've got tight connections to make on your last-minute trip. Flightboard covers 3,000 airports and 1,400 airlines, so unless you're plotting some serious off grid action in western Mongolia or the Namib desert, chances are it'll have your arrival or departure covered.
As well as being a practical must-have that'll stop you searching out screens in cramped departure lounges, it's also a joy to look at. The design is based on the classic ticker board at Paris's Charles De Gaulle airport. It's also chock full of social features so you can share info with everyone else on your trip via Facebook, Twitter and email.
XE Currency
Free
Getting stung at the bureau de change is no way to start your holiday. XE Currency serves up real time info on the latest exchange rates, whether you're after US dollars, Euros or Bulgarian Lev.
That way if you can't reach an ATM, you can always check to see if the people you're buying your money from are giving you the best deal. What's more, it syncs currency conversions offline, so there's no need to pay hefty data roaming fees on your Note II when you touch down on the other side.
TripAdvisor Hotels Flights
Free
Getting the perfect hotel or choosing the right airline is imperative if you want to make your last minute summer break a relaxing one. TripAdvisor's reviews are always refreshingly honest and give an up-to-the-minute insight that guidebooks just can't manage.
The app is a doddle to use - browse restaurant reviews by food type, cost and rating and compare flight prices on one page. A nifty 'Near Me Now' feature uses your location to tell you the best places to go in your area, making this the ultimate replacement for your tatty old Rough Guide.
Voice Translator
Free
Learning the lingo is always common courtesy, but moving beyond 'hello', 'goodbye', 'please' and 'thank you' can sometimes be a daunting task. That's where Voice Translator comes in.
This app lets you type in what you want translated or simply dictate it via your Note II's microphone. You can listen back to the translation and either attempt it yourself or simply hand the phone to a local and hold your conversation in a whole new way. Over 50 languages are supported, including Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish and Hindi. You'll be hard pushed to find a destination where this app doesn't help.
National Rail Enquiries
Free
If you're opting to stay in Blighty rather than fly off to foreign climes, then sticking this freebie on your GALAXY Note II is essential.
National Rail Enquiries serves up live train departure and arrival times for every station in the UK, so whether you're spending a week on the beach in Cornwall or a few days on the West Highland Way, you'll know exactly when to get your train there and back. You can check a specific journey between two stations, track trains in real time to check on delays and even buy tickets via third parties.
AA Route Planner
£1.99
Alternatively, if you'd rather use the car than take the train, AA Route Planner is a smart bet for the directionally challenged. While it serves up standard ways of getting from A to B, its directions also point out local landmarks, making it easier to work out when you need to turn off the road or carry straight on.
There are route options for caravans and those looking to avoid toll roads. You also get the full route and turn-by-turn instructions via a specially design interactive map. No more crawling down country lanes and wondering if you've made a wrong turn.
Camping Trip Planner
69p
Hardy camping types, this one's for you. This app features a handy, editable checklist of things you'll need to take to ensure you don't find your week under canvas an uncomfortable dirge.
You can add things you'll need depending on what time of year you're going away or what sort of destination you're planning on camping. So, if you're hitting Provence, remember to pack a corkscrew. Or, if you're Alps-bound, ensure you've got walking boots marked down on the list. You can even save different lists depending on where you're headed.
WeatherPro
£2.49
Before you click 'buy' on that too-good-to-be-true last minute package, hit WeatherPro. This app is just about the best weather add-on going and serves up extremely detailed forecasts for myriad destinations around the globe.
Get long-range forecasts, check cloud cover and make sure that where you're going is getting all the sun you could possibly want. Two million locations are covered, you get radar images of Europe and the US and even info on wind speed, air pressure and rain percentages. Perfect for plotting a sunny getaway.
TravelSafe Pro
99p
It pays to be prepared; especially when your holiday has been booked in a hurry and you're busy deciding how many swim suits to pack.
TravelSafe Pro packs a plethora of essential information, including local numbers for emergency services, embassy contact details and 12 different language settings to help get over any communication barriers. Everything's stored locally, so if something bad does happen, then you won't be hit by high data charges while abroad.
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The future of high definition phone calls
The Samsung GALAXY Note II is a truly terrific smartphone, but it brings a lot to the party in terms of its most basic function – making crystal clear phone calls.
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the very first phone call made. The first mobile phone call took place on April 3 1973, by a pioneer called Martin Cooper, though it was another decade before the handset came to market.
And it wasn't exactly a social call, he phoned his rival to gloat that he had beat him to being able to produce a prototype of the first ever cell phone.
Back then it seemed that mobile phones would be expensive commodities and it would have seemed unbelievable that handsets such as the Samsung GALAXY Note II could not only exist, but could put such unbelievable power in our pockets.
Things have moved on from that crackly first call though and mobile networks have also improved exponentially – so much so that we can make calls in far-flung areas of the country and at great quality.
Here we explain how and why this is, and find out where call quality is heading in the near future.
The GALAXY Note II has been precision engineered to provide fewer signal drop-offs halfway through important conversations or fuzzy losses of reception in low-signal areas.
Early smartphones failed to live up to their promise and didn't provide the call quality we'd come to expect even from feature phones. But the GALAXY Note II is one of the best new handsets on the market for use as a phone – and, naturally, the best smartphone, too.
The GALAXY Note II has been designed to bring you the very best in call quality and Samsung has worked hard to make it a great experience for you using the handset.
Samsung's own TouchWiz Nature user interface has been re-worked for the Note II and makes the process of making calls easier than ever. The handset features active noise cancellation with its own dedicated microphone, reducing background noise and meaning that calls are clearer than ever, especially in noisy environments such as crowds and alongside traffic.
The GALAXY Note II's speakers are loud and clear and don't distort, meaning you can also have a clear conversation if you decide to put your call on speaker. Say goodbye to crackled conversations when on speakerphone.
The earpiece also has a great volume to it, meaning you won't miss out on those important conversation points or instructions from your boss.
Next-gen 4G networks
Finally, in the UK, the GALAXY Note II will work great on EE's next-generation 4G network as well as on other 4G networks when they're available. That means even better call coverage, so you'll get fewer dropped calls then you've ever experienced before.
In the US, AT&T will support the technology as it begins to support voice over its LTE 4G network. T-Mobile has already launched, while Sprint is also planning to launch the technology in the future. AT&T has faced problems with call quality and dropped calls in previous years, something it believes is firmly in the past.
Plus, according to various sources, Verizon will also launch the service in 2013. Great HD voice quality is just around the corner for many of us.
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In Depth: Guide: How to blog on your GALAXY Note II
Blogging isn't just blogging any more. When it kicked off over a decade ago, you only had a handful of options for publishing your thoughts online and managing the complex worlds of the associated web hosting, while organising your images and video and more was a complex, time consuming and often expensive task.
But that's all history.
Nowadays you can smash together a blog in seconds, using one of today's modern, simpler, personal publishing tools, that supply you with all the space, templates and tools needed to express yourself to your audience, whether that audience consists of 25,000 daily readers or just your mum.
The GALAXY Note II's generous screen and S Pen also let you handle more complex design tasks, meaning you can get your personal "online brand identity" sorted and updated without even having to leave bed.
Here's what you need to get your blog on in style.
Wordpress
Free
If you've plumped for Wordpress as the backend for your blog, there's an excellent Android app designed specifically to update it from a mobile phone.
You can upload images, specify default sizes, edit the positions and more, plus once something's live it even lets you filter and approve comments within the app, making it easy to navigate through and bin the endless stream of spam comments that clog up most Wordpress blogs these days.
Blogger
Free
Google's old Blogger portal was how a lot of people first cut their teeth and fingers on the personal blogging circuit, and the tool has survived in the form of a very useful Android app.
It imports all your old Blogger accounts, then offers a full and straightforward way to update your blog from phone. It integrates with Android's sharing menu too, so simply opening a photo in the Gallery and sharing it via the Blogger app is enough to automatically embed it in a new post that's ready for uploading.
Photoshop Touch for phone
£2.99
If you want to actually work on designing the look your blog yourself, you should get a professional image-editing tool on your Note II. Adobe's Photoshop series has long been the favoured picture manipulation option of the professional photography and design crowd, and yes, there's an Android version.
Called Photoshop Touch, this lets you work on layered documents on your mobile, supporting Adobe's cloud service for syncing mobile and desktop versions of files -- letting you seamlessly switch from working on your PC to fiddling about with graphics on your phone.
Little Photo
Free
For an easier way to edit your Note II's images prior to chucking them up on a blog, try Little Photo. It's a simple, free app that adds a variety of filters to your shots.
Unlike rivals like Instagram, it doesn't try to get you to upload photos to its own service -- you just save them to your phone's memory and are free to share them in any of Android's usual ways. Effects can be layered and multiplied, too, creating some wildly odd results.
Justin.tv Broadcaster
Free
If you are ready to take it to the NEXT LEVEL, there's this. Justin.tv is a personal video broadcaster, letting you use your smartphone as a miniature recording studio so you can video blog, live, from your phone.
All you need is a bit of Blu-tak to hold your phone up, then the world's your potential audience. Videos are streamed via the web, so anyone with a PC or Mac can enjoy whatever you're rambling into your phone's camera, leaving comments beside it in a continually updating stream. It is one for the brave.
Tumblr
Free
One of the more recent blogging portals is Tumblr, which makes collating words, text, pictures and videos amazingly simple. The Android app lets users share anything from their phone's memory to their personal Tumblr page, complete with an easily accessible Home screen widget for the ultimate in impulsive, one-press blogging action.
You don't even need to add your own words, making it an ideal way to clip images, videos and short pieces of text for your own personal amusement.
Writer
Free
If you need to get into some sort of magical quiet space in order to churn out your best SEO ready content, try Writer.
It's a simple mobile word processor that ditches most of the options that usually clutter up the more professional old word processing tools, for a clean, crisp layout that emphasises only the very, very important and meaningful things you want to say on the internet. It's a minimalist thing for people who consider writing an art, rather than a painful chore to be endured.
SwiftKey Keyboard
£2.99
If your idea of blogging is simply to churn out as much content in as little time as possible, SwiftKey will help meet today's word count target.
It analyses your writing style by reading through your existing SMS messages, social network posts and even any RSS feeds you may have populated with older content, creating a database that can be used to predict the next word you're about to type. It also uses gesture input, letting bloggers write without lifting a finger by simply drawing on the screen. It'll boost productivity by at least 17.4 percent.
Free
Pocket's a great app for saving and managing little snippets and articles you want to blog about at some point in the future.
The clever thing here is the way it syncs your content between phone and desktop, so anything you've saved to the app during your working day will automatically be there on your phone ready for blogging up and linking to later. It's also a gorgeous app that's a great little mobile reading choice on its own, too.
Google Analytics
Free
Of course, there's not much fun in blogging if you don't know if anyone's actually reading your words or not. Which is why you might want to get Google's ultra-nerdy Analytics working on your phone, and instantly open up an enormous world of technical analysis for any site you've added to its database.
The Android app is as fully featured as the desktop site, giving you visitor counts, page referral stats, pretty little charts and more, all helping boost morale and make it all seem... worthwhile.
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Also check out on Your Mobile Life:
Working on the go made easy
VIDEO: A Beginner's Guide to the Samsung GALAXY Note II
Living with the Samsung Galaxy Note II
Writers, designers and gamers: how the Note II brings innovation to the smartphone space
Streamline your office with S Note and S Planner
| |
Read More ...
Telefonica moves into real time data
Telefonica Digital, a business division of the Spanish telco which trades in the UK as O2, has teamed with UK firm Push Technology to provide a cloud based data distribution service using the latter's Diffusion technology.
They are claiming it can provide an infrastructure-as-as-service that supports distributing data in real time without using excessive bandwidth or calling for the user to invest in more servers.
Sean Bowen, CEO of Push Technology, told TRPro that the key element of the service is that, with data moving at high speed through the company's servers, it can spot the most recent iteration of a dataset and ensure that this goes through to user rather than one which has already been replaced.
This can be particularly important in processes such as monitoring fast changing prices.
Telefonica can provide low latency fibre or mobile networks which he said helps Push to flex the applications and handle peaks and troughs in traffic.
"We want to guarantee throughput and scalability," he said. "We don't want to throttle it back or limit connections."
Bowen said the companies are aiming at the market for small to midsized businesses as well as large firms, and are pricing the service through bundles of connections or based on the number of instances a customer calls up.
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iPad mini 2 said to be facing delays, Retina display to blame
The next iPad mini, which is expected to land with Retina display, could be facing production delays.
At least that's the word from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims to be in the know after speaking to supply chain insiders.
The device is facing build issues involving the creation of its 7.9-inch retina display, says Kuo, who reckons that the device won't even go into production before October.
The lack of a Retina display was one of our main criticisms of the current iPad mini, but we've always been confident that we'd see it in the second generation of the tablet, expected to launch later this year.
A mini price tag too?
Kuo goes on to speculate that Apple might be introducing a cheaper iPad mini in the meantime, which is pegged between $199 (around £128 / AUS$192) and $249 (around £160 / AUS$240).However, this part of Kuo's claim appears to be nothing more than mere speculation, so we're throwing a little more salt on it until we hear something a little more concrete.
But with the iPad mini feeling the growing threat from its (cheaper) Android tablet competitors - and a cheaper iPhone also said to be on the way - it wouldn't be the most surprising move for Cupertino to make in order to stay in the race.
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