Aussie bookseller challenging Amazon with 'Kindle Amnesty'
An Aussie bookshop is taking on Amazon, offering a $50 voucher when customers trade in a Kindle device and replace it with a different ereader.
Pages and Pages of Mosman in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs is urging its customers to avoid Amazon's lock-in business model and to choose a comparable e-book device that supports more common and widely available ebook formats.
"We want to educate our customers about how a Kindle works and what it does, and to show them that there is other choices in the market," says Jon Page, General Manager of the store. "They don't have to default to Kindle and be locked in to Amazon to do all their reading."
Freedom in formats
As an alternative, Pages and Pages is selling the BeBook Touch ereader, which is compatible with ePub, PDF, .txt, HTML and mobipocket formats. It also supports ePub files with Adobe DRM copy protection."ePub format is the international standard ebook format that every ebook retailer uses," explains Page. "What Amazon does is convert ePub files from publishers to its own format, and because of digital rights restrictions, consumers are not allowed to copy or convert files to a different format... so they are forced to read these files using a Kindle device."
Concerned that Kindles were becoming the acknowledged name for ebook readers generally, Pages and Pages decided to launch a "Kindle Amnesty", where customers can turn in their Kindle readers and receive a gift voucher with the purchase of a BeBook reader.
The first amnesty happened last weekend, with future events planned for the third Saturday of each month going forward.
The $50 voucher can be spent on other items in the store, including e-books. Pages and Pages recenlty partnered with Sydney's based publisher Readcloud to distribute ebooks, which are sold in the ePub file format. The store advertises that it stocks up to 75,000 titles from many of the major publishing houses.
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Telstra shares its plan for data sharing plans
A recent post on Telstra's Exchange blog points to the telco planning to incorporate shared data plans into its range, which would let customers use a combined data allowance across several different devices.
The blog post doesn't elaborate on when Telstra will launch these plans, or whether it will charge a premium for the privilege.
Data sharing is a feature that customers have been wanting for some time, but it is something only a few telcos around the world have implemented.
It's rare to share
Telstra will be the first telco in Australia to offer shared data plans, but not the first in the world, with telcos like Orange in France offering a shared option for some time.Verizon in the U.S. offers shared plans too, with a single fee for the data and an extra "line rental" fee for each device added to the account. Each smartphone adds US$5 per month to the bill, each tablet is US$10 and a USB modem is an addition US$20 per month.
Demand for data services has never been higher, with Australian telco analyst Telesyte estimating there is in excess of 30-million data-enabled devices active in Australia -- a 133-percent market penetration.
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JB Hi-Fi wants you to read more ebooks, Now
While Amazon continues to rule the ebook world with its Kindle Paperwhite and Fire HD, local retailer JB Hi-Fi has decided to try and crash the ebook party with the launch of its new Now Books service.
The new online store allows customers to purchase and read digital copies of books on their PC or Mac, iOS or Android device, or selected ereaders that support Adobe DRM (which doesn't include the market-leading Kindle).
JB Hi-Fi has released dedicated apps for both iOS and Android to support the service, which lets you browse both locally stored and purchased books direct from your device.
Unfortunately you need to register to use the service from a PC before the apps will work though, and you'll need an Adobe ID to work around the DRM restrictions as well.
Priced to clear?
Given JB Hi-Fi's traditional approach of selling goods at a discounted rate, the pricing of ebooks on the Now Books store seems a little standard.Picking up a copy of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones, for example, will cost AUD$9.99 through JB Hi-Fi. It costs $US9.99 through Kobo Books and $US10.39 from Amazon's Kindle store.
So far so good, but picking up Gerard Whately's biography on Black Caviar costs AUD$17.99 on JB, $US17.99 on Kobo Books and $US19.11 from Amazon's Kindle store.
While there's bound to be some discrepancies across the entire catalogue, it appears that the new JB Hi-Fi portal is on par with the other leading ebook stores on the market.
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Leap Motion puts Google Earth at your fingertips
Leap Motion and the latest Google Earth update provide a new way to appreciate planet Earth on Earth Day by allowing you to hold the whole world in your hands and spin it on its virtual axis.
Google Earth 7.1, released today, natively supports Leap Motion gesture controls for moving about the popular mapping software with Minority Report-like hand movements.
A new video from the company illustrates that there's no need to touch a mouse, keyboard, or screen to bounce the globe around or fly under the Golden Gate Bridge with Leap Motion.
"Our mission at Leap Motion is to provide a fundamentally better computing experience that frees people to create and explore the digital world in new ways," said cofounder and CEO Michael Buckwald to TechRadar through a spokesperson.
"Google Earth combined with Leap Motion's 3-D, touch-free technology feels so incredibly immersive – people feel connected to the world in a new and compelling way."
Leap Motion release date
The ability to wade your way through Google Earth 7.1 in dependent upon the fact that you own Leap Motion USB hardware."Today, our community of more than 10,000 developers around the world are the first people able to experience Google Earth through Leap Motion," said Buckwald.
"When we ship soon, we're excited to see what new explorations people leap into."
So not everyone can experience Leap Motion on Earth Day, as pre-orders are still being taken up until the device's official May 13 release date.
Leap Motion price
The power to soar around Earth like Superman does come at a price, and it's different for the U.S., U.K., and Australia.Leap Motion has set the U.S. price at $79.99, and with an $8.99 shipping fee it comes out to a grand total of $88.98.
The total price of a Leap Motion device is slightly more expensive; in U.K. it's £71 and in Australia it's AUD$92.
With Google Earth 7.1, Leap Motion finally gives everyone more than just games and sketching to look forward to, making its "the future is within reach" slogan seem ready for May 13.
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HTC One mic troubles, Apple over Google: tech fights the legal fight
Ah, legal troubles. Does any tech firm not have a few?
A few tribunal tales have popped up today, but we'll start with the firm that always seems to find itself on either end of a lawsuit.
Apple actually got some welcome news as the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) threw out the final "patent-in-suit" remaining from a grievance filed in 2010 by Google-owned Motorola against the Cupertino company, as reported by FOSS Patents.
The patent in question dealt with a "sensor controlled user interface for portable communication devices," but the ITC ruled it invalid.
Movin' on
What it means for Apple is that it can continue to import iPhones into the U.S. that have the sensor (which causes the phone to ignore touch gestures when the user is on a phone call, for example).Google can appeal the decision to the same court currently reviewing another ITC ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judging by its history, this is an option Google will likely take.
Mic check
Across the pond in a little town called Amsterdam, the city's District Court granted a request put in by Nokia to place a preliminary injunction on supplies of microphone parts invented by and made exclusively for the Finnish firm. This is according to a Nokia statement picked up by Engadget today.The loser on the other side is HTC, which reportedly uses the components in its flagship One phone, a device that only recently starting shipping to customers after delays. The mics are said to be found in the Lumia 720.
"HTC has no license or authorization from Nokia to use these microphones or the Nokia technologies from which they have been developed," the statement read.
"In its marketing materials, HTC claims that its HDR microphone is a key feature for the HTC One, but it is Nokia technology, developed exclusively for use in Nokia products," it continued.
Apparently, HTC using Nokia parts without permission is an ongoing issue, and Nokia wants its competitor to "compete using its own innovations and to stop copying from Nokia."
HTC said it was disappointed by the decision and is looking at what impact it will have on its business as well as alternative solutions.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 flexible OLED rumours back for one more round
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet will arrive at IFA 2013 in September touting a first-of-its-kind flexible plastic OLED display, reports on Monday claimed once again.
The Korean giant plans to ditch the glass OLED displays that have featured on all recent devices to launch its long-awaited "unbreakable" plastic solution, according to research from the OLED Association website.
The site said the screen will be at least 5.9-inches in size with the flexible OLED tech "thinner and lighter than the conventional glass substrate type OLED."
The change will allow the display portion of the phone to be reduced to an estimated 0.5mm and 50g, compared with the 1.5mm and 100g vital stats within the current tech.
Higher mobility
The report states: "The consumer market will be able to experience the unbreakable plastic based AMOLED display integrated into the Galaxy Note 3. Compared to glass substrate type AMOLEDs, the flexible display features a thinner and lighter form factor, resulting in smaller size and higher mobility."The report adds to recent speculation that Samsung is set to ditch its plastic frame for a premium metal casing when it launches the Galaxy Note 3 later this year.
It would be somewhat ironic if Samsung ditched the material from one aspect of the handset only to add it to another element.
Of course, this rumour should once again be taken with a pinch of salt, but a flexible display sure would quieten down some of the critics who've slammed Samsung's 'cheap' looking recent designs.
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Hands-on review: Updated: Samsung Galaxy S4
Features and specs
Update: We've had the Samsung Galaxy S4 in our testing labs for a few days now, and we're putting it through our rigorous testing process as you read this to bring you a fully in-depth analysis of the handset.In the meantime, check out our updated hands on shots and check back as we'll be bringing the full review with star rating any time soon.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3.
However, many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use; although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium.
We've already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4 features, as it's been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned out to be pretty bang on.
But that doesn't matter – megapixels and gigabytes don't mean anything if they're not wrapped up in a decent package, so how much of an improvement is the Samsung Galaxy S4 spec list and design over the S3, and more importantly, the competition?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 launch saw the Korean brand claiming the phone is built on four foundations: an improved camera, better connections with others, health and wellbeing improvements and simply making life easier.While this is all a little hyperbolic, the S4 at least brings an integrated feel to things while improving nearly every spec on offer. The outside is still plastic, but harks back to the mesh design, if not feel of the Galaxy S2.
Colour wise you've got a choice of 'White Frost' and 'Black Mist', which adorn the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, despite still having to pack in a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen.
That means it will have a larger screen, but smaller chassis than the Galaxy S3, which is a superbly impressive feat of engineering, especially when you consider the specs.
But like its predecessor, the plastic feeling of the Galaxy S3 won't appeal to all. It feels very lightweight (tipping the scales at 130g) in the hand, and while people have been conditioned against this feeling cheap, compare it to the HTC One and you'll see that it's a long way from premium feeling.
However, it's exactly the same sensation as we found on the Galaxy S3, and given the record numbers of sales that had Samsung is sticking with a winning formula, plus there's more than a market for a phone that you'll barely notice in your pocket most of the time.
Compared to rest of the Galaxy line, the S4 continues in the same vein as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the S3, (as well as myriad other devices) showing the Koreans are keen on creating a design heritage here.
The home button is roughly the same size and the same menu and back buttons remain from the prequel.
Overall, the effect is a much more well put together Galaxy S3 – so this means that when you take it out down the pub people won't notice you've got the latest phone, which is a bit of a shame.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 feels like much more of an iterative update than new design, and while it will probably sell well there's very little to wow you when it comes to the overall shape. Specs are important, but if there was such as thing as a Samsung Galaxy S3S, this would be it.
But away from all that negativity! We have a new phone to check over, so let's take a minute and talk about the screen: it's even more beautiful than before.
Display
We almost feel sad that this isn't the first Full HD screen we've seen on a mobile phone, as it's kind of lost its lustre since the likes of the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z have all managed the same trick – but it improves the sharpness a lot, even though you're not getting that much different from the S3.
Side by side you can see the difference close up, and the brightness and efficiency have been tweaked to make this a more compelling screen in a phone. Talk all you want about the benefits and colour saturation of LCD – the Samsung Galaxy S4 is leagues ahead when it comes to jaw-dropping screens.
The 441ppi pixel density doesn't match the HTC One, but is more than good enough for the average user.
We'll be mightily surprised if the combined popularity of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 don't prompt Apple into a re-tooling of the screen with the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, as the sharpness will definitely wow users on the shelves.
Aside from the initial impression of the design, in the hand the Samsung Galaxy S3 feels just dandy. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (you'll need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand.
So in short: if you don't mind plastic and you like cutting-edge HD screens in your pocket, this is a phone definitely worth checking out.
Interface
Samsung hasn't really re-tooled the Touchwiz overlay for the Galaxy S4, but has added some clever upgrades that will have some users talking about innovation.
For instance, the lock screen doesn't have the water rippling any more, but does register your finger from up to two centimetres away, so a little beam of light will follow your digit as you unlock. It's something you'll definitely play with for ages.
It's clear with the Galaxy S4 that Samsung has worked out there's only so much it can do on the hardware side these days – not to say that we're pretty impressed with the spec list - and as such has tried to bring the unique flavour through the interface instead.
As before with Touchwiz, there's a definite sense the whole process has been simplified, as the phone has got a much easier feel to it when swiping around. That's not to say there aren't loads of widgets to be played with, but there is less clutter on the larger screen.
The dock at the bottom of the display pervades, and there are more widgets to play with. Thanks to the Galaxy S4 running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 you've now got an addition in the notifications bar of a toggle in the top-right hand corner where you can turn on and off pretty much anything, from NFC to Group Cast to eye-tracking.
Swiping around the display was easy as pie – it's not exactly taxing on the processor, but we did note that there was a slight pause as we swiped through the menu screen on this pre-production model.
However, there is a worry that the octa-core (yes, you read that right) 1.6 GHz Exynos 5 CPU, with 2GB of RAM as well, could suck power a little too dramatically – but we've yet to hear the full details of how the CPU will work before we can pass any judgement on that.
Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to tell if you're looking at the screen, has stablemates now. Smart Pause will note if your gaze leaves the screen and will pause the video, and Smart Scroll will check when you're reading a web page and scroll up and down as you tilt the device.
It's a novel idea for replacing things you do already but in practice we didn't find either that useful. Smart Pause takes a second to register your gaze has gone, which means you'll still miss part of the video, and Smart Scroll (again, pre-production model) was far from accurate when we tilted the phone.
That said, the internet browsing as a whole was sublimely fast (when our conference room Wi-Fi played nicely with the phone) and we were impressed with the clarity of web pages as we zoomed through them.
If Smart Scrolling was the way we'd always used our phones, and then someone invented scrolling with the finger, that would be amazing. It just seems that this is a way of doing things for the sake of it - we can't see the likes of Apple or HTC ever doing the same thing.
Smart Voice hasn't been upgraded beyond improving the accuracy of the voice recognition and Driving Mode, which will give you more voice-related feedback when you're in your motor.
Smart Alert has been upgraded: now it's joined by Air Gestures, which allow you to swipe the phone without touching the screen. So this means you can flip through pictures or music tracks ("good if you have messy fingers" says Samsung) flick to the top of a list by wiping upwards on the screen and Air Call Accept starts the camera… no, we're joking. It accepts a call without touching the screen.
On top of that there's Hover mode, which is the same as Air View on the Note 2 which used the S Pen and tracked when it was near the screen to give previews of emails, video scrolling without disturbing the action, and seeing who is on speed dial.
A quick test with this saw the preview being activated a little too easily, but it's definitely a neat feature and something we could get used to.
Any Android phone fans will be a little perplexed by some areas of the phone, unless of course you've spent some time working with Android 4.2 at any point. The first big change is the fact the notifications bar packs not just the standard icons for turning off Wi-Fi and the like, but a tile to tap that takes you to a whole host of other toggles, from things like AllShare Cast to NFC and more.
The settings menu has also been changed to split into four sections, making it easier to play around with connections, your device settings, accounts for social networks or syncing accounts and more, for the likes of device information.
It might confuse those used to the original way of TouchWiz working, but we think Samsung has worked out a decent way to stop things looking so disjointed.
But overall the good news is the large screen looks great, the improved CPU might not be needed but is welcomed and the little touches like the shining lock screen do actually feel like a real step forward.
NFC
There's a lot riding on NFC this year - what's it going to do in terms of making the beepy technology worth using in the day to day lives of many?Well, with a tie-in with Visa looks like you'll be able to use your phone to pay for bits and pieces more easily by including the PayWave app within the Galaxy S4, meaning you won't have to get validation from the networks for the payment mechanism.
We're also waiting for Samsung's range of NFC-enabled docks to appear, in the same vein as Sony and it's NFC message, so we can get tapping our phones and make music appear in other places. Or you could just use something from another manufacturer and it will work as well, as it's all just Bluetooth connection really. It's your call.
Messaging
There's some good news for those that loathed the stock keyboard on the Galaxy S3, as it's now been replaced with Android's best keyboard around: Swiftkey.We didn't get the chance to test out this new implementation on our pre-production unit, but it will be using Swiftkey 4, which brings Flow for swiping out your words on top of the frankly impossibly good prediction engine - the same algorithm that's been partly used for the all new BlackBerry 10 keyboard in the BB Z10.
Media
The Samsung Galaxy S4 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in that it's designed for media – which is what you'd expect from a phone that's the sequel to the phone we dubbed the best out there for media on the go.
The video player is obviously taking centre stage here on the Galaxy S4, and combined with the improved Full HD Super AMOLED screen is just magnificent for watching movies.
The video hub now contains both personal and downloaded content in one place, and it looks really, really nice when viewing it on the 5-inch screen.
It's an understandably excellent experience, with the screen veritably shining with quality contrast ratios and decent colour reproduction.
The navigation experience is easy as well, and slipping up and down the timeline to move through a video seems very intuitive.
AllShare Cast is included as well, powering up the ability to stream to and from other devices. In addition to being able to send content from the phone to a TV and receive from a PC in your home network, you can also do this remotely now, as long as the device is turned on obviously.
Another feature is mirroring, where you can send whatever is on the screen of your Galaxy S4 and have it show on a larger display, either through connecting your phone using a MHL lead or an AllShare Cast dongle / compatible Samsung TV.
We've seen this on a number of devices, and while it's not going to allow big screen gaming on the go, as we've often noted that there's a lag between input and its realisation on the screen, it could be good for movies if it's less jumpy than found on the S3.
Samsung has managed to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to internal storage too – it will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavours plus up to 64GB through a microSD card as well. That's more storage than most will ever need on it's own, right?
This will be a killer feature for a lot of smartphone users, as while the internal storage is generally good enough for most things, many love the idea of having the choice to expand if they so wish – so combining this with an expandable battery is a great idea from Samsung once again.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from its predecessor, with a 13MP sensor on the back, which now has to bulge slightly from the chassis.Samsung promises excellent low-light snaps from the S4 as well, but we doubt it can take on the might of the HTC One when it comes to low light conditions, as the Galaxy S3 was decimated by the might of HTC's Ultrapixels - and that's before we even get onto the Nokia Lumia 920.
From a blindingly bright flash to a backside illuminated sensor, our quick snaps came out crisply and clearly – and when we say quick, we mean it.
The UI has changed a bit to mimic that found on the Samsung Galaxy Camera, with a special mode wheel to move between items like the Macro, Beauty shot and smile setting, and while it's a little slow it's definitely an easier to use interface.
Burst mode is predictably back, but it now comes with a 'Drama' setting, so you can take one shot and see all the pictures merge into one. It works really well as long as you don't have something that's just too close to the camera or too large – in our tests it showed you need a lot of space between each movement.
Eraser mode and Cinema mode also come straight from the Nokia Lumia phones we've seen recently – the former works extremely well though, noting an unwanted object moving in the background and erasing it by drawing a pink outline around the thing and letting you delete.
However, you have to have the mode enabled, which takes multiple pics, rather than the standard shot, so you probably won't be able to make good use of it most of the time.
Cinema mode lets you shoot a short video and choose the part to keep static – this means you can have a background moving while the person stays the same, and is created in a GIF to make things properly early noughties.
You also get a 2MP camera on the front of the phone for some decent personal snaps – plus you can also get HD video recording too.
This has been updated to allow you to record video and pictures with the front and back cameras simultaneously, which doesn't really make much sense in the grand scheme of things, but at least you can put some clever frames around your face to make it more relevant.
Battery
Samsung has managed to lower the thickness of the Galaxy S4 compared to the S3 but upgraded the battery from 2,100mAh to 2,600mAh, promising a much larger capacity and therefore longer life.
However, with all those extra pixels (1080 x 1920) to drive and more cores – we're not sure whether this will actually translate to better battery life or not. Samsung has promised that the power management will be more intelligent than ever before, but we're yet to play a good half hour of HD gaming and then watch a monster movie marathon on the S4 to really test it out.
It was excellent on the S3 for the most part, so here's hoping that that octa-core will inspire even better battery life.
Features and apps
There's a whole glut of new features on offer with the Samsung Galaxy S4, with elements like a more refined method of buying media to a dedicated S Health application.
The former of these two is pretty expansive, and a clear sign that Samsung is looking to take over even more of Google's efforts into monetising Android - Play Store is one of the big ways Google looks to cash in on Android use, and Samsung's ploy to create a unified hub that offers music, books, games and movies is going to get right in the way of that.
Irrespective of that, it's a much better of way of getting content onto your device, and the line up looks very strong. We haven't had a good root around yet to see the full limits, but here's hoping it's well connected with Samsung's Music Hub and the like to provide a fully-integrated system.
S Health is an interesting proposition too - it's clearly taking the idea of wearable technology from Nike+ and FitBit and rolling it into its own ecosystem.
The application is large and wide-ranging though - from a large database of food and drink you can tap into and note what kind of calorie intake you're rocking, to a an app that lets you note how many steps you've taken that day (using the phone's accelerometer / gyroscope as a pedometer) - and it can even tell when you're running and walking separately.
Anyone that's ever used Nike+ Fuelband and the iPhone app will think this seems very similar to that - add to that the fact Samsung is also releasing S Health accessories in the shape of an S Band and a set of wireless scales, and you can see why some people might see this as copying innovation.
In reality, it's just Samsung taking some popular ideas around fitness technology and embedding them more deeply within the phone - copyright aside - and presenting it in a way that's easy to digest and schedule.
It would be brilliant if this could interact with something like Adidas MiCoach to come up with tailored running and exercise plans, but as it stands it's a more fully-formed idea than anything we've seen from Samsung in the past.
To get on-the-spot news, app tips and the full lowdown on Samsung's latest mobile announcements check out Samsung's Your Mobile Life on TechRadar.
Accessories
The Samsung Galaxy S4 launch was characterised by many things - confusing Broadway ideas being a main theme - but that doesn't mean that the phone was the only thing worth noting.From S Health to the ability to turn your new phone into a gaming console, the Galaxy S4 announcement also showed off some nifty new accessories for you to play with and buy from Samsung (a kind gesture, right?) when you spend all that cash on phone.
We went behind the scenes at the launch to get the inside scoop on what was happening with these new ideas, and more importantly, whether you should add them to your wishlist when the S4 launches at the end of April.
S Health
There was a lot on offer for the fitness-inclined smartphone buyer with the Galaxy S4 launch, with S Health being the new name that pulls together a number of different ideas for keeping your heart and body in check, such as the Running Mate app which apes a lot of functionality from the likes of Runkeeper, Endomondo, Nike+ and Adidas MiCoach.The inbuilt app uses the phone accelerometer and gyroscope to track your movements for the most part, but Samsung has spotted a trick or two when it comes to accessories you can buy to make things that much easier.
Body Scale
These bathroom scales connect to the phone using Bluetooth and allow you to, you know, see how heavy you (and six others, with multiple profiles supported) are day to day without having to worry about all the palaver of weighing yourself on another set of scales and transferring the numbers across manually.
Which would also save you heaps of cash, in all likelihood, as we can't see these being that cheap to buy.
Then again, they look styling and the display is superbly easy to read out - and if you're something of a gadget-fiend, there's no denying it's cool to watch the weight pop up on the smartphone. Just make sure you take off 139g from your end weight if you're holding the Galaxy S4 while weighing yourself.
S Band
Wait, haven't we seen something like this before? Nike what? Plus what? Fuelband eh?Yes, let's be honest here, this S Band is just the Korean firm getting behind the craze for new wearable tech. The band is designed for those moments when you don't want to take your phone out with you on a run, and will sync with the Galaxy S4 via Bluetooth when you come back in.
While we like the idea muchly - Nike+ isn't really that well bedded-in with Android at the moment - there's no notion over whether this will know when you've run with the phone and the band together, so you could end up with two sets of data for the same run. First world problems, eh?
Heart Rate Monitor
This is pretty much exactly as it sounds – it works with the Running Mate app, connects via Bluetooth to record said heart rate and then uses that to let you know how you're getting on intensity-wise during the run, although this won't give you prompts to raise or lower your pace as some other apps do.
S View cover
This nifty little device is, well, not really a device, more a flip cover from the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with a small hole cut in the front so you can see notifications on your phone without having to open the case.The idea seems a strange one, as the whole point of the cover is surely to preserve the condition of the screen – it would have been so much cooler if that front display was an e-ink display on the front of the S View cover.
At least it has some tricks of its own: you can see the time, any messages or what music is playing when the cover is closed and you hit the power button, thanks to the internal magnets that can detect when the cover is closed.
With a range of colours, we can see this being a popular choice for those that want to make their phone seem more next generation.
On top of this flip cover, you've also got the non-holey ones, more rugged cases that can stop your phone from instantly smashing the second it lands on a radiator, or a lovely pouch that will probably cost three times as much as one you can buy online. But it's OFFICIAL.
Wireless Charging Pad
Samsung has been a good little manufacturer with the Galaxy S4, and made it all wireless compatible using the Qi standard, which is being used by the likes of Nokia and LG in their phones too.
Obviously this gives Samsung the chance to pop out an official accessory as well, and with that we've got the Wireless Charging Pad.
While we were impressed with the size of the charging point – there are some out there, such as for the Nokia Lumia 920, that don't really allow the phone to sit on them properly thanks to being too small – we don't know how fast this will be able to charge the phone, which is a key consideration.
That said, it looks inoffensive enough sitting there on your bedside table, providing you have the space, and the connector cord is nicely out of the way.
Samsung Game Pad
This nifty little controller, which is coming in May just after the Samsung Galaxy S4 itself launches, is a neat idea that features an adjustable port for Samsung games that can be controlled by Bluetooth.
The pad features all manner of buttons to use, be it directional D-Pad or analogue stick, and all are made of high-quality plastic and easy to hit. The holder, which slides up and down and locks the phone in using a spring, feels a little fragile but certainly gets a tight grip on the Galaxy S4 (or Note 3, it seems…).
Playing a spot of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on the device was awesome, as not only did the whole thing flow nicely and the graphics stay nice and fluid, but having been sad at the controller interface on a touchscreen before, we were so happy to have a fully-fledged console in our hands that simply worked.
The next trick for the Game Pad was the ability to slot your Galaxy S4 into a Samsung Smart Dock, which is wired up to the TV via HDMI, and play your games on the big screen using the controller wirelessly.
However, this is the big let down: like all smartphones that try this trick, the Samsung Galaxy S4 lags terribly between receiving the Bluetooth button commands and pushing them onscreen, which means reaction times have to almost enter another dimension to play the game properly.
Until this is fixed the awesome power of the internal GPU of the S4 isn't going to be realised, and we're a little worried it never might be – which would be a huge shame as this could be a killer feature.
Samsung says this will launch with eight games on its App Store, but will support around 80 other titles, making it a decent choice for use officially – more if you get togther with an emulator for some old-skool action.
Other bits and bobs
It wouldn't be a Samsung launch without a myriad other things being offered up to supplement your Galaxy S4 experience, and thankfully you've got that with things like a dedicated Mini HDMI Lead to connect your phone directly to the TV and a separate portable battery charger to keep your S4 juiced up when the main power pack has given up the ghost.
Hands on gallery
Press gallery
To get on-the-spot news, app tips and the full lowdown on Samsung's latest mobile announcements check out Samsung's Your Mobile Life on TechRadar.
Early Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is more evolution than revolution compared to the Galaxy S3 – in some ways, it appears that the Korean firm has taken Apple's lead and decided it doesn't have to massively overhaul hardware each time to make a statement.Perhaps it's right; after all, the specs are all upgraded, the screen is bigger and better and there's a host of new features on board to chew over.
But when you pick up the Samsung Galaxy S4 for the first time you won't be blown away. In fact, you'll have to check it IS the new phone, rather than another Galaxy S3 that you left on your desk (if you're so lucky to have both, that is…)
Once you dive into the handset, the new features, the integrated Samsung Hub that brings together all your media, book, gaming and educational needs under one roof, and enhanced camera do impress, but do scream of refinement over big innovation.
The camera has a load of new tricks we can't see that many people using, but then again it has improved the basics very well, so we're looking forward to putting that through its paces when we can.
Overall, we were a little nonplussed initially by the Samsung Galaxy S4. It's superbly impressive that it has crammed so much stuff into a smaller chassis than the Galaxy S3, and while there's not a lot of difference cosmetically bar beefing up the structural integrity of the device and putting stronger glass on the front (Gorilla Glass 3 isn't the be sniffed at though), Samsung has tied it all together in a great way.
Will it sell by the bucketload? Undoubtedly. Does it represent a huge step forward for Samsung? No, so it will be interested to see how it's marketed to consumers, or whether, like the iPhone 5, there will be apathy and a desire to stick with last year's cheaper model when the phone launches (in the UK) on 26 April.
On the other hand, it's sturdier than the Galaxy S3, which resolves one issue we had with that phone, and it does improve on all the features we loved from the predecessor. We're not sure there's a lot of 'innovation' on the S4, as a lot of the features we've seen on other devices, be it the fact you can use the screen with gloves, erase people walking in the background of photographs or just front and back record at once.
However, the S4 is a very compelling package for all that innovation, and we're massively intrigued to see what happens when that octa-core processor gets chugging at full speed - will it really lead to a leap forward in smartphone efficiency and use?
Wait for our in-depth and overly long full Samsung Galaxy S4 review to see what we really think of the phone - it's unfair to judge a phone like this based on only spending a couple of hours with it. It's sleek, powerful and offers innovation, and while it's cosmetically indifferent, we're sure many people will just adore it.
To get on-the-spot news, app tips and the full lowdown on Samsung's latest mobile announcements check out Samsung's Your Mobile Life on TechRadar.
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Is this the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet?
Acer may soon offer up the first 8-inch Windows 8 tablet, a device dubbed the Iconia W3.
This is according to Minimachines.net (Google translated) which posted an army of images purportedly of the unannounced device.
The Iconia W3 measure 8-inches from corner to corner and is said to come with a dual-core Atom Z2760 processor with hyper-threading. Clocked at 1.8GHz, Minimachine and we agree that it's not a "monster" when it comes to performance, but hey, size is sort of the selling point here.
There's also apparently 2GB of RAM, a dual camera and speaker set-up and spaces for perhaps microUSB and microSDHC.
What 8-inches gets you
Microsoft last week made clear that smaller touch-enabled devices are indeed on the way from its OEMs, and Acer may be well on its way to making good on that promise.
While there's a greater than good chance Microsoft is developing its own smaller version of the Surface tablet, Acer's leak has anything from Microsoft beat out of the gate.
Minimachines states the slate will be out by the time the school year starts again (mid-August-ish), which while it makes a lot of sense doesn't have official backing, so we can't take it (or any of the leak's information) as gospel.
As you can see from the photos, the Iconia W3 will have the option to sit inside a keyboard, which one can type on but not use for syncing or charging.
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Government assures it is on track to meet universal broadband targets
Culture Secretary Maria Miller has assured doubters that the government will deliver on its target of universal broadband for Britons by 2015, but not without a few shades of grey creeping into her responses.
The Conservative MP told parliament that the £680m plan to bring at least 2Mbps download speeds across the country, including rural areas is on track, despite recent reports the roll out was falling behind schedule.
As The Register points out, a third of the current BT contracts won't be completed until 2016 leading the Shadow Culture Secretary Harriet Harman to question the progress being made.
She asked: "The government promised superfast broadband by the end of 2015, but there is growing concern that they will not meet that target.
"Can the Secretary of State assure the House that those concerns are wrong and that she is on track to meet the government's target of 90 per cent of premises getting superfast broadband by 2015?"
Dodging the real question
Dodging the question somewhat, Miller said that a further 10 million homes would get broadband access by the end of this parliament, which course, fails to the universal 2Mbps access or the 90 per cent superfast access claims.She responded: "Not only with our commitment to 2Mbits/sec universally, but through our urban project and our rural broadband project, we are actually delivering for the people of this country."
"More than two-thirds of premises now have access to superfast broadband, so perhaps it is little wonder that the people of this country bought so many goods and services online in 2011 — we bought more than any other major economy,"
"Broadband has a fantastic role to play, and we are making sure it reaches more and more households. Indeed, it will reach ten million more households by the end of this parliament."
Although those 10 million homes could equate to the final third of the super-fast equation (there are 28.8m households in the UK), the language has certainly changed.
Right now it looks like almost everyone will have access to broadband - superfast or not - by the end of 2015, but you know what they say about almost; it only counts in hand grenades.
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Blip: Reddit apologizes for 'witch hunts' following Boston Marathon attacks
Reddit General Manager Erik Martin took to the site's public policy blog today to offer thoughts and an apology for what's transpired there in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
While serving as a place for information and support, many considered the crowd-sourcing going on at Reddit (and elsewhere) to be counterproductive to official activity and harmful to innocent people, which it apparently was.
"[Though] started with noble intentions, some of the activity on Reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties," wrote Martin, linking to a story on missing Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, whom some Redditors tied to the bombings.
Reddit has a personal information policy in place to try to avoid these types of situations, but in this case, the rules fell perilously short.
More blips
Other bite-sized things have happened in tech and we've gathered them up for your perusing pleasure.
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Who'd have thought? Samsung developing mind-controlled tablet tech
If touchscreens are the present, then perhaps touch-free screens are the future.
Samsung revealed via the MIT Technology Review over the weekend its ambitions to bring mind-controlled tablets to market, with an eye toward disabled people who may experience difficulties using current technologies.
Samsung is reportedly working with researchers at the University of Texas to develop devices that interpret users' brainwaves through EEG caps.
The tech is currently in an early but functional state, with accuracy around 80 to 95 percent when selections at intervals of at least five seconds.
The rise of mind control
Forget invisibility cloaks - mind-controlled devices could be the next big wave of innovation.Mind control is nothing new, but so far it's been used mainly for toys and hyper-niche products like brainwave-reading wheelchairs for disabled consumers.
But as TechRadar noted over one year ago, mind control is about to go to the next level - and it looks like Samsung is going to take it there.
Samsung and the University's researchers have developed an interface that allows users to launch applications on a Galaxy Note 10.1 by focusing on them while wearing an admittedly clunky EEG cap. Eventually the tech will be able select contacts and songs, turn the devices on and off, and more.
"Several years ago, a small keypad was the only input modality to control the phone, but nowadays the user can use voice, touch, gesture, and eye movement to control and interact with mobile devices," Samsung's lead researcher on the project, Insoo Kim, told the MIT Technology Review. "Adding more input modalities will provide us with more convenient and richer ways of interacting with mobile devices."
The researchers are working on ways to make the EEG caps easier to set up, more efficient at reading brainwaves, and less conspicuous to wear.
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Google Now for all! Personal assistant app coming to Google homepage?
Google is preparing to turn its Google Now application into a personalised homepage, which works universally across all web browsers, judging by a dip into the source code of a company test page.
The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean feature, which brings users time and location-based updates, has been a huge success since launching in 2012, prompting intense speculation that Google will soon make it available for iOS and within the Chrome web browser.
However, if the suspicions of the Google Operating System website are correct it will also be rolled out to the Google.com homepage, presumably for for those logged into Google accounts like Gmail.
"It looks like Google Now won't be limited to Android, iOS and Chrome," the site wrote. "It will also be added to Google's homepage. Some code from a page that's tested by Google offers more information about this feature."
Is this an iGoogle replacement?
The code displays text like "Get started with Google Now. Just the right information at just the right time," while the wording 'now_card' is also another notable feature within the code.A personalised Google homepage is an interesting concept, but not a foreign one.
The company has offered the iGoogle solution since 2006, offering email, news stories, YouTube videos and weather.
That service will be shut down this November. Is Google Now, as some have today speculated, a ready-made replacement? We may find out as soon as Google IO in three weeks time.
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Geeksphone might be first out of the foxhole with Firefox OS phones
Spanish startup Geeksphone unveiled its first Firefox OS smartphones in January, and now rumor has it those phones will be the first to hit the market.
According to a report today from The Next Web, the Firefox OS devices "Keon" and "Peak" will go on sale to developers tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest.
The site was informed by unspecified sources that both the Keon and the Peak, Geeksphone's entry level and premium Firefox OS phones, respectively, will become available worldwide this week.
Geeksphone can reportedly produce up to 5,000 Firefox OS devices a day, though it's yet to be seen whether there's actually any demand for a new mobile operating system.
Firefox OS pricing and specs
If it weren't for this early launch, Geeksphone wouldn't really be considered a big player in the Firefox OS game, with competitors like ZTE, Alcatel, LG, Huawei, and Sony all promising to bring HTML5-powered smartphones to market at some point.But Geeksphone does have a few advantages here: in addition to its healthy lead, the price for the lower-end Keon model will reportedly hover around €91 (US$118, UK£77, AU$115), or €115 (US$150, UK£98, AU$146) with value added tax (VAT) included.
The higher-end Peak, on the other hand, could come in at €149 (US$194, UK£127, AU$189) or €180 (US$234, UK£153, AU$229) with VAT.
Those prices are far from set in stone, though, the site said.
The Geeksphone Keon will reportedly feature a 1GHz snapdragon processor, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 3.5-inch screen, and a 3-megapixel camera.
And the Peak will trump the Keon with a 1.2GHz Snapdragon, a 4.3-inch IPS display, and 8- and 2-megapixel cameras on the back and front, respectively.
Firefox OS worldwide
Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs revealed last week that Firefox OS devices will start shipping en masse to Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain starting in June, with Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, and Serbia getting Firefox OS phones throughout the year.Kovacs said that Firefox OS wouldn't hit the U.S. until 2014, as Mozilla wants to focus first on emerging markets.
But with Geeksphone expected to ship the Keon and Peak dev units worldwide, there might not be anything stopping early birds in the U.S. and elsewhere from getting their Firefox worm this week.
For more on Firefox OS, check out TechRadar's interview with Mozilla Head of Engineering Jonathan Nightingale.
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In Depth: Google Glass code hints at possible wink controlled camera functionality
Give a man an app, and he'll use it for days; teach a man how to code an app, and he'll harvest all the relevant information he can to find out the secrets that lie within.
Such has been the case for the Google Glass companion app on Android, MyGlass, which tech savants have already culled for clues about possible features of Google's new augmented reality specs.
As MyGlass will provide a range of extended capabilities for Google Glass, which itself isn't able to run more sophisticated programming, it makes sense the Android app will be responsible for doing some of the heavy lifting.
There was apparently more than just gaming features hidden away in the data files though, as Reddit user fodawim uncovered new eye gesture commands that could change the way pictures are taken forever.
Eyes wide shutter
According to the coding, Google Glass may allow you to calibrate the device to take photographs with a mere wink of the eye.There is programming included for wink calibration, turning winking controls on or off, and for taking photos by winking, which gives credence to the idea Google Glass will be able to recognize eye gestures as input for commands.
Calibration would certainly be a key factor, as the last thing any user would likely want is a host of images taken out of context just by blinking.
Of course, with a feature like this there are bound to be a host of new social mannerisms created just so we can all tell the difference between a wink and a nod and a wink and a picture.
Mind your manners
Improved social etiquette is a sentiment shared by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who recently divulged his thoughts on the matter to a BBC radio program, as reported by the Telegraph."The fact of the matter is that we'll have to develop some new social etiquette," Schmidt said.
"It's obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct... you have a responsibility as well which is to understand what you're doing, how you're doing it, and behave appropriately and also keep everything up to date."
Though some institutions have already taken precautions against Google Glass infringing on the privacy of members, it's still going to be up to the consumer to make proper use of the technology in almost every other instance.
One more tidbit from Google's executive chairman: the wearable tech is about a "year-ish" from being retail ready, so start saving your lunch money.
With Google IO just a shade under a month away, it shouldn't be too long until we learn more about the full range of capabilities of Google Glass.
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I'd like to return these: Apple said to dump millions of iPhones on Foxconn
Apple must have bought into Foxconn because the company has returned 5 to 8 million iPhones to the Taiwanese manufacturer, according to a report today.
With labor costs estimated to be USD $200 (UK£131, AUD$195) for each smartphone, that means Foxconn is taking a loss of up to $1.6 billion, reports China Business through The Register.
This is further bad news for Apple's go-to manufacturer. Foxconn recently posted its worst revenue numbers in over a decade.
Its 19 percent year-over-year first quarter slump is being blamed on a slowdown of once rock solid iPhone and iPad sales.
Which iPhones are to blame?
While China Business quotes unnamed Foxconn insiders, it doesn't go as far as to reveal which version or versions of the iPhone are to blame for the defects.Digging through the archives, however, there is one Apple smartphone that faced more botched cases than all of the others: the iPhone 5.
In fact, user complaints of scratch-prone iPhone 5 handsets reached such a high that it forced Apple to reportedly recall production of its smartphone to address the aluminum issues.
Likewise, the company received complaints that the same device would leak light between the display and the antenna, just underneath of the power button.
iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 speculation
Apple didn't comment to TechRadar about which model it returned to Foxconn or what went wrong with its production.Speculation by The Register that the unusable batch of iPhones could include the forthcoming iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 is a possibility, but an unlikely one.
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Acer teases arm-packing notebook in non sequitur Star Trek spot
In a dual-marketing campaign that's admittedly cooler than Huawei's duet with the Jonas Brothers, Acer is advertising its Windows 8 notebooks alongside the forthcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness feature film.
The "Explore Beyond Limits" spots awkwardly splice scenes from the film with glamor shots of Acer products, but today's video teases a never before seen notebook that definitely piques our interest.
The gadget appears to be able to transform from a laptop into desktop-ish form thanks to an arm that slides out from the back of the screen, extending it beyond typical notebook display height.
The unnamed device looks quite thick when it's in regular laptop form, but we won't know what the actual dimensions are until it's announced May 3.
It doesn't make sense...
There are no perceivable tie-ins between the film and the notebook, but that never stopped two brands from co-promoting before, has it?Into Darkness hits theaters May 17, so look for more shared promos between the Trekkies and Acer.
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Apple iPad 5's rear casing may have just gotten real
We're kicking off the week with a new Apple-related product leak, this time with a photo purportedly showing the rear casing for the next full-sized iPad.
Tactus posted a leaked photo to its blog today, revealing what it describes as the rear shell for Apple's iPad 5 on the heels of an alleged cheap iPhone image published last week.
The leaked image is also a follow-up to last week's reveal of rumored case molds for the tablet, which Apple is expected to announce in the coming months.
According to Tactus, the iPad 5 will retain the popular 9.7-inch screen size introduced with the original iPad in 2010, but this year's model will slim down in an effort to get back to the fighting weight of the previous iPad 2.
Slimmed down
Apple took a fair amount of criticism for the third-generation "new" iPad released in early 2012, which sacrificed the svelte form factor from the previous model in favor of 4G LTE data capabilities and better battery life.Tactus claims the iPad 5 will shed extra ounces by powering its Retina-enabled screen with a Sharp IGZO panel, which is rumored to use up to 90 percent less power than the iPad 3 or iPad 4.
The blog post boldly proclaims the iPad 5 will be a mere 7.2mm thick thanks to "a much slimmer LED backlight," which would be a noticeable reduction from the current-generation's 9.4mm thickness.
Apple is said to again offer the iPad 5 in four storage capacities ranging from 16GB to the recently introduced 128GB, while Tactus claims the rear camera will receive a nice upgrade from 5MP to 8MP, as well.
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Buying Guide: Best HTC One apps: top apps for your new HTC One
HTC's flagship Android model for 2013 has picked up heaps of praise since its April launch, with many declaring the HTC One the best ever smartphone and one of the tech highlights of the year so far.
One of the key features is HTC's own "ultrapixel" camera system, which does an incredible job of capturing images at low light levels, with the phone's latest HTC Sense user interface skin making it a joy to use throughout when you're done taking photos of your dinner, children and the sunset.
HTC's packed the phone with its own apps and tools, but with over 700,000 available to install yourself through Google's own Play Store app shop, there's still plenty of room to expand your horizons and extra functionality to the hot new phone. Here are five of our favourites.
1. Poweramp, £2.49
One particularly awesome thing about the HTC One is the volume kicked out from its onboard speakers. It's a very noisy phone that produces some of the best-quality sound out there in the mobile world today. So you might benefit from installing Poweramp, a custom music player that gives you a decent graphic equaliser, gapless playback of your tunes and many more nerdy audio features that'll add extra depth to your musical adventures.
2. Cinemagram, free
Cinemagram is a simple video recording app that captures four-second clips, which are then uploaded and shared via Twitter or Facebook. It has a dead simple user interface where you hold down a button to record, meaning you can stitch together scenes without having to do any actual editing. Results are then looped, plus your short films can be saved as animated GIF files for sticking up anywhere online. It's like HTC's own ZOE format, only made a little more sociable.
3. Flipboard, free
If HTC's own Buzzfeed tool has you gagging for more beautifully presented social feeds and news, give Flipboard a shot. It pulls in news stories from the web, generating your own personal little mini magazine, building stylish pages to endlessly scroll through. It's all about adding a pretty skin to news stories and your social network feeds, ensuring text is easily readable on mobiles and saving you the effort of having to zoom in on pages to read in comfort.
4. Instagram, free
The HTC One's camera is one you'll want to show off, seeing as it manages to capture bright images even on gloomy British days, so get yourself signed up to the celebrity image sharing tool of choice. It's free to use, with photos you take live (or load from your phone's memory) edited into a uniform square shape and enlivened with a selection of frames and filters, before being shared with the world. It's a social network for people who like photographing everything.
5. Photoshop Touch, £2.99
Adobe's popular image editing tool has fully mobilised, with this new phone version of its picture tool now ready for use on phones. The £2.99 asking price is modest compared with the full desktop versions of the software, plus you get access to Adobe's cloud storage servers along with 2GB of storage space -- meaning you can start editing an image on your HTC One, then continue making amendments on the desktop software.
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Google fined over illegal Wi-Fi data capture again
Google will have to cough up €145,000 (£125,000/$190,000/AUS$185,000) to German data regulators for illegally gathering personal data, including emails and passwords, with its Street View cars.
Google's cars captured data for the service between 2008 and 2010. During this time, it said that it unintentionally collected emails, photos and passwords. It also failed to then delete that data.
"In my estimation this is one of the most serious cases of violation of data protection regulations that have come to light so far," said Johannes Caspar, Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.
It was ruled that Google had captured and saved data without authorisation. A third party has now overseen that the data has been deleted.
Not enough
The investigation has been going on for some time, but in November 2012 it was decided that Google would not undergo a criminal investigation as no violations had been found by that point.Then Caspar reopened proceedings, leading to Google finding itself in more hot water. We say more as this isn't the first attack on Google over the Street View ordeal.
Google was previously fined a hefty amount by France, while the UK levied no fine, only requesting that all the data be deleted and no more be collected.
Google's fine almost hits the €150,000 limit, but Caspar requested that the maximum amount be increased in the future.
We've approached Google for comment, and will update if we hear more.
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Updated: Apple iTV release date, news and rumours
Apple iTV rumours: what you need to know
We love the Full HD Apple TV, but we're not sure Apple does: the company has seemed more interested in getting iPads into your living room than its Apple TV box.Apple says the Apple TV is a hobby, but the company is thinking bigger. Much, much bigger: it wants to sell you the entire TV set, not a little box beneath it.
In an early 2012 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted again at the release of something bigger and better than the current Apple TV.
Is Apple iTV confirmed?
"With Apple TV, however, despite the barriers in [the TV set top box] market, for those of us who use it, we've always thought there was something there. And that if we kept following our intuition and kept pulling the string, then we might find something that was larger."For those people that have it right now, the customer satisfaction is off the charts. But we need something that could go more main market for it to be a serious category."
However, it is possible that he meant a set top box, and rumours have continued to rumble on that Apple is in talks with US cable providers over a new version of its existing Apple TV box.
Stronger hints came in a December 2012 Tim Cook NBC interview. "When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years," Cook told Williams. "It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that."
Apple isn't the only one dropping big hints either - manufacturer Foxconn had to refute reports in late May that it had begun to produce the Apple iTV after a story emerged quoting chief executive, Terry Gua, as saying Foxconn was "making preparations for iTV."
More speculation citing Foxconn involvement emerged in December 2012 and then again in late March 2013.
Here are all the rumours and speculation surrounding the Apple iTV, which some have also claimed may end up with the surely unlikely name of the Apple iPanel.
Apple iTV release date
Most rumours predict a 2013 Apple iTV release date. The New York Times says that price, not technology, is the problem: Apple is waiting for the cost of large LCD panels to fall further before building iTVs.Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggested in November 2012 that the iTV would come out a year later, in November of 2013.
This is big change in Munster's thinking. Earlier this year Munster was calling for Apple to announce the Apple television in December, then release it in the first half of 2013.
As AppleInsider says. "Most notably, he expects Apple will launch a television set in time for the holiday 2013 shopping season. He expects the product to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000, with screen sizes between 42 and 55 inches."
As Business Insider says, Munster doesn't provide any reason for his thinking.
However, some rumours in May 2012 suggested that we won't see the Apple iTV until 2014 and these rumours continued into early 2013.
In December 2012 Wall Street Journal sources said that various TV prototypes have been on the company's slate for a number of years.
Apple iTV design
In mid-May a new report from Cult of Mac claimed one of their contacts saw a working prototype of the Apple TV. The report claimed that Siri and iSight will feature (so face and voice recognition then), while the design is similar to that of an Apple Cinema Display.The Telegraph says that "sources within the company" say that Jeff Robbin, the man who helped create the iPod, is leading the team. Apple has seemingly denied rumours that it is working with French designer Philippe Starck. Remember when he worked with Microsoft on a mouse?
However, it appears that Starck was actually working on another project, a yacht, with Steve Jobs before his death.
On 13 May 2011, we reported that Apple is rumoured to be in talks to buy TV manufacturer Loewe. AppleInsider wrote that talks have entered the advanced stages and Loewe is expected to make a decision on Apple's offer within the next week.
Apple iTV specifications and display
Engadget predicts an A5 processor and 1080p video - neither of which are a huge surprise, granted.Australian tech site Smarthouse says that the Apple iTV will come in three sizes, including 32-inch and 55-inch models.
Sources at "a major Japanese company who are involved in manufacturing the TV" reckon the sets will have the same processor as the forthcoming iPad 3, which presumably means an Apple A6.
Smarthouse isn't usually the go-to site for Apple rumours, but its report echoes similar claims by respected Apple analyst Gene Munster, who told the recent Future of Media conference that Apple will make its TV in a range of sizes.
"The smallest one will be 42 inches in size, followed by a 52 inches one and a 60 inches iTV (coincidence or not, these exact sizes are available on Sharp TVs, too)," said Gozmorati. This information was repeated in several similar stories.
March, June and December 2012 rumours pointed at Sharp being the manufacturing partner. SlashGear says work on components is already under way. In mid April, Sharp announced it had begun production of 32-inch HI-DPI LCD panels at its Kameyama Plant No. 2 - could these be the panels destined for the Apple iTV?
Apple contractor Foxconn's parent company has made a rather large investment in Sharp - does this indicate something we wonder?
Both companies were apparently working together to 'test' TV designs in the December 2012 rumours.
Rumours also continue to circulate that Samsung could be heavily involved in the iTV project, not least because of features such as TV Discovery, enabling you to easily find programming.
An early 2013 patent, reported on by Macworld, describes "a sound system that could be launched as part of its iTV. The intelligent system could determine where a user is in a room, and if he or she was not within the optimum range, the processor could modify the audio output, says the application. It could also adjust based on which way the user is facing, and the environment that the user is in," Clever stuff.
Apple iTV 4K?
New rumours from the ever-questionable Digitimes suggest we could be seeing a 3840 x 2160 display from Apple. Apparently LG would manufacture the display. We'd be amazed if this one was true.Apple iTV operating system
As with the Apple TV, any iTV is likely to run iOS, albeit in slightly disguised form. Compatibility with other iOS devices is a given: current Apple TVs already accept video streamed via AirPlay and access shared iTunes libraries. We'll be amazed if the iTV doesn't get apps.Expect Apple iTV and Apple TV to work more like iOS does on the iPad; the newest iOS 6 Beta for the Apple TV enables app icons to be moved around the homescreen just like on the iPhone and iPad.
That has led some observers to conclude that the rumoured App Store for Apple's favourite 'hobby project' might be on the way sooner rather than later.
Apple iTV and iCloud
Steve Jobs told his biographer: "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."According to one source which claims to have seen the device, the new TV has Siri and FaceTime.
Apple iTV remote control
Munster says the iTV will come with an ordinary remote control, and will be controllable with iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, but the real remote control will be Siri.Apple's voice recognition system will be the heart of the new Apple TV, enabling you to choose channels and control the TV's functions with voice alone. That means " the simplest user interface you could imagine" is voice.
However, according to a new patent filed in March 2012, Apple has come up with the design for an advanced universal remote that would also be compatible with your iPhone and iPad.
But could Apple also be thinking more about games? Some sources say so, with an official joypad-type device possibly on the cards to work alongside Apple TV.
Apple iTV AirPlay mirroring
After AirPlay mirroring from Mac to Apple TV was present in the developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, it's not a great leap to suggest that the Apple iTV could mirror the display of your Mac or iPad wirelessly too. AirPlay mirroring is now 1080p with the new iPad and new Apple TV.When a prototype was reportedly 'seen' it did feature AirPlay.
Apple iTV programmes
While the iTV will get content from iTunes and iCloud, it's not going to be completely separate from current TV broadcasters: Munster says that you'll still need a cable TV subscription and decoder because Apple doesn't have enough content.We're not sure whether it would play nicely with Freeview and Freeview HD here in the UK, but perhaps a DVB-T compatible unit will arrive as part of a second generation.
As of 6 March 2012, rumours were continually doing the rounds that, as the New York Post reports, Apple is planning to launch a music streaming service this side of Christmas.
On 13 March, Les Moonves, who is CEO at CBS, says he was the recipient of a pitch from Steve Jobs regarding his network's participation in a subscription-based service, but turned him down. Apple is also rumoured to be talking about getting partners involved for movie streaming.
His reasoning? Moonves says he was worried about damaging the network's existing revenue streams through broadcast and cable television.
In February 2013 it became clear that Apple had hired James (Jueng-jil) Lee, a former senior researcher at LG. According to the OLED Association, he had been working on a printed AMOLED TV display.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lee lists his role at LG as "OLED Technology Development for TV Application" and he said he was "developing the Soluble Technology (RGB Type) for OLED TV application at LG Display".
The main question is whether Apple will open the door for third-party content, like the BBC iPlayer, Sky Go and 4oD and other apps we've seen on connected TV platforms. These may well arrive with apps - the Apple TV SDK will pull on the iTV ecosystem and we're expecting apps to be available for Apple TV too.
Mind you, it's also been claimed that Apple will seek to cut traditional TV providers out of the content loop.
Apple iTV price
Gene Munster reckons that the iTV will be twice the price of a similarly sized TV. Ouch. However, new March 2012 rumours point at a subsidised launch - courtesy of various partners.Apple iTV picture quality
If the iTV does appear, it won't leave manufacturers quaking in their boots. That's according to Samsung's Chris Moseley who told Pocket-Lint in early February 2012 that the firm isn't overly concerned with what Apple launches if it decides to enter the TV market"We've not seen what they've done but what we can say is that they don't have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category," he says.
"They don't have the best scaling engine in the world and they don't have world renowned picture quality that has been awarded more than anyone else."
Apple iTV gaming and apps
Although most of the rumours so far have been about the hardware involved in the iTV, gaming may be a major focus of the new device. Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted in mid-April at the HQ of Valve Software, the company behind gaming platform Steam. Some rumours are drawing more from this meeting, saying Apple could be producing a Kinect-style gesture-based console. But this is likely to be part and parcel of the iTV.
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Windows 8.1 to party like it's Windows 7 by bringing the Start Button back
Having ditched the Start button in Windows 8, Microsoft looks set to give the menu-launcher a second chance in the first major software update, Windows 8.1.
Variously known as Windows Blue, the OS update is expected to be unveiled at Build in June, at which point The Verge's sources claim the Start button will be back.
Things will be different this time, though. The sources say that the button won't show off the Start Menu of yore - instead, it will give you access to the Start Screen instead.
So if you decide to boot to desktop, as is also rumoured for Windows 8.1, the Start Button won't be much use to you.
Start/stop
Not many people were particularly thrilled to discover that the familiar Start button was to be done away with in Windows 8, with various button-replacing plug-ins proving popular among Windows 8 users.But it's been a while now, and even Microsoft is a little tired of hearing about the 'controversy', confessing to TechRadar that although it wants to shout about the start screen til the cows come home, its customers are actually a bit more interested in what Windows 8 can actually do.
If you simply cannot hang on until Windows 8.1 arrives, we've rounded up the best of the Windows 8 Start Menu replacements for you. Fill your boots.
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Grow your own: Top 10 gardening apps on the Note II
The birds are singing. The trees have little green flappy things on them again. Children have come out of hibernation. For 'tis springtime, when any right-thinking man's mind ought to turn to one thing - gardening.
It's also the time of year when the big money hits the cultivation scene, with both the Harrogate Flower Show and Chelsea Flower Show doing their bit to make having dirty fingernails and aching knees oh-so-fashionable.
Obviously with this being the future, you don't want to just blunder out there with your dibber in your hand and no clue as to what should be poked in and where. You need to know the basics. And if you already know the basics thanks to having an enthusiastic dad, you need to know more advanced gardening techniques to ensure you can laugh at those struggling with the basics.
You won't be able to produce apples on the sort of industrial scale that Tesco demands, but, with the help of some of the best gardening smartphone apps out there today, you should at least be able to manage to produce something a bit more impressive than cress.
Sun Seeker
FreeBefore you get down to the tedious act of actually digging, planting, watering and preying to the gods to let your seeds actually germinate and turn into something resembling living things, you might want to check out where to actually put your seeds first.
Sun Seeker generates an augmented reality overlay of the sun's position, so you can identify sunny and shady spots of your patch - and allocate plant positions according to their lighting needs. Get this right and your chances of success are higher before the soil's even been broken.
Gardenate
FreeOne of the prettiest apps for gardeners, Gardenate incorporates everything you need to get your carrots pointing the right way up and your beans the fashionable length.
Its most critical feature is a gardening calendar, letting you know when most types of common plants like to be planted, as if you plant a summer veg in the cold British spring you're going to be left with an embarrassing withered mess. It also gives you space to record your own notes in its 'My Garden' section, so you can track the progress of your stuff and estimate the date of your bountiful harvest.
Garden Manager: Plant Alarm
FreeThis one's a clever little interactive calendar, which lets you automate the tiresome process of having to remember to do things.
It lets you set custom alarms to remind you when to water thirsty pot plants, also providing a growth chart if you're bored enough that you want to measure your seedlings and generate a graph illustrating just how quickly they've been shooting up. There's also a bizarre photo diary feature, should you want a permanent memory of a carrot you grew particularly fond of.
FreeThis one mirrors the sort of basic advice you get printed on seed packets, telling you when's the right time of year to literally sow your wild oats, complete with approximate harvest time and rough maintenance advice.
It also comes with an editable notes field, so you can add your own little observations, tweaks and tips, gradually building up your experiences of what does and doesn't work for you.
FreeYou know those flower things and those lettuces? They are made mostly from water, just like us humans. And, just like us, they also need watering, else they go all floppy and eventually wither away and die, giving nutrition only to worms and maggots.
Which is where Remember To Water comes in. It does one thing -- bugs you endlessly with alarms and reminders about filling up the watering can and giving the gift of liquid to your suffering little plants. Guilt-free gardening awaits those who set up its daily watering schedules.
FreeIf you're all out of inspiration, try this. The National Trust app features a searchable database of all its properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where you'll be able to see just how neat and alive things can look when planted and maintained by professionals.
It fully embraces Android's excellent Navigation GPS system, so once you've found a place you like the look of, one press instructs Google's robots to generate a route and feed it into the GALAXY Note II's satnav for instant guidance right to the hopefully free car parking facilities.
FreeThose of you after something a bit more advanced are best holing up in the shed with a download of Gardeners Calendar.
This goes into more complex tips regarding soil PH levels, germination temperatures and what kind of sunny or shady aspect plants prefer, for those of you eager to take their DIY planting to the next level of super-size home produce. This one's a paid app costing £1 to buy, buy you could recoup that investment back from one monster, two-kilo carrot alone.
FreePlants have lots of enemies. Slugs eat them. People stand on them. Dogs lie on them. And Mother Nature sometimes even turns on its own creations, with sub-zero temperatures killing delicate plants before they've had a chance to bloom.
ColdSnap! helps you avoid frosty plant death by monitoring future weather conditions and letting you know if there's cold weather on the way. So you can move pot plants indoors, get some fleece on your seedlings and sit out there all night with a hot water bottle on your most precious crops.
FreeThis app, from the University of Bristol, is there for you as a last resort. It lets users track rogue, invasive plants that are tearing their way unchecked through the countryside. If you have grown something deadly, something that cannot be killed and is in fact multiplying and spreading, use this.
It lets the makers notify the authorities about dangerous plant life, so a man in a plastic suit can be sent round to spray it out of existence and burn the remnants.
FreeOr why not read about other people doing it properly? Google recently launched its fully featured digital magazine service in the UK, letting users of modern Android-powered phones buy stacks of magazines straight through their phones.
The GALAXY Note II's large display is ideally suited for reading mags, with its high-res output making text easy to read while on the go. Ideal for when it's raining or you've give up in a sulk because the snails launched an unstoppable offensive on your cabbages.
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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
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Blip: Confusion over what's legal and what's not: are we all pirates now?
The good people of the internet are trying hard to be law-abiding web citizens but confusion over what's illegal piracy and what's good old fashioned legal fare is making them into unwitting pirates.
At least, that's the suggestion emanating from copyright specialist Wiggin Law Firm's latest batch of research, in which 44 per cent of the 2,500 respondents said they thought it was legal to upload music to file-sharing websites, or they didn't know if it was or not.
Of course, 44 per cent of 2,500 only equates to 1,100 people so it's not necessarily entirely representative of the UK as a whole. But with 35 per cent adding that they thought it was legal to copy a film from a friend, or didn't know that it wasn't, old offline habits do seem to be dying hard.
More blips!
Stay on the right side of the law and pass a pleasant five minutes with some more of our short sharp blips, why don't you?- Nokia teases QWERTY feature phone unveiling this Wednesday
- Psychiatrist treating 4 year old with iPad addiction
- Yahoo takes the knife to a heap of products
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Penguin kills controversial Apple ebook deal, ends EU prodding
The European Commission has accepted a settlement with Penguin that will see the end of the publisher's controversial pricing plan with Apple.
This makes Penguin the fifth and final book publisher to settle in the investigation, which has been running for a tedious 16 months.
The deal included a contract that prevented other retailers such as Amazon from selling the publisher's ebooks at prices lower than that found on Apple's iBookstore.
But while this will bring an end to the EU case, the battle will continue in the US where Apple is yet to settle. Tim Cook has been called to testify before the court.
Testify
Penguin gave us the following statement, confirming that a deal with the European Commission had been reached:"Penguin confirms that, subject to the market test currently underway, it has reached an agreement with the European Commission to settle its investigation into the establishment of agency pricing agreements for ebooks.
"Penguin's position that it has done nothing wrong remains unchanged and the company continues to believe that the agency pricing model operates in the best interests of consumers and authors.
"While we disagree with some elements of the Commission's analysis, we are settling as a procedural matter to clear the decks in anticipation of our proposed merger with Random House."
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In Depth: Designers explain the S Pen's appeal
Web designers, graphic designers, fashion designers or anyone with even an iota of creativity will fall in love with the Samsung GALAXY Note II, if they haven't already. Not only has the phone got a handsome HD Super AMOLED display measuring in at a generous 5.5-inches, it also comes loaded with Samsung's S Pen.
The S Pen is anything but a stylus. It offers an incredible 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity when combined with the Note II, the same sensitivity as professional graphics tablets such as the Wacom Intuos range.
Speaking of Wacom, the GALAXY Note II's S Pen tech is powered by a Wacom digitizer, so anyone used to using a graphics tablet will feel right at home sketching, snipping and ultimately, creating on their Samsung GALAXY Note II.
Samsung GALAXY Note II - Native design features
Inspiration
Before we even start designing anything, we mood board. This is a brain dump of inspiration ranging from images, textures, colours and even typefaces that resonate with what we're trying to achieve.
Of course, any Android phone has apps like Pinterest and the stunning Pic Collage, but the Samsung GALAXY Note II is packed with interactive, rich mood board functionality out of the box.
The first and probably the ultimate mood board feature is the snipping tool. Holding down the button on your S Pen and tracing around an inspiration will cut out your trace, throwing it into your Samsung GALAXY Note II's memory for use later.
This feature is incredibly quick and easy, doesn't open a new app or require you to think about opening one yourself, perfect for fleeting inspiration on the go that you'd miss if you didn't have such a great way of capturing it.
Mood boarding
Collating inspiration is only part of the mood boarding process, it has to end up somewhere, and that is where S Note comes in. Open up the app, tap the 'add image' icon to the top right and you'll see an option 'clipboard'.
Simply select it and you'll have access to all the snippets you captured before. Once you find the one you want, tap it and it will be dropped onto your page. You can then throw more images on at will, take some from the camera, or get doodling, enriching your moodboard with hand-written notes and hand-drawn sketches.
Incredible tools like shape match mean that even hand drawn sketches can have a refined look and feel to them. What's shape match? It's a simple feature that converts your rough shapes into perfect lines, circles, curves and squares.
Samsung GALAXY Note II - Downloadable design features
There's plenty more we could talk about pre-loaded on the Samsung GALAXY Note II, but a quick dip into the Google Play Store gets even more design value out of this creative phone, so here are our highlights:
Image editing
If like us you work with images on a day-to-day basis, the Samsung GALAXY Note II has a great photo editor accessible through the Samsung Apps world. Any designers out there however may want to take things to the next level though, and the best way to do that is by downloading Adobe Photoshop Touch.
The app costs £2.99, so isn't cheap, but what you get is an image editor as fully functional as the £50 Adobe Photoshop elements. The versatility of having it with you all the time is also incredible, with the instant access to the Note II's 8-megapixel camera being priceless.
Any existing Photoshop users who upload their files to the Creative Cloud will have access to all their uploaded files with a simple sign in. With the editing capabilities of the app being virtually limitless, supporting layers and the S Pen's pressure sensitivity, the asking price becomes easy to justify very quickly.
Sketching
Android's sketching app of choice is generally Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile (£1.32), regardless of what phone you've got, but no phone pulls off Autodesk's app quite like the Samsung GALAXY Note II. Why? It's all about that Wacom digitizer.
The 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity make sketching on the Note II as lifelike as possible, and Sketchbook Mobile takes full advantage of the fact. You can import pictures to trace or start from scratch. With a range of brushes and tools, you've got a huge amount of freedom to make an illustration look exactly how you want it to look, and what's even more impressive for designers are the export options.
Naturally, you can save your results as a JPG, but what you might not have expected was the option to export your Sketches as a multi-layered Photoshop file. This means that once you're done sketching on the fly, you can get right back to your workstation and pick up exactly where you left off.
Working with colour
Any designer knows how important colour is. More importantly, colour consistency across projects is priceless, and the Samsung GALAXY Note II's HD Super AMOLED screen can be coupled with some great tools to ensure you get just that.
The first app worth a mention is incredibly simple, and it's called Magic Color Picker. The app presents you with a colour spectrum wheel, you pick a colour and it gives you the colour code in a number of standard formats such as RGB, HSL and even hexadecimal code for web safe colour work.
The second colour app worth shouting about is all about your Note II's fantastic 8-megapixel camera and it's called SwatchMatic.
Just open the app, point your Note II's camera at anything and SwatchMatic will make a colour swatch based on what it sees. Tap your screen to save the swatch and once again, it'll give you all the colours in standard formats.
The app is free to try ten times, after which it'll cost you £1.93.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn't particularly difficult making a case for the S Pen as a designer's best friend – Samsung clearly had creatives in mind from the get go with the Samsung GALAXY Note II.
It doesn't stop at the Samsung GALAXY Note II though. The Note range is expanding. The GALAXY Note 10.1 is already available to buy, packing the same core specs and features as the Note II with a 10.1-inch display, and the Samsung GALAXY Note 8.0 is en route, expected to land in the next couple of months, complete with phone call capabilities and a stunning 8-inch HD display.
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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 ...
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