| Nokia Asha 501 to illuminate UK in next few weeks Jun 24th 2013, 13:34 
Already tempted by the Asha 501, Nokia's featurephone disguised as a smartphone? Well the phone is about to roll out globally, meaning it won't be long until you can pocket Nokia's vibrant little number. The Finnish phone maker confirmed that the Lumia-like handset will be launching in Thailand and Pakistan this week and then roll out to Europe and other countries in "subsequent weeks". This one won't be hitting the US and Canada for now. Don't get too excited about the specs though - with only 2G connectivity on offer, the 501 is the budget buyer's choice. It also packs a 2-inch QVGA display, 3.2MP camera, along with a 4GB memory card in the box. The phone runs on Nokia's overhauled Asha software, which brings in the big Windows Phone icons and simple swiping. Meanwhile there are two main screens, the 'Home' and the 'Fastlane'. The former has the traditional grid of apps while the latter is a feed of messages and updates, as well as recently-used applications. Phoenix from the AshasStill, set at a recommended retail price of €75 (about £65), it promises to be perfect for those bridging the gap to a full smartphone, or for festival-goers looking for a decent backup handset that won't break the bank. Not only will it be coming in at a budget price, it'll also be presenting itself in six colours: yellow, cyan, bright red, bright green, black and white. Nokia claims that the phone will also offer 47 days of battery life on standby, and 17 hours of talk time. Not bad if you ask us.     |  | Device shipments to hit 2.35 billion this year Jun 24th 2013, 12:10 
Worldwide shipments of tablets and smartphones are more than compensating for the continuing slump in PC sales, promising to take the total computing market to 2.35 billion units over the course of 2013, according to Gartner. The IT analyst house is forecasting a 5.9% increase for the total number of devices worldwide, with a further 6.7% rise to 2.51 billion next year. There's no surprises in the breakdown, which show PCs continuing their slide to account for 305.2 million shipments this year, while tablets are on a sharp upward trajectory to hit 201.8 million, and phones are creeping up by 4.3% to 1.82 billion. Shipments of ultramobiles, which include Chromebooks, are in a lower league but doubling annually, set to hit 20.3 million this year. Gartner says this trend should get a further boost later this year when new designs running Windows 8.1 on Intel's Bay Trail and Haswell processors hit the market. Longer life cyclesIt won't be plain sailing for the tablet and smartphone sectors, however, with a slump possibly on the cards. Gartner sees a shift from premium to basic tablets coming, pointing to the iPad mini accounting for 60% of iOS sales in the first quarter of 2013 as a sign of things to come. The analyst house also sees longer life cycles affecting shipments. Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said: "The increased availability of lower priced basic tablets, plus the value add shifting to software rather than hardware will result in the lifetimes of premium tables extending as the remain in the household for longer. We will also see consumer preferences split between basic tablets and ultramobile devices." He added that people are also hanging on to the smartphones for longer, which will place pressure on prices and manufacturers' margins, and could spell pricier handsets for consumers. Given that phones account for the largest segment, it's no surprise that Android continues to lead the competition between operating systems across phones, tablets and PCs combined. The Google OS accounts for 37% of 2013 device shipments to date, followed by Windows with 14.4% and iOS/MacOS with 12.6%.     | | Updated: BlackBerry Q5 release date and price: who's on board? Jun 24th 2013, 11:24 
The BlackBerry Q5 is here, and about time too as the Canadian firm launches its first "affordable" (the final price remains to be seen) BlackBerry 10 device. Unveiled at the annual BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando the BlackBerry Q5 was almost completely leaked under the moniker BlackBery R10, so its design and specs come as no surprise. There's a cheap plastic chassis, QWERTY-keyboard, 3.1-inch 720p display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 2MP front camera and 5MP rear facing snapper. If those specs have whet your appetite then take a look below, as we've been around the town to find out who will be selling the BlackBerry Q5. Phones4UThe first UK outfit to confirm it would be ranging the BlackBerry Q5 was Phones4U, storming out the gate a matter of minutes after Thorsten Heins announced the handset on stage in Orlando. Update: It now has the Q5 up for pre-order with all the major networks apart from O2 featured. Contracts start at £21 per month over two years - and that gets you a free Q5 plus 100 minutes, unlimited texts and 100MB of data on Vodafone. The BlackBerry Q5 release date is noted as July 3 on the pre-order page. Carphone WarehouseNot wanting to be left behind Britain's other major high-street phone retailer has also confirmed it will stock the BlackBerry Q5, and you can pre-order on its website with stock expected on July 1. Update: In terms of contract price things are pretty similar over at Carphone, with the Q5 once again free on contracts starting at £21 per month, although it's also offering it SIM-free at £319.95 - the cheapest we've seen so far. O2Bad news for anyone who's on O2, as the bubbly network has confirmed to TechRadar that it won't be stocking the BlackBerry Q5. EE, Three and VodafoneThe other UK carriers are all staying quiet on the BlackBerry Q5 for now, telling TechRadar they were unable to comment on the handset at this time. Rest assured we're chasing them all, along with the likes of Tesco Mobile and TalkTalk, to bring you all the deals and availability. Online retailersUpdate: Thanks to the folks over at Unlocked-Mobiles now have the black SIM-free BlackBerry Q5 in stock and ready to ship - the white version is expect on July 1. If you fancy getting your mitts on the handset it will set you back £334.98 (£15 cheaper than the pre-order price) - which really pushes the "affordable" tag the Canadian firm has slapped on the smartphone. Update: Clove has the BlackBerry Q5 listed for pre-order at £330, with the black version due to arrive in on July 1, while over on Expansys there's no word on release date or price.     | | Mozilla leaves Firefox OS handsets to manufacturers Jun 24th 2013, 10:22 -470-75.JPG)
The creator of the new Firefox OS platform, Mozilla, has confirmed that it's not planning to produce its own hardware alongside its mobile software. Speaking to Digitimes, Mozilla's mobile device senior vice president Gong Li explained it was leaving the manufacturing process to its partners who include ZTE, Alcatel, Huawei, LG and Sony. We saw a couple of handsets sporting Firefox OS at MWC this year in the form of the ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire - both of which are low cost offerings aimed at emerging markets. Li said if Mozilla started producing own-brand devices it would create unnecessary competition with ODMs, which could put them off developing for Firefox OS - and it's on a drive to recruit as many manufacturers as it can. Samsung and HTC not inTwo noticeable absentees from the list are Samsung and HTC, which have decided to stick with Android and Windows Phone for the time being, although Li hasn't ruled out involvement from both in the future. "Firefox OS is a new operating system. For vendors, the question of whether to adopt and when to adopt is based on considerations varying from one to another," he said. "Some vendors will stick to Android and need not choose Firefox OS for the time being, others want to choose non-Android platforms but may not adopt Firefox OS." It's still early days for the HTML 5-based Firefox OS and we're unlikely to see it make any great strides in the UK, US or Australia in the near future, but if it takes hold in the developing world it could become an overnight hit.     | | Blip: Siri will actually bother to get your name right in iOS 7 Jun 24th 2013, 10:18 
Siri is getting smarter, thank god, and with the advent of iOS 7 the personal assistant will now make a better job of getting your name right. The guys at 9to5Mac have been playing around with the iOS 7 beta and have found that Siri will offer up pronunciation options if you're not happy with the name it's spouting at you. All you need to do is say "That's not how you pronounce [insert name here]" and Siri - in either its male or female guises, because you can now choose between the two - will offer up a couple of suggestions. Fabulous. More blips!As you try and get your head round pronouncing Britt Assombalonga (hint: let's all do the conga, for Britt Assombalonga), why not check out some more awesome blips?     | | Facebook Reader rumoured to be taking cues from Flipbook, targeting mobile Jun 24th 2013, 09:55 
Those rumours of a Facebook RSS reader just won't die, and now we're hearing more about what the anticipated Google Reader replacement may look like. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook's app will be primarily targeting mobiles and tablets, and will takes its design cues from Flipboard with a similar stylish way of aggregating articles. Facebook has reportedly given its project the super unimaginative and not-so-secret codename of "Reader", with Mark Zuckerberg himself said to be working on the project. Flipping heckFacebook is said to have been working for over a year on its news reading app, meaning the wheels were in motion before Google announced it was to close doors on Google Reader. Facebook's recent addition of hashtags also added to speculation that it was moving into trending news territory. However, we've no idea as to when (or if) Facebook will unleash its news collector. But with Google Reader is set to shut down on July 1, it may not be long until Facebook answers the cries of RSS fans who suddenly find themselves searching for an alternative in a terrifying world of non-aggregated news.     | | HTC One may get a Windows Phone 8 reboot this year Jun 24th 2013, 09:44 
Windows Phone 8 fans: listen up. You could be getting a new toy to play with this year in the form of the HTC One. Launched earlier this year running Android Jelly Bean, rumours are now suggesting HTC's flagship smartphone - and the best phone in the world today - could get an OS reboot before the year is out. According to the folks at Neowin, an inside source has revealed that the Taiwanese firm is working on a handset which will look similar to the HTC One, with a screen somewhere in the region of 4- to 5-inches. One plus 8The unnamed source stressed that the device in question wouldn't be identical to the One, although you should expect a metal chassis, Beats Audio technology and, obviously, Windows Phone 8. It's thought that the handset will also borrow the UltraPixel camera technology found in the Android flagship, although specs are far from confirmed. HTC has already dipped its toe in the Windows Phone 8 water with the HTC 8X and 8S which were launched alongside the platform last year, with the former hand-picked by Microsoft to be its signature WP8 device. However it's been all quiet since then over at HTC, so it's not a huge surprise to learn that the manufacturer may be planning its next onslaught. Apparently we could see the Windows Phone 8 smartphone announced this Autumn, with a release date close to Christmas - this is definitely one to watch.     | | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 leaks spring all over the place, tipped for August release Jun 24th 2013, 09:35 
The world's worst-kept secret, aka the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, has emerged in another deluge of leaks, with two photos showing a svelte, bezel-challenged handset tipped for an August release. The two photos, which come from two separate anonymous sources over in China, aren't giving that much away, although we can see that the handset is pretty slender despite being housed in an ugly case. There's no guarantee that the other picture is of the Note 3 either, but it shows a large looking screen that stops just shy of the edge of the handset and its photographer says that the screen "takes up 84 per cent of the front surface of the device". Take noteHowever, as Unwired View points out, there's a worrying lack of front-facing camera (looks like just a proximity sensor) does leave us pondering whether this is just a fake. You can see the full images below: 
Not much more concrete is the word from one loose-lipped Samsung wireless business division insider who claims that the handset should enter mass production in August. Talking about a drop in orders for devices like the Galaxy S4, s/he told ET News: "Since we will start placing orders for follow-up models, such as Galaxy Note III, from August, the impact to suppliers will be minimal." The word on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 so far has included a possible metal chassis, a 6.3- or 5.99-inch display, Android Key Lime Pie, a super-powerful octa-core chipset, 3GB of RAM and a 13MP camera. Any surprises left, Samsung? We're hoping to find out in August, or at IFA 2013 which takes place in September.     | | Consultation for the remaining 700MHz spectrum set to begin Jun 24th 2013, 07:38 
Earlier this year, the Digital Dividend auction ended with Telstra and Optus purchasing 700MHz spectrum. The telcos secured the spectrum for their expanding 4G networks, with Vodafone, which bowed out of the auction, relying on its 20MHz spectrum for 4G. While the government received almost $2 billion from the auction, which also included the sale of 2.5GHz spectrum band, two lots of 15MHz in the 700MHz spectrum didn't sell. On the allocation of the spectrum, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy has released two draft Ministerial Directions to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Both drafts are up for public consultation. According to the draft, the ACMA will be required to report back by September 1, 2014 on the "appropriate procedures for returning the unsold 700MHz spectrum to market". The Digital Dividend priceAs with the initial Digital Dividend auction, the draft requires the ACMA to fix the access charges for the sale at a price no less than $1.36/MHz/pop, but that doesn't mean that the ACMA will be required to return the spectrum to market. "The ACMA has previously stated that it should not be assumed any unsold spectrum would be returned to market in the short term, or at a price that is lower than the reserve price set for this auction. These proposed Directions formalise that approach," Senator Conroy said in a statement. But with Australia set to shut off the last of the analog TV signals by the end of the year, more 700MHz signals may open up for a future auction. On the drafts for the sale of the remaining 30MHz in the 700MHz spectrum, submissions can be made by July 19, 2013. Information on how to make a submission can be found here.     | | Apple iPhone 5S with dual-LED flash spotted again in new leaked pic Jun 23rd 2013, 16:25 
It was only Friday that we caught our first glimpse of the purported iPhone 5S and its camera-enhancing dual-LED flash. Now, a couple of days later, a second (much clearer) snap has reared its head, seemingly adding to the credibility of the first leak. Like the earlier shot, the build of the device seems to be exactly the same as the iPhone 5. It doesn't appear to be larger and there appear to be no other format changes. Sticking with tradition, the iPhone 5S seems likely to be more of an incremental update headlined by improved innards and the new iOS 7 software. Is that it?The question is, will those factors be enough to stave off challenges from Samsung, HTC and potentially the Motorola X Phone and an improved Nexus smartphone from Google and its partners? Would the inclusion of an extra light bulb be enough to encourage you to update to the new handset? Or are you demanding much more from Apple when it unveils the new device later this year?     | |
No comments:
Post a Comment