| Updated: Moto G beats rivals to Android punch as KitKat rolls out Jan 8th 2014, 13:39, by James Rogerson 
Update: There's good news regarding the Moto G from Vodafone, as the network has confirmed it will start selling the handset very soon, with Android 4.4 KitKat already pre-installed. The best value phone on the planet just got even better as you can now upgrade the Motorola Moto G to Android 4.4.2 KitKat*. That's the latest version of Android and the Moto G is the first non-Nexus handset to get it. The update includes all sorts of improvements and additions, such as stronger security, new photo editing options, an improved phone app, a full-screen mode and smarter power use. Plus it comes with the new version of Google Hangouts which puts all of your SMS, MMS and Hangouts in one place and you can use it instead of the default SMS app, or just keep on ignoring it. Treat yourself to an updateYour phone may have already notified you about the KitKat update, but if not you should be able to get it by checking for system updates from the Moto G's settings screen. We're big fans of the Moto G, particularly given its £135 price tag and this new update should make it that little bit better, giving it something that even big hitters like the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z1 don't have yet. *That said, we're still waiting for the update to show up on our Moto G, so it might take a few days to reach every handset.        |  | Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo escapes ahead of MWC 2014 Jan 8th 2014, 11:10, by Thomas Thorn 
CES 2014 may be in full swing but that hasn't stopped MWC 2014 news from reaching our ears, with a leak of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo hitting the web. The Galaxy Grand branding hasn't reached UK shores yet, although there have been hints that that Galaxy Grand 2 is likely to reach us later this year. GSM Arena claims to have seen an internal Samsung document, which reveals that the Galaxy Grand Neo is set to come in with lower specs than the Galaxy Grand 2, with a smaller and lower resolution 5-inch 480 x 800 display. Behind this sits a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, backed up with 1GB RAM, to keep Android 4.2 Jelly Bean running smoothly. Galaxy Grand Lite?For those looking to take those all important selfies, a VGA camera is fitted to the front with a 5MP sensor and LED flash rooted to the rear of the Grand Neo. Other key specs include a 2100mAh battery pack, Bluetooth 4.0, HSPA+ (no LTE here), Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS and GLONASS all wrapped in a frame measuring 143.7 x 77.1 x 9.6mm. For all this, Samsung will apparently be asking for €299 (around £250) of your hard earned money. You may think that this all sounds a bit familiar, and you'd be right as the specs match those we saw mooted last month for the Galaxy Grand Lite. We'll have to wait for MWC 2014 next month just what Samsung has in store for us, so keep your eyes glued here as we'll be sending our crack team of investigators to dig out all the best news for you.        | | Can renewed focus on physical keyboards save BlackBerry? Jan 8th 2014, 10:46, by Thomas Thorn 
Touchscreen smartphones might be all the rage but it seems that the humble QWERTY keyboard still has a place, in Canada at least. Bloomberg quotes new BlackBerry CEO John Chen at CES 2014 saying "I personally love the keyboards", adding that that future BB devices will "predominantly" use physical keyboards. Perhaps in a move to underline just how important keyboards are to BlackBerry's future, the Canadian firm is suing the creator of iPhone QWERTY snap-on Typo, an accessory that looks suspiciously like the BlackBerry Q10 keyboard. This could help BlackBerry re-establish themselves as a major smartphone player, following some less than impressive forays into the touchscreen market with the BlackBerry Storm and the more recent BlackBerry Z10 and Z30. It would also help gain back the business sectors that made the BlackBerry brand the mobile giant in the first place, the same sectors that are prolific with emails and rely upon physical buttons for easy typing. It makes sense then, that BlackBerry is set to focus on these markets over the next 18 months. I need a dollarWith all this focus on physical keyboards, you'd be wrong in thinking that this means the Canadian firm is set to abandon the consumer market completely. "Since I showed up there has been a lot of speculation that we're retreating from the phone business or the consumer business. This could not be further from the truth" said Chen. 2014 may herald a BlackBerry resurgence, and maybe one day we'll see BlackBerry return to being the device of choice amongst teens and young adults. Don't expect that to be anytime soon though, with Chen adding "if there's a dollar I need to spend between the consumer space and the enterprise space I'll spend it on the enterprise space for now".        | | Moto X to become 'part of the European family' at UK launch on January 14? Jan 7th 2014, 22:39, by Chris Smith 
Motorola will host an event in London next week, where it will announce an addition to its European line-up of devices, with all indications pointing to the arrival of the Moto X handset. The Google-owned company has invited the tech press along on January 14 to show off what it refers to as 'the newest addition to the European family of Motorola products.' The accompanying graphic shows someone holding up the company's flagship Moto X, which until now has been a US-only release. So much for intrigue. It seems Europeans will get a variant on the device designed and built in the United States, but it will be interesting to see whether the company decides to offer customisation options through the Moto Maker. New eraSo far, in the new Google era at Motorola, only the exceptionally-priced Moto G has made it to European shores, so the launch of the Moto X would bring a certain amount of parity. During the Moto G launch, Marcus Frost, Motorola's Senior Marketing Director for EMEA, exclusively told TechRadar to "watch this space" regarding an overseas Moto X roll out. "The reception of Moto X has been fantastic and we're continuously perusing opportunities in the EMEA region, so really watch this space." It appears that space will be filled on January 14. TechRadar will be there with bells on.        | | Samsung 'exploring new UI' for Galaxy S5, looks like TouchWiz for grown ups Jan 7th 2014, 19:31, by Chris Smith 
Samsung is planning a visual overhaul for the TouchWiz user interface it slaps over the Android operating system in time for the Galaxy S5, judging by purported leaked screenshots. In the latest @evleaks expose, the prolific leak artist wrote "Samsung exploring new smartphone UI," to accompany pics of a revamped lock and home screen and what may be a new content exploration screen. What's immediately apparent is that the UI pictured within the screenshots appears to have adjusted the typeface and altered the icons in favour of a leaner, more stylish and more grown up approach. The lock screen also appears to be displaying the progress of a bike ride, complete with distance and heart rate, perhaps prefacing a new built-in fitness tracker that could be built into the Galaxy S5. The same lock screen also shows a revamped window showcasing the time, location, weather and alarm status and it appears that users will be able to place multiple live widgets to access from a locked state. The final screenshot shows what appears to be a HTC Blinkfeed-like UI tool, showing a variety of live content, including social media check ins and news, in a scrolling format. Time for a changeWhile there's no way of knowing whether Samsung plans to implement these changes when it launches the Galaxy S5, or whether the leaked shots are simply the product of an internal experiment. The TouchWiz UI has split opinion for years and Samsung showed with the launch of the Magazine UX within the new Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and the Galaxy Tab Pro range that it isn't afraid to shake things up a little. TouchWiz is well overdue for a new lick of paint, so we'd imagine most users would welcome the changes, especially if they're accompanied by the rumoured premium metallic casing.        | | Tablets and hybrid devices to lead mobile dominance over PCs in 2014 Jan 7th 2014, 17:07, by Alex Hamilton 
Total shipments of PCs, tablets and mobiles will rise by 7.6 per cent in 2014, hitting 25 billion units by the end of the year, according to research firm Gartner. Of that 2.5 billion, almost 75 per cent will be mobile phones, an increase of five per cent compared to 2013. Convenience rulesThe analysts at Gartner, however, expect ultramobiles – tablets and hybrids – to be the main drivers in the devices market in the coming year, growing up to 54 per cent. It predicted that smaller seven-inch tablets will become more popular than larger versions and eventually overtake them. Ranjit Atwai, research director at Gartner, said: "The trend is not so much a move away from PCs, but towards lighter, more convenient devices, particularly tablets. With more and more people becoming mobile workers as well, the more popular devices are those that in many ways mimic their lifestyles." PC shipments, meanwhile, including those of laptops and notebooks, are falling. Atwai, though, doesn't believe that we will ever see the end of the desktop computer. Instead, he says, it will become part of an increasingly multi-device home and work environment, where it will be used as a shared device for entertainment. BlackBerry looking squashedOn the operating system side of things, Android will continue to be the most popular, according to predictions, with an estimated growth of 26 per cent driven by uptake in emerging markets. Windows will be the second biggest due to its position as the de-facto PC operating system. Apple and iOs systems place third while BlackBerry is the only OS that has shrunk year-on-year. Asked if the BlackBerry operating system could disappear altogether, Atwal said it is unlikely, unless the company folds. "A lot of organisations have a lot of BlackBerries, so it would take time to replace them all. Furthermore, some prefer using it as they find it offers greater security benefits than other platforms," he said.        | | Mobile retail purchases to hit more than $700 billion by 2018 Jan 7th 2014, 16:51, by Alex Hamilton 
Payments on mobiles and tablet devices are expected to account for 30 per cent of all electronic retail by 2018, double what is accounted for in 2013. According to research team Juniper Research, mobile retail spend totally $182 billion (£110 billion AU$203 billion) in 2013, but is expected to hit $707 billion (£430 billion, $AU791 billion) by 2018. In a report entitled 'The Mobile Payment for Digital and Physical Goods' the researchers also found retailers were increasingly looking towards developing strategies centred on mobile retail. Retailers are using mobiles to facilitate payment and product discovery, and also to retain customers. The size and scale of purchases from mobile devices have been increasing steadily for some time. A trend is emerging among the devices used, however, with purchases on tablets overtaking those on mobile towards the end of 2013. A change of strategyThe report also addressed the trend of "showrooming" where customers see products they like in-store and then browse their mobile devices to compare prices on the internet and other stores. A solution, the team suggests, would be to deploy mobile point of sale tablets in store to offer price matches. The author of the report, Windsor Holden, said: "This means that not only is the retailer proactively offering the consumer the opportunity to price check in-store, but that the purchase can be made immediately, without having to queue elsewhere in the store." 2013 has already been dubbed as 'the year of the mobile Christmas' with sales in all fields from mobiles growing as much as 135 per cent since 2012.        | | Is EE picking up steam? Network operator attracts over 2 million 4G customers Jan 7th 2014, 15:50, by Alex Hamilton 
EE, Britain's largest mobile operator, has attracted more than 2 million customers to its 4G network among falling prices and mobile internet tech uptake. It added its second million in only four months, less than half the time it took to reach the one million mark. The average 4G customer was using 70 per cent more data at the end of 2013 compared with the start, driven by social media and video streaming. EE, which formed after the merger of mobile networks Orange and T-Mobile in 2012, said that its customer base has grown faster than any operator outside of South Korea, where the technology has already overtaken 3G. EE offers internet access typically around 5 to 7 times faster than 3G, according to Ofcom. Overall, EE has added around 800.000 4G customers since its last quarterly results in October. 14 per cent of pay-monthly subscribers are now on 4G networks, up from 8 per cent in October. Dwarfing the competitionOlaf Swantee, EE chief executive, said: "We're incredibly proud of being the first UK operator to bring 4G to the UK and, in just over a year, exceeding our target by reaching two million 4G customers across the country. "We continue to have particular success converting our existing base to 4G, with approximately two out of three new 4G customers moving over from Orange and T-Mobile plans." O2 and Vodafone introduced their 4G network at the end of August, 10 months after EE, and continue to lag behind in the market. EE has a significant coverage advantage, having 160 town and cities offering service to around 44 milllion people, while Vodafone and O2 cover only 18 million. In a memo to staff this week, Mr Swantee said EE will "continue to dwarf the competition in 4G rollout" this year.        | | CES 2014: Huawei fires warning shots at rivals - but are they just blanks? Jan 7th 2014, 15:10, by klee 
Huawei led off its Ascend Mate 2 4G announcement with some fairly bombastic statements as a fledgling new smartphone maker. "We now according to IDC are the third largest smartphone maker in the world" Colin Giles claimed at the Huawei press conference. "Keep in mind for the last three years we've only been shipping under the Huawei brand." Three years ago Huawei made a business shift to start building products in its own brand instead of making phones for other companies. Within this short time, Giles claims that Huawei has begun shipping 95% of its products with its own brand. 
Thus far the company started off 2013 shipping 10 million smartphone units and finished off the year with 17.5 million units to more than 100 markets worldwide. "Our target for 2014 is we will ship 80 million smartphones this year," Giles said. A global leader
Giles also wasn't shy to call the company a leader in the global market as he noted the company's Ascend Mate started the big screen phone, phablet movement. "We created a trend," Giles boasted. "We shipped a 6.1 inch screen and many of you said 'why would you need a product that big,' Consumer take up has been really great, people now realize why you want to have such a great screen on your product." In a similar stroke Giles said Huawei's global brand awareness increased by more than 100% just between 2012 and 2013 alone. "This is really great news for such a young brand such as Huawei," he said before airing an even more arrogant statement on it's ability to build 4G LTE networks. "Only certain companies have the capability of building 4G and LTE, and Huawei is one of those countries," Giles quipped. Giles went on to say Huawei is already a leader in the LTE world having launched the first LTE network in 2009 and has since continued to roll out more service to "110 of the world's 200 LTE networks in 100 of the capital cites worldwide." Too big for its britches
The fledgling Chinese manufacturer was not short of any bravado at its press conference but Giles statements are presumptuous. To say that Huawei is only one of the few companies able to build a 4G LTE network clearly forgets about US networks such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-mobile. Not to mention Orange LTE network in Europe, or Optus in Australia, or Norway's Netcom. Similarly, the young telecom only has a few notable phones - such as the Ascend P6 and Ascend Mate in its line up - and now Huawei is already comparing the greatness of its latest Ascend Mate 2 4G against the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S4. It's too early to tell if Huawei will make its lofty goal to ship 80 million smartphones this year but the company certainly does not seem like it's slowing down at all. Perhaps next year, we will see Huawei put in an flagship entry right along side the LG, HTC, and the other smartphone mainstays.        | | Sony Xperia Z2 may make MWC 2014 appearance Jan 7th 2014, 12:53, by James Rogerson 
We may get our first look at the Sony Xperia Z2 at MWC 2014, which runs from 24 - 27 February in Barcelona. That's according to a sneaky little tweet fired out by @evleaks. The phone is currently known as the Sony Sirius and the tweet goes on to say that it has a 5.2-inch display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8974AB SoC chipset. However the MWC 2014 date isn't set in stone, as the usually confident (and reliable) evleaks uses the word "tipped" in its post - covering itself perhaps if the rumor transpires to be false. Sirius specs
That gels with earlier rumors we heard about the handset, which also suggested that it would have a 1080p full HD display with 506ppi, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM, Android 4.4 and a 20.7MP camera with a Xenon flash. That should all make it a moderate upgrade over the Sony Xperia Z1, thanks to a slightly bigger and higher resolution screen, 3GB of RAM rather than 2GB and the latest version of Android. Sony has already made waves at CES with the announcement of the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, but a new flagship could be enough to steal the show at MWC.   | |
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