ASUS has released some official photos of the new Padfone that was leaked earlier. The device is both a tablet and a smartphone in one package and works as a hybrid solution. The smartphone part of the device can be detached from the back of the tablet which allows the user to more easily make phone calls.
Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Now has 20,000 Apps
May 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Microsoft is seeing some decent growth in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. Over the last few days the total number of approved apps has hit 20,000. At the time of writing this there are 20237 apps in the Marketplace and out of those, 1174 are currently inactive. We also lean from wp7applist that 48% of those are free and that the average price of an app is $1.44.
Samsung Galaxy S III To Arrive 1H 2012
May 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Having just launched the Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung is now looking forwards to release the Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S class smartphones seem to be following a yearly cycle which means we can expect to see the 3rd generation device launching sometime in the first half of 2012.
Vodafone VIP Truck Can Simultaneously Charge 2000 Smartphones
May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Vodafone VIP Recharging Truck has been built to travel to festivals in the UK and provide a source of free power for Vodafone customers. One of the problems when attending a festival is that your phone battery is likely to die before the event finishes. As many people still want to text and capture pictures, this truck comes in handy as it can charge up to 2000 smartphones at the same time.
The charging system provides power to charge a phone at the same speed you’d be able to charge it at home. It is expected that this summer, 72,000 smartphones will be charged by this truck.
iRemoco RC iOS Controlled Helicopter Launching
May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
iRemoco is an RC helicopter that is controlled by an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. The kit comes with a radio device that connects to the 30 pin dock connector on your iOS device. When connected, you load up an app and can then be used to fly an RC helicopter around with either two on-screen analogue controls, or by a single control and motion to move the helicopter around a room.
The app also can be used to switch between three different frequencies so that up to three helicopters can be used at the same time.
HTC Bootloader Will Now be Unlocked
May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Over on the official HTC Facebook page, Peter Chou has officially announced that HTC will now open up bootloaders on HTC phones. The company will no longer lock bootloaders and in turn, allow easier access to each device.
At the moment it isn’t clear if HTC will apply this to all past devices. We are waiting for more details on this, but we suspect that HTC might, where possible, also unlock bootloaders of older devices.
Google Wallet Announced – Also Compatible with Non-NFC Smartphones
May 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Google Wallet was announced by Google yesterday which brings the ability to use your smartphone to make mobile payments. By using an NFC enabled smartphone (Nexus S), you can store your card details in the phone and then make payment using the MasterCard PayPass system. For those without an NFC enabled smartphone, we hear from TechCrunch that special stickers will be used to make payment although this iteration of the system is more limited than the fully fledged NFC way.
Google Wallet is an app that will be launched soon on Android smartphones. When launched, card details, loyalty cards and gift cards will be capable of being stored. This means that you can carry your wallet around with you, without the bulk of all the cards. Looking forwards to the future, Google also comment that boarding passes, ID cards and keys will also be able to be stored in Google Wallet.
iPhone 4 Noise Cancellation is Powered by Audience
May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
iFixit has revealed that the iPhone 4 has noise cancellation technology that is powered by Audience. Audience is the same chip that is used in the Google Nexus One in that two microphones are used with one capturing the voice and the other capturing background noise. The chip then can cut out background noise to make better quality calls.
The iPhone 4 uses this same technology. When iFixit first took the iPhone 4 apart, they did find two microphones but it wasn’t clear what technology was being used for noise cancellation. After another look inside the iPhone 4 when the Verizon model launched, the same mysterious unknown chip was found inside. Rather than ignore it, Chipworks (friends of iFixit), decided to take a look inside the chip and they found the following:
Nokia N9 Spotted in Advert
May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
An advert showing the Nokia N9 has leaked. The new ad looks to be officially made by Nokia and shows a few features of the N9. With this in mind, it’s believed that the new MeeGo powered smartphone will be launching soon.
Although it is believed to be a MeeGo powered smartphone, there’s also some hints that it could be using Anna. Symbian Anna is the new version of Symbian^3 that currently runs on the latest Nokia phones. Until Nokia make an official announcement, or if info leaks, we wont know for sure which OS it runs. If you take a look at the Facebook Page found here, you might also see that it could actually be MeeGo after all.
iPhone 5 to Lack NFC
May 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Near Field Communications (NFC) was first rumored to be arriving in the iPhone 4 last year. This of course didn’t happen. Due to a few Apple patents, these rumors were then reignited for the soon to be released iPhone 5. We now hear that this also wont be happening.
Angry Birds Rio Update Coming Soon – Beach Volley Ball
May 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
RovioMobile has released a video on YouTube showing us what we can expect from the next update to Angry Birds Rio. The next set of levels (aka episode) is titled Beach Volley and sees the Angry Birds visit the beach.
Nokia Event Planned for May 17
May 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Nokia is holding an event in Athens a week today. Nothing is known about the event other than being held on the 17th May at 8pm in Athens.
What we expect to hear is that Nokia will unveil or provide more details on Windows Phone smartphones.
