The release of the Samsung Ativ S has been delayed in the UK, moving from mid-November to mid-December. A similar fate has befallen the Ativ Tab, Samsung's entry into the rapidly shrinking Windows RT tablet market.
Samsung was the first to announce a Windows Phone 8 device, when it revealed the Ativ S at a packed IFA 2012 event. It was also joined by a 10.1-inch tablet named the Ativ Tab, which runs Windows RT. Unfortunately, despite this early lead, it’s possible the Ativ S will end up being the last of this first wave of Windows Phone 8 handsets to arrive.
Since the Ativ S’s debut, other manufacturers have not only announced, but launched their Windows Phone 8 hardware, with HTC beating the competition on to the shelves with the 8X. Samsung was expected to put the Ativ S on sale very soon, with November 19 being accepted as the UK release date.
This has now changed, as according to UK online retailer Clove Technology, the Ativ S has been pushed back to the second week of December, with stock expected to arrive on December 10. A glance at Amazon UK’s page tells a similar story, with a five to seven week despatch date quoted.
In the US, the Ativ S — a phone which impressed us — hasn’t found a network interested in stocking it yet, but Verizon has been rumored to be coming up with a version named the Odyssey, and that it could possibly arrive in November. A look online reveals Expansys USA expects the Ativ S to arrive on November 23. We’ve contacted them to see if this still stands, and will update here if we hear back.
So, it’s not looking like good news for the Ativ S, and worse still, the Ativ Tab has also suffered the same delay. Clove has added the same December 10 date for the tablet, which makes the whole affair sound like supply or production issues, however it’s not the first Windows RT tablet to have its release pushed back.
Microsoft’s Surface tablet has caused problems for Acer and Asus, with the former deciding not to release its tablets at all, while the latter has cut the price of its Vivo Tab RT in order to better compete in the market. Is Samsung having similar concerns, and held its own tablet back while it considers its position?
Samsung hasn’t made any official statement about the Ativ S and Ativ Tab’s delay.
Samsung and AT&T announce the Ativ and Galaxy Tab 2 for a November 9 release, bringing new Android and Windows 8 devices to the carrier this week.
If you were planning to buy a tablet this holiday season, rest assured you’ll have plenty of variety to choose from when you head to the stores on Black Friday. Today AT&T has announced two more tablets to hit stores on November 9: The Windows smart PC Samsung Ativ, and latest member of the Android-powered Galaxy family, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. The Samsung Ativ will retail for about $8o0, and the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 will cost about $500 — neither of which require a contract for purchase.
The Samsung Ativ comes as the first of Microsoft’s beefier Windows 8 tablets to hit the market in contrast to its Windows 8 RT tablets released late in October. The tablet features an included clamshell keyboard for high-speed typing when you need it, and a multi-touch display to take full advantage of the Windows 8 UI experience. The device also features an Intel Atom 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 64GB of internal memory, and 2GB of RAM all viewed from a crisp 11.6-inch display. Clocking in at $800, this tablet is a small fortune, but runs the robust Windows 8 OS for a totally mobile and productive experience.
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 serves as Samsung’s sequel to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 released back in 2011, and features Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), an external storage slot, and a slightly beefier battery all viewed from a high resolution 10.1-inch screen. At $500, the Galaxy Tab 2 is certainly not the cheapest Android tablet out there, but nonetheless a feature rich one. Read our full DT review on the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for more info.
To encourage new customers, AT&T is offering a promotional discount for those who buy two qualifying Samsung devices this holiday season. With a new 2-year agreement, customers can get an instant $100 discount for buying any Samsung Galaxy Smartphone along with any Samsung smartphone or tablet of equal or lesser value. As Sprint also announces its roll-out of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for November 11, it’s safe to say AT&T is trying to grab some essential territory before the rest of the carriers release their tablets for the forthcoming holiday season.
The tablet market this holiday season is well inundated with devices of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the iPad Mini to Windows 8 smart PC — the only question is figuring out which one is right for you, and just what the wake of the coming holiday-season tablet war will bring to the market.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date and price have been confirmed by a press release sent out by a high street retailer.
Over the weekend Carphone Warehouse released information on the Galaxy S3 Mini, confirming that you'll be able to pick up the handset for free on two year contracts starting at £25 per month.
According to Carphone's website the Galaxy S3 Mini will be available on O2, Orange and Vodafone, but if you don't fancy being tied to one of those networks the retailer is also offering the handset SIM-free for £299.95.
Stiff competition
We had high hopes for the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, but when it was finally announced the specs were far from blockbuster. The smartphone sports a non-HD 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core processor and 5MP rear camera.
Considering the recently-announced Google Nexus 4 will costs £239 for 8GB and £279 for the 16GB version and packs a 4.7-inch 768x1280 display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 8MP camera and Android 4.2 we wonder why you'd want the Samsung.
According to the Carphone Warehouse listing, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date is set for November 9, however we're taking this with a pinch of salt as Phones4U originally had November 2 as its delivery date – which was obviously incorrect.
We caught up with Pearltrees' chief evangelist, Oliver Starr, after the company announced its 1.0 release and a new subscription-based business model.
Visualizing the scope of what we share from around the Web is a challenge, but given the popularity of tactile devices like iPhones and iPads it seems a valuable one to undertake. Interacting with website content is becoming more and more expected, and developers are taking note. Pearltrees, a startup we wrote about to announce its $6.7 million in funding early this year, just may be at the forefront of haptically curating information, and the company says it has the metrics to prove it.
We caught up with Pearltrees yesterday when the company celebrated the app’s 1.0 milestone. Pearltrees explains that 1.0 signifies the cohesiveness of its product across its three supported platforms: Web, iPhone, and iPad. It also marks, in some respects, the true launch of the site, despite having officially having launched in 2008. Oliver Starr, chief evangelist for Pearltrees, explains to me that Pearltrees started out as a Web app, but was developed for devices like iPhone in mind. The Web app was just an intermediary platform, since at the time Apple’s mobile wouldn’t be able to support the tech required to develop Pearltrees for the iPhone. In fact, the iPhone app wasn’t launched until July of this year.
Pearltrees was founded on the principles that Tim Burners-Lee, the godfather and founder of the Web, had in mind when developing what we know as the Internet. First, anyone should be able to view any piece of information published on the Web — the leading thought of Web 1.0. The second is that anybody should be able to publish any piece of information, which happened with the rise of blogging, wikis, and Twitter. Finally, and most importantly, the third criterion was that anyone could organize collections of this information.
Pearltrees visually aggregates bookmarks of websites, photos, and anything found online into visual “pearls.” Collectively the pearls make up a tree of information, clearly where the app gets its name. Users can save their latest interests from around the Web individually, but multiple users sharing the same interest can collaboratively curate a single pearl as well. It sort of feels like a visual, graphic Wikipedia without the user-contributed text. For instance, one of Starr’s favorite pearls has over 150 members and curates TED Talks. As he took me through it, the pearl was admittedly expertly curated and there didn’t appear to be any irrelevant information to be found.
The moderation of community pearls is left up to the devices of its members. Despite this, Starr tells me he’s only had to administratively ban approximately fifty accounts, including spam bots. It’s an astoundingly small number considering the 700,000 active users, two million unique visitors per month, and about 30 million pearls. And Starr knows a thing or about community moderation. “Being a veteran of moderating tech comments, I can tell you that’s not the norm.” Starr was Michael Arrington’s first employee at TechCrunch and responsible not only for creating “MobileCrunch,” but also worked as the tech blog’s first community moderator.
Pearltrees has access to unprecendented information about its users through its interest graph, called TreeRank. It can group pearls into similar interests and display them to you. Should you search for “Wolves,” the app would then display all pearls relevant to your search query. But since the algorithm scrapes your interests, it knows exactly what Pearltrees’ users interests are and similar things you’d want to see. It’s a powerful feature that, and one you’d think a marketer’s dream.
Despite this goldmine of user information, the company refuses to sell out. “We’ve kept true to the spirit of the company and the product, which is that we wouldn’t leverage what our users do through marketing,” says Starrs.
Instead, Pearltrees is taking the more difficult and less traveled route to making money by selling services. Luckily, the for-pay feature was one requested by the users. Now users can pay $4.99 per month or $49.99 for one year to make pearls private. But this model serves a dual purpose: It implicitly improves Pearltrees’ platform as a repository of valuable curated content. Putting a price on something will increase its value, and while that can be difficult to prove, it’s been done before — sites like Quora, Wikipedia, and even Evernote have showed us this.
By default all pearls are public, so anyone can see your pearls. With Pearltrees’ mantra to be host to a library of valuable content, Starrs explains that the pearls that users want to hide are typically content that Pearltrees wants you to pay to hide anyway. If it’s a pearl containing embarrassing content or even something not worth sharing, then it’s likely not content that would be helpful to other users should they find that pearl. So users should help pay for the hosting costs if it’s not going to contribute to the benefit of Pearltrees as a whole.
It’s a big bet, but one that the site is confident it can take. Pearltrees 1.0 is available now via the Web and for iOS devices.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date has been confirmed as November 8 by online retailer Expansys.
Apparently the November 8 Galaxy S3 Mini release date has been confirmed by the website's suppliers, but it's worth noting this is just for the 8GB white version.
If you fancy getting your hands on the pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini you'll need to wait until "around November 23".
Bigger storage option
The Galaxy S3 Mini will also come in a 16GB variant, but there's currently no word on when we may expect to see this land in the UK.
While it may carry the same name as the Samsung Galaxy S3 superphone, the Mini doesn't quite meet the same high standards of its bigger brother, offering up a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 5MP rear camera, but it does come running Android 4.1.
Expansys is listing the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini at £314.99, but if you shop around you may be able to pick it up for around £300 SIM-free, and it will also be available for free on contracts starting at £25 per month.
There's still no concrete date etched indelibly in our diaries, but Windows Phone 8 handsets are set to land at some point in November 2012.
The arrival of the two flagship Windows Phone 8 handsets on O2's site doesn't herald much other than a reminder that they're on their way.
Waffle
It comes as the rumour mill churns out a potential competitor in the form of a possible Microsft-branded Surface smartphone running Windows Phone 8.
But if the rumours prove to be true, Microsoft will be hard pressed to out-do the HTC Windows Phone 8X which sports a 4.3-inch 720p HD Super LCD 2 display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
If Microsoft does have a handset in the works, we'll be surprised to see it launch in time to do festive battle with HTC's new phones anyway; stay tuned for a more accurate Windows Phone 8X UK release date as well as pricing details and a full TechRadar review.
RIM is completely renovating its BlackBerry OS in its BB10 release and its new gesture-based UI. The Canadians also developed hardware that should stands up to BB OS 10’s biggest competitor, Windows Phone 8.
A leaked specs sheet details the BlackBerry Laguna for Verizon, an L-series device (those are the touch-only ones) that seems to be the CDMA version of the oft-leaked BlackBerry London.
According to this sheet, the Laguna will pack a 4.2” screen with the non-standard 1280 x 768 resolution (only the dev units and the London are supposed to use this one instead of 720p). The pixel density works out to the impressive 355ppi.
The phone will be powered by a dual-core Krait CPU and feature 1GB RAM (Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset), the same that powers the upcoming crop of WP8 flagship devices. Other specs on the BlackBerry Laguna include LTE (with GSM 2G and 3G for roaming), dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with mobile hot-spot and Wi-Fi direct, NFC and microHDMI port.
Then there’s an 8MP camera capable of shooting 1080p video, 16GB of built-in storage and a hot-swappable microSD card. An 1800mAh battery is set to power the whole thing.
We’ve already had a look at what BlackBerry OS 10 is like from the Beta 3 demos, but these leaked tutorials give even more detail on the new touch gestures.
It looks like the Motorola Razr i release date will be October 1, as several online retailers post stock information on their sites.
Both Clove and Unlocked Mobiles have revealed they will be shipping the Razr i on Monday, while Expansys claims it will have units in five days.
UK highstreet store Phones4U will also be stocking the Razr i, however it's yet to announce when it expects to receive the handset.
Edge to edge
The Motorola Razr i boasts an impressive edge-to-edge 4.3-inch display, 2GHz single-core Intel processor and super quick 8MP camera.
You'll be able to get the Razr i on T-Mobile, Orange and Virgin Media, with contracts starting at £23 per month with Virgin, but if you want to get the handset free opt for the T-Mobile/Orange £31 per month deal.
Motorola is still in talks with the likes of O2, Three and Vodafone about the possibility of ranging the handset.
Apple's new iPhone 5 is a pretty piece of equipment. But these four videos show how to change all that in no time.
With each year’s release of a new iPhone, YouTube fills to the brim with videos of people (and companies) “testing” the durability of Apple’s handset. This year is no different. While so-called drop tests (like this one) can be useful for (clumsy) people looking to purchase a new handset, many such videos have slipped into the realm of absurdity. Beyond that, a surprising number of early adopters appear to have purchased an iPhone 5 with pure destruction in mind. Below, we’ve rounded up the four best, most preposterous ways to completely annihilate an iPhone 5. Enjoy.
However, what we see that Friday might not be a fully-baked version, at least according to Intel's CEO.
Speaking before employees in Taipei Tuesday, Otellini reportedly said the OS is launching before it's ready, with improvements still needed.
According to Otellini, Microsoft is anxious to get its operating system out in the world, especially as others companies' devices, like the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, and its own, namely the Surface tablet, need it in order to function.
Bugs for the holidays
Although the Windows 8 OS won't be quite ready by Halloween, Otellini reportedly told the gathered group that Microsoft's strategy revolves around getting the system into computers and tablets before the holidays.
It's actually the right move, Otellini said, allowing Microsoft to grab some market share and release improvements after the fact. Intel is Microsoft's closest partner, according to Bloomberg.
However, critics like Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft, a business that provides independent analysis of Microsoft technology, licensing, and strategy, have expressed concerns about an incomplete OS.
Cherry reportedly said that although the system is fundamentally sound, it lacks "robust applications" that prevent PC makers from fixing problems in "drivers," or the devices that connect hardware to software, such as printers.
Another critic wrote a research note on Sept. 13 addressing similar disquiet.
"We are concerned at the level of bugs and fine tuning that appears necessary to get the beta systems we demoed ready for prime time," Alex Gauna, an analyst with JMP Securities, wrote in response to versions of Window 8 shown at a recent Intel developers' forum.
Success is still in the cards
Although, by all appearances, Microsoft is confident in moving forward with its scheduled release, history has shown that launching unfinished OS's can backfire, as was the case with Vista in 2007.
That company launched a late version of Windows that flopped as it initially didn't work with many applications and drivers.
Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesman told Bloomberg that, thanks to over 16 million active preview participants, Windows 8 has undergone rigorous testing and review and is "[the most] ready operating system in Microsoft's history."
With a host of devices set to launch along with the OS, no matter what state of readiness it finds itself in, Microsoft stands to at least cash in on the excitement of an operating system that isn't iOS or Android hitting the market.
TechRadar has reached out to Microsoft for further comment and will update this story if and when we receive information from the company.
On the heals of Apple's iOS 6 release and a host of Windows Phone 8 device announcements, rumor has it Samsung is hiring WebKit developers to create its own mobile browser for Android Galaxy devices.
WebKit is the open source browser engine behind Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome browsers.
The report comes from the Korean website IT Times, which claims that Samsung's U.S. R&D center in Silicon Valley recently hired WebKit devs to begin work on a Samsung mobile browser.
If the reports can be believed, then the Samsung browser will be designed to compete directly with mobile Chrome.
On a collision course with Chrome
Google's Chrome browser debuted on mobile devices in February, and has since become a popular choice for both Android and iOS users.
Chrome is more advanced than the default Android browser, and Samsung's rumored browser will have to step things up even further if it wants to compete.
As CNET pointed out, a Samsung-branded browser, if powerful enough, could help differentiate Samsung's Galaxy devices from other Android handsets.
In response to a TechRadar query, a Samsung representative reminded us that the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.
That said, the Samsung rep informed us that this is the first he'd heard of a Samsung mobile browser, so take that as you will.
Opera wins globally
Globally, Opera is the most-used mobile browser, according to StatCounter, a global online statistics firm.
According to the StatCounter site, Opera also barely beats Android's browser and "iPhone," which we're guessing means Safari.
Reports claim that most users of web-capable phones simply use their devices' default browsers, and Opera has come pre-installed on various phones from Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Nokia, Sony, and more.
With modern browsers like Chrome mobile coming packed with features, including the ability to switch rather seamlessly between desktop and mobile browsing experiences, Samsung had better have some aces up its sleeves if it wants to stand out.
BlackBerry 10 is still heavily under development and still quite some way from being a finished product, but we've had some hands on time with an early release to get a feel for some of the new features.
Update: We've checked out an almost-final version of the user interface, which is pretty close to perfection, according to RIM: "we think we've nailed the user experience going forward," Vivek Bhardwaj told TechRadar - but we'll let you be the judge by checking out our findings below.
In fact it was the BlackBerry Dev Alpha device which has been handed out in its thousands to BlackBerry developers worldwide, so they can start working away on new apps ready for the launch of BB 10. We checked out an recent version of the device in London, and here's what we thought:
BB10 sees the implementation of a whole new user interface, with RIM doing away with the familiar BlackBerry system we're all used to, in favour of something which resembles the likes of Android and iOS, although with its own unique features.
With BlackBerry 10, RIM has merged homescreens, widgets, app lists and a unified inbox into one slick interface, offering up an easy-to-navigate user experience.
The main homescreen comprises of four widgets, technically mini-applications, which expand to fill the screen when tapped.
Scrolling down and you'll notice that this main display actually holds eight mini apps in total – displayed in order of use, allowing you to jump quickly between your recent applications.
Open up an application which isn't in top spot, or a completely new one from the app list, and when you exit it you'll notice that it now occupies the first, top left spot on the homescreen.
Swiping from left to right will bring you to the app home screen, with 16 apps on the screen at any one time, and you can access more by sliding up and down – the whole thing very similar to Windows Phone's Start Menu UI.
At the bottom of both the homescreen and app list you'll notice a shortcut bar, with quick links to the phone, search and camera applications – allowing you to quickly jump to these regularly used features.
Unfortunately these features had not been implemented on the version of BB10 we were using, so we'll have to wait and see how well they work.
Lock screen
The lock screen shows notifications for alarms and unread messages on the left plus your upcoming meetings as well as the date and time, with a button to launch the camera straight from the lock screen to grab a quick snap.
You unlock the phone by sliding your thumb up the screen. You can slide from anywhere on screen rather than needing to start at the bottom and the screen starts to draw in around where you slide so if you just want a quick peek at the information in one area of the screen, you can just drag to show it and then let go.
Return to the home screen and then sweep in the opposite direction and you'll be greeted by the unified inbox, which pulls in all your messaging and social network notifications into one easy to access location.
And when we say all, we mean all, as the unified inbox can deal with multiple email accounts, text messages, BBM, call history, third party messaging apps such as Whats App and a whole host of social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Of course, with so many accounts feeding into the handset, the more popular among us will be quickly inundated with notifications from various different channels, however there's an easy way to check where your new messages are coming from, without clogging up the notification bar at the top of the screen.
RIM has developed the "peek" function, which sees the user drag slightly from right to left, which reveals a slender column on the right side of the display, with new message icons and counters for your respective accounts.
The reason for this is so you can quickly see which account has received a new message and jump directly to it if required, whether you're on the homescreen or within another application.
Update: Wherever you are, you can drag up on the screen to see notifications down the left of the screen. Pull up and slide across and you see the details of the new messages (from the unified inbox, so you get email, texts, BBM and social network updates or other alerts all together).
The further you slide your finger across, the more the top layer slides out of the way and the more of the layer underneath you see, so you can peek at new mail to see if it's important enough to read straight away and then go back to what you're doing, without ever actually switching out of the current application.
If you pull up and then across, you can even swap what you're peeking at underneath, swapping to a different email account or even the calendar in the message centre (by picking the icon or pulling far enough across to see the account name first).
Or you can jump straight into the clients for your cloud storage, like Box, Dropbox and SkyDrive. Start in the file manager and pull the screen back to see storage on your device or pick Dropbox instead. You can open, edit and manage files in cloud services as if they were on the phone.
The same level of integration applies to the new Remember note-taking app, which pulls in notebooks from EverNote or OneNote and tasks from Outlook accounts. Swipe sideways in the HTML5 browser and you see the list of favourites.
It sounds a little complicated, but once you have the hang of it, you can navigate around your information going straight to what you want without going back to the home screen and into different applications each time.
Having the 'peek' idea work the same way in so many applications helps you get used to it as well (though we don't yet know how well third-party applications will be able to do the same thing).
When you do get into a message or an appointment, you can see more information about the people involved in a way that will be familiar to BlackBerry PlayBook 2 users; you can see who you know in common, what messages you've exchanged or recent social network updates.
It's a new look for the 'flow' between different apps and information sources that BlackBerry has always been good at, but with a fresh modern look on a much larger screens, with a similar gesture showing you a pane of the apps that are currently running. And
If you drag down on the screen you see Personal and Work buttons that let you switch between the two BlackBerry Balance modes.
In Personal, you can install any apps you want, send any email, save any file and so on, working in a partition that's encrypted for privacy but not locked down in any way. if you use your BlackBerry for work though, you'll also have a Work partition that's also encrypted but completely separate and can be locked down if that's what the company wants.
Drag down on the screen, pick Work mode and all your personal apps disappear – so you can't accidentally copy a work file into your personal cloud storage account.
Then there's Cascades, a new navigation system cooked up by RIM especially for BB10, allowing for quick multitasking from within applications.
The example we've seen is in the messaging app - open an email it will display full screen, but drag your finger from left to right and the message will slide with you, revealing the inbox below.
This means if you get a new message in the middle of reading an email, you can check who it's from without having to close the application – similar to the notification bar on Android and also now iOS.
If you were to open an attachment from the email, a PDF document in the case of our demo, pulling to the side to view the cascade will show the app's layers stacked up – a more visual paper trail, if you will.
It's certainly an intuitive feature that we found to work smoothly on the development handset – but it will be interesting to see how this feature is embedded into other applications and if it will have the same pleasing results.
App world
There's a different version of BlackBerry AppWorld where your company can offer specific work apps – like an app that uses the NFC chip in your BlackBerry to unlock the door to the office
RIM is hoping this will keep companies happy with security but also keep users happy, because the security team at work can wipe all the company information off your device if they want but that won't delete your photos.
They can't even see what files you have on your phone when they're managing it, because your personal partition is encrypted.
As more of us take our own phones to work, this is much more sophisticated way of protecting both the company and the user's personal files that other smartphones – but again, it's a little on the complicated side and relies on your company having the appropriate BlackBerry management software.
Finally, the last feature which was available for us to play with on this early version of BB 10 was RIM's new full-touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.
BlackBerry handsets are famous for their physical boards and RIM is keen to bring this typing experience to its BB10 touchscreen smartphones with its own offering.
Visually the keyboard looks similar to the stock Android offering, but each row of keys is separated with a silver line – which is supposed to reflect the metal strips between buttons on the Bold range, such as the Bold 9790 and Bold 9900.
Next word prediction, auto-correct and spell check are all common features on smartphones today and RIM has spent some time developing its own system to offer an efficient typing experience.
It sees next-word suggestions appear above the character the word begins with, and if it's the word you want to use, you just need to swipe up over the word and it will be added to your sentence.
As with many offerings these days, the keyboard will learn your style of writing, meaning it will be able to suggest better words the more you use your phone.
We found the keyboard to be fairly accurate and relatively well spaced, but for those of you used to the physical buttons of a traditional BlackBerry it will take some getting used to.
Although the operating system is still very much in its early stages of development, we must say that we were impressed with how smooth and slick the interface felt under out fingers – seamlessly zipping around without fuss.
BlackBerry assured us that is smooth experience would still be present in the final product, thanks to the clever integration of the HTML 5 system, which optimises the performance of the software. We certainly hope they're right.
Find out more information on BlackBerry 10, including its release date, upcoming devices and the camera function with our BB10: what you need to know article.
The release of a new Apple iPhone, the collapse of service for BlackBerry users. Last October's 4s meets 4 days of outage for BlackBerry? No, today's latest failure in service for Research in Motion's mobile device.
As if to add insult to injury, on the morning of the day when the iPhone 5 went on sale internationally, BlackBerry users across the world woke up to discover that their devices didn’t work anymore.
Well, kind of.
What actually happened was that users throughout Europe, Africa and parts of the Middle East had connectivity issues with the BlackBerry Messenger, email and Internet access for around four hours from 8am BST onwards. It took some time for BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion to acknowledge the problem – almost two hours, in fact, before the company Tweeted that “some users in Europe, Middle East and Africa are experiencing issues with their BlackBerry service,” updating around ten minutes later with “We are investigating and apologize for any inconvenience.”
Around two and a half hours later, service was fully restored.
An official statement from RIM offered “our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today,” going on to add that “We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally.” It’s not known exactly what the problem was at this time; according to a spokesperson in London, the issue only affected users using specific carriers, with Vodaphone being named in a statement to the Guardian newspaper. John Jackson, a wireless analyst at CCS Insight told Reuters that the outage may be connected with a similar problem that befell the device last October, and suggests that it’s a bad sign of thing to come. “That RIM has experienced another outage is worrisome,” he said, adding that it could be seen as a hint that “something hasn’t been put right” after last October.
Oddly enough, that particular October 2011 outage – which lasted for four days and affected tens of millions of users across the world, embarrassing the company and leading to a public backlash against both Research In Motion and the BlackBerry as a device – also coincided with a major Apple release, this time the release of Apple’s iPhone 4S. While it’s a step towards conspiracy theory to suggest any connection between iPhone releases and BlackBerry outages, it’s definitely a very strange coincidence. Joking about the outages being some inept attempt to divert attention away from the iPhone sales, it’s perhaps woth suggesting that RIM should consider beefing up resources as soon as the next iPhone release is announced, just as a precaution, based on past experience. If nothing else, it couldn’t hurt.
In a public apology to users, RIM’s chief executive Thorsten Heins said that the company is “conducting a full technical analysis of this quality of service issue and will report as soon as it concludes.” The emailed statement ended with Heins adding “I again want to apologize to those customers who were impacted today.”
The upcoming Mozilla Firefox OS is slated for a Q1 of 2013 release, but how is the development coming along? Here's our hands-on preview.
In attendance at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular in New York City last night was Mozilla Firefox, and we got some hands-on time with the operating system the open-source web browser is currently developing. The Firefox OS (working name, as far as we know) is still in a heavy beta mode, and is built entirely on HTML5. The rep we spoke to demoed the OS using an unbranded ZTE phone, noting that Firefox has stripped the Android out of the phone and created its own operating system from the ground up.
What what we can see, the OS is fully web-based in that every app and functionality runs off the web browser. Making phone calls is equivalent to calling on Skype, taking pictures is akin to snapping flicks with Apple’s Photo Booth, searching straight from the homepage is like having a shortcut to the Firefox search tool bar. There’s also a cartoony game built into the phone that uses a tap to perform actions interface, and it’s clear that the OS still has a bit of a way to go before its scheduled release date early next year.
Mozilla even tried to build a glasses-less 3D rendering that you can see, touch, and move… but this feature was still a bit buggy and did not respond too well to touchscreen interface just yet. We’ll cut it some slack considering it has several months to go, but web developers should definitely gear up for some fun programming time once the open source OS becomes available for your modding pleasures.
The Firefox OS is all part of a collaboration between ZTE and Mozilla to roll out its own system that doesn’t rely on Windows or Android. The finished OS is slated to arrive overseas first, with mobile network operators Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telenor, and Etisalat backing the experimental platform, reports Reuters. We hope to catch up with the development team in a few months and see how their work comes along, and whether it’s got something entirely different to offer that truly distinguishes it from the rest.
AT&T issued a Press Release concerning the new iPhone 5's selling pace. The carrier declared the iPhone 5 the fastest selling iPhone on its network to date, but chose not to provide specific numbers.
The early statement is very impressive and in tow with what analysts have projected so far. The Apple iPhone 5 is expected to sell 10 million units in September alone. And it should come as no surprise as this is Apple's fastest roll-out of an iPhone device to date so numbers were expected to be higher.
Here's the Press Release itself. We hope to hear actual numbers soon from Apple itself.
AT&T SETS SALES RECORD FOR IPHONE 5
Most Successful iPhone Launch Ever
DALLAS, Sept. 17, 2012 – AT&T* set a sales record with iPhone 5 over the weekend, making it the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered. Customers ordered more iPhones from AT&T than any previous modelboth on its first day of preorders and over the weekend.
iPhone 5 is still available for preorder at www.att.com/iphone and will be available in AT&T retail stores beginning at 8 am local time on Friday,September 21.
AT&T offers a number of advantages for iPhone 5 customers. · AT&T's network lets you talk and surf the web at the same time.
· Largest 4G Network. Customers get blazing-fast speeds on the nation’s largest 4G network, covering 275 million people. · FlexibleRate Plans. AT&T doesn't force customers to switch data plans to get the best device price when they upgrade to a new device and new AT&T customers aren't forced into a certain plan; they have the flexibility to choose from one of several individual or Mobile Share plans.
More customers choose AT&T for iPhone than any other U.S. carrier.
Rumors of the Samsung Galaxy S4 suggest an increase to a 5-inch screen size and an MWC 2013 release date.
There’s nothing like a good rumor to get the week started and this time it’s a big one, as it concerns the follow-up to the current darling of the Android world, the Samsung Galaxy S3.
According to a report in the Korea Times, Samsung is readying the Galaxy S4 for launch during Mobile World Congress next year, before going on sale in March.
The quote comes from an unnamed Samsung official, who adds that the next Galaxy flagship will have a similar design to the S3 — keeping its “popular rectangular shape with rounded corners,” but potentially increasing the screen size again, this time to 5-inches.
A quad-core Exynos processor will power the device, Android will be the operating system, and it will support 4G LTE networks all over the world. The article makes particular mention of Europe here, where 4G is beginning to become more widespread, plus the UK will hold its 4G spectrum auction early next year too.
The report continues to say that Samsung is still considering using its flexible screen technology for the S4, but hasn’t made a final decision, although talk of production problems make it sound unlikely.
Samsung is almost certainly working on a follow-up to the Galaxy S3, and it could well be named the Galaxy S4, but what about the rest of the report’s speculation? It’s equally as likely to use another Exynos processor in the S4, but whether this will be another quad-core chip, or the Exynos 5 Dual with its high resolution screen support, isn’t quite so clear cut.
Android and 4G LTE are also obvious features, while a push to a 5-inch screen isn’t that unlikely either. Remember, the S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 aren’t that much larger than their predecessors, despite the respective increase in screen size.
A March 2013 release would also see the S4 go on sale less than a year into the S3’s life, which seems very early for such a capable device.
But then, accuracy isn’t the point of this leak, it’s about letting everybody know that Samsung is hard at work on the next big thing, and not to be distracted by shiny offerings from the competition.
The iPhone 5 release date will be announced on September 12
Although widely expected, there was no iPhone 5 in 2011, though the company did announce the iPhone 4S.
So it's surely high time for a total revision of the iPhone, and with an Apple event taking place today, 12 September, we're expecting to see the iPhone 5 break cover in a matter of hours.
We've gathered together all the latest rumours on the new iPhone 5 to give us a reasonable picture of what Apple's latest handset might be like.
The shadow on the invite shows a 5, which almost definitely means Apple is to call its latest handset the iPhone 5 - so thankfully no more 'new' names as in the new iPad.
It looks like the new iPhone 5 will be an entirely new form factor unlike the iPhone 4S - there are full details of all the leaks below - while it looks like we'll be seeing yet another SIM card standard launch, called a nanoSIM. The leaks suggest a 7.6mm thick handset, making it 1.7mm thinner than the iPhone 4S.
We're also expecting a four-inch display, 1GB of RAM and a new quad-core ARM processor, probably called the Apple A6. 4G internet speeds will also surely be supported by the new standard, especially given the EE announcement of a 4G UK network.
As has been much rumoured - again, full details below - we'll also see a new 8-pin dock connector to replace the now common 30-pin Apple iPod, iPad and iPhone standard.
Apple has been making the final preparations to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, the building where the iPhone 5 launch event will be held - we've not long to wait!
iPhone 5 release date
Of course, today's launch is all very well, but when will the new iPhone hit the streets? It looks like the iPhone 5 release date will be 21 September, though there is some speculation it could be September 24.
This rumour has been further exacerbated by news that US networks AT&T and Verizon have reportedly told staff to forget taking holiday around the 21 Sept, which is often the biggest sign of an impending iPhone launch - and FedEx is apparently preparing for 'surge volume' between September 21 and 24.
At Apple's WWDC 2012 event in early June we learnt a lot more about iOS 6, but there was no hardware (well, apart from new Macs). Check out the launch news as well as iOS 6: everything you need to know.
You'll find all the other iPhone 5 rumours below, but why not check out our new iPhone 5 rumours video first?
The other rumours we reported on leading up to today's iPhone 5 launch are below...
It seems that Foxconn will again be manufacturing the handset. It'll put the Samsung Galaxy S3 "to shame" according to the CEO of Foxconn, Terry Gou - though he didn't say how.
Update: Now Apple has sent out the invite to its event on September 12, it looks every more likely the sixth generation of iPhone will be confusingly called the iPhone 5.
We reckon iPhone 5 is still the possible name of the new iPhone, but it could follow the new iPad and end up being called, simply, the new iPhone. We really hope not. One thing is for sure, Apple has already filed a complaint over the ownership of the iPhone5.com URL.
Apple is apparently testing two versions of the next iPhone, which are known as "iPhone5,1" and "iPhone5,2" - so could handset number six for Apple actually be called number five?
iPhone 5 form factor
Unlike the iPhone 4S, the new iPhone will be a completely new design from what has gone before, so that means an entirely new casing as we saw with the iPhone 3G and, later, the iPhone 4.
Interestingly, someone who claimed to have seen a larger iPhone 5 prototype said in 2011 that Steve Jobs canned the new size and opted for the iPhone 4S. According to Business Insider, it was feared that a new size would create a two-tier iPhone ecosystem.
Beatweek also claimed in November 2011 that the 5-inch was scrapped "because Apple wouldn't be able to do it properly" this year. However, the Daily Mail (make of that what you will) then suggested that a four-inch version was likely and that Sony has already shipped top secret demo screens to Apple.
A new iPhone 5 backplate leaked in early May - they were acquired by 9to5 Mac, but look like the combination of a lot of the other rumours we've heard about the shape and size of the new handset. These feature bigger speaker grills as well as a four inch screen and a two-tone back with brushed aluminum .
The two-tone back was also spotted in a video from eTrade Supply, which again showed the relocation of the headphone jack as well as a smaller connector and redesigned speaker grills.
A detailed video render of all the iPhone 5 rumoured/leaked images was also uploaded to YouTube in early June.
Another video claims to show off the front panel of the new iPhone, and confirms a similar width to the iPhone 4S but will be taller and thinner. The SIM trays will also be smaller than the previous microSIM options, with the new nanoSIM style the default now for even tinier component - which is backed up by news of mobile operators stockpiling nanoSIMs.
We've also seen a Chinese site claim to have a fully assembled iPhone 5 chassis - bringing together all the design aspects mentioned in previous leaks, including a smaller dock, relocated headphone jack, centralised front facing camera and two-tone back.
We've also seen another 'complete' iPhone 5 from another site, posted side-by-side with the iPhone 4... but let's be honest, these mock-ups are appearing all over the place now.
iPhone 5 connections
If you're a fan of your current iPhone dock, then look away now: rumours surrounding that famous Apple 30-pin connector on the base of the iPhone have flared up again, with Reuters reporting that the dock connector is getting smaller to make room for a 3.5mm headphone jack on the base of the new iPhone 5.
Some rumours are even claiming Apple will opt for a smaller 8-pin option over the current 30-pin port or rumoured 19-pin version - or a slight change to a 9-pin offering that will appear on the base of the device.
The latter seems to have been confirmed by a USB cable set for the new range of Apple products - although it looks a bit dull compared to the iconic 30-pin connector of yore.
Well, it had to happen sometime didn't it?
iPhone 5 specs
Based on the roadmap of mobile chip design specialist ARM (of which Apple is a licensee), we'll see a quad-core processor debut in the new iPhone 5 - probably called the Apple A6. We've seen other quad core handsets debut in 2012, so it's not too much of a stretch to say that the new iPhone 5 will be the same.
We had expected some kind of help in terms of predicting the iPhone 5 CPU from the launch of the new iPad, but the announcement of a slightly tweaked A5X processor really didn't help things there.
According to a tip to 9to5Mac, the CPU will be the S5L8950X. Again this could be a derivative of the A5, but as 9to5Mac points out, Apple is probably working on a low-power 32nm version of the processor. As we could well have guessed, that processor will be manufactured by Samsung but designed by Apple itself.
New photos have shown what some believe to be the new internal chipset, which features an A6 power unit, which may up the level to quad-core power - or could be more to allow things like NFC on board too.
Alternative other pics have hinted that we're just going to see a dual-core power unit, which would fit with previous Apple strategy of not always going for specs...many believe dual core chips are still powerful enough, and Apple could definitely follow suit.
The same report suggests 1GB of RAM, which seems right to us. Other recent reports suggest that Apple is trying to ditch Samsung as a supplier for the iPhone 5's DRAM and NAND chips - but it's nothing to do with the two companies' patent battle, honest.
Images of a range of internal gubbins, all claiming to be parts of the iPhone 5, have made their way onto the internet - possibly revealing more about Apple's sixth generation handset.
These are interesting for a number of reasons: the battery size update is only 10mAh, which hints at not much increase in processor power, nor screen size. However, it's perfectly plausible Apple has managed to make a more efficient version of its chipset ahead of a flagship phone launch.
The antennas inside the motherboard are updated too, so once again signal performance should be enhanced... and really does make it seem likely that we'll see some sort of 4G support.
After the new iPad's launch brought 4G (of sorts) to an Apple device, it's widely expected that 4G will come to iPhone 5. And with many 4G handsets already announced in the US, it can't be long before the iPhone supports 4G technologies - even if there isn't a UK spectrum auction until late this year or maybe early next.
Because of the 4G fuss over the new iPad in the UK, we'd expect this to be played down in any UK handset - or the UK might get a different version to the US entirely, although this is unlikely, since Apple would rather keep the production costs down through manufacturing only one model.
Update: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the iPhone 5 will come with international LTE support, allowing users to jump easily between 4G networks in different countries and continents.
Update: We have had the biggest hint yet that the iPhone 5 will indeed come with 4G. According to EE CEO Olaf Swantee, the phones to get 4G connectivity will be "from Samsung, HTC and Huawei and... one more thing... other firms soon.
Many sites have reported that Steve Jobs was working hard on the iPhone 5 project, which will apparently be a "radical redesign". We shall see... but the fact the iPhone 4S was so similar to the iPhone 4 suggests that he was working on something pretty special before his death.
The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that: "One person familiar said the fifth-generation iPhone would be a different form factor than those that are currently available… it was unclear how soon that version would be available to Verizon or other carriers."
According to Bloomberg, sources familiar with Apple's plans said Jobs "had worked closely on the redesigned phone before his death".
Update: The iPhone 5 launch is so important to the US that it may well raise the country's GDP. This is according to the chief economist to JP Morgan, who reckons it will be "the biggest upgrade in consumer electronics history."
Various sources claim the iPhone 5 will feature a larger, 4-inch screen. Digitimes quotes the source as saying that Apple is expanding the screen size "to support the tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the market."
On 23 May 2011, we reported on rumours that the iPhone 5 could feature a curved glass screen. These rumours also came from Digitimes, which said that Apple has purchased between 200 and 300 special glass cutting machines because they're too costly for the manufacturers to invest in.
In March 2012, new reports suggested that the new iPhone 5 would come sporting a larger 4.6-inch retina display, while April rumours even suggested the next iPhone will use new touch technology.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed to dampen the 'larger screen' speculation at the recent D:10 conference, saying the company has "one phone with one screen size, one resolution".
Those of you who are keen Apple watchers will, however, know that he is wrong - the currently-available 3GS does not have the same resolution as the iPhone 4 and 4S.
Whatever, it seems Sony is involved with the display and it has been making the screen since February, ramping up production from May. A larger screen will also be welcomed by developers, as Mobilebloom points out.
The consensus now is that the new iPhone 5 will sport a 4-inch screen, which is merely lengthened to enable older apps to run with black lines above and below. It will also use new in-cell technology to produce a thinner, lighter screen.
We've seen what looks like the front panel of the new iPhone through an online video, suggesting a larger screen, 4.06-inches in size and with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The fact that the beta version of iOS 6 has a scalable option to increase the OS to fit a 640 x 1136 resolution has added more fuel to the larger screen fire.
With the tech being inside the Google Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, as well as a host of other top smartphones, the time for NFC may finally be here.
On 24 June 2011 it was reported that the Google Wallet mobile payment platform could feature on the new iPhone. Eric Schmidt admitted that Google is looking to port the software to other manufacturers.
The developer in question has not been named, but is working on a dedicated iOS app which includes NFC reading for mobile transactions. When questioned how confident he was on the information he had received his reply was "Enough to bet the app development on".
We've also seen a pic of the internals for the new iPhone (pinch of salt and all that) that shows a space perfectly formed for the contactless technology.
However, hopes were seemingly dashed on September 6 2012 when new photos of the iPhone 5's innards revealed that the space in question is probably meant for the front-facing camera. Of course, it's not definite but things aren't looking too good for NFC fans.
Apple would be a big name to add into the NFC ranks, and would help push the technology more firmly into users' pockets. The likes of Visa and Mastercard are working hard on making contactless payments a part of every day life, and while our conversations with these companies haven't yielded concrete information, they're very hopeful Apple will be coming on board soon.
iPhone 5 camera
Sony makes the camera for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Speaking at a live Wall Street Journal event, Sony's Sir Howard Stringer was talking about the company's camera image sensor facility in Sendai, a town that was recently ravaged by the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
According to 9to5Mac, he said something along the lines of, "Our best sensor technology is built in one of the [tsunami] affected factories. Those go to Apple for their iPhones… or iPads. Isn't that something? They buy our best sensors from us."
Sources have also suggested the new iPhone could have an 8MP camera again. Indeed, Sony announced in January 2012 that it had developed new back-illuminated stacked CMOS image sensors which are smaller in size. It's also been reported that the new iPhone will have an HD front-facing camera as well.
An interesting titbit via MirrorlessRumors is that a removable iPhone back panel that would include the camera lens has been spotted in a patent document. It seems to show that the device would work either by swapping the panel, or rotating the panel to change lenses - but don't expect this to be used in the new iPhone, since Apple very much likes to keep things simple.
iPhone 5 price
If the iPhone 5 is an evolutionary step like the move from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S then we'd expect the price to stay more or less the same, although in the UK higher VAT rates may well mean a higher price tag.
It's pretty much nailed on that the new iPhone will cost around £500 in the UK for a 16GB or 32GB model (depending on the capacity Apple whacks in there). Unless the iPhone 5 comes with some truly next generation technology, that pricing model should hold firm.
In the US, the iPhone 4S came in at $199 for the 16GB model, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399 on a two year deal - and the same will likely appear again, although there's a chance we'll see a 128GB capacity for an even higher price.
Update: A source at a "well-known U.S. retail chain" has revealed the prices for the upcoming iPhone 5 (codename: N42) variants - and it looks like they'll be the same as the iPhone 4S launch prices.
iPhone 5 pre-orders
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The reason it would be so cool is that it would give the iPhone the same 'premium' feel while offering a new style of design. We might not see it yet, but there will likely be an iPhone based on this material in the future.
iPhone 5 review
TechRadar is renowned for its detailed phone reviews where we look at every aspect of a handset, and we'll be bringing you a full, in-depth iPhone 5 review when we get our hands on one.
So whether you're reading our new iPhone 5 review or the more standard iPhone 5 review, you'll know that you're getting a knowledgable and fair take on Apple's latest device. If it's worth upgrading to we'll let you know, and we'll be heavily comparing it to the best on the market... which just happen to be from Apple's courtroom adversaries, HTC and Samsung.
The shadow for the "12" looks conspicuously like a "5"
A FedEx insider has released an internal memo that provides yet another hint of a Sept. 21 new iPhone 5 release date.
The memo describes as "surge volume" that'll take place Sept. 21-24, exactly when the new iPhone 5 release is rumored to be taking place.
The FedEx communiqué instructs employees that training classes previously scheduled during the period starting Sept. 21 have been postponed to Nov., just as similar internal communications from Verizon and AT&T recently forbade employees from taking holidays during that week.
The ban on vacations and postponement of scheduled activities could indicate these companies are expecting to move high product volumes during that time.
All in all, a Sept. 21 iPhone 5 release date is looking more and more likely.
And so it begins
The Sept. 21 iPhone 5 release date was initially rumored back in July, when the Apple event taking place on Sept. 12 first came to light.
That event has since been confirmed by Apple - the Cupertino tech giant sent out an invite recently with the words "It's almost here. 12."
The shadow for that "12" looks conspicuously like a big "5," removing any room for doubt as to what's being announced at the Sept. 12 event.
Another site, GottaBeMobile, claimed on Friday that "a trusted source" has also confirmed the Sept. 21 iPhone 5 release date.
What to expect from the iPhone 5 announcement
iPhone 5 rumors have been flying for months, with the latest claiming that the new iPhone won't be the only new Apple product in the spotlight on Sept. 12.
