South Korean electronics giant Lucky Goldstar has ousted their first Windows Phone 7 handset, The LG Optimus 7.

LG aired the Optimus 7 mobile phone in a demonstration of DLNA, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show. Digital Living Network Alliance (DNLA) is a way of easily sharing media from device to device, over WIFI [...]]]> Optimus becomes primed

South Korean electronics giant Lucky Goldstar has ousted their first Windows Phone 7 handset, The LG Optimus 7.

LG aired the Optimus 7 mobile phone in a demonstration of DLNA, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show. Digital Living Network Alliance (DNLA) is a way of easily sharing media from device to device, over WIFI and Ethernet.

The Windows Phone 7 handset from LG has a one-touch method of sharing video files, music and images with their own and other television sets with DLNA built in.

LG demoed this in action at the event, whilst at the same time showing off the Optimus 7. The sharing of media with a simple flick of a finger, between phone and screen, is a unique proposition from LG - according to the company.

Media sharing can be done over WIFI without leaving the media gallery, with files such as 720p HD video and high resolution images being presented straight to an LG TV screen.

No details were furnished surrounding the exact specifications of the LG Optimus 7, although it’s been reported the handset will have a 3.7-inch touch screen, with a 1Ghz processor and a 5 megapixel camera - besides running Windows 7.

One Mobile Ring has been invited to a virtual press conference with Lucky Goldstar on September 14th, which relates to the Optimus series of handsets. We’re expecting they’ll be an official announcement over their Windows Phone 7 line-up at that time.

Orange has announced they have revamped the rewards given out to pay as you go users, to encourage regular top ups.

The new benefits to Orange prepay customers extend what is already on offer, when the phone is regularly charged - with money.

The Monkey tariff is geared up for music lovers [...]]]> More incentives, to keep topped up

Orange has announced they have revamped the rewards given out to pay as you go users, to encourage regular top ups.

The new benefits to Orange prepay customers extend what is already on offer, when the phone is regularly charged - with money.

The Monkey tariff is geared up for music lovers with free access to music online, where for the first time this plan rewards users that top up with just £5 a month. The new rewards are in the flavour of free text messages and a daily internet pass, with a cap of 2MB a day.

Orange’s Canary users can now benefit from free 100 evening and weekend text or picture messages, when they top up £10. This is in addition to the free 100 minutes of evening and weekend calls, which is already a part of the package.

Racoon tariff on Orange has been updated to offer the flat call rate of 12p a minute, which is the lowest cost Orange has to offer. The previous fixed rate for calling was 15p a minute, with a saving of £1.80 per hour of calling.

The Camel plan can now offer up to 240 minutes to over 50 countries, if the phone owner tops up by £30. This tariff is ideal for people that do call overseas often, where Orange has now opened up the plan to be a monthly tariff as well.

One Mobile Ring was recently informed when the dust settles on Everything Everywhere, T-Mobile will be focussed towards the business user and Orange will be focussing on the consumer. This announcement will certainly benefit their new possible remit, with the consumer being a high percentage of pay as you go users.

And vice-versa

T-Mobile and Orange customers will soon have access to both networks, for UK roaming between the two mobile phone carriers with a greater coverage area in Great Britain.

Orange and T-Mobile customers will soon be able to make calls and send text messages on either network - with no extra cost attached. This is coming off [...]]]>

And vice-versa

T-Mobile and Orange customers will soon have access to both networks, for UK roaming between the two mobile phone carriers with a greater coverage area in Great Britain.

Orange and T-Mobile customers will soon be able to make calls and send text messages on either network - with no extra cost attached. This is coming off the back of the newly merged companies, which now runs under the guise of Everything Everywhere.

The 30 million users of both networks are being invited to sign up to the program, in order to gain access to this offer that starts from October 5th.

Orange and T-Mobile customers that have signed up for the network share will automatically switch to the other carrier, if the signal is lost from the original provider they’re signed up to.

Plans are under way where users of either carrier can switch between the phone networks mid-call, on to whichever network has the strongest signal.

This is the first news to be made public after the two companies merged, where mobile users on the separate networks can now see the benefit from this combined deal.

Nothing has been mentioned by either company about the data network sharing, which comes as no surprise as T-Mobile has a data-share in place with Three.

T-Mobile users can sign up at - www.t-mobile.co.uk/share
Orange users can sign up at -  www.orange.co.uk/share

Samsung’s recently launched Android tablet device has tipped up with on-line mobile phone reseller Expansys, SIM free and unlocked for £679.99.

The Galaxy Tab was unveiled at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show last week, where the 16GB version’s retail cost has now been made public along with the arrival date of October [...]]]> Reserve the tablet in advance

Samsung’s recently launched Android tablet device has tipped up with on-line mobile phone reseller Expansys, SIM free and unlocked for £679.99.

The Galaxy Tab was unveiled at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show last week, where the 16GB version’s retail cost has now been made public along with the arrival date of October 12th.

It’s been reported the Tab will be a direct rival to the Apple iPad, whose cost comes in at £529 for the same capacity and also with WIFI and 3G abilities.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is a 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display based Android tablet, with Samsung TouchWIZ UI overlay to the Google OS.

Vodafone has also announced they will be selling the Tab from October onwards, only on a contract where no price details have been made available by the mobile phone network.

O2 is exclusively selling a similar Android product in the Dell Streak, where if their tariff details are anything to go by the Samsung tablet could be free on a £25 data or £35 data and voice contracts.

The SIM free 16GB Galaxy Tab model is much more costly than we first anticipated, where the 64GB iPad is just over £19 more.

With Virgin, student discount

Virgin Media has unveiled a BlackBerry handset on a £12 a month tariff, with unlimited web browsing, email and BlackBerry messenger use.

The Virgin Mobile offer is for last year’s budget Research In Motion 8520 Curve handset, on a 24 month plan. The BlackBerry 9300 Curve 3G has recently succeeded the 8520, as their low cost Bold-esque [...]]]>

With Virgin, student discount

Virgin Media has unveiled a BlackBerry handset on a £12 a month tariff, with unlimited web browsing, email and BlackBerry messenger use.

The Virgin Mobile offer is for last year’s budget Research In Motion 8520 Curve handset, on a 24 month plan. The BlackBerry 9300 Curve 3G has recently succeeded the 8520, as their low cost Bold-esque mobile phone.

The £12 a month tariff arrives with 50 minutes per month, unlimited calls to Virgin numbers, a 250 text message allowance, along with the unlimited web browsing, email and BB messenger access.

Existing Virgin Media customers can benefit from a lower price of £10 per month, where students holding a valid NUS Extra card can obtain a further 15% discount.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 has a traditional Qwerty keyboard, instead of the Storm’s touch screen text entry method. On board, there’s a 2 megapixel camera, WIFI and a microSD slot that supports the latest 32GB cards. However, there isn’t 3G access - as this was missing from the  Curve 8520 and only found its way into the Curve 9300 handset.

BlackBerry mobile phones have now moved out of the corporate world,  where the average muggle can now benefit from fast text entry and a physical keyboard is still the most commonly sought after  way of entering text.

The bank [...]]]> This week saw the last month of Q3 being heralded in with the beginning of September, along with the news that summer time is officially over as the weather started turning decidedly colder. All that a side, the mobile world saw some interesting news from the handset manufactures, mobile OS companies and a small fox.

The bank holiday in the UK started off the week, where the end of the previous week saw Orange apologising for the delay to Android 2.2 arriving to HTC Desires on their network. A new beta of the Firefox web browser came to Android, whilst Samsung unveiled at the start of the week a new phone running their own Bada OS.

We reported only one leak this week, which was an upcoming HTC handset that was ousted by T-Mobile in the USA. Motorola had a big week, by unveiling not one but two Android mobile phones.

Apple’s keynote speech mid-week was to unveil new products but they also announced an update to the iOS 4, where Microsoft signed off on Windows Phone 7 and released it to the handset manufactures. Rounding off the week was news that the rumoured Samsung Android Tablet was launched at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.

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Orange was featured in the news twice this week, once with an apology and the second time with a new service arriving on the network.

At the tail end of last week, Orange apologised over twitter for the Android 2.2 delay arriving on their HTC Desires, with the fault being down to HTC.

Orange’s PR manager announced in a tweet - “Android fans there has been a delay in receiving the 2.2 Froyo update from HTC, & we now expect it to be available mid-Sep. Apologies”. This also confirms a rough arrival date for the update to be rolled out, to handsets on the Orange network.

A follow on tweet from Orange indicated the onus is firmly not on the network, but on another entity. The Twitter message reads “..would like to point out the delay on 2.2 Froyo is not related to Orange services on the device.”

What stamped home the buck was passed, was a tweet from the PR manger to a question from a Twitter user with the response being “we are waiting to receive the update from HTC..”.

Orange users were concerned by this issue, in which the Orange PR representative responded over twitter with “the delay is not related to Orange customisation on the handset”. He also added, “as far as I know there will be less Orange customisation on 2.2 than the existing 2.1?.

This could be a good sign, where there will be less qualifying time by Orange when HTC does eventually ship them the updated.

Orange also announced midweek its high definition voice service has gone live nationwide, which brings in a better quality of calls over the airwaves.

Orange is the first UK network to announce this service, which effectively reduces background noise and therefore improves the overall quality of a call. The Sony Ericsson Elm ‘Eco’ handset arrives with a similar feature, but its technology is built in to the phone and it’s not an over the air service.

This new feature from Orange is available on a number of handsets, such as the Nokia 5320, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro. Other upcoming mobile phones will support the service too, where new devices will be shipped with an Orange HD Voice logo to identify the handset is compatible.

Orange has been successfully trialling out HD voice since June, where we first brought you news of the technology at the end of 2009.

The service is available now and at no extra cost to 3G based Orange customers, where we suspect more handsets will support this ability within the next few months

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Two new Motorola handsets were launched this week running Android, where that very OS could be seen as the saviour of the company who didn’t produce a single handset in a year.

Moto unveiled this week a sequel to their second ever Android mobile phone, the Milestone 2.

The new version arrives with a 3.7-inch touch screen, Android 2.2 and also features a slide out Qwerty keyboard, that has been improved since it’s the predecessor. Milestone 2 is now accompanied by Motorola’s overlay to the Google mobile OS known as MotoBlur, which was missing from the original phone.

MotoBlur brings full message notifications onto the home screen, from social networking feeds, text messaging and emails only in a much more seamless way that HTC’s Friendsteam, as it’s thoroughly integrated into Android.

Powering the Milestone 2 is a 1Ghz processor, where the original Milestone only ran from a 550Mhz chipset and Android 2.0. The new mobile now has the 802.11n specification, where the phone can also be run as a mobile WIFI hotspot thanks to the new OS.

The Motorola Milestone 2 will be available in the UK and the rest of Europe between October and December. No networks have been confirmed as yet to be carrying the handset, but last time around the online phone reseller Expansys exclusively sold the phone SIM free and unlocked.

The second phone Motorola launched this week was a DEath deFYing phone, named Defy that can cope with life’s little knocks and scrapes.

The Motorola Defy is water resistant and dust proof, where getting sand in the phone, spilling some drink or being in the rain won’t render the phone useless and unusable - according to the manufacturer.

The mobile has an IP rating of 67, which means it’s both dust tight and can be immersed in 1 metre of water whilst still being operable - where other mobiles that pride themselves on durability aren’t as invulnerable.

Defty is accompanied by a Corning Gorilla 3.7-inch touch screen display, which is also scratch resilient to a degree and aids in the handset’s toughness as a whole.

The phone is run from Google’s mobile Android 2.1 ‘Éclair’ OS, with their own MotoBlur overlay to the platform that brings in social networking, messaging and email feeds on to the home screen whilst offering up security measures too.

Motorola Defy is due out in Q4 this year, with no prices as yet announced or any networks mentioned that will be carrying the handset.

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HTC had a handset leaked this week, only this was by the very mobile phone network that will feature the phone exclusively in the USA.

Images have appeared on T-Mobile’s stateside website to the successor of the very first Android handset from 2008, the T-Mobile G1.

T-Mobile has yet to produce a webpage displaying these images, but sources linking to technology site Engadget have obtained the URLs to where the images reside on the actual T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile G2, or the HTC Desire Z has been reported to have all the trimmings of the original Desire only with a Qwerty keyboard. HTC has ventured down this route before, with the Touch Pro being a slide out keyboard version of the HTC Touch Diamond.

The original Android handset, the T-Mobile G1, was developed for T-Mobile in the USA as a Sidekick-esque mobile phone, only running the newest and most promising operating system for mobile phones at that time.
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Samsung unveiled two new handsets this week as well, one earlier on running their own mobile phone OS and another towards the end of the week running Android.

Samsung brought out a second Bada based mobile phone, the Samsung Wave 723.

The mobile phone manufacturer is bringing the OS and the phone to the masses, with a set of specifications to make it affordable. This latest handset from Samsung arrives with a 3.2-inch TFT LCD screen, instead of the Super AMOLED display that accompanied the first Samsung Wave S8500 Bada mobile - which keeps the costs down.

Samsung’s own open source Bada platform runs the phone, in which the company is hoping it will give Android a run for its money. Samsung has toyed with many operating systems in the past, where they’ve even used Symbian and after Nokia had acquired the company behind it.

The Wave 723 arrives with a leather flip cover and is just 11.8mm thin, with a 5 megapixel camera, the 802.11n WIFI specification as standard and access to Samsung’s own App Store.

Their second device was a 7-inch screen Android table entitled the Galaxy Tab, which is Samsung’s first tablet and a direct rival to the Apple iPad.

Samsung Galaxy Tab has been rumoured for some months where it’s now had its official launch, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.

The Galaxy Tab has 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display, running the latest version of Google’s mobile OS with the Samsung TouchWIZ UI. The device is powered by the Cortex A8 1GHz application processor, with on board storage coming in the form of either 16GB or 32GB variants with a microSD slot. Other specs of the device range from front and rear facing cameras, 3G HSPA connectivity, along with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0.

Video playback is one of the device’s strong points, as not only is it the world’s first DivX certified tablet but it also supports HD video in popular containers such as XviD, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.

The Tab complements Samsung’s Galaxy existing series of products, where the previous largest display was seen on their recent Android 2.1 Galaxy S mobile phone - with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen.

Vodafone announced at the same time as the launch event it will be selling the Tab from October onwards, where this move can be seen as competition to O2 exclusively selling the Dell Streak - a similar Android product.
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Apple’s press conference midweek was to unveil a new range of products where they also unveiled a new version of the iOS.

This release first and foremost fixes a lot of issues that many have experienced with the OS. Apple listed the fixes at their keynote speech, which ranged from proximity sensor issues being resolved, to Bluetooth problems also being fixed in iOS 4.1.

Apple claimed that iPhone 3G performance issues will be resolved too, whilst they announced there are additions to the new platform and not just the resolution of problems.

Apple has added HDR photos, which stands for High Dynamic Rage where three pictures can be taken at the same time, one over exposed, one under exposed and another normal one - where they are combined to produce the best possible photo.

Added to iOS 4.1 is the ability to upload HD video content over WIFI, which was apparently absent from previous versions of 4. Other improvements are relating to iTunes, where it’s now possible to rent TV shows and not just purchase them from Apple.

Game centre is a new addition to the latest Apple OS release, where essentially there are now multiplayer games on their devices that are even being developed in great 3D detail.

A few of these features feel as if they should have been a part of the iPhone 4 at launch, whilst the others just relate to teething problems that early adopters have encountered and Apple are being very apologetic for.

iOS 4.1 will be available free from next week and downloadable through iTunes, as per usual

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Around the midweek point Microsoft announced Window Phone 7 had been finally signed off and released to manufactures.

The Windows Phone team announced in a blog post they’ve just reached this milestone in the development of the platform, where the OS is now with the companies responsible for the hardware in which the final version of the OS will be rolled out upon.

Mobile phone makers will now start testing this final build of the mobile phone OS on their hardware, just as they have done since every build was passed to them - only now the platform is complete and is ready for the launch around November time.

Microsoft has already been testing the OS on a reported 10,000 devices, with over 8,500,000 hours of testing already logged. MS has also had thousands of software companies and early adopters testing out Windows Phone 7 to arrive at the stage.

Windows Phone 7 is now ready to roll, where mobile phone manufactures such as LG, HTC and Samsung will be announcing their handsets any time soon.
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At the very start of the week we reported that a small fox has arrived on Android, in the form of Fennec - which is the name of the mobile version of Firefox.

Mozilla released the latest beta of their mobile phone browser for Android, which is built from the same technology found in their desktop browser.

Firefox mobile, codenamed Fennec, has gone into the latter stages of beta testing with this ‘alpha’ release that’s ready to download and use.

The browser is said to have access to similar adds-ons from its desktop based big brother, as it has the same overall design with a lot of the background features being ported across for continuity.

It’s been noted the desktop Firefox and Fennec has reportedly been developed with a seamless browsing experience in mind, where the mobile phone based version has no learning curve needed if the computer one has been used.

There are even features in Fennec that solely benefits users of the desktop version. These are the likes of the built-in sync option, which provides over the air access to bookmarks, browser history and form data of the desktop iteration of Firefox.

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And finally, Steve Jobs caused a bit of a faux pas this week in his keynote speech - by announcing the Apple App Store has 6.5 billion apps.

The head of Apple clearly stated at the 6mins and 34second mark of the Apple press conference “there are over 6.5 billion apps on the Apps Store”, seen here.

He obviously misspoke, as moments later he said there are 200,000 apps being downloaded every second - when he actually meant over 6.5 billion apps have been downloaded in total, not that there are 6.5 billion apps in the store.

Steve Jobs mentioned later in the key note the App Store actually has 250,000 apps, where 25,000 of them are for the iPad.

This seems more of a realistic figure and one we can live with, although it appears none of the media caught this or brought him to task on the blunder - apart from One Mobile Ring.

Once upon a time the mobile OS was just there to facility dialling someone, messaging someone and holding the contact [...]]]> One Mobile Ring began a feature last week about the mobile phone operating system with where it’s come from, how it’s evolved to what it is today, which includes all the various platforms found on different handsets.

Once upon a time the mobile OS was just there to facility dialling someone, messaging someone and holding the contact details, of those someones needing to be messaged or called. Now, the OS has evolved into something else, with functionality that could very well rival the desktop PC - if not at least be comparable with the way it operates.

The operating system plays a vital part in delivering all this goodness to the end user, along with what they want to achieve with the mobile. This is in addition to what they can now do with the phone, with the plethora of applications available today. All of which is a far cry from just dialling, messaging or using an address book on a mobile.

Last week we started with the Symbian operating system, with its ties to Nokia and its history dating back to the late 1980s with Psion handled devices. We also covered the many versions and iterations the platform has been through, along with the success other phone manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung’s have had with the OS.

This week we turn our attention to one of the youngest phone operating systems around, which only celebrates its two year anniversary on a mobile phone in October this year.

Android
The Android OS is synonymous with Google, ever since the Internet search engine giant acquired the company behind it back in 2005. The OS is now used by many different mobile manufactures, although its link to HTC is more significant since they have produced more than 12 different handsets worldwide running the platform. HTC also has the claim to have produced the very first Android mobile phone to go on sale in late 2008, with the T-Mobile G1.

The people initially behind Android were also responsible for the T-Mobile Sidekick device, where it’s no coincidence that when T-Mobile wanted another sidekick device and they approached Google and HTC who developed the T-Mobile G1 running Android OS.

Android can have its roots traced back to 2003, where the people behind Android were reportedly developing software for mobiles and not hardware. Google acquired the company behind Android in 2005, rumours then begun of a Google phone being on the horizon with their services brought into play as a significant part in a mobile phone.

The team behind Android, now as a part of Google, was known to be working on a platform with Linux at its core - which is still true today. Linux has been the basis of Android with each and every release, with new Kernels in most versions. There was a view from the start to make an operating system with an open set of standards, which wasn’t closed off and could have applications easily developed for the platform.

In 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded and led by Google, with over 34 different companies becoming members with that figure now reaching 78. OHA is made up with bodies such as HTC, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm - in a business alliance with a view to develop open standards for mobile devices.

The first public outing of Android was on a prototype Texas Instruments handset, at a mobile phone industry conference in 2008. Later on in the same year the T-Mobile branded HTC device came out in the USA, with the Touch G1 being the replacement to the bestselling sidekick.

The Android operating system has been open source since it first begun to appear on mobile phones, with the software development kit being offered for developing applications that can be found on the Android Market App store.

There have been a number of Android variants over the past few years with a touch screen being a firm fixture of the OS and its hardware. Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 is the most recent version of the platform, and is currently being rolled out on handsets that can support it. Android has undergone 4 revisions to date, with another two already planned and that are currently in the works.

The Google OS Android ‘Cupcake’ 1.5 was run from the Linux Kernel 2.6.27, and was launched in April 2009. This notably brought in a better virtual keyboard, customisable home screen with widgets, along with the ability to record and watch video. HTC launched their second Android handset around this time running Android 1.5, the HTC Magic.

Android ‘Donut’ 1.6 was run from the updated Linux Kernel 2.6.29, and was launched in September of 2009. A better Android Market experience accompanied this new OS, where applications were easier to find and download. Users also noted that taking pictures were faster inside 1.6, with quicker switching between photo and camera modes. The lower end HTC Tattoo and Acer’s Liquid A1 shipped a short time after this update arrived, with them both running Android ‘Donut’.

The first handset to arrive in the UK with the next version of Android was the Motorola Milestone, in late 2009. Android ‘Éclair’ 2.0 was run from same Linux Kernel 2.6.29 as version 1.6, and was launched in October of 2009. The new version was a significant update, as the numbering alone displays. 2.0 brought in Microsoft Exchange support for the first time in Android, along with a new user interface and support for flash in cameras.

Google’s Android ‘Froyo’ 2.2 runs from the updated Linux Kernel 2.6.32, and was launched in May this year. This is the most current platform and is being made available to recent phones that shipped with an older OS, which is a trait of the Android platform. This brought a number of changes that were notable, just as in the last update where Google now appears to be releasing major changes and not just slight revisions. Improved support for Microsoft Exchange server is now a part of the platform, along with Adobe Flash 10.1 for viewing native flash content on webpages. There is also the ability to turn the phone into a WIFI ‘MIFI’ hotspot for 5 devices, which isn’t on any other platform worldwide.

Froyo is now being rolled out to HTC Desires, along with HTC Wildfire handsets on various networks - with Vodafone being the most recent carrier to deliver Android 2.2.

Other devices have been using Android, besides just mobile phones. Tablet style devices are also known to run the platform, with companies such as Archos retailing devices running the OS. More recently, Dell has produced a tablet computer with cellular access for both data, voice and video calling which is sold exclusively by O2. Samsung has just announced their iPad 7-inch screen rival, the Galaxy Tab. This will be on sale in October with Vodafone, with similar abilities to the Dell Streak.

The next reported version of Android is ‘Gingerbread’ 3.0, due out later in the year. This will be based around the Linux Kernel 2.6.33. New features for this version have been noted as access to an Android Market music store, media streaming from the computer and a larger screen support of 1366×768 - ideal for tablet computers. The version after ‘Gingerbread’ is only known as ‘Honeycomb’ at this time, with no further details available at present.

The App Store on Android isn’t as vast as the iPhone’s, which has a reported 250,000 items to be downloaded. Google has confirmed to One Mobile Ring there are over 70,000 apps available on the Android Market, with 50,000 more announced at their developer’s conference in May. There are now over 60 compatible Android powered devices, with 21 OEMs and 59 carries in 49 countries supporting the platform, according to Google.

In a very short space of time Android has achieved great success, whilst embracing the trend for a touch screen mobile phone and access to a good repository of applications. A recent report by Gartner places the Google OS at third place in the market share of the sheer number of smartphones sold in Q2 of this year, behind Symbian and RIM.

Electronics giant Samsung has announced its first ever Apple iPad rival tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab - which arrives running Android 2.2 and is the only tablet style computer to be DivX certified.

Samsung Galaxy Tab has been rumoured for some months where it’s now had its official launch, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.

The Galaxy [...]]]> Keep taking the tablets

Electronics giant Samsung has announced its first ever Apple iPad rival tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab - which arrives running Android 2.2 and is the only tablet style computer to be DivX certified.

Samsung Galaxy Tab has been rumoured for some months where it’s now had its official launch, at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show.

The Galaxy Tab has 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display, running the latest version of Google’s mobile OS with the Samsung TouchWIZ UI. The device is powered by the Cortex A8 1GHz application processor, with on board storage coming in the form of either 16GB or 32GB variants with a microSD slot. Other specs of the device range from front and rear facing cameras, 3G HSPA connectivity, along with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0.

Video playback is one of the device’s strong points, as not only is it the world’s first DivX certified tablet but it also supports HD video in popular containers such as XviD, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.

The Tab complements Samsung’s Galaxy existing series of products, where the previous largest display was seen on their recent Android 2.1 Galaxy S mobile phone - with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen.

Samsung’s Android tablet can also perform in much the same way as any mobile phone, as it accepts a SIM card for data, voice calls and messaging.

Vodafone announced at the same time as the launch event it will be selling the Tab from October onwards, where this move can be seen as competition to O2 exclusively selling the Dell Streak - a similar Android product.

No prices or tariff details have yet been set, but if O2 is anything to go by the Samsung Galaxy Tab could be free on a £25 data or £35 data and voice contract.

At Apple’s press conference where they unveiled a new range of products the company also announced version 4.1 of iOS, which arrives with bug fixes and new features for the supported iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

This release first and foremost fixes a lot of issues that many have experienced [...]]]> New version of the latest platform

At Apple’s press conference where they unveiled a new range of products the company also announced version 4.1 of iOS, which arrives with bug fixes and new features for the supported iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

This release first and foremost fixes a lot of issues that many have experienced with the OS. Apple listed the fixes at their keynote speech, which ranged from proximity sensor issues being resolved, to Bluetooth problems also being fixed in iOS 4.1.

Apple claimed that iPhone 3G performance issues will be resolved too, whilst they announced there are additions to the new platform and not just the resolution of problems.

Apple has added HDR photos, which stands for High Dynamic Rage where three pictures can be taken at the same time, one over exposed, one under exposed and another normal one - where they are combined to produce the best possible photo.

Added to iOS 4.1 is the ability to upload HD video content over WIFI, which was apparently absent from previous versions of 4. Other improvements are relating to iTunes, where it’s now possible to rent TV shows and not just purchase them from Apple.

Game centre is a new addition to the latest Apple OS release, where essentially there are now multiplayer games on their devices that are even being developed in great 3D detail.

A few of these features feel as if they should have been a part of the iPhone 4 at launch, whilst the others just relate to teething problems that early adopters have encountered and Apple are being very apologetic for.

iOS 4.1 will be available free from next week and downloadable through iTunes, as per usual.

Microsoft’s much awaited mobile phone operating system has just been signed off and released to manufactures, for the handset makers to start testing and readying for the arrival on their devices later on in the year.

The Windows Phone team announced in a blog post they’ve just reached this milestone in the development of the [...]]]> WP7 is RTM

Microsoft’s much awaited mobile phone operating system has just been signed off and released to manufactures, for the handset makers to start testing and readying for the arrival on their devices later on in the year.

The Windows Phone team announced in a blog post they’ve just reached this milestone in the development of the platform, where the OS is now with the companies responsible for the hardware in which the final version of the OS will be rolled out upon.

Mobile phone makers will now start testing this final build of the mobile phone OS on their hardware, just as they have done since every build was passed to them - only now the platform is complete and is ready for the launch around November time.

Microsoft has already been testing the OS on a reported 10,000 devices, with over 8,500,000 hours of testing already logged. MS has also had thousands of software companies and early adopters testing out Windows Phone 7 to arrive at the stage.

Their last milestone was announced when they reached the Technical Preview, where they met with the press and aired the OS in its near complete stage.

Windows Phone 7 is now ready to roll, where mobile phone manufactures such as LG, HTC and Samsung will be announcing their handsets any time soon.

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