Anticipation for Research In Motion's new BlackBerry 10 OS is reaching a fevered pitch ahead of the company's planned January event.
As has been customary for any new technology or software, a handful of images of BB10's home screen have leaked.
Consumers dying for their first look at what to expect from BB10 should find plenty to sate their appetite, as the images give a clear look at the user interface and potential launch applications for the first BB10 smartphones.
Though an invitation-only beta test for RIM's government and enterprise partners did open on Monday, these new images give everyday consumers a glimpse inside what awaits.
At your fingertips (Credit: BGR)
Are you Siri-esque?
Everyday social networking apps like FourSquare and Twitter make an appearance on the home screen, as do Facebook and LinkedIn.
The other apps present on the home screen include text and BlackBerry Messenger, as well as the standard media (music, video, pictures) and more practical apps like Docs to Go and Remember.
The images also give the first look at BlackBerry Hub, BB10's new all-in-one messaging center which allows users to manage multiple email accounts, BBM, social networks and more all from the same portal.
All of those features are outshone by the alluring appearance of what could be BB10's answer to Siri.
Judging by the images, the voice activated app will allow consumers to use voice commands to send messages, set reminders and possibly more.
Yes, what can you do for me? (Credit: BGR)
Whats(app) missing
Unfortunately, even though it looks like BB10 is going to work with a lot of familiar apps, and introduce a handful of new experiences, some developers won't be making the jump.
Whatsapp confirmed it has no plans to support BlackBerry 10, but didn't indicate if that meant forever, or just in the short term.
The developer also didn't reveal why a new Whatsapp wouldn't be created for BB10 in time for launch, but perhaps they are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new OS.
Whatsapp will likely not be alone in not making the transition to BB10, but until the new operating system and phones actually launch, users will just have to hope their favorite apps will be part of RIM's new direction.
Though M7 has a spy-like ring to it, the term actually refers to a rumored HTC smartphone that has proved to be equally enigmatic.
But today provided the first break in the case – specs for the upcoming smartphone leaked onto the web.
The M7 (likely a codename) is supposed to be the successor to HTC's popular One X handset. Though it won't be as technologically innovative as the One X, the new device is reported to have some industry firsts built in.
The Taiwanese manufacturer had a few disappointing quarters and some bad financial news, so a phone that rides on the success of the One X series might be just what the doctor ordered.
Sharper looking
The M7 is said to feature a full HD 4.7-inch screen with a pixel density of 468 ppi. If that's true, that would make the new HTC handset about 40 percent sharper than the current iPhone 5.
The new SoLux display is supposed to be visibly better than the previous Super LCD2 display in terms of viewing angles, outdoor visibility and color accuracy.
Along with being quite a bit sharper, the M7 should run faster than the One X thanks to the new smartphone's 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor.
The new device will pack 2GB of RAM, come with 32GB of internal flash storage and have a 2300mAH battery. But there doesn't seem to be any way to expand the storage memory at the moment, one flaw it may share with the One X+.
The M7 is also expected to ship with Jelly Bean.
Lights, camera, Android
The phone should feature some goodies for pocket photographers.
The rear camera has a 13MP image sensor and a f/2.0 lens. The front camera packs a 2MP lens, and both are supposed to take 1080p video.
The new image sensor (called "Cinesensor") has a few other tricks, such as super slow-motion and video HDR.
Along with all those visual upgrades, the M7 is said to come with some enhanced sound abilities. The speaker is designed by Beats, the Dr. Dre-branded sound technology. And "Clear Words" tech should make phone conversations easier to hear.
As for voice calls, the device should not only be LTE connected, but also offer a next-gen Wi-Fi 802.11ac connection that is rumored to be three times faster than the current 802.11n WLAN wireless tech.
Unfortunately, the launch date and pricing of the M7 didn't leak along with the technical specs, but the the phone could launch in early 2013, potentially at CES or the Mobile World Congress.
Samsung will give its Galaxy Tab 2 range of Android tablets a 'Garnet Red' paint job in a bid to snare Valentine's Day shoppers, according to reports.
The SamMobile site has unearthed a leaked image (above), showing the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 devices in the purported new hue.
The site brought word from an unnamed tipster claiming the red devices, which will include the Galaxy Note 10.1, will be on sale before February 2103.
The report also states that no spec bump is expected alongside the romantic rouge overcoat.
Overshadowed
Samsung made some early headway with its first Android tablets, but the Galaxy Tab and Note 10.1 slates have recently been overshadowed by low-cost, high-performance tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.
Would a nice shade of red make you more likely to splash out on a Galaxy Tab, rather than a Nexus 7, for your loved one this February 14?
Let us know in the comments section below, you old romantics, you.
The Facebook apps for iOS and Android were updated on Monday with changes to the "Nearby" function that allows users to discover nearby businesses.
In addition, Foursquare's iOS app, which does the same while offering "badges" and other gamified incentives for going out, received an update on Monday as well.
Both companies purported to have made it easier than ever to discover new hot spots with Monday's updates, and each app now offers improved social functionality.
Of Facebook's reported 1 billion members, 250 million use the Nearby feature, according to USA Today, while CNET reported in April that Foursquare had hit 20 million users.
Facebook Nearby revamped
The Facebook Nearby update arrived on both iOS and Android on Monday.
The new Nearby tab within the Facebook mobile app will display first and foremost nearby locations that have been recommended or checked into by friends.
Rating and recommending locations and businesses will alter what your friends see when they check what's nearby on their own devices, and vice versa.
"This is an early release and there's lots more to do," wrote Facebook's Product Manager of Locations and Events Josh Williams in a news release.
"Results will get better the more people use Nearby, and we'll continue to improve it based on feedback."
Williams also revealed plans to integrate data from third party services in the future.
Foursquare simplified
Monday's Foursquare update applied only to the iOS version of the location-based check-in app.
"We've made it even easier to decide where to go and what to do when you get there (and to learn interesting things along the way," reads an official Foursquare blog entry posted on Monday.
As of Monday, when Foursquare users on iOS tap on a specific business or location, the most important information - ratings, hours, etc. - is displayed first.
Once a Foursquare iOS user has checked in, the app will give them tips and allow them to leave their own tips and ratings, in addition to alerting them to who else is at that location.
Finally, once a user has checked in the Foursquare app "highlights an important takeaway," like what your friend's favorite dish there is or that you've been to the gym for however many weeks in a row, according to Foursquare's blog.
As if you needed any other back-patting for going to the gym besides those rock-hard abs you see in the mirror, right?
Between Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT, it seems Microsoft has released too many disparate versions of Windows for consumers to keep track of - just as an executive at Dell reportedly predicted would occur.
Dell vice chairman and president of Global Operations and End User Computing Solutions Jeff Clarke told The Australian Financial Review that he at one point urged Microsoft to change the name of the Windows RT operating system used on ARM-based tablets like Microsoft's Surface.
A Windows device should be compatible with all Windows applications, Clarke argued, but Windows RT tablets are not. Thus, the mobile OS should not carry the "Windows" moniker.
But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly told Clarke that the Windows brand was just too important to drop.
Windows RT Confusion on Twitter
There's little doubt that Clarke's prediction has come true - Microsoft has even reportedly had to relax its own return policies due to customers' confusion over the various versions of Windows.
Twitter users have been sounding off as well: "I keep wondering what Windows is retweeting," wrote CIO Online editor Brian Eastwood on Monday, referring to the tendency to abbreviate retweet as "RT" on Twitter.
Another user, Corey Ginnivan, echoed that sentiment last Wednesday, tweeting, "I can never tell if your [sic] telling me to Retweet or if you're talking about the Surface."
There isn't even a simple way to determine which Windows apps will work on Windows RT devices when you're browsing the Windows app store from a non-RT device.
When queried repeatedly by one Twitter user last Thursday, Microsoft's official @Surface account replied that the only way to see which apps are Windows RT-compatible is to check each individual app's "details" tab to make sure that ARM is listed as a supported processor.
A future for Windows RT
Microsoft even launched a dedicated site to explain the difference between the Surface with Windows RT and the Windows 8 Surface model, but that seems to have done little to alleviate Windows users' confusion.
Nevertheless, Dell Vice President of Consumer Marketing Neil Hand insisted to The Australian Financial Review that "there's a future for RT."
"Making sure we educate the market place on the differences was going to be a necessary action no matter what," he said.
"Just calling it something different is not going to solve the problem."
It'll be a silent night on the Ministry of Defence's radio frequency as part of it's spectrum is sold off to help increase the amount available for 4G networks.
The spectrum is currently used by emergency services and transport regulators, as well as for defensive needs but the MoD reckons it has plenty to spare.
The sub-15GHz spectrum that the MoD is selling off can be used for voice networks as well as data and broadband.
Bourne again
With Ofcom currently juggling the auction that networks can bid on space to run 4G networks, any additional spectrum to add to the mobile data cause is a boon.
Networks will have the opportunity to buy the defensive spectrum but whoever nabs it won't get a boost in the race to catch up with EE as the auction isn't planned until summer 2014.
Ofcom's own auction is scheduled for early 2013 after various delays.
The weather outside may be frightful but Carphone Warehouse's fire is proving delightful for the Sony Xperia E, which looks set to hit the UK retailer in February 2013.
Announced earlier this month, the budget Android phone is yet to receive an official UK release date from the Sony stable, but Carphone has it pegged.
While Sony Germany has priced the Jelly Bean handset at around €159 (£130), Carphone hasn't seen fit to speculate on an exact UK price just yet.
Budget bean
The handset isn't exactly going to set early adopters' hearts aflame, but the cash-strapped might be tempted by its 3.5-inch HVGA screen, Android Jelly Bean, 1GHz processor and 3.2MP camera.
While the February 2013 release date remains unconfirmed, Sony has committed to a Q1 2013 release date so it's pretty feasible.
Of course, its release date fanfare may be somewhat overshadowed by the biggest phone show of the year, MWC 2013, also taking place in February.
There's no doubt that 4G is going to be a success in Britain; faster speeds, improved services and better handsets are all things most consumers are constantly hankering over.
However we're in a special situation in the UK, with one network allowed to deploy the superfast networks ahead of its competition. EE already owned 1800MHz spectrum, capable of delivering the LTE signal, and successfully petitioned the government to allow it to offer the service to consumers.
The other big players: O2, Vodafone and Three, will have to head through an auction in 2013 to get their hands on the prized spectrum to deliver the same services, so it would seem EE has gained a huge advantage by going first.
But with the announcement of the next wave of cities getting 4G from EE, will the network gain enough from being the first to rollout the technology, or will it be associated with high costs and unknown technology? If, as it states, it will have one of the best networks out there, could launching at the same time as the others pr have prevented it having to learn how we will use 4G data while everyone is looking?
It's had to invest in a huge marketing spend, convince consumers to pay more for phones and we've many people I've spoken to don't like the prices: £36 for 500MB of data, all the way up to £56 per month for an 8GB allowance was seen as eye-watering to many.
While we can't expect to pay rock-bottom rates for the faster speeds (it's not free to deploy 4G, obviously) there was a massive contradiction in the messages from EE. On the one hand, it was saying it had chosen the data limits based on 3G usage, yet with all its posters and marketing materials it was extolling the virtues of all the new things customers can do, such as gaming and video on the go.
What will we do with it?
These activities suck down reams more data, making any 3G learnings largely irrelevant. While it's not fair to expect EE to know how Britain will consume 4G data on the go, saying 'you used to use 512MB happily, so you'll do the same on 4G' makes very little sense.
Tom Bennett, director of network services at EE, told TechRadar that EE has spent a lot of time with large networks in other countries that already have 3G, such as Verizon in the US, and confirmed that it was expecting 4G to bring the likes of YouTube into the top 10 most visited websites on a mobile.
With that in mind, it might have made more sense to give more generous data limits on 4G; if EE is confident consumers won't use them, where's the harm? It's now got to deal with being seen as overly expensive, even though the sky high prices should be expected.
The point to be made here is that by being first to market EE gets the reflected glory of being a technology pace-setter; Bennett told us that in his opinion doing so would put EE 'ahead [of competitors] by a significant margin' in terms of its 4G network quality.
And that's the key point: come mid-2013 when Vodafone et al come online with their own offerings, EE will have an entrenched customer base and a (hopefully) refined range of price plans to provide super fast speeds at a lower cost.
It's perfectly plausible that Three or O2 will use EE's 'expensive' reputation to offer cheaper 4G, but all have to bear the cost of a massive roll out and network update, making such a scenario less likely.
Do we want 4G yet?
So here we are, five weeks into 4G Britain. We've got no stats on user take up as yet, but TechRadar's tests have shown 4G to be much faster, provided you have a faster signal. Bennett tells us that independent tests in Manchester saw 4G and 3G combined speeds averaging 7.6Mbps , which is definitely faster than 3G offers.
But beyond the early adopters, very few will pay the high price to get a 4G contract when they're unsure how much data they'll be using. We need education, statistics and most importantly, a price war to convince most of us need a 4G phone in our lives.
We should raise a glass to the networks for the speed of the rollout though: the transition from 2G to 3G took nearly seven years in the UK; the move to 4G will take under two. Businesses that can swallow the cost will be able to be more connected than ever before which will provide a boost to the economy.
Price aside, 4G speeds will bring us faster downloads, more connected devices than ever before and a new world of entertainment – but consumers need to be convinced that's worth paying for when their current smartphones are providing a decent experience already.
