It has been a touch few years for Blackberry who have failed to commercialize their devices and operating system beyond the business community and a few thousand anarchic UK rioters.

So with the terrible two seemingly gone from the top, how are Blackberry going to emerge now that they have had a little time to reflect on the future?

The answer to that seems to be that they will focus on their core corporate clients and turn their back for now on trying to muscle in on consumer orientated Apple and Android markets.

Reality has set in at RIM:

In the statement yesterday, the spokesperson also stated that the would be looking to partner with other technology providers in software and other areas that will allow RIM to move quicker and more cost effectively into areas that the are less experienced in.

CEO at RIM Thorsten Heins said:

“We can’t do everything ourselves, but we can do what we’re good at,”.

Build on strengths:

Heins said a turnaround required “substantial change.”

“We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody’s darling and all things to all people…therefore, we plan to build on our strength.”

With a huge strategic review underway at research in motion, the new RIM will see a fair few stalwarts of the company who were there at the beginning leave in various ways.

Co-CEOs Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were replaced by Heins after they had recently lost the company tens of billions of dollars on their share value.

Along with the demise of the CEO’s David Yach the chief technology officer for software and Jim Rowan, chief operating officer for global operation are also leaving.

But business world demand iPhones and Android:

There is a major issue that RIM face right now and that is if there new version of the blackberry operating system, Blackberry 10 does not offer the option of running third part apps, then their new software could once again prove problematic as the shift is already underway and I would imagine that the longer this sea change occurs the harder it will be for corporations to justify yet another change back to a new device and O/S when so much is at stake during such a migration.

Apple alone sold some 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, which is 3x more than what RIM shipped in the last three quarters combined.

And with the Playbook flopping despite being hailed as a good quality device, you can see that the path out for RIM is going to be uphill and more than likely take a few wrong turns on the way.

So how long can RIM take to bring about the change that is needed?

Well RIM shares have seen a decline last year of quite a significant margin, but the ship does seem to have stabilized some what since then.

With Net loss at around $125 million for the fourth fiscal quarter, this is an obvious loss, but not as much as the nearly $1 billion hit ($934 million) they took a year ago.

And revenue has fallen short of expectations at some $4.2 billion from $5.6 billion. This has been reflected in the share price with RIM shares falling by 33 cents to $13.40 which see a 2.4% drop.

This issue of smartphone battery life is one of major concern for both device owners and smartphone and tablet manufacturers, and though there are some exciting technological advancements coming out that aims to help us all enjoy longer battery life from our smartphones but until all these actually come to fruition there could be another rather nifty way of helping us get a little #MoreJuice out of our phones….and the answer lies in waste energy.

In an article in IEEE we see that wasted light could be the key to extra smartphone battery life.

Our batteries are finding it tough to make our shiny Super AMOLED screens stay bright all day and play all those games/apps and process that video as we now use our smartphones more and more and expect more from the devices. So could the answer lie in the light energy that is pretty much wasted from our screens on a day to day basis?

Cambridge university researchers could hold the answer:

You have obviously all heard of Solar Power, so without going into too much technicalities imagine this concept being taken and used in your smartphone for light that has escaped from your OLED screen.

Professor Arokia Nathan and researcher Arman Ahnood, point out that around 36% of the light produced on a mobile device screen is actually projected forward to the display to be seen by your eyes with the remaining light escaping at the display edges, and it is this wasted light that could hold the key to making that battery last a little longer.

Science part:

With the prototype developed, a number of key areas are explained that make this technology work as intended.

One of the main issues is voltage spikes which would potentially cause damage to the battery while charging and would be caused by the differing light intensities, this would be managed by using a number of solar cells within the smartphone display which are made up from thin-film hydrogenated amorphous silicon, this technology would be able to harness both the wasted light and the ambient light around you. Couple this with a thin film super-capacitor and you should be able to even out the voltage to stop damage to the battery.

On top of this another set of solar cells would be arranged around the device display to capture any light that escapes from the screens main display and it is said that an average smartphone can produce up to 5 milliwatts of power using this method and technology.

Does this sound like technology that will work or a bit of pie in the sky?

There is a train of thought that states that humans can only think around 50 years ahead before their ideas turn into the realms of science fiction.

Now if you think back to programmes from the 60/70’s, I remember Star Trek characters talking to people on videophones, and while I did not think too much about it, I never expected it to arrive as soon as it has, so in my mind, it was Sci-Fi, something to expect in many many years to come….that was about 50 years ago.

Now we all know how common place video chat is, so what about all the other advancements that have emerged and will emerge in the coming years, what will change in our day to day lives now that smartphone and tablets dominate?

Well thanks to Ericsson, the inventors of Bluetooth, you may well be able to hazard a guess….be warned though, at 20 minutes long, it is not your average viral video, and with a pretty disappointing 130,000 views, it perhaps shows that length matters online….however as all good things come to those who wait…it is worth it.

Flash based map of “networked cities”

And if you want to look at their Flash based map of “Networked Cities” please click here:

I do feel that this relatively intriguing map could have a) been made in HTML5 and b) worked better.

So what is this “networked society” initiative from Ericsson about?

It has to be said that the one time Nokia rivals seem to have hid away for a while, so where are they heading and how does this project aid that roadmap?

“The Networked Society City Index interactive tool lets you explore and compare the effects ICT has on society, people, and business – in major cities all over the world. Learn about a city, drag-and-drop two cities and compare, or discover initiatives happening in the cities right now.”

They even have a facebook page which works as you might have expected, as part advertisement and part discussion of all things networked and Ericsson, I like what they have done here.

And also take a look at their “to-do-list” video, scraped from their facebook intro page:

So what do you think the future holds technology wise?

Will it be apocalyptic hell, where man and machine are at war after creating technology that outsmarts us and turns nasty?

Or will it be a more peaceful place where harmony is created through a synergy with all things living, being in perfect balance with technology?

Maybe you think that the world needs to stop pursuing technological advancements and start looking at our own personal issues instead of creating more problems with the technology that is designed to help us, either way let us know your thoughts below.

With the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Note and The Samsung Galaxy S2,and Samsung Galaxy S2, it is pretty clear to see that Samsung have had a stellar 2011.

And to ensure that they are not dreaming the stats up, their for the last quarter of 2011 shows exactly that, record profits thrown right in the face of HTC who have just reported a difficult end to 2011.

Smartphone sales were key:

There were some important parts of 2011 that added to the bonanza in profits that Samsung received, but the most important aspect remained that their smartphone products sold well.

According to a report in the FT, Samsung made some Won5.2 trillion between October and December 2011, which equates to a huge 75% increase over the same period last year.

Of course there was the sale of their hard-disk division to disk device specialists Seagate for around $1.5 billion, so this figure is obviously a little off kilter, but still up considerably from last year minus this sale.

What will 2012 hold for smartphone manufacturers?

It has been a pretty mixed year for the smartphone market, HTC have struggled, Samsung have won big, and Apple have ploughed on through even though the Android platform in general has started to really push into sales quite heavily.

Meanwhile Sony and RIM have had tough years as their products have not struck cords, and RIM have just had disaster after disaster hit them.

So what to expect for 2012?

I am pretty sure the iPhone 5 release will be a serious boon for Apple, and HTC’s new smartphones look set to bring a new vigour to the Taiwanese manufacturer, Samsung are sure to bring out the Galaxy S3 that may or may not be 3D enabled so all in all it look set to be quite interesting.

What do you think is going to be 2012’s next Samsung S2, or iPhone 4S?

Let us know your thoughts below.

In a fascinating article over at mobile industry review, Steve Kennedy explains just how fragile the airwaves we take for granted really are.

As someone who does like to learn about the technology behind mobile communication, though admittedly just likes things to work……I will try to do this article justice in bringing out the salient points.

I must admit that this topic has been covered in a humorous manner in an earlier article related to Alec Baldwin’s in-flight love of games, and I will be honest and say that I was always under the impression that turning off your mobile phone in-flight was an extreme form of health and safety precaution based on very little evidence so it is nice to put a few myths to bed.

Mobile networks are fragile:

When you were last on a flight do you rememberer being told to:

“please ensure your phone is switched off, as it can interfere with the plane electronics.”

Or something similar. And you are also told to keep your mobile off while you are stationary, taking off, and also when you are landing.

So is all this fuss necessary?

If you think of Mobile Networks as quite simply radio systems, that allow people to tap into them and make and receive calls, then you will not be aware of some of the fineries that surround mobile networks.

The truth is that these systems are very fragile and when you are at an Airport such as Heathrow, on the ground, you may well be in the vicinity of a number of cell sites that mobile networks use to make your phone work, taking and receiving signals.

Now when you turn off your mobile phone, it appears that your device is not actually fully asleep but in more of a soft sleep, and only removing the battery will turn the device off properly.

But mobile phones transmit at very low power:

Mobile phones do transmit at low power, this is a way of saving battery life, they also look for the nearest GSM or 3G cell site, and the reason your phone may lack battery in rural areas when compared to city use is that your device will likely be looking for a cell site much further away which will affect your overall mobile battery life.

Heathrow will have a number of cell sites:

So with Heathrow being such an important area geographically and population wise, the likelihood that it will have a number of cell sites from which networks are transmitting radio waves is obvious. These will be at much greater magnitudes than your humble smartphone will ever deliver so why do plane operators make such a fuss when their planes are already getting bombarded by an onslaught of many, many radio waves from close proximity?

Cell handover is the issue in the UK:

Yes it seems that it has less to do with safety and more to do with money!

Cell handover in the UK is explained by taking an example of a stationary plane at Heathrow and having this plane head south.

While it is rising in the air, it will be hit by a high number of neighbouring cell sites from the general London area around Heathrow, so how do the cell sites know when to switch as you move between so many options?

By using technology known as handover the algorithms work out which cells to hand-off to and thus optimise the network efficiency, otherwise it would be constantly trying to look for your signal and this would cost the mobile operators and networks lots of money, and potentially result in dropped calls and general extra work at the cell sites.

Let us take being in the air while ascending again, imagine this as another 3D layer that is much more difficult to predict, so there could be an argument that this is the reason that plane operators do not allow you to use your phones while taking off and landing, as it could end up costing a lot of cash and cause users below to lose calls due to dropped signals and general degradation in call quality, as so many phones fight for signals that are constantly altering due to flying above so many cell sites.

With no actual tests ever been done on the issues of using your mobile while flying, and the FCC in the US only warning that the above issues could present problems, (and then apparently withdrawing this advice for some unknown reason), it would still appear that the real dangers of flying with your mobile turned on is still not known. And may as many suspect may actually be more of a myth.

So the above reasons would appear to be quite a valid argument for not affecting those below on descent and take off, as in some cases your mobile connection could not only be a paid for service that you expect to work, but also a lifesaver too.

I am personally unsure how all this would interfere with emergency service networks, though I suspect that they have more robust dedicated signals that would not be interfered with in the same manner.

In plane Wi-Fi coming soon:

Strangely this may all start to become a lot more clear as it seems that your average plane could be able to sell mobile minutes to you as well as the usual Wi-Fi which you can now obtain, so it does appear that it is more about money at the bottom line in both cases.

Though they will still not allow you to use your mobile phone during take off and landing so you do not affect the ground based cell sites as we covered above.

I must say a big thank you to mobile industry review and a guest poster called Steve Kennedy who has added a really interesting post about the dangers of having your mobile phone turned on while flying.

There is no doubt that Apple innovate, and it is partly why I generally love them, yes I am getting dismayed with Apple of late, but it was inevitable that they would turn more demonic as they grew older, corporations often go this way in the end.

Amazing pictures of touchscreen phones from Apple:

Here we have what can arguably be considered an initial foray into iPhone territory with a device that offers phone like functionality with a touchscreen surface, this type of technology could add weight to some of the patent fights that Apple is currently undergoing in the courts against many rival companies.

And news that they had a working touchscreen phone back in 1983 proves the point, so not only is this picture proof of their desires, it appears that the phone was more than just a concept and was actually made into fully fledged prototypes.

Stylus v finger:

It would also appear that the first touchscreen phones that Apple devised where controlled using a stylus rather than the touchscreens that we know and love nowadays.

Indeed the phone never actually made it onto production as we all know, but the rumors are that it was designed by the German-American Harmtut Esslinger, and he is reported to be the guy behind the Apple IIc, this being one of Apples first moves into the portable computer market.

Tablet picture:

Stanford university keep a stockpile of Apple documents, and in these there appears to even be a picture that looks remotely like a tablet computer, showing just how much work and detail Apple put into innovation and R&D, indeed you can not knock them on this, and if they want to be controlling while now being the most cash rich tech company globally then we are sure that they really are not interested.

According to a web source in South Korea going by the name of Duam, it appears the news that Samsung may be working on a fully blown ICS upgrade for the Galaxy S and Tab owners with only some functionality missing, may be slightly off the mark.

Value Pack not Full Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade:

A further update suggests that the upgrade could be more of a “value pack” that is not a fully blown Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 upgrade but incorporates better browsing functionality, improved widgets, improved multitasking, and a few other enhancements, meaning that the upgrade would skirt the issue of RAM and TouchWiz that seems to have been the main cause of the problems after the seemingly simple upgrade to Android 4.0 for the Galaxy S has proven more difficult than expected.

We shall keep you posted on further announcements as and when they occur.

In better news for Droid X owners, it would appear that their device can handle the Ice Cream Sandwich update unlike Samsung Galaxy S owners.

Yes the original Droid is hard as nails:

Unlike the faltering Samsung range, the Motorola Droid’s look like they stand up and say, “come on then, show me what you got”, with a little more gusto than our Korean counterparts.

The XDA forums are showing that OG Droid owners will get an Alpha build of Ice Cream Sandwich.

Yes, Android 4.0.3 is available to download for the Droid OG as reported on Droid Life, but I would not recommend you go near it until it is well out of Beta, unless you fancy offering some time to its development and helping debug the release.

Hard work of the community:

It is amazing how things appear in communities driven by a desire to make things work, and while I bang on about Apple devices offering a lovely, warm security blanket of gadgets that just work. It is rather nice to feel my semi-socialist inclinations being pulled a little when I hear about the Android community battling against the odds just for the sake of it.

Do you want Ice Cream Sandwich on your Droid?

So with this news coming out, will it appeal to you to get your Droid up to speed with the new ICS Android 4 update, or does the appeal of running a potentially “hooky” version of ICS put you off a bit for the gains that it could or could not offer you?

Please do let us know if you are attempting to trail the new Ice Cream Sandwich O/S on your OG Droid or indeed your Droid X, we would love to hear how it works for you.

Would you want to upgrade to ICS when so many Nexus S owners are complaining about Ice Cream Sandwich update problems ranging from MMS issues to call problems and Wi-Fi problems with pretty much everything in between.

Galaxy Tab 7.7 will also not get an Android 4.0 update:

In further bad news for people wanting to stuff their face with the Ice Cream Sandwich experience, it has been confirmed that both the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab 7.7 will not be able to handle the demands of the User Interface of TouchWiz.

This is quite intriguing as many would have expected a 1Ghz processor to be able to perform well enough to deliver this level of functionality.

With 10 million Galaxy S owners worldwide, and many Galaxy tab 7.7 owners now feeling like they own a bit of history as they realise that their device can not handle the demands that Ice Cream Sandwich will put on their ROM and RAM.

Ice Cream Sandwich update not that good anyway?

In all honesty in the same way that the iPhone 4S had battery problems and was not that much different from the Apple iPhone 4, the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich will not make your device into a brand new phone, in fact with the problems we have heard about, you may be best off keeping your device as it is, so my advice to Samsung Galaxy S owners is to relax and wait for the new iPhone 5 release date confirmation….;)

Ok, you all know that I am joking here, but seriously I am finding that the Android O/S is getting extremely fragmented and this kind of makes me a little confuzzled.

Ice Cream Sandwich rolls out but by bit:

As ICS becomes ever more popular as the next generation Android operating system, I wonder just how peed off Nexus S owners and now Samsung Galaxy S owners will be, with one set of owners getting an update that screws their device up with no real help from Samsung or Google to rectify the issue, and the other set being told that essentially their fairly new device is a bit rubbish and can not handle a new operating system….the words “short change” spring to mind.

This would potentially be a deal breaker for me, and I would be thinking back to the days of Apple comfort and simplicity….damn I am getting old.

As many will know my Samsung S2 battery life article has become quite the flag bearer for mobile inquirer, unfortunately it has taken me a while to get around to writing the follow-up that aims to help owners of smartphones with their battery life issues…instead of just moaning..;)

So here it is, the definitive guide and resource to learning more about your smartphone battery and improving its life:

I am going to cover myths of battery life on smartphones, and ways you can help prolong the battery life of your device in general:

Firstly I have to tell you what battery we are talking about when it comes to the power source that is actually inside your smartphone:

Li-ion smartphone battery:

Your smartphone invariably makes use of a rather amazing bit of kit called a Lithium-ion type battery, with my Samsung S2 taking a Li-ion 1850mAh Rogers Model with a 1650mAh model also being offered for this device.

Your smartphone probably uses something similar.

The problem that many are facing, is that the power demanded from your smartphone is not yet matched by the power offered from your battery, and this causes obvious issues, not least of which in Apple’s case is you can not actually replace the battery, so if it runs out during your day, which they so often do, you pretty much have no choice but to stop and recharge.

And so it has to be said that at least in devices where you can replace the battery, you can currently own two or more spares, to get you through a little longer.

The smartphone battery test:

This test was carried out in 2010 by batteryuniversity.com and is a thorough analysis of how a pool of batteries degrades over time under certain conditions.

The pool of brand new 1500mA Li-ion batteries for smartphones were tested on a Cadex C7400 battery analyzer. These 11 pouch packs, started with a capacity range of 88–94 percent, they then decreased in capacity to around 73–84 percent after 250 full discharge cycles (2010).

Here are some of the key findings from the fairly technical report:

It has to be said that they were seemingly testing for the life of the battery and it is slightly configuring as to if they refer to the life of a charge or the life of the battery over months…i.e how much it degrades over time, either way some truths are still contained that we should all really know about.

Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses.

This above quote dispels most commonly held views that you should let your smartphone battery fully charge down when you first get your phone, and then charge it all the way back up, and keep doing this through the lifetime of your phones battery.

Myth number 1 – Memory effect:

“Memory effect” caused some rechargeable batteries to lose maximum charge capacity unless they were fully drained before recharging, this effect does not occur with smartphone batteries and the chart below shows that for optimum life of a smartphone battery, they are best kept charged and not allowed to drop to fully empty that often.

Here is a chart showing that if you were able to keep your phone charged at around 40% all the time instead of going from full to empty as many owners do, your overall battery capacity would not degrade at such a level.

Myth number 2 – Priming batteries:

This was also necessary for some (ones that did not have it done at the factory) Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel Metal Hydrate (NiMH) batteries which needed to be “primed” in order to ensure that the worked to their fullest, this meant that you needed to initially run the battery dead before charging it up.

Li-ion in general (including Li-ion Polymers) do not need priming.

Myth number 3 – Temperature:

Gone are the days of putting your battery in the fridge or in the the sun to get a little more juice out of your smartphone, and is totally impractical anyway.

Your smartphone battery will nowadays most likely prefer to be kept at around 20 degrees Celsius, this means that recharging using a wireless mat for instance will not probably help the battery stay in its prime condition as the energy lost in the exchange is transferred into heat and will actually cause the battery to unnecessarily raise in temperature overall, and looking at “scientific” data, this would lead me to conclude that a degradation would occur which may not have happened if you used a conventional lead based method.

Exposing the battery to high temperature and being at full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more damaging than cycling. Newer designs may show improved results.

Apps to help battery life:

Well one way maybe to actually kill your apps in all honesty, using your task killer options where available, however there are rumours to be some application options that may help to improve your battery life.

For the iPhone you have:

And for Android you have:

I have no idea whatsoever if these work well or not, I have trialled the free version of Juice Defender to improve my own Samsung S2 battery problems but I found it to be quite complicated and unsure it did anything much after trialling for a few days on various settings, but maybe the pro version is better.

Accessories to help smartphone battery life:

We covered this model in our top 5 iPad accessories list, so here it is again.

The New Trent iCruiser IMP1000 11000mAh External Battery Pack, which will give you a charger on the go.

This nifty device is really worth checking out especially if you like camping etc.

Methods you can utilise day to day to extend battery life:

There are some every day lessons to be practised that many people may not know about and should help you obtain better battery life in general and will work for most smartphones.

[arrowlist]

• Keep your background image simple

• Underclock your phone’s CPU

• Disable GPS / Bluetooth

• Force a 2G or 3G signal do not make your device keep switching

• Reduce widgets on your home screen

• Minimize auto sync features

• Reduce screen brightness

[/arrowlist]

*In all honesty some of the above areas that I mentioned could do with fleshing out a bit, as some points are not that obvious to accomplish for the average user.

Innovations that could be considered to save battery life:

Here I want to take a look at some areas that could be developed that would help bring about battery life improvements:

Cloud based technology for content delivery:

More and more cloud based applications like Onlive are now taking some of the heat off our smartphones processors, by doing the calculations in the cloud and sending a compressed stream to decode on our phones, this method allows extremely high quality gaming to be seen on smartphones and mobile devices, I think that GPS would benefit from improvements here.

Hot Swapping:

One inventor called Ric Richardson’s has produced, what he calls, “hotswap” batteries for laptops, these new batteries allow you to take one battery out and replace them with another without having to turn the device off and create a 2-5 minute delay, this would be very useful for people who need to keep on a conversation after a particularly heavy day using their battery…emergencies also.

Wi-Fi Scaling:

Have you heard of Wi-Fi Scaling?. The new concept that could save 50% of your battery while it is idle.

Mr Kang Shin and Zinyhu Zin Yang at The University of Michigan have been testing ways to reduce the time your smartphone battery wastes listening for signals.

E-Mili, stands for “Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening”, and is designed to reduce the power needed to provide that listening functionality that smartphones rely on.

Exciting as this technology is, it is also seemingly in its early stages though so they are currently..

“….pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.”

So there you have quite a few areas that could start to seep into every day use and provide our smartphones with a little #MoreJuice!

Your comments:

We would love to hear your thoughts on the applications mentioned, and indeed any battery saving tips that you use, or areas that we may have omitted that could be interesting topics of conversation for our readers.

We have talked about smartphone battery life issues in various articles, ranging from one big moan to a guide on getting the most from your devices puny little battery.

But now we are hearing that the wonderful material the we wrote about ages ago called Graphene could end up being a smartphone battery saviour, as well as its material of choice in years to come.

What is graphene?

Improved battery life for smartphones – the holy grail:

It has been quite the challenge to ensure that our beloved mobile devices can keep up with the amount of power that we bestow in them, and where “moores” law dictates that things can get smaller and smaller and quicker and quicker, the law of the “li-ion” does not follow suit, so having a laptop inside a thimble with quad core processing makes for one particularly pathetic thimble, apart from the five minutes that it can open up iTunes in two seconds flat and play Angry birds for mice in 3D. Yes, it looks pretty cool for a while, but alas they never last!

Now when you hear of people playing down the issue of battery life, ask yourself this, would you rather it improved or happy that it stayed the same?

You see there is only one answer to that, and where I can safely, and happily say that my smartphone screen should stay the same size, the battery life does need improving.

Smartphone battery charge time increased by a factor of ten?

Taking a look at a TechCrunch article from back in November that I totally missed, it would appear that a professor at Northwestern university called Harold Kung has devised an ingenious way of utilising the wonder material that is graphene and integrating it into the structure of li-ion batteries in order to increase both the charge capacity and charge speed of this type of battery.

They key is in the way Graphene is layered in between the lithium ions, as the ions move across the layers of graphene, the speed in which this occurs directly relates to the speed that it can charge.

Helping to accelerate this process the professor decided to poke millions of tiny holes into the graphene layers of around 10-20nm in size, this helped to provide a “shortcut” for the ions to travel. Which in-turn helped to charge the battery ten times quicker than normal cells would be able to achieve.

Smartphone battery capacity extended:

So not only has professor Harold Kung found a way to speed up the charge time for li-ion batteries, he then went on to mess about with some more concepts and test the results out.

The second of which increased the overall capacity of the battery by another factor of ten, meaning that you could almost get a full week from one charge if these were to be rolled out as production battery sets.

And the key to this achievement was the fact that graphene is so malleable, and so avoided negative effects of the silicon expansion issues that beset earlier attempts to achieve similar results.

Essentially, what is needed to increase the capacity of li-ion batteries is to be able to insert small clusters of silicon in between each graphene slice which allows more ions to collect and gather at the electrode end, increasing capacity, the fact that graphene and silicon are malleable helps this process work.

“Now we almost have the best of both worlds, we have much higher energy density because of the silicon, and the sandwiching reduces the capacity loss caused by the silicon expanding and contracting. Even if the silicon clusters break up, the silicon won’t be lost.”

The downside is that the charge capacity and speed of charge degrades sharply after 150 charges, but as was pointed out, you are pretty much well into your second year of use at that point as the charge lasts so long anyway.

This is seriously great news for device manufacturers who right now need to work on ways to improve their smartphone battery life until this kind of technology becomes affordable, and practical and is present in every single phone sold.

I look forward to this time indeed!

After telling you all about the newly released Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Samsung Nexus S, it has now come to our attention from our fantastic readers that they are not having the best of luck with this update. even though it has apparently gone through tests to iron out issues prior to a global roll out over the course of the next month or so.

One issue is, that MMS messaging is disabled.

Paul Boone:

I updated and now I can’t send or receive MMS messages! DON’T GET THE ICS upgrade until they fix this!

Luciano Muller Nicoletti

Another seems to be that Google + instant upload does not work.

Google+ Instant Upload does not work anymore after upgrading my Nexus S to ICS :

We will try to keep you updated with news on any other issues and a link to go for help.

Have you had problems with your upgrade to Android 4.0 ICS on your Samsung Nexus S?

If you have, please let us know in the comments section and be as specific as possible so we can ensure people are getting the right help and not duplicating similar sounding issues that are being reported.

Advice:

Our advice right now would be to stay in tune to our news and other news related to the upgrade and new operating system, and wait a few more weeks for the update so most of the issues are resolved that should have been ironed out before the general release.

If you can also tell us what countries you are getting the update available from that may help us see how Google are rolling out the update.

Thank you.

There is no excuse whatsoever for robbing a perfectly innocent person of his mobile phone, but of all the people to mug, one of the last people you would hope to pick would be a friend of the ruling class.

Such was the bad luck and stupidity of this particular scumbag.

Though this unfortunate mugging seems to be less about the fact that the “family” will hung, draw and quarter you for messing with their pals, and more to do with the fact that Prince Harry takes no s***, and was apparently on the hunt for his friend in the wee hours of the morning after being engaged in conversation with Mr van Straubenzee when he got mugged for his Blackberry phone.

As a result of this high profile man hunt (less for the man being hunted and more for the hunter), Harry now appears to be one of the first high profile royals to actually walk into a police station like an everyday guy and report a crime, after he was unsuccessful in finding his mugged friend.

A police source is quoted saying:

Prince Harry came into the station to give a statement. It was a separate statement from the one given by his friend who was mugged.’

It appears that a man was arrested earlier in the month (1st Dec) and has been released on bail to attend a court hearing in the new year.

Battersea is seen as good target for wealthy residents:

With South London being gentrified in many areas over the last 15 or so years, the area is also home to some of London’s toughest and most deprived estates, this close relationship of haves and have not’s has lead to a series of high profile muggings in the last few years. Only this year in February, a former aide to the Queen Mother, Niall Hall, was kidnapped after having his car carjacked by a gang who then stripped him naked and ran knives along his body, and only last month Richard Ward, 37, died from head injuries after being attacked by a gang, in an apparently unprovoked incident, once again highlighting the lack of respect many young people have for human life in Britain’s inner cities.

Have you ever wondered if the size of the device screen influenced how many people will click on an advert?

This infographic by inneractive nicely illustrates that the larger the screen the higher the CTR (click through rate).

Now this is a rumor that has been going around for some time now. And with Nokia launching their first Window phone handsets globally, could the couple of old tech “has beens”, forge some sort of a lasting relationship that ends up in marriage rather than the “friends with benefits” thing they currently have going.

So would it be a good buy if it was on the cards?

According to Slash Gear the Danish bank Danske Bank is apparently reported stating that they predict that Nokia could sell their smartphone arm to Microsoft, and after this news the share price of Nokia was seen to rise by 3%, though it has to be said that Nokia have played down any future sale to Microsoft.

However the rumor, if true, could see the deal could go ahead as early as the first half of 2012.

Make or break for Nokia:

We did a report back in our formative days stating that Nokia needed to pull something out of the bag and quickly, otherwise seal a fate worse than death, OK that was exaggerated, but it was paramount that Nokia properly entered the smartphone market with gusto.

The release of the Nokia Lumia series has been pretty well received, generally.

With Nokia well and truly on the marketing trail peddling their new Windows Mango devices, it would seem ajar to then go and sell their smartphone division to Microsoft as other rumors suggest that Nokia are going to manufacture the new Windows 8 tablets.

But with the Lumia series getting mixed reports and analyst Alexander Peter stating that “only 2.2 per cent of surveyed buyers are firmly intending to purchase the Lumia,” could a sale now, be better than being bottom rung for the old Giant of old?

But in defiant talk, a statement from Nokia to Slashgear said:

“We have only started our journey to regain smartphone leadership, but we are pleased with the early results. The Lumia 800 is getting good traction in all six European markets where it has already launched. Initial feedback from India, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan — where the Lumia 800 starting selling this week — has been very encouraging”

So how much would it cost Microsoft to buy Nokia?

Talk earlier this year surrounding this very issue suggested that a price tag of $19 billion was a ball park figure for Microsoft to obtaining Nokia’s smartphone division.

And with Google already in the process of buying Motorola Mobility could this be a smart move or are both companies best off staying independent and collaborating in the way they are now?

In a shrewd social media loss leading marketing exercise, Letstalk a mobile phone and accessories retailer in the US were offering a cut price Galaxy Nexus on contract for only $154.99 for the initial batch they had in stock and via their facebook page, this offer has since ended as the deal was snapped up like wildfire.

Letstalk social media done well?

This was coupled with a give-away and an attempt to gain 50,000 facebook “likes” by December the 16th with all those who “liked” their page being entered into a competition to win a Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet and a choice of smartphone.

So after the eventual release of the Samsung galaxy nexus in the US, it seems that demand was so high that stocks have dried out for the online retailer.

Now Letstalk do seem to have done well here, but I do see a lot of anger in the comments over confusions over who did and did not get the deal, with “pending” statuses on orders confusing many.

So is the offer of a half price Galaxy Nexus really that good?

Well obviously anything with lots of cash off its usual price is worth paying a little attention to, especially a new device as in demand as this, but…..

Picking up from a point made by BGR, and it is a big but. The Consumer Electronics Show starts early next year on January 10th, and soon this device will look slightly dated as new models are released, and the hype is started all over again.

Though the fact remains that the phone is still great. We did a review of the Galaxy Nexus and found the phone to be good all round, and is obviously Ice Cream Sandwiches huge, fat, late arriving baby.

I would have given you more details on this offer, but as it has run out now, it seems totally pointless!

Did you manage to pick one up while they were going?

Yes, drivers in the US could be affected by a move to ban mobile phones while driving, and we are not taking about blatantly engaging in a call with the device to your ear, we are talking about engaging on twitter, texting, updating to facebook, etc.

National Transportation Safety Board cite smartphone increase as reason:

The National Transportation Safety Board has raised their concerns after pointing out that the increased functionality of smartphones has lead to more people feeling the need to use their device when they should be more concentrated on the road ahead.

Ban on texting, tweeting and even calling on bluetooth?

I am not one for rash decision making when it affects a persons overall freedom and criminalizes more for stupid errors.

But, I can see how texting and tweeting and generally meddling with a phone while driving could be dangerous.

I do however strongly object to anyone criminalizing a driver for talking using bluetooth, otherwise it would surely have to be law that you would also have to drive without talking to your passenger, or changing your air temperature or dials for volume etc and how dangerous would that be!

In fact I would argue that excessive noise while driving was more dangerous than talking on bluetooth due to the lack of awareness that is created when deafened by loud music.

Growing concern over gadgets in general:

NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman has stated that they are worried about devices in general:

“Every year, new devices are being released, people are tempted to update their Facebook page, they are tempted to tweet, as if sitting at a desk. But they are driving a car.”

Not likely to be adopted:

There are no statutory obligations for states to adopt the recommendations, and initial polls appear to show that no state will.

But a seed has been planted, and I dare say that some measures suggested will be implemented in time.

Perhaps the economic misery of the US may have more of a say right now rather than seemingly “draconian” measures to reduce road accidents.

Current law situation on driving in the US:

Unlike the UK which banned talking on a mobile while driving years ago (Bluetooth/Hands-Free is OK), the US only sees 9 states with the same ban on talking while driving, and 35 states have made texting and driving illegal.

As a last statement against the naysayers to these proposed laws, the National Transportation Safety Board say:

“We’re not here to win a popularity contest. We’re here to do the right thing. This is a difficult recommendation, but it’s the right recommendation and it’s time.”

While many believe that the move will not be a vote winner in general, the fact that a ban on in car communication via mobiles could hurt industry in the US in terms of manufacturing products for cars and general consumer devices, seems to be one of the other main reasons that these measures will not be adopted any time soon.

International pressure mounts:

In 2010, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, had looked to address the culture of multitasking while driving. And, some 30 countries have laws restricting the use of mobiles while driving, including complete bans in Germany and Portugal, so is the US being slow in looking after its Citizens or is the rest of the world being overly cautious with full bans?

We have recently covered a possible link between the delayed release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and NFC issues between Google and Verizon related to security and general competition.

And we have discussed the Google Wallet NFC technology way back when we started in June this year, so here is an update on the Google Wallet security issue.

Thanks to a recent research paper from Viaforensics, we can report that recent research seems to suggest that despite everyone’s hatred of Verizon for delaying the US release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, they may have had their reasons and perhaps Google may need to buck their ideas up when it comes to the security of their new NFC mobile payment technology.

Google do not have the best track record for security in their App marketplace:

This comes after many issues that relate to security and Malware found on apps in their own Android marketplace.

So, should Google be trusted with more of our credit card details? Or should they just stick to providing information for free and making shed loads from adverts and stop selling actual products and services?…of course this is a joke.

Google Wallet does not encrypt credit card details safely:

So what could be the problem with Google Wallet?

*Note that these tests were done on a “rooted” device.

The report suggests that Google Wallet does a really good job in storing passwords safely, but with no encryption on the credit card number, balance and other info, the report does hint that things could be improved here.

However on top of this, the additional findings by ViaForensics in a report titled “Forensic security analysis of Google Wallet” suggests that further data stored in the SQLite databases in an unencrypted way includes:

[arrowlist]

• Name on the card
• Card limit
• Expiration date
• Transaction dates and location
• The last four digits of your card

[/arrowlist]

Oh yes, that just about covers it.

And so it seems, like pretty much everything that you need to steal a persons details, in order to do fraudulent purchases will be available in this database, unencrypted, to be used with “relative” ease.

The testing on a rooted phone did mean that the researcher had root or privileged control of the phone. And the actual credit card number was not accessible at this level as it is stored in the NXP chip.

*I must stress I am not a mobile security expert but do want to point out that there are differences between a rooted device and a non rooted device with increased difficulties associated with the non rooted device which was not the subject of these tests.

Image of credit card recoverable from cache:

The research method uncovered an option to create a recoverable PNG image of the credit card which had some of the details from the researchers card within the image and could have been used, according to the report, for social engineering attacks.

Most of the files were pictures of blank cards however one of the cards had been updated to reflect some of my credit card information. While this was an initial and small finding, before I could complete this article Google pushed out an update to Google Wallet and the card image no longer contained the data. While very little data was exposed, the most problematic was the card expiration date which is a key piece information needed for Card Not Present (“CNP”) transactions.

In summary the researcher concluded by saying:

While Google Wallet does a decent job securing your full credit cards numbers (it is not insecurely stored and a PIN is needed to access the cards to authorize payments), the amount of data that Google Wallet stores unencrypted on the device is significant (pretty much everything except the first 12 digits of your credit card).

Scary stuff, or a report based on unlikely events?

Europe will get a new Panasonic smartphone in March 2012 as the Japanese technology manufacturer makes a return to old markets they tested and then retreated from pretty quickly.

According to SlashGear the new Panasonic phone will have a 4.3 inch qHS 960 x 540 OLED screen. And will, as expected, feature NFC capability, there is however no news on specified hardware or O/S just yet.

Sleek design:

The picture seems to suggest that the end design will be aesthetically pleasing, which Panasonic are known for in a boring kind of way, nothing too crazy here, but understated class seems to be their design ethos.

With no name as of yet, the device looks set to hit US shores in 2013. So we can see, like HP, they are not rushing this, even though the likes of Nokia perhaps are, this is more understandable for Nokia because unlike Panasonic they do not have strength in depth as a company.

Dust and waterproofed:

The device looks set to be a toughened up device, with a dust-proof and waterproof casing, this is nothing new, but will make sure that the model stands up to other more hardy varieties, which seem to be pretty popular despite the fact that Gorilla Glass is as tough as old boots, and the build quality of most smartphones is pretty damn durable despite looking a bit flimsy and weak to the eye and hand.

They are looking to achieve sales of 1.5 million units in Europe alone in 2012, which is quite a high threshold to aim for if they are not releasing until March.

After this release they will be looking to push 9 million global sales by 2016 after the device is rolled out across the international markets.

Are Panasonic playing at smartphone design here? Or, do you think they can differentiate their own Android smartphone from the plethora of other options on the market from well known device manufactures like Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc.

After the pretty huge news this Friday that HP will be giving their webOS operating system out to the open source community.

Memo from Meg Whitman CEO of HP to employees on Friday:

Today, we announced that HP will contribute our webOS software to the open source community and support its development going forward. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the benefits of webOS are accessible to the largest possible ecosystem.

It appears that HP will however be returning to mobile device manufacturing, and eventually these will also be based on webOS.

The proof comes from an interview with Meg Whitman on the Verge and seems to show that HP plan to create further webOS based mobile devices in the near and distant future.

Contained within the interview are some clear statements suggesting that HP will return to device manufacture at some point in the future, though the initial return to mobile device manufacturing looks set to be with a tablet running on Windows 8 O/S for now.

HP will build a Windows based tablet for 2012:

Yes HP are planning to build a windows base tablet for release in 2012.

Whitman is quoted saying:

“We’ll continue to invest in the existing tablet ecosystem” and in the near term “will bet heavily with Windows.”

HP will make webOS mobile devices in the future

Asked if they will create new webOS devices also, Meg Whitman HP CEO states:

“The answer to that is yes but what I can’t tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not,”

Offering no clear dates or times it would however appear that there is a desire or capability to return to device manufacture, something which looked unclear only recently, but it looks likely to be later rather than sooner.

Whitman went on to say:

“…we will use webOS in new hardware, but it’s just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we’ve been taking it in the past.”

Hewlett Packard more interested in Tablets for now:

According to dialogue on Techcruch, a new HP webOS based tablet device could appear as soon as 2013.

It is looking like HP will be sticking with the more PC related side of the business that they are known for, as opposed to smartphones, which they perhaps do not have the best reputation for or presence in peoples minds and thoughts when thinking about HP in general.

It would appear that HP are starting to get some drive, focus and commitment back within their ranks after a really tough 2011. And it also seems that Meg Whitman is the right person for the job after all.

We all know that mobile technology is white hot right now, but the figures that are being released on a monthly basis make for seriously interesting reading.

Smartphone ownership doubles:

Smartphone ownership in the UK is now at 37% which is nearly double the figure from the same period in 2010.

In July 2011, Ipsos MORI polled over 1,000 people over the age of 15 and asked them about their smartphone and tablet ownership and how they use these devices.

Some of the findings show that owners of iPhones and Blackberrys are generally under 35, and in the UK both manufacturers have around 13% of the market share.

16% of adults are now accessing the internet via a TV.

The iPad and tablet market is still relatively young in comparison, with just 6% of the adult population owning one, though 7% of males over 35 own one, perhaps showing that gadgets are still a “mans” thing by and large.

The way we access the internet is changing dramatically:

Over 1/3 of UK adults access the internet using their mobile devices, with people citing the desire to check their email as the main reason they go online and we assume this will hold true for PC and mobile.

We have already discussed the growth in Internet access from mobile devices and how this is killing the humble PC.

This trend can only continue, as we ditch our PC’s and start using our mobile devices to access the internet wherever we are.

I expect this data to have an upward trend in most areas.

Like a Phoenix from the flames, the fate of Hewlett Packard’s WebOS seems to have finally been sealed, and thanks to HP it will be an open source operating system rather than simply killing the O/S dead.

Many thought that HP would simply ditch the operating system, so this altruistic gesture comes as somewhat of a surprise, in a good way, to many tech observers and commentators.

In an interview on the Verge with Meg Whitman and Marc Andreessen they discuss the long term plans for WebOS though make no clear indication about job losses, but do mention that they intend to make the whole O/S open source, with Enyo included, which was free to developers anyway.

Do HP have a medium term 3/4 year plan for WebOS?

Meg Whitman is quoted here saying:

“Well first I want to set expectations about time frame. This is going to take some time. If you look back at the history of Mozilla or Red Hat — these things did not become giant platforms over night. This in my view is a 4 or 5 year timeframe, and I want to make sure we really communicate that.”

So we can see that it looks very likely that they will be putting some effort into this O/S, and with 600 people employed globally in HP’s WebOS division, these people will be hoping that they do not abandon it as was feared since the earlier notification that HP were ceasing production of their tablet and smartphones back in August.

WebOS’s future in the hands of developers and device manufacturers:

With HP now moving further into the software market, and ditching device manufacturing for now, the move to make the highly praised WebOS software open source will put the operating system in quite an interesting position, essentially sitting alongside Android, with hopes that it will be improved and added to over time.

WebOS was built for mobile:

Praising the WebOS software HP CEO Meg Whitman states:

“WebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable. By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”

And HP have have stated that they will personally work on the operating system and be an active partner in its development. They also claim that they will offer:

“good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation,”

Avoiding O/S fragmentation (which the Android O/S suffers from), is a desirable future for the well liked WebOS software.

The idea is that there will not be lots of different names and versions floating around every year, so the software stays capable and robust on all devices.

Indeed many software developers claim that WebOS is one hell of a platform so this could be a really interesting new beginning for the O/S.

We will keep you posted on further news on HP and WebOS as always.

We all know that the new Motorola Razr is already on sale in the US and UK but is it soon to appear on the Indian market?

The much awaited smartphone, the Droid RAZR (XT910) should be hitting Indian phone store shelves in the next few days, the Razr XT910 is the thinnest of the smartphones that are currently available, and has some particularly powerful features.

Hardware Specifications:

Processor: 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU
Rear Camera/Front Camera: 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash/1.3 MP
Display: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 540 x 960 pixels, 4.3 inches
Memory: 16 GB storage expandable up to 32GB, 1GB RAM
OS: Android OS, v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)
Other features: Gorilla Glass display, Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0 compliant

Motorola playing catch up?

With a lovely bright 4.3 inch Super AMOLED screen with 540x960px resolution the device is a really rather sweet looking, in a rugged manly way.

Better battery life

It is reported that the RAZR will deliver 9 hours and 20 minutes of talktime, which beats most of its class.

Totally waterproof:

Now watch some guys pour water on it and panic when it goes a bit mad:

Yes the phone looks pretty cool, yes it is thin, but does it stand up to a Samsung S2, or iPhone 4S?

Let us know your thoughts if you have bought one in the US, UK or Europe, we would love to hear your views.

We have been reporting about the Galaxy Nexus US Release Date for a while now.

And in all honesty the rumours could still hold true and we could be on track about the 9th of December US release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Galaxy Nexus Arrives North America:

There is blatant evidence that the Nexus has arrived in North America, albeit only in the Extreme north i.e Canada.

We still however believe that the news of the devices shipping earlier in the month (6th December) albeit once again unconfirmed, if true, should equate to a December 9th arrival in US stores, but nothing is set in stone just yet.

Meanwhile people waiting for a Verizon galaxy nexus release in the U.S will have to wait a bit longer.

Canadian carriers offering the Nexus:

Virgin Mobile Canada and Bell Canada, have released the HSPA+ device, this comes on a three year contract for both.

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus Available Now:

If you want the device unlocked for around $600-700 USD, we have already told you about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus being on sale on Amazon unlocked so you are able to buy the phone from Amazon below, albeit at quite a high price, but it has some potential benefits.

If you buy the unlocked version from Amazon, you would then able to use AT&T and T-Mobile as your carrier of choice as it appears that these mobile operators will not be releasing the Nexus device on a contract.

Verizon to keep people guessing:

Verizon are not letting anything go at all in terms of information, and have given no concrete dates for the devices arrival, though we suspect US Galaxy Nexus seekers will not have to wait too long at all after Canadians have had their batch officially signed, sealed and delivered.

Are you waiting patiently for the smartphone to be released fully in the US or are you climbing the walls in anxiety for this new ice cream sandwich based Android device?

So this is not exactly a brand new application, but the current offer that marries up with this app is new, and one you may want to consider using, more on that later.

Back to the war on the high street:

The last thing any high street retail store or chain wants to hear right now, is that a huge online competitor going by the name of Amazon is going to aggressively highlight how retailers current roles as “agents” or “middlemen” of the high street, is not serving the public’s best interest when it comes to value for money!

Shock horror! You can get that thing cheaper online?

We all know this to be true in many cases, but the fact of the matter is that convenience and habit is what make us humans very funny indeed, and we are still more than happy to just get out and do “the shop”, but all this is about to change as we start to seriously alter our buying behaviour.

Two forces at work:

This behavioural change is born out of two major factors:

Technology:

Recent mobile technology has allowed us to utilise applications on the go, and it was only a matter of time before we were all checking online while shopping and putting back that toaster or TV when we can see that a bargain is to be had online.

Economic distress:

Times are damn tough for many right now, so finding a bargain is pretty much the way forward for many people, and if this means altering buying habits by adopting new technology then trust me, if you make it easy to do, and it works the people will follow.

Saving is the new spending:

Yes what you can save on one thing you can spend on another, and Amazon know this all too well.

They have not only just released their cut price tablet the Amazon Kindle Fire, which has aggressively entered the tablet market promising to bring price reductions across the board for the average consumer.

But now they have also brought out a price comparison application that is set to revolutionise the way we shop for good.

With Tesco in the UK saying they have not had a great run of recent, this form the store that was rumoured to process one pound for every ten pounds spent in the UK. The fact is that many retail outlets and chains are on the brink of collapse globally.

Death of the high street:

Are we seeing the slow inevitable death of the high street once and for all?

I fear most for the technology stores initially. You know, the ones you would not be seen dead in when you can get almost everything in them at a considerable discount online.

Then there is the big shed equivalents like Wal-Mart and in the UK Tesco and Asda, now these stores have branched out considerably over the last decade into being much more than your large grocery store, and offer electrical goods, and various other “big ticket” items, Wal-Mart even stocks the Amazon Kindle Fire in the US.

So have Amazon picked a fight with the wrong people? Probably not at this stage.

So back to the Amazon price check app:

As a high street retailer, you would also not want to hear that the online store that has its eyes firmly set on your current customers has just released a price check app. One that offers genuine convenience when comparing what you are buying to their own online prices.

What is more, Amazon, the veritable behemoth of E-commerce are going to give you the tool for free to ensure that you always find the cheapest price by using an application that checks prices in their store when you are out shopping on the high street.

How to use the app?

The app is hugely versatile and will allow you to take photos of the product you want to check, scan the barcode, say its name, or simply search for it, and will then deliver the price in seconds, pretty cool tool.

So in a flash, the application will tell you if you are onto a bargain or not.

Current offer from Amazon:

To show you that Amazon mean business with this app, they are currently offering users the chance to claim rewards for using the app.

On December the 10th if you use the application in-store Amazon will give you a 5% discount capped at $5 on up to 3 eligible products.

This offer is a great way to get new users started with using the technology and will surely mean more people get introduced, and intrigued and carry on using it after the deal is gone….job done as far as Amazon are concerned.

And why is that?

Amazon are masters of cutting out the middle man, and have done this since their inception. Their whole business model is based on this. They have no need for expensive rent other than their huge out of town warehouses which are less in number and also cheaper to run than most supermarkets. No need for huge staff costs beyond the warehouse guys. No need for massive utility bills beyond the huge sheds that they work from.

Amazon can and will compete on price all day long, and will be doing, you mark my words.

Is Amazon going to make life better for all?

Amazon are going to make things cheaper for you, but we have to ask at what actual cost?

Have you used this application or others?

And if so, what do you think of them? And are you worried that smaller retailers may be affected negatively or is it the likes of Wal-Mart and Asda, who will see their existing shoppers going Amazon’s way as a result of this type of technology?

Well you are not the only one.

So being the decent guy I am, I thought that I would redress the balance that my other rant has got relating to the pi** poor Samsung S2’s battery life and let “the otherside” have their say on the iPhones similarly poor battery life.

Lessons learned from earlier rant:

I have to say there were some lessons learned in the last post about the S2, and that was that I offered no real solutions for the problem that I so happily whinged about…this made me feel bad for a short period, (perhaps six seconds)

Well, I still have no tips on improving the battery life, even though I have commented on various trials I have done in the comments section of the article, so I can only say that my next idea is quite simply to get a petition sent to manufacturers to sort out the battery problems for the new range of smartphones that we now consume like ravenous gadget freaks from another planet.

Albeit ones who are left with a block of no good plastic in our pockets unless we carry spare batteries around all day.

This is no good my friends no good at all.

So without further ado, let us hear about some of the iPhone 4’s battery life issues:

Firstly though, let me just say that I was a convert to my Samsung S2 from an iPhone 3G, and I have to say I had no issues whatsoever with this phones battery, but in all honesty, I never browsed the internet or did much more than play quite simple games every now and again.

Smartphones are now actually smart:

Something has happened in the last two years and that is the original breed of smartphones have now got so smart that they simply run out of power due to brain overload, it really is almost that simple.

We have what can only be described as high end laptops, by yesterdays standards, in a device that fits snugly in our pockets.

This leaves an enormous amount of pressure for batteries to keep up, and unlike “Moore’s law” that states that our processors will double in speed, and halve in size and cost each year, our battery performance levels do not replicate this phenomenon….I may have got that law slightly incorrect so do not hold me to it, but you get my point.

iOS 5 full of bugs?

Yes, it seems that iOS 5 was initially full of bugs, as many operating systems are. Such is the keenness to get these new selling points out to the mass market and begin a proper trial that early adopters often pay the price of being a bit flash.

So let us first see what bugs are around currently that seem to have a particularly negative detriment to the iPhone 4S battery life:

The main ones initially reported were:

[arrowlist]

• Calendar bug – This little beast saps your battery life by continually updating and reordering your events, no fix seems to be available just yet so simply turn the blighter off for now.
• Time zone bug – Simply saps your battery big style, to solve go to Settings > Location Services > System Services > Setting Time Zone and disable Location Services.

[/arrowlist]

Location services seem to be to blame in general:

Yes, similar to the GPS option on the Samsung. When your phone is updating continually due to location settings being used for data retrieval and calculations, this is when the battery is getting zapped the most. Which makes sense, as this kind of background grunt work is pretty processor intensive and so you can expect that it will eat into your precious battery life.

Another suggestion, would be to make sure you always stay up to date with iOS updates, as these can fix issue such as battery life.

So what has your experience been like with your iPhone 4S?

And please do let us know any tips you may have that help improve the battery life of the Apple iPhone 4S.

In a move seen to celebrate the milestone of 10 billion application downloads. The Android marketplace is offering 10 premium applications for only 10 cents (or 10 pence in the UK) each day for a period up to Christmas.

They will be offering this for the festive period and will change the apps on offer every day.

Today’s offerings include:

[arrowlist]

• SwiftKey X Keyboard
• Endomondo Sports Tracker
• Great Little War Game
• Fieldrunners HD
• SoundHound
• SketchBook Mobile
• Minecraft – Pocket Edition
• Asphalt 6
• Paper Camera
• Color & Draw for kids

[/arrowlist]

With app downloads expected to reach around 18 million in 2012 according to research firm Ovum, this will be an increase from around 7 billion in 2010, and the 2012 figure will be made up of some 8 or so billion Android applications.

Of course this could be seen as a cynical ploy to make sure that as many people as possible have registered their debit or credit card details with the big G, so they can entice you to spend a little more bit by bit. But I say when an offer is around and it looks good, sod it, and grab it now!

So what premium Android applications are you hoping will be offered in this promotional give away?

A solid launch date for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US has appeared via Verizons recent equipment guide that shows that the Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE will be available.

The cover was blown over at Droid Life after they obtained the official equipment guide, and will actually be launching this Friday on December the 9th.

Our review of the Galaxy Nexus last month and found the phone to be pretty fantastic all in all.

Final US release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus:

We have also already told you how to get your hands on an unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Amazon here, but this will be the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US.

Yes the Ice Cream Sandwich running smartphone should have got over some of its teething issues and will be available just in time for Christmas making this purchase a likely gadget choice of the season alongside the Amazon Kindle Fire

If you wish to keep in touch with the product page for the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, that should be populated once the device is available, please take note of the following link and stay peeled, we will be keeping you update of further news, but it looks likely that the release will be by the end of this week.

This phone has been one of the most anticipated devices to arrive on US shores after the recent release of the Motorola Droid RAZR XT910 and now the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. This will be a serious blow to Apples hopes of taking the Xmas period with less competition to contend with.

You know that a technology has hit a head when its source of fuel is offered for free!

Yes, Tesco the cut price supermarket who claim to offer great value at the tills are offering visitors the option to tap into their own network for free.

Clubcard users get full access:

In a move to encourage more people to sign up to the clubcard scheme, current members will be able to access the store Wi-Fi at Tesco Extra’s for free and also access their account to see how current rewards are shaping up via the online points and e-voucher scheme.

If you are not a clubcard member you will be able to access the wi-fi network for fifteen minutes once every 24 hours, so all shoppers should be able to access reviews and compare prices while they shop assuming they have access to an internet enabled device.

Easy registration:

Simply walk into the participating stores which are currently only the “Metro” variety and check your wi-fi connection for “Tesco Wi-Fi”, once you choose this option, you simply open your browser using your smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc, and the Tesco landing page will load, this will then ask you to register by entering your clubcard details and postcode.

If you are not registered you will be given 15 minutes for free every 24 hours though clubcard members will only have to go through this process once as the network is run by o2’s Wifi platform, meaning that you will easily be able to hop onto another stores connection after you have registered your device once with the network.

Tesco are obviously very excited about this new offer with Mike McNamara, CIO at Tesco stating that:

“People are increasingly using a variety of digital services and we’re excited by our customers’ reaction to the new service.”

Trial showed 82% would use again:

The trial has shown that a massive amount of people who used in-store internet access would do so again, with 82% saying that they found the ease of use and usefulness of a decent internet connection a real winner while shopping.

Most people used smartphones to access the free internet in the trail with 71% using this method, the runner up was tablet pc’s at 11% with some people even bringing a laptop to help them shop at a supermarket with 9%.

Obviously having free wi-fi in stores such as coffee shops and pubs is nothing new, but Tesco have really been quite daring with this option as people will no doubt be using their devices to access price comparison sites to check what they are buying is value, especially the bigger ticket items that cost over £10-50 pounds.

The way we shop looks set to be changing dramatically month by month!

We have already covered the news that Carrier IQ was potentially tracking over 140,000,000 mobile devices at the end of last week.

Now, when you hear the name Carrier IQ, you automatically think of potentially illegal phone tracking, so it is also interesting to see just how quickly the legal teams gather pace when the mention of a breach of privacy is muted.

A number of law firms are gunning for carrier IQ and companies who used their technology:

The following law firms have jointly filed a class action complaint in a Delaware Court against carrier IQ:

Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy LLP, Sianni & Straite LLP, and Keefe Bartels L.L.C.

This relates to what is being described as:

“cell phone tracking software scandal.”

and an,

“unprecedented breach of the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users.”

It is reported that HTC, AT&T, Motorola, Apple, Sprint, T-Mobile and more are also going to be hearing from the law firms mentioned above in relation to the potential abuse of privacy of smartphone owners globally.

Carrier IQ sounds ostensibly good natured:

The problem as I see it with carrier IQ is that to all intents and purposes it masquerades as a perfectly safe and capable tracking software that is intended to aid manufacturers find bugs and issues with their devices and networks, and so make the users life more pleasurable, and pain free.

The problem is that this software is installed discretely without the device owner having any knowledge, and there is no opt in or out option when you get your new device.

The company sell the software as:

“Mobile Service Intelligence solutions that have revolutionized the way mobile operators and device vendors gather and manage information from end users”

Sounds all well and good, but surely personal privacy is a highly valued right in our society.

Personal privacy the issue for most:

Many people in the US and wider feel that governments and corporations are taking more and more liberties with our own personal information. And while we hope that the concern is only that, a real issue presents itself when something so covert as tracking software is installed on your personal communication device.

The issue is about full transparency, as there is also a theory that keystrokes are included in the data that gets reported (if a patent application is anything to go by), though it has to be said that I am becoming less convinced that this was the case currently (perhaps this was due to be rolled out later)….

At which point, I wonder when we would have been informed of this?

My guess is never.

David Straite, one of the lawyers leading this crusade, said in a statement.

“This latest revelation of corporate America’s brazen disregard for the digital privacy rights of its customers is yet another example of the escalating erosion of liberty in this country,”

David Straite’s co-counsel Steve Grygiel added:

”Anyone who cares at all about their personal privacy, or the broader constitutional right to privacy, ought to care and care a great deal about this case.”

What do you think to this news?

Is it getting blown out of proportion? Or is this kind of privacy invasion best nipped in the bud early before we hand over too much control blindly to the “powers that be”?

As holiday season approaches and Santa starts getting all those emails to sort through, we take a look at an Experian Hitwise report for the UK which suggests that the iPhone will be the hot property for UK buyers this Xmas, and iPads will be the gadget of choice for our cousins over the pond.

Smartphones are hot property this Xmas:

Phones will be a third more popular online than iPads this Christmas. If search intent was reflected in sales, for every three iPads Apple sold this Christmas they would sell four iPhones.

Yes the smartphone is now trickling down into the realms of normality now as more and more people are upgrading to devices such as iPhones with tablet computers coming in as a close competitor but nowhere near as in demand as smartphones, unless you are in the US!

It seems that US buyers can not get enough of tablets and indeed this is the hot property for festive buyers this Christmas.

According to a Nielsen report the iPad is the most desired item in the 6 and over demographics (pretty much everyone) for the second year running.

iPhone not as popular for US buyers but still in the top 7 most desired items for the 13 and over age group.

Could the Kindle Fire become Xmas hit?

Many people (myself included) have predicted that the Amazon kindle fire could well become the leading gadget of the Xmas period in the US, and here is why.

When Amazon want to shift units they have such a high amount of traffic already for people who are at that “itching” stage and primed to buy, that all they need to do is drop there overall prices a touch to gain even more traffic from the comparison sites and then heavily promote the cut price Amazon kindle fire to ensure that the item becomes a real hot property, that, and a well executed mixed marketing campaign could make this tablet become the winner for gadget of the season 2011.

Google insights seem to suggest only a couple of Apple search terms are in the top ten though Amazon are currently claiming many of the spots and most of the top five.

No puns intended but plenty to be had if it was not so late!

Yes the humble but ubiquitous text is nearly out of its teenage years, so what has the SMS brought us and where is it heading?

UK saw first ever text message:

Back in 1992 it was a guy called Neil Papworth of Vodafone who sent the first text message via PC to a guy called Richard Jarvis, also of Vodafone, the text was received on an Orbitel 901 handset.

And slightly early or belated, depending on your own view point, the text message simply said “Happy Christmas”

Technology for SMS is over 27 years old:

Th technology behind the SMS is 27 years old and was developed by the Franco German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Bernard Ghillebaert and Friedhelm Hillebrand

In 2010 the simple text message generated revenues of over $110 billion for networks globally with industry analysts predicting that this could top $700 billion in the next 5 years.

We say happy birthday texts! And long may you be around as a simple but highly effective form of communication!

Congratulations!

In very worrying times for the people of Syria and not because they can not use their iPhone, the Syrian authorities have banned iPhones in the country, a leading Lebanese website El Nashra reports.

Activists angry

The Customs Department of the Syrian Finance Ministry has stated that all iPhones are now officially banned in the country, the notice reads:

“The authorities warn anyone against using the iPhone in Syria.”

The so called “Arab Spring” has seen unrest in many countries in North Africa and the Middle Eastern region, with protesters seeking reforms both culturally and politically in their respective countries.

In Syria, people are calling for a return to more liberal civil rights as the Syrian army struggles to keep the peace in the country.

Neighbouring countries are also calling for an end to the violence, with most foreign media being banned from visiting the country since protests began.

With an estimate of over 4,00 people dead since the beginning of the violence, authorities in Syria believe that iPhones present a real danger to security and help assist the protesters and activists in organising and mobilising groups of people and sharing reports to the rest of the world via video sharing websites and blogs.

iPhone users treated as spy’s?

One activist in Syria believes that:

“It is enough for any tourist or guest visiting Syria to own an iPhone to be a spy suspect.”

Reports do not elaborate on the ban stretching to other smartphones with similar capabilities to Apple’s iPhone though it is likely that the ban is not simply an issue with West Coast electronics companies, so I imagine that most devices similar to the iPhone will also be banned.

On Friday, Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office reached the decision not to pursue claims that Daum (Korean internet search specialist) and Google, actively collected illegal data of smartphone users.

Yonhap News reports that the legal challenge did uncover that Google and Daum were collecting location data, but this was only the position of the user and not any further details about them.

This comes as news from the US shows that Carrier IQ could be reporting information back to companies who want to learn about a smartphone or device users specific actions including messaging and keystrokes.

Admob was the accused platform:

It was thought that Admob was the platform that could have been reporting user data back to Google. Earlier in the year the offices of Google were raided by Seoul police in order to secure hard drives and learn more about how the Admob platform was being used.

GPS coordinates OK but not personal information:

One prosecutor admitted that it would be tough to use a smartphones IP address as people moved around suggesting that it was OK to obtain location data through GPS but nothing more than this.

Deeper murky waters:

In news related to the relationship between Daum and Google, it has become apparent that Daum was also separately cleared of capturing data this Friday, after law enforcers also raided their offices in May.

Google also have other pressing issues with the Korean law agencies, as they are accused of blocking and banning search rivals from including third-party applications on Android handsets.

In the US, CTIA-The Wireless Association, has agreed to provide a voluntary ratings system which will be launched for all releases of applications and games.

The move aims to help parents and will be backed by the following “storefronts”: Sprint, AT&T, Microsoft, U.S. Cellular, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless.

A recent report by Common Sense Media, a Californian based children’s advocacy group, has shown that 52% of children between the ages of 8 and under have access to smartphones and tablets.

Voluntary does not mean it will work:

While there may be some good intentions behind the move it appears that Google, who have perhaps the most abused marketplace in Android, and Apple will not be signing up to the system and want to keep things just as they are.

In an email to BusinessWeek, Christopher Katsaros, a Google spokesman, said :

“While we support other systems, we think it’s best for Android users and developers to stick with Android’s existing ratings.”

Apple are also not reported to have signed up just yet which currently means that the system is nigh on useless.

Process in more detail:

When a developer submits an application to a “storefront” they will have to complete a series of questions related to the apps content. Once done, an almost instantaneous result will emerge and the application will have duly been classified and rated.

This process will not need to be repeated again when submitting the app to other storefronts in the scheme.

CTIA said of the process:

“Each rated app is issued a certificate and a unique identifying code that may be subsequently submitted to other storefronts during their respective onboarding processes, avoiding the need for developers to repeat the rating process, this means consistent ratings across participating storefronts and a convenient, cost-free process for app developers.”

The announcement is an addition to CTIA’s 2010 Guidelines for Application Content Classification and Rating, CTIA said.

Do you think this will actually make a difference to app availability and consumption, or is it an exercise in looking like they care, while creating more bureaucratic jobs in the process?

The credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s has downgraded HP’s (Hewlett-Packard’s) overall credit rating last week.

The main reasons cited were a high turnover rate, an unclear strategy moving forward and poor overall policies.

We have already touched on HP’s misfortunes in an earlier article this week, as they promise to make a statement over the sale or non sale of the stricken mobile operating system “webOS” which they bought from Palm for $1.2 billion back in April 2010, and subsequently in August 2011 HP decided to ditch the mobile O/S and proceed to back out of manufacturing phones and PC’s to concentrate on software, so you can understand S&P’s current decision, however, the move only goes to compound HP’s problems further and here is why:

HP needs direction:

The downgrade means that HP’s long term debt rating for local and foreign debt is set at BBB+, a minor but considerable shift from the earlier figure of A. This will now make it more expensive and tougher for HP to borrow cash on the markets.

S&P also slashed their short-term rating to A-2 from A-1. S&P analyst Martha Toll Reed said in a statement:

”We have concerns that HP’s inconsistent growth strategies and high levels of board of director and senior management turnover have elevated the level of operational and execution risk in the near term,”

S&P also took into account the firms questionable takeover of “Autonomy” and said that this had reduced the companies overall liquidity and financial flexibility, and was a contributing factor to the downgrade.

It has been a long time coming, but according to the daily, Microsoft are working hard on delivering official tablet versions of the hugely popular Microsoft Office Suite.

With no actual sources cited this is all firmly in rumour mill territory but looks to be a likely punt if you were a betting person.

The actual date of release looks set to be mid 2012.

Apple and Microsoft Office buddies:

The relationship between Apple and Microsoft when it comes to the Office package has been one of mutual respect. The Apple version on OSX is very stable, capable and works perfectly well, and so this relationship of “quid pro quo” between the two companies has proved to be one area that the competing brands have enjoyed a happy friendship in.

Lack of Office on tablet PC’s an issue:

With reports of tablets slowly taking over laptops as the go to PC for pretty much everything, one distinct area currently lacking is the familiar Microsoft Office package for your every day writing/publishing needs.

Windows 8 version of Office will help differentiate their tablet:

There is an argument that Microsoft should wait until their own tablet is released, prior to an iOS office application going on sale.

It would make sense that they brought out their tablet variety of the Microsoft Office package with their new Windows 8 Tablets. This would give them a unique selling point and add to the differentiation needed for a newcomer to enter a relatively mature market. The common man/woman knows and loves Office, and seeing this available on a Windows 8 tablet first will surely help push units in that all important initial period.

Windows will struggle to gain traction with Windows 8 tablets:

Forrester research analysts are of the opinion that the rise of subsidised, cut-price versions of tablets from Amazon, WhSmith and Barnes and Noble will mean that Windows 8 tablets will face tough competition from cheap varieties and also well established tablet manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Blackberry.

Maybe time to start earning from competitors traction:

Let’s face it nothing is concrete in tech land. The shifting sands of fortune have seen two giants falter in the last few years (Nokia and Microsoft), so you can never really tell what is around the corner.

Microsoft have got it tough with the tablet market, but why?

Here is a non exhaustive list:

Latecomers, a new O/S to educate people on, a new application market with currently only a small amount of apps, competitors already on versions 2,3,4 of their own devices O/S and build, and cut price tablets that look nearly as good as the high end versions entering the market.

Yes 2012 will be interesting and tough for Microsoft so perhaps it would be best if they get that Office Application out ASAP and start making some cash from the huge Apple and Android market.

So should Microsoft wait until they release their own Windows 8 tablet and use this application to help leverage their own marketing efforts or should they simply get it released now and sold in as many markets as possible?

Back in the first quarter of 2011, a poll found that a large 46% of people questioned would like a Windows 8 tablet, this has since dropped to a measly 25% so what happened to the optimism of the initial news of an imminent full release of the Windows 8 tablet.

Well as with most things that need selling, that do not sell, either the message given out was confusing or you did not shout loud enough. Perhaps the latter was the case in this situation as Forrester claim that the momentum of the campaign simply dried up.

Late comers need to shout louder or differentiate clearly:

Being a late comer in a market that is already dominated by one big Apple with a swathe of others recently joining the fray, it was vital that they sold their tablet as being both different (not Android or iOS) and desirable, and that it worked better and/or looked better.

In Microsoft’s case they did not really achieve any of these things and this is perhaps why the desirability of their capable looking device and O/S has dropped off so significantly.

Windows 8 Tablets not fully connected yet?

Nokia’s Stephen Elop (ex Microsoft) espoused the new Windows Phone O/S earlier in the year and talked about connectivity being the key to the new operating system, and I was slowly sold, and here is why.

Microsoft currently have access to their X-Box technology, their own mobile O/S, a tablet variety of this and a PC operating system. This seemed like a great opportunity to tie in products and services in much the same way that Apple and now Amazon are doing.

However the trump cards such as the X-Box integration have not really shown themselves currently and what is left is perhaps a misunderstood future O/S with potential.

One Forester analyst stated:

“Windows 8 tablets must provide consumers with a more differentiated product experience than it otherwise would have, had Microsoft entered the market sooner, they’ll have to take a lesson from Amazon’s product strategists, who fundamentally changed the tablet product experience by leading with content and services rather than feeds and speeds, at a compelling price.”

Seen as we are all unsure how the new Windows 8 operating system will allow interaction with separate devices as planned, I can not help think that they have confused me and others with so many damn varieties up to now. When will Microsoft learn that simplicity sells, and being all things to all men is great so long as you keep the concept simple as Apple have done.

I am convinced Windows will make a success of their current operating systems which will culminate in Windows 8 with the “Metro” interface being the central all dancing O/S for Microsoft devices. Though the sooner we are all talking about Windows 8 and not Mango, Tango, 7, 7.5 etc etc, the better for all.

What do you think to the new operating system. Will it be the fix all solution for Windows-based devices of the future?

US citizens will be happy with news just in from BGR, who are claiming to have obtained information about the release of the new flagship Nokia Lumia model which is likely to offer a slightly larger display than the current Nokia Lumia 800, the name of which is likely to be simply a Nokia Lumia 900.

What other features are offered:

[arrowlist]

• 1.4 Ghz processor
• 8 megapixel camera
• 4,3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display
• Windows Phone Tango

[/arrowlist]

US to see a huge marketing drive for the new Nokia/Windows marriage:

January and February look set to see a huge marketing drive from the Finnish device manufactures, which suggests that the launch of the new phone will be some time after the CES show in January 2012.

It looks like exciting times ahead for Nokia despite rumours that they are not selling units of the Nokia 800 series very well here in the UK.

With so many vendors now tapping into the desire for applications, it is interesting to take a look at some statistics relating to the Windows marketplace and see how quickly they are catching Android and Apple in terms of sheer volume of choice.

Windows app marketplace boosted by Nokia?

With the Nokia Lumia Series on Windows Phone O/S it seems that this has really boosted the marketplace in terms of developers who are looking to write applications for the relatively unadpoted Windows O/S, though with Nokia choosing this operating system as its O/S of choice for the Lumia series, it seems likely that this figure will grow steadily despite predictions that the Nokia 800 will not sell very well in the UK.

All About Windows:

AAWP has delivered reports about the Windows application marketplace using their own tracking system and has some interesting facts to share:

[arrowlist]

• 11,000 Apps were submitted din the last three months
• 5,000 were within the last month
• 68% are free downloads
• 23% were premium
• Reminder were “freemium” models
• Estimated to reach 50,000 apps by January

[/arrowlist]

Microsoft’s application marketplace still seriously behind rivals:

With Apple boasting over 1/2 a million applications in the “original” app store, and Google’s Android marketplace pushing over 300,000 apps then we can see that the Windows machine needs to start multiplying their current figure by factors of ten or more to start competing in volume….which many will tell you is not the be all and end all.

Nokia Lumia’s to be give out free to developers:

With the drive to compete taking real significance for Nokia now that Ex Microsoft VP Stephen Elop is in charge of Nokia, the choice to dish out 25,000 free Nokia Lumia’s to developers is a wise one.

I have tested out the device and can inform viewers that the O/S is amazingly responsive and potentially quite a competitor to Apple and Android on sheer ease of use and look and feel….but it needs more apps as we all know!