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Concepts of BB10 Social Networking Apps Emerge
Concept images of potential Facebook and Twitter apps designed for the upcoming BlackBerry operating system have emerged online. The images give an impression of what the two biggest social networks might look like if incorporated into BB10. No massive developments are immediately apparent from the concept images that weve seen with the design of both the apps taking their cues from theiOS andAndroid equivalents. Judging from the images, interfaces of each app look better on a large touchscreen than they do in their current BlackBerry incarnations, and a handy control feature that allows users to easily switch between their wall, photos etc has been added. RIM has put a great deal of emphasis on the social networking capabilities of its devices in the past with BlackBerry Messenger being a major selling point for the company. The Canadian manufacturers latest device, theCurve 9320, features a dedicated BBM button on the handset and comes with Facebook and Twitter apps pre-installed so it will be interesting to see if this focus continues when the BB10 operating system is made available to the public. Share This If you enjoyed this article then let your friends know about it: Related Posts You may also want to take a look at the following related posts: Should you be Pinterested in the Latest Social Networking Phenomenon? Names of BB10 Handsets Discovered Inside Dev Alpha Device BlackBerry World 2012: Day Two Round-Up BlackBerry Curve 9320 Officially Announced BlackBerry World 2012: Day Three Round-Up

LG Optimus TrueHD LTE
Expected 201226th April 2012 There has been a lot of interest in LTE 4G devices in the US in recent months, but as LTE networks are still very rare in Europe then that interest has not transferred across the pond. So, the LG Optimus TrueHD LTE is a pretty rare device, an LTE capable smartphone heading to Europe.. well, Germany at least. It supports HSPA+ as well as LTE, and this gives much wider coverage on top of the fledgling 4G networks. As you can probably guess, the LG Optimus TrueHD LTE comes with an HD display, in this case a 4.5″ 720 x 1280 pixel panel. On the back is an 8 megapixel camera with a 1.3 megapixel video calling camera on the front. Inside is a 1.5GHz dual-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM, 2GB of available internal flash memory plus a 16GB microSD card. There’s a large 1830 mAh battery inside the TrueHD, and the handset measures 134 x 68 x 10.5mm and weighs 135 grams. Other than a slightly interesting textured back, the TrueHD is a pretty dull slabby phone available only in black.. this is not a device that will turn heads in terms of physical design, although we suspect that the large IPS display might be very impressive to look at. Disappointingly, the TrueHD LTE only runs Android 2.3, and there’s really no excuse for that now that Android 4.0 has been around for a while, although we assume that there’s some sort of upgrade path planned. Still, it will do everything that every other Android phone does, and it will do it very quickly. We don’t know when the TrueHD LTE will hit the shops or how much it will cost, although our best guess is that it will retail for slightly under 400 whenever it comes to market.

European Data Roaming Charges Slashed !
The horror stories about data charges incurred while abroad are wide-spread with UK travellers long being ripped-off when travelling across Europe. This issue led to a number of UK organisations including Three, uSwitch, Which?, The Federation of Small Business, The Communications Management Agency, The Federation of Communication Services and INTUG writing a letter to the EU Commission seeking to rectify the problem. The EU Commision has responded with some dramatic actions which will make a huge difference to UK travellers visiting Europe. New maximum charges have been applied to calls undertaken in the EU with the maximum cost per megabyte of data now being 0.70, while the maximum price for a voice calls will now be 0.29, lowered from 0.35. Text messages will now cost a maximum of 0.06 , which is a lot lower than the previous limit of 0.11. Unfortunately, the changes arn’t going to be enforced until 2015 but it’s still great news for travellers visiting countries in the EU.

LG Optimus Net review
Look and feel Solid in the hand, with a smart if not particularly desirable design. Surprising heft considering the dinky size Ease of use Websites are a little cramped on the 3.2-inch screen, and we weren’t massive fans of some of LG’s tweaks to the Android interface Features We love the budget camera, and you also get built-in GPS and NFC. No storage though, so you’ll need to buy a MicroSD card on the side Performance We saw no sign of struggle even when playing with multiple browser windows, or messing around with the latest apps Battery life We cleared 24 hours with ease, even with regular use. Probably helped by the compact screen Pros: Solid build, respectable budget camera, Low priceCons: Dinky screen, no built-in storage, some UI quirks Look and Feel Ease of use Features Performance Battery life Mobile Choise Total Score Verdict: The LG Optimus Net is a compact budget Android that isnt ideal for web play or media, but has a decent crack at both

Apple iPad 3
Expected March 20127th March 2012 The Apple iPad 3 is Apple’s third-generation tablet, and it improves on what was already the tablet to beat with an impressive specification set. It isnot as revolutionary or outlandish as some rumours were suggesting – this latest iPad is more of a logical evolution of the previous device, but it must leave competitors wondering how they are going to catch up. The biggest change is perhaps not noticeable until you start using it – the iPad 3 now has a 1536 x 2048 pixel 9.7″ display, with four times the pixel of the old iPads. As with the iPhone 4 and 4S, Apple call this a “retina display”, meaning that the pixels are too small to see. The first iPad had a pretty much off-the-shelf panel that must have been very cheap to develop, but Apple can be sure that this new iPad will sell in enough quantities to justify creating a completely new class of display. Inside is a dual-core Apple A5X processor with a four-core graphics GPU.We don’t know how that will compare with some of the monster four-core CPU Android tablets coming up this year, but we suspect that Apple’s design will be very competitive. Raw processing power is nice, but there’s more to making a tablet than that. On the back is a 5 megapixel camera (Apple call this the “iSight” camera) with a secondary “FaceTime” camera on the front for video calling. The iPad 2 had just 0.7 megapixels at the back but it could capture 720p HD video. The iPad 3’s camera can capture 1080p video, but then Apple are also making a big deal of being able to edit digital images right on the iPad. Yes, the iPad 3 makes a really bulky camera, but it does mean that you can manipulate them straight away before emailing them off somewhere, and there are a number of other interesting built-in imaging features with a mass of related apps available to download as well. Surprisingly, the iPad 3 is actually thicker than the old iPad 2, coming in at 9.4mm thick compared to 8.8mm for the iPad 2. In reality it isn’t a big deal, but it is also about 10% heavier which is definitely going the wrong way, coming in at between 652 and 662 grams compared to 601 to 613 grams for the iPad 2. As before, there’s either a WiFi-only version or one that also supports cellular networks – we used to call that the 3G option, but (in the US at least) the new iPad is a 4G device capable of running on AT&T or Verizon’s LTE networks. These versions are different from each other inasmuch as the Verizon one also has support for CDMA/EVDO in addition to the GSM/EDGE/HSPA+ support found on the AT&T one. The operating system is iOS 5.1 which is just like iOS 5 except better. As well as countless improvements to the operating system, the iPad 3 also comes witha speech-to-text dictation system, but not the excellent Siri feature found on the iPhone 4S. The iPad 3 is available with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal flash memory. Inside is a 42.5 watt-hour battery capable of giving up to 10 hours of web surfing time on WiFi. The whole package measures 241 x 186 x 9.4mm. Prices for the iPad 3 vary in the US, starting at $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only version, going up to $829 for the WiFi plus LTE 64GB version, that is about the same at the iPad 2’s pricing. The good news is that the very capable iPad 2 is dropping in price by $100 and is now starting at $399. Officially, Apple are calling thisjust the “new iPad” and not the iPad 3, although we suspect that the iPad 3, iPad HD or iPad 4G names will become a common way of differentiating it. The iPad 3 should start shipping in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Japan and some other territories from March 16th with many more European countries by the end of the month. Images courtesy of Apple Inc.

Android devs a call to arms for 2012!
I complained the other day about the fact that the iPhone seems to have more apps developed for it than Android. Even if Android has the same app as the iPhone, the Android app seems to have limited features. This is annoying. Not only is this annoying, its also a worrying trend, as it ultimately means the usefulness of Android is going to lag somewhat behind that of the iPhone. This is already the case with the iPad, which has so many more great quality apps compared to the Android tablets that there really is no contest between them (loathe though I am to admit this). An example But lets stick for the moment with smartphone apps; specifically, iPhone apps versus Android apps. Take, as a rather arbitrary example, an app by City Index, which lets you bring the world to its knees. No, really. It lets you take part in spread betting, CFD trading and all sorts of other nefarious share-trading schemes that led to the global collapse that we see happening all around us. Yes, you can now do all of this from your smartphone! Scary as this may seem, though, what I want to focus on is the fact that the City Index app for the iPhone is actually better than the same app for Android. Both apps do mostly the same thing, but the iPhone app also has the addition of the latest Dow Jones news, which the Android app does not. Why on earth would this be the case? Why, if youre producing the same app for different phone platforms, would you choose to leave off a feature from one paltform when that feature isnt necessarily all that difficult to code? Hard to port The reason I believe is simply that iPhone apps are designed first, whereas Android is always the platform that apps get ported to. Porting an existing app to a new platform is never as exciting or as sexy as creating a new app from scratch in the beginning. This means that no matter how careful or fastidious the coder, porting the app is going to be seen as a chore. What do you do with a chore? You take shortcuts; in this case you remove certain features that really arent seen as necessary. Now this isnt a new trend by any stretch the imagination, but it is rather annoying. Worse, platforms live or die based on developer support; this is the case in the PC world and the games console world, and it will still be the case on the phone world. So just because Android is dominant now doesnt mean it will be in the future. You only need to look at Nokias Symbian to see what history itself has to say about a once mighty dominant platform suddenly crumbling because of lack of developer support. Lets hope, therefore, that 2012 brings with it a plethora of new grade A apps for Android, none of which are ports from the iPhone, but all of which are brand-new, freshly created for Android first, genuinely useful and ultimately seriously cool apps that make the Android platform shine as much as the hardware and the Android operating system itself do. Android developers rise up and give the world what its waiting for!

BlackBerry P’9981 review
Look and feel The industrial design of the P’9981 is its strongest suit, with the squared metal chassis exuding a distinctive style that sets it apart from its BlackBerry Bold 9900 clone Ease of use BlackBerry 7 is a complex but reasonably intuitive OS, with the icons on the P’9981 redesigned by Porsche to a flatter, more retro style Features Like the Bold 9900, the P’9981 packs capable 1.2GHz chip for multitasking, five-megapixel camera, full HTML support in its browser and NFC support Performance Generally fast, with up to 10 open programs possible, though we did encounter regular lags of a couple seconds, particularly in the browser. The camera is the mediocre offering standard of BlackBerrys Battery life At 12 hours with 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS sporadically going, it’s standard for a smartphone, though owners of older BlackBerrys will find it disappointing Pros: Classy industrial design, distinctive from other BlackBerrys, top of the line email, great social integrationCons: Price, minor performance lags, mediocre camera Look and Feel Ease of use Features Performance Battery life Mobile Choise Total Score Verdict: A phone that is perfectly designed for the people who would shell out for its designer price tag – hint: Porsche affinity probable

Mentor FM Tunes Into Your Facebook Account To Play Music You Like
Mentor FM is one of those tools that it is pretty awesome and scary at the same time. The Internet radio tunes into your Facebook account to play music that you like. The awesome part is that it usually gets things pretty right in this regard. All you need to do is to give the app permissions to connect to your Facebook account before you can start listening to a playlist that has been specifically made for you. The scary part is actually what makes the application that good: Facebook seems to know your music taste pretty well. The application displays up and down vote buttons on the radio page that you can use to further finetune the music listening experience. Basic playback controls are displayed on the page as well. Here you can change the volume of the music, pause, stop and play songs or skip ahead to the next song if you do not really like the one that is currently playing. Mentor.fm displays the artist or band, and the genre of the music on the page as well. It feels rather strange that the name of the song is not among the information displayed there. If the playlist is not what you are looking for, you can let the radio station load a new playlist with different songs. The surprise me mode finally lets you look beyond your music taste to discover a different kind of music. When I first used surprise me the radio started to play songs from artists such as Emilio Santiago, Jazzkantine or Renata Tebaldi, music that I would not listen to at all otherwise. The site is a music experiment, that will be online for about 2 months before the makers will take it offline again. One of the interesting aspects of the site is that you can just turn on the radio and start listening, without having to perform searches or songs first. The service uses a users likes on Facebook and generates the playlist from those information. (via Freeware Genius) Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. No related posts. About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter. Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 17, 2012 -Tags:internet-radio, music You are here: Home Music and Video Mentor FM Tunes Into Your Facebook Account To Play Music You Like Previous Post: Create Extension Groups With Context For Google Chrome Next Post: Click on the following link(s) to read more about Music and Video Leave a Reply Follow Ghacks Subscribe To Comment Rss

3 days only: Nokia Lumia 800, Samsung Galaxy SII & more for 20/month
If you want to cheer yourself up this Christmas without breaking the bank, then grab one of these Xmas smartphone bargains before its too late. You could have a Nokia Lumia 800 or a Samsung Galaxy SII for less than 20 a month, or a Blackberry Curve 9360 for a tenner. What are the catches? None, as Ill explain below These deals are on offer from Mobiles.co.uk, one of the online arms of Carphone Warehouse. You may have noticed the economys not doing so great at the moment, so companies like Carphone Warehouse are trying to shift their stock as fast as possible in an effort to outcompete their rivals. The result? Genuine bargains on the very latest handsets from the biggest smartphone seller in the country, giving you the happiest Xmas since you were 10 years old! So go on, treat yourself you deserve it! Youve only got until December 22nd, though, if you want it delivered in time for Xmas, so go and order your smartphone gift now.

Motorola Unveil MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI Smartphones
Motorola have unveiled two new smartphones which will launch in Europe in February. Both mobiles are affordable Android smartphones , but they are very different beasts when it comes to their target users. The Motorola MOTOLUXE is a stylish slim-line touch-screen device, while the Motorola DEFY MINI is a rugged smartphone ! The MOTOLUXE is being described as a “hip, slim touchscreen device” and features a 4 inch edge-to-edge touch-screen (480*854). An 800 MHz processor powers the MOTOLUXE which works in combination with 512MB of RAM. As you’d expect with a smartphone aimed at the trendy crowd it comes with a decent camera. The 8 mega-pixel camera should shoot some fantastic photos, while the front-facing VGA camera can be used for video-calling. The MOTOLUXE runs on Android 2.3 and should be available sometime in February in the UK. The Motorola DEFY MINI is a rugged smartphone that is perfect for active users. The 3.2 inch touch-screen comes with Gorilla Glass meaning its scratch resistant and the DEFY MINI is also water-resistant and dust-proof. This makes it the perfect smartphone for those with an active lifestyle or occupation, such as builders ! The Motorola DEFY MINI is powered by a 600MHz processor, has 512MB of RAM and a 3 mega-pixel rear-facing camera. It also runs on Android Gingerbread (2.3) and will launch in February in the UK. Once 3G gets news of any operators carrying the device or prices we’ll let you know.