Mobiele Telefonie

Samsung Galaxy Tab Prices Appear Online

One of the biggest tablets of the year is bound to come with a price tag that would lighten any wallet, and though Samsung hasn’t revealed how much a Samsung Galaxy Tab will set you back or a solid release date yet, online retailers around Europe may have beat them to it. UK store Expanseys has the tablet up for sale at £679.99 with an availability date of October 11^th. It’s in the same price range as the iPad, except you’ll be paying for a 16GB Galaxy Tab in this case, whereas a 64GB version of Apple’s tablet will cost you £699.99. If these figures turn out to be true, the iPad might not have so much to worry about anymore! Prices for the tablet have appeared across the channel too. It has been reported that an unlocked version of the Galaxy Tab will cost 9,000 Swedish Kronor, which works out to be a rather hefty £806. In France and Germany, rumoured prices are €599 and €699, which we’re assuming is for a 16GB and 32GB Samsung Tab respectively. However, O2’s official German Twitter did unveil a data plan for said device, with buyers having to put a €99 deposit down and then paying €27.50 a month for two years, which works out to be £632 overall, which sounds a little easier on the bank balance. Engadget are reporting that Samsung are still sticking to their word at IFA saying that no prices have been announced and that any figures floating around are purely speculation. However, with some official word on the matter from other sources, we’re not sure who we should believe right now! All UK networks are expected to offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab and hopefully 3G data plans will be available too. Samsung’s Tom Richter also added that providers might be offering a “two SIM option” so users can run the tablet and a mobile phone from the same number. Looks like we’d best start saving up!

Samsung Galaxy QWERTY handset coming to the UK

Samsung have confirmed that they will be bringing a slide out QWERTY device to the UK later this year. TechRadar broke the news after the handset, which is thought to be the Samsung 15510 that Vodafone have been showing off recently, was spotted at IFA yesterday. Carey McGregor, the Senior Project Manager at the company, revealed that it would be a mid-range Galaxy phone and true to their word about prioritising Android, the new handset was seen sporting Froyo at the Berlin convention. The specs are unconfirmed at the moment, but it seems to be a Galaxy S with a smaller processor and LCD screen instead of an AMOLED one. It also has:

• TouchWiz layer
• 600MHz processor
• 5 megapixel camera
• 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3

This isn’t the first time a QWERTY Galaxy handset has caught the public’s eye, but the slightly lower-tech specs suggest that the device isn’t the Samsung Galaxy Q or Galaxy Pro. Fans may be disappointed to find out that the Epic 4G lookalike isn’t the UK equivalent of the second 4G handset to hit US shores however, the rumoured £200 price tag may be a welcome alternative for users who aren’t quite so keen on trading up to a full touchscreen device just yet.

Top Ten Mobile Phone News Stories of the Week

Enjoy our roundup of some of the best mobile phone stories you may have missed this week: 1.  Google Fights Back Against Jobs’ Claims. At the Apple special event earlier this week, Steve Jobs claimed that they were activating 230,000 new iOS devices everyday, and wondered if their ‘friends’ were adding in upgrades to make up their numbers. He was of course, referring to Google’s 200,000 daily Android activations. However, Google have responded by saying that upgrades are not included and that their figures only include those with Google Services, meaning the actual figure may be even higher. 2. Download Swype for Symbian. The alternative keyboard that lets you type without lifting your finger from the display is now available for Symbian S60 via the Nokia Beta Labs site. After a few tries, Swype feels much more natural that you may expect and it’s well worth trying out. Enjoy the video of Swype in action on a Nokia X6 and download the keyboard app here. 3.  Nokia Closes Ovi Files. After the recent demise of Nokia’s Messaging for Social Networks, Ovi Files has followed it to the grave. Nokia’s cloud storage solution will be gone in a month, so if you’ve got files stored there, you need to back them up soon. 4.  Nokia Dual-SIM Phones Released for Indian Market. Dual-SIM phones are popular in many developing markets, where different networks often offer special deals for certain numbers, so these two new devices could prove popular. The C1-00 and C2 are basic entry-level phones, although the C2 will use the S40 UI and have a 3.5mm headphone socket, a microSD card slot and an FM radio. The C1-00 should be out now, with the C2 following later in the year. 5.  Samsung to Focus on Android and Bada. The news that Samsung are to concentrate their efforts on producing phones running their own bada operating system and the ever-popular Android system isn’t surprising, but it doesn’t bode well for Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 or Symbian. Samsung say they will introduce a Windows Phone 7 device later in the year, but see no ‘visible demand for Symbian’. 6.  HTC Smart2 Render. A render showing the HTC Smart2 has appeared and it looks very shiny indeed! The Smart2 could be running the BREW platform, previously seen on mobiles including INQ’s Skype Phone, and will feature an Office suite of apps and Wi-Fi. 7.  Apple Provide iOS and iTunes Stats. An Apple event just wouldn’t feel right without lots of stats, and we weren’t disappointed this week! Amongst other things, Steve Jobs let on that 120 million iOS devices have been shipped since its launch, while inside the App Store there are 200 apps downloaded every second, bringing the running total up to 6.5 billion downloads! There are 250,000 apps to choose from, with 25,000 being specifically for the iPad. 8.  HTC 7 Trophy Coming to Europe? Although there are no official pictures of the Trophy yet, this could be a potential Windows Phone 7 handset which was originally conceived to run WinMo 6.5. Don’t be put off though, as the Trophy could be one of the few big-screen QWERTY phones on the market, boasting a 3″ capacitive touchscreen as well as 3G/HSDPA. 9. Skyfire Browser Submitted to Apple. It wasn’t long ago when we were campaigning for the approval of Opera Mini for the iPhone, and now we have a new cause, Skyfire. Any Symbian or WinMo users may well have some experience with this great mobile browser – famed for its video capabilities and similar compression techniques to Opera – so it’s with baited breath that we wait for Apple’s decision. 10.  Hamster Power for your N8. Battery chargers are a thing of the past, and the universal charger is already obsolete, as now, your mobile phone can be powered by a hamster. What could be more eco-friendly than that?!

Top Phone TV Apps

Today’s top smartphones let us live our lives on the go and it’s no different for TV fanatics who can watch live TV on their phones, catch up with their favourite programmes and decide what they want to watch tonight, all with a few quick taps! Here are our top ten picks for TV fans. Best TV Guide: TV-Guide UK If you’re looking for a quick and easy guide to see what’s on TV then you can’t go far wrong with TV-Guide UK. You can have a sneaky peek at the overview of what’s on right now – filtered into different categories like ‘Sky Channels’ or ‘Terrestrial’, or take a look at what you want to watch later. Make a list of your favourites and set reminders for those must-watch shows. Best TV Streaming: TV Catchup Ok, so not strictly an app but this is an iPhone site that gives you the chance to stream live TV from all the major freeview channels in the UK – so you can watch your favourite shows on the go from the likes of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 as well as freebie channels like E4 and Film4. Best TV News: BBC World News Live Want to get the latest news, streamed live on your phone? The BBC World News Live app has it covered. Keep on top on breaking news stories from around the globe. Best TV Sports: Sky Mobile TV News & Sports If live sport is what you want to be watching on your phone, then Sky have definitely delivered with their Sky Mobile app. Yes, it is £6 a month, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than subscribing to Sky Sports. You can watch a wide range of Sky’s sports channels, as long as you are in range of a Wi-Fi network, including Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Xtra, News and ESPN. Get all the live games from the Premiership, Football League, La Liga, US Open and plenty more. Just for Fun: Glee The makers of I Am T-Pain strike again and they don’t disappoint. Glee has become a huge TV sensation, so gleeks will love this fun app that lets you sing hit songs from the show and your voice will be auto tuned to become lovely and harmonious, and then is uploaded for the world to hear. You can even join your Glee club with users from around the world!