The release of Halo: Reach has doubled Xbox sales in the UK. Dorian Bloch, director of GfK Chart-Track, the company that monitors sales of Halo:Reach and Xbox consoles, said that Halo: Reach had had a “marked effect on hardware sales”, with Xbox sales up 99 per cent for the week ending 18 September. Halo: Reach was launched last Tuesday, on 14 September.
[via Eurogamer]
Reports that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is delayed circulated yesterday, stemming from the Amazon UK Samsung Galaxy Tab listing. The Amazon UK page for the Samsung Galaxy Tab lists a release date of 1 November, rather than October, as was previously stated, and this change was taken as sign of possible hold-ups.
The Gmail Android app has been untangled from the Android OS update schedule and got its own wash and brush up. A new version of the Gmail Android app has hit the Android Marketplace with a fistful of new features including limited priority inbox support. The bad news is that it’s limited to users packing Android Froyo. If you haven’t got it, shake your fists at the gods of Google and head through to find out what you’re missing…
NVIDIA is still working on getting the Tegra 2 chip into more phones and tablets but it’s already touting it’s next two processors teed-up to power future tablets. At its GPU Technology Conference, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang swerved off the script and promised new Tegra processors to a room full of wide-eyed tech press.
Huang says the Tegra 3 chip is already done and Tegra 4 development is well underway. He went on to reveal that we can expect a new Tegra generation every year. Maybe those Tegra 2 Android tablets we’ve been burbling about will end up sporting the mysterious Tegra 3 processor instead. Is it a bit weird that we’re excited about this? Well…maybe a little but more power means better tablets and this increasingly iPad-dominated world, that’s something to cheer about.
The Samsung Galaxy S Froyo update looks like it could be with us by October, according to a Samsung Galaxy S Facebook fan site, maintained by Samsung Mobile Spain.
Picking the best Android phone is a tall order these days, as it’s not just about the hardware. Sure, they all run the same core OS, but the experience can be very different, as each manufacturer tinkers with the user interface to their own end in a bid to stand out from the crowd.
We’d love to say that stock Android was a viable option, but the only high end phone you can buy in the UK these days with vanilla Android installed is the Google Nexus One, so whether you like it or not, you’re probably going to have to go with a custom Android skin on your next Google smartphone. Which ones are the best? Find out in here with our Best Android phone UI Top 5.
It’s spot on halfway through the working week, so we reckon you’ve earned yourself a breather. Take a break and settle back with our roundup of all the latest gadget headlines, all squeezed together here in the lunchtime lowdown.
Windows Phone 7 devices will be available on every UK network, Microsoft has announced today. All five UK operators, Orange, O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Three, are backing Windows Phone 7, with Orange named as the launch partner.