Google looks set to out a mobile payments scheme this week with reporters headed for a big event in New York on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal says Google will out new phones packing NFC chips (which the Google Nexus S already includes) and launch its mobile payment programme in New York, San Francisco and a limited number of other US locations…
May, 2011
Planking, the Daily-Mail-disturbing craze for lying flat out in amusing and sometimes dangerous places, has reached the Apple Store. Over at the Apple Store Planking Tumblr, you can see Apple employees in uniform planking in locations including right on the Genius Bar, on a row of iMac boxes in the stockroom and precariously on a single MacBook Pro box. Click through for a gallery of Apple Store plankers
If you believe the rumours currently fizzing down Britain’s broadband pipes, Apple has pretty much put the kibosh on iPhone 5 – at least for 2011.
But if that’s the case, why is Apple’s public relations department - specifically the team dedicated to all things iPhone – reaching out to selected British journalists in an effort to persuade them to attend Apple’s WWDC developer jamboree on 6-10 June?
Fan boys antics and daily device activations aside, both Android and iOS are excellent products. The tremendous growth we’ve experienced over the past three years in the smartphone industry is unparalleled. While some may argue iOS is the premier platform based on application libraries alone, Google’s Android OS brings plenty to the table — and quite frankly, outshines iOS in several categories. Here’s five things iOS can learn from Android.
New details have emerged surrounding the upcoming release of Amazon’s Android tablets, code named Coyote and Hollywood. The 7-inch Coyote will be priced at $349 (£216) while the 10-inch Hollywood will be $449 (£278), considerably less than the ($499) £399 entry-level iPad 2.
We’re live at Microsoft’s Windows Phone launch event in London, but lo if Microsoft’s not gone and served up all the details already online. Over at Microsoft’s website, a press release detailing the next big update to Windows Phone, Mango, is up. As expected, Twitter and LinkedIn integration feature prominently, and third party multitasking will finally be enabled.
UPDATE: Nokia has just announced that its first Windows Phone handset will run Mango.
It’s no secret that a Nokia Windows Phone or twenty is on the way, but Microsoft has just confirmed several other new partners committed to busting out Windows Phone blowers as soon as this year, all running Mango. Among them, Acer (a long rumoured partner), Fujitsu and up and coming Chinese manufacturer ZTE.
The latter is by far the most interesting since it’s recently made a name for itself cranking out incredibly cheap – and surprisingly good – Android smartphones. Microsoft however specifies minimum specs for Windows Phone handsets and is set on avoiding a race to the bottom, so it’ll be interesting to see how ZTE tries to stand out. Stay tuned for more, the press conference is just kicking off.
![Motorola Xoom looks to out-business the BlackBerry PlayBook [video]](http://cdn.electricpig.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/xoom–for-business-150x150.jpg)
We’ve had our chance to put the Motorola Xoom through its paces in our review, but now the company is repositioning the device as “the tablet designed for business”. A mantra previously limited to our friends at RIM with the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook, the world’s first professional tablet.