According to the Telegraph and Mail, Google is planning the unthinkable. After a soft launch in the US over nine months ago, the search giant is finally releasing its set top box in the UK. That’s right, Google TV hits the UK within the next six months. A formal announcement by head honcho, Mr. Eric Schmidt, is expected at the Edinburgh Television Festival later today.
August, 2011
Our love for Sonic 4 Episode 1 is well established but we won’t be getting the second installment of the revived franchise this year. Sonic Team’s Takashi Iikuza has told Eurogamer that 2011 is entirely focused on Sonic’s 20th anniversary and Sonic Generations, which is intended as a kind of greatest hits package for the spiny blue mammal. We’ll see Sonic 4 Episode 2 in 2012.
Iikuza says: “It was always the plan. We knew about the anniversary year and Generations was planned way in advance. It was always our plan to release Sonic 4 Episode 2 after Generations.” Pushed on whether we’ll see a Sonic 4 Episode 3, he refused to comment one way or the other. Still there’s always that Sonic CD revival on Xbox Live Arcade to cling on to while we wait for Sonic 4 Episode 2 to spin into view.
The Orange Monte Carlo – also known as the ZTE Skate – has been on our radar ever since Mobile World Congress in February. As the follow up to the spectacular Orange San Francisco, 2010′s bargain bin phone of the year, we were expecting great things at next to no cost: it’s the same size as the HTC Sensation or the Samsung Galaxy S 2 – but it costs a mere third of the price of either.
So does this phone live up to expectations? Almost.
TVonics has announced an upgrade for its Freeview+ HD recorders which will bring iPlayer to the set-top boxes and banish the need to to manually download future software updates. Owners of the TVonics DTR-HD500 and DTR-Z500HD just need to head to the TVonics website to grab the new update.
Once installed it’ll add BBC iPlayer TV and radio catchup services to the TVonics Freeview+ HD recorders making them accessible via the red button. Future software updates will also be downloaded automatically via the Ethernet connection rather than needing to be added manually by USB.
Out now | £free | DTR-HD500 update/DTR-ZH00HD update
HTC is set to unveil its first batch of Windows Phone Mango devices on September 1 alongside the Android-sporting HTC Kingdom. We’ve previously seen images of the HTC Eternity but the second phone, the HTC Omega, was just a name tied to a list of features until now.
PocketNow has got hold of a very convincing looking render of the HTC Omega, showing the Mango device sporting HTC’s familiar two-tone design in grey and white. While the render doesn’t confirm or deny any of the previously rumoured specs, it does show a front-facing camera that wasn’t mentioned before but stacks up with Microsoft’s confirmation earlier this week that Mango will bring new Skype integration.
Click the headline to take a closer look at the HTC Omega render. We reckon it looks like a cross between the HTC Incredible S and the HTC Flyer.
When we put together our look at Steve Jobs’ highs and lows following his resignation as Apple CEO, we totally forgot the time he was struck on the head by an Apple logo and physically gave birth to an original Mac with Steve Wozniak acting as midwife. Thank goodness then for the crazy CGI antics of Taiwanese outfit NMA News which has again taken on the Apple co-founder.
Jobs last got the NMA treatment during the iPhone 4 antenna controversy with a clip that saw him donning a Darth Vader helmet and fighting Bill Gates with a light saber. That footage is reused in the clip after the break along with some new and even more startling scenes including Jobs beheading the Grim Reaper and battling a battalion of murderous Android mascots. It’s hardly the most fitting tribute to Steve Jobs’ career but it’s certainly the most bizarre…
Samsung’s own Android app has revealed three new devices set to be unveiled at the IFA trade show next week. A developer went digging in the Samsung Mobile Unpacked APK and discovered logos touting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Samsung Wave 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note.
No other details on the devices have been found lurking in the app but it’s pretty clear the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be a new tablet with a 7.7in screen to sit beside the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 models while the Samsung Wave 3 will be the successor to the Samsung Wave 2 running the latest incarnation of Samsung’s bada OS. The Samsung Galaxy Note is a wild card.
Samsung announced its new Galaxy smartphones and a new naming convention earlier this week and the Galaxy Note doesn’t fit that picture. Samsung is set to out new devices on September 1 so hopefully we’ll find out what the Note is then. In the meantime, hit the headline and shower us with your speculation in the comments.
Out now | £TBC | Samsung (via This Is My Next)