It’s easy to claim that Android is more open than iPhone, but many manufacturers still have their software locked down in order to stop developers tinkering with it at lower levels. That’s not stopped a thriving hacker community spiring up around Google’s operating system, and in a surprise move this week, Sony Ericsson has announced it’s actually working with some of them to make custom software you can run on your Sony Ericsson Xperia Android phone.
Location-based deals service are all the rage at the moment on mobile, with the recent success of vouchercodes.co.uk and O2 Priority Moments. So it should come as no surprise that HTC appears to be working on an app of its own to start offering up HTC Sense users sweet offers as they walk down the street.
The HTC Explorer Android phone has just been announced for the UK, and we’ve played with it – don’t get too excited though, as this is meant to be an even cheaper low-spec phone than the Wildfire S, rather than that all-singing, all-dancing Android version of the HTC Titan. Still, it marks some interesting firsts for HTC, so read on for our thoughts.
The new Amazon Kindle eInk digital book reader has just been unveiled in the US. Unlike its Android-powered tablet brother, the Kindle Fire, this smaller monochrome device is coming to the UK, for the absurdly low price of £89. Thing is, lucky Yanks will be playing even less.
We’d heard reports that the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet would look alarmingly like RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, sharing as they do the same white label manufacturer, and now it’s official, it seems the leaks were spot on. This is an Android tablet with a difference: a low price tag subsidised by Amazon’s other services, and no Google apps support. Will it fare better than RIM’s effort? Read on for all the details.
Though it’ll never see the light of day in the UK, the Nokia N9 began shipping yesterday in a few select countries. It was Nokia’s first smartphone running on MeeGo, an open source OS that merged Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin platforms. We now know for sure that it will also be Nokia’s last MeeGo smartphone too: just a few hours later, the Linux Foundation killed MeeGo.
That’s right: MeeGo is dead. All hail Tizen!
Still buzzing from the excitement of Apple confirming the iPhone 5 launch next week? If you’re a fellow UK resident, there’s an even better reason to get hyped up: Apple’s holding a simultaneous UK launch event. Check the invite image here: It just landed in our inbox, complete with an amended icon for our time zone, and that can only mean one thing: The UK will be blessed with the iPhone 5 nice and early.
We knew it was coming, but now we know just when: the Windows Phone Mango 7.5 update begins rolling out in the UK starting…now.
