BT has revealed plans to offer new ultra-fast “on demand” broadband to businesses and homes next year, and will also double the speed of its Infinity service earlier than expected.

BT says that two thirds of Infinity customers will have speeds of up to 80Mbps by the end of the 2014, up from the current 40Mbps limit. But its on demand service will offer comparatively insane speeds of up to 300Mbps by extending the company’s fibre optic network right up to your door. Currently the fiber optic network goes to junction boxes in the street, which are then connected to homes and businesses via copper wire. This acts as a bottle neck, and means drops in speed.

The proposed new service is called “fibre to the premises” or FTTP, and has been successfully trialled in Cornwall. When FTTP becomes available (the aim is spring 2013, dependant on more trials) customers will have to request a fibre optic connection to their home or business, which suggests that this 300Mbps system could end up being fairly pricey. Well, what did you expect?

BT was one of a few companies that came out of Ofcom’s recent broadband speed report looking relatively good. Ofcom found that the average download speed of BT Infinity’s 40Mbps service was between 35.4 and 36.7Mbps. BT’s 20Mbps service didn’t fare so well (7.8 to 9.7Mbps) and Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, Karoo and Orange’s figures for services advertised at similar speeds also made disappointing reading.

Of course, even BT’s speeds look feeble compared to the 1Gbps connections now available in South Korea. Maybe we should all move to Seoul.

(Via Digital Spy)

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The Motorola Xoom was the original Android Honeycomb tablet, Google’s first big play against the iPad. It was also buggy, and rather boring, with a mediocre, if pixel-packed, display. The Motorola Xoom 2 sticks with the same screen size and resolution (1280×800), but shrinks it down to an iPad 2 rivalling 8.8mm. It’s thin, but it’s a thoroughly masculine device, echoing the Batman style design language Motorola started a few years back, and just refined in the Motorola Razr. This may well alienate you: we were much more taken by the Media Edition’s portability.

The internals are exactly the same as the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition: 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 5MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera, 16GB of storage, but Moto’s also added a few software embellishments.

Up first is note taking integration with Evernote. Tap the icon in the notification tray, and you can handwrite a note with the digital stylus (sold separately sadly, and Motorola weren’t able to tell us the price just yet). It’s like the HTC Flyer’s note taking, but smarter: it’s just a shame it’s restricted to the 10.1-inch model only.

Then, there’s a inch of preloaded “officey” apps for the white collar Joe who just has to have a tablet, but it can’t be an iPad, and also for some reason they’re allergic to laptops. Citrix software, as well as a Fuze meeting room app come preloaded, and there’s USB host support as well as – get this – Ethernet connectivity, for when Wi-Fi is out of the question. That’s unusual, though possibly overkill if you’re not a high flying corporate executive.

Still, if you’re going up against the iPad, you need something right? This is an Android tablet to watch, but it’ll need to come in much cheaper than an iPad to pique our interest.

Check out the photos of the Motorola Xoom 2 in the gallery above, plus bonus comparison shots with the Media Edition. What do you make of the Motorola Xoom 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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At its press launch in London today, the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition was almost being treated as an afterthought by spokespeople on hand. After getting to grips with it though, we’d have to say it’s the most impressive Android Honeycomb tablet we’ve seen on these shores so far.

It runs Android 3.2, and Motorola promises an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich will come in “due course”, and offers some impressive specs: it’s powered by a gig of RAM and a 1.2GHz dual-core Texas Instrument OMAP processor. Visually, it’s a huge break from the bland original Xoom, taking its design cues from the newly announced Razr Android phone: it’s pretty damn thin at 9mm, and is covered in the same Splashguard coating to shrug off minor spillages.

Really, it’s the size that’s got us so excited about the Motorola Xoom 2. The 8.2-inch Gorilla Glass screen packs the same 1280×800 resolution as most Honeycomb tablets, but stuffed into something the size of a BlackBerry PlayBook, it’s incredibly sharp, and colours on the IPS display are a big improvement. This feels like exactly the right size for the Android keyboard and browser – it’s just a shame there’s no 3G option planned, just Wi-Fi.

There are a couple of problems, mind. We said it was the finest Honeycomb tablet on these shores: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, currently the subject of litigation by Apple, is in another league thanks to its stunning AMOLED display (Seriously, it’s the best screen we’ve ever seen). Were that to go on sale in the UK, it would immediately render the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition obsolete.

More pressingly, we’re still struggling to figure out what place an Android tablet of any size has, while it lacks the tablet optimised apps the iPad boasts. Why not just buy a big Android phone instead? Indeed.

Still, if you now iOS is for you, look for the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition to go on sale in the Carphone Warehouse, PC World, Best Buy, Currys and Dixons in mid-November – price is still TBC, but we’ll update as soon as we get it.

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Nestled away at the back of LG’s vast, mostly 3D focused booth here at IFA 2011 in Berlin was this delightful little device, which works as a typical laser mouse, but contains a hidden secret – turn it on and move it over a piece of paper and it scans it in for you at up to 320dpi, saving you the bulk of a huge, dedicated machine if you’re determined to move to a paperless office once and for all.

The LG LMS-100 Scanner Mouse can save in all sorts of format (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, XLS, DOC, PDF) and can even share your boring documents to Facebook, Twitter, and perhaps more usefully, Flickr, and it works on Windows XP and UP, as well as Mac OS X.

We had a go beaming something in, and were surprised at just how sharp the image is, with clear, flat text and no sign of the crumples in the paper. It almost makes scanning fun, like one of those

The good news? It’s on sale now in the UK, available for £87.49 on Amazon.

Out Now | £87.49 | LG

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We’ve just got hands on with the latest slate in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series, and trust us when we say it more than makes up for the delays and sales withdrawals the 10.1 and 8.9 models have suffered. It’s nothing short of breathtaking.

This doesn’t just match the iPad for build quality, it beats it. It’s smooth, super thin, and the brushed metal backing is far more attractive than the scruffy iPod touch-back side of the iPad 2.

What really sets the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 apart though is the screen: sooner or later, Samsung had to start using its Super AMOLED Plus display technology in tablets, and now that it has, there’s not a lot to say, other than that you will never settle for Apple’s IPS screens again after witnessing it. It’s world class, and gives us hope for when it finally starts appearing in TVs that don’t cost a billion quid.

Android Honeycomb has been skinned the same way as it has on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, so we didn’t see too many changes there. What really did surprise us though, is that the extra 0.7-inches of screen space on regular 7″ tablets makes a lot of difference.

We’ve long said that 7 and 10 inch tablets are only in the same category solely by both being luxury products, but this blurs the boundaries. It may sound silly, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 feels a lot closer in size to 10-inch models, like a compact edition of a magazine.

Android Honeycomb may be lacking the dedicated apps it desperately needs to compete with the iPad, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 gives us hope for its future: this is the finest tablet we’ve yet seen. If you build it they will come, as they say.

Out TBC | £TBC | Samsung

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Samsung has followed the original Galaxy Tab‘s 5 inch proportions, and the 10.1 inch version with a mid-size perfect for your manbag. The screen is a little special too, it’s a 1280 x 800 resolution AMOLED,promising brighter, richer colours.

Android is skinned with Samsung’s latest TouchWiz UX and there’s HSPA+ inside, to tickle your fancy with a theoretical download speed of 21Mbps.

There’s a choice of storage options, ranging from 16GB to 64GB and a microSD slot for those who want more. Battery life is chalked up at 10 hours, using its 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as 3G. There’s all the usual GPS, Bluetooth and twin cameras (packing 3 megapixel in the rear and 2 megapixel up front) too.

In short, it’s yet another Android tablet with some (Touch)whizzy software. The big difference here is the size. Are you convinced yet? Shout up in the comments below.

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The “Expected:Child” option lets soon-to-be parents add a photo, the name of their unborn child and a due date. The move seems to be an attempt to stop parents creating profiles for unborn children in a breach of Facebook’s terms of service. On a more cynical note, it could also give advertisers an even easier way of knowing what Facebook users to target with baby-related ads.

Click the headline and hop into the comments to let us know what you make of the move? Is it just a natural evolution for the social network or should parents wait until their bundle of joy has actually been born before signing them up?

Image by Spullara on Flickr

Out now | £free | Facebook (via Mashable)

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You don’t need us to tell you that now a great deal has changed with the new Mac Mini externally: the screw off bottom and unobdy casing are still in place. The most obvious change is the addition of a ThunderBolt port on the back for super fast file transfers. Still, feats your peepers on these and stay tuned for more: we’re expecting to get hands on with the machine tomorrow.

Out Now | £from 529 | Apple

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Operating profit in the three month period ending June was 3.7 trillion won, down from 5.01 trillion won a year earlier. Bloomberg followed 25 leading analysts’ estimates and found an average operating profit forecast of 3.8 trillion won. Now that the blood is in the water Jeong Jae, a Seoul-based fund manager at Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Co., believes “if demand for tablets and 3-D TVs recovers, the panel business can turn around fast.”

So just how bad is Samsung’s display division? Flat panel sales dropped an estimated 11 percent, resulting in an operating loss of 73.5 billion won. That’s a steep dive from the 880 billion won profit a year earlier. Like fund manager Jeong Jae, we are of the belief that Samsung’s tablet line will be an integral part in turning around profits. But tablets alone will not win this war — the key will be smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy S II has continued to shatter Android handset sales records. The last time we checked, worldwide sales had eclipsed the three million unit mark and show no signs of slowing. The new-found hurdle in smartphone profits, as we reported earlier this week, is Microsoft and it’s £9 royalty fee. If Samsung is forced into submission and pays out such an outrageous fee for every Android handset it sells, a turnaround in company profits will be even more difficult.

So what’s the solution? The short-term fix is to ramp production of the Galaxy S II and roll out the phone to more markets. There’s more than 200 million US wireless customers that have yet to see a carrier subsidized Galaxy S II. We’d imagine a release across the big four (Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint) would turn the three million units sold in five, if not more. Additionally, it’s time to launch the Galaxy Tab 8.9. Samsung could command the tablet market if it offered two versions of its razor-thin slate.

Let us know how else Samsung can turn around company profits in the comments section below.

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The HP TouchPad will be touching down in the UK soon with preorders opening on June 19 and shipments set to drop in mid-July. While we wait for the webOS tablet to make its British debut, HP has been posting HP TouchPad videos. The latest is pretty intriguing showing off a fistful of features from webOS 3.0.

In the clip after the break you can see how the HP TouchPad handles multitasking, the HP Synergy feature pulling information from multiple sources together in one place, the tablet’s gaming abilities and how it handles Flash and HTML5. If you’re tempted by the HP TouchPad, take a gander and hit the comments to let us know what you make of it…

Out July | From £399 | HP

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