ZTE has slashed the price of the ZTE Tania before it’s even come out, making it the cheapest Windows Phone handset on the market and the real start of Microsoft’s sneak attack on Android.

While sitting in the budget bracket, the ZTE Tania isn’t underpowered. Windows Phone’s emphasis on uniform specs means its stocked with Windows Phone 7.5, a 5-Megapixel camera a 1GHz processor (plenty of power for Microsoft’s silky OS) and a 4.3-inch display.

The real reason the phone is full of win? It’s £199. That’s £50 cheaper than it was yesterday and it’s not even out for another week and a half.

Budget Windows Phone: The sneak attack on Android 

ZTE means business this year. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer is best known for budget handsets because it does them pretty damn well. Teaming up with Windows Phone could be a master stroke for both the manufacturer and Microsoft.

As we’ve mentioned before, Windows Phone has a real avenue of attack in the budget market, where it can ensure quality while retaining a low price. Either way, at £199 for a seemingly top-end handset, what’s not to love?

Via Clove

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Forget what we said about all Android manufacturers finally getting it right. While Samsung seems to have switched on to Android updates of late, it seems that HTC is still mucking about with its priorities all in the wrong order; HTC’s Android 4.0 updates have just been delayed.

According to the company, the updates for the HTC Senstation and HTC Sensation XE have both been pushed back to late March, despite initially being pencilled in for ‘early 2012’. Late March is about as late in ‘early 2012’ as you can get, if you ask us.

The full Android Ice Cream Sandwich update list

The HTC Sensation XL, meanwhile, will get the update ‘soon thereafter’. It’s worse news for owners of the HTC Incredible S, Desire S or Desire HD, though; those phones won’t be updated until ‘later this year’, whatever that means.

In recent posts we’ve praised Samsung for its sharpish turnaround of Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy S2 is likely to get the update officially faster than the hackers can turn it around.

The deadly Android middle ground that could kill HTC

It may have been naive of us to claim that all Android manufacturers were starting to get it right, though, given the delay in getting the update out elsewhere. Google gave everyone the code in November last year. Surely this has been enough time to be able to push out all the necessary updates? As it is, it’s HTC: quietly late.

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Tired of being locked into your handset for 24 long months? Phones 4u feels your pain, and has just launched a new type of contract to try and combat the problem. Phones 4u JUMP lets you upgrade your phone as much as every 6 months.

JUMP (Just Upgrade My Phone) will be rolled out to all Phones 4u stores as of May 2012, offering customers the ability to switch up mobiles far more often.

The complete Ice Cream Sandwich update list?

“The idea for JUMP was born out of research we conducted that revealed people were frustrated by the inability to upgrade their handsets sooner,” says Alistair Firth, Director of Customer Development at Phones 4u.

Enough preamble: What’s the deal? Basically, Phones 4u has split the price of your contract into two parts: the airtime you get from the network, and the JUMP agreement for your phone.

“When customers choose to upgrade, there is no upfront fee involved – they can trade in the handset, which Phones 4u guarantees will be worth at least £100 for the first 12 months, along with up to two more, and create a new plan. Alternatively, they do have the option of keeping it for themselves or giving it to someone else.”

Keep your phone, upgrade its brain: The processor keyring

Sounds like a really top idea, but it will still get expensive. The example Phones 4u is pushing is thus:

Say you get an Android smartphone on a 24 month JUMP contract. The £37.99 monthly contract will be split between £15 to the network and £22.99 to Phones 4u. Say in 6 months you want to jump to the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 or whatever. That’ll leave you with 18 months outstanding on the JUMP balance.

You can trade you Android phone in against that for £175, which leaves £238.82 left to pay. Split over 18 months that’s £9.95, which needs to be added to your new iPhone contract, making your new monthly bill £58.44

In essence, you’ve got to pay the difference from the handset contract on top of your new contract. A good deal if you’re desperate for the next phone, then, but perhaps not for those on a budget.

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Thinking of getting in on the web TV craze? Roku may be your answer: the miniature Apple TV-alike TV box has just touched down in the UK for a very wallet-friendly price.

The Roku LT and Roku 2 XS are now shipping in the UK, at £49.99 and £99.99 respectively. The cheaper Roku LT (pictured) is half the price of its nearest competitor, Apple TV, but brings with it far more TV content than Apple’s box currently does.

For a start, the BBC iPlayer is built in, along with Fox News, Netflix, Vimeo, HBO and games such as Angry Birds. More channels are being added all the time. Tempted? You’ll want to know what the two boxes get you.

Roku 2: 5 ways it’s better than Apple TV

The more expensive Roku 2 XS builds on top of the LT’s WiFi and 720p HD, adding ethernet and USB ports, Bluetooth, expandable memory and a more swanky remote with built in motion control.

While Apple is expected to launch full HD TV sets later this year, Roku is the biggest rival to the current generation of Apple TV by far.

Via Roku UK

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You probably saw this one coming. Just as with the previous two models, Apple is planning to launch its next iPad, the iPad 3, at an even in early March. Read on for the full details.

The iPad 3 looks set to get its first airing at an event in the first few days of March, for an on-sale date a couple of weeks later – nothing new there. The news comes from the Wall Street Journal, who’re normally bang on with their Apple sources. Mark this one in your diary; it’s almost definitely right.

iPad 3 specs revealed

The specs for the iPad 3 are (aside from multiple rumours) a bit of a mystery, as you’d expect, but anyone following the tablet’s progression thus far can hazard a guess: a faster processor, increased graphical prowess, a better camera and a display with a resolution encroaching on ‘Retina Display’ territory.

Nothing groundbreaking, then, but then Apple will only ever be able to make incremental changes to the iPad from here on in; once you get the form and OS right, what’s left to do but make it quicker and prettier?

So, yeah: early March. Look out for the next jump forward in the iPad lineage. Rumours of an iPad 4 launching later this year, meanwhile, are another matter entirely.

Via AllThingsD

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For all its merits, the Amazon Kindle Fire has come under, erm… Fire, for having its version of Android locked down under a thick Amazon skin. While previous hacks have seen it break free into Android proper, a new ROM allows you to access Android 4.0 features. Read on for the details and video.

The MIUI 4 skin is a UI designed to being some of the best bits from both Ice Cream Sandwich and iOS, but more closely resembles the former. It’s been around on phones for a short while now, but the hacking community has just managed to bring it to the Kindle Fire.

10 Things the Kindle Fire 2 needs to have

To install it you’ll need to root the device and flash the ROM, which is pretty hardcore stuff that’ll mean the device waves goodbye to the Amazon skin.

You’ll still be able to access the Amazon App Store, but you’ll also be granted access to the full, uncensored Android Market.

Crucially, you’ll be allowed more freedom and gifted the slick look and feel of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Check out the video below to see how MIUI 4 runs on the hacked Amazon Kindle Fire. If you want to try it yourself, download the ROM from here.

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Apple is to exclusively broadcast a paul McCartney gig at 3am UK time via Apple TV. No Airplay, no iPads or iPhones needed. Now, if you ask us, that’s the first big step towards Apple’s future TV plans. Just how long until Apple becomes a major TV broadcaster?

The Paul McCartney gig is set to beam straight from Hollywood tonight, where he’s playing tracks form his new album. While the option hasn’t yet appeared on our Apple TV boxes, it’ll probably do so without much fuss; Apple added Genius to the box this week without the need for a software update.

Apple TV hacks: Game-changing set-top box tweaks

Securing the rights to beam TV content into your living room is a giant move for the company. While we know that the current set-top box Apple TV is a very different beast to the HD TV sets that Apple is rumoured to be building at the moment, a gradual move into original content is definitely on the cards for both old and new devices.

Earlier this year it was suggested that Apple was looking to bid on rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League. Whether that’s true or not, the fact that Macca’s going to be beamed into your Apple TVs tonight without any trouble says that Apple has the power to bring far more TV content to you than it currently does. Watch this space.

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Google Drive has been spinning around in the rumour mill for months now, but according to word from the Wall Street Journal, the cloud storage service is set to go live any moment now. Will a seamlessly integrated storage service drop a bomb on rivals like Dropbox?

Google Drive is the search giant’s answer to iCloud, Dropbox, Sky Drive and the myriad other online storage solutions. While Google Docs currently lets you store all manner of files to the tune of 1GB, but you have to pay for more and there are limits to do with file sizes for certain types of documents.

Google Drive will be more of a conspicuous service, but it’ll integrate with Gmail and Google Docs all the same. The idea is that Drive’ll let you store whatever the hell you like on Google’s servers, and act as a standalone web app like Dropbox.

Apple’s iCloud explained

The WSJ report doesn’t offer much in the way of concrete details, merely mentioning that Google Drive’s arrival is ‘imminent’. Dropbox currently offers 2GB of free storage, with 50GB at $9.99 (£6.30) per month and higher tariffs from there.

Google will probably be in a position to offer much more storage for free, which is certainly going to give Dropbox some sleepless nights. As will the tight integration with Google’s other services.

The proof in the pudding will be just how much gratis hard drive space Google offer, and how cheap the next tiers are. If there’s any company that’s able to be generous with this sort of thing, it’s Google. Watch this space.

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Just the other day we brought you word that Tim Schafer, the man behind some of the adventure gaming genre’s finest, is close to getting a sequel to Psychonauts funded by unusual means. Now he’s at it again, pitching an adventure game to it’s next investor: you.

The Physchonauts sequel may be funded by Minecraft developer Notch, if Twitter’s anything to go on, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of odd funding for Schafer’s company Double Fine.

The new adventure game up DF’s sleeves wants to be funded by all comers on the fund-raising site Kickstarter.

“Adventure games are a lost art form,” says Schafer, the man behind such classics as Day of the Tentacle. He claims that publishers would laugh in his face if he pitched an adventure game these days, what with all da yoof wanting nowt but Call of Duty sequels. And so to Kickstarter.

The Psychonauts sequel funded by Minecraft

The company’s looking for $300,000 to make the game and $100,000 to film to process, with rewards of various sizes to generous donators. And, staggeringly, it’s made it in under 24 hours, proving the demand is still incredibly strong for this style of game.

More than anything, though, it shows that you can get the game of your dreams into production without the backing of a major publishing house. You know… As long as you’re Tim Schafer. Check out the video below for the full lowdown:

Picture courtesy of @richardcobbett

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It might have slipped you by if you’re living in the UK, but The Super Bowl, America’s biggest TV event of the year, took place on Sunday. The event drew in 111 million viewers, which mobile analysts Flurry have had a field day with in terms of data. The most interesting bit? The US won’t use their phones if Madonna’s on the screen.

The research hammers down into all sorts of different themes. Flurry looked at who was using apps when, which ads were most successful and which quarter of the game was the most engaging, based on a user sample.

“We started crunching numbers as soon as the super bowl ended,” says the company’s Peter Farago. “Going down to a tremendous level of granularity, we tease out insights based on the interplay between first (television) and second screens (smartphone + tablet) never before done.

The unbelievable tech behind the Super Bowl

“We tracked application usage per second across the super bowl and then tied that data set to every ad and gameplay event, including the halftime show.”

So what’s this about Madonna? The ageing pop mogul took to the stage during the half time show. “Madonna owned it, hands down,” says Farago. “You, me and the person next you, all put their phones down for about 12 minutes (unless you were tweeting about it or using Shazam).”

The official report states: “The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time.” Flurry’s dead keen on finding out how we use the ‘second screen’ in relation to the TV.

100 must-have Android apps for 2012

In general, people dropped down more in terms of pure Football watching come the latter quarters, but app usage peaked and troughed throughout.

If anything, this kind of research could mean more interesting things for advertisers than Madonna’s PR people. Flurry’s able to pick out which ads people just weren’t paying attention to. If the idea of your phone being a ‘second screen’ while watching TV means somewhere to escape to during adverts, the implications for TV are huge.

Could the future involve your Smart TV beaming the ad onto your phone simultaneously? We wouldn’t put it past them.

Source: Flurry

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