London Underground Wi-Fi service goes live
Transport for London (TfL) has officially flicked the switch on the Virgin Media-run free Wi-Fi service which is set to offer free Wi-Fi access throughout the London 2012 Olympics over the summer.
BBC journalist Rory Clellan-Jones sent the first landmark tweet over the system, which marks the most significant step yet towards getting full mobile access up and running on the Tube.
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Oppo who? 6.2mm ZTE Athena claims the skinny crown for itself
Well that's just rude. It's been what – three days? – since we shone the spotlight on the Oppo Finder and its record-breaking 6.65mm skinniness, and here we have another anorexic smartphone kicking it right back into anonymity.
It's called the ZTE Athena, and has just been snapped in some Mr Blurrycam action over in China with a side-on profile measuring a decidedly waifish 6.2mm.
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PayPal mobile payments hit the UK. Sort of
I'm sick and tired of NFC, to be honest. For all the talk, the publicity, the PR, the hype and everything else, there are too many competing systems and not enough people actually using any of them. Still.
What we need is for something like PayPal to hit the high street – you know, something most of us already know and use? Well, wouldyoubelieveit, it just has! If you do your shopping at Coast, Oasis or Warehouse, that is.
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Vodafone Smart II ups the entry level Android ante for just £70
It may be slightly less glamorous, but the budget end of the smartphone market moves just as quickly as the pricey end of the scale.
Take the newly announced Vodafone Smart II. For just £70 – that's a tenner less than last year's model – you can now jump from a 2.8in screen to a 3.2-incher, plus get some Android 2.3 Gingerbread action and a jump from 600MHz to 800MHz of processing action.
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The Archos Child Pad is back, this time with some friends
So, remember the Archos Child Pad tablet designed especially 4 kidz that we wrote about all of three months ago? Course you do.
You'll also no doubt know that those hordes of tab-hungry sprogs have inexplicably been kept waiting all this time thanks to Archos announcing the Child Pad, then pretty much doing nothing at all since then. Well, seems like the wait is over, and the Child Pad is ready to go! Again!
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Will the iPad 4, or even the iPhone 5, come with an iPen stylus?
The jury's still out on the whole stylus thing, even though Samsung has followed up on the 5in Galaxy Note smartphone with a double-sized Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.
But Apple, it seems, isn't taking any chances, and has just applied for a patent of its own that could see the iPad 4 tablet sporting a stylus of its own, called – obviously – the iPen.
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Sony Xperia go: 3.5in ruggedised helping of Gingerbread for the summer
Sony has announced the Xperia go, its latest Android smartphone that it says has been built “to resist life's challenges”.
By that it means a broad swathe of ruggedness by way of scratch-resistant glass that can track wet fingers, and overall IP67 certification for dust and water resistance. Sadly, it also seems to have resisted the challenge to get Android 4.0 on board from launch: Gingerbread only, m'afraid.
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Sony Ericsson may be no more, but if you bought an Xperia smartphone during 2011 then that's the name staring at you from your phone's sculpted face.
And as of today that face is getting a fresh new look, as Sony has confirmed the Android 4.0.4 update – aka Ice Cream Sandwich – is rolling out to the 2011 Xperias, starting it seems with the Xperia Arc and Xperia Neo.
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The 6.65mm Oppo Finder: new world's thinnest phone candidate
In years to come, when they're looking for the exact point at which we officially lost the plot as a species, how about: when we started expressing the thickness of smartphones in hundredths of a millimetre?
Well, probably not. It'll probably be something more significant. In fact, it would be hard not to. Anyway, say hello to the Oppo Finder, which at 6.65mm seems to be the new world's thinnest phone.
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Pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S III hit by major production glitch?
Seems like pebble blue is the new white. Or it would if the other colour the Samsung Galaxy S III is available in wasn't already white.
The point is, just like with the long-delayed white Apple iPhone 4, it looks like production issues are hitting the pebble blue Galaxy S III, issues that is likely to result in the handset failing to launch on time in certain markets.
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RIM preparing to cut thousands of jobs
So far the Thorsten Heins era of leadership at Research in Motion has been defined by a welcome ratcheting down of the blue sky speak (despite initial hiccups) and a refocusing on the very real and practical changes needed if the company is to turn things around.
However, there's also a hard reality to be faced: the RIM of 2012 isn't strong enough to sustain a workforce of 16,500 employees around the planet. Cuts are coming, and they're going to be painful.
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Batman wants a Nokia Lumia 900. Do you?
These superhero types are never happy are they? Back in December we reported on Nokia and Phones4U coming together to produce an ultra-limited edition run of 40 Batman-themed Lumia 800 Windows Phones for mobile movie buffs.
But it seems that Bruce Wayne isn't satisfied any more now that he's spotted the flagship Lumia 900, and now he's insisting on his own personalised version of the bigger-boned Nokia too.
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Smart means safe: UK smartphone users embracing online shopping
A new study has revealed the number of UK smartphone owners who have used their handsets to shop online has quadrupled since mid-2010.
According to the eDigitalResearch and Portaltech Reply survey, 64% of smart device users have been confident enough to shop online using their phones, as mobile-friendly sites, services and secure shopping protections have matured.
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Panasonic Eluga Power now only touching down in Q3?
Panasonic did a good job of talking up its big assault on the European smartphone market last year, but let's face it – the arrival of the Eluga hasn't exactly changed the world, has it?
Clearly not, but maybe it's the bigger screened Eluga Power that'll bully its Android stablemates and blow us away with its blinding Eluganess. Sadly, it looks like we won't be finding out for a while yet, with the big-boned Panny only now expected to land in Q3.
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We've known for more than a year now that Symbian's days are officially numbered, but there's still surprisingly little consensus on what the number actually is, and how the once-dominant OS will see out its remaining days.
However, a Nokia Europe exec may just have cleared it up for us, and if you were holding back your best pick-up lines in anticipation of Carla and Donna arriving at the Symbian party, you're in for a disappointment: they're not coming.
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Android and iOS continue tightening their smartphone stranglehold
It's number crunching time courtesy of IDC's global smartphone market share stats for Q1, and the picture is pretty clear: Android and iOS are strong, and only getting stronger.
Between them Google and Apple smartphones accounted for 82% of all smartphones sold in the first three months of the year – compared to just 54% a year ago.
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Toshiba has always struck me as a bit half-hearted when it comes to its mobile division, as if it's being forced to get into smartphones and tablets when it would be far happier just sticking to laptops, tellies and camcorders.
Its latest spin of the Android wheel is the AT300 tablet, announced today, which ticks all the right boxes – Tegra 3, Android Ice Cream Sandwich and a 10-hour battery life – yet still somehow seems a bit... well... “meh”.
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Google hints at big plans for newly acquired Motorola
Google chairman Eric Schmidt has promised better times ahead for the company's newly acquired plaything Motorola, insisting Moto's hardware division won't be sold off as some have suggested.
The $12.5bn deal was finally concluded yesterday after months of bureaucratic red tape, and Schmidt said Google was excited at grabbing a slice of smartphone hardware action for the first time.
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Samsung Galaxy S III breaks cover early in Dubai
If you're one of the apparently quite large number of people twitching in anticipation of the Samsung Galaxy S III going on sale next Tuesday, we'd advise looking away now.
Seems Sammy lovers over in Dubai have been given the chance to jump the gun and get their hands on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich powerhouse early. So much for it going on sale in Europe first.
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Angry Birds Heikki to set pulses racing on June 18
Angry Birds creator Rovio recently spilled the beans about Amazing Alex, the game it'll be devoting its attention to once the whole Angry Birds thing dies down.
But fear not – that isn't about to happen anytime soon. In fact, Rovio has just announced Angry Birds Heikki, the latest add-on pack being lined up to extend the appeal of the crazily popular gaming sensation.
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