Sony Xperia Z2 pushed back till May

Sony has pushed back the launch date of the Xperia Z2 in the UK and Europe. 

According to Sony, gadget-fans have been going gaga for the Sony Xperia Z2 so much that it hasn’t been able to keep up with demand.
The company had originally planned to launch its recently unveiled flagship in the middle of April. However, the company has now admitted that it won’t be able to meet that date.
“Xperia Z2 will be available in the UK during April and we are expecting to deliver to all consumers who have placed a pre-order through our key partners,” a Sony spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are working tirelessly to maximise stock levels in April but currently we do not expect to meet the high demand across all our sales channels.”

Sony has not said who its “key partners” are, but it’s widely expected to mean retailers like Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U, as well as all the major networks.
Vodafone is also offering a free 32-inch Sony Bravia TV with the Xperia Z2.
Sony took the wraps off the Xperia Z2 at Mobile World Congress last month. It comes with a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM and a 20.7 megapixel camera.
It’s also able to record in 4K – one of the first phones to hit the market that can do so.
The Xperia Z2 comes with the latest version of Android KitKat installed, as well as Sony’s custom skin.

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Apple iPhone 6 coming in September

Apple will launch the next iPhone in either August or September, according to various sources. 

While the Apple iPhone 6 launch date remains elusive, there are signs that its supply chain is gearing up to begin production of the smartphone.
According to Digitimes, Simplo Technology and Desay Battery Technology have received orders to supply parts for the iPhone 6.
Mass production of the phone has yet to begin, but it is expected to start soon, the report added.
Analysts have also said that it is likely that Apple will launch its next iPhone in the third quarter.
“For the first time, our checks indicated volume component orders for iPhone 6,” said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest.

“We expect significant component orders to begin in July, which is consistent with public availability of the device in late September or October,” he wrote in a research note Monday.
You can find out everything else we know about Apple’s next generation smartphone by reading our iPhone 6 rumours feature.

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Apple will fix your iPhone 5 sleep button for free

Apple has launched a new sleep/wake button replacement program offering to fix your faulty iPhone 5 for free – if you’re eligible that is.

Apple admitted that a “small percentage” of iPhone 5 models stop working intermittently, with the issue apparently occurring specifically on models manufactured through March 2013.
It’s unclear what a "small percentage" means to Apple, but obviously the company has needed to address this issue for a while.
When searching for "iPhone 5" on Google, the query "iPhone 5 sleep button not working" is among the top searches.
All you’ll need to qualify for the free service is a faulty iPhone 5 with a qualifying serial number.
The replacement process takes approximately 4-6 days from the time your iPhone 5 is received at the repair center until it is returned to you.

Before sending your iPhone to Apple for service, you will need to back up all your data and erase all your content and settings.
All replacements are completed at an Apple Repair Center, and there are two ways to send your iPhone 5 to the repair center: carry-in or mail-in.
The replacement process is currently limited to the US and Canada although it will launch in other countries on May 2.
You can check eligibility and other details at the Replacement Program webpage.

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HTC’s design chief is leaving the company

HTC has revealed that its design chief, Scott Croyle, is leaving his post to work on his own projects outside of the company.

The Verge reports that Scott Croyle, the man responsible for the HTC One, is departing the company.
Croyle is leaving to work on his own projects outside the Taiwanese company, although the move is part of a “long-term transition” and will see him assume a consultancy role for the next few months returning on special projects.
The most important of which will be the development of next year's flagship HTC device.
"HTC remains at the forefront of smartphone innovation," a company spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. "Scott Croyle will be focusing on special projects and dedicated on next generation developments."
His second-in-command, Jonah Becker, is likely to take over most of his duties.
In another move, Drew Bamford has been promoted from overseeing the Sense user experience to being in charge of all HTC software and services.
Bamford will report directly to CEO Peter Chou, who has expressed a desire to return his attention to the design side of things.

HTC One

"Drew Bamford is experienced and talented leader at HTC with solid track records in leading and building our user experience team," the spokesman said.
The new shuffle in staff raises questions about the future of HTC – will upcoming handsets keep to its signature aesthetic or try something different? Time will tell but the phone maker will have to find something up its sleeve to grab a chunk in the crowded market.

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TV maker Vestel to launch smartphones in August

Vestel is already one of the largest TV manufactures in Europe and now it seems the company is venturing into the smartphone market.   

As reported by Pocketlint, TV maker Vestel is planning to expand into the smartphone industry.
Talking at the IFA Global Press Conference 2014, Vestel’s CEO Turan Erdogan said, “If you're not in mobility or connectivity, you're dead," before confirming that Vestel would be launching a range of smartphone devices in August 2014.

The head of the TV-maker also candidly stated his doubts about curved televisions saying: "I've been in the industry for 26 years and we were always trying to make the TV flat. Now we're trying to make it curved."
Erdogan went on to say, "I hope it's not going to be a flop like 3D TV."
Backing up his disregard for 3D, Erdogan then said that only 12 per cent of 3D TV owners use the 3D feature.
You may not have heard of Vestel before but it claims 20.3 per cent market share of LCD TVs in Europe, behind leaders Samsung.
At the moment its unsure where you’ll see Vestel’s smartphones, but they'll be on the market beginning this August and will feature in Vestel's usually large presence at IFA in Berlin this coming September.

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Your T-shirt's ringing: Printable tiny flexible cell phones for clothes?

A new version of "spaser" technology being investigated could mean that mobile phones become so small, efficient, and flexible they could be printed on clothing.

A team of researchers from Monash University's Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) has modelled the world's first spaser (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) to be made completely of carbon.

A spaser is effectively a nanoscale laser or nanolaser. It emits a beam of light through the vibration of free electrons, rather than the space-consuming electromagnetic wave emission process of a traditional laser.
PhD student and lead researcher Chanaka Rupasinghe said the modelled spaser design using carbon would offer many advantages.

"Other spasers designed to date are made of gold or silver nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots while our device would be composed of a graphene resonator and a carbon nanotube gain element," Chanaka said.

"The use of carbon means our spaser would be more robust and flexible, would operate at high temperatures, and be eco-friendly.

"Because of these properties, there is the possibility that in the future an extremely thin mobile phone could be printed on clothing."

Spaser-based devices can be used as an alternative to current transistor-based devices such as microprocessors, memory, and displays to overcome current miniaturising and bandwidth limitations.
The researchers chose to develop the spaser using graphene and carbon nanotubes. They are more than a hundred times stronger than steel and can conduct heat and electricity much better than copper. They can also withstand high temperatures.

Their research showed for the first time that graphene and carbon nanotubes can interact and transfer energy to each other through light. These optical interactions are very fast and energy-efficient, and so are suitable for applications such as computer chips.

"Graphene and carbon nanotubes can be used in applications where you need strong, lightweight, conducting, and thermally stable materials due to their outstanding mechanical, electrical and optical properties. They have been tested as nanoscale antennas, electric conductors and waveguides," Chanaka said.

Chanaka said a spaser generated high-intensity electric fields concentrated into a nanoscale space. These are much stronger than those generated by illuminating metal nanoparticles by a laser in applications such as cancer therapy.

"Scientists have already found ways to guide nanoparticles close to cancer cells. We can move graphene and carbon nanotubes following those techniques and use the high concentrate fields generated through the spasing phenomena to destroy individual cancer cells without harming the healthy cells in the body," Chanaka said

The paper has been published in ACS Nano.

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Monash University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Chanaka Rupasinghe, Ivan D. Rukhlenko, Malin Premaratne. Spaser Made of Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes. ACS Nano, 2014; 8 (3): 2431 DOI: 10.1021/nn406015d

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Apple TV, iBand, iWatch all coming soon, Apple boss does not say

Speaking a matter of days after Apple unveiled its latest, rather impressive results, Tim Cook hinted that the iWatch and the Apple TV could soon be on the way.
Cook was speaking to the Wall Street Journal and he took the opportunity to assure Apple fans that those long awaited gadgets are “closer than ever”, with a press release to celebrate the latest millions of dollars to be welcomed into the Aplpe's bank account adding, ""We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market."
Apple’s boss reiterated the company’s long held mantra that it will not rush products in order to be first to market. There was no word from him on the iPhone 6, however.
“You want to take the time to get it right,” Cook told the paper. "Our objective has never been to be first. It’s to be the best. To do things really well, it takes time.
“You can see a lot of products that have been brought to market where the thinking isn’t really deep and, as a consequence, these things don’t do very well.”
He also played down claims that Apple will soon ramp up the number and variations of products it offers.
“We don’t do very many things so we spend a lot of time on every detail and that part of Apple isn’t changing. It’s the way we’ve operated for years and it’s the way we still operate. I feel great about what we’ve got coming. Really great and it’s closer than it’s ever been.”
Apple is widely expected to announce the iWatch/iBand later this year along with a revamped Apple TV set top box.
Source:Wall Street Journal

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Rumours of an Amazon smartphone have been around for a few years now, but the reality of a new device from the retail giant has never been closer.
The success of the KindleeReader had commentators questioning when, rather than if the company would enter into the tablet and smartphone race.
The first hint appeared in September 2011, when a report in the New York Times emerged that claimed one of its reporters had been told Amazon was in the early stages of developing its own smartphone.
However, it wasn’t until November that same year that the first real shreds of evidence that Amazon had begun working on a smartphone emerged.
In a report to investors, financial giant Citigroup said that it had evidence from Amazon’s supply chain that the online retailer had contracted Foxconn to build it a smartphone. According to that report, it was supposed to be launched during the fourth quarter of 2012.
The fourth quarter of 2012 came and went with no sign of an Amazon smartphone.
Indeed, rumours only strengthened around Christmas 2012 as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD – Amazon’s first fully fledged tablet – emerged as a critical and commercial success.
Roll on to 2014 and the latest news is that Amazon is potentially including 3D capabilities into its latest device. So what do we know so far? Read on…

Amazon smartphone: Design

So far, the only glimpse we have of what the Amazon smartphone could look like emerged in April 2014 with a leaked image (pictured above) that shows the device shrouded inside a black case.
Published by tech site BGR, the initial design appears to be a 4.7-inch display and, as we can see from the picture, a custom user interface based on Google's Android OS.

Amazon smartphone: Price

The first hint as to what Amazon's phone might cost emerged in December 2012. According to the Taiwan Economic Times, the phone was predicted to have a price tag of around $200 or £130. At that low price, chances are the phone wouldn’t win any awards for performance.
That said, the price point could be a completely moot point. If the latest reports are correct, the company may have completely dumped Foxconn as a production partner, opting instead to work with HTC.
Amazon has a history of low up-front costs for its devices which it sees as a portal to its digital and physical content delivery services - where the real money is made.

Amazon smartphone: specs and special features

Along with the leaked image above, several specifications appeared in April 2014 that, understandably, have not been confirmed or denied by Amazon.

Amazon smartphone: Release date, price, specs, news and rumours

First published by BGR, the 4.7-inch display will have a 300-320 ppi resolution while a 13MP camera will be featured on the back of the phone.
Amazon will reportedly be using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor - the same as that found in the Samsung Galaxy S5 and which could possibly influence the price.
Other rumoured specifications include 2GB of RAM and either a 2,000 or 2,400mAh battery.
As far as special features go, we'd expect something like Siri or Google Now to feature - especially considering Amazon purchased Evi, a digital assistant company, last year.
What is also a possibility is that the firm will include its Mayday service allowing users to receive live technical support at any point through the handset.
Most interestingly, according to the WSJ, the Amazon smartphone will feature 3D capabilities:
"Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles," - WSJ.
This appears a little far-fetched in T3's opinion but, then again, we are talking about the company that plans to deliver your products via drones in the near future.
Amazon could also offer free access to its Prime Instant Video film and TV streaming service to anyone who buys its phone. A source has told BGR that Amazon will offer 'Prime Data' to its phone customers – this would let them stream films and TV shows to their hearts' content without racking up any data costs, as Amazon would foot the bill. Amazon is also rumoured to launch a music streaming service similar to Spotify, which could also be given free through its smartphone.

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Retailer posts Surface Mini case picture

Rumours about the Microsoft Surface Mini first surfaced (ahem) last autumn. However, this is the first solid evidence suggesting that Microsoft is indeed working on a smaller version of its Windows RT-based tablet.
Retailer Vostrostone posted photos of a Smart Cover Case that, it says, is “specifically designed…for [the] Microsoft Surface Mini tablet”.
It added that the case is: “well built to protect your Microsoft Surface Mini tablet for the years to come”.
The only problem with Vostrostone’s claim is that the Surface Mini doesn’t exist yet. At least not officially.
The last we heard about the Surface Mini was back in February. At the time, various component makers based in Taiwan began talking about a smaller version of Microsoft’s Surface tablet.
According to those claims, the tablet will be between 7.5-inch and 8.5-inches.
The first suggestions that Microsoft is working on a smaller version of its Surface Mini tablet came from analysts at IHS Technology and NPD DisplaySearch.
Both claimed that there was evidence that Microsoft was prepping manufacturers to produce such a tablet.
Source:CNET

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime with more-HD-than-HD screen launching soon?

Samsung is rumoured to have a version called the 2K Galaxy S5 Prime up its sleeve. As the name suggests, it'll have a 2K screen, also known as QHD (as in "Quite High Definition", no, okay "quad HD"), packing 2560x1440 pixels rather than the current S5's 1920x1080.
Apple's iPhone 5S, by contrast has 1136x640, and that's generally considered pretty hi-res.
Within Samsung's hallowed halls, the 2K Galaxy S5 Prime is said to be known by the codename 'KQ', with the model number SM-G900. A handset with that model number was recently spotted on a shipping database. It's reportedly being used for research and development purposes.
So why not launch the S5 with the better screen in the first place? That was the plan, according to SamMobile, but it was abandoned due to production issues. These are currently being ironed out, and the hi-res S5 should be with us this year.
Meanwhile, the International Business Times adds that the S5 Premium or Prime, as it may be known, will also feature a faster processor - an Exynos 5430 octocore with four cores running at 2.1GHz, four at 1.5GHz and a 600MHz ARM Mali GPU and dedicated Seiren audio processor mopping up any survivors. As ever with Samsung, whether your particular market will get this chipset or some other variant remains to be seen.

Samsung isn't the only manufacturer rumoured to have a 2K screen on the way. LG's next flagship, the G3, is said to sport a display with the same resolution. And where these two South Korean giants lead, everyone else usually follows.
Sources SamMobile , IBTimes

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