A double whammy for customers

Theres a double whammy of good news for Three customers as the data friendly network officially confirms its 4G service switch on, as well as revealing its expanding its "feel at home" service to the USA.

Wed already got wind of the official announcement after some revealing tweets appears on Threes account and a source confirmed the launch to us. However its worth noting the roll out is limited.

Three is staggering its 4G service push, as it focussing on getting the user experience spot on, before accelerating the coverage from January 2014.

Theres no word on which locations are getting treated to 4G initially, but tweets from the carrier have already revealed its available in three cities - one of which we understand to be London.

Even if youre in one of Threes 4G areas you still might not be able to access the superfast network as only a handful of handsets have been enabled so far - with the network promising all 4G devices will be enabled in these areas by the end of Q1 2014.

The network predicts that its 4G service will be available in 50 towns and cities by the end of 2014, and aims to cover 98% of the population by the end of 2015.

Feel at home, more

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I just learned of an iPhone app called “Snappr.” It’s amazing.

Click here to get the free Snappr app. Launch it, then “scan” a barcode by taking a picture of it using your iPhone’s camera. The picture is sent to Snappr’s servers, where the code is actually read. In a few seconds they tell you how much that thing would cost at Amazon.com, Yahoo.com, and a few others. That way, before you buy that big flat-screen TV as a present for your older brother’s 47th birthday this coming July so he can watch college football games while typing his fingers off in an effort to make the world a better place for Mac and iPhone users everywhere, you-- Brother Spencer-- could check that you were getting a good deal.

I will demonstrate with a box of Rice-a-Roni, recently purchased at my local grocery store. Let’s find out whether I got a good deal.

Here’s the bar code (as seen in the Snappr app after I took the picture)...


And here’s how much it would cost at “Meijer,” wherever that is.

I don’t want 12 boxes but it’s nice to know that it would cost $14.71 for the dozen. I only paid 99 cents for my box so I’m feeling pretty good.

Let’s try something a little different: a CD.

Here’s the bar code (a little blurry)...


And here’s what comes back from Snappr.

Pretty neat. Of course, I already bought it, but suppose I was in the store looking at CDs and was only thinking about buying it. Armed with the price info from Amazon & Yahoo I would know whether I should buy it at the store or not.

Pretty cool stuff.

Snappr says that you have to have a special macro lens on your iPhone to take the bar code pictures properly, but I say you don’t. I took those bar code pictures with my stock iPhone 3G S and everything turned out fine. If you DO want a macro lens, get this case for your iPhone (from Griffin), as it has a little slide-out lens and it does make a difference. You can always try taking a picture of a bar code without the macro lens-- it’s a free app, so it costs nothing to try. (The iPhone 3G S’ camera is Apple’s best camera yet, so maybe the Snappr people just need to update their website.)

Read more about Snappr here. I say check it out.

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Microsoft has announced new lineup of accessories to accompany the new Surfaces.

The new Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 are thinner, more rigid and with backlit keys. It Touch Cover 2 now has 1092 sensors compared to just 82 in the first Touch Cover and a proximity sensor for automatic backlighting is available on both. The new Touch and Type Covers 2 will be available in cyan, purple, magenta, and black.

There is also the new Power Cover that is just like the Type Cover 2, but comes with extra battery behind the keys. It will supposedly give you 2.5 times more power on your Surface 2 slate. It will cost $199.99 and will launch in early 2014.

Microsoft is also offering car chargers, wireless adapters for the covers, and even a new Arc Touch Mouse that now connects through Bluetooth and without a receiver that usually occupies an USB slot.

Finally, there is the Surface Remix project, an attachable cover that targets musicians. You can learn more about it right here.
Source -GSMArena

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TechRadar rating

4.5/5

For

• Incredible touchscreen
• Thin
• Light
• Great battery life
• Powerful

Against

• Relatively expensive
• Resolution tricky in desktop mode
• Bloatware

A Retina-beating display, new Haswell processor and cutting-edge design. Is this the ultimate Ultrabook?

Samsung was one of the very first PC manufacturers to jump on the Ultrabook bandwagon. Its done a fine job of representing Intels baby ever since, with some stunning offerings, including the Series 5 Ultra Touch and, more recently, the top of the range Series 9 NP900X3D.

Samsung certainly knows its stuff when it comes to Ultrabooks, but the goal posts are always moving. So what new trick can it pull out of its sleeve for late 2013?

Its high-res for sure, but is it too much?

Well, its new Ultrabook: the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus, might keep the company ahead of the game for a while, at least if its on-paper abilities are anything to go by.

Its a wonderful-looking unit. Its thin and carefully crafted, with just a slither of the all-aluminium chassis peaking through the dark outer casing. But its plain black exterior might lend some clues as to its intent: this is an Ultrabook focused as much on the business user as regular Joe on the high street.

Its main competitors in the working arena are undoubtedly the Macbook Air, Dells Latitude 6430 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch.
But unlike those Windows Ultrabooks, the Ativ features the new fourth-generation Haswell processor from the Intel stable, as does the 2013 Macbook Air, which makes it the closest competitor in terms of performance, even though the Air is a consumer device first and foremost.

With Haswell architecture comes various improvements in mobility (outlined here), with an ability to better manage the power it uses than previous generations of Intel chips.

The key gains are proposed longer battery life, lower heat output and better graphics performance. From a business users point of view, battery life is the biggest concern, but portability is also important.

Its looking good - Samsung promises 11 hours of usage and the Ativ is also incredibly thin, being just 13.6mm at its thickest point. Youll really be impressed when you lift the lid, and theres no flex either - it really is a solid unit.

At 1.39kg, its not the worlds lightest Ultrabook (that accolade goes to the Sony Vaio Pro 13, at just over 1kg). But its comparable to the current Macbook Air, which comes in at 1.35kg, and it feels plenty light enough to carry in one hand.

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A road map for French carrier SFR reveals the months when the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung GALAXY Note II will receive the Android 4.3 update. According to the map, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will receive the last Jelly Bean build of Android in October while the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Samsung GALAXY Note II will each be updated in the November/December time period.

U.S. carriers like to test ad nauseum which means that the months cited above might be off by a few weeks by the time the updates are ready for the U.S. carrier branded versions of the aforementioned phones. The three Samsung models will receive the update OTA and the update can also be pulled out manually by hooking up to a computer and going to Samsung Kies.

You might have noticed that the road map also includes the Android 4.3 update (OTA) for the HTC One, also expected in October, and the GDR2 update (also OTA) for the Nokia Lumia 520. The latter, quickly becoming the most used Lumia model on the planet (especially if you toss in its twin, the T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 521) will receive the GDR2 update also next month. While the update will activate the FM radio on the Nokia Lumia 520, both the Lumia 520 and Lumia 521 will not receive the new Glance Screen which comes with an always-on clock, certain notifications and the ability to awaken the phone with a double tap.(PhoneArena)

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Pantech is apparently prepping to unveil another phablet, dubbed the Vega Note. This time well get a 5.9" Full HD display, 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800, 2 GB of RAM, fast LTE-A support, and Android 4.2.2.

Naming coincidence aside, Pantech seems to be begging for the attention of the big boys legal departments, as the 5.9" phablet is said to come with a stylus and a fingerprint scanner. Korean media is speculating that the wax seal on the back in the launch promo poster is precisely such a sensor, since there is a fingerprint plastered over the promo piece as well.

Besides the Apple iPhone 5s, whose Touch ID scanner is embedded in the home key, we also have the Fujitsu Arrows A outed with a similar circular fingerprint sensor, but placed on the back, and the HTC One Max, whose rear scanner is square, rather than round. This will make the eventual Pantech Vega Note 5.9 phablet the third handset announced with those new fingerprint scanners, marking a trend that is likely to get PhoneArena)
more widespread.(

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According to a recent leak, trying to predict an upcoming Nokia product, the tablet which we’ve known so far under the codename Sirius, will apparently be called the Nokia Lumia 2520.

Depending on which reports you tend to believe, the Lumia 2520 will land on October 22, together with the Lumia 1520 phablet, or at another date. Nokia has already published some teasers for that day. As far as the specs for the Sirius, now Lumia 2520, are concerned, the slate is expected to run Windows RT and pack a 10.1-inch 1080p screen with a quad-core processor.(PocketNow)

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