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Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Samsung SENS-240, HTC Kingdom: US Update
HTC Kingdom 4G specs revealed: an Android king amongst men
HTC Flyer Magic Pen stylus priced at £47.99 in the UK
Samsung SENS-240: a tablet designed for navigation
Supercharge your MacBook Air with a 480GB solid state drive
Assassin’s Creed Revelations confirmed, lands this November
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini outed: The smallest HD phone ever
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro: Gingerbread, Facebook integration, headed to Vodafone
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro phones leak early
HTC Desire HD Android 2.3 update rolling out on Vodafone now!

Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Samsung SENS-240, HTC Kingdom: US Update

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Rise and shine boys and girls it's that time for your daily dose of tech news, better known as the US Update. I'm Nick Marshall and I'll be your host as we take a journey through the wonderful world of tech, breaking down the top five stories of the day. We've got news on Assassin's Creed Revelations, a hybrid tablet focused on navigation and specs on the upcoming HTC Kingdom 4G.

Assassin's Creed Revelations, the third and final chapter in the Ezio trilogy is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this November. The game centers around Ezio Auditore as he begins a journey, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Altair. If money is burning a hole in your pocket and you've been searching for a way to supercharge your MacBook Air, have a look at this 480GB Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD upgrade from OWC.

Today Samsung introduced the SENS-240, a tablet hybrid which replaces both standalone GPS units as well as in-car navigation units, a unit focused on navigation while also capable of pairing with your current Android smartphone. Over on HTC's European accessory store, the HTC Flyer Magic Pen stylus is listed at £47.99 for the UK and €49.99 for the rest of Europe.

Specs for the HTC Kingdom 4G have been leaked in a ROM. The forthcoming smartphone features a Qualcomm MSM7630 Snapdragon processor running at 1.2 GHz, 768 MB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display and a camera capable of recording 720p HD video.

HTC Kingdom 4G specs revealed: an Android king amongst men

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:34 PM PDT

Here's a juicy bit of Android goodness to liven up your day. Our friends over at pocketnow have learned preliminary specs for the upcoming HTC Kingdom by way of HTC enthusiast 911sniper. With only a blurry image to go by, our comrade managed to get his hands on a ROM from the device, providing insight to the future of Android flagships.

With a name like Kingdom you'd expect HTC's forthcoming smartphone, destined for a date on Sprint's 4G network, to be a game changer. According to the ROM, the Kingdom features a Qualcomm MSM7630 Snapdragon processor running at 1.2 GHz, 768 MB of RAM, a 4-inch qHD display and a camera capable of recording 720p HD video.

These are certainly not game changing specs, but one tidbit in particular has us chomping at the big — the 4-inch screen with qHD resolution. As fans of the unbelievably sharp Retina display (960×640) made famous by the Apple iPhone 4, we'd love to have qHD resolution (960×540) on a 4-inch display. The combination of the ultra-sharp display and more pocket-friendly 4-inch form factor (as opposed to 4.3-inch) seems like a win win, don't you think?

Coming Soon | HTC | TBD

HTC Flyer Magic Pen stylus priced at £47.99 in the UK

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:19 PM PDT

Following last week's US pricing information for the HTC Flyer's stylus, officially named the 'Magic Pen', this week we have UK pricing information. Over on HTC's European accessory store, the magical pen is listed at £47.99 for the UK and €49.99 for the rest of Europe.

You'll need to wait until June 2nd to get your hands on the HTC Flyer Magic Pen with its included AAAA battery. Dating back to March we heard rumbling the HTC Flyer would make its UK debut in May, but the same source also believed the BlackBerry PlayBook would not arrive in June. For what it's worth, we image the 'Magic Pen' availability should fall in line with the Flyer's UK release.

As arguably the most unique feature to the forthcoming tablet. The 'Magic Pen' being sold as a separate accessory has us a bit puzzled, especially given the price. For those of you planning on buying the HTC Flyer we'd love to know whether you'll also be ponying up the funds for the 'Magic Pen'. Without it does the HTC Flyer have the wings to soar?

June 2 | HTC Accessory Store | £47.99 €49.99

Samsung SENS-240: a tablet designed for navigation

Posted: 05 May 2011 04:02 PM PDT

Let's be honest, using a smartphone as a car navigation unit is convenient, but there are certain advantages to using a standalone unit — a larger screen, offline maps, and battery life for starters. Today Samsung introduced the SENS-240, a tablet hybrid which replaces both standalone GPS units as well as in-car navigation units, a unit focused on navigation while also capable of pairing with your current Android smartphone.

Let's get down to brass tax. The SENS-240 is powered by a 1.43GHz processor capable of rendering high-resolution 3D maps while simultaneously playing both video and audio files on its 7-inch WVGA (800×480 resolution) display. There's also 256MB of RAM, USB 2.0, a SD card slot, DMB-TV and Bluetooth onboard.

At this point you might be asking why we need the Samsung SENS-240 when the current assortment of tablets on the market offer higher specs and existing smartphone pairing capability. For starters, the price tag of current high-end tablets is high — especially if you are considering using the device for a single purpose: in-car navigation. Second, the SENS-240 uses a dedicated GPS accessory, fine tuning your location to the level of a standalone unit. Lastly, both the iPad and Xoom WiFi-only models lack GPS. Yes, location can be estimated via WiFi networks or your could share the location of your smartphone, but the real-time tracking is not up to snuff compared to their WiFi/3G counterparts.

With that being said there are still several factors that could make or break the SENS-240: price, Android build/upgradable and release date.

Coming Soon | Samsung | TBD

Supercharge your MacBook Air with a 480GB solid state drive

Posted: 05 May 2011 03:35 PM PDT

For better or worse, the MacBook Air re-invented the so-called netbook segment of modern computing. Fitted in a razor thin aluminum casing with a brilliant display, low power processor, best-in-class trackpad and a full-sized keyboard, how could you improve such a wonderful gadget? Simply head on over to OWC for a ride on the wild side with a mammoth-sized 480GB SSD upgrade — if you can stomach the price tag.

Brace yourself friends, the sticker shock you are about to witness might have you re-thinking your retirement plans. Other World Computing (OWC) currently lists a 480GB capacity Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD upgrade for the new MacBook Air for $1,580 (970 GBP). To put this into perspective, $1580 is enough coin to purchase a separate 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB flash storage.

If the price tag didn't throw you off the scent, OWC will happily outfit your MacBook Air with its speedy drive. They've even included a video demonstration proving a 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro can boot and open the entire Adobe Creative Suite in 28 seconds. Meanwhile a faster 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro using the factory hard drive takes 67 seconds. This just goes to show a computer is only as fast as its slowest part, which in this case is the hard drive.

Out Now | OWC | $1580 (970 GBP)

Assassin’s Creed Revelations confirmed, lands this November

Posted: 05 May 2011 03:10 PM PDT

Like the boy who cried wolf, sooner or later Ubisoft's teasing would eventually lead up to the truth — an official announcement for Assassin's Creed Revelations. First revealed on the Assasin's Creed Facebook page, the third and final chapter in the Ezio trilogy is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this November. Here's what we know:

The game centers around Ezio Auditore as he begins a journey, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Altair. The voyage begins as Ezio visits Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, where an army of Templars is threatening to wreak havok on the region. Also confirmed for the title is the return of online multiplayer, a new mode, news maps and new characters.

As previous rumors suggested, the upcoming issue (June) of Game Informer magazine will reveal full details on Assassin's Creed Revelations. Anyone else ready to pre-order?

November | Ubisoft | TBD

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini outed: The smallest HD phone ever

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:34 AM PDT

When a phone’s touchscreen measures a mere 3-inches across, we’re usually more interested if it has a keyboard as well, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini might still be worth a look in – like its QWERTY brother the Xperia Mini Pro, it runs Android 2.3 with Facebook integration on a 1GHz Snapdragon, and shoots 720p HD video. In fact, if we’re not mistaken, it might just be the smallest phone so far to do just that.

Measuring just an absurd 88x52x16mm, this phone packs in a 320×480 touchscreen that spruces up videos using Sony Ericsson’s Bravia Engine last seen on the Xperia Arc. It’s coming sometime between July and September, in your choice of black, white, pink and blue shades. We’re chasing for more details so stay tuned.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro: Gingerbread, Facebook integration, headed to Vodafone

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:25 AM PDT

Here she is, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro, a QWERTY keyboard infused tony telephone running Android 2.3. She’s just minutes old, but we’ve got all the details, including one of the networks to range her. Read on and we’ll fill you in.

While the original Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro proved to be quite the charmer, we still found its low-res screen and Android 1.6 bake had issues. No more though: the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro comes with Android 2.3, a 5MP camera capable of 720p HD video recording and a spruced up 3-inch 320×480 capacitive touchscreen – multitouch is supported.

Intriguingly, Sony Ericsson sounds like it’s having another pop at an Android social networking skin, introducing “Facebook inside Xperia” which allows people to share media from various apps ion the phone, such as the gallery and music player. That sounds a lot like the HTC ChaCha‘s Facebook talents, minus the button, so we’re scouring now to find out if it taps into Facebook’s social graph as well.

We’ve confirmed that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro will arrive on Vodafone in the UK when it ships in Q3 (July onwards) – we’ll update as soon as we hear from other networks.

Out Q3 2011 | £TBC | Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro phones leak early

Posted: 05 May 2011 09:04 AM PDT

UPDATE: And they’re confirmed! We’ve just received all the details, coming your way pronto.

Whoops! Brand new Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro phones have just popped up in the image library on Sony Ericsson’s press site, though we’ve not heard a thing about either of them from the company otherwise. While nothing is confirmed, and the image thumbnails link to dead pages, you can expect these to run Android (likely version 2.3), and for the Pro to stick with Sony Ericsson convention and come with a pop out keyboard. Stay tuned, we’re expecting more details imminently!

HTC Desire HD Android 2.3 update rolling out on Vodafone now!

Posted: 05 May 2011 07:40 AM PDT

Got a HTC Desire HD? Is it on Vodafone? Good. Time to go get yourself some Gingerbread. The Android 2.3 update for the Desire HD and HTC Incredible S that HTC confirmed was rolling out to unlocked handsets yesterday has just been put out to tender by Vodafone. To get it, just hit up your settings, then check for system software updates under About Phone.

On its forum, Vodafone says that you can expect the new Android keyboard and multiple camera management, though this doesn’t seem to be too likely considering that HTC uses its own keyboard rather than Google’s fantastic Android 2.3 native board, and the HTC Desire HD has no front facing camera. Oh well – grab it anyway so you can stay on the cutting edge, and let us know how you get on!

Made for Life

Friday 6 May 2011

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

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