Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Sony Ericsson Xperia duo, 3DS TV service, HP Opal: US Update
HP Opal 7-inch webOS tablet spotted, pocket-sized slate inbound?
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android 2.3 update will delete DLNA app
Oracle to Google: we want $6.1 billion for patent infringement!
HTC ChaCha review: A killer keyboard, at what cost?
Nintendo 3DS TV service launching in Japan, Europe to follow
Huawei unveils 7-inch MediaPad: world’s first Android 3.2 tablet
Sony Ericsson Xperia duo leaked: dual-core Snapdragon skills in tow
Angry Birds physics, Google TV revamp and a BlackBerry PlayBook ban? Lunchtime Lowdown
Electricpig talks tech with Libertines legend Carl Barât (Who demonstrates how not to smash an iPhone…)

Sony Ericsson Xperia duo, 3DS TV service, HP Opal: US Update

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 12:20 PM PDT

The tech parade begins now. Kicking off your Monday right it's time for your US Update. Today we've got you covered with the latest on the Sony Ericsson Xperia duo, Huawei's new 7-inch MediaPad, the Nintendo 3DS TV service launch, Oracle's lawsuit against Google and more.

The Xperia duo is twice as nice. A leaked image of the Sony Ericsson Xperia duo surfaced this morning, confirming its status as company's first dual-core smartphone. There's a massive 4.3-inch edge-to-edge display, 16-megapixel Exmor R sensor and even "Facebook inside Xperia integration". What's not to love?

The 7-inch MediaPad from Huawei we announced last week is now official. We've got the full specs and new details on why Android 3.2 is the only OS designed for smaller tablets. The Nintendo 3DS TV service will launch in Japan tomorrow via a new app from the Nintendo eShop. To commemorate the launch, Fuji Television and Nippon Television will be producing content specifically for the console.

Oracle has put a price on the Google's alleged patent infringements as a result of using Java in the Android OS. The price is $6.1 billion, a cost which could potentially knock Google out of the mobile market. Last up this morning is the HP Opal. This 7-inch webOS slate was mentioned directly on HP's website as a compatible device for webOS featured apps. We've got the screenshot to prove it.

That wraps up the latest and greatest in the fine world of tech news. As always I'm Nick Marshall and I'll see you again tomorrow.

HP Opal 7-inch webOS tablet spotted, pocket-sized slate inbound?

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 08:30 AM PDT

The HP TouchPad officially became available for pre-order today. With a July 1st launch in the U.S. and a mid-July release scheduled for the UK, the 9.7-inch webOS slate is hoarding the lime light. That is, until now.

A 7-inch webOS slate has emerged from the shadows as the HP Opal. The Opal, once mentioned back in January, is listed as a compatible device while browsing through the selection of featured webOS apps. After spotting the glitch, HP quickly removed all mention of the device, but not before we grabbed a screenshot.

The HP Opal would be a welcomed addition to the webOS ecosystem. A release, though not confirmed, would presummably come later this year. With the 9.7-inch TouchPad and 7-inch Opal this might be the one-two punch HP needs to enter the tablet race.

Maybe if enough manufacturers release 7-inch tablets Apple will reconsider its position on the matter. What do you think?

via PhoneArena

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android 2.3 update will delete DLNA app

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:55 AM PDT

Sony Ericsson giveth, Sony Ericsson taketh away. More than three months after we reported that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 would be getting an Android 2.3 update, the manufacturer has revealed more about the Gingerbread roll out plan for its flawed flagship phone, and it appears it will remove features as well as add them.

The good news first: according to the Sony Ericsson blog, the Android 2.3 update for the Xperia X10 will begin rolling out at the start of August. It’ll bring Flash support, mobile Wi-Fi and tethering and Sony Ericsson’s new Facebook Inside Xperia software integration to the company’s first ever Android phone. You can see it in action in the clip below – interestingly, the camera UI will be kept the same.

Now for a double dose of bad news. First up, the update will actually remove Sony Ericsson’s DLNA media streaming app. Why? “Approvals were needed for that and we were unable to prioritize that without jeopardizing the time schedule,” the company claims. There are free alternatives on the Android Market, but even so, ’tis a pity: Sony Ericsson’s works much more seamlessly than most.

Second of all, Sony Ericsson’s already in full damage limitation mode, trying to make clear that not every network is likely to roll out this update. Sony Ericsson’s Rikard Skogberg even corrects himself in the video, changing “all of you” to “some of you”.

We’ve asked Sony Ericsson when UK networks will be rolling out the update, and will update if we hear back, but Sony Ericsson’s cautious phrasing suggests they may have shown little interest.

All in all it seems like a rather dangerous exercise – as HTC learned last week, you can’t mess with your customers’ expectations and expect them to stay happy – perhaps it was safer to consign the X10 to the dustbin of smartphone history and concentrate on the Xperia Play, Arc and tasty looking Xperia Duo.

Oh, as for the Xperia X10, X10 Mini Pro and X8? Yeah, no upgrade for you. Sorry guys.

Out August | £TBC | Sony Ericsson

Oracle to Google: we want $6.1 billion for patent infringement!

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:45 AM PDT

Oracle has lawyered up and sent the suits at Google into a frenzy. The company is reportedly asking between $1.4 and $6.1 billion in compensation from Google for alleged patent infringement. That's a hefty bit of change even for the search giant.

This is not the first we've heard of Oracle suing Google. In fact, this is the same lawsuit filed in 2010 when Oracle accused Google of infringing on some of its Java patents in the Android mobile OS.

The difference today is that U.S. District Judge William Alsup asked Google to reveal the damages to the public. Given the financial impact, Oracle alleges that Google was deliberately delaying the release of the potential damages.

So what's the big picture? Well for starters, if Oracle was to win the case then Google would have to license the use of Java on each Android installation. The fee could potentially knock Google out of the mobile market.

Also keep in mind Oracle paid $7.4 billion to acquire Sun, the company that originally developed Java. With a maximum $6.1 billion ruling, this would turn the transaction into $1.3 billion acquisition — possibly one of the best tech moves of recent memory. There's a long way to go before this case is resolved, but don't expect a shortage of comments coming from Oracle now that the price of the suit is public domain.

If Oracle was to win the lawsuit and enforced a £40 Java licensing fee per Android smartphone would you be willing to absorb the cost?

via ITProPortal

HTC ChaCha review: A killer keyboard, at what cost?

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:20 AM PDT

The HTC ChaCha is shuffling on to shop shelves this month, after a head turning debut at Mobile World Congress in February. Like the HTC Salsa, it’s sporting its very own Facebook button – but with a QWERTY keyboard as well, this one’s aimed squarely at BlackBerry-addicted tweens. Should they cross the floor to Android? Read our full HTC ChaCha review and find out.

We’ve been calling for more Android phones with portrait QWERTY keyboards for years, and the HTC ChaCha is certainly the finest of this rare breed so far. But if it’s this or a BlackBerry, you’ve got some tough choices to make still. Let’s take a look.

Dig the design?

From the back, you could mistake the HTC ChaCha for any recent touchscreen handset from the Taiwanese phone peddler. From smudge free white to the engraved metal band, it’s packing all the traits of a modern HTC phone, including the slight “lip”. Like the Salsa, it’s not quite unibody, but the flush edges might fool you into thinking it is, and we still love the imposing speaker grille on the front.

HTC’s positioned all the ports in sensible places here, with a wide power/lock button sitting on the top along with a 3.5mm audio jack, and micro USB slot and volume rocker on the left hand side.

See the best HTC ChaCha deals now

All in all, we’ve got not complaints. While previous BlackBerry-like Android phones from Samsung and Acer felt cheap and tacky, the HTC ChaCha gives off a premium vibe.

Killer keyboard

A QWERTY keyboard really has to earn its keep if it’s going to hog so much space on a smartphone, and luckily the HTC ChaCha’s delivers.

“Each key is large and symmetrically spaced and arranged, like individual Rice Krispies lined up for execution by your thumbs.”

Each key is large and symmetrically spaced and arranged, like individual Rice Krispies lined up for execution by your thumbs. It’s nice to see the period mark, question mark and comma all have their own keys, and even more of a delight to see HTC’s squeezed in four cursor keys for easy text editing. Make no mistake, you can pick up a tremendously fast pace typing on the HTC ChaCha: in fact, the experience is only bettered by the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and 9780.

See our best Android phone Top 5 here

We’re also please to report that typing while on the homescreen automatically triggers shortcuts of names, so instead of labouring through People, you can just type your friend’s alias – something severely lacking on the Samsung Galaxy Pro. On the homescreen, the full stop key also acts as a camera shortcut with a long press, though curiously, the space bar shortcut to Settings never worked for us.

There are no real surprises with the Facebook button. It’s identical to the one on the HTC Salsa, which is welcome, since that also means it’s not remotely obtrusive. Letting the side down however are the call and hang up buttons, needlessly thin keys wasting the space around them – it would be easier to deal with calls on screen.

The best Android keyboard apps: Every QWERTY tested!

Sizzling screen?

The 480×320 resolution gives the HTC ChaCha display almost unparalleled crispness. That’s as far as the compliments go however: it’s only so sharp because it’s so damn small.

Best Android apps of all time: Top 100

While you don’t have to type on the screen, thanks to that rather obvious keyboard, it’s small enough to make zooming in and out of web pages a bit of a chore if you have man paws. As for seeing more than a couple of notifications on screen at one time in the drop down task bar? No chance.

The distressing thing is that it feels like it didn’t need to be. There’s acres of space between the screen and the keyboard, with the four capacitive Android buttons (Home, menu, back and search) hogging far too much space. Say what you will about RIM’s BlackBerry OS, the screens on its QWERTY BlackBerrys take up a much great proportion of their front face. HTC would have done well to ditch the call and reject buttons completely, and make the screen larger.

The good news is the HTC ChaCha’s screen is very visible in direct sunlight, unlike most Android phone panels, even if viewing angles are shallow.

Android Sensified

If you still don’t know about Android, really, where you have you been? Get yourself over to our Google Nexus S review for the basics on the latest version, Android 2.3 (it’s awesome), then head back here.

Like the HTC Salsa, HTC ChaCha runs a modified version of Android 2.3, with HTC’s “Sense” user interface plastered over the top. It’s been slightly adjust for the wider screen ratio, so you only get five homescreens instead of seven, but it’s plenty to be getting on with, and you can still squeeze plenty of shortcuts and widgets into each.

All your standard apps run (though not Adobe Flash in this case, we’re sorry to say), but you get extra Facebook and Twitter integration with your phonebook contacts, and HTC’s extra apps and widgets.

These aren’t gimmicks however, but tremendously useful. HTC’s Facebook Chat homescreen applet comes into its own on the HTC ChaCha: being able to see who you can talk to you from your homescreen is incredibly convenient, and combined with the keyboard makes for an instant messaging service to rival BlackBerry Messenger.

Check out our best HTC phone Top 5 here

Then there’s the Facebook button. It glows whenever you can share something, and can trigger a Facebook Places check-in with a simple long press. This is questionably useful for MP3s (it just shares Amazon links so others can purchase it), but ace for sharing web pages, images and video.

As with the HTC Salsa, the paltry 800MHz processor inside means HTC has left out some of its more taxing apps, including its Locations mapping service, and more tragically, its excellent HTC Watch movie streaming app (Most third party apps run just fine, though you’ll find they run in landscape mode while your phone is upright, because of the ChaCha’s unusual dimensions). That’s the price you pay for a Facebook button, we guess.

Camera skills

We encountered exactly the same problems with the HTC ChaCha’s camera as we did on the Salsa’s – no surprise, since they’re likely to share the same five megapixel sensor. Focusing is poor, and low light performance better described as low light fail. The same applies to the standard resolution video it shoots, which as you can see has real exposure problems:

On the plus side, there’s a front facing camera for video chats, and that Facebook button really does make sharing convenient, especially for videos.

Performance

We’ve reached the point where performance no longer seems to be an issue if you’re not paying for the latest and greatest (In this case, the HTC Sensation) – Android is a great leveller in that respect. The 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM inside the HTC ChaCha are enough to load most apps smoothly, while carrying out other tasks in the background (listening to music, IM), and your only real issues will be the lack of Flash (pity) and stalling or unsupported 3D games. We suspect however, that smooth Angry Birds support (check) to go with that QWERTY keyboard will be more than enough for most people.

Call quality was on a par with most other recent smarpthones we’ve tested: clear enough, if nothing to concern Nokia or Motorola. Battery life on the other hand wasn’t quite up to the HTC Salsa’s impressive benchmarks: the 1250mAh cell powered it through a day of use with all connections and syncing on. If battery life is a must, the 1520mAh HTC Salsa juicer is more likely to see you through twice that time.

Verdict

The HTC ChaCha is what it is: a great smartphone for its form. The Facebook button is merely an optional bonus, since you can simply choose to ignore it if you wish – though it does make sharing easy.

But while the Salsa instantly earned its spot as one of the very best mid-range smartphones on sale today, the need for the HTC ChaCha is less obvious. In truth, you’re paying for a keyboard here, nothing else, and we’re not quite convinced. That screen really is small, and Android’s only getting bigger. Is that a price you’re willing to pay?

Nintendo 3DS TV service launching in Japan, Europe to follow

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:00 AM PDT

Thought your Nintendo 3DS was just for playing games and free headaches? Think again, Nintendo has confirmed its 3DS TV service will go live in Japan tomorrow via a new app from the Nintendo eShop.

The app is called "Itsu no Ma ni Terebi", which is similar to the Japanese name for the SpotPass service. To commemorate the launch, Fuji Television and Nippon Television will be producing content specifically for the console. The shows will be free to download but will feature adverts.

Nintendo is breaking out all the stops for its the 3DS TV service. Daily updates are promised for most content as well as a sports program every Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile in Europe, Sky and Aardman Animation have made deals to offer 3DS TV content.

With the Japanese 3DS TV service launching tomorrow, the big question is when will we see the European launch? The service was confirmed at the first unveiling of the 3DS in Europe, but since striking deals with Sky and Aardman Animation, little news has surfaced. Currently a 3D trailer for the movie Green Lantern is the only trace of content available in the European eShop.

via Andriasang

Huawei unveils 7-inch MediaPad: world’s first Android 3.2 tablet

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 06:30 AM PDT

Not all 7-inch Android tablets are created equal. According to Huawei, its 7-inch MediaPad will be the first to run Google's Android 3.2 Honeycomb update. Unlike Android 3.0 and 3.1, the new version is optimized for small-sized tablets, setting the 7-inch MediaPad a cut above the competition.

Last week we scored a sneak peak with the 7-inch Huawei MediaPad. At the time many of the details were unconfirmed, but today we've ironed out the kinks. We now know the MediaPad features a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel rear auto-focus camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting.

The 7-inch display runs at WSVGA resolution delivering a pixel density of 217ppi, beating the Motorola Xoom (160ppi) and iPad 2(132ppi) by a considerable margin. In addition to the razor-sharp display, the MediaPad supports HDMI output in 1080p, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and HSPA 3G at 14.4Mb/s.

Dimensions wise the 7-inch MediaPad is thicker than the iPad 2 at 11mm, but it weighs just 390g. There's a 4100mAh battery which promises over six hours of use, but if there's one thing we've learned about Android — no battery is too much battery. The Huawei 7-inch MediaPad will ship this fall.

Coming Fall 2011 | Huawei | TBD

Sony Ericsson Xperia duo leaked: dual-core Snapdragon skills in tow

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:55 AM PDT

An image of the unannounced, yet presumably legitimate, Sony Ericsson smartphone has been released. The device in question is may be the Sony Ericsson Xperia duo. Like the name would suggest, this Xperia is all about its dual-core chops.

Once released, this would be the first dual-core smartphone released by Sony Ericsson. Rumors suggest the Xperia duo will feature an edge-to-edge 4.2-inch display, possibly larger than the Xperia Arc.

As is the case with rumored handsets, almost all of the Sony Ericsson Xperio duo's features and services remain in question. PhoneArena believes we might see a 16-megapixel Exmor R camera sensor alongside new "Facebook inside Xperia integration".

Sony Ericsson has been hard at work correcting its past Android mistakes this year. For now it looks as though we have the Mini Pro 2 and Xperia duo in the pipeline. Let's just hope we see both devices (with the latest Android build) launch sooner rather than later.

via IT168

Angry Birds physics, Google TV revamp and a BlackBerry PlayBook ban? Lunchtime Lowdown

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:06 AM PDT

Stop the clock! We make it mealtime, so stop what you’re doing, and click through to our feast of tech news and views, with all the morning’s headlines crammed into one post. Read on for your lunchtime lowdown!

First up, let’s talk tablets. RIM suffered another blow, as it was revealed that Dolby is suing the company and attempting to block sales of its PlayBook tablet. In the meantime, we showed you how you can get Windows 8‘s tablet UI on your computer right now, in a few simple steps.

On the gaming side of things meanwhile, Sega Europe was the next to suffer a major hack, while in gadgetry, a new acquisition hints at a big Google TV revamp, and Orange outed a crazy new phone charger powered by sound.

Finally, we set some serious brain teasers for you with our Angry Birds physics masterclass. Can you crack these?

Still want more news? Roll on over to the homepage and help yourself to it all as it breaks!

Electricpig talks tech with Libertines legend Carl Barât (Who demonstrates how not to smash an iPhone…)

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT

Remember The Libertines? They were pretty rock’n'roll, right? Well, frontman Carl Barât has gone solo, had a kid, and no doubt calmed down somewhat from the days when he smashed phones on a regular basis (‘Unfortunately, the last one belonged to my girlfriend’).

We caught up with him to talk about the best zombie apps, the hellish moment his entire collection of Angry Birds golden eggs got wiped, and why nobody who owned one of those 1980s handheld TVs would ever admit to the fact they couldn’t get a signal…

Carl Barât is supporting the Philips 'Obsessed with Sound' campaign to encourage people to settle for nothing less than a premium quality and sound. For more information, details of a new range of Philips Fidelio docking speakers with exceptional sound and videos of Carl performing at an exclusive gig, go to www.facebook.com/philipssound.