Mobile Release

Last May, Skype upgraded their iPhone app to allow users to make calls over 3G data connections. Today they have just announced a brand new version of the app that delivers high quality sound and support for multi-tasking. Now you can receive Skype calls while other apps are running, even when your phone is locked. Keep the conversations running while you switch to other tasks, for instance checking a train timetable or reading a message.

The app’s graphics have also been updated to make the most of the iPhone 4’s Retina display.

Like the sound of that? Then download the app HERE.

Skype helps you make more calls, for less. Suddenly, those iPhone 4 contracts don’t seem so expensive.

Samsung’s Android big-boy, the Samsung Galaxy S has now arrived on the O2 network.

The Google-powered device boasts a range of apps straight out of the box that make it one of the most usable smart phones on the market: Google Maps, Swype and Walk n Text for Android are all present on the Galaxy S.

The tariffs available start at £25, which gets you a reasonable 300 minutes and 3000 texts.

Samsung has announced that the Samsung Wave has surpassed one million sales.

The news goes some way in fulfilling Samsung’s intentions that the Wave should be a popular handset that opens up the smartphone market to the masses. The manufacturer will be doubly pleased since the Wave is the first phone to run on the home-brewed Bada platform.

With its superb Super AMOLED screen and responsive capacitive touchscreen, the Wave certainly offers customers a great deal of functionality for a low price and retailers have been able to offer extremely cheap Samsung Wave deals. However, there have been some reservations over the platform’s lack of apps.

These encouraging sales reports should do much to encourage developers to starting porting their existing titles to Samsung’s new O/S, but only future growth will convince devs to start creating entirely new apps to this largely uncharted operating system.

On Sunday night, Eldar Murtazin, a writer for Mobile-Review.com defended his comments about the yet-to-be released Nokia N8 as the actions of a journalist.

Nokia took exception to Mutazin’s poor review of the N8 in which he called possibly the “disappointment of the year”. The post also included pictures which appeared to confirm that Murtazin had the phone in his possession.

Nokia then solicited the help of the Russian Police to help recover the phone.

Murtazin has since claimed that he was never in possession of the phone, only that he had “access” to it for a few hours a day. He has also defended his rights as a journalist to keep the confidentiality of his sources.

Murtazin has also refuted claims that he works for a competing device and bashed claims that he was passing information to Nokia’s competitors as “puerile slander”.

It’s a messy situation, somewhat reminiscent of the iPhone 4 deals saga, which was apparently found in a bar in Redwood California, ahead of the official Worldwide release. Further investigation then revealed that the iPhone was sold to the gadget site Gizmodo.com.

Although Nokia have yet to explicitly accuse Murtazin of any criminal activity, he has provided photographic proof that the is a member of the Professional Union of Journalists of Russia and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and said he should be given the rights and privileges of such.

Nokia have yet to respond to Murtazin’s latest response.

Just as in the US, pre-orders for iPhone 4 in the UK have been arriving a day early, making for some very happy Apple fans.

According to a thread on the MacRumours forum, a user called “Mattwood” claims he has received his handset today. Accompanied by the below photo, we’d be inclined to believe the story.

Sceptical forum users have been asking more questions, but he did post a picture of the back of the phone in front of today’s BBC News website in its ad-free UK form, lending more credence to Mattwood’s claim.

If the story’s true, some of those who pre-ordered the phone could get a lovely surprise sometime this afternoon in the form of a brand new iphone 4 16GB or iphone 4 32GB!

Source

Thanks to allaboutsymbian.com, we just came across perhaps the most comprehensive picture gallery of the N8 that we’ve seen yet. Featuring a plethora of snaps that explore the forthcoming handset, the gallery shows off some of the great features we can expect from the N8’s brand new UI and operating system.

The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s first Symbian ^3 smartphone. It features a whopping 12 megapixel snapper (complete with HD video recording capability), larger optical sensor and Carl Zeiss lens. The device’s casing is made from anodise aluminum, so is extremely light, yet strong and is wrapped in a uni-body form. An HDMI port then allows you to hook up you handset to your TV so that you can experience footage on your big screen (and with Dolby surround sound).

Check out some highlights from the gallery, which you can view in full here. I don’t know about you but it’s making me want to buy Nokia N8!

Without a doubt, one of the most hotly anticipated features of the new Nokia N8 is the 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. However, a lesser known feature on the N8 is the device’s editing functions!

That’s right, not only will you be able to share your snaps, you will be free to edit, crop, rotate and retouch them, just like on your PC.

Check out the video below in which Chris Bennetts, Senior Product Manager, walks you through the picture and video applications.

Pretty cool, we’ll think you’ll agree. Even more so in the knowledge that reasonable cheap Nokia N8 deals are just around the corner (next quarter) so you won’t have wait long before you can get your hands on Nokia’s latest smartphone.

Via Nokia Conversations

Google Buzz just extended support to Nokia Symbian S60 smartphones, Blackberrys and Windows Mobile Phones. The move likely to make a lot of people happy – particularly those gadget fans without an iPhone or smartphone running Android version 2+.

Google Buzz offers users the chance to see what their friends are up to and where, thanks to the integration of location based services with the handset’s navigation capabilities.

Google Buzz first launched as the search giant attempted to create a social networking platform as part of it’s Gmail service, just as Facebook made moves to extend it’s social networking services into email. At that time, only people with O2 , Vodafone or Orange iPhone deals (at the time the only providers) and phones running Android 2.0 and above could run GBuzz.

Now though, Google has revealed that a mobile version of the service is supported on Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Mobile handsets and the Blackberry browser. No confirmation on whether or not Sony Ericsson and Samsung phones running Symbian can run the site however.

The Nokia C5 has popped up on general release in the UK today – a handset which is aimed squarely at the classic entry-level market, but which manages to look like a smart business phone.

Specs-wise the C5 isn’t dazzling – it has a 2.2” screen, 3 megapixel camera, 2GB memory (supporting expansion up to 16GB via SDCard), but the C5 runs on the Symbian operating system and is connected to an host of Nokia’s free services such as Ovi Maps and Ovi Messaging, which make navigation and nattering a doddle. The C5 is also easy to sync up to email too, and although there is no WiFi compatability, it can surf on the 3G network, so it’s all set for essential browsing.

So, ok the its hardly going to give iPhone contracts a run for their money, but the C5 is an affordable and not unattractive basic handset and overall it definitely has some svelte charm.

The C5 is available free on contracts as little as £10 per month on a 2 year contract, while £20 per month will get you around 600 minutes and 500 texts over the two-year period same period.

Both Vodafone and Orange has started takin pre-orders for the Samsung Wave, the first device to run Samung’s new open-sourced mobile platform, Bada.

The Wave, which features a Super AMOLED 3.3” touchscreen and 1Ghz processor is designed to offer more “fun and a diverse mobile experience” to the affordable end of the smartphone market, says Korean manufacturer Samsung.

The name Bada means “ocean” and the intention is that the platform will be populated with smartphones for every level of use.

At the heart of the Bada experience is the social experience and Bada offers the ability to intergrate their text messages, instant messaging services and social networks in one place.

Samsung Wave deals start as low as £15 per month, and the handset is free on tariffs of £25 with a 24 month commitment and comes with as many as 600 cross network minutes.

The Samsung Wave launches in the UK on the 1st June.