Beautiful beaches probably aren’t the first thing that come to mind when thinking of jolly olde England, but seaside resorts have been popular getaways for city-dwellin’ Brits for nearly two centuries. People do still go visit, but the Victorian-era piers that dot the coast have seen some better days.
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There’s some big excitement in the sleepy town of Dingwall, Scotland, where the remnants of Viking parliamentary gathering spot was just discovered under a parking lot. This is where Norse nobleman would get together and settle their differences before swords started swinging. Now it’s a Camry hangout.
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We’re all alive right now to know what 2013 is like. Some of us can tell stories about life 30 years ago. But most of us have no clue what life was like 60 years ago. This fantastic video by the BBC compares that whole timespan. It shows the same exact train ride filmed in 1953, 1983 and 2013, to reveal the difference of 60 years.
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We were pleasantly surprised by the latest version of the Nexus 7, which landed in the US at the end of July. A little more patience has been required of Nexus fans on the other side of the pond, however, but the wait will soon be coming to an end. According to Pocket-Lint, ASUS has confirmed that the device will launch at midnight on August 28th, and will offer an asking price of £199.99 for the 16GB WiFi model and £239.99 for the 32GB WiFi-only version. There’s no word on an LTE unit hitting British shores, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear more.
Filed under: Tablets, ASUS, Google
Source: Pocket-Lint
Vodafone’s British division has been shy to embrace Windows Phone much at all in recent months. There’ll be no such reservation as of February 6th, when the carrier starts offering a wide array of Windows Phone 8 devices. HTC’s Windows Phone 8X and 8S will ship in subdued colors, while the (partly expected) Lumia 620, 820 and 920 will be available in livelier hues. We’ve yet to hear about pricing — and there’s no mention of Samsung’s ATIV S, for completists — but the launch remains good news for UK residents who want to try Microsoft’s approach to smartphones without leaving the Red Dot network.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Nokia
Via: The Next Web
Source: Vodafone Social
Toshiba has spent a surprising amount of time at the high-end of the tablet world this year with devices like the Excite 7.7 and Excite 13. It’s taking an opposite tack going into the all-important holiday season. The AT300SE spotted earlier this year (likely to be called the Excite 10SE in North America) has been made official for the UK, and it’s all about catering to the starter audience without tarnishing the core experience. The 10.1-inch slate is slightly thicker and heavier than its regular AT300 (Excite 10) cousin and scales back the cameras to 3 megapixels at the back and 1.2 at the front, but it preserves the quad-core Tegra 3 and 1,280 x 800 IPS-based display that we know so well. There’s even a slight advantage to having held out for the frugal model: the AT300SE ships with Jelly Bean from the outset, which could leave it feeling faster than its Ice Cream Sandwich-toting predecessors. At £300 ($476), the lone 16GB model due this fall isn’t officially as cheap as the AT300 on the street, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see the real-world cost drop lower. We’re mostly left wondering if the as yet unconfirmed Excite 10SE could beat the slimmer original’s $400 price in the US.
Filed under: Tablets
Toshiba AT300SE tablet launches for the budget British crowd with Jelly Bean, Tegra 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple may have a lot of iMessage users, but it has also had its share of teething troubles as the chat service (and iCloud) grows. That’s certainly been true this month: Apple has confirmed that, for the second time in a week, iMessage is down for at least some users. There’s a real chance those conversations won’t go through unless it’s between iPhone users that can try SMS. More pressing for anyone in the UK is a wider iTunes outage, as we’ve heard multiple reports of the app and media repository being inaccessible in the country no matter what device they use. We’ve reached out to Apple and will update if there’s an explanation or a repair schedule for either outage. For now, we’d suggest that iMessage lovers communicate through social networks and passive-aggressive word choices in Letterpress.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: And no sooner than we post than Apple has iMessage back up and running. Let us know through tips if you’re still having iMessage or iTunes UK trouble, however.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile, Apple
Apple iMessage sees second outage in a week, iTunes UK follows suit (update: back up, in theory) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As a profit-driven network, ITV has its work cut out in the online streaming world when the BBC’s iPlayer looms overhead. How do you compete with a cultural institution? Its solution these days is one of sheer choice: it’s launching a publicly available beta of its ITV Player refresh that offers TV show rentals. While viewers will have free, ad-backed viewing for the last month’s worth of programming, they’ll also have the choice of renting 30-day access to archived episodes at 49p (79 cents) each without the pesky commercials in between. Anyone who just can’t get enough Collision can spring for a 90-day rental of a whole series at a lower total price, and the broadcaster is even planning trials of streaming-first episode premieres — if only we were so forward-thinking in the US. We’d question the wisdom of anyone who really, truly needs an uninterrupted The Only Way is Essex, but at least those who want fodder for water cooler chats can blast through their pseudo-reality TV at a record pace.
Continue reading ITV Player revamp brings ad-free TV rentals, keeps the free catch-ups
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
ITV Player revamp brings ad-free TV rentals, keeps the free catch-ups originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Samsung has already started on the Jelly Bean upgrade path for the Galaxy S III, but that hasn’t meant much so far unless you live in Samsung’s homeland. The update’s global relevance is expanding in grand fashion now that the company has confirmed the software is rolling out to Galaxy S III units across the UK. Variants on the smartphone for British carriers should get their taste of Android 4.1 over the course of a multi-week update process that brings everyone to the new version. Different carrier testing methods prevent Samsung from being any more specific; it’s reasonable to say, though, that most owners living in Old Blighty should be running Jelly Bean before the holiday season kicks into overdrive.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Samsung begins delivering Jelly Bean to UK-based Galaxy S III owners originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Isn’t it better when we work together? British carriers think so. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have officially created a non-exclusive joint venture, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, that should speed up the deployment of 800MHz LTE by keeping Freeview over-the-air TV signals clear of interference while the partners bring their low-frequency 4G online. Previously, the networks were bound to form an equivalent company called MitCo that wouldn’t have been active until after the 800MHz auction, preventing companies from getting their wireless houses in order until they’d already made a commitment. There’s also a competitive angle involved to go with the cooperative work, as you might imagine: with EE’s 1,800MHz LTE poised to go live on October 30th, choosing infighting over assistance would only help widen the frontrunner’s lead. Whether DMSL represents altruism or pragmatism, we’ll appreciate knowing that the hurdles to a catch-up in UK 4G will be more those of the technical reality than the usual political maneuvering.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
UK carriers form alliance to speed up 800MHz LTE rollout, let us enjoy our Freeview TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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