Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering Star Trek logo (video)

Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering 'Star Trek' logo (video)

Before quadrocopters become Skynet’s roaming recon fleet, they’ll begrudgingly entertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London “spring” to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness of Earth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete with epic music and movie cut-scenes sure to send even the most Vulcan of trekkers to sickbay with hysteria. If anyone behind the promotion is reading — please, whatever you do, just don’t give them phasers.

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Source: Ars Electronica (1), (2)

Blockbuster UK finds a rescuing buyer, keeps staff and stores afloat

Blockbuster UK retail

When Blockbuster’s UK brand entered administration at the start of the year, there were concerns that it would ultimately prove just another casualty of the inexorable move toward online video. Not quite: Gordon Brothers Europe, a private equity firm known for rescuing troubled companies, has bought Blockbuster’s British assets. The acquirer isn’t disclosing the cash involved, but it plans to keep 2,000 workers and 264 stores in full swing while it plots a turnaround. That recovery is only described in vague terms at this stage, however — Gordon Brothers plans to bring “new products” and “new technologies” to the bruised retail chain. While we’re glad to see a one-time cornerstone of video rentals get a second chance, we hope that its bounce-back strategy involves a more futureproof selection than aisles full of plastic discs.

[Thanks, Steven]

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Via: Sky News

Source: Gordon Brothers Europe

HTC One officially hits Germany, UK and Taiwan next week, other regions before the end of April

HTC One review

There’s been an uncertainty hovering over just when the HTC One would make its formal debut, between delays in many areas and a trickle of availability in others. At least in theory, those doubts have been resolved: HTC now says that Germany, the UK and Taiwan will have an official One launch next week. Europe, North America and large swaths of Asia-Pacific will get their own units before the end of April. The company hasn’t been more specific about carrier deployments, but we’re sure that HTC is happy just to beat a key competitor to store shelves. Read the company’s full statement after the break.

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UK Retailer Prices BlackBerry Q10 At $800; Available April 26

UK Retailer Prices BlackBerry Q10 At $800; Available April 26

Ever since we got our hands on the BlackBerry Q10 back in late-January, we’ve been hearing many of you begging to hear more about the device as BlackBerry traditionalists have been looking forward to a BlackBerry 10 experience with the physical keyboard they’ve come to know and love for years. Up until today, we’ve only heard from US carriers saying when they expect have have the Q10 available, but no official announcements have been made.

With an expected US release of possibly in May or June, the UK is expected to receive their BlackBerry Q10s a tad earlier as Unlocked-Mobiles has listed a SIM-free Q10 for £529.98 (around $800) to be available on April 26. That’s around the same price we saw the BlackBerry Z10 launch in India for last month. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BlackBerry To Release Four New Smartphones, Including Another ‘Exciting’ Flagship in 2013, BlackBerry Z10 US Preorder Volume Reportedly Below Expectations,

EE brings its 4G to Cumbria, rural home of the signal blackspot

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We’re not surprised to learn that Cumbria is a hotbed of people working from home, as we’d do the same if we had the Lake District to wander around during our lunch hour. The downside of living in an area of outstanding natural beauty, of course, is that there isn’t even any landline broadband to use — but EE has despatched Kevin Bacon to remedy that with some 4G infrastructure. Residents of the Northern Fells will get mobile broadband offerings from £15.99 a month, and the company will use it as a gauge to see if it should provide services for other underserved rural communities. It seems that EE’s now the network for hill walkers as well as technofreaks.

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Samsung GALAXY S 4 Exynos 5 model reportedly not coming to UK

Samsung’s GALAXY S 4 smartphone will come in two different variants when it releases sometime next month. The US version will include the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip running at 1.9GHz, while the international version of the phone will sport Samsung’s new Exynos 5 Octa chip running at 1.6GHz. However, it’s said that the Exynos 5 version of the new handset won’t be making its way to the UK, and will instead sport the Snapdragon 600.

snapdragon

According to UK wireless carrier Omio, they have been informed by Samsung that they will not be bringing the Exynos 5 version of the GALAXY S 4 to the UK, even though that’s the model earmarked for countries other than the US. Instead, future UK GALAXY S 4 owners will be treated with the Snapdragon 600 variant.

We already know that another UK carrier, EE, will be offering the new phone starting April 26, and we expect most other carriers to release the phone at some point around that time, but EE has yet to confirm what model of the GALAXY S 4 they’ll be offering. If Omio’s report is true, it looks like it’ll be the Snapdragon 600 that’ll be greeting customers.

If you don’t know much about Samsung’s new Exynos 5 Octa chip, you can check out our SlashGear 101 piece that serves as a primer for the new technology. Essentially, the new chip isn’t necessarily a octo-core processor, but rather a chip with two separate quad-core processors, one which serves as a backup of sorts. While


Samsung GALAXY S 4 Exynos 5 model reportedly not coming to UK is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

BB10 Fails the UK Government’s High Security Testing

The new BlackBerry ecosystem has failed the UK government’s high security testing. James Bond isn’t getting a Z10 any time soon. More »

BlackBerry 10 not secure enough for UK government workers — yet (updated: GCHQ responds)

BlackBerry 10 'not secure enough' for UK government workers

Hitting one of Blackberry’s key markets in the British Isles, its new smartphone platform (and the Balance software that divides work and personal profiles on the Z10) hasn’t passed the security rigors of the UK’s Communications Electronics Security Group. According to The Guardian, handset contracts with the government and NHS total in the tens of thousands, while the older BB 7.1 passed the ‘restricted’ security level — two levels below the presumably agent-friendly ‘secret’ level — at the end of last year. The Canadian phone maker said in a statement that changes in the approval process had affected the time it’s had to jump through the necessary security hoops, adding that BB10 has already passed similar US and German tests with flying colors. Blackberry added that it is “continuing to work closely with CESG on the approval of BlackBerry 10.” Maybe hiring Adele for that creative director position would have made a difference, or not. We’ve added BlackBerry’s full statement after the break.

Update: We’ve been sent another statement, this time from GCHQ. This is the organization above CESG and adds that it’s still in discussions with BlackBerry about using BB10. It plans to issue “Platform Guidance” in the summer, which will deal with both the new OS and its Balance feature. “We have a long standing security partnership with BlackBerry and this gives us confidence that the BlackBerry 10 platform is likely to represent a viable solution for UK Government.” So don’t count ’em out just yet, Bond.

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Via: ZDNet

Source: The Guardian

Spotify lifts the five-play cap per track for free listening in the UK

Spotify lifts the fiveplay cap on free listening in the UK

There’s been a Sword of Damocles looming for months over Spotify’s free tier: after a reprieve, some listeners past the six-month trial phase have been capped at five plays per track. Spotify must not want to kill the joy of a favorite album, as it’s lifting that cap for UK members. Like most of their friends on the platform, Brits now just have to cope with the usual ads and 10-hour monthly cap if they’re not keen on paying for a subscription. With only the French apparently left facing the five-play limit — qu’est-ce que c’est l’obstacle? — it’s clear that Spotify sees value in softening the hard sell for its paid service.

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Source: Spotify

Google Flight Search reaches France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK

Google Flight Search reaches five European countries, skips the backpacking trip

While Google Flight Search covers the far corners of the Earth, many of the people who live in those corners haven’t had a similar option to explore the world of air travel. Google is taking at least a small step toward ending that discrepancy with a fresh expansion to Europe. Jetsetters in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK can now find flights to and from many parts of the world, with prices and languages tailored to their home countries. As before, travelers can both see real-time prices, gauge the best (read: cheapest) time to book a vacation and filter flights through criteria like prices, timing and WiFi. There’s no surprises for locals if they’ve had the luxury of using Flight Search before — we just wish we’d had access in time for our recent trip to Barcelona.

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Via: Phandroid

Source: ITA Software by Google