Angry Birds... Space, HD, Star Wars, and so the list goes one... One thing is for sure - we've all come in touch with one iteration or another of Angry Birds!



"During the four years that Rovio Entertainment has turned its “Angry Birds” game into a mega-franchise across mobile devices, the Finnish gamemaker has also quietly built what might turn into one of the most lucrative distribution platforms in years.

When it launches its “Angry Birds Toons” this weekend, the company will essentially convert every app that offers its “Angry Birds” game into an outlet for its new animated shorts, each three minutes long.

That means every mobile device — including Apple, Android and BlackBerry-powered smartphones and tablets — will feature the 52 episodes “Angry Birds Toons” that Rovio has produced, as will Samsung’s smart TVs, and other VOD streaming platforms like Roku."

Find out more about the Angry Birds Toons.

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As the HTC One momentum continues to build, the first of the early reviews are starting to surface...



After being named “Best Smartphone” and “Best in Show” at Mobile World Congress, the new HTC One is earning accolades from media around the world; like Vincent Nguyen of Slashgear who calls the phone “Stunning,” and Brent Rose of Gizmodo who says “astonishment leads into awe.”

Catch up on all of the early reviews right here.

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With a sleek aluminium body, a live home screen that streams all of your favourite content, a photo gallery that comes to life, and dual frontal stereo speakers, the new HTC One is ready to reshape your smartphone experience.



Ok, so I'll ask again... Are we there yet? March 15 - 'One Day'!

Sign up for news and updates, or... Pre-Register for the all new HTC One!

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If you are a fan of CyanogenMod (let's face it, if you have an android device, who's not a fan), you'll be pleased to know that the 10.1 M2 release is now available for download.



"A little more than a month removed from our last M-release, the 10.1-M2 releases are now landing on our servers. These builds are based on Android 4.2.2.

We’ve expanded the release list to include quite a few new devices since the M1; the full list is further below.

With this release, we’d like to remind you all that while bug reports on nightlies will get summarily dismissed, we accept and encourage reports to be submitted against the M2 release. By identifying issues in the M-release, you can help to make the eventual ‘stable’ release that much better. Note that our bug tracker has relocated to jira.cyanogenmod.org. Additionally, if you report a bug but fail to attach a log (logcat or adb bugreport), your report will be considered invalid, and closed. Even if your device bursts into flames: no attached log means it didn’t happen."

You can view the full list of supported devices, submit bug reports and find out more about CyanogenMod here.

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"A New Perspective on Smartphones", HTC have announce the launch of the all new HTC One. This new standard of Smartphone by HTC boasts a range of exciting new enhancements such as HTC BlinkFeed, HTC UltraPixel Camera with HTC Zoe, HTC BookSound and HTC HTC Sense TV - comes magnificently finished in a Metal Unibody Design and is available in both silver and black.



“People today immerse themselves in a constant stream of updates, news and information. Although smartphones are one of the main ways we stay in touch with the people and information we care about, conventional designs have failed to keep pace with how people are actually using them,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “A new, exciting approach to the smartphone is needed and with the new HTC One, we have re-imagined the mobile experience from the ground up to reflect this new reality.”

This new standard of Smartphone by HTC boasts a range of exciting new enhancements:

HTC BlinkFeed: A personal live stream right on the home screen
At the centre of the new HTC One experience is HTC BlinkFeed. HTC BlinkFeed is a bold new experience that transforms the homescreen into a single live stream of personally relevant information such as social updates, entertainment and lifestyle updates, news and photos with immersive images so that people no longer need to go to separate applications to find out what’s happening.HTC BlinkFeed aggregates the freshest content from the most relevant and interesting sources, giving it to people at a glance, all in one place, without the need to jump between multiple applications and web sites.

To enable this new dynamic approach to the smartphone, HTC will provide both local and global content from more than 1,400 media sources with more than 10,000 articles per day from some of the most innovative media companies, such as the AOL family of media properties, ESPN, MTV, Vice Media, CoolHunting, Reuters and many others. For more information on HTC BlinkFeed’s content partners, visit the HTC Blog.

HTC UltraPixel Camera with HTC Zoe
The breakthrough HTC UltraPixel Camera redefines how people capture, relive and share their most precious moments. HTC Zoe gives people the ability to shoot high-res photos that come to life in three-second snippets. The photos and video captured through Zoe are then displayed in a unique way that brings the gallery to life and transforms the traditional photo gallery of still images into a motion gallery of memories. It also automatically creates integrated highlight films from each event comprised of Zoe’s, photos and videos set to music with professionally designed cuts, transitions and effects. These highlight videos can be remixed or set to different themes, and can be easily shared on social networks, email and other services.

To enable this innovative camera experience, HTC developed a custom camera that includes a best-in-class f/2.0 aperture lens and a breakthrough sensor with UltraPixels that gather 300 percent more light than traditional smartphone camera sensors. This new approach also delivers astounding low-light performance and a variety of other improvements to photos and videos. In addition, the perfect self-portrait or video is just a tap away with an ultra-wide angle front-facing camera which supports1080p video capture. Multi-axis optical image stabilisation for the rear camera also help secure smoother video footage, whether stationary or on the move. HTCUltraPixel camera adds many other features and effects such as enhanced 360' panorama, time sequencing and object removal.

HTC BoomSound
The new HTC One offers the best audio experience of any mobile phone available today.HTC BoomSound introduces for the first time on a phone, front-facing stereo speakers with a dedicated amplifier and an amazing full HD display that immerses people in music, videos, games and the YouTube™ clips they love. BeatsAudio™ integration is enabled across the entire experience for rich, authentic sound whether you’re listening to your favorite music, watching a YouTube video or playing a game.

HDR recording uses advanced dual microphones and audio processing to capture clean, rich sound that is worthy of high-definition video footage. Phone calls sound great on HTC One thanks to the addition of HTC Sense Voice™, which boosts the call volume and quality in noisy environments so that conversations come through loud and clear.

HTC Sense TV™
HTC Sense TV transforms the new HTC One into an interactive program guide and remote control for most TVs, set-top boxes and receivers. Tapping the power of the cloud, Sense TV makes it simple and intuitive to see what’s on and find that favourite show.

Metal Unibody Design
Wrapped in a zero-gap aluminium unibody and sporting a brilliant 4.7”, Full HD (1080p) screen, the new HTC One features the latest Android Jelly Bean operating system and LTE network technology to offer blazingly-fast browsing in a package that combines premium design with breakthrough build quality.

Available in stunning silver and beautiful black, the sleek and crafted aluminium unibody sits comfortably in the hand and showcases HTC’s unique antenna technology, which helps people achieve a crystal clear signal. The display also resists scratches and reduces glare, whilst offering incredible 468ppi resolution and rich, natural colours.

Find out more about the HTC One.

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We'll be running some major upgrades across the site this coming week, and once completed...



We'll be back to our regular posts, news updates and snippets from across the web!

The iPad mini is undoubtedly the premium small tablet offering. It's light, has 10 hours of battery life, delivers 1024 by 768 screen resolution and a vast selection of quality apps. The iPad user experience is still the most accessible for people.



The Competition

The main external competitors to iPad mini are Google Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire. These Android tablets have proven to be popular. They are light weight, have easy to read displays, deliver long battery life and have a low price point.

Although it could be said that tablets in this class are great for consuming media, particularly, particularly books and video.
Obviously the iPad2 and the new iPad (and upcoming iPad 4) are also worth considering, as the larger screen may appeal more than lightness.

Here's where it differs:

1. SCREEN SIZE
iPad mini's screen resolution (particularly width wise) does differentiate it. The extra space means that apps created for iPad2 are formatted to be used on a tablet.
The apple demonstration showed how some Android applications and websites select the “phone style” user interface instead of a tablet user interface due to less horizontal pixels. Perhaps this isn’t valid, but it is interesting.

2. CAMERAS
It delivers a 5MP 1080p forward facing camera and a 1.2M 720p front camera for facetime, same as the “new iPad”. It also runs the full iPad versions of popular creativity apps such as GarageBand and iMovie. This may make iPad mini a somewhat usable camcorder, which, unlike the original iPads, may not look so silly.

3. NETWORKING - 3G
The iPad mini leads this class as the only one that can be 3G capable. Once again this hints at uses that go beyond media consumption. Using apps such as Facetime or Skype, the device may become one of the most widely used video phones.

4. SOFTWARE
Apple claim that existing iPad apps will work fine on the iPad mini. There are fears that scaled down iPad applications won’t work well on iPad mini.
This is probably won’t happen, considering the efforts developers already go to support multiple form factors on other platforms already.

5. LIGHTEST
The award for the lightest tablet appears to go the iPad mini. It seems that this was done very deliberately. It’s unlikely that the few grams difference will matter in a competitive sense, but 308grams compared to 652 grams for new iPad is significant.

6. THINNEST
At 7.2 mm, iPad mini is the thinnest. This was accomplished by making the display even thinner and using new machining techniques in it’s unibody aluminium case.

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Often it's necessary to communicate with those not fortunate enough to have a tablet device like iPad. That's where printing to paper is handy.



Apple offer a solution for iPad and iPhone printing called "Airprint". This is a printing system that means that the mobile device does not have to use printer drivers. These are built into the printer. In addition it appears that Airprint requires a WIFI network.

So you need an Airprint compatible printer and a WIFI network or a printer that supports ad hoc network connections.

Some of the Brother range of printers support Ad Hoc connections. This means that the printer can be seen as a WIFI network which your iPad can connect to. You can then print without a separate WIFI network.

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