Posted by wicked April - 24 - 2013 - Wednesday Comments Off
The Acer Liquid E2 is the follow up to the E1. The specs include, a 4.5-inch IPS display, Optional dual-SIM support, an 8MP rear camera with zero shutter lag, 2MP front camera, a microSD card slot, and the radios are WiFi Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio, and a 42 Mbps HSPA+. The picture suggests that it is running Android, what we don’t know is which version it is. The E1 came with Jelly Bean 4.1, so it would be safe to assume that this would be running the same or later.
The device has been announced for many parts of Europe; Belgium, Netherlands, Ukraine, France, Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, and Russia. No word on a trip across the pond for us yet though. If you live in any of the areas I mentioned you can get the device around the middle of May for €229 ($297.40). Let us know if you plan on picking one of these up. Or maybe you plan on waiting for something better, either way we would love to hear about it.
Posted by wicked April - 23 - 2013 - Tuesday Comments Off
We all love a good discount, and if you are living in Europe and have been thinking of purchasing a Sony product from its website, this might be the perfect time.
The Sony European website has been down for a couple of days, and to apologize for any inconveniences, Sony is offering a 10% discount code for ALL products on its site. Yes, “all” does include the very nice, very “glassy” Xperia Z and a preorder for the Xperia Tablet Z.
To redeem your 10% discount, just punch in the code: “SORRY2013″ But be quick, the offer is valid until April 23rd! The offer seems to be valid in countries across Europe. For a high-end device like the Xperia Z, that can cost in excess of €500, the 10% discount is nothing to scoff at.
Will you be looking to capitalize on the savings? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by wicked April - 15 - 2013 - Monday Comments Off
After two years of investigations and subsequent negotiations, the EU and Google have agreed on a set of terms which will see Google legally obliged to change some of its search results in Europe to ensure that it doesn’t create a monopoly in vertical search.
Vertical search results are those which focus on a specific segment like those for online shopping or flights. Google has been expanding its vertical search business which has prompted complaints from companies such as Yelp and TripAdvisor who are worried that Google will favor its own results rather than those of third parties. According to the EU, if Google “abused” this power then it would be unfair since in Europe it has 90% of the market.
The good news for Google is that the EU aren’t asking it to change any of its algorithms or results for normal web based searches, it is mainly only the vertical searches which are causing concern. However it will have to clearly label search results from its own services, like Google Plus Local or Google News. Also, in some cases, it will need to show links from rival search engines.
The question you have to ask is: Is labeling going to change any consumer behavior? And if the answer is no, then it’s not going to do any good for Microsoft Bing or for any rival search engines - Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor of antitrust law at the University of Iowa.
The EU deal will be legally binding for the next five years and a trusted third party will ensure that Google keeps its end of the bargain. In exchange Google will avoid paying any fines (for past breaches) and would not be formally charged with any wrongdoing. This is also good for Google as these lengthy antitrust cases can be expensive and drag on for years. However if Google doesn’t comply then it could face fines of up to 10% of its global (not just European) annual sales.
What is interesting is that the EU’s decision is very different to that of the USA’s which recently ended a two year investigation into Google’s search business. The FTC concluded that there was no evidence that Google’s actions harmed consumers.
Posted by wicked April - 5 - 2013 - Friday Comments Off
HTC has bled money all throughout 2012, failing to come close to Samsung’s extraordinary financial and creative run. The One X was a flop, most of the company’s budget-friendly devices went unnoticed, and the Droid DNA came a little too late to make a difference.
After such a terrible year, HTC needed a fresh start and, for a second there, it seemed like the 2013 flagship phone, aptly named One, was going to provide the Taiwanese with a much needed breath of fresh air.
Cleverly unveiled earlier than the Samsung Galaxy S4, the One had it all, from a stunning display to a blazing fast processor and winning design. Unfortunately, HTC failed to capitalize on the phone’s initial wave of popularity, and, crippled by Ultrapixel camera shortages, was forced to delay the scheduled mid-March global launch.
With GS4’s own release now looming on the horizon, it all comes down to whether HTC can regroup and make the most of an unfortunate situation. Every second of every minute counts in this race against the clock, so it’s time to take a look at the newest ETAs for some of the world’s most important markets – US, Canada and Europe.
US availability and pricing
If Verizon is still hesitating to claim a piece of the HTC One pie, the other three major American carriers are not. T-Mobile seems to have the edge on pricing, courtesy of the new “Uncarrier” strategy, but AT&T and Sprint will most likely be the first to sell the phone.
AT&T – Up for pre-orders for a good half a day now, AT&T’s HTC One starts at $199.99, despite what tipsters told us earlier. That’s the 32 GB version’s on-contract price point, while the 64 GB model, exclusive to AT&T, goes for 100 bucks more. The shipping date has been tweaked as well, from April 19 to the 16th, even if we’re not entirely sure Ma Bell will be able to make good on this latest promise.
Sprint – The number three carrier in the States has opened HTC One pre-orders almost at the same time as AT&T, with the price tag of the 32 GB model being identical – $199.99 with two-year contracts. The estimated shipping date is still April 19 here, while if you bring your number to Sprint on a new line of service, the network will cut One’s price down to $99.99.
T-Mobile – One of the first things T-Mo announced after turning the page and moving away from contracts was HTC One’s pricing – $99 upfront, although it’s still unclear how much you’ll have to cough up extra on the 24 monthly installments. We’re guessing $20 each, but we’re not sure. The exact release date is not set in stone either, but rumor has it Magenta will ship out the first Ones come April 26.
Canada
Out of the four Canadian carriers confirmed to sell the HTC One, Rogers has been the only one to announce official pricing. The 4.7-incher starts at $149.99 with three-year contracts and is available for pre-orders for a while now.
The exact release date is still kept under wraps with Rogers, but Telus has tweeted that its first stock is due out on April 19. No words from Bell and Virgin Mobile for now and also nothing on the SIM-free HTC One pricing.
UK availability
British HTC One cravers have been a little luckier than their brothers across the seas, as the phone has been made available already via all important carriers.
Vodafone – The One is apparently in stock with Voda and it can be had for no upfront payment with £42 or £47 monthly plans on two-year contracts. You can get the phone on slightly cheaper plans, but it’s going to cost you – £69 upfront with £37 plans, or £129 plus £33 a month.
Three – The silver HTC One ships from April 8 both on and off-contract. The former will require no upfront payment with either £34 or £36 plans, while the latter will have you cough up a cool £479.99. As for the black version, that’s available on the same pricing structure, but it’s only set to ship beginning April 30.
O2 – Only the silver version is in stock here too, available for free with £47 or £52 plans on 24-month contracts. The “Pay & Go” pricing is £479.99.
Orange – Unavailable on pay as you go, the One starts at £29.99 on £41 plans with contracts.
T-Mobile – Just like Orange, T-Mo doesn’t sell the SIM-free phone and it also doesn’t offer it for free with contracts. Instead, you’ll have to pay at least £29.99 upfront, while the most lucrative plans seem to cost £41 or £46.
EE – The 4G-ready HTC One is listed in stock in the silver flavor and starts at £29.99 with £46, £51, £56 and £76 plans.
Aside from these major carriers, you can grab the HTC One via TalkTalk, Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse for mostly identical prices. Clove and Amazon are still not ready to ship the phone, but first stock is due around mid-April with these retailers too.
Europe (the rest of it)
It’s a little hard to keep track of all the European carriers set to sell the HTC One (after all, HTC did partner with 185 operators worldwide), but for the most part the 4.7-incher is not available with anyone on the old continent aside from the above mentioned UK sellers.
Best case scenario, you could find the One in stock in three or four days from now, but don’t be too shocked if you’re not going to find it by the end of the month. As for pricing, this differs from country to country and retailer to retailer. €600 is probably the best deal you’ll be able to make, with some operators charging as much as €750 for the beast.
Before wrapping up, here’s our HTC One video review for anyone that’s still on the fence about the 4.7-incher.
With all that out of the way, it’s time to shut up and hear you out. Has anyone managed to score one of these bad boys? Are you (still) planning to? Has HTC blew it by not being able to make the One available earlier?
Posted by wicked April - 1 - 2013 - Monday Comments Off
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is official for quite some time now, but the pieces of the pricing and availability puzzles are falling into place rather slowly. Basically, the only things we know for sure is “the next big thing” will cost $249.99 with AT&T contracts, $99 outright plus 24 monthly payments of $20 on T-Mobile US, £530 and up in UK and starting at £0 with British contracts.
Thankfully, the Portuguese branch of well-known retailer Expansys is now adding a little something something to the puzzle by revealing GS4’s off-contract pricing in Euro. The 5-incher is listed on the seller’s website at €689.99 ($884) in the 16 GB variant, both for the white frost and black mist flavors.
We know, that’s not exactly affordable, but it’s not like we expected the S4 to be budget-conscious, did we? Also, you have to keep in mind that this just one retailer’s price point and our guess is we will be seeing Samsung’s latest flagship go for as less as €600 via other European sellers.
The exact model listed by Expansys Portugal and available for pre-orders already is the one packing a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9 GHz. As far as we know, the Exynos Octa version is not headed to Portugal, but that could change in the near future if Sammy manages to accelerate the CPU’s manufacturing process enough.
The shipping start date is kept under wraps for now, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for all of you and come back with updates as soon as possible. All that being said, is the S4 on your shopping list despite the slightly extravagant pricing? Check it out in the flesh in our hands-on video below before deciding.
Posted by wicked March - 19 - 2013 - Tuesday Comments Off
Only available on American and British soil until a couple of days ago, Google’s Chromebooks are now one step closer to becoming the global devices they deserve to be. The Pixel has hit the ground running in Australia, while Acer, HP and Samsung’s Chromebooks are themselves ready to start selling down under, as well as in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
“Select” JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman stores in Australia already have the Samsung Series 3 and Acer C7 in stock. The former goes for $349, while the latter is $299, which is basically a hundred bucks extra than what US retailers charge for the two. As for HP’s Pavilion 14, that’s on its way down under, but we don’t have an exact release date or price tag yet.
Canada’s Best Buy and Future Shop have all three Chromebooks up for grabs online, with stock due out in physical stores as well in the next days. Acer’s C7 starts at $249.99, Samsung’s Series 3 is $269.99, while the HP Pavilion is $329.99.
In France, there’s only one Chromebook ready to start selling – Samsung’s Series 3. The 11.6-incher will be available via several retailers, including Amazon, for a recommended price of EUR 299 ($387).
Germany is to get both Samsung and Acer’s laptops, with the former going for €299 and the latter worth €279. The same duo will hit the Netherlands, but, while the Samsung will be available for the same price, the Acer will be €10 cheaper.
Finally, PC World and Amazon are the two Irish retailers chosen by Google as partners. The HP Pavilion 14 is not slated for a release there yet, but the Acer C7 and Samsung Series 3 will be pretty affordable – €249 and €279 respectively.
But wait, there’s more. Because Google is also expanding availability across America, with Chromebooks set to hit 1,000 new Best Buy locations over the next couple of weeks. That’s actually going to double the number of stores these laptops will sell in, meaning the Chrome OS-based machines are on their way to becoming mainstream hits. But hey, it was about time, wasn’t it?
To refresh all of our memories, the Fame was to hit Europe by the end of Q1 with nothing more but the bare necessities – a 3.5-inch display with a sub-par 480 x 320 pixels resolution, a single-core 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of on-board storage, microSD support, a 5 MP camera and a 1,300 mAh battery.
Then again, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is still a rare commodity in the low-end smartphone niche, was said to be buttering up the device upon its release.
Meaning it was all going to come down to pricing. Which is no longer a mystery in two countries on the old continent – Germany and Romania. Tech-savvy folks in the former are asked to cough up €205.55 ($267) for the device via Amazon.de, while Emag, a very popular online retailer in the latter, has it listed at RON 720 ($214).
Excellent price point for Romanians, not so cool for Germans, right? The funny thing is Amazon even has the nerve to claim the Fame has been discounted from €299 (yeah, right) to €205. I guess that’s what you get when the manufacturer “forgets” to announce recommended retail prices.
It’s worth mentioning that the Fame up for grabs in both Romania and Germany is the single-SIM S6810 with no NFC. Meaning the dual-SIM and NFC-enabled models could end up selling for as much as €300.
Expect the Galaxy Fame to hit the ground running in other European countries over the next week or so, including the UK, where Three is rumored to offer it for no upfront payment with two-year contracts. No words yet on a US release and we don’t think we’ll be hearing anything about that very soon. Make that never.
Posted by wicked March - 6 - 2013 - Wednesday Comments Off
We hate to admit this, but when Microsoft announced the coming of Windows-based tablets we got scared there for a second. Android tabs were not doing great at the time, so a focused effort from one of the richest corporations in the world definitely sounded like a threat.
And when Redmond made deals with Samsung, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba, it looked like game over for Google. But only for a second. More specifically, until pricing was revealed.
At which point we started laughing and laughing. And we’re still having a blast every time a new Win 8 or RT-based (especially RT-based) tab is introduced with bells, whistles and close to 1,000 bucks starting prices. Hilarious, isn’t it?
But, you know, we’re Android aficionados, so maybe there’s something we don’t get. And maybe, just maybe, there are people crazy enough to pay the piper and get tabs with software support that’s light years behind Android.
Only there aren’t. The latest proof? Samsung has confirmed the Windows RT-powered ATIV Tab is not to be introduced in Germany and several other unnamed European countries. We’re not going to defend Sammy here, because after all, they did get involved with Microsoft when they should’ve focused more on Android.
But we do appreciate the Koreans’ candor – they’ve confessed the decision to nix the launch came after surveying European retailers and finding very little interest and demand for Windows RT products.
Then again, even if they had tried to sugarcoat it, they wouldn’t have fooled anybody. After all, the ATIV Tab got its US release also canceled following “modest feedback” from retail partners.
But you know what’s got to hurt the most? The fact that this particular tab was going to be more affordable than the Surface RT and Pro. The specs are not too bad either, but just not good enough. Hopefully, this will teach Samsung a thing or two about turning its back to Android.
Posted by wicked March - 1 - 2013 - Friday Comments Off
Germany. The land of poets and thinkers, schnauzers and bratwursts, aspirin, Adolf Hitler and… Claudia Schiffer. And now the land where some of the most highly anticipated Android devices of the early 2013 have been priced.
The goods have been delivered by Notebooksbilliger, Computeruniverse.net and Amazon.de, although none of the following devices are up for grabs just yet. We have a lot to talk about, so let’s dig in.
Does something smell fishy here? Definitely. ZTE did untangle the Grand Memo mystery by confirming there’ll be multiple versions of the phablet released, including one packing the hot 800 chip. Yet there’s no way that’s going to come out before the S4 Pro and 600 models. Or is there?
Not a great start to today’s pricing saga, but let’s move on. To ZTE’s Grand S, priced at €629. Kind of expensive, but we guessed that much. No shipping date is mentioned, but you should probably expect it by the end of Q2.
Amazon’s German branch helps us wrap up the phone section of our post with an unexpectedly lucrative deal. The HTC One has been discounted before being made available in the first place, from €679 to €599. Nice, really, really nice!
And now some bad news from the two tablets that have captured the spotlight at MWC – Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 and Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z. Both are way too expensive to be worth your time, at €499 and €599 (the 16 and 32 GB Note and €639 (the 16 GB Tablet Z). So uncool!
Before finishing up, a quick little reminder. These are most likely not the recommended retail price points, so before making a decision give other retailers the shot to woo you with better deals. Or, in other words, if you wait, they will come (the better prices, that is).
Posted by wicked February - 27 - 2013 - Wednesday Comments Off
Forced to live in the shadow of its almost identical twin, the Sony Xperia ZL is apparently looking to break out and enjoy its own 15 minutes of fame. Mostly ignored by the press last month, the non-waterproofer captured the spotlight a couple of weeks ago, when its impressive screen to body ratio was revealed.
And yet ZL’s shot at glory never looked too strong, mostly due to its supposed delayed release compared with the Z. But now the two are set to be on (almost) even ground in parts of Europe, if we are to trust a report emerging from Russia.
Mother Russia is scheduled to get the Xperia ZL in “early March” and chances are several other countries on the old continent will follow suit sooner rather than later. Pricing doesn’t sound too hot, at 27,000 rubles or $880, but the Z is worth almost 3,000 rubles extra ($100), so that’s only fair we guess.
Meanwhile, the only other countries where the ZL has an ETA are still Germany and Canada. Both were said to get the ZL no sooner than April, but you probably want to get your ducks in a row earlier if you’re thinking of picking this bad boy up.
The German price tag is rumored to be €599.99 ($785), while up north the handheld should go for no more than $700 off-contract. Maybe even $650 if you’re really lucky.
Just as a quick recap, let’s say the ZL is due out with a splendid 5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution display, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2 GB of RAM, a 13 MP rear-facing camera, 16 GB of on-board storage space, microSD support, a 2,370 mAh battery and 4G LTE speeds. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be buttering up the device upon launch, with a 4.2 upgrade scheduled for “soon after”.
and 
![Sony Xperia Z vs Sony Xperia ZL [aa] (1)](http://cdn03.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Sony-Xperia-Z-vs-Sony-Xperia-ZL-aa-1.jpg)
