Last week we gave a rundown of our . This week we trawl Apple’s chart for some essential free iOS games, available to play on devices such as the Apple and . All the fun and all for free, here’s five free iPhone games apps which we’re addicted to.
Jetpack Joyride
First in our free iPhone games list is Jetpack Joyride. Meet Barry. He may wear a suit but he’s far from your regular guy. After breaking into a secret laboratory, Barry has commandeered a selection of jetpacks. With mad scientists, rapid fire missiles and deadly laser beams destined to stop Barry in his tracks, your mission is to control the Jetpack to avoid these hazards. Just touch the display to add more boost to your jetpack. Timing and quick reflexes are essential. High scores are determined by distance covered and the coins collected. It’s essential thrust filled fun in your quest to help Barry stay alive.
Like this games app? Download Jetpack Joyride from the free iOS games chart.
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Ninja Fishing
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a Ninja to fish and he’ll slice the scaly beasts right out of the water! By casting your hook as deep as possible into the ocean, use tilt controls to reel back in as many fish as possible. Once out the water, use your sword to descale the fish ready for market; a concept similar to Fruit Ninja. With over 50 fishes to catch, there’s great variety within this free iPhone games app. It’s manic fish and slash gameplay, that will keep you coming back for more.
Like this games app? Download Ninja Fishing from the free iOS games chart.
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Mega Jump
How high can you jump? Help Redford defy gravity as he collects coins in efforts to throw himself higher towards the edge of the universe and beyond. Miss the cash however and you will plummet to a fall of shame. Guide Redford by tilting your iPhone left or right; the controls are easy to pick up and are surprisingly effective. As with Jetpack Joyride, it has the addictive element, making it acceptable to have “just one more go” in order to get further. With Facebook and Twitter integration, you’ll justify the extra time spent on Mega Jump to leap above your friends on the ranking lists.
Like this games app? Download Mega Jump from the free iOS games chart.
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Bejewelled Blitz
The next app in our iPhone games chart pushes the mind to the limits! With a screen preloaded full of mismatching bling, your task is to swap jewels around to form horizontal or vertical lines of the same coloured jewel. Bigger lines means more points. Sound easy? The panic and dread of the looming 60 second time limit, adds pressure which would crack any diamond. With the highest scores awarded to those who craft multiple combos or collect Hypercubes, you need to plan your moves a few steps ahead to dazzle the ranking lists. If you get stumped for too long, arrows hint your next jewel switch to help you dive straight back into the action. We think this game rocks and is a worthy entrant in our free iPhone games list.
Like this games app? Download Bejewelled Blitz from the free iOS games chart.
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..And our free iPhone games favourite: Slam Dunk King
Our final app from our free iPhone games list is fresh from PikPok. Slam Dunk King, challenges your finger swiping skills to master the hoops and dunk as many balls as possible. Flaunt your skills with trick dunks and smooth moves to earn as many points as possible. Watch out for the bombs though, they’ll blow up your basket! There’s a selection of games including Time Attack, Arcade and Sudden Death to choose from. With additional options to earn or buy coins to unlock new balls, courts and mascots, Slam Dunk King is sure to keep you bouncing from boredom!
Like this games app? Download Slam Dunk King from the free iOS games chart.
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So there’s our round up of our favourite free games available on the iOS platform. We’ld like to apologise in advance for any unsociable acts you may put your friends through as you strive for a new high score. Addictive and free, they’ll definitely keep you occupied. Join us next week for our run down on free games available from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
To celebrate our latest offers on HTC smartphones, we have a fantastic competition where you can win a great tech bundle worth £560! The winning entrant will not only receive a HTC Flyer tablet, but a pair of Beats Solo headphones to accompany your audio pleasure.
HTC Flyer
The HTC Flyer is a 7 inch tablet that’s upgradeable to Android Honeycomb. Offering 3G and Wi-Fi access keep in touch with your friends Facebook updates at a swipe of a finger; alternatively comment to them directly with the front facing video calling feature. Equipped with a Magic Pen, it’s the perfect tool for producing fine details or brushstrokes. With a 16GB internal memory (and external memory expandable by another 32GB), the HTC Flyer is great for storing all your favourite music and more. The meaty 1.5GHz processor ensures the HTC Flyer is a reliable tablet that won’t let you down when running powerful applications.
Beats Solo headphones
Beats are the prestigious headphones by musical icon Dr. Dre. Let the music move you, as you hear layers you would struggle to pick up through normal headphones. With enhanced bass, Beats Solo headphones bring out all out the textures and details, so you can enjoy exactly what the artist hears. With a built in microphone for hands-free calls or online chats, it’s the perfect hardware to wire up to your 3G device.
How can I win?
Any mobiles.co.uk customer, who purchases a HTC contract handset between 19th January – 16th February 2012, is automatically entered into this fantastic giveaway. For your chance to win visit our Remember to enter by midnight 16th February2012 if you wish to qualify for our draw.
For full terms and conditions, please check on our .
We also offer the HTC Flyer Wi-Fi as a with many of our contracts. Alternatively, or versions of the HTC Flyer can also be bought as standalone products. Don’t forget to tell your friends on about this amazing giveaway. Good Luck!
If you’re like us you’ll already be thinking about your next handset even though you only upgraded last month! There’s been lots of exciting news over the past few months about up and coming handsets with more upgrades then you can shake a phone at. So to help out, we’ve put together a small list of handsets here that we think will be big in 2011.
HTC
Apart from a Trio of Tablets which are expected soon, will continue to stick to what they do best, which is delivering awesome handsets. Even though we don’t know much about these handsets we can imagine that they will be cutting edge combined with simplistic reliability. You can expect Dual Core processors and screens with exceptional resolution and colour management.
Nokia
The has unfortunately for Nokia been hindered with bugs due to the ever aging Symbian OS. Maybe the N9 will be given a new OS to play with. (Not very likely to be honest). As you can see the N9 comes with a sliding keyboard and will most likely ship with the same amazing 12mp camera. The in it’s own right was an amazing media phone and it looks as though Nokia are only looking to add to this.
Sony Ericsson
There’s been lots of talk around a PSP phone for some time now, but images of the handset are coming thick and fast now and we have the name Xperia Play. We expect to have full details come February but what we know for sure is that the handset runs on the operating system and will have a 1GHz Snapdragon Qualcomm processor and 512MB of RAM. We don’t know how users might use their back catalogue of games but we hope Sony Ericsson don’t miss a trick here and require users to own a phone specific version of their games.
Blackberry
The Apollo (Codename for their newest ), will be a natural progression for . The handset’s design is largely the same as the current (and previous) versions of the curve. With exception NFC the handset most likely won’t ship with any new killer features but is expected to be aggressively priced so may be a winner for the pay as you go and budget market.
This is only a quick round up of what we think will be some of the biggest handsets and we expect much more to be confirmed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. We’ll update you on more handsets we can expect to see later this week so keep checking the blog and get ready for some big announcements in the very near future.
After much deliberation and “will it or won’t it be 3.0″, it seems Google have let slip a preview video for Honeycomb and it is indeed the 3.0 we were all hoping for. There has been much speculation and confusion around the build numbers recently, with Gingerbread initially being rumoured as 3.0, which later turned out to be a smaller update in 2.3; which sought to further improve speed and adds a rather cool new lock screen animation which reminds us of an old TV being switched off. (Click here to take a look for yourself) Gingerbread hasn’t been officially released yet, but an unofficial build has been made available by a group of developers over at XDA Forums, the proviso being that you have to root your phone to get it. We’ve had a play with it, albeit a ‘Pure Google’ experience which lacks the HTC Sense overlay (much like the new ) and suffice to say, even as an experimental build we are hugely impressed with what we’re seeing.
Take a look at the screenshot of Honeycomb, cool huh? Notice anything a little odd about it? That’s right, Honeycomb has been optimised with in mind and from what we’ve seen so far, we really want to get our hands on a Honeycomb device and have a play! Optimised for a tablet is probably the wrong word, Google states that Honeycomb has ‘Been built entirely for tablets’ which bodes well with recent announcements from CES of tablets from Motorola, LG and the current Android dons HTC. Feast your eyes on the video below for the full preview of the revamped UI and tablet optimised applications. And if your into a bit of techno, don’t forget to crank the speakers up or plug your head phones in for the accompanying track.
So, what do we know so far? Well if you’ve watched the video you will have noticed that Google is going head to head with the Kindle’s and iBooks of this world with its own ‘ebooks’, of which there are said to be ‘millions of books’ available on the go. There’s also a revamped Gmail suite which has been optimised solely for tablets, notice the static bar on the left and the fluid motion between screens. In additon to this there’s a new YouTube app, the inclusion of gTalk (Googles answer to FaceTime), 3D Google Maps and a brand new internet browser.
There are no official details about when this will be released, but we’d like to think that it isn’t too far off, especially given the recent deluge of Android tablet announcements from some of the markets biggest players, at this years CES. Let us know what you think in the comments below, can an Android tablet beat the Apple iPad? Keep an eye on the blog for more details.
We questioned the recent efforts of and it’s recent handsets for their lack of innovation and advancement, as they appeared to be nothing more than slightly jazzed up versions of their predecessors. Don’t get us wrong, the new is an awesome phone, but it’s near on identical looks to the old Curve left us wanting a little more excitement, fireworks and fanfare. What BlackBerry have responded with, certainly doesn’t disappoint.
This is the BlackBerry Playbook, a 7inch tablet running a brand new BlackBerry Tablet OS created in conjunction with recent acquisition, QNX Software; the makers of one of the most reliable and robust operating systems available today (according to the ). What we’re looking at here then, looks set to redeem all of the range short comings, since it would seem that all efforts have been focussed on this.
What do we know about the Playbook? Well, it’ll be a 7 inch tablet, (putting in the firing line of the mighty ) sporting an LCD panel with a 1024 x 600 resolution as well as full multi-touch and gesture support. There’s also a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, Dual HD cameras (3 megapixel front facing and 5 megapixel rear facing) with support for 1080p HD Video recording (and yes, you read that right, 1080p!) There’s also an HDMI out for watching your videos on your HD TV via MicroHDMI as well as a microUSB port. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi take care of connectivity options, although it is said that RIM plan to launch 3G and 4G versions of the Playbook in the future.
Despite the aforementioned specs, the tablet is said to be ultra thin and portable measuring up at just 130mm x 193mm x 10mm, with an overall weight of just 400g; we just hope that they have managed to squeeze a decent sized battery into the Playbook! The bad news? Well, the Playbook isn’t going to be available until early 2011 for our US cousins with a launch here in the UK looking more likely to be in Q2. Keep an eye on the blog for more details as they emerge and why not take a look at the official promo-video below in the meantime. (Source: via )
The touting Samsung Galaxy Tab has appeared in another video advert, albeit an ad destined for our American cousins. The video is still very relevant though, given it takes us on a virtual tour of the Galaxy Tab and it’s many uses in different walks of life, ranging from Doctors to you or I sitting on our sofa at home.
Watching the video, you’ll probably not notice many features you haven’t already seen or heard of before; front-facing camera, Android Market, Google Maps, Flash Support etc. all get a mention. As does Media Hub which will allow you to watch movies and TV Shows as well as a feature that will allow you to stream media directly to your TV, both of which we feel are not being shouted about loudly enough. What the video does do however, is put the features into real, everyday life application, something which currently makes it difficult to justify the expense of an iPad for some.
Where we do start to question Samsungs marketing slightly though, is the ‘Go Nimble’ which is followed by shots of the Galaxy Tab being carried in the back pockets of jeans/trousers. So, the Galaxy Tab will fit in the pocket of your jeans but would you actually want to put it in there? Probably not. Either way, feast your eyes on the video below, let us know what you think in the comments section and keep an eye out for the Galaxy Tab on our pages over the next few days, for your chance to sign up to our registered interest list, where we’ll keep you updated about stock dates and the latest deals for the Galaxy Tab.
By now, you’ve probably seen the Samsung Galaxy Tab teaser video (if you haven’t don’t worry, we’ve got you covered - ) and you maybe wondering what’s happening in Berlin on September 2nd, as pointed to at the end of the video. Well we’re guessing it’ll be the official announcement of the tablet, before the IFA kicks off on the 3rd. What is the IFA? Well, it’s one of the biggest consumer electronics shows in Europe and is where amongst quite a few other manufacturers, have chosen to showcase their latest and greatest inventions.
We already know quite a bit about the Galaxy Tab following the , but what if the Samsung Galaxy isn’t quite your cup of tea? What other touting tablets are we expecting to be revealed at the IFA? Well feast your eyes below for the full run down of the one we know about:
ViewSonic ViewPad 7
Firstly, we have this, the ViewPad 7 which is said to be a cheap and cheerful tablet PC. Cheap and cheerful doesn’t necessarily mean that functionality has been compromised though, with 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SD card support, front and rear cameras and a 7 inch screen, if ViewSonic manage to get a decent interface on this, it could prove a perfect low cost alternative to the Galaxy Tab.
Archos Internet Tablets
Next up we have not one but five tablets (supposedly) heading to the IFA from Archos. These are said to range in size from the 10 inch iPad rival down to a rather miniature 2.8 inch tablet which we’re not quite sure qualifies as a tablet so much as an oversized touchscreen watch. Anyway, we’re going to assume that this also falls under the heading of cheap and cheerful, since Archos aren’t particularly well known for their PC expertise but more so for media players meaning these tablets should have quite a wide range of media format support.
MSI Windpad 110
MSI are said to be bringing two laptops along to the IFA, a Windows 7 touting Windpad 100 and an Android Windpad 110. Although, we’re not convinced by the naming (Windpad - Windows Pad?) and expect to see it carrying a different moniker at the IFA. Both tablets are said to be sporting 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processors and a stock UI known as WindTouch (again, Windows Touch?) as well as built in web cams. We’re not sure about this one, it’s rumoured to be around $400 which doesn’t quite put it in the cheap and cheerful category but likely to be somewhere in between this and the Galaxy Tab.
Google Chrome OS Tablet
Technically this isn’t an Android tablet but is definitely worth a mention since it’s coming from the Google camp. Said to be sporting the web based Chrome OS and being produced by HTC, this is the only tablet we’ve mentioned so far that could truly give the Galaxy Tab a run for its money and given HTC’s recent success with its smartphones, we doubt they’re likely to ease off the accelerator peddle and miss this opportunity to dominate the Tablet market too. We don’t know much about this tablet, but you can should expect something rather special, given that Google won’t want a repeat of the , which to be fair is an awesome phone but was far too late to the party here in the UK.
Orange Tablets
Okay, so these probably aren’t going to make an appearance at the IFA but are still worthy of a mention. A French publication yesterday pointed towards carrying three tablets in the not so distant future, according to the translation, these will supposedly be a subsidised iPad, an Android Tablet (Galaxy Tab?) and also an Orange own branded tablet that is said to be ‘made by a famous Asian company’ according to the translation and early rumours seem to point towards this being Foxconn.
Well, that about covers all of the tablets we’ve seen rumoured so far that we’re exepcting to see at the IFA and if we’re honest, the real competition here seems to be between and /Google. The majority of the tablets seem to be falling in the cheap and cheerful end of the spectrum, we were hoping to see some more in the way of high end devices looking to stick it to the iPad. Let us know what you think and keep an eye on the blog for our run down of the IFA.
A video has found its way onto the internet, courtesy of a South Korean website (dt.co.kr) that not only gives us some footage of the Galaxy Tab in action, but also shows it playing happy families posing for a photo with an iPad and it’s younger sibling, the . We have to say, it looks much smaller than we expected. It seems then, that the Galaxy Tab may not quite be the competition to the iPad we’d been expecting, instead, it seems that is hoping to beat Apple to the punch with the rumoured iPad Mini.
The video isn’t of the highest quality, but does allow us to see quite a substantial insight into what to expect from the Galaxy Tab and we’re pained to say that, if the video is to be believed, that the Galaxy Tab will be incredibly iPad-esque. In that, apps appear to be listed in an almost identical fashion with side scrolling screens. We can take some solace though, in the fact that there is an on-screen ‘Home’ button below the application grid pointing towards the fact that, although not seen on the video, the Galaxy Tab does retain the usual Android customisebale screens found on the and what we’re actually seeing on the video is merely the app drawer.
Interestingly, the video shows the Galaxy Tab to be a 3G connected device. Although, we’re going to hang on to our hopes that a Wi-Fi only version will be available too. The video also shows us the dialer, browser, a calendar and a maps application as well as an application which appears to allow the Galaxy Tab to pick up TV programs.
Check out the video to see for yourself and let us know what you think of the Galaxy Tab in the comments section below.
That’s right folks, a video was posted on the internet last night by Samsung themselves, bringing the official debut of their first tablet; say hello to the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Okay, so the name isn’t particularly original, but, this is the touting tablet computer that has leaked more times than we’ve had hot dinners and although Samsung have neglected to give us a full run down of the specs, they have teased us with some of the more mouth-watering features.
These being, Augmented reality, video calling, full web browsing, Android 2.2, a camera on the back and a 7 inch screen which seem to be the biggest shouts in the video. Although interestingly, at around 9 seconds, we can see what looks like ‘HD Movie Play’ a great hint towards the screen being HD resolution and the possibility of watching your favourite HD movies on the go. We can also make out ‘e-reading’ which would make sense given the iPads success here.
Of course, sporting Android 2.2 also means that the Galaxy Tab will benefit from all of the Google services such as the Android Market, GMail, Street view, Maps and of course, the free Google Maps Navigation that has proven to be so popular amongst Android fans. Although, we’re not quite sure how practical this would be when mounted onto the windscreen in reality but we’d sure love the opportunity to give it a try! If your reading this and feeling rather generous, how about sending us a Galaxy Tab to play with? (well, it’s worth a try…)
What the video doesn’t confirm and that we’re keen to know, is how the Galaxy Tab would co-exist along side an ? In that, will the Galaxy Tab follow in the footsteps of Apple and offer a Wi-Fi only version for those that own an Android Smartphone already and can utilise the Wi-Fi hotspot option that Android 2.2 has unlocked, as well as a subsidised 3G model. Also, should you already own an Android , will the apps be shared across both devices, assuming the apps are tweaked by the developers to cope with the Tabs larger screen dimensions?
Have you been considering an Ipad? Well, you may just will want to hold off until the September 2nd announcement in Berlin, which we imagine will be the official unveiling of the Tab and is a date that we’ve underlined, highlighted, circled… (you get the picture) in our calendar. Keep an eye on the blog, as soon as we know any more details, we’ll post them right here. In meantime, why not take a look at our and grab yourself a piece of the action and a perfect partner for the Tab when it’s released.
When it was first announced last year, the iPad received a mixed reception with many critics dismissing it as an oversized / iPod Touch. Despite this, Apple’s Tablet device has gone on to achieve phenomenal success and carve out a market many thought simply didn’t exist.
Now, following Apple’s success it would appear other manufacturers are falling over themselves to release an iPad rival. RIM (the guys behind BlackBerry ) have previously been rumoured to have a tablet in the works going under the codenames “Cobalt” and “BlackPad” sporting an 8.9 inch touchscreen display running BlackBerry 6 OS. And, whilst it had gone quiet on the tablet front for some time, rumours have heated up once again with the news that RIM have bought the domain name blackpad.com. And, with RIM holding a press event on the 3rd of August, could we be treated to our first glimpses of the BlackPad?
On to Palm now who, prior to their acquisition by HP, were the subject of frequent rumours around a tablet running WebOS (the OS powering the Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones). With HP already committed to Microsoft Windows with the Slate, it had seemed that WebOS fans hopes had been dashed but the WebOS tablet is very much alive once again with the news that HP have filed an application to trademark the name PalmPad. So, it would seem that not only are HP and BlackBerry keen to join the tablet revolution but they’re also acknowledging ‘Pad’ as the recognised name for such a product.
Keep an eye on the and we’ll keep you up to date on all the latest tablet news and we’ll also be all over RIM/BlackBerry’s press conference on the 3rd of August to give you all the gory details.
