4G survey reveals a third of UK “can’t see the point”

Is 4G being marketed incorrectly?

One in three UK consumers have admitted they “can’t see the point” of 4G and believe 3G is adequate for their needs.

The latest YouGov SixthSense survey has revealed that a third of UK consumers don’t realise the benefits of 4G mobile broadband, and are very content with their current 3G service.

YouGov’s “4G Tariffs” report, undertaken ahead of more UK network providers launching their own 4G networks, showed that a good proportion of UK consumers aren’t even aware of all the 4G benefits.

The majority of those surveyed, 80 per cent, were aware of 4G, but only a fifth (21 per cent) could identify its features with confidence.

Only 48 per cent admitted they had a “vague understanding” of 4G, but 31 per cent didn’t have a clue what 4G was at all.

“That a lot of consumers can’t see the point of 4G represents a real challenge to operators as more of them roll out 4G to their customers”, said Russell Feldman, Technology & Telecoms Director at YouGov. “The low levels of understanding about what 4G offers indicates that networks need to be savvy when selling it to consumers – showing not just that is exists but also what it does.”

35 per cent of consumers surveyed said none of the 4G features piqued their interest, but for over half (55 per cent), the major concern for making the change is the cost. The report revealed that those already on 4G pay an average £14.70 a month extra on data.

“Take-up is likely to be a slow burn as consumers hold off making decisions until they see it in action.”

Currently the only UK 4G provider, EE has said that despite the service it is extremely happy with the take-up of its 4GEE tariffs across the UK.

“Superfast 4GEE is proving very popular with over half a million of our customers already signed up,” said an official EE spokesperson to TrustedReviews. “In fact we’re ahead of our target to reach one million 4G customers by the end of the year. That’s why we’re confident in our approach and remain firmly committed to helping customers access 4G in a variety of ways and in a way that suits them best.”



Next, read our review of the 4G LTE compatible Samsung Galaxy S4.

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All your PS4 games will be accessible from any PS4 console

Sony has confirmed that all the PS4 games owned by the user will be available to play on any PS4 console via the digital games library.

Players will be able to access their digital games library via any PS4 console, simply by logging into their PlayStation Network (PSN) account.

Neil Brown, a senior engineer at Sony, has confirmed that the PS4 will allow quick access to their digital libraries on whatever console they happen to be playing on.

Not too dissimilar to the current gen functionality that allows access to digitally purchased games via users’ PSN and Xbox Live accounts, but it is the PS4’s “Play As You Download” feature that makes it a much easier experience.

“You can visit your friends’ house you can log into your account and play any game from your digital library, which is good,” explained Brown. “But how useful is that if it takes half a day to download the game you want to play?”

“With Play As You Download you get much quicker access to at least the first section of the game so you can start playing quicker. So this makes a digital library a practical option in the real world.”

This means that there will be no annoying waits while the game downloads before you can actually play it. Instead, as soon as the game starts to download you can get access to the first chunk of the game while the rest downloads in the background.

Gamers will never have to wait for a game to install on the PS4, even when playing a disc-based game. Due to vastly improved background processes, PS4 gamers will benefit from faster loading and streaming from the harddrive.

“A similar system also works on Blu-ray. Chunks are automatically copied to the hard drive in the background. This means that after the first few minutes your game can rely on having faster read speeds from the hard drive, which provides a better experience for players, and this is a completely background process for the player.”

“They don’t have to wait for anything to install before playing the game. The game will launch as soon as the disk has been put in the drive.”



Next, read our PS4 vs Xbox One comparison.

Via: OPM

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Samsung UE40F6400 TV Review

What is the Samsung UE40F6400?

The mid-range Samsung UE40F6400 is the most affordable TV we’ve seen from Samsung’s 2013 TV series to date. Despite this, though, it’s still well featured, including such ‘big hitters’ like Samsung’s latest Smart TV interface, active 3D, built-in Wi-Fi, expansive multimedia playback support, and a ‘200 Clear Motion Rate’ engine.

Not what you're looking for? See our top 10 best TVs of 2013 round-up

Samsung UE40F6400: Design & Connections

It’s attractively designed, too, for a 40-inch TV we’ve found selling just £616 - it's around £650 from larger outlets. Its black bezel is attractively finished and pretty slim at under 1.5cm across. We also like Samsung’s trademark transparent outer trim, and the silver cross-style stand the set sits on if you’re not wall mounting it.

If you do want to pop it on the wall, though, you shouldn’t find it too difficult, thanks to the way Samsung has positioned the majority of the set’s connections for side access, so you don’t have to worry about cables sticking straight out of the TV’s rear. The only important exceptions to this are one of the four HDMIs and the LAN input. But where the latter is concerned there’s a pretty handy workaround in the shape of built-in Wi-Fi.

Other connections of note include three USBs capable of playing back a wide range of photo, music and video multimedia file types. You can also access similar files from networked DLNA PCs.

Samsung UE40F6400: Smart TV

Samsung has committed to delivering its latest Smart TV functionality across pretty much the whole of its TV range this year, so the now-familiar array of five separate content hubs greets you when you’ve installed the Samsung UE40F6400.

Also present and correct are all the video streaming platforms that have helped make Samsung’s online TV offering this year such a rip-roaring success, including, uniquely, all four of the main UK broadcaster catch-up TV services.

Plus you get Samsung’s S-Recommendations system that learns your viewing preferences and makes suggestions accordingly, and the TV ships with a second remote featuring a touchpad and a built-in mic for accessing Samsung’s latest, ever-improving voice recognition system.

The Smart menus remain a little inscrutable in places, and Samsung’s Android and iOS app situation remains frustratingly ‘fractured’ into multiple apps and varying functionality between devices. Overall, though, the UE40F6400’s Smart system is commendable for its sophistication.

For a more in-depth analysis of Samsung’s Smart platform this year, read our Samsung Smart TV review from earlier in the year.

Bear in mind, however, that Samsung has issued a series of firmware updates since that report was written that has notably improved some aspects of the system, especially the voice and gesture control elements.

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Nokia Lumia 1020 specs leak ahead of official unveiling

The Nokia Lumia 1020 specs have leaked ahead of tonight’s official unveiling by Nokia in New York, July 11.


A full specs sheet for the 41-megapixel camera smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 1020, has leaked online prior to Nokia’s official launch.

The camera-centric smartphone will have a 4.5-inch AMOLED HD Plus display with a 1280 x 768p resolution. That screen will be protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. As it is a Windows Phone 8 device, there’ll be 7GB of SkyDrive space available to the user as well.

All those 41-megapixel camera rumours were true, as the Nokia Lumia 1020 will come with the aforementioned rear snapper, Xenon flash and Full 1080p HD video recording capabilities.

The leak also says the rear camera will come with 3x Hi-Res Zoom, six lens optics, and optical image stabilisation.

Nokia’s latest smartphone can also be purchased with an optional grip that not only provides a dedicated camera shutter button, but also an added 1020mAh battery capacity.

The grip also includes a screw mount for attaching the 41-megapixel camera smartphone onto a tripod.

Connectivity-wise, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is compatible with Bluetooth, NFC, 4G LTE, HSPA plus and ships with Nokia Here maps and Here drive pre-installed.

The spiritual upgrade to the Symbian-running Nokia PureView 808, the Nokia Lumia 1020 will be a Windows Phone 8 device that has the same focus on smartphone photography capabilities.

The smartphone will ship in white, black and yellow come launch, with the grips matching the Nokia Lumia 1020’s colour palette.

Nokia’s New York-based “41 million reasons” event is due to start at 4pm BST today, July 11. It will be interesting to see if these leaked specs line-up with the real Nokia Lumia 1020 when it arrives later today.

Next, read our review of the Nokia Lumia 925 .

Via: mynokiablog

Pics: The Verge

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Microsoft teases Surface Pro and Surface RT tablet refresh

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be refreshing its Surface Windows 8 tablet range over the coming 12 months.

The company has been outlining its plans for 2013 and beyond at its Worldwide Partner Conference this week, and the company's tablet plans have been briefly touched upon.

Microsoft's chief operating office Kevin Turner revealed a slide that acted as a loose update roadmap for the coming year. Among the various Skypes and Bings, there were four entries for Surface.

One of these Surface entries promised an "Update to Surface RT," while another mentioned an "Update to Surface Pro." The other two Surface entry concerned "New accessories" and "New accessory colours."

This would seem to confirm that there will be new versions of Microsoft's two Windows 8 tablets over the coming months. The Surface Pro only launched in February of this year, but the Surface RT launched in October 2012, so we could see a new version hitting shops in just a couple of months.

Just last month it was rumoured that Microsoft would be refreshing the Surface RT with Snapdragon 800 CPUs, pointing to the first 4G-capable Microsoft tablet.

On the Surface Pro front, Microsoft could well incorporate Intel's new power-efficient Haswell processor, which has been appearing in recent Ultrabooks.

Both tablets will feature Microsoft's new Windows 8.1 OS, which will reinstate the famous Start button and boast a bunch of new usability tweaks and fresh native applications.

Next, find out more about the new features of Windows 8.1.

Via: The Verge

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BlackBerry A10 to be game-focused and shaped like a Samsung Galaxy S4

The BlackBerry A10 could be the most media-friendly BlackBerry yet

Fresh reports are claiming that the forthcoming BlackBerry A10 will come with an unexpected focus on gaming, and that it'll resemble a Samsung Galaxy S4.

Echoing what an industry insider informed TrustedReviews last month, multiple trusted sources of BGR's have claimed that the forthcoming BlackBerry A10 smartphone is going to be the most capable, powerful BlackBerry yet with a media-friendly 5-inch Super AMOLED display.

More interestingly, the BlackBerry A10 will come with "a huge focus on gaming."

Despite being geared towards "power and gaming," the A10 will only come with a dual-core processor. Apparently, BlackBerry has been unable to make the jump to a quad-core architecture - either due to concerns over battery life or because of difficulties optimising BlackBerry 10 for a quad-core setup.

Still, this dual-core CPU will reportedly be backed by a healthy 2GB of RAM, and the BlackBerry A10 will apparently adopt the same silicon as the iPhone, with separate CPU and GPU processors. In the iPhone's case, this has certainly resulted in a string of highly capable gaming smartphones.

The report also has something to say about the BlackBerry A10's design. It'll apparently closely resemble the Samsung Galaxy S4, though if anything it'll be larger. It's also described as being "more rounded and less aggressive-looking" than the BlackBerry Z10.

It's claimed that we can expect to see the BlackBerry A10 launching some time this autumn.



Interested in BlackBerry handsets? Check out our full BlackBerry Q10 review.

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TomTom GO 500 Sat Nav Review

What is the TomTom GO 500?

The TomTom GO 500 is a fully featured 5-inch widescreen sat nav with lifetime traffic and map updates. The last time TomTom made a major upgrade to its range was the introduction of the GO 1000 LIVE around 18 months ago. But the GO 500 is potentially an even larger leap. Not only does the GO 500's body mark a change in physical design, but it also has a completely redesigned menu system and reappraisal of interactive features.

TomTom GO 500 - New Menu System

TomTom's menus have evolved over the years, and although the GO 1000 LIVE included some significant – and welcome – improvements, the overall look and feel was familiar after previous models. With the GO 500, however, the menu is almost unrecognisable, and works in a rather different way.

No longer can you call up the menu by simply pressing the map. Instead, a circle containing four dots on the bottom left-hand side of the screen is used. The menu itself is completely different from previous TomTom generations, with the traditional division between addresses and Points of Interest erased.

Instead, a single Search option leads to a two-paned results screen with addresses on the left and POIs on the right. You can enter an address or POI by keyword, without needing to know which town either is in, although you can also enter a full seven-digit UK postcode.

You will even see results from other countries, so you don't need to switch between them, and these appear dynamically as you type in letters. Navman's Spirit interface has used a system like this for some years, and once you get used to it we consider a unified keyword search the most friendly way of finding a destination, so we're pleased to see it on the GO 500.

Overall, the menu system is very easy to use. There's a My Places option where you can navigate to a Home location, favourite or recent destination. There are also menu entries to find Parking and Petrol Stations in the area, although we couldn't find other categories of POI.

The menu feels sparse, but the interface is uncluttered. There are icons where previously you would have found text, but once you figure out what the icons do, all the necessary functions are available. The new menu system is an audacious step, and in our opinion a genuinely clever progressive step in user-focused design.

TomTom GO 500 - Features

Aside from the completely redesigned menu, the other surprising change is that the GO 500 is a live-enabled device, despite not having a model name with LIVE in it. This means you get live traffic updates and traffic updates, but not the more advanced features of LIVE TomToms. TomTom has adjusted its policy, in part presumably because other manufacturers are offering live-enabled services at this price, for example the Garmin nuvi 2598 LMT-D.

For the TomTom GO 500, LIVE services are delivered via your smartphone's data link through a Bluetooth connection. It uses the Personal Hotspot function on iOS or Bluetooth Tethering on Android. TomTom specifies iOS 6, Android 4.0 or Blackberry 10 as a minimum, but we had no trouble connecting to services via an iPhone running iOS 5.1.3.

Once you have hooked up to a smartphone, the two LIVE services available are traffic and speed cameras. The traffic service is for the lifetime of the device, but speed camera updates require a paid-for subscription, although the first three months are free.

These are the services most travellers will want to use. TomTom doesn't call its traffic service HD Traffic anymore, but the TomTom Traffic service is the same thing. Our experience is that this is still the most detailed and frequently updated traffic service available, and we found the GO 500 was just as good through a smartphone.

However, it's worth noting that although TomTom claims the data consumption is minimal – just 7MB per month for an hour's usage a day during peak traffic times – you will need to ensure your smartphone has enough power to maintain the connection for your entire journey, or you will lose the service. The LIVE services also don't include extras like local search, weather or travel digests.

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