Angry Birds Star Wars has gone and updated itself. Rovio kept things rather covert, but the application has just got a 20-level boost as well as a pair of new bonus levels – and even a new boss.

The update reads: “After the epic Battle of Hoth, the Rebel Birds have barely escaped the ice planet with the Pigtroopers in close pursuit! There’s an asteroid field close by that could provide some cover… but watch out, there’s more to it than meets the eye!”

For those who haven’t played it yet, Angry Birds Star Wars is well worth a download, if just for the nostalgia factor. Straying all the way out into space, the game combines the best of all the Angry Birds games into one. This 20-level update costs nothing and is a nice little content boost to an already enjoyable app.

The update also brings some new enemies called Mynock Pigs, so you can bash them to bits with your lightsaber and the rest of the birds.

Incoming search terms:

• angry birds star wars keyboard code android
• new star wars angry birds level

Sony Computer Entertainment UK has announced that it will be bringing the much sought after white variant of the superslim PlayStation 3 to this country. However, it won’t be a standalone product like the garnet red and azurite blue versions, but will be part of the God of War: Ascension bundle pack.

In addition, the DualShock 3 controller bundled will be specially skinned to go with the game and will have a gold effect.

The “Classic White” PS3 will be a 500GB model and will be identical to the existing conventional black console inside. The bundle will come with the Special Edition steelbook version of God of War: Ascension. It also contains the audio soundtrack, multiplayer double XP unlock, and an exclusive PS3 theme and PS3 avatar.

It will hit stores in the UK on 15 March, with price yet to be revealed. As an indication, Game lists the forthcoming garnet red PS3 for £250, but without the game bundle.

The white superslim PS3 first appeared on Pocket-lint’s radar in January when it announced a North American version. However, that model comes with a normal, white controller and a year-long membership to PlayStation Plus rather than the latest God of War.

It’s also available in Japan alongside the black, (and soon to come) red and blue versions, although they have 250GB in storage space.

Incoming search terms:

• ps3 super slim red
• blue xbox 720
• garnet red ps3
• ps3 super slim

Feature

• Simple Connect (eliminates the need for configuring port forwarding on a network router)
• Custom screen resolutions, including an option to automatically fit to the device screen
• Secure network communication protected by SSL/TLS
• Network Level Authentication (NLA) with CredSSP
•  Microsoft Remote Desktop Gateway(RD Gateway) support
•  RemoteApp programs support
•  On-screen keyboard for keys missing on the device (functional keys, etc.)
•  Server address book
•  Master password to secure server password storage
•  Audio redirection to the client from a remote computer
•  Microphone redirection from the client to a remote computer
•  File transfer between SD card and remote computer
•  Copy/paste text between client and server
•  Display zoom in/zoom out
•  Pinch-to-zoom
•  The first and only mobile Remote Desktop client with support for Microsoft Remote Assistance
•  RDP data compression and caching to save bandwidth
•  Android home screen shortcuts
•  Support for x86 based Android devices
•  Automatic activation of a software keyboard in text fields
•  Support for international keyboard layouts
•  Support for multitasking: switch to other apps without disconnecting
•  Support for a physical keyboard (a keyboard connected over Bluetooth or USB)
•  Physical mouse support: drag and drop with a single mouse click, mouse wheel, all three mouse buttons are supported (some features require Ice Cream Sandwich)
•  Export/import the server address book and app settings to/from SD card
•  Support for importing server settings from .rdp and XML files
•  Multi-touch gestures for scrolling, mouse buttons emulation

The following operating system have Remote Desktop Services and can be connected using Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client without any additional server side software:

• Windows Server 2000
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Vista Business, Ultimate and Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008R2

The following operating system do not have Remote Desktop Services out of the box:

• Windows XP Home
• Windows Vista Home
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows 7 Starter
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Mac OS
• Linux

Download: Google Play Store Link

Cost: $14.95 

Incoming search terms:

• Powered by Article Dashboard tips on computer security
• Powered by Article Dashboard the computer keyboard
• Powered by Article Dashboard desktop computer security
• Powered by Article Dashboard desktop computer ratings
• Powered by Article Dashboard computer security authentication
• Powered by Article Dashboard 3d graphics card for gateway laptop
• Powered by Article Dashboard control other computers
• Powered by Article Dashboard open source desktop support
• Powered by Article Dashboard remote desktop support
• centos 6 2 zoom in or out on desktop

Just like Google’s other apps, Google Calendar has finally made its way to the Google Play store, with a new update that adds a few handy features.

The new version of Google Calendar, available for Ice Cream Sandwich and above, adds the ability to snooze events from a notification, send predefined messages to event participants (like “I’ll be late”), pinch-to-zoom for day view, and the setting of a home time zone. The app also has a larger sync period, so you can see events further back in your history. Hit the link below to update the app on your device.

Google Calendar | Google Play via Official Android Blog

A little-known enthusiast website has cited a source that was accurate on the launch date of the iPhone 5, and this time has predicted that the iPad mini — which is likely to be unveiled in a press event on October 23 — will debut in the US and a handful of other countries on November 2, with pre-orders opening a week prior. If true, the date of the pre-orders would undoubtedly steal the spotlight away from the official launch of Microsoft’s Surface tablet, which will finally make its public debut on the same day.

While there is no confirmation of the pre-order or launch dates for the iPad mini — nor even undeniable evidence that Apple will actually launch the long-rumored tablet at the October 23 event — the timing, if accurate, is very likely to be a coincidence rather than a deliberate plan from either company to spoil the other’s announcement. Many of the major players in the mobile industry are bringing out new products around the same timeframe in order to get them into stores as the holiday buying season gets underway. Google, for example, has sent out press invites for an event on October 29, presumably to launch the Nexus 4 smartphone and other hardware items from various manufacturers.

Should Apple’s pre-order date coincide with Microsoft’s launch, the timing would be unfortunate. Though Apple has had little to say about the potential rival to the iPad, Apple and Microsoft have been teaming up frequently of late; both because of Mac products and services that Microsoft offers but also as traditional software makers fighting to protect their intellectual property, talent and trade secrets from “fast follower” companies such as Samsung and Google. The companies maintain a cordial relationship for the most part, despite still being competitors.

Microsoft has had little success thus far getting consumers to warm up to its Windows 8 Phone software, but if the Surface turns out to be a higher-quality rival it could turn some heads away from Android and even iOS by virtue of offering a more distinct and clear alternative to both Apple and Google’s similar mobile platforms. The company is seen by many in the Windows community as genuinely trying to turn itself around, coming up with its own distinct products and software that don’t just copy the market leaders.

Little is solidly known about the iPad mini, despite a few alleged parts leaks and other tidbits. It is believed the tablet will be a low-priced entry designed to compete with 7-inch models like the Galaxy Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD. The iPad mini is speculated to offer a bigger screen — 7.85 inches, nearly 40 percent larger than a 7-inch tablet, and would presumably eliminate some features — such as a back camera, Retina display quality or 3G capability among other options — in order to lower the price as much as possible. The iPad mini would be aimed at schools and institutions as much as it would be at budget-minded consumers, and may be designed to tie buyers even closer to the App Store and its various services — particularly books — than even its larger version

How to Back Up Your Android Device Without Rooting. If you’ve rooted your phone, the process for backing up is easy:

• Get Titanium Backup,
• Use it.

But what if you haven’t rooted, or don’t want to, or can’t do so without wiping your device first? There’s a ton of data on your device, and although a lot is automatically synced to your Google account, some isn’t.

Let’s look at what you need to back up, and how you can do so.

First Stop: MyBackup Pro

MyBackup Pro (Market Link) is the best backup app for non-rooted devices. It does cost a little money ($4.99), but there is a free, limited 30-day trial available.

It will back up:

• App install files
• Contacts list
• Call log
• Bookmarks
• Text messages
• MMS messages (with attachments)
• System settings
• Home screens
• Alarms
• Dictionaries
• Calendar
• Music playlists

…all to either the SD card or MyBackup Pro’s secure online servers. You can view the data you’ve backed up without having to restore it.

But in case MyBackup Pro doesn’t work on your device, or you want to have an extra backup of some things for peace of mind, what other options are there?

What to Back Up

SMS, MMS, and Call Log

(Can be backed up by MyBackup Pro.)

My first choice for this is SMS Backup +, which will store your text messages as threaded emails in your Gmail account. It will associate each contact’s messages with their email address (assuming you have them stored in your phone), and tag them with a label of your choice (like “SMS”). This means you get the convenience and search ability of Gmail with all your text messages — great!

It seems to be based on SMS Backup, a similar application by another developer, but adds the ability to restore SMS messages to your phone. It also allows you to back up (but not restore) MMS messages to Gmail, and back up your call log to Google Calendar (enabling restore).

Messages are backed up automatically and regularly, so you don’t have to think about it.

If you prefer to back up to a file, check out Sprite Backup, which can back up SMS and MMS messages and your call log.

Emails, Contacts, and Calendar

(Contacts and calendar can be backed up by MyBackup Pro.)

If you’re using Gmail, your emails will be synced the the cloud; you’ll still be able to access them on the Gmail website even if your phone is wiped — as long as you don’t actually select specific emails within the Gmail app and press the Delete option! Once you reinstall the Gmail app, it’ll download your emails from the server again.

For other email providers, backup will vary depending on options that you’ve set. It might be the case that once your emails are downloaded to any device, they are removed from the server, and only exist on that one device. Your best option here is to check with whoever provides your email account. Also, take a look at the options for the email app that you use, and see if there is an Export or Backup option.

The Calendar app on your phone is backed up to your Google Account, just like Gmail. Sign in tohttp://calendar.google.com/ on your computer and see whether your schedule appears; if it does, you’ve no need to worry.

Your Android contacts are also synchronised to your Google Account – take a look athttp://google.com/contacts. This does not include contacts that have been imported from Facebook, Twitter, or Exchange, but you can always import them again.

To be doubly sure that your contacts are safe, you can export them to a file on your SD card. Check out the section titled “Fix the Bloated Contacts Storage Bug” in How To Clear Space Without Rooting for more information.

Applications, App Data, and App Settings

You can find a list of every application that you’ve downloaded from the Market in the My Account section of the Market website. The apps aren’t removed from the list if you delete them from your device.

If you wipe your phone and reflash it, leave it for a few minutes without opening the Market app, and all the apps you used to have installed should automatically download and install themselves again. Magic!

Alternatively, you can use ASTRO File Manager to copy APK files of each application onto your SD card; just hit Menu | Tools | Application Manager/Backup, select all the apps you want to keep, and press Backup. You can restore them later from the same menu.

The disadvantage of using APKs is that, once restored, you will no longer receive automatic updates for the apps from the Market. For this reason, I recommend only using this method for apps that you did not obtain from the Market. MyBackup Pro can also back up the application install files themselves, to make it faster to re-install them later.

Application settings and data (including high scores) are a lot harder to deal with. People who’ve rooted can copy all of this to their SD card, but for those of us who haven’t, there’s no single easy solution.

• Some applications will allow you to back up your data from within the app itself; look for a menu option called Backup or Export.
• Some applications store their settings and data on the SD card, in which case there’s no need to worry.
• Most applications store this info on the internal storage, in a protected area that can’t normally be accessed by other apps or by you. A few of these apps are integrated with MyBackup Pro, though — a full list is available here.

Photos, Music and Other SD Card Data

(Not backed up by MyBackup Pro.)

Your photos and music are stored on the SD card, which won’t usually be wiped if you have to wipe your phone. Of course, you can always back up the whole SD card to a computer by connecting your device to the computer and simply copying everything over.

My choice for backing up photos and music is iSyncr (PC | Mac) with its WiFi Add-On, which automatically synchronises my phone with my iTunes playlists (updating play counts and smart playlist contents). Even if you don’t use iTunes, I’d still recommend it for its photo sync features, which copy all the photos I’ve taken onto my computer, wirelessly and regularly, without me having to remember to do anything.

But for a one-time backup, you don’t need to do any more than manually copy the files from SD card to computer.

System Settings and Home Screens

(Can be backed up by MyBackup Pro.)

You should find that your settings and home screen layouts are backed up to the cloud, so that, just like with your apps, a few minutes after reflashing your device you’ll find it looking and acting just like it used to.

The settings to enable this can be found in Settings | Privacy Settings — if you can find that menu option. Some devices (particularly Froyo devices with Sense UI) seem to have hidden this section; it’s possible to find it by searching your phone, but I’ve heard reports that the sync itself doesn’t work.

To be safe, use MyBackup Pro or the aforementioned Sprite Backup to export your settings and home screens.

Anything Else?

Have I missed anything? I know that custom dictionaries are not on this list; unfortunately I’m not aware of any app that can back this up apart from MyBackup Pro.

If you’ve recently wiped your phone and kicked yourself for forgetting to back something up, let us know in the comments.

Incoming search terms:

• back up files so where is sms_backup_plus log on my laptop

Fujifilm isn’t shy when it comes to turning out releases in the travel zoom compact camera market. The FinePix F800EXR – which succeeds the F770EXR by adding wireless image transfer functionality – looks on paper to be an affordable, well-featured compact. We thought its predecessor had one or two issues and lacked some “must have” features. Can the F800EXR right those wrongs?

What’s new?

A quick dash through the F800EXR’s specifications will confirm that it’s the same design as the F770EXR that came before it. The 16-megapixel 1/2-inch CMOS sensor remains the same, as does the 20x optical zoom’s 25-500mm equivalent.

Those are already decent enough features though. Wide-angle, long zoom, and a larger-than-average compact camera sensor certainly ticks the boxes.

However there’s still no optical image stabilisation, instead the sensor-shift mode takes care of things. That’s fine at wide-angle settings, but at a 500mm equivalent it won’t help stabilise the image preview, something that plenty of competitor travel zooms are capable of.

The F800EXR does have one obvious new feature: wireless image transfer. This almost-but-not-quite-Wi-Fi feature can be used to sync with a smartphone in order to post images direct to the web. It’s not possible to get the camera to talk directly to a web browser though, so the addition of the third-party essential does slow things down.

We’ve seen the feature before in Fuji’s own FinePix XP170 and found it fine enough, but less advanced than some of the competition out there – just take a look at Samsung’s Wi-Fi-enabled cameras, such as the Galaxy camera, and it’s clear to see just how connected some devices will be in the not too distant future.

Big zoom, little body

Design is a familiar tale. The cherry-red F800EXR review sample that landed at Pocket-lint HQ is the spitting image of the F770EXR. Telling them apart is only possible because of the wireless logo on the latest camera’s top and product name on the rear.

In most respects this means that the design is good: the large zoom lens is neatly tucked away into the body and the camera can easily fit into a pocket or bag. They don’t call them travel zooms for nothin’.

The 25mm wide-angle lens packs in the wide-angle setting that’s essential for those broader landscapes or group shots, and its 20x optical zoom takes that all the way up to a 500mm equivalent for picking off far-away subjects.

This is the same lens that lacks stabilisation, something that feels at odds with some of the design. The mode dial on top of the camera, for example, comes complete with full manual modes, as well as auto ones, which shows that the camera’s targeted not only at point-and-shoot users but also more advanced shooters. The kind of users who will want a better stabilisation system.

Performance

The F800EXR’s autofocus system is swift and generally accurate, though it will often depend on a very centralised focus point when in auto or EXR mode. Indeed even the “multi area” autofocus mode – accessible when in manual modes – doesn’t seem to spread particularly wide from the centre of the frame.

At longer focal lengths the focus system slows right down though and has to hunt out its subject. As per the previous model, there’s an ongoing “pause” or “cut out” issue. To explain: this phenomenon occurs at longer focal lengths, whereby the image preview frame freezes while focus is being attained. We were trying to shoot sea lions in San Francisco but this frustrating issue meant that dozens of shots were missed at the 20x zoom setting.

We’re particularly impressed with the camera’s close-focus ability though. At the widest-angle setting it’s possible to get very close to a subject and, although such distance obviously can’t be maintained further up the zoom range, the macro mode still comes in handy at reasonable focal lengths.

The other features stack up well against the competition too. GPS for geotagging and wireless image transfer for smartphone-based sharing sure do give this compact some extras to shout about, plus there’s a panorama mode, eight frames per second (8fps) burst option and 1080p video capture.

There’s still no touchscreen or more advanced features that are increasingly common among competitors.

Image Quality and EXR mode

We’ve already mentioned the F800EXR’s 1/2-inch sensor size. It’s not exactly huge, but it’s got a notable amount of extra surface area compared to the more standard 1/2.3-inch sensors found in the majority of other compacts.

As much as that ought to translate in to truly standout image quality, we found that the F800EXR, just like is predecessor, offers good but not exceptional images at full resolution. There’s some softness, and processing causes a lack of edge definition in the JPEG files.

But the F800EXR does have some tricks up its sleeve. The ability to capture raw files is unusual at this level and, for more advanced shooters, will be most welcome.

Then there’s the EXR mode. This clever process-based feature is one of the F800EXR’s highlights. The camera can decide whether the scene should be shot at the full 16-megapixel resolution when light is good, at a reduced 8-megapixel resolution to adapt for better dynamic range when backlighting is present, or using the high sensitivity, low noise mode to shoot multiple shots for a lower image noise output that’s useful in dim conditions. It really works too and the lower resolution EXR outputs are visibly better.

If the full 16-megapixel resolution is more your thing then there’s an ISO 100-3200 range, while the higher sensitivities of 6400-12,800 are restricted to reduced resolutions. Our advice: stick to ISO 100-200 where possible as, from ISO 1600 and above, the results won’t cut it where detail is concerned.

Verdict

The Fujifilm FinePix F800EXR comes with plenty of notable merits, but its packed-out features list misses out some key points.

The lack of lens-based stabilisation means this compact just isn’t quite the same calibre as its close competitors. Wireless image transfer is occasionally useful but it’s not the ultimate browsing and sharing experience – add a touchscreen and full Wi-Fi browsing direct from the camera and then we’ll talk.

Image quality is just okay – just like its predecessor – but for a 1/2-inch sensor size there’s not the sort of “pop” we would have expected and overexposure is a problem.

It’s affordable, it’s small, packs in a big zoom but has failed to address ongoing issues such as poor autofocus at the long-end of the zoom that have plagued the predecessors.

However it’s the EXR mode that comes into genuine use and saves this model from a lower score. The acronym-like name may not be the most known or recognisable brand draw, but it does make shooting in low light plausible and the dynamic range option will save plenty of back-lit shots.

There have been so many F-series models released that it’s about time Fujifilm fixed the bugs, then went on to focus on added extras such as wireless image transfer. Having not done so, the F800EXR is, unfortunately, overshadowed by the advance of its competitors.

Incoming search terms:

• f800exr
• compact f800
• FinePix f800
• FinePix F800EXR 写真
• fuji f800exr
• Fujifilm FinePix F800EXR red

Got a new iPhone 5, or maybe you’ve upgraded your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to iOS 6, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system? We’ve compiled a list of dozens of tips for you to get the most out of the new features Apple has added to iOS 6. Some are new, some you might know already, but we can promise this: all will help you get more out of your phone.

Camera

The iOS 6 camera app offers plenty of new tricks including panorama mode and new sharing options. Here are a couple to help you make the most of the new features.

Panorama

Go into the Camera app, press on the Options button at the top of the screen, and select Panorama. Tap on the arrow to change direction of the panorama you want to do – left to right or right to left. You’ll have to hold the phone in portrait for it to work. Hold the phone in landscape mode to do a “vertical” panorama up to the stars.

AE/AF Lock

To change the exposure or the focus of your shot tap anywhere on the screen and it will change instantly. To lock that exposure or focus (great for dramatic panoramas) press and hold on the screen until the square box “locks in”.

Grid

To help your picture composition even further in the Camera app go to Options, and toggle the Grid on.

HDR

HDR or High Dynamic Range is an effect that lets you take a picture and then have the iPhone try and balance the dark and light areas of the photo. If you want to see this in action, go to Options and toggle HDR. iOS by default will save a HDR and non HDR photo for you. To turn that feature off go to Settings > Photos & Camera and scroll to the bottom to toggle that feature off.

Insert Photos in Mail

Go into the Mail app, tap on the compose new mail icon. In the body of the message press and hold with your finger. Wait for the menu to appear that says “Select, Select All, Paste” press on the arrow to the right and then select “Insert Photo or Video” select the picture you want.

Share a video to YouTube

Although Apple has removed YouTube app, you can still upload videos directly to YouTube. Go to Photos select the video you want, press the “Share” icon and then click on YouTube.

Get YouTube back

Go to the App Store, search for YouTube, download the official YouTube App from Google.

Turn on Shared Photo Streams

One of the new features in iOS 6 is the ability to share Photo Streams with others. To do this go to Settings > Photos & Camera. Then toggle the Shared Photo Streams option.

Share a Photo Stream

Go to the Photos app, press Edit, select one or more pictures, press share in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. When the pop-up menu appears press on Photo Streams. Type the recipients name, the name of the Photo Stream, and whether you want there to be a public website for all to see.

Send five photos via email

Go to Photos, tap on the Edit button at the top right of the screen, tap on the five images you want to share, then tap on the share button. Tap on the Mail icon and they will be put in an email ready for you to send. Trying to select more than five will disable the Mail option.

Mail

The Mail app gets new tricks too like VIP, Flagged emails and per account Signatures, here’s how you go about setting those up.

Refresh your inbox

In iOS 5 you would have to press an arrow button, now you just drag down from the top of the page as if the inbox was on an elastic band.

VIP

If you get so many emails but don’t want to miss certain emails from certain people (your other half or the boss, for example) you can make them a VIP. To make someone a VIP, find an email from them, press on their name to see their Contacts card. Beneath their details press on the setting “Add to VIP”. They are now a VIP. To Remove them go to the same place.

Mark as Unread or Flag

To mark as Unread in Inbox view, press the “Flag” icon at the bottom left-hand side of the status bar at the bottom of your screen. A pop-up menu will appear and you can select to Mark as Unread or Flag.

See your VIP or Flagged inboxes    

In the Inbox view press on the Mailboxes icon at the top left hand side of the screen. It will take you to all your inboxes, and your VIP and Flagged inboxes too.

Multiple email signatures

If you have more than one email account on your iPhone you can now have iOS 6 let you have different email signatures for different accounts.

To set up your signatures, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and scroll down to Signature. Tap on Signature and then Per Account. You can then add personalised signatures for the accounts you want.

Maps

A new iOS a new Maps app to learn and master. These tricks will help get you started.

Change the volume for turn-by-turn directions

If you want to change the default volume for turn-by-turn directions, go into Settings > Maps. And you can then change the volume to “No Volume”, “Low Volume”, “Normal Volume” or “Loud Volume” if you are in your soft-top convertible.

Miles or kilometres

If you’re a KM kind of person you can change Maps to give you distances in kilometres instead of miles. To do this go to Settings > Maps, and then select which metric you want.

Flyover

To see major cities in 3D with all the Sim City-like buildings you need to find the city you want to view, make sure you are in satellite mode, and the press the “3D” icon in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen.

See the world

Open Apple Maps, make sure you are in satellite mode, pinch to zoom out as far as you can, and you’ve got the whole wide world in your hand

How to get Google Maps back 

You can’t at the moment, but you can create a home screen icon to access the web version of Google Maps quickly. To do this Open up Safari, and enter the URL maps.google.co.uk, then Click ok when the Notification pop up appears asking whether you are happy for “https://maps.google.co.uk” to use your current location. When the page finishes loading, click on the share icon in the centre of the menu bar at the bottom and click on the “Add to Home Screen Icon”, on the next pane click “Add” in the top right hand corner. You are done. When you want to find yourself you can simply click on this icon and as long as you have internet access you’ll be able to use the Google Maps service.

Siri

Siri gets new tricks and instructions for you to bark at it. Here’s a couple to help you get the football scores quicker.

Launch apps with Siri

Click and hold the Home button and say “Launch Music”, or “Safari”, or “Facebook” and Siri will open up the app you’ve asked for.

UK football scores

Click and hold the Home button and say “What was the football score for West Ham” or whatever team you support. Siri will go off and find the latest score for you from the last game your team played. You can also use it for finding out where they are in the league too.

What’s on at the movies?

You can also ask Siri what’s on at the movies. Simply say “What’s on at Odeon Cinema Bracknell today” or wherever you live and it will go off and get movie details for you

Facebook

Facebook gets the Twitter treatment in iOS 6 allowing you to quickly share with your friends.

Post to Facebook

The iPhone now shares stuff with Facebook allowing you to post status updates from your phone quickly. To do this you drag down from the top of the screen to reveal the notification centre. The tap on the Facebook icon with the words “Tap top Post” next to it.

Update all Contacts

To get Facebook profile photos for your Contacts go to Settings > Facebook and tap on the Update All Contacts button.

Disable Facebook from Calendar and Contacts

If the idea of filling your Contacts and Calendar with Facebook friends sounds too much don’t worry you can turn it off. Go to Settings > Facebook and toggle off the relevant settings on that page.

Tell your friends what you are buying

Facebook is now also in iTunes allowing you to Like tracks and albums. To show your love for a track or an album open a track, tap Reviews, and tap Like.

Privacy

Sharing gets a lot more control in the new iOS 6. Here’s how to make the most of the new features.

Enable Passbook to work when iPhone is locked

The idea with Passbook, Apple’s new ticket wallet hub, is that you use it to access movie tickets or boarding passes quickly. To make sure this works, go to Settings > Passcode Lock. Once you’ve entered your Passcode lock you can set whether you want Passlock to be accessed or not. While you are there you can also turn-off Siri access too.

Limit Ad Tracking

With more and more apps offering you ads, you can turn off the ability for the ads to track you, but it is buried in iOS 6. To do this go to Settings > General > About > Advertising. Toggle the option to Limit Ad Tracking.

Location Services

You can set what apps can see where you are and what apps can’t. To do this go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and select which apps you want to track where you are and which ones you don’t.

Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth Sharing, Twitter and Facebook

Some apps want to have access to a lot of your data. If you don’t want to share that data with certain apps you can now opt not to individually app by app. To do this go to Settings > Privacy. You can control everything from here.

Safari

There are plenty of new features in Safari to take advantage of including offline reading, iCloud tab support and the ability to upload images to websites.

Full-screen browsing

To view your favourite website without any clutter, rotate your iPhone into the landscape position and tap on the two arrows pointing away from each other in the bottom right of the screen. To get the address bar back scroll towards the top of the screen.

Add to Reading list for reading offline

Safari on iOS 6 now supports offline reading, handy if you want to carry on reading an article on the underground or on a plane that doesn’t have Wi-Fi. To do this, on the web page you want to save, press the “Share” icon at the bottom and tap on the “Add to Reading List” icon. To get that page again, press the bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen and tap on the Reading List option.

iCloud Tabs

If you’ve got Safari on the desktop you can catch up where you left off on iOS 6 too. In Safari, press on the bookmarks icon and then iCloud Tabs. It will reveal the tabs you had/have open on your desktop computer even if your computer is off. If you’ve got other devices with iOS 6 on them linked to the same account, it will display those too.

Choose your search engine

As default Safari on iOS 6 uses Google, but if you prefer Bing you can change the iPhone to use that or Yahoo instead. To do this go to Settings > Safari > Search Engine and change to your preferred search results there.

Search within current page

If you are looking for a specific word in a webpage you can search for it via the search box in Safari. Go to Safari, type in what you are looking for then scroll down to the bottom of the page. The number of incidences of the word will appears at the bottom.

Upload images

Previously you’ve never been able to upload images to a CMS or site like Flickr from the iPhone, but you can now. To do this go to the site you want to upload a image to and tap on “Choose File” you can then select an image from your Photos gallery.

Passbook

Automatic updates

To make sure you get automatic updates with your boarding passes using Passbook tap the “i” icon and select Automatic Updates. You can also set it to Show on the Lock Screen too.

General tips for iOS 6

It’s not just specific apps that have got new features, there are plenty of new bits and bobs to take advantage of around the whole of iOS 6.

A better alarm

You can now choose to wake up to a song of your choice rather than just a noise. Go to the Clock app > Alarm. Either opt to edit an alarm you already have or press the “plus” symbol to create a new one.

In the next panel press “Sound” and then scroll up rather than down. Press “Pick a song” and choose the song you want from your iTunes Library.

Reply with Message

When you get a call in iOS 6 if it is a mobile phone number you can reject it with a text message to save you having to then go through a number of hoops as you do with iOS 5. Next time someone calls press and slide up the “Phone” icon. To set a number of “boiler plate” replies go to Settings > Phone > Reply with Message. You can have three ready and waiting next time someone calls.

Remind yourself to call back

Tap Remind Me Later and you can have your phone remind you “In 1 hour”, “When I Leave”, or “When I get home”. The two latter ones work by using your phone’s GPS to see you are on the move. To set up where home is make sure your address details are in your own card in Contacts as your home address.

Do Not Disturb

Addicted to work, but need a push to say that you should stop. Maybe an important meeting that you don’t want to be disturbed in unless it is really important? Then you need Do Not Disturb. To get it up and running go to Settings > Do Not Disturb. To change the settings of Do Not Disturb however you need to go to Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. Here you can set a schedule (say every night from 10pm) to whether you’ll allow calls from your favourites or those that call you repeatedly.

Tap to go to the top

If you want to go to the top of the page in Safari, or the top of your Inbox, or Twitter list, or anywhere for that matter, single tap on the clock at the top of the screen and you’ll zip up to the top of the page. Handy.

Lost iPhone

Prone to losing your phone? iOS 6 has a lost phone mode that can be accessed via the Find iPhone app on another device or via iCloud.com. Via the service you can have your phone ring so you can find it down the back of the sofa, or if it is on and got a signal see where it is via GPS. If you’ve lost it completely you can either lock it or remote wipe it so your data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

If you are a bit more trusting than that, you can set up Lost Mode that prompts whoever has found it to call a specific number so you can get the phone back.

Setting up different tones for different tasks

Settings > Sounds, and choose the various sounds and vibrations patterns you want for each service.

Vibrate on Ring

You can now have your iPhone Vibrate on Ring, Vibrate on Silent, or none of the above. To do this go to Settings > Sounds and select the options you want.

Incoming search terms:

• iphone 4s tricks and secrets 2012
• can ios 6 have different ring profiles
• iphone 4s tips and tricks 2012
• iphone 5 tips and tricks
• iphone tips and tricks with ios 6
• options view ios
• remove ios VIP flagged
• top email tips for APPLE iOS 6
• zoom trick in ios 6

There is no hype in the world of technology or smartphones that comes anywhere near that which surrounds the iPhone. It’s the single device that draws more rumour, more speculation, more comment, more analysis than any other.

It’s Apple’s single point in the world of smartphones: the company doesn’t have a portfolio of smartphone choices, it is essentially a single hit. Fortunately, it’s a big hit, with each iPhone iteration seeing faster sales, breaking records, and what almost amounts to mass hysteria.

So now the iPhone 5 is with us. We’ve been living with the newest iPhone ahead of the official global launch to see whether the Apple iPhone 5 really is the must-have phone of the year, or now just one of many options out there.

Design: Lighter, thinner, longer

It’s the same iPhone, but it’s completely different. That’s the main takeaway point for the iPhone 5′s design. It’s something you can’t really appreciate until you get up close and personal with the new phone, but when you do, wow, you’ll really notice that difference.

From afar the new iPhone looks similar to the iPhone 4S, and that might lead you to think you’ll be disappointed. That was the feeling we got before we touched it at the iPhone 5 launch event, but the moment you pick it up that impression instantly changes. You realise that Apple has completely re-engineered the phone. It is a lot lighter and a lot thinner, all noticeably so, and that makes a massive difference to how it feels.

Comparing the raw specs of the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 4S, the 5 measures 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm and weighs 112g compared to 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm and 140g. In real terms that new design results in a phone that now sports a 4-inch, almost 16:9 ratio, screen and that means you get more screen real-estate than before in a device that isn’t any wider.

If you are looking to brag to your iPhone 4S-owning mates, the iPhone 5 is 18 per cent thinner, 20 per cent lighter and 12 per cent smaller volumetrically.

Yes the home screen button is still there, and so is an 8-megapixel camera around the back. The volume buttons and mute switch are virtually identical too – incidentally, the orange marker to show when vibrate is on now fills the indent – and the power switch is the same too.

At a glance the SIM card slot looks the same as well, but it isn’t. It’s actually smaller and that’s because the phone now features the smaller format nano SIM, rather than a micro SIM. Yep you’ll have to order a new SIM for your iPhone 5 and, as the name suggests, it’s tiny.

The headphone socket has moved to the bottom – a sensible move – and the speaker grills are now flush with the metal surround, saving you from the ingress of pocket lint. The old-style 30-pin dock connector has now been ditched in favour of the new Lightning socket. Yes, it’s smaller too: are you noticing a pattern forming?

The slimness of the design has been achieved by not only shrinking all the internal components, but by ditching the glass back. It’s now anodised aluminium – the same as found on the company’s MacBook range – with ceramic glass (on the white and silver model) or pigmented glass (on the black and slate model) inlays top and bottom. The black model is called “slate” and as the name suggests is a dyed metal.

Ditching the glass back and reducing the thickness of the glass panel on the front has affected the design of the metal band around the edge of the iPhone. It is now chamfered and while that looks pretty, we’ve already noticed that on the black model the edge has started to wear, revealing the shiny silver aluminium metal underneath the “slate” coloured coating and, indeed, we’ve witnessed it on two separate models, ruling out a fluke manufacturing error.

These small scuffs will catch the light and make the phone look visibly worn. We suspect that it won’t be as noticeable on the white model because the metal edging is silver, so that’s worth bearing in mind when you come to order your colour choice.

Edging details aside, the iPhone 5 looks just as good as you would hope it to. Sat on the desk you can’t help but notice it’s monolithic presence, especially the dark model, the iPhone 5 really means business. This really is product design at its finest.

It’s comfortable in the hand, incredibly well built and oozes quality. There is no whiff of cheap plastic or “fun” coloured polycarbonate, no awkward button placement, and no feeling that this isn’t a premium smartphone. All the parts just fit together beautifully.

Retina 4-inch display: Bigger and richer

It’s no great secret that if you have an iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, or 4S, you’ve got a phone with one of the smallest displays on the market. Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG, and Nokia have all taken the lead in creating smartphones with large displays ranging from 4-inches to 5-inches, and in some cases, beyond.

After five years of having a 3.5-inch screen it is time for a change. Apple’s answer is to elongate the screen to keep the same width but give you a 4-inch Retina display with a 1136 x 640 pixel resolution at 326 ppi, the same pixel density as the iPhone 4S. In basic terms that means another row of apps can now be fitted on the home screen and widescreen movies fit better too.

But it will have implications to your apps in the short term. While Apple has already updated its own apps to take advantage of the new space, apps that haven’t been updated will have black bars top and bottom or either side depending on the orientation, as though you’re watching an old 4:3 sitcom on your 16:9 TV.

That sounds awful, but the colour quality of the screen is so good that the unused black area blends almost seamlessly into the black-pigmented glass surround – you really won’t notice it. It’s also worth remembering that we will see updates fairly quickly, especially for the most popular apps, so expect this to be a non-issue by the time Christmas comes.

The display is not only bigger, but it is also a lot richer. The iPhone 5 has a display that delivers 44 per cent increased colour saturation over the iPhone 4S and uses the sRGB colour gamut, the standard used by the web, photos, movies, computer monitors and HDTVs. As a result, colours really do look a lot, lot, better and noticeably richer even in direct sunlight. Apps zing out of the screen, movies are more vibrant, and even websites look crisper. It’s a very nice screen indeed and again an instantly noticeable improvement over the iPhone 4S – we don’t want to go back.

The A6 processor: It is faster

For us, tech specs aren’t the be-all and end-all of a device: it is how it performs in the real world that matters to us. The idea of benchmarking the iPhone 5 against leading other phones with different specs and different operating systems seems pointless.

The bottom line is this: the iPhone 5 runs on the new A6 processor. Compared to the A5 processor in the iPhone 4S apps now load quicker. For basic tasks you aren’t going to notice the speed difference as you whizz around the OS, or loading up your favourite website as Safari isn’t hardware accelerated as the browsers are on Windows Phone or Android. But start to play games or load demanding apps and you’ll soon notice the extra speed is there, and there to enjoy.

Sadly we’ve not been able to test any games designed for the new A6 chip as they haven’t been released yet, but games we know are demanding, like Horn, Infinity Blade 2 and Real Racing 2, all load a lot faster.

In the future all that power means quicker load times, better graphics, and therefore better apps. We like the sound of that.

4G and Wi-Fi: Super fast surfing

Now here’s a tough one to explain. In the UK the iPhone 5 works with EE’s brand spanking new 4G network that is so brand spanking new it isn’t actually available to customers yet – but it is coming. The EE 4G service, at the time of writing, will be launching in the coming weeks in London, Birmingham, Bristol, and Cardiff before rolling out to a further 12 cities before the end of the year.

At the EE launch we tested the new 4G network on a range of competitor phones and got over 30Mbps – blisteringly fast – however that was at the launch event in perfect conditions. That event was before the iPhone 5 was announced and we can’t therefore vouch for how good the EE service will be on the iPhone 5, or what the coverage around the UK is like, but will update this review with our experiences when we do test the service.

If you want to enjoy the iPhone 5 on the EE network at the moment you will have to sign up to an Orange or T-Mobile plan and then swap when the network launches. Likewise with Three, which will offer 4G in the future, you will have to sign up to a 3G contract for now and then swap.

But that doesn’t mean you should forget about Vodafone and O2 even though customers looking for 4G will be out of luck on those networks as neither currently offer 4G services in the UK. Both carriers are waiting for Ofcom to auction off the relevant frequencies (expected 2013), but even then those frequency bands don’t match the ones in the iPhone 5 launched on the 21 September.

Instead O2 and Vodafone customers will get to enjoy HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA speeds up to 42Mbps – still faster than the iPhone 4S – providing you are in a good coverage spot.

Ultimately you’ll know which network you use and how it performs. If you want the fastest speeds possible though you’ll have to opt to go Orange for the short-term before upgrading to EE.

For the purpose of this review we tested the iPhone 5 on the O2 network using a nano SIM supplied to us by Apple and had no issues when it came to downloads or calls.

Audio: Speakers, mics and EarPods

Playback through the speakers is good. The sound isn’t tinny, and if you are travelling and haven’t got a speaker dock with you the phone will easily fill your hotel room with tunes or allow you to make a decent stab at speaker phone calls.

When it comes to taking making calls, there is a vast improvement in the quality of the calls on the iPhone 5 over the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 is designed with three microphones: one on the front, one on the back, and one on the bottom.

The front and back mics work together to achieve something Apple calls beamforming, a technique that helps the iPhone focus on sound from the desired location for clearer audio. New noise-cancelling technology reduces background noise. In our tests in a variety of environments, some self-made, callers at the other end of the phone told us they could tell the difference and were impressed by the call quality on the iPhone 5.

When you aren’t using the in-built speakers or microphones, you can opt for the included Apple EarPods. The results are pretty good, better than we expected from a pair of bundled headphones, but you could hear some holes in the performance, as revealed in our full review of the Apple EarPods.

To compensate for the lack of oomph in the EarPods, Apple has boosted the bass. It’s not uncomfortable, but it’s certainly noticeable, and the bass the EarPods do provide lacks the depth you’d get from more expensive earphones. This might worry those who love low-frequency waveforms, but they’re comfortable and a step up from the tired Apple headphones of old. You can read our Apple EarPods review here.

Lightning bolt: The new docking connector

There is a new docking connector at the bottom of the iPhone 5 and that means all your 30-pin cables and accessories won’t work unless you buy a £25 adapter. While you might think that’s a case for moaning. It’s not. Yes things won’t work, but Apple has had the same connector for the past decade, and most docks now are all about streaming wirelessly anyway.

The Lightning connector, as it will be known, is like everything else to do with the iPhone 5 – smaller. The connector is reversible, so there is no fumbling in the dark by your bedside cabinet as your try to work out which way to plug in the charger. And yes, you do get a cable in the box, but contrary to rumours not an adapter.

A better camera: Panorama, sharing photo streams, and more

The camera has been enhanced on the iPhone 5, although again quickly looking at a spec sheet on the Apple site or in store will give you the impression that it hasn’t and is the same as previously.

That’s partly down to the headline 8-megapixel sensor, the same as the iPhone 4S, but that’s the only similarity. The lens has been better aligned, the camera now protected by sapphire glass crystal, and the A6 processor steps in to boost processing, doing any heavy lifting to help you create the perfect photo. Which it invariably does.

The new camera features better low-light performance and improved noise reduction. Apple says that the technology behind this is about combining pixels to give you a 2-stop advantage. It seems to work, with low light performance being noticeably better than before.

The camera app’s speed has been improved too. It’s now 40 per cent faster, and that means you’ll be able to snap more shots, more quickly. You don’t however get burst mode like the SGS3, HTC One X or Motorola RAZR i.

Editing-wise you get to remove red-eye, crop, rotate, and enhance photos right on the iPhone or of course choose from the dozens of photo editing apps available from the App Store.

New to the iPhone 5 is the panorama mode. Working like Sony’s Sweep Panorama, found on its compact camera and Xperia smartphone range, you press go and then sweep the phone (in portrait) in front of you from left to right capturing 240-degree scenes. The on-screen interface gives you pointers to keep the phone level and at the end you get a 28-megapixel snap of the vista in front of you.

When you’re not snapping stills the camera supports full HD 1080p video recording. There is face detection for up to 10 faces and improved video stabilisation helps out too. You can now take still photos as you record, again, something that crept into Android recently.

On the front of the phone is another camera – this one 1.2-megapixels – for video calling or just using as a mirror, and you can also use this camera to record 720p video footage too.

Picture-wise we are really impressed with the iPhone 5 camera quality. The pictures in low light and perfect light conditions have equalled or bettered the iPhone 4S – one of the best smartphone cameras on the market – and you will be more than happy with the results.

You’ll be so happy in fact that you’ll want to share them and share them you can, thanks to Photo Streams, a new feature with iOS 6 that will allow you to quickly share pictures and albums with specific people, like your family or best friends. Sure, sharing is nothing new, as there are any number of apps that encourage sharing, but this does make it a lot easier.

New iOS 6: Siri, Facebook, Maps, Passbook, App Store and more

It’s not just about hardware. The operating system of the iPhone 5 has been improved and enhanced too, bringing with it over 200 features, some of which you’ll instantly notice, with others just there to improve the experience in the background.

Siri now gets UK business support, making it considerably more useful, and you’ll also be able to ask it about the football scores too. Loading apps just requires you to say the name of the app.

Facebook is now integrated at the core level, just like Twitter was for iOS 5, allowing you to share at the press of a button. Sharing is just easier all round really, whether that’s via email, Photo Streams, or social networks, although it’s noticeably limited compared to the rich sharing opportunities on rival platforms.

Other features that we really like include a Do Not Disturb feature that allows you to mute the phone to all but selected people at scheduled times, and tweaks in Mail that let you highlight VIPs from all the junk you get in your inbox. Text to reject isn’t new on smartphones but it is to iOS 6 and means you can text back a number straight away telling them you’re in a meeting.

Then there is Maps. Deciding that it can do better, Google Maps has been ditched, and replaced with Apple Maps. Now when you go to use the mapping app it will look different. The interface is a lot cleaner, and Apple has introduced a new 3D mapping flyover feature that makes everything look like it is from the SimCity games. There are some really nice tricks too. You can now change the 3D viewpoint simply by moving your finger up and down the screen, and for those that like the map to point the way they are looking you can rotate it around your axis without moving the phone – cleverly the place names rotate so you can still read them.

The app gives you direction support for walking, transport, and cars, with the latter actually getting turn-by-turn directions to guide you to your destination.

The turn-by-turn directions are clean and easy to use, there is a 3D mode as you get with more traditional satnavs – although there are no 3D buildings in the UK yet though – but no downloadable maps, so be careful of those data rates.

Like Google Maps you can overlay traffic data, and Apple has turned to a number of providers to help build, manage, and create the new maps so they should stay up to date.

There are holes though. Shifting from Google Maps means you’ll loose access to Google’s POI database, as well as Street View, and we’ve found that when you get out of metropolitan areas the satellite imagery isn’t as detailed as Google’s offering. Ascot, for example, isn’t great.

With no NFC on any Apple device, the company has turned to Passbook to help you manage tickets, store cards, and vouchers in one handy place.

No app in the UK currently supports the feature so we’ve been unable to test it effectively other than to see fake “demo” passes in place.

The idea of Passbook is to allow developers to create vouchers or loyalty cards that you can store in one place, even if you don’t have the company’s dedicated app on your phone. Geo-targeted as well, the system could ping you when you’re near a certain shop, telling you there is an deal or offer to be had if you’ve signed up to be alerted of such things.

Another example is that when you get to the airport your boarding pass is there waiting for you without your having to log into the app and pull it up manually.

If developers get it, and it’s available to all rather than those that Apple specifically pick, it could be very handy indeed.

Battery: Lasting longer

It’s not just about speed though, as the new A6 processor also helps to conserve power, something all modern chipsets claim. Trying to use the phone similarly to an iPhone 4S over the course of our testing, the iPhone 5 lasts longer every time. That’s very handy, although we would have liked a battery saving mode like in the Windows Phone OS to ensure the iPhone lasts even longer.

Apple’s claimed battery stats are 8 hours on 3G, 8 hours on LTE, 10 hours of Wi-Fi, 10 hours watching video, and 40 hours listening to music. The iPhone 5 has a standby time of 225 hours. In our tests we were easily able to get through the day, although not beyond that if we used it heavily on the go with location settings turned on.

What it doesn’t have: NFC and wireless charging

Of course while the iPhone 5 features all of the above, there are some toys that you’ll miss out on compared to the competition. There’s no wireless charging as found in the new Nokia Lumia range, nor NFC as found in phones from the likes of Samsung, Sony, HTC, Nokia and BlackBerry.

Apple has publicly stated that it believes neither technology is valuable or needed right now, and for the most part they are probably right. We’ve been part of the Visa contactless payment trial over the summer (one of just 800 globally) and have found it very easy to pay for things with our SGS3, but equally difficult to find places to pay.

NFC is getting there, but isn’t there yet. The problem for many companies and partners, is it probably won’t become relevant until Apple puts an NFC chip in the iPhone.

While we understand that the industry as a whole is still in the early stages of NFC adoption, using the technology for connecting to third-party devices in the same way Sony and Nokia does with speakers and headphones could be really appealing, and we could easily imagine how great it would be if you could walk into an Apple store and simply tap with your phone to pay for the latest Apple kit. Sadly that’s still the stuff of pipe dreams at the moment for the iPhone.

Verdict

What Apple has created with the iPhone 5 is an extremely polished smartphone that oozes appeal. It’s incredibly well built, easy to use, features a beautiful screen, and comes packed with enough speed and power to service all your requirements. The hardware is just stunning. It really is impressive how much is crammed into such a tiny box.

On the software front the story isn’t as cut and dried. Apple’s iOS operating system is clean and easy to use, but iOS 6 adds little to the story over iOS 5. It doesn’t feel like it has taken the same leap forward as the hardware, and that this version of the OS has been more about filling gaps or replacing services rather than re-writing what’s available from the ground up. There are some nice touches, but they are just that.

Change isn’t always necessary, nor needed, but if there were things you didn’t like in iOS 5, chances are they will still be here in iOS 6. Microsoft’s Windows Phone trounces iOS 6 on the social connected stakes even though Apple has added Facebook this time around. BlackBerry’s BB10 OS, due out in February 2013, beats it on the email and messaging integration (we’ve played with the OS already), and Android is perfect for those that want customisation and control beyond choosing wallpapers.

That’s not to say it is a poor experience, far from it. The chances are you will be more than happy with the performance of the phone and what it offers on the software stakes. The iPhone is still the smartphone we would recommend when it comes to apps. While Android is getting closer to enjoying a parallel launch schedule for apps, Windows Phone and BlackBerry are light years behind the ingenuity shown on a daily basis either from Apple or third-party developers.

While the hardware and design here is cutting edge, the software plays it safer than we would like. For those of you that have already left the Apple eco-system for Samsung or HTC, for example, the iPhone 5 isn’t likely to draw you back. You might marvel at the build and design, but Apple with the iPhone 5 has created a smartphone that is too safe for you: you’ll feel too mollycoddled.

Instead Apple has created a phone that the millions of current iPhone users will want to upgrade to. iPhone owners will love it, enjoy all those new features, and appreciate all the hard work, design, and engineering that has gone into it.

The iPhone 5 is a phone that makes you feel safe. A phone that you know exactly how to use as soon as you take it out of the box and that is perfect for a huge number of people.

It’s a phone that, until you start craving the iPhone 6, will serve you very well indeed.

via

Incoming search terms:

• iphone 5 home screen
• iphone 5 ana ekran
• iphone 5 home screen app
• iphone 5 single phone images
• new iphone 5 home screen

When Asus finally put the original Padfone up for sale last year, many were hoping the hybrid device would be a smash hit and bring some welcome simplicity to the mobile gadget world. The smartphone-tablet-laptop sputtered out of the gate, however, and never gained much momentum. Asus isn’t giving up, however, and it looks like the Padfone 2 is just around the corner.

Hosting announcements simultaneously in Milan and Taipai, Asus will reveal the Padfone 2, according to a just-sent invite.

For those that need reminding, the Padfone is a smartphone that can plug into a tablet, which can then connect to a keyboard docking station to create an all-in-one netbook.

Though we know Padfone’s redux should come with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor, there’s not much to go on in terms of specs.

Padfone fun

The first model, which was released in the U.S. sans netbook keyboard-like docking station, came with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED smartphone packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core 1.5GHz processor.

The handset also featured an 8MP rear-facing camera, plus came with a stylus pen for added fun (and more components).

As for pricing, the original Padfone sold in the U.S. at $859.50 (£530) for a 16GB model, $959.50 (£591) for 32GB, and $1,059.50 (£653) for 64GB.

Whether or not the new one falls into those price points remains to be seen.

Incoming search terms:

• padfone 2keyboard dock