The LG G Flex is coming to the UK soon and is available for pre-order. Hooray! However, It'll cost a staggering £689 to buy off contract. Boo!
Carphone Warehouse is now taking reservations for the 6-inch 720p curved smartphone, but isn't yet bold enough to say when it'll actually be released into the wild. Previous estimates have suggested the device will get its UK bow next month.
Beyond the inhibitive near-£700 SIM-free price, the quad-core handset with 2GB RAM can be nabbed on contract from £52, for the up front cost of £79. For that buyers get 5GB of 4G data on any network.
Those upgrading through CPW get somewhat of a better better deal. They can get the handset free of charge on a 2-year deal with 2GB of data for £42 a month.
Those who device to order the 13-megapixel handset through the independent high street retailer will also have the chance to win one of LG's 55-inch OLED televisions worth £7,000.
The handset, which has a self-healing Wolverine-style casing, will step inside the smartphone octagon with the Samsung Galaxy Round, but there's still no word on whether that handset will ever set foot in Blighty.
The road to Canonical's Ubuntu smartphone has been long and it seems to only be getting even longer as the open-source software company makes a play for the major leagues.
Canonical's Community Manager Jono Bacon (yes, that is a real and awesome name) admitted that the first Ubuntu Touch smartphone for major OEMs and carriers is unlikely to appear until next year in a Reddit AMA.
"Longer-term we would love to see the major OEM/Carriers shipping Ubuntu handsets," Bacon said. "This is a long road though with many components, and I would be surprised if we see anything like this before 2015."
Bacon continued to say that Ubuntu phones will likely first ship to smaller OEMs looking for lower cost and risk trial devices. As for the buyer, Bacon believes "the ideal customer today is someone who wants a dependable device but does not require a large catalogue of specific apps (as we don't have many of them yet)."
Starting off with small beginnings and high sales, Canonical hopes to send a strong message to OEMs and build from there. So for now it seems that Ubuntu is still on track to release a smartphone by this year as Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth promised in December, albeit with a small mobile net.
Swing for the fences
As for what the Ubuntu phone will actually be able to do, Bacon did not confirm many features that users can expect. Instead, during the course of the AMA, there were more items that we can expect to be missing.
Bacon answered another question pertaining to CDMA support on the Ubuntu Touch OS to which he responded that it is not on the current Ubuntu phone plan; meaning Sprint and Verizon customers won't be able to jump on board with Canonical in the foreseeable future.
Similarly, there aren't any extra touches to add integration between Ubuntu computers and phones on the docket. As Bacon explained, "[t]he primary integration will be getting content and syncing it Ubuntu One, which syncs across devices."
With so much streaming music flying all over the place, how can a listener find the stuff that's right for them? Pandora may have the answer, at least for smartphone and tablet owners.
Pandora today announced the addition of personalized music recommendations on its iOS and Android apps, which serve up to six suggested artist stations based on what the user is currently listening to.
The feature can be found on the Create a Station screen as well as at the bottom of a Station List, and keeps in mind which content you have given a thumbs up or thumbs down before offering suggestions.
To kick things off, Pandora will deliver personalized artist station recommendations, but plans to "evolve and refine" the feature as time goes on, promising it will improve the more listeners engage with the service.
Personalized listening
Since launching in 2005, Pandora has collected more than 35 billion bits of "thumb feedback" from users, making the service "uniquely positioned to deliver the perfect balance of familiarity, discovery, relevance and repetition for each individual listener," according to Chief Scientist Eric Bieschke.
In the last month alone, Pandora served up 1.58 million hours of music to more than 76.2 million listeners - a staggering amount of content users have to weed through in search of favorites old and new.
"Music discovery has always been at the heart of the Pandora experience and we've spent the last thirteen years working on the most sophisticated music recommendation system ever created," Bieschke added.
With personalized recommendations now in place, listeners can tap to see a list of Artist Stations from the "More Recommendations" option, which is refreshed with updated content whenever a new station is created or deleted.
Break yourself off a piece of that Android 4.4 KitKat in our extensive review!
Motorola has announced that it's bringing the Moto X to the UK on February 1 2014, six months after it was launched in the US, and trailing in the footsteps of the excellent Moto G.
TechRadar sat down with Mark Notton, Motorola's Head of European Product Management at the UK launch for the Moto X to find out why now is the right time, how the X stands out from the crowd and the future for the Google-owned firm.
Why now?
TechRadar: How does the Moto X fit into, and become relevant in, the UK, considering it launched six months ago in the US?
Mark Notton: "We've spoken to consumers in the UK and done a lot of research online and have found the Moto X is a product which definitely has a large appeal in the UK. The demand is out there, so we took the decision to bring the X to the UK to ensure the consumers who wanted to buy one could buy one."
It wasn't just a simple case of shipping the US version over to Britain however, Motorola did made some small tweaks to handset.
"We wanted to make sure the Moto X was fit for the UK market, so LTE bands on this model are the ones which are relevant for the European 4G market," Notton explained.
"This Moto X is launching on KitKat, which means it has the very latest software and the very latest experiences from Google. Along with the Moto G, both handsets we have in the UK are now running the latest version of Android."
The real magic
TR: Why should consumers spend their money on the Moto X over other handsets?
MN: "We've managed to deliver a number of experiences on the Moto X which you cannot get on any other devices. What we did through our research with consumers is ask them what problems frustrate them with their device, and what things do they wish they could do with their phone.
"The Moto X is architected on the X8 mobile computing system that includes a dual-core applications processor, quad-core GPU, a contextual computer processor and a natural language processor.
"The real magic of the X8 system is the contextual computing processor, that allows you to interact with the Moto X in a way you can't do with any other product out there.
"One of the ways we use the X8 system is taking a photo. You can have the phone in your pocket, pull it out and with a quick flick of the wrist open up the camera app - allowing you to take a photo very quickly."
The 10MP camera Motorola has crammed into the Moto X may not sound particularly stellar when compared to the 20.7MP Sony Xperia Z1 Compact or the 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 - but size isn't everything, as Notton explains.
Never miss a shot
"The reason we've done this is because consumers tell us that they hate missing photos, and it doesn't always have to be about a 50MP camera, because if they miss the shot it doesn't matter what camera you have in your phone, you've still missed the shot.
"Another way we've used the X8 system to deliver a unique experience is with notifications. Usually devices have a blinking light in the corner for notifications, but that doesn't really tell you much.
"On the Moto X, using the X8 system, when the handset sees light its starts to glow with the time and any notifications you've got there, which stops you firing on the full screen."
This integration aims to save on battery drain, effectively making the Moto X last longer than its rivals, although you're still required to touch the screen to see information on your latest communication.
TR: It's only an icon, so doesn't tell you any more than a coloured LED. How does this beat the competition?
MN: "When you get a new notification pulsing on screen you can tap the icon and it gives you a preview of the message.
"We've found a number of examples where this will save time and battery. Take a meeting for example, and you're getting emails through all the time, you may be waiting for that one important email.
"Rather than having to power your phone on, push your code in and check your emails, you can just tap the email icon and it gives you a glimpse of who it's from and whether it's the one you need to read immediately."
Not about the spec
TR: Is the Moto X now Motorola's flagship device in the UK?
MN: "For us both the Moto X and Moto G are equally important. We've found the Moto G has resonated really well because of everything it can do at its price point and it's doing very well for us.
"The Moto X delivers different experiences to a different part of the market and for us I wouldn't say one is more important than the other.
"Generally with flagships they are phones with the highest spec, but you can see from the X and the G we're not just cramming all the latest spec in and having a flagship phone which costs £600.
"We're really about speaking to consumers, finding out what they need and then providing tailored solutions for those needs."
TR: Is Motorola looking at wearable technology and tablets?
MN: "A year and a half ago, before Motorola was acquired by Google, we had something like 39 products in development, but since the takeover we have really stripped that back to focus on the Moto X, Moto G and some Verizon phones in the US."
"We really scaled back our portfolio and focussed on delivering experiences and re-energising our brand. As we go through the next year we'll build upon that with other new products, but certainly right now our focus is on smartphones and then building from there."
Hot on the heels of news that the Samsung Galaxy S5 won't pop up at MWC 2014 comes a little more detail about what we can expect at the South Korean's mid-March launch.
According to a tip sent to Phone Arena, the Galaxy S5 will sport a much-improved 2900mAh battery, up from the S4's sizeable 2600mAh power pack.
News of a larger capacity is nothing special, but the same tip suggests that the S5's juice pack will charge from zero to full in under 2 hours, perhaps employing the self-healing technology developed at Sanford University.
This would be a massive boost, providing a viable alternative to the removable battery problem that has supposedly been the reason behind Samsung's lack of metal handsets.
2K or not 2K, that is the question
A larger battery would also make sense, given the persistent rumours that surround the inclusion of a 2K screen on the Galaxy S5.
We might be in for a shock though, as a device under the moniker SM-G900A appeared on UAProf, coming complete with 1080p screen.
This could prove to be a cheaper version of the S5, maybe the rumoured plastic Galaxy S5 or even the Galaxy S5 Mini. It could even be a completely new device.
We'll keep our eyes peeled for more information, and report back our findings from here, as well as from next month's MWC.
It looks like privacy is set to be a big deal at MWC 2014 and Spanish mobile company Geeksphone is first out of the gates with its Barcelona-bound Blackphone.
Geeksphone hopes to make that a thing of the mobile past - rather than launching with a bazillion pixels, umpteen cores or the ability to turn water into wine, the Blackphone is all about making and receiving protected phone and video calls, sending private text messages and storing secure files.
True Incognito mode
Anonymous web browsing is also enabled via a VPN, thanks to a customised version of Android called PrivatOS. This was developed in partnership with specialist mobile encryption firm Silent Circle.
Few will be familiar with the brand Geeksphone - the manufacturer's recent forays into mobile have been through the Firefox mobile OS.
But as we become ever more aware of our digital footprints, we could see the Blackphone push Geeksphone to the fore and help it compete with the security-conscious likes of BlackBerry and Samsung Knox.
Pricing and availability have yet to be announced, although pre-ordering will begin February 24 at MWC 2014.
Perzo chief David Gurle knows a thing or two about communications. A messaging expert who previously founded Microsoft's Lync video conferencing service and once ran Skype's Business division, Gurle's latest app is a military-grade messaging system designed to keep private communications away from prying eyes.
Launched in December 2013, the service has more than 7,000 active users, racked up 60,000 sent messages, seen more than 2,000 files exchanged and adds on average around 100 users per day.
TechRadar Pro spoke to Gurle to find out more.
TechRadar Pro: The communications space is a crowded one. How does Perzo stand out from the crowd?
David Gurle: It certainly is and the need for more secure communications has become a mainstream one in the wake of the NSA spying revelations. The security policies for existing communications platforms are upside down.
The likes of Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have all built their services first and then added security on as an afterthought and for many service providers it's an inverse relationship between increased levels of security and convenience. To have more of one you get less of the other.
Perzo is the natural evolution of communication tools where email, text and instant messaging come together into an intuitive and smart interface. We built security as the foundation of the product in this next era of communications - new technologies but also new behaviours, which will bring new problems once again.
TRP: Perzo sounds like a Whatsapp equivalent but with military-grade security. Is that a fair description?
DG: No, it's much more.Perzo is a secure communications application that integrates the best of email, Instant Messaging and SMS into an easy to use and viral web application. Perzo guarantees privacy and reliability of user's data whether they are messages, files or pictures.
Perzo encrypts every message end to end. We use a three-layer encryption system along with a random key generator that encrypts each message with a different key. This ensures that there are no men-in-the-middle attacks.
TRP: What collaborative features does Perzo offer?
DG: You can think of Perzo like a privacy layer, sitting above all your existing communications tools and integrating them into one secure UI.
We also have features like Off the Record messages that enable the content of the sent message to disappear after a set timer or Private Messages that enable further encryption to prevent a 3rd party from reading the content of a critical message 'over the shoulder' and ability to request a Read Receipt for each message if needed.
TRP: Perzo is free. How is the company going to make money?
DG: Perzo will always be free. Our roadmap will see us introduce contextual intelligence, which we call smart parsing, to Perzo users.
When Perzo users decide to go to a movie, or have lunch or dinner they will turn on smart parsing and this will allow the end user to receive relevant information about the upcoming event they are talking about. It is like having search come to you at the most relevant time.
So, for example when sending a meeting invitation you can choose for Perzo to also show you recommended locations from various sites likes Yelp, Zagat or Google along with local deals coming from Amazon Local, Yipit or Foursquare, etc… If and when the user selects one of these deals, Perzo will receive an affiliate fee from the site that offers that deal.
TRP: Is Perzo aimed at consumers, businesses, or both?
DG: We designed Perzo so that it can be used for personal and professional communications. Perzo has all the reliability, security and power to be used for making communications effective in businesses while it has all the features individuals will like to be used with friends and family.
Perzo excels in business to business communications and business to consumer communications thanks to its ability to work on multi-operating system and multi-browser environments.
TRP: How pleased are you with Perzo's reception since launching a month ago?
DG: We are extremely pleased with the reception we are getting from users and from the industry. Since launch we've attracted 7000 active users, over 60000 messages sent, over 2000 files exchanged, and we're adding about 100 users a week on average.
TRP: How has your time at Skype and Microsoft helped you with Perzo?
DG: Yes significantly. I have not only learned the craft of building communication software that scales to massive number of users but I also realized that it is only outside of such big companies that I can develop a concept like Perzo which brings the best of email, sms and IM into an easy to use interface and offer true end to end security.
