Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

In the old days pay as you go phones were cheap, cheerful and do everything required out of a phone one would need. They text, they ring. Nowadays, although not packing the super technological goods of an iPhone, HTC Desire or Galaxy S they still do their job and have basic extras. The LG “Cookie Fresh” GS290 is just that. As one of the cheapest touchscreen PAYG phones on the market (from £40ish) you wouldn’t expect too much, but if you want to know more on what we thought of it, then please click on and read our review.

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Here it is official at last, a true competitor to the iPad, the Galaxy Tab. WE’ve talked about the rumours lots here at MightyGadget and we’ve definitely sung the praises of the Galaxy S, Android phone too go alongside it. It will be officially 100% unveiled at IFA on September the 2nd but Samsung have unleashed a wonderful little teaser video showing just what the Tablet can do.

The 7” tablet PC will run the wonderful Android 2.2 Froyo OS and will feature video calling, HD video playback, e-reader functions and will allow connection to a PC it also has a camera on the back of it, certainly something over the iPad there to take into consideration. If it’s as good as the Galaxy Phone then you’re looking at some serious piece of slate.

Keep your eyes on IFA then(next Wednesday) for all the release details. For the video click this link and enjoy.

About a month ago Blackberry unveiled it’s latest phone that would be the first out with the new Blackberry 6 OS. Now we didn’t touch on it at the time but we’re letting you know now due to the fact it’s now got a release date and price for this country and it’s going to be later than Blackberry initially suggested (surprise, surprise).

AS said earlier it’s the first Blackberry release to have it’s all new Blackberry 6 OS. The 3.2” 480x360 touchscreen has a slide out QWERTY keyboard and will also sport 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage which can be expanded via MicroSD. There will be Bluetooth connectivity alongside WiFi b/g/n and it will also pack a 5MP camera with flash. Now although the specs aren’t mind-blowing, the phone’s OS should be a big enough draw to it, especially for all the Blackberry fans out there.

Initially Blackberry said it would be weeks after the US release it would reach our shores, sadly it’s now going to be late October. Our friends expansys have the phone up on their website now to pre-order but at a whopping £569.99 it seems quite pricey. Play.com also have the phone listed too, but they’re asking for a much more reasonable £499.99 SIM-free.

Digital photography seems to be the in thing at the moment, I’ve got several friends who are would be photographers and a couple who are actually doing quite well out of it seeing as it started as a hobby and is now their full time job (Tez Mercer Photography), but the main thing I’ve noticed is although it’s started as a hobby, they all have top spec gear from the off, more than one camera, various lenses etc Like most hobbies I guess you have to have the best equipment and I’m not totally clued up on photography myself, but enough to make an educated guess on what’s good and what’s not.

Now Sony the name we all know and it’s well reviewed Alpha series have brought out two new DSLRs with all the latest goodies for the top end of the home photography market. So what have they got? Firstly Sony has introduced to both the A55 and A33 a new “Translucent Mirror Technology”. A technology Sony says has until now been “unattainable with traditional DSLRs”. So what’s it mean? Basically it means the camera can shoot continuous shots and focus, whether it be stills or 1080p video.

The lower spec A33 stands at 14.2MP and the A55 a slightly higher 16.2MP. Both have a new 15point auto-focus system, the A55 can shoot at a continuous 15fps and the A33 a slightly less impressive 7fps(still impressive though) Another feature likely to interest some of our readers is it packs Sony’s 3D Sweep Panorama mode. Like some of Sony’s other cameras it allows one to take 3D wide-angle shots that can be played back on a 3DTV

Unfortunately no release dates yet or prices but we believed the A33 will probably be around the £600-£700 mark and the A55 will probably set you back an extra 100 notes on top of that.

Update: Wow, we have been impressed with the number of entries! We have now closed the competition and picked a winner by using random.org to select a comment number.

The winner is : Roisin Nuttall

Argos is offering a Mighty Gadget reader the chance to win an 8GB iPod Touch, worth £149.99.

Arguably, one of the best MP3 players on the market this is an opportunity not to be missed. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

Please use your real name and give a valid email address and only enter the competition once.

All comments are moderated and we reserve the right to accept or deny any comments made. Once your comment has been accepted you will be eligible to win the iPod Touch.

We will be opening the competition to anyone within the EU and we will announce the winner next Friday (20/08/2010).

This prize has been supplied courtesy of Argos, who provide a wide range of MP3 players, such as the iPod Touch and iPod Nano. Please note Argos only deliver to the UK

The console tug of war continues. Sony not that long ago released the slimmed down version of it’s PS3 and beefed up it’s hard drive capacity. Microsoft followed afterwards with it’s newer slimmer, quieter  bigger capacity hard drive console and soon to be arcade console. Sony not happy have now announced a new PS3 console to fight the new Xbox. But does anyone really care is the real question, what are consumers really gaining?

Japan already has the option of a white console, but here in Europe we’ve had to just make do with the plain black console to match our everyday cloud cover. Also on top of that Japan can also get a 160GB console and a 320GB console. Yes a whole 40GB and 70GB respectively more HDD space than what we can get. Well according to UK retail sources, the bigger HDD sizes are coming our way to replace the 120GB and 250GB currently doing the rounds. Whether we get a white console in this country though is anyone’s guess

No dates or prices yet but I imagine you’ll be looking just before Christmas for these to appear, probably at the prices the current 120GB(£249) and 250GB(£299) for the 160GB and 320GB respectively. Also expect any older stock to drop in price to sell through, much like the old Xbox Arcade and Elites have.

We’ve spoken about the Galaxy S quite a lot recently mainly due to the fact it looked great before it came out and all we keep reading from other sources is how great it is since it’s release. Samsung phones in my opinion have always been just “alright” never exceeding the strengths of Nokia of old or the iPhone today, but I’d love to have a go with Samsung’s iPhone killer to see if the hype is worth believing, plus it runs Android and I do love Android. Well Samsung are taking it to what seems to be the new “next level”. Nokia did it with the N97, Sony have done it with the Xperia X10. Take their giant smartphones and well, make them smaller.

The Galaxy Q has pretty much all the same specs as the Galaxy S, bt as nothing is actually truly official we can only let you know what we know. a 3” AMOLED screen still powered with the 1GHz processor and 16GB of storage. the other difference rumour is that the Q will be a “candy bar” phone and operate a full QWERTY keyboard (I’m always a fan of these) plus as it’s not out for a few months on release should have had the Android 2.2 upgrade. Couple all this with an 8MP HD video capable camera and a 1MP camera on the front, it certainly looks to be a decent enough downsize.

Sadly it’s all just rumourage, so no price or exact release date but you’ll be looking towards Christmas for the Galaxy Q.

Acer, famous for laptops and computer parts has today launched it’s brand spanking new Android 2.1 phone and given the exclusive rights to online mobile seller Expansys. If the phone is half as good as it’s laptops you can bet it will do well once the mobile carriers get a hold of it although selling it online, SIM free at the moment might be a risk.

Acer have described its Stream as a “high-end multimedia smartphone” and it delivers in the specs field to compete with the other top smartphones. Underneath the 3.7” AMOLED display is a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 512MB RAM, running Android 2.1 (2.2 update won’t be far off) Also sporting a 5MP camera capable of 720p video capture and GEO-Tagging, it has Wi-Fi and is only a tiny 11.2mm thin. Couple this with 2GB of internal storage and microSD support there’s plenty of room. Social networking is the theme for the phone with apps pre-installed but also Acer Spinlets. This is a streaming service whereby the user can listen to select songs and post their favourites onto their social networking pages. It also has mp3, AAC, OGG and FLAC support for your tunes and MP4, WMV, DivX and Xvid support for your videos.

Available today on Expansys SIM free for £399.99