Blackberry are looking to cash-in with their new low-cost Qwerty smartphone. The Blackberry Q5 was unveiled by CEO Thorsten Heins on Tuesday in Orlando.

The Q5 features a trademark Blackberry QWERY keyboard, along with a 3.1-inch touch screen, but that’s about all we know about the entry-level handset from a hardware point of view. Blackberry have announced that the Q5 will be available in black, white, red, orange and pint and will go on sale in selected markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia from July. No pricing has been announced yet.

What’s most interesting about the Q5 is that it is clearly a budget device — something that Blackberry originally intended to keep BB10 away from for a while. What do you think of the Q5? Hope it comes stateside?

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The Sony range of Xperia phones will soon be joined by a new budget minded device, if these leaked photos and rumored specifications are found to be genuine.

According to the leak, the S39h will be a 4.3-inch 720p Android phone, and will go on sale in China to compete in the fiercely competitive smartphone market. A full specification sheet hasn’t been made available yet, but tipsters suggest the phone to offer dual-sim support, and either a 5 or 8 mega-pixel rear camera. The Xperia S39h might even end up being powered by a quad-core Mediatek chip, if reports in China are to be believed.

Personally I’m not a fan of the design of the S39h and believe Sony will need to improve their styling to compete with high spec, low-cost phone offered by local Chinese brands. What do you think of the S39h, how does it compare to other Chinese-marketed handsets out there?

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Scientists at Nottingham University are currently working on a new method of treating children suffering from lazy eye. The new treatment uses video games and special glasses, which is already proving to be very effective.

The problem with the current treatment is that children are required to wear an eye patch over their good eye for extended periods of time. The results are usually poor, as patients are reluctant to put the patch on. In comparison the new video game based treatment is not only fun but appears to work even after just a few short sessions.

Developers working on the project have created ‘shutter glasses’. The lens covering the good eye shows static content while the other eye sees the action in the foreground. When combined, users experience the game just as they would playing normally.

Nottingham University are now teaming up with Sony Europe to adapt some current Playstation 3 games for use in the ground breaking treatment.

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Popcap, makers of my favorite plant-based zombie game, have announced that they will finally revive the ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ franchise in July. The long awaited sequel to the popular strategy game named ‘Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time’ is likely to be available on all popular mobile platforms as well as on PC, Mac and select consoles.

Details of the new game haven’t been announced, however a quick read of the Popcap blog seems to suggest that PVZ2 will be a ‘Freemium’ game with possible pay to unlock features and social network integration.

Popcap have also been strangely quiet as to why it has taken so long to launch the sequel, the acquisition by EA and staff layoffs are likely to blame, however they have posted the following video poking fun at themselves for the delay:

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Fans of Blackberry’s QWERTY equipped phones will be interested to hear that a new budget-oriented phone could be making an appearance next week at the Blackberry Live conference.

The news comes in the form of a leaked photo of the R10 along with purported specifications from Chinese website DGtle. According to their sources the Blackberry R10 will feature the same 3.1-inch display and 2GB RAM as the more costly Q10 but with a lower spec 5 mega-pixel camera, 8GB ROM and just an 1800mAh battery.

The R10 will be aimed at the entry-level market but would also make a great replacement for anyone wanting to update their older Curve handset. What’s interesting is that Blackberry has said that they will be focusing mostly on the high-end with BB10, so either they’ve changed their mind or they are simply billing this as their first mid-ranger. What do you think, would you be interested in a cheaper variant of the Q10? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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Apple is still top dog when it comes to tablet market share, a pretty impressive feat for a company with only 2 tablet models to choose from, however they aren’t sitting quite as pretty as before as their share has slipped while rivals begin to catch up.

When the ‘tablet wars’ kicked off, the Apple iPad seemed all but unbeatable, but times have changed and the iPad mini came a little late to the party giving the likes of Samsung, Amazon, Asus and others the chance catch up with their pint-sized offerings. The shift in market share is quite dramatic with Apple slipping from a 65% share at the start of 2012 to just under 40% this year. In second place Samsung enjoys a 18% market share, with Asus and Amazon making up the rest and Microsoft coming 5th with 1.8%.

From what we have been seeing Apple’s share will continue to slip unless they really do something special with the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2, but even then it won’t be easy, as a new Nexus tablet is expected soon, along with more Samsung tablets on the way.

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The next generation XBox will be revealed later this month on May 21st, and as you would expect rumors have been heating up over what the next gaming powerhouse could have to offer.

One rumor  which as fans of the current Xbox split, is that the new console could require a constant and active Internet connection to allow games to be played. The idea is provide always-on DRM, as well as provide a way to have constant background updates for the console.

The good news is that this rumor might not be true after all. Instead the newest rumor says that publishers will be able to program whether games need the active connection or not. In addition, further details say that publishers will be able to add new achievements to games without the need of a download. But the most exciting piece of news is that the new Xbox is meant to have a DVR-style recording function, allowing gamers to record game play videos and upload them to social networks somewhat like the social functions expected in the PS4.

Of course these are just rumors, and we will have to wait until later this month for the full details.

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Qualcomm announced at an event held earlier today in Beijing that the big daddy Snapdragon 800 will see production toward the end of May. The Snapdragon 800 features some key performance updates over to Snapdragon 600 (found in the S4, HTC One, Optimus G Pro etc) including Krait 400 architecture and Ardreno 330 graphics.

What these improvements actually mean though are the new chip is capable of being clocked at 2.3Ghz and will happily play 4K video at 30fps, although it remains to be seen just how useful this will be on a phone size display. It is rumoured that China’s ZTE will be the first company to launch a Snapdragon 800 phone, but we’ll have to wait until later this year for confirmation and further details.

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Samsung are once again pushing the boundaries of what can be done with a mobile device. Their latest concept is a brainwave controlled tablet. The idea might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the Korean electronics giant actually have a working prototype based on the current Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab.

The current system uses a wearable cap which is studded with EEG sensors. Researchers working with Samsung on the system have found that it is possible for users to open an App and select a contact simply by concentrating and using the blink of an eye. The system is far from market ready though, but with considerable research we could see thought controlled mobile devices entering markets in the near future. 

Imagine the potential for this kind of control system for those with disabilities. If such a control method could be perfected, it could truly be a life-changer for some folks.

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Source code found in a recent build of Windows 8.1 might hint at a new boot up option for the latest Windows update. Currently Windows 8 users are forced to boot to the tiled menu screen before heading to the desktop to get some actual work done. On a touch screen device this isn’t really an issue, but if you are using a track pad or mouse it’s an unnecessary extra step.

Russian site Windows Portal claims that code they have found might allow users to jump directly into the desktop in Windows 8.1. Those browsing through the code say that “twinui.dll” can be disabled and reactivated depending on which screen you wish to start from.

Already current users of Windows 8 are excited by this prospect, and those currently on Windows 7 have said they would be more likely to update if this feature is included in 8.1.

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