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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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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Today’s big Apple news is that 3 of their most anticipated products have been delayed due to various technical reasons. Well delayed might not be the correct term as launch dates for the iPhone 5S, iPad mini 2 and budget iPhone haven’t even been announced.

Still, industry analysts are claiming that Apple have ran in to issues with the new products which could push launches closer to the end of the year than many had hoped.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims a number of issues plague the new Apple products. The iPhone 5s’ purported fingerprint scanner and colour options being one issue, the thickness of the plastic shell on the budget iPhone a second and “Technical Challenges” face the Retina display iPad mini.

So what does all this mean for launch dates then? Well Kuo has now guesstimated the iPhone 5S and iPad mini 2 will ship between September and November while the budget iPhone could be in stores between August to October.

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It’s no secret that I have fallen out of love with the iPhone and am very much an Android phone user, but for tablets I still can’t get enough of the iPad Mini. It’s small, fast, has very little bezel and just outperforms anything else in its class, but perhaps not for long.

Google and Asus are preparing a new version of the Nexus 7 and are rumoured to be taking a few styling and feature cues from Apple’s tiny iOS tablet. The new Nexus 7, which could go on sale as early as July, is reported to offer a larger screen but with less bezel than the current Nexus tablet.

Further reports claim that a higher resolution display will be in place on the new Nexus 7 along with a faster processor and more RAM. I don’t know about you guy’s but if Google and Asus throw in a decent rear camera and Android Key Lime I’ll be sorely tempted to ditch the iPad Mini.

What do you think of the current Android tablets out there on the market? How to their compare to their rivals in the Windows and iOS world?

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Amazon have taken the Android tablet market by storm with their low-cost tablets, and now it appears they are hoping to do the same with smartphones.

It’s long been rumoured that Amazon could be working on an own branded Android smartphone, and indeed makes sense as they have their own app store, online retail network and hordes of happy fans. To further stoke the embers of speculation Charile Kindel, the ex-general manager for Windows Phone, has joined the company and is working on “something secret”. The tip off comes from Kindel himself via his Linkedin profile where he writes that he is working on “something wonderful” at Amazon.

An Amazon Android phone looks like a distinct possibility, but could you see one in your life? Keep in mind it’s possible that this project could be something totally different as well.

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iOS 6 has been on Apple iPad and iPhone devices for a good while, and fans of Apple’s mobile products are looking forward to seeing what new features iOS 7 will bring to the table.

However, it’s not going to be just new features that iOS 7 promises, but the possibility of a much overdue makeover. From the original iPhone back in 2007 to the latest iPhone 5, there haven’t been any real significant changes to the OS. In comparison Android, and even Windows Phone, barely look anything like their originals.

Ever since Jonathan Ive took over the roll of human interface development, he has promised to bring a more modern look to iOS, one which could see the faux post-it look of notes disappear. In fact each of iOS’s apps could see a more simple redesign, which may not necessarily reflect their real world counterparts.

As you would imagine, with such a big change for iOS, Apple is rumoured to be working overtime on iOS 7 and might actually be behind schedule.  No firm release dates or details of the new version of iOS have been announced but we can expect to get a first official glimpse at it during this years Worldwide Developer Conference.

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Sammobile is reporting that Samsung will announce the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini later this week with a launch date scheduled for around the end of May.

According to previously leaked specification details and from purported images of the new phone, the S4 Mini will have a 4.3-inch display, 8 mega-pixel rear camera, plus all the usual Android smarpthone features. In addition to a single SIM S4 a dual-sim model is also thought to be heading to stores too both of which ail be available in Black Mist or White Frost colour options.

This will be a similar pattern to what we saw with the S3 Mini, which resembled the looks of its bigger brother but didn’t have even close to the same specs. What do you think of the idea of the Galaxy S4 Mini, interested or not?

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Apple and Samsung could soon be joined by Google in the future smart-watch market. According to Financial Times, Google’s Android division is currently working on a smart watch device running the popular open-source operating system.

Details are thin on the ground, but the device will likely connect to your Android smartphone and also even Google Glass to provide you will watched based updates, reminders and info. Personally, I’m pretty content with my current smartphone to be too excited about a Google watch, however it will be interesting to see what Google can come up with.

Do you think that the smartwatch market is a temporary fade that won’t ever really catch on in a long-lasting way, or is there plenty of potential in this market, especially with advances in technologies like flexible screens? Let us know what you think in the comment section.

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Those of you not familiar with the Chinese phone scene might not be aware of Beijing based phone start-up Xiaomi. The phone is currently making waves across China with the Mi2, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 phone with 2GB RAM and 720p display.

As the Mi2 has been on-sale since October, the company now looks to be getting a new flagship smartphone ready for launch later this year. The Mi3, as we believe it to be called, is rumored to have a 5-inch full HD display, 2GB RAM, Snapdragon 800 CPU, 13 mega-pixel camera and 3000mAh battery.

The phone above is a supposed prototype, however similar leaks appeared of the Mi2 last year and non of them turned out to be the real phone, so take the image with a grain of salt.

We can’t wait to see what Xiaomi  has in store for their next flagship Android phone, and we’re also looking forward to next month when they are rumored to launch 2 new entry-level models, with one being powered by a Snapdragon 600 CPU.

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Many aren’t too keen on the purported name for Google’s rumored integrated chat system, but there is no denying that Google Babble is simply a great idea.

If you use Google’s various chat services — which include Hangouts, Messenger, Google Voice or Google Drive’s chat function — you might find incompatibility between the services quite annoying. Luckily this might not be the case for much longer as sources close to Google have been speaking out about a service which will replace and unify them all.

If rumors are true then we can expect to see the new Google Babble service roll out in May at the Google I/O developers conference. Google has great chat services in place already, but bringing them together and bridging the gaps will help Google become even more competitive in the chat/voice/video-calling market.

What do you think about the idea of Google Babble, excited or not?

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