Smart Office

Menu

Tony Ibrahim

Vodafone Announce Apple iPhone 5 Pricing

by

Vodafone has announced its pricing for Apple’s iPhone 5.

Vodafone will be offering the 16GB iPhone 5 (no details on the 32GB) on two plans insofar.

$6 a month on the Vodafone $60 Plan (24 months): This plan includes $700 of included value, infinite calls to customers on 3/Vodafone’s network, infinite text (standard and international) and 1GB of data, which can be used for Face Time Calls and Visual Voicemail messages.

$0 on the Vodafone $80 Infinite Plan (24 months): This plan includes infinite national voice calls, infinite text (national and international), $80 credit for services not included and 2GB of internet data, which can be used for Face Time Calls and Visual Voicemail messages.

Customers can pre-order the iPhone five now from www.vodafone.com.au/newiphone.

The main changes made to the new iPhone include a larger 4″ screen, a new A6 processor, 4G LTE technology and a thinner 7.6mm profile. Additional changes include updated software to iOS 6, an aluminium back and a smaller 8 point ‘lightening cable’ used for charging and data transfers.

Dick Smith Make Up For Website Fault With Discount

by

After their website offered Televisions and Phones at the cost of delivery alone, Dick Smith have offered those customers a 10 per cent discount of the correct price.

After a technical glitch on their website, customers could purchase products at the cost of delivery alone.

With their range of electrical products being advertised at $0, Dick Smith was forced to take down its New Zealand website for a day. A dick smith representative reported that the nature of the glitch is being investigated.

Click here for the original story.

Today, Dick Smith announced that the 60 or so customers would be contacted and offered a 10 per cent discount on their purchases or they could choose to cancel their order.

Sue Chetwin, Consumer New Zealand chief executive, said the Fair Trading Act allows a retailer to refuse to honour an advertised price if it was a genuine mistake.

Sharp Puts Full HD in the Palm Of Your Hand

by

Troubled electronic giant Sharp has a Full HD trick up its sleeve.


Click to enlarge

The company is the first to produce a Full HD 1080p resolution display for smartphones. It spans 5 inches and has a 443 pixel-per-inch density, made possible by new CG-Silicon technology. By comparison, Apple’s new iPhone 5 has a 326 pixel-per-inch density.

The Full HD resolution is currently found on top-of-the-range televisions and is 1.3 times denser than the current 4.3 inch 720p displays currently found in smartphones.
 
The displays are now entering ‘full scale’ production; however, Sharp began manufacturing them last month.

Which smartphones will be graced first with the Full HD display remains unknown, but The Verge purports the rumoured ‘HTC superphone’ could adopt it first.

Recently Sharp announced it is cutting 20 per cent of its global workforce and selling off major assets, including its share in Toshiba in the hope of returning to profitability.

Pioneering the Full HD smartphone display, coupled with their deal to provide iPhone 5 screens with Apple, should help the company see green once more.

Pro-Ject Intro New Carbon Turntable

by

In the 90s, Pro-Ject introduced a turntable that melted the hearts of audiophiles and kicked off a trend. Their Debut III turntable was special, but now there’s a promising follow-up.

I personally haven’t been privy to the sound from old-school vinyl, but audiophiles swear there’s no better way to hear music. With the release of Pro-Ject’s Debut Carbon turntable, they will be rejoicing in unison.

The new turntable retains its funky style with the 8.6″ tonearm scoring a carbon fibre upgrade for improved rigidity and a decrease in resonance.

An OM10 cartridge from Ortofon is attached to the tonearm and together they accurately track and recover the musical nuance found within the record’s grooves.

The MDF plinth now supports a heavier 300mm diameter metal platter which facilitates smother rotation. It’s also lined with a felt record mat for superior support and coupling.

The platter and plinth reside upon feet designed to absorb energy, employing Sorbothane suspension that keeps unwanted noise and vibrations to a bare minimum. Chassis mounted RCA output jacks are also featured and are compatible with higher quality interconnects.

Pro-Jects Debut Carbon is available in seven different colours (Black, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Silver or White) and will retail for $449.

The Debut Carbon Phono USB is also available but adds the following in addition to the Debut Carbon:
– Integrated phono pre amplifier, with dual-mono circuitry.
– Premium A/D conversion with USB output, enabling recording of vinyl records to PC or Mac.

The Debut Carbon Phono USB is available in black, red and white for RRP$599.

Apple Confirms Oct 23 Launch Event, Teases “Little” iPad

by

Apple has sent out invitations to a press event next week, presumably to reveal an iPad Mini.


“We’ve got a little more to show you” teases the invite, coyly hinting to a ‘little’ iPad.
 
The iPad Mini is believed to be a 7.85 inch tablet, with the introductory model featuring 8GB of internal memory. It’s estimated to cost $US249, which is $50 more than Google’s Nexus 7 tablet in the US.

Leaked images of the supposed iPad indicate it uses a lightening connector and has the same speaker vent arrangement as the iPhone 5.


Supposed images of an iPad Mini compared with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7

Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO and the company’s cofounder, didn’t believe there was room in the market for a 7 inch tablet. He believed they were “too big to compete with the smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad,” and feared developers “wouldn’t deal too well” with having to resize their apps for a different screen size.

 

Recent reports suggest a new 13 inch MacBook Pro, featuring Apple’s Retina display, will be launched at the event, along with refreshed Mac Mini computers.

The launch event will take place just 3 days before Microsoft’s Surface tablet (above) goes on sale, along with a slew of Windows 8 products.

Read: What Else Will Apple Launch On Oct. 23?

The event is scheduled for 10am on October 23rd and will be held at the California Theatre in San Jose, California. [Via CNet]

Galaxy S4: Is The Next Big Thing Coming March 15?

by

The unveiling of Samsung’s Galaxy S IV could take place on March 15, with retail availability commencing in Europe the following few weeks.

Trusted fan-site SamMobile is reporting Samsung will unveil the new Galaxy S IV at its own Samsung Unpacked event. Their “trusted source” believes the launch will take place on March 15th, which is a week following the Mobile World Congress.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 was revealed on the 25th of April last year, giving the S3 a flagship life of 11 months.

The source claims following its unveiling, the S IV will be rolled across Europe in early April, Asia a little later in the month and then America, Australia and Africa over May and June.

What makes it the Next Big Thing?

The Galaxy is expected to feature Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa (8-core) CPU, a Mali-T658 (8-Core) GPU, a 4.99 inch Full HD (1,920×1,080) screen, 2GB of RAM and a 13MP rear camera fluent in Full HD recording. Out of the box, it will run on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.

Read Galaxy S4: Samsung Reveal New Chipset + Screen

Source | Via

B&W’s New Z2 Speaker & Refreshed Zeppelin Air

by

Bowers and Wilkins has unveiled their Z2 speaker and brought the iPhone 5 lightening connector to their Zeppelin Air.

B&W’s Zeppelin Air is one of the best iPhone speakers available, but since the release of the iPhone 5 it has relied on a cheapish adaptor that undermined its charm for compatibility. Fortunately iPhone 5 users looking for a no-compromise experience can now purchase a Zeppelin Air dock fitted with Apple’s lightening connector. As the ‘Air’ moniker denotes, the Zeppelin speaker features AirPlay for wireless (and lossless) audio streaming from Apple’s iOS devices, iTunes and a PC.


Click to enlarge

Joining the refreshed Zeppelin Air is the Z2; a new lightening equipped speaker dock versed in wireless streaming through Apple’s Airplay. Cylindrical in shape, the Z2’s body conceals two 3.5 inch full range drivers benefitting from 40 watts of amplification. The Z2 can jump on a WiFi network or be wired to a network by using an Ethernet cable.

B&W’s refreshed Zepplin Air and Z2 speaker are available now from JB Hifi, Harvey Norman, Apple, and David Jones. They retail for $799.95 and $499.95 respectively.

Via Electronista,  Via Gizmodo UK