Samsung are expecting the Galaxy S4 to pass 10 million sales next week.

Co-chief executive Shin Jong-kyun told reporters at an industry forum that the company was confident the flagship would pass 10 million sales by next week, and that it was selling faster than its predecessor, the Galaxy S3, the Korea Times reported.

“Samsung spent 50 days to pass the 10 million sales mark for the S3. The S4 will be Samsung’s first ’10 million seller’ device less than a month after its official debut.”

The device passing 10 million would make it the fastest selling smartphone in the Korean company’s history, the Korea Times reported.

However the Times reported that the chief executive remained reticent when it came to unbreakable, or flexi-displays, saying more time was needed.

Say The Same Thing

Space Inch, LLC

Free on Apple iOS and Android

OK Go, the band behind such visual masterpieces as the music videos for This Too Shall Pass and Here It Goes Again, have dabbled in mobile gaming.

More specifically, they’ve created Say The Same Thing in collaboration with Space Inch, a words-with-friends style game for Apple and Android devices.

The aim of the game is, unsurprisingly, to say the same thing as your buddy, who can be one of your friends, a random person or even, coolest of the cool, a member of OK Go (you have to queue for an unspecified time for this).

To get you both to say the same thing, the idea is to start with two random words of your and your buddy’s choosing, and then try and say a word which has something in common with both those two, whose meaning slots in between the two, as it were. For instance, if the words were ‘alarm’ and ‘hot’, you might say ‘fire’.  If you both say the same word, you win, and if you don’t, you continue on with the two new words you’ve both just said.  You can’t use the same word twice but your answers can be in the form of a phrase.

You can choose the x2 button, which lets you put in two words, and if your partner guesses either, you win.  There’s also the ‘That Counts’ button, which will count an answer if you and your partner both think you got the same word (handy if one of you is a terrible speller, for instance).  You can also add stamps to people’s words, to encourage your buddy, such as ‘Genius’ and ‘Lol’; these sound lame but they’re actually quite nice to receive, particularly when playing a random stranger and they award you with a stamp – it’s primary school all over again.

These options, however, cost bananas.  You’re given 50 bananas at the start of the game and three every hour when you get low, until you’re back up to 12.  Each new game costs two bananas, and you can have several games on the go at once; in fact, this was the only way I found it interesting enough to play, since your buddy can take an age to respond.

There are various additional extras, like buddy chat, and the game recommends that you play Say The Same Thing in person with your friends by thinking of a word for each round and having someone count down from three.  If you say the same thing, you have to hug (check out the video of OK Go demonstrating this):

The YouTube video description says OK Go formulated the game while on tour.  And the thing is, I’m sure it’d work well when you’re surrounded by quirky and fun-loving people who get the rules.

My problem is, when you’re playing with strangers, you seem to run up against a lot of people who don’t quite understand how the game works, or indeed, what words are.  Someone replied to ‘butter’ and ‘pillow’ with ‘butterpillow’ (what?!).  Someone else consistently wrote the same thing that I did, or variations of my previous word, instead of a word in between the two.  And after a series of near misses, people seem to get tired of the game and give up; three games are currently on hold and have been for 24 hours.

You can however invite friends to play, via Facebook (login to the app requires a Facebook login or a Games Center login, which is kind of annoying) and this is where the game gets good.  Your friends are generally your friends because they think a bit like you, plus the chat function can be used to ridicule or applaud each other’s choices.  My friend and I played about five games in a row, and had a trail of conclusions starting with ‘Sick Monkey’ through ’28 Days Later’ and ending in ‘Cure’.  For a word between ‘Rubbish’ and ‘Money’ my friend wrote ‘Wall Street’ and for ‘Dino’ and ‘T-Rex’ she wrote ‘Tiny Arms’. In short, playing with ingenious and hilarious people will make this game incredibly addictive.

The game is also free, which is all kinds of good, but does have pop up ads which become more frequent, the more you play and are intensely annoying when in the middle of a game.  However, for the amount of fun I ended up having guessing words in between ‘Time Travel’ and ‘Fred Flintstone’, I think I can handle that.

LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles

The LEGO Group

Free on Apple iOS

It’s my week for LEGO games, obviously.

LEGO Star Wars follows Yoda in his quest to save the galaxy from an unspecified danger, which does involve, however, General Grievous, one of Star Wars’ cooler looking characters who really wasn’t given enough back story and also, incidentally, should have had far more lightsabre-to-limb accidents.

The game is played almost resource collection-style, in that you have a birds eye view of your tiny Star Wars characters, and you control several units at one time, without any particular control of individuals and their powers – so if Yoda’s in your team, he’ll hack and slash with his light sabre, rather than using any special powers.

You play through various capture-the-flag missions, such as liberating bases, finding people and defeating enemies.  You can build a variety of Star Wars units, such as star ships, infantry and machines, and whether you get 501st Clone Troopers or Storm Troopers, X Wings or TIE Fighters, depends on which side you choose – Light (Jedi) or Dark (Sith).  I’ve never found resource-building games that enthralling (think Command and Conquer) but the missions are short and easy enough, with bonus missions such as finding C3PO, to keep your attention sufficiently hooked that you’ll risk missing your bus while standing around at 10pm in the rain (not to get specific or anything).

The main reason for playing through, however, just like the Star Wars LEGO games of yore, is for the cut scenes. What Warner Bros didn’t quite get right in the LEGO Batman game reviewed recently, Star Wars: Yoda Chronicles have re-captured fantastically; the cut scenes are priceless, including various shots of C3PO fussily trying to restrain baby Jedis (“I forbid you to take off” *Ship takes off* “Oh! I forbid you to cheer!” *Kids cheer*) and said padawans trying to stop General Grievous by throwing themselves onto various body parts, who flails and shouts in righteous indignation, small Jedi clinging to his four limbs.

Gameplay occurs by tapping the screen to move, on enemies or brick piles to fire and collect studs, and approaching ‘build stations’ to heal your units and build more, with the game allowing up to five at a time (which is sensible – five AT ST walkers or X Wings is enough for a smaller screen).  This is where the game falls down a bit, since your tapping will often be taken for a movement command, not an attack; this is particularly annoying when defending an object or person, as your units merrily wander off screen while said person is attacked by various Sith (or Jedi) troops and you frustratedly stab at your screen.

The game takes an age to load but flows fairly smoothly from there, and includes various extras like bonus levels which, once unlocked, can be played online to upgrade your units, different Star Wars worlds to play through, bonus missions such as time trials and, one of the more awesome bonuses, the Star Wars theme as background menu music.

It’s also free to play, so it’s pretty clear the force is strong with LEGO.

Nokia has launched the newest addition to the Lumia family, the Lumia 925.

The device, Nokia said, is a variation of its flagship, the Lumia 920 and the focus, much like the Lumia 928 launched exclusively with Verizon in the United States, is on its improved camera capabilities.

What Mobile had a play with the device at the launch event for a first look.

Design

The Lumia 925 is noticeably slimmer and lighter, at 8.5mm thick and 139g, than the Lumia 920 which could feel like a brick.  The Lumia 925 feels fairly easy to handle in terms of size, measuring 129 x 70.6mm.

It does, however, look a little nondescript; it risks falling into the ‘black rectangle’ box of phones, although its metal band does help differentiate the device somewhat.

The phone feels pretty solid in your hand, like it could stand up to some beating, so the metal case so far seems to be a good step.

Functionality

The screen looks good, much like the Lumia 920′s – it’s sharp and clear, displaying photos and text well, with a resolution of  768 x 1280 pixels.

One of the more interesting and useful developments was the improvement (Nokia said) in software algorithms for light recognition by the screen sensors, which meant when viewing photos in bright light and then when moving to dark, the screen automatically adjusts to display better in your given environment. What Mobile tested this out and found it pretty good; the screen automatically darkened in areas when moving into a darker room, to better display the photo on view, and then lightened when moving directly under a light.

In comparison with the display of photos taken with others phones, including an iPhone 5, Lumia 920 and Samsung Note 2, the Lumia 925 displayed the photos under direct light the best, although it was closely followed by the Lumia 920.

The processor, a dual core Snapdragon 1.5GHz chip with 1GB RAM seems to handle well, flicking between tasks and apps easily and without immediately noticeable lag.

Camera-tastic

The big news, of course, and the angle Nokia is pushing, is the improvement in camera hardware and software on display in the Lumia 925, and as a first look, these improvements aren’t half bad.

The 925 comes with Nokia’s Smart Camera, which seems to be a (very) upgraded Smart Shoot, a camera option which takes 10 different frames.  There are a whole range of editing options for these frames which look to rival, for instance, Samsung’s recent developments in this area, the difference being these options are included in the single mode – so users don’t have to select a separate mode for each action they wish to perform with their photos.

These various camera modes include Best Face, which picks the best facial expression from any shot and pastes it onto your chosen frame (so you can pick the photos where you don’t look goofy in a group shot).  What Mobile tested this and it worked okay – you can certainly choose the best photo of your face (however painful your expression might be) but there was a problem with the resulting photo looking definitely (and badly) photo shopped, with a square of my face bluntly placed on top of another photo, meaning I ended up having four shoulders.  The demonstrator said this could be a problem with camera movement.

Smart Camera also offers Remove Moving Object mode, which automatically removes any object or person moving through your frame, a direct rival to Samsung’s Eraser mode.  This worked well when What Mobile tested it on Nokia’s demonstrator skater, removing the skater completely from the scene.  Like Samsung’s Eraser, significant displacement (or ‘heavy movement’ as Samsung calls it) needs to occur with an object before it will be recognised as moving.

Another editing option is Action Shot, which allows users to choose which frame of the action they want, and superimpose frames one on top of the other to give the look of movement.  This is a pretty nifty option, allowing various poses of the skater to be selected in one photo – there’s also an option to blur the background and focus on a specific foreground object which worked well and made the photo seem more active.

A Nokia rep said, dependent on the photo’s subject matter, every Smart Camera shot (so 10 frames) could use up to 15 to 20 MB of space on your phone.

One of the big capabilities that Nokia is pushing, particularly with their 928 comparison video for the US-only phone, is the Lumia 925′s abilities in low light conditions, and this was where the device really stood out from competition.  In a very darkly lit bar situation (to be fair, likely darker than an actual bar at night), the Lumia 925, without flash, picked up a fairly clear picture; it was still muddy with blurred outlines, but colour and clarity were much better when compared with other phones, including the BlackBerry Z10 which took a completely black photo, the iPhone 4 which was very grainy and grey, with a few details, and the Lumia 920, which was good but not as clear or well-coloured as the 925.

The 925 vs 920 vs 928

The 925 and 928 were “variations” of Nokia’s flagship Lumia 920, the company said.  The 928 had a polycarbonate cover, not metal as the 925 did and the 928 had three microphones for an audio focus, while the 925 focussed on lowlight imaging, a rep said.  The 928 had built-in wireless charging, whilc the 925 has three pins for wireless charging covers.

The 925 does not have the Xenon flash, as the 928 does, and there are other small hardware differences, a Nokia rep said.

Accessories

Nokia is also releasing some new accessories with the 925, including a portable charger launched in India last week and due for global release in June or July, for around €19.  The charger has a micro USB cable and indicates how much charge it has left when the charging lead is extracted.

The 925 will also have wireless charging covers on offer when it launches, similar to those for the 720, which will retail for around €29.90.

10.42am: A question about whether the suffix ’5′ at the end of the 920 means whether a full range of ’5′ Lumia devices will be on offer with similar capabilities, such as 625, 825.  Harlow says in terms of the numbering, as each device is developed, Nokia looks for the right number within its numbering system; this doesn’t necessarily mean it would have 625 etc but doesn’t mean it wouldn’t either: “I’ll keep my options open”

10.38am Further carrier and distribution announcements to come, Harlow says.  Specific announcements will be made in specific countries with specific distributors in coming weeks, but can expect to be available in Latin America.

10.37am Question time – launch in China will be a separate announcement, but happening “very soon” Harlow says.

10.36am Later this summer, Nokia will continue to bring “new innovation” and new user experience to Lumia portfolio – does this mean more Lumia devices?

10.33am Vodafone’s Patrick Chomet said the 920 was slightly too heavy; 925 is a good Nokia all rounder. Highlights design, Windows Tile experience, LTE and covers all frequency bands in Europe, imaging and video is “way above average”.  Launching in four big European markets.

10.29am Lumia 925 will be around  €469 before subsidies and taxes launching in June. In US launching as T Mobile’s flagship, China launching with China Mobile and China Unicom, launching with Vodafone in UK, Germany and Spain.

10.28am 145,000 apps for Windows Phone 8, including Temple Run.  Four Square and Burton apparently building experiences for Windows Phone 8.

10.26am Smart Camera latest experience will be available via Firmware update Nokia Lumia Amber to whole portfolio of Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices (Available with Lumia 925 when it ships).

10.23am Live demo of editing and camera capabilities – Jo Harlow from Nokia slam dunks a basketball, and Smart Camera selects best photo (not actually the best).  Action shot, allows you to switch between various frames, which is quite cool, has Jo mid-shot.  Motion focus – background blurred, Jo clarified.

10.20am Smart Camera also allows you to choose the best face when you’ve got one of everyone looking nice, and superimpose on photos.

Remove Moving Objects, like Samsung’s Eraser, removes moving objects when people walk by a photo.

10.17am Nokia Smart Camera takes multi frame shots and combines with editor from single app.  Action shot allows you to superimpose images on top of a picture, can add fade effects to show motion.

Motion Focus creates motion blur in background and clarifies front picture. Can change strength of blur and edit image movement, so you can have someone walking by and choose where you want them to appear in their walk.

10.16am Can select various sharing options including Facebook, FourSquare and yes, Instagram.  For people who love photography.

10.14am The Lumia 925 will launch with Hipstamatic’s unique app with Oggl community who love photography; app avail only on iPhone as well.  Takes advantage of Windows Phone platform advantages.  App features a camera mode with various filters; food filter, night time filter etc.  Can view library of pics, or in profile page, can see activity of others, can buy more add ons such as filters.

10.11am  Nokia is ontinuing to push design, explore new manufacturing tech, new design approaches to materials. With a focus on metal this led to the Lumia 925

Advanced software logarithms to give better camera capabilities, even in low light, advanced Nokia smart camera to give best action shots etc, metal band design, around the body delivers a good antenna.

Aluminium frame contains antenna construction; product built out of metal with “incredible” antenna performance.

4.5 inch AMOLED display with Clear Black tech and curved glass.

8.7MP OIS, Carl Zeiss optics and flash, in normal mode delivers 8MP pics, 5MP images in Smart mode.

10.07am Yup, it’s the Lumia 925, with enhanced camera software, smart camera and a metal band design to work as an antenna.

10.06am  Built like all Lumias; polycarbonate monobody and sculpted glass.  Allows to focus on important – the home screen and apps.

Continuing to push design, explore new manufacturing tech, new design approaches to materials. Metal: Lumia 925

10.03am Talking about balance of software and tech in 920 to allow a good camera. Engineers working to bring more capability and balance to Lumia. Introduced 928 with Verizon in the US, with same camera engine as the 920.  PureView camera also. Talking about clarity of sound on 928; speakers which allow clear audio with its camera.

10.02am Nokia will introduce a “great summer” of announcements for Nokia, plus a new Nokia Lumia to show.

9.57am Five minute warning. There’s a whole lot of mentions about ‘seeing’ the next development etc, so I’m guessing there’s going to be an emphasis on the camera capabilities (so the 928?)

9.52am Yusss WiFi boost. Looks like event may be about to start soon. For our recent Nokia coverage (and to guess what the company might be launching today) check out our story here.

9.45am Nokia have certainly pulled out the stops – there’s room full of press (and Nokia Italy, I’m sure I saw at some point). Plus, there are fancy lights.

9.35 am All ready and set to go at Nokia’s launch event for what it is saying is something which continues the Nokia Lumia story. They’ve provided coffee, so I’m happy. Stay with us as we cover the event live.

An unfamiliar brand enters the arena with a familiar Android device

Price: £179

Reviewer: Richard Brown

If this is the first time you’ve ever heard of Prestigio, you are not alone. The manufacturer, based in Cyprus, is a newcomer to the UK market even though it has been trading across Europe since 2001, offering a wide range of products. 

The MultiPhone 4500 DUO sits proudly at the top of the company’s smartphone range, heading up a family of four or five other less well-endowed Android models. All are offered SIM-free at competitive prices via mail order, either through Prestigio’s own Plaza (see box-out) or other online stores.

With a complete feature set that includes Android 4.1, dual SIM, Wi-Fi, eight-megapixel camera and HD video playback, this particular handset is available in either black or white versions (the review sample provided for us was white). It’s an inoffensive, sleek device dressed in a minimalist monotone colour scheme, with a slimline form-factor at just 9.6mm in depth. The 4500 DUO feels comfortable to hold, with a healthy weight of 156g affording it a bit of durability and substance, together with the toughened screen constructed from Gorilla Glass.

Unlike so many of today’s manufacturers, Prestigio has relegated its company logo and brand name to the back panel of the device, on the all-encompassing battery cover, leaving the front side trademark free. It’s a small but modest gesture that’s very welcome in this age of in-your-face marketing.

SILVER SCREEN

The 540×960 pixel display dominates the front fascia, with a front-facing camera lens in the top right corner and the traditional Menu, Home and Back keys at the bottom. Volume controls sit discreetly on the left hand side and the power button is on the right edge. Here Prestigio isn’t taking any chances with a tried-and-trusted formula that will be familiar to anyone who’s used an Android smartphone.

One plus point is the dual SIM option; there’s a slot for WCDMA and one for GSM. For anyone who wants to use two numbers it’s a no-brainer, otherwise it might be helpful to switch between a high-speed 3G network and a slower 2G network depending on the level of coverage in your area, or to save battery life by using GSM. We tested out voice calling on both protocols and the call-quality was equally clear on both, although we did need to turn the volume up to almost maximum in order to hear the caller. Alongside the SIM card slots is a microSD card slot for expandable memory, but you need to remove the battery in order to access them. No memory card is provided.

In the box we did find a micro-USB cable, a European charger, two sets of basic in-ear headphones (one black, one white) and a protective leather sheath-like case. A minor point to note is that the handset fits into the case very tightly indeed, so much so that it takes quite an effort to remove; you have to grab the slightly protruding camera lens with a thumb, whilst holding the case in the other hand, to tug out the phone.

The 4500 DUO runs on a recent version of the Android operating system, 4.1 Jelly Bean, the same as other notable products such as the HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Where it differs from these devices is in the fact that Prestigio has opted against customising the operating system in any shape or form; what you get is the pure, unadulterated, ‘vanilla’ version of Android. Whilst to some this might show a lack of imagination, to others it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because there’s a growing movement of rebellion from Android users against the skins that manufacturers such as HTC or Samsung lay over the top of the menu system (Sense and TouchWiz respectively). Google is awash with guides on how to strip your device of its customised user interface and maybe manufacturers are starting to follow suit, with Motorola recently adopting a similar strategy by installing a clean version of Android 4.0 on its Razr i smartphone.

So, let’s see what’s on the menu. Jelly Bean 4.1 has many improvements over its predecessors, chief of which is the overall operability of the user interface. It looks good and feels more fluid, with the transitions between homescreens faster and smoother, for example.

One major difference is in the notifications panel, accessed by dragging the top menu bar down to the bottom of the screen. The notifications are now actionable, meaning that if you tap on an alert for a new email, for example, you will go straight to that message in your inbox. It’s a simple, logical solution that vastly enhances the user-experience and efficiency of the device.

eReader Prestigio

The one and only proprietary application that comes pre-installed on the Multiphone 4500DUO is this nifty e-reader. It’s neatly designed with the books arranged cover-facing on a nicely rendered wooden bookshelf and operates in both portrait and landscape modes. The app itself is really intuitive to use and can be fully customised, with options to adjust the screen illumination, background, language and font.

There’s a huge library to choose from with more than 622,000 eBooks available to download, of which around 30,000 are free, however the selection of free titles is quite obscure and dated, whilst for more recent releases the prices are a little on the high side when compared to another outlet such as the Kindle Store, for example. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable, well-crafted app that adds some much needed personality to the handset.

Prestigio Plaza

The Multiphone 4500DUO is available for €209 (£175) SIM-free at Prestigio’s dedicated online store, which supplies products to 47 different countries.

Here you can also purchase the full range of Prestigio mobile devices, including Smartphones, Tablets, eBook readers and GPS systems, alongside a selection of desktop PCs and peripherals. There’s a range of accessories, not only for Prestigio products but other manufacturers too.

APPY DAYS

Perhaps to compensate for the lack of OS customisation and the presence of only one exclusive application, namely eReader Prestigio (see box-out), the manufacturer has opted to pre-install a decent variety of third party apps onto the handset. You get Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Translate amongst others, with Angry Birds, Chess and Solitaire for gamers. More can be downloaded via the Prestigio Installer widget that sits on the homescreen, or via the Google Play Store widget which also resides there.

The 1.2GHz dual-core processor is by no means the most powerful on the market, but it keeps things ticking along nicely, with applications loading very quickly and running smoothly. The screen is responsive to the touch as well, thus enabling a pleasant usability for everyday functions such as browsing web pages or writing text messages and emails on the virtual keyboard.

In terms of multimedia, the 4500DUO performs capably, if not brilliantly. The generic Android music player is logically constructed and straightforward to use, as is the video player that reproduces clips and movies in HD format. Videos look impressive on the large 4.5-inch screen that dominates the front of the handset, with nice colour reproduction and smooth rendering. The built-in speaker, located on the back of the device, isn’t particularly loud though, even at full volume.

The handset features an 8MP camera, with auto-focus and a host of shooting modes such as panorama, smile shot, best shot and auto scene detect. Like so many other examples in this price bracket, the camera performs well in outdoor situations with good lighting, but struggles with tones and focus indoors when brightness is lacking. The flash doesn’t help too much either. Nevertheless the snaps taken will be fine for general use and uploading to social media sites. There’s also a front-facing camera for video calling.

One thoughtful new addition on Android 4.1 is the ability to immediately view a slideshow of the pictures you have recently taken by tapping a small icon above the on-screen shutter button, with the option to immediately share the images you like via various online resources, or instantly delete ones you’re not satisfied with. To have this functionality without going down the traditional route of opening up the gallery is a real bonus.

No official figures are available from the manufacturer on battery life, however we found that the 1850mAh cell provided around one day’s standard usage, less if videos were watched or games played excessively. So the handset will require a nightly charge, which is standard fare for a smartphone these days.

OVERALL

The Prestigio MultiPhone 4500 DUO is a user-friendly, well-featured and well-priced device that ticks all the right boxes for a modern smartphone, but ultimately offers nothing fresh and fails to really dazzle. Providing a smooth Android experience in a classic design with a competitive price tag, it will go up against the likes of Huawei or HTC’s budget range and is a viable alternative to those brands for SIM-free shoppers, particularly those consumers for whom a dual SIM is required. The main problem Prestigio faces is brand awareness, as the company name will be irrelevant to much of its potential market.

Verdict:

The Prestigio MultiPhone 4500 DUO is a user-friendly, well-featured and well-priced device that ticks all the right boxes for a modern smartphone. Even though it ultimately offers nothing fresh and fails to really dazzle, it’s a capable performer.

+ Stylish slimline design

+ Dual-SIM option

+ Neat e-reader app

– Minimal OS customisation

– Lack of exclusive apps

– Average battery life

OVERALL:  

PERFORMANCE: 

DESIGN: 

USABILITY: 

FEATURES: 

Ah, the variety of a giant like Samsung!

As a company with a whole lotta smart devices on its hands, some more weird and wonderful than others, the swirling rumours surrounding just what Samsung will release next are kind of understandable.  Recently, these rumours seem to focus on the company’s new flagship, the Galaxy S4 (which we took a gander at here).

There are the whispers that a rugged version of the S4 will be released shortly, with Gizmodo reporting that reporters at the launch of the S4 in the Gulf region said Samsung Gulf president Young Soo Kim confirmed a rugged version of the S4 in response to questions about the company’s lack of offerings in the water resistant realm.  CNET reported it would be a waterproof and dust proof version of the S4.

Then there were the rumours about the S4 Mini, which to be fair would follow a pattern, considering the S3 had its own mini version.

The Mini, potentially to be released in mid-July, would come in two versions, including dual SIM, with  a 4.3″ display, 8MP camera running on Android 4.2.2 and a dual core processor, Sammobile reported.

And now there’s the Zoom.

UnwiredView is reporting that the S4 Zoom has been spotted on the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, with model number SM-C101 (and of course, featuring Bluetooth 4.0).  The device would reportedly resemble the Mini but feature a 16MP rear camera, with optical zoom.

TechCrunch reported optical zoom was the main differentiator between smartphone cameras and traditional point and click, which  many manufacturers were working to overcome. The phone would feature 10x zoom, the strongest available, TechCrunch said.

UnwiredView said the device could be released in early June in black and white.

Roughly 826,000 people had their phones stolen last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The Office for National Statistics released its Crime Survey for  England and Wales (CSEW) which showed about two per cent of mobile phone owners experienced theft in the past 12 months.

This was an estimated 826,000 people, compared with 759,000 in 2009/2010 and 908,000 in 2008/2009.

While this  two per cent was roughly consistent since the 2005/2006 survey when the question was first introduced, there was an increase in mobile phone ownership over this period which meant the two per cent was a small increase.

Those who had their phones stolen were likely to be children aged 14 to 17 years old or adults aged 18 to 24 years old, with the rate being around four per cent (twice as high as the average).

The highest risk group was women aged 18 to 24 years old, with one in twenty the victim of theft in the last year.

45 million mobile phone owners

It’s important to note the ONS doesn’t differentiate between ‘smartphone’ and ‘mobile phone’ on the survey, to keep wording consistent since 2005/2006.

According to the survey, 81 per cent of residents in England and Wales owned a mobile phone, equivalent to 45 million people, in 2011/2012, compared with 39.3 million in 2005/2006.

The number of male and female owners were roughly equivalent, at 22.2 million males and 22.8 million females, and the highest levels of mobile phone ownership were amoung 18 to 44 year olds at 98 per cent, which is not really a surprise (that’s a big age range).

Seven per cent of children under 10 years old owned a mobile phone (what!) and 58 per cent of those aged 75 or older were owned a mobile, the least likely group to own mobiles among adults.  The latter, however, was up from 35 per cent in 2005/2006.

Teenagers and young adults most likely to have phone stolen

The survey showed that teenagers and young adult owners were more likely than any other age group to have had their phone stolen in the past 12 months, with four in 100 mobile phone owners aged 14 to 24 a victim of phone theft in the past year.

It was a combination of high rates of ownership and high rates of theft that meant young people made up a disproportionate share of mobile phone theft victims, the ONS said.

While phone theft victims among male and female owners in the past year were similar, at 1.8 and 1.9 per cent respectively (translating to about 397,000 male victims and 429,000 female victims), differentiating by both age and sex showed that among younger age groups, boys were at more risk of theft, with boys aged 10 to 13 at higher risk than girls of the same age.

Women 18-24 highest risk group for mobile phone theft

However among 18 to 24 year olds, women were at more risk, with 5.2 per cent of women having their phone stolen in the last year compared with three per cent of men.  This meant women aged 18 to 24 were at the highest risk of mobile phone theft, ONS said, with one in 20 experiencing a theft in the past year.

For adults aged 25 and older, there was no statistically significant difference between men and women in risk of mobile phone theft, ONS said.

Bad news if you’re 16 or older, and single, since you’re most likely to experience a mobile phone theft at 3.1 per cent compared with all other types of marital status; and adults who were married were least likely to experience mobile phone theft at 0.8 per cent, although the ONS said this was likely due to the age profile of groups, since single adults would be more likely to have a younger age profile etc.

Crime 

While mobile phone theft remains a small fraction of overall ‘acquisitive crime’, or crime where something of value is likely to be taken, it has risen since 2010/2011, from 378,000 instances to 525,000 in the past year.

The ONS noted that both use and sales of smartphones increased in 2012, and that stolen smartphones had higher resale values than standard phones as well as personal data.

“Although it is not possible to tell from the CSEW data, it may be that smartphones are driving the latest increases seen in mobile phone theft incidents.”

Watch out on the bus – and during the weekends

Seven in 10 incidents were personal thefts, and more specifically theft from a person, where a phone was taken without force, for instance pick pocketing, with about a third, or 25 per cent of thefts taking place on public transport or in another public place, and 31 per cent occurring on the street.

Four in 10 incidents, or 39 per cent, were ‘other personal thefts’ where the phone was not in the owner’s possession at the time it was stolen, with 31 per cent taking place on public transport or in a public place and 30 per cent in a bar, pub or club.

More than half, of 52 per cent, of thefts which occurred from a person (ie robbery) took place during the week, with 48 per cent during the weekend, which was a high rate of incidents relatively compared with the week; so, as we mostly knew, you’re more likely to be a victim of mobile phone theft during the weekend.

Nokia is launching a new Asha smartphone with a suggested price of $US99 (£64).

The Asha 501 would be the first device to run on Nokia’s new Asha platform, the Finnish company said.  This platform gave developers an open, standards-based environment for app creation, meaning apps created for the 501 would be compatible with future Asha devices, as well as enabling developers to sell wares through the Nokia Store and more.

The EA Games, Facebook and Twitter apps had been tailored for the new Asha generation, the company said with more to come, and the various HERE basic mapping functions would also be available for download for the new budget smartphone, it said.

Available in the United Kingdom from the third quarter, the phone would come loaded with the Xpress Browser, which compressed Internet data to make mobile browsing faster and cheaper, and a new launched feature called ‘Fastlane’, which showed recently used apps, contacts and social networks.

Nokia global wireless practice strategy analytics executive director Neil Mawston said the company had surpassed expectations of what was achievable in the sub-$US100 phone category.  The handset took design cues from the Lumia series and was an upgrade option from feature phones.

The break down

The device would be available in single or dual SIM models, with Wifi and would measure 99.2 x58 mm, at 12.1mm thick and a very light 91g.

It would come with three inch touch screen and a 3.2MP camera and with 128MB internal storage and ships with a 4GB micro SD card in the box, and be available in six colours.

Available through about 60 operators in more than 90 countries, the suggested pricing is $US99.

Next Move Quiz

Pearson Education

Free on Apple iOS

Well, it ain’t pretty, but it does what it says on the label.

Next Move Quiz is, you guessed it, a series of quizzes on a variety of subjects – culture, food, general knowledge, geography, history, the list goes on.  The quiz gets a point immediately for having ‘The Hobbit’ as its first cultural quiz but loses it for spelling it ‘The Hobbitt’ in one of the questions; fool of a Took! (For purists, I’m aware that that’s a LOTR quote , but it’s called Hobbetic license).

First off, the app is very simply set out and pretty hideous.  There are various Clip Art-style images for each category (the Hobbit has the worst one, some guy in a Gandalf Halloween costume, possibly a friend of the developer), but the questions are interesting and not too difficult but not too easy – perfect quiz fodder.

There are various incentives to keep you quizzing, such as a timer and running score, and there are various cheat options, such as freezing time, going 50/50 (phone a friend is an option your device, but not the app necessarily, will allow you), and auto answer – understandably you can only use these once each in any given quiz.

The categories are not hugely varied, but do include quizzes on Quidditch, World Wars, Strange Seas, FIFA World Cup if you’re so inclined and Crazy Bodies.  There’s also a Next Move section which is where the ‘education’ part really comes into play; this is a series of grammatical exercises for kids (or adults who need it), where you select the appropriate word for the gap left in a sentence, in various subject matter sections.  If you’re not looking to improve your grammar (which one, of course, always should be) then I’d advise skipping this section, although there is the occasional gem in the form of options such as ‘listenphones’ for the question ‘I like to listen to my _____’.

An annoying part of the app is that once you’ve started a quiz, you can’t exit out of it – you have to finish it (or just leave it running until you run out of time on each question and get the worst score of all time).

However, for a free app which bills itself as an educational exercise, I think it does this well; there are interesting questions, topics kids will be sure to be interested in and it’s simple to use while teaching new facts and grammar.

Credit must go to Rhys ‘Puntastic’ Brookbanks for the quiz puns.

What Mobile took a look at how Samsung’s new flagship, the Galaxy S4, compared with its closest competitors (and siblings)

THE GALAXY S3

Effectively the Galaxy S4’s little brother, the older model still packs a punch and is arguably the better bet.

Looks-wise, the S4 is pretty much exactly the same, only slightly upsized; both phones have the large white rectangular display with rounded edges and the main central button. The S3 is the same height and is ever so slightly wider than the S4, but noticeably heavier (although only 3g more) and its 4.8 inch screen is slightly smaller than the S4’s 5 inches; when in a bag, it takes two glances to tell which phone is which.

Both devices unfortunately feature the plasticky back which has been much criticised for feeling like it will crack if dropped.

On screen, the difference is instantly noticeable thanks to the S4’s amped up display, with 1080 x 1920 pixels featuring a huge 441 pixels per inch, compared with the S3’s 720 x 1280 pixels with 306 pixels per inch. The S3’s screen, however, is not to be sneezed at; the flagships are definitely pushing the envelope when it comes to display clarity and colours, but the S3 still has a decent screen with rich colour and clear images. Speaking of colour, both the S4 and S3 seem to suffer from a slight overblown effect, with colours appearing a little too rich at times.

The S3 isn’t wonderfully hardy; our review copy has a few dents, cracks and scratches, particularly on the silver framing, but the screen is still pristine, most likely thanks to its Gorilla Glass 2.  The battery in particular on the S3 is impressive and lasts beyond its billed 3G talk time of about 12 hours.

The S3 is no slow poke either; its running with an Exynos quad core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 chipset with 1GB RAM, which is a decent amount of heft although nothing mind-blowing these days; however I’ve never experienced lag with the S3 when running games, playing video or switching between applications, so it beats its brother in terms of reliable performance.

The S3’s 8MP camera is definitely a step down from the S4, although both don’t perform very well in poorly lit situations. The S3 camera photos are less clear and don’t have the crisp nature or level of detail that the S4’s manage.

The S3 runs the Touch Wiz interface with Android upgradeable to 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and this runs smoothly without a hitch. It’s an intuitive interface with many of the same hiccups as the S4; for example some of the same bloatware.

The S3 is currently selling for around £20 a month on contract or £350 on Pay As You Go – that’s roughly £200 cheaper than the S4 for a phone that does an excellent job.

SONY XPERIA Z

The two new flagships from Sony and Samsung are powerful machines; they both have top of the line specs so the difference comes down to how they handle it and their proprietary software.

First off, the devices couldn’t look more different. The Xperia Z is a black slab which looks rather like a brick when held up for a phone call, measuring in at 139 x 71mm, and 7.9mm thick with a five inch screen.  It’s much heavier than the S4 at 146g, but it looks sleek thanks to its tempered glass and does feel incredibly sturdy, although there are some odd design choices in its ugly protruding power button and main speaker at bottom right, which becomes muffled when taking calls. However, the Xperia Z, when reviewed, survived wear and tear without a scratch.

One of the stand out features of the Xperia Z was the sheer power it was packing under its hood and it certainly beats the S4 in this department, running a Snapdragon S4 Pro Krait quad core 1.5 GHz chipset with 2GB RAM. While its clock speed is not as high as the S4’s, its RAM is and the phone was a powerhouse in practice – there was no lag when browsing, viewing videos or performing more intensive tasks like playing games. Loading content was also smooth.

Another area where Sony got it right was the Xperia Z’s screen resolution. The screen comes in at 1920 x 180 pixels resolution with 443 ppi, slightly more pixels per inch than the S4, but its clarity is razor sharp and colours pop without looking overblown, most likely thanks to Sony’s proprietary software. The Xperia Z and the S4 are very close in the screen resolution department, but the Xperia Z takes the prize for its superfine detail and colour management. Its 13.1MP camera ran well, with clear pictures and fine detail, although it too struggled with low light situations.

Something that both Sony and Samsung fell down on a tad was their user interfaces; bloatware occurred on both, and the Xperia Z interface in particular was initially a bit confusing, with Sony apps littered around the device.  The Xperia Z runs Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.2).

Both the S4 and the Xperia Z did well when it came to battery life – the Xperia Z lived up to its billed 14 hours of talk time with 3G and the S4 made it past this mark as well.

In all, I have to say I was more impressed by Sony’s Xperia Z than the S4, but it was close.  Plus, Samsung’s flagship does have the fun of its software innovations and camera capabilities; it’s just hard to beat the powerful performance and good looking screen of the Xperia Z. The handset is on offer for less than the S4 on Pay As You Go for £450.

APPLE IPHONE 5

Apple’s flagship is actually a little dated now, having been released in September last year and there’s a new iPhone rumoured to be on the horizon.

What Mobile’s review at its release was five stars; and spec-wise, the phone matches up to the S4 in several respects.

Firstly, if you’re keen on that kind of thing, it’s much lighter, nearly 18g, and ever so slightly thinner at 7.6mm.  Apple, like Samsung, stuck with its branded look of the metal casing and central indented button, so no surprises design-wise, apart from the frankly irritating addition of the Lightning port, which meant all previous iPhone accessories, including charges, won’t work with the iPhone 5, so Apple loses out to Samsung there.

The iPhone 5 offers a 4-inch screen, and while it’s been argued that five inches is too large for a hand held device, four inches feels ever so slightly too small. However, What Mobile’s review noted that the screen gave the iPhone 5 a larger canvas without impeding day to day mobility. The iPhone’s screen resolution is much lower than the S4’s at 640 x 1136p, but its camera is pretty darn close, spec-wise, at 8MP with 3264×2448 pixels, and as we’ve all been told many times, camera quality is not down to megapixel count. Images taken with the iPhone 5’s camera from What Mobile’s review are clear, with good colour, and while not on a par with the S4’s offering, still offer a decent mobile camera option.

The iPhone 5 runs with a dual core 1.2 GHz A6 processor with 1GB, which is slow compared with the S4’s quad core chipset; What Mobile’s benchmark test in September showed the iPhone was faster than rivals, barring the Samsung S3, so the S3’s successor would likely blow the iPhone out of the water in terms of power.

Battery wise, the iPhone 5 is billed to give you eight hours of talk time, compared with the S4’s 14 hours, and the iPhone doesn’t have an expandable memory card option, meaning you’re stuck with the amount of memory whichever model you buy has (it also doesn’t have NFC chips, which put a stoppers on the march of progress many had been predicting for the wireless information transferral technology).

The iPhone 5 still costs from £500 with Pay As You Go – that’s quite expensive for a lower specced phone, considering it’s only £50 cheaper than the S4.

For the full Galaxy S4 review, go here.  For a look at the software innovations, check out our article here. And for the view of the person on the street, have a look at What Mobile’s Friend Test here.

Apple is about to hit 50 billion app downloads.

That’s a lot of Temple Run.

Apple’s dominance in the app department is already waning; you no longer have to wait months for the Android version of something to be released and there are exclusive debuts happening on the platform – just look at Facebook Home.

A recent forecast by ABI Research predicted that Android would account for more than half the smartphone application downloads this year, with Apple coming in second at 33%.

But the 50 billion marker is a good indicator that yup, Apple’s still going strong.  It only hit 40 billion in January, after all – that’s almost 10 billion app downloads in five months.

In anticipation of its 50 billion downloads, Apple is running a competition (and marketing campaign) for the person who downloads the 50 billionth app to win a $US10,000 App Store gift card, as well as runner up prizes in the form of gift cards.

At time of writing, the counter was about to hit 49,241,000,000 so it won’t be long before the 50 billionth app has been downloaded and the world is a little ‘appier (What Mobile apologises for the quality of that pun).