Yo! Sushi, a UK restaurant franchise, made a name for itself by delivering sushi to customers using the Japanese style ‘kaiten’ conveyor belt method. In a nice marketing gimmick, they are testing out the iTray, an iPad-controlled quadricopter which delivers sushi on flying trays to surprised customers. The method is being trialled by staff at Yo! Sushi in Soho, central London. Your video is right after the break… Read More
With just five days left until Apple’s WWDC keynote, some notable holdouts are at last integrating Passbook into their business.
The latest example: Subway, an American fast food restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. The company on Thursday updated its free Subcard iOS app with Passbook support for users in the United Kingdom.
This allows Subway customers to access their Subcard ID and recent transactions via the stock iOS 6 Passbook application on their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices and sync those across Macs and iOS devices via iCloud… Read More
The social networking giant Facebook back in early-January updated its free Messenger app with the ability to share audio snippets, having added that feature to its official iOS client, also a free download, later that month. Initially only available to Canadian and North American users, today the company has expanded in-app voice calling to people in the United Kingdom in the form of a quiet backend update.
The handy feature should presumably become available to UK users through the company’s main iOS client at a later stage as well… Read More
Remember a UK judge who took at face value the ruling that Galaxy devices didn’t infringe any of Apple’s patents because Samsung’s tablets “are not as cool” as the iPad? The one who recently chastised Apple for lack of integrity and opined for the appeals court it should be ordered to apologize in newspaper ads for asserting Samsung’s tablets had copied the iPad? Yeah, that guy.
A well-known patent blogger revealed Thursday that same judge is now receiving paychecks from Samsung as a legal expert through a law firm which represents Samsung Electronics in its case against Ericsson. Conflict of interest, much? Read More
U.S. carrier AT&T today expanded its 4G LTE coverage in several markets and now word has reaches us that the company has signed an interesting roaming deal with The Cloud to offer travelers free access to 16,000 Wi-Fi spots in the United Kingdom. The Cloud is a BSkyB-owned Wi-Fi hotspot provider and the agreement entails up to one gigabyte of free roaming data.
RIM has always bested the iPhone and other handset vendors with reasonable service terms that typically include free or inexpensive messaging and data for BlackBerry users traveling abroad. While Apple’s dealings with the world’s carriers don’t included these benefits, it’s nice that one of the most important carriers globally is now appeasing to its customers with a fair roaming deal… Read More
In today’s episode of ‘Where are they now?’ we take a look at Apple’s former SVP of retail John Browett. He began his career at Apple in January of last year, replacing the highly-regarded Ron Johnson, but only lasted about 9 months at the company.
Browett has been fairly quiet since he left Cupertino in October. But his name surfaced in headlines again last night when word got out that he has accepted the position of chief executive, or CEO, of U.K.-based retail chain Monsoon Accessorize… Read More
Vodafone UK subscribers with an iPhone 4S who haven’t upgraded to iOS 6.1 may want to hold off on doing so. The carrier is currently sending out text messages to customers stating that there’s a bug in the new firmware.
According to the warning, the issue has to due with 3G performance. Apparently 4S users on Vodafone UK have been experiencing problems with both cell service and battery life since updating to the latest version of iOS… Read More
Although US District Judge Susan Illston recently approved the $22.5 million fine Google agreed to pay in order to settle the FTC claim that it illegally bypassed user privacy settings in Safari, the Internet giant is not yet off the hook over in the United Kingdom, where a group of twelve disgruntled users decided to take the search behemoth to the court over the scandal. A group called “Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking” hired a law firm to file a complaint conveniently timed ahead of the sixth annual Data Privacy Day in the country… Read More
The UK continues to be Apple’s European fortress against the invading hordes of Android smartphones. That’s the word from Internet firm comScore, which announced Monday most European cell phone owners have adopted smartphones. In the United Kingdom, Apple is holding onto a slim 4 point-lead.
Meanwhile, South Korea-based Samsung experiences double-digit growth. Germany is the only European nation where smartphone penetration has not reached at least 50 percent. In the UK and Spain, two countries where consumers have largely abandoned landlines, smartphone adoption is at 62.3 percent and 63.2 percent, respectively.
But the real story could be the tight race between Apple and Samsung, fueled by Android’s growing presence in Europe… Read More
Everything Everywhere (EE), a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Télécom’s Orange, launched UK’s first commercial 4G LTE network on October 30 and today the company has announced a network expansion to seventeen new markets in the country, to be finished by March of next year.
The carrier powers UK’s sole 4G LTE network so would-be iPhone buyers should be delighted to learn that its 4G density is “being increased on a daily basis”… Read More
If the global picture of mobile devices were a soap opera, it would be called “As the World Turns”. A constant stream of numbers show how demand and usage is shifting away from the U.S. and to China. The latest figures show the Asian country will soon top the United States with the most active iOS and Android smartphone users.
While China’s 167 million iOS and Android users currently puts the nation slightly behind the US at 181 million, that ranking will change in early 2013 as China’s triple-digit growth rate easily outpaces America’s maturing smartphone market, according to a new report released Wednesday by a mobile analytics firm… Read More
Apple’s legal team has had a rough go of it in the UK over the past few weeks. After losing a patent suit against Samsung, and then the ensuing appeal, the company was forced to write a public apology on its UK website.
Of course, Apple complied and posted the apology, but the judge wasn’t impressed with its snarky tone. So in addition to asking the iPad-makers to correct it, he’s also ordered them to pay Samsung’s legal fees… Read More
Apple just published a statement on its UK website to correct a previous apology that had been found inaccurate by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The statement can be found at the bottom of Apple UK website‘s home page, and links to a longer statement acknowledging that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad.
This “updated” statement comes several days after Apple published a public apology on its website, at the request of the Court… Read More
As required by the UK court of appeal, Apple today published a public apology to Samsung in The Guardian newspaper, following the previous U.K. ruling that Samsung tablets did not copy the iPad. Snarky Apple yesterday published a public notice of the ruling on its web site and ran into trouble because it cunningly inserted a paragraph quoting the Judge on how consumers can’t confuse the Galaxy Tab with the iPad because “they’re not as cool”, prompting Judge Robin Jacob to order that the edits be made within 24 hours.
The iPhone maker has pulled the notice upon request by Samsung, which argued that Apple’s version of the notice gave the “impression that the UK court is out of step with other courts”. The company did not update its web site with a revised version of the notice at post time. I take it Apple employees are busy launching the iPad in 34 countries so nobody can update the web site… Read More
Note to Apple: UK judges don’t get American snarkiness. The UK Court of Appeals Thursday told the iPhone maker its recent apology to Samsung was “incorrect” and required a new notice on the website “acknowledging the inaccurate comments.” At issue: comments from the trial’s first ruling in which the judge declared Samsung’s tablet “not as cool.”
Judge Robin Jacob ordered the changes to Apple’s website be made within 24 hours, rejecting the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s request for 14 days to make the edit. “This is Apple. They cannot put something on their website?” Jacob reportedly said… Read More
Everything Everywhere today launched its 4G LTE network in the United Kingdom, giving UK shoppers plenty of reasons to buy the new iPad mini, the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad this holiday season. All these devices feature improved cellular connectivity that supports a wider gamut of LTE frequency bands across the world’s carriers.
Apple’s web site also lists Everything Everywhere as being compatible with the 4G LTE flavors supported by Apple’s late-2012 iOS devices. Go past the fold for plans and pricing information… Read More
Back in July, the High Court in London ruled against Apple in a patent suit against Samsung, saying that consumers were unlikely to mistake its iPad with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab because it “wasn’t as cool.”
As a result of the ruling, Judge Colin Birss ordered Apple to run advertisements on both its UK website and in British publications stating that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad to correct the damaging impression.
Well, Apple might want to start planning its marketing campaign. Because it just lost the appeal… Read More
Folks in the UK who recently purchased an iPhone 5 will be happy to hear that in less then a month, they’ll finally be able to use the handset to its full potential. It’s official: the country’s first LTE network will go live on October 30.
The network belongs to EE (Everything Everywhere), which is a joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile. And the new 4G service will be available to existing customers on either of the two carriers, and obviously, new ones… Read More
This is pretty interesting: Ofcom, the regulator for UK communications, announced today that it has given permission to the carrier Everything Everywhere to begin using its existing 1800 MHz to offer LTE services beginning on September 11.
If that date sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the day before the all-but-confirmed media event where Apple is said to be unveiling it’s next smartphone. The handset is widely expected to be LTE-capable, but will it work outside of the US? Read More
Apple is laying off new retail staff in its various brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, a new report has it. New hires and employees on their probation period have been let go in the United Kingdom, where Apple operates 33 retail stores.
Back in the United States and Canada, we’re hearing whispers of part-time staffers seeing their hours reduced, some even to zero. All of this is happening just as the next iPhone is coming to full view. What exactly is going on here? Read More
