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Pocket Picks round-up: 29th January - Free wi-fi, Android Market slated by Google, Samsung expands the Galaxy (range)

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Pocket Picks round-up: 29th January - Free wi-fi, Android Market slated by Google, Samsung expands the Galaxy (range)
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Welcome back to the Pocket Picks weekly round-up!

There’s been all manner of soul-searching, rumour-searching, and random acts of charity this week, which makes a pleasant change from the yet another horror story of an Android phone being left out to dry.

With the Mobile World Congress rapidly approaching, expect a whole shed-load of rumours and leaks to emerge over the next fortnight.

O2 rolling out free wi-fi hotspots for all UK users

It’s always refreshing to have some positive news for data-hungry mobile users, especially after last week’s story that T-Mobile was to halve its data cap.

Despite it being O2 that’ll be rolling out free wi-fi across the whole of the UK, there’s no way for the company to stop disgruntled T-Mobile users from using them as well. In fact, it essentially looks like the company is setting up the wireless access points as an alternative to BT’s rubbish OpenZone service.

The 13,000 hotspots will be rolling out over the next two years, and will require your mobile number being registered to access, which almost certainly means it’ll be used for marketing and pinching you from another network. But, hey - it’s free wi-fi, what’s not to like?

Google not very pleased with Android Market

I don’t like the Android Market, developers I’ve spoken to that work on Android don’t like it, and now it seems Google itself doesn’t like it. I almost feel sorry for the emotionless digital distribution platform.

In a rather honest assessment of the service, Android platform manager Eric Chu revealed that the company was “not happy” with how things were currently going, and promised to make wide-ranging changes in order to correct a litany of poorly implemented or missing features.

Samsung expands its Galaxy range

The successor to the Galaxy S may be heavily rumoured to be making an appearance at the Mobile World Congress, but that hasn’t stopped Samsung from officially unveiling four new models of Galaxy phone anyway.

The Ace, Fit, Mini, and Gio aren’t the same kind of cutting-edge tech you’d expect from the Galaxy range, with CPU speeds varying between 600 and 800Mhz, and prices set firmly at the lower-end of the scale.

For more details on each individual spec, click the bright blue heading at the top there.

Nvidia expected to reveal details on the next generation of Tegra chip at MWC

Nvidia appears to be on a roll. Having blown everyone away with the first public showing of dual-core Tegra 2 handsets at CES, the company is expected to unveil both the Tegra 2 3D and Tegra 3 next month.

The Tegra 3 may be the most powerful of the two, representing possibly the first quad-core consumer mobile device dependant on release date, but the Tegra 2 3D is arguably the most interesting as it’s specifically designed for 3D phones.

With so few 3D handsets on the market, does this mean we’ll be seeing an explosion of the things later in the year?

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).