It’s not often that Tesco’s advertising makes me want to say good things, let alone Tesco warranting a blog post on a tech site, but they’ve done it.

In this advert, Tesco Mobile manages to pastiche the generic empowerment and “blue sky thinking” that you get in the average mobile phone adverts and give a basic message at the end…

The fiasco with the interfering granny that aired for far too long is forgiven, but it does raise the question as to why the UK mobile phone industry continues to batter us with “inspirational” claptrap in order to hawk phones.

And yes, I’m ignoring the advert’s focus on 12 month adverts instead of the 18 or 24 months you get with most other suppliers if you want a phone, because we all know what the answer to that would be…

In a move that surprised about 2 people, Apple announced the iPhone 4 at WWDC yesterday, closely followed by the sales teams at various phone networks going into meltdown as people demanded an upgrade…

You can find the whole press release version after the jump, but the main take-home points are:

• 960×640 Screen
• Better Camera (5x digital zoom, flash)
• iOS4 (Multitasking!)
• Thinner than previous models (9.3mm)
• 3-axis Gyroscope

And all this is available for you to enjoy from the 24th of June.

And now, for the full press release…

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It’s been a while, but now Google can loudly proclaim “Me Too!” when it comes to the Android Phone Party. One of the main bodies behind the Android movement, it’s been strange that Google hasn’t created it’s own phone, instead leaving it to others such as HTC to do all the hard work, but now Google has unleashed the Nexus One.

The Nexus One (still marked as HTC, but more under Google direction than anything) has a 3.7″ screen running at 480x800, 5 megapixel camera, noise suppression, trackball and personalized laser engraving (I suggest “It’s not an iPhone, honest!”)
It’ll also run pretty much anything from the Android Market, do voice recognition, allow you to read your voicemail and many other random tasks most normal people won’t actually do. Power users will have a field day with this.

Google are selling the phone for $529 unlocked through their own store, which is an interesting move, considering most people will first hear of the cost of phones in conjunction with a contract, which the order page already suggests at $179 and locked in for 2 years.

I do have to wonder if people will flock to this, or if the iPhone has nothing to worry about…

Press Release and Gallery after the jump.

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Google have finally seen sense, by allowing Google Sync (the thing you can use on your vaguely intelligent phones, such as the iPhone, Windows Mobile and S60 stuff) to not only sync the Gmail contacts and Google Calendar appointments to your phone, but now allows for full Gmail support. Hurrah!

Of course, this is useful if your existing phone provider doesn’t do any sort of push e-mail from anything other than their own service. Your main location for all of this is… http://m.google.com/sync

Thank you Google. Thank you.

[via the Official Google Mobile Blog]

It appears that Twitter is now the new CNN, in terms of news. @visitken (a blogger for LG) has unleashed some new pictures of the LG Chocolate. No, not the old one. The new one, the LG-BL40 of course!

This phone has a 4 inch wide screen. That’s all the statistics you really need, but if you really need more, here’s the press release blurb…

The fourth handset of the Black Label Series boasts a distinctive 4.0-inch wide screen high-definition LCD with an 800 by 345 pixel resolution for a superb viewing quality. The wide screen breaks away from conventional screen designs with a 21:9 aspect ratio for a panoramic, cinema-like quality and optimal mobile computing experience.

With the enlarged screen, users will experience a surprisingly convenient and efficient mobile environment. Browsing the Internet is made incredibly easy because with 800 pixels at one’s disposal, there is no need to scroll horizontally to read entire web pages. The 4.0-inch display also features a Dual Screen UI that can efficiently display two different types of content simultaneously.

[via Twitter]

The Short Version: The Palm Pre is being thrown out by Sprint on the 6th of June for $200. It’s data-plan heavy, and can be charged by a Touchstone charger for extra outlay.

The Longer Version:
You can get the Palm Pre for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. If you value your wallet, you will do this.  
It’s out on June 6th. This is before WWDC. Apple may be worried. No date has been mentioned for places like the UK, which makes me a bit happier about getting a new phone recently.
Your data plan choice will be limited, namely anything with massive amounts of data usage available. It does an awful lot of online stuff, and this will be necessary. Not may be necessary. WILL be necessary.
You can get it from places like Best Buy, Wal-mart, Radio Shack and Sprint-selling stores.
There is (available separately) a Touchstone charger, which allows for induction charging, i.e. no charging cable to connect to the device. This costs $69.99 extra, and is probably where your rebate will be heading.

If you have no idea what the Pre is capable of, go HERE!

[via Engadget and Electonista]

QR Codes are a fantastic idea. Mostly. And yes, I’m talking about a technology that has been around for quite some time and it really didn’t take off outside of Japan, but go with me on this.

I know that you lot would have seen them before and dismissed them as futuristic ideas that will never work on TV shows alongside beliefs that we will have flying cars and robot housemaids, but strangely, two-dimensional barcodes that can be read by modern mobile handsets and actually have uses.

The main use is, as everyone probably already knows about, for mobile websites. Cans of Pepsi here in the UK have these codes plastered onto the side, allowing you to waste lots of your phone contract’s data allowance seeing effectively an advert for a soft drink.
Some generator sites will even allow you to use QR Codes to show a plain-text message, for example “Put that phone away and get back to work”.
The Pet Shop Boys have even decked out a music video with tons of QR Codes. Odd, but that’s what we expect.

But my current favourite use for QR Codes has to be the supplemental content for adult magazines, as seen in Japan. The great Danny Choo has, whilst going for a medical check-up, taken some photos of this phenomenon which charges the user a high rate for each photo they see. Of course the photo consists of an altered form of the magazine, usually where the subject wears less clothing, and this does seem to be quite a good monetizing effort. It also means that the magazine itself, despite being adult in nature, has the most mundane photos inside, rendering it relatively safe to look at in public. Although weird…